Move Over Alpha Geeks, Here Come the Fangrrls an article about thousands of women gathering for a sci-fi convention, and what it means in fandom circles.
posted on Feb 20, 2008 - View this thread

The geekiest thing you will see this month is this fan-made comic called The Ten Doctors. Unexpectedly awesome, though!
posted on Dec 6, 2007 - View this thread

Elena Dorfman's photos of RealDolls have been mentioned in the blue before. In her latest project, Re-Anime: Photographs of Fandom, Dorfman explores the world of cosplay.
posted on Nov 12, 2007 - View this thread

Joss Whedon announces new Fox television series, with Eliza Dushku! "Echo (Eliza Dushku) [is] a young woman who is literally everybody's fantasy."
posted on Oct 31, 2007 - View this thread

Star Wars: The Musical. Luke sings ("Uncle Owen I'm not like you. I can't just bury my dreams (in the sands of Tatooine)"). Vader sings ("Bring me the passengers - every child woman and man!"). C3PO sings ("I am a droid, so don't you mess with me."). And Han sings a ballad that starts off like "The Impossible Dream," then mutates into the bastard intergalactic cousin "Do You Hear The People Sing?" as it might be performed by Neil Diamond, Richard Burton and Peter Lorre.
posted on Sep 19, 2007 - View this thread

livejournal permanently suspends hundreds of accounts under pressure from "watchdog" group Warriors for Innocence (sketchy, possibly spyware laden site created by pretty shady people). Though the aim of the crackdown is seemingly to protect children from online predators, many suspended journals and communities apparently had nothing to do with promoting pedophilia, and the broad-based approach taken by livejournal has many users irate (over 3700 comments as of posting), especially in light of the fact that that neither livejournal nor the owner Six Apart have publically addressed users, though Six Apart did speak to CNET as linked above.
posted on May 30, 2007 - View this thread

FanLib's mission is "to bring fan fiction out of the shadows and into the limelight." But mostly FanLib is just a multi-fandom fanfiction archive seeking to make money off of the fans through ad space. Not all fans are happy about this. Does this matter? Henry Jenkins, Director of the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program thinks so.
posted on May 22, 2007 - View this thread

"Claude Degler attended the Chicon in 1940, and at Denver in 1941 delivered a speech purporting to have been written by Martians." So begins the Fancyclopedia I entry on Degler's Cosmic Circle. Claude Degler believed that science fiction fans were destined to evolve into a new species superior to homo sapiens, "cosmen." In 2001 (the year) David B. Williams went in search of Degler, who had disappeard from fandom in 1951. Teresa Nielsen Hayden wrote in 1986 a story/essay about the inner Degler called Hell, 12 Feet. He was as infamous as fans got, though some remember him sort of fondly. Degler crops up regularly in the "All Our Yesterdays" columns written by fandom historian, Harry Warner Jr. The ones with most information are the columns H.C. Koenig. Claude Degler, O Pioneers and The Cosmic Circle. Here's a Degler quote from the last link: We have created a fannationalism, a United World Fandom. Someday soon we will have our own apartment building, then our own land, our own city of Cosmen, schools, teachers, radio programme — later; our own laws, country perhaps! Our children shall inherit not only this earth — but this universe! Today we carry 22 states, tomorrow, nine planets!
posted on Dec 8, 2006 - View this thread

The Hero of Burbank, The Man They Call Jayne. Just a day before it starts, the Firefly-focused "Flanvention" convention was canceled by Booster Entertainment (who took down their entire site in the process), leaving about 500 "flans" who had paid $225 for a weekend pass (some math) (and some who paid $5000 for lifetime passes to all Booster cons — although that may not have been as foolish as it might appear) and who had made nonrefundable flights and nonrefundable hotel reservations with nothing for the money they had spent on con(vention) passes or their accommodations. Now, that, in and of itself, is quite unpleasant but perhaps not MeFi-worthy — but what pushes this over the edge to being a cool story is when the Firefly actors decided to come out anyway — evidently unpaid — for their "flans." [more inside]
posted on Dec 8, 2006 - View this thread

Star Trek is forty today. The basics of the series are well-known, the cultural impact is worldwide, and the letter-writing campaign to get a third season out of the network has spawned thousands of imitators, though only a very few are ever successful. The show has spawned twenty-seven other series and five hundred movies. (Okay, maybe not that many.) Though exhorted by the original series' star to Get a life, the fans of Star Trek -- whether they call themselves Trekkies or Trekkers -- are without a doubt the nutbars inspiration for the joys and insanity of all media fandom which has followed. I am proud to name myself among them. K'Plagh!
posted on Sep 8, 2006 - View this thread

"... Everyone needs an escape. It just amazes me that for 1,200 people this involves sitting in darkened rooms listening to presentations on Harry Potter and the Sanctity of Everyday Life: JK Rowling's Complex Treatment of the Trope of Normalcy." Carole Cadwalladr covers Lumos 2006 for the Guardian. [via]
posted on Aug 12, 2006 - View this thread

Like many internet communities, the Harry Potter fan community is a close knit one and prone to outbursts of drama and strife. But what happens when a single member is pulling the strings? This long account is about msscribe who through sock puppetry, trolling, and some flat out lies polarized online Potter fans for the past four years.
posted on Jun 30, 2006 - View this thread

Star Wars fans are weird.
posted on Nov 11, 2005 - View this thread

The Price Is Right has been around forever.. and has plenty of great fan sites. But not at BobBarker.com. No, sir.
posted on Mar 19, 2005 - View this thread

