Taken from the UFP thread, here's a first draft of a "Factions and Fandoms" article for the wiki.
What have I missed? What have I gotten wrong? And should this be a stand-alone article, or a section at the top of the "Faction Guide" page? (I'm leaning toward the latter, myself, and have laid out the formatting to suit that option.)
==Fandoms and Factions==
===Extremes===
"Science fiction and fantasy fandom" is a complex web of identity, with a spectrum that ranges between two extremes: Fandom Is A Way Of Life, and Fandom Is Just A Goddamn Hobby. Because Fenspace is what it is, it steers closer to the FIAWOL extreme simply out of necessity. It's a cold, mean universe out there and when your fellow Fen are your best shot at surviving in it, you tend to cluster together.
This doesn't mean the FIJAGH extreme isn't represented in Fenspace, although many of the people at this side of the spectrum are still on Earth. They still care about fandom, but their families and careers are more important to them. A supermajority of the hobbyist Fen who are Up are what Fenspace calls "Generalists," and many of them are what the FIAWOL crowd identify - rightly or wrongly - as "[[Fendane]."
This isn't to say that all Generalists are in the FIJAGH side of the spectrum, or that the Factions are made up only of Fen from the FIAWOL side. Most people are fans of more than one thing at a time. FIAWOL isn't meant to mean just Trekkies, or just Warsies, and so on; it's a generalist statement and we all are, as fans, generalists.
=== Differences Between Factions and Fandoms ===
A fandom does not automatically equal a faction. Just because somebody likes Property X doesn't mean there's a large or even a small group of people who like Property X and want to bring Property X's tropes out into the real world. And even if there is, these people might be more interested in Property Y's memes.
Conversely, a faction doesn't always automatically equal a fandom. For example, [[Jupiter] and its moons are claimed by the [[Browncoats], but for the most part the population in and around Jupiter is Indonesian. Does this mean there's a subtle but strong underground current of ''Firefly'' fandom in Indonesian culture? No, it means the Browncoats offered a lot of work that they couldn't handle on their own and a lot of Indonesians jumped at the chance to find decent pay that didn't involve getting looked down on by Australian racists.
For another example, the [[Crystal Millennium] wasn't set up because everybody loved ''Sailor Moon'' - there are likely Senshi out there who hated ''Sailor Moon'' when it first ran. The Senshi made a point of being inclusive. They only run the show on [[Venus] because [[Serenity I|Tanith Curtis] and her closest associates were scary-good organizers, and by the time they hit their destination they made it a fait accompli.
Also, some people hold a factional citizenship just to make things easier, without actually identifying as that faction. How well this works depends on the faction; it's a little easier to be an independent ship operator in the [[Warsies] than in the [[Trekkies], for instance.
Finally, a faction can form - with difficulty - without an associated fandom. These factions are small and tend to be inconsequential in Fenspace, but a leader with sufficient drive and charisma can catch the Convention's attention and make a name for the faction. The premiere example of this in Fenspace is the [[SOS-dan], and the groups in charge of some [[Fen Companies] form factions in all but name.
== Joining a Faction ==
New fish from Earth will join whatever faction they think will get them what they want. Being a fan of the property helps - it cuts down on culture shock, if nothing else - but it's only one factor among dozens of possible considerations. One man joins the Federation because he always wanted to be an engineer on the ''Enterprise'' and the merchant marine's hiring. Another man joins the [[Barsoomians] because they're offering land grants around Hellas and he always wanted a ranch to retire to. One neckbeard joins the Senshi not out of any love of anime but because he just wants to see scantily-clad women running around everywhere.And then he's disappointed that so few of them are fashion models.
To join a big, established faction that isn't just a general-interests club, you go in, sign the local EULA, agree to pay the taxesSometimes called membership dues or whatnot, but let's be real here. and boom, here's your passport, welcome to the club citizen. That's citizenship and nationality in a nutshell. There's no set limit on how many factions you can be a citizen of, so you can in theory catch 'em all... but after about the first three or four, the psychological demands would be overwhelming.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
What have I missed? What have I gotten wrong? And should this be a stand-alone article, or a section at the top of the "Faction Guide" page? (I'm leaning toward the latter, myself, and have laid out the formatting to suit that option.)
==Fandoms and Factions==
===Extremes===
"Science fiction and fantasy fandom" is a complex web of identity, with a spectrum that ranges between two extremes: Fandom Is A Way Of Life, and Fandom Is Just A Goddamn Hobby. Because Fenspace is what it is, it steers closer to the FIAWOL extreme simply out of necessity. It's a cold, mean universe out there and when your fellow Fen are your best shot at surviving in it, you tend to cluster together.
This doesn't mean the FIJAGH extreme isn't represented in Fenspace, although many of the people at this side of the spectrum are still on Earth. They still care about fandom, but their families and careers are more important to them. A supermajority of the hobbyist Fen who are Up are what Fenspace calls "Generalists," and many of them are what the FIAWOL crowd identify - rightly or wrongly - as "[[Fendane]."
This isn't to say that all Generalists are in the FIJAGH side of the spectrum, or that the Factions are made up only of Fen from the FIAWOL side. Most people are fans of more than one thing at a time. FIAWOL isn't meant to mean just Trekkies, or just Warsies, and so on; it's a generalist statement and we all are, as fans, generalists.
=== Differences Between Factions and Fandoms ===
A fandom does not automatically equal a faction. Just because somebody likes Property X doesn't mean there's a large or even a small group of people who like Property X and want to bring Property X's tropes out into the real world. And even if there is, these people might be more interested in Property Y's memes.
Conversely, a faction doesn't always automatically equal a fandom. For example, [[Jupiter] and its moons are claimed by the [[Browncoats], but for the most part the population in and around Jupiter is Indonesian. Does this mean there's a subtle but strong underground current of ''Firefly'' fandom in Indonesian culture? No, it means the Browncoats offered a lot of work that they couldn't handle on their own and a lot of Indonesians jumped at the chance to find decent pay that didn't involve getting looked down on by Australian racists.
For another example, the [[Crystal Millennium] wasn't set up because everybody loved ''Sailor Moon'' - there are likely Senshi out there who hated ''Sailor Moon'' when it first ran. The Senshi made a point of being inclusive. They only run the show on [[Venus] because [[Serenity I|Tanith Curtis] and her closest associates were scary-good organizers, and by the time they hit their destination they made it a fait accompli.
Also, some people hold a factional citizenship just to make things easier, without actually identifying as that faction. How well this works depends on the faction; it's a little easier to be an independent ship operator in the [[Warsies] than in the [[Trekkies], for instance.
Finally, a faction can form - with difficulty - without an associated fandom. These factions are small and tend to be inconsequential in Fenspace, but a leader with sufficient drive and charisma can catch the Convention's attention and make a name for the faction. The premiere example of this in Fenspace is the [[SOS-dan], and the groups in charge of some [[Fen Companies] form factions in all but name.
== Joining a Faction ==
New fish from Earth will join whatever faction they think will get them what they want. Being a fan of the property helps - it cuts down on culture shock, if nothing else - but it's only one factor among dozens of possible considerations. One man joins the Federation because he always wanted to be an engineer on the ''Enterprise'' and the merchant marine's hiring. Another man joins the [[Barsoomians] because they're offering land grants around Hellas and he always wanted a ranch to retire to. One neckbeard joins the Senshi not out of any love of anime but because he just wants to see scantily-clad women running around everywhere.And then he's disappointed that so few of them are fashion models.
To join a big, established faction that isn't just a general-interests club, you go in, sign the local EULA, agree to pay the taxesSometimes called membership dues or whatnot, but let's be real here. and boom, here's your passport, welcome to the club citizen. That's citizenship and nationality in a nutshell. There's no set limit on how many factions you can be a citizen of, so you can in theory catch 'em all... but after about the first three or four, the psychological demands would be overwhelming.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