EP3 Trailer Awesome.
posted on Mar 10, 2005 - View this thread

Fandom is, at the core, neither good or bad. It simply is. [+]
posted on Feb 16, 2005 - View this thread

Stovokor! Captain pInluH and Commander Khrell are stuck in Portland, the sneaky Ferengi having sold them a 'faulty temporal device.' Life is hard on Earth, it seems. Did anyone get a set list? No matter. It's my beleif that we will not see these warriors astride golf carts. Look out, number 1: perhaps they are looking to pull a Titor on your burgeoning data empire!
posted on Oct 1, 2004 - View this thread

Soldiers Under Command! - 57mb Quicktime documentary of the Second Annual Stryper Expo.
posted on Jun 18, 2004 - View this thread

Love the shows, beware the fans. That seems to be the gist of fandom_wank. And because God knows lunacy isn't limited to fandom, on the seventh day, God created spinoffs. Mock. Mockmockmock. Mockity-mock-mock.
posted on Oct 19, 2003 - View this thread

Steam Trek - an enterprising individual has masterfully melded two classic SF genres, Star Trek and Steampunk. The result is a wonderful universe with a rich history where Her Majesty's Aether Ships explore the solar system and protect the United Kingdom of Planets. Long live Queen Victoria, and may her glorious reign continue as it has for the past 165 years! (preserved by Lunar Selenite technology captured from the evil Moon-dwellers).
posted on Sep 6, 2003 - View this thread

Multi Genre Star Ship Comparison? "This site is intended to allow science fiction fans to get an impression of the true scale of their favorite science fiction spacecraft by being able to campare ships accross genres, as well as being able to compare them with contemporary objects with which they are probably familiar." Someone has spare time...
posted on Apr 10, 2003 - View this thread

Guillermo, it was really nada. Back in my day, Morrissey's fans were closeted gay boys, the girls who loved them, and oddly, Mormons. Now, he's the idol of Latinos, especially in LA. Is it a cultural connection with melodramatic poetry or artistic narcissism? Is it identification with Morrissey's lyrics of disenfranchisement, or a rebellion against traditional Latin machismo? Is it the hair?
posted on Mar 18, 2003 - View this thread

Determined viewers try to save another TV show (Salon). In this case, its Farscape, which shows its last episode on Friday in the States, and has already aired here in the UK. (no spoliers). Farscape fans are trying just about everything - from picking up 6 families in the Nielsens to fundraising to produce a last episode. Interested? Read on...
posted on Mar 13, 2003 - View this thread

These are the voyages of the Starship Exeter, its seven year production mission: to authenticate 1960s Star Trek, to build their own props and sets, and to boldly go where no fan flick has gone before. "We were sitting around my dad's office, and I said, 'We should try to make our own episode,' " Jimm Johnson recalls. "My brother said, 'Yeah, and we should have an Andorian in it.' "
posted on Jan 13, 2003 - View this thread

The toughest Chelonia to every grace the media. Come on. Everyone had to love them at some point, with their pizzas and funny weapons. This page has some interesting sketch art. This one includes the complete cast of the cartoon and movies, with links to their career since said roles. This site, my favorite, has the entire "Coming out of our Shells" tape for download. Remember the classic, Cowabunga?
posted on Dec 12, 2002 - View this thread

Amateur DVD commentary. The site is a little rough around the edges, but it is a fascinating exercise in voracious fandom nonetheless. Roger Ebert is heralded as giving the idea to the masses [NYT article], but as always, there seems to be prior art. ;)
posted on May 20, 2002 - View this thread

Pick a dawg, any dawg. Mine's Dawgspeare. I find this subculture fascinating. Pathetic but fascinating.
posted on Feb 26, 2002 - View this thread

Obsessively detailed Springfield map. Every locale mentioned in the Simpsons must be here. Area 51A, Crackton, Bumtown, its all here! [map broken down into parts] via boinboing.net
posted on Dec 20, 2001 - View this thread

R.A.G.E: Rangers Against Gadget Erotica Could there be a more worthy cause? "This is a mouse who takes cares not to show too much of herself, even while her companions go pantless."
posted on Jul 23, 2001 - View this thread

Is this the MeFi for the sci-fi convention set? All the big questions of fandom seem to be discussed here: Questions about lizard-man genitalia, what happens when Vulcan women go into Pon Farr, and so much more. God help me... I used to be one of these people in High School...
posted on Jun 5, 2001 - View this thread

Phish Fan Resumé Check out that skill set!
posted on Nov 27, 2000 - View this thread

Beam me up, Scotty! They are one step closer to making the Holodeck a reality. Now I can really ditch the world and live in my very own bubble.
posted on Oct 24, 2000 - View this thread

how in the world did this article, which basically repremands readers from making assumptions about and being intrusive into the private lives of memoirists, end by propositioning dave eggers? i mean really, wtf? the author of the piece, lorri gottlieb, ought to be ashamed of herself.
posted on Jun 16, 2000 - View this thread

Need to know about starfleet ship classes? and I mean all the starfleet ship classes. Geek away and beware the MIDI file embedded in the page if you surf at work and wish to remain a closeted trekkie.
posted on Apr 3, 2000 - View this thread

I saw her, Meg saw her, and now chickclick has a whole page devoted to someone else who saw (and talked) to her.
posted on Mar 15, 2000 - View this thread

Now I know what to do with all those photos of the king I've got stashed away.
posted on Mar 10, 2000 - View this thread