Seeing as my becoming an Asterix fan at like five years old predates ... internet, I grew up trying to get real ass people to rpg the series with me. Especially as a girl into a series with very little female characters that was HARD WORK.
I never really managed. The occasional afternoon hour, at most. We did play out other book series like The Babysitters Club and while I have fond memories of that time, it was also ... a challenge. We all had our own vision of what we wanted to happen, favourite characters, shipping (even if we didn't use that term) etc. It was fun, but working on a storyline on your own left more freedom. it was more ... relaxing
I am a mod mom in a very chill Asterix server right now, and having several younger friends, they always report about the same tension. Fan communities can get intense and toxic fast. I'm pretty certain that's because the bar for pushing through your own agenda is lower online. It's easy to tell how harmful that can get by talking to people who have been burned by associating with fans who got so obsessed by fandom they forgot to care for the real life people they were talking to.
I would have ADORED to find an Asterix server as a teen. But I was already over twenty when I first read Asterix fics written by others.
While I would have adored it, I'm not sure it would have made teen me happy in the long term. Fictional daydreaming/fanficcing/fanart can become a sanctuary, a place to regroup. When fandom interactions turn sour, that can rob you of a powerful mental safe space.
It's awesome to see people find as much joy in fiction as I did and do. It's awesome to see them build entire worlds in their head, which you know could one day form original universes of their own.
At the same time, the challenge of not defending that universe at the expense of others, and learning that if one person can rant about what a piece of fiction means to them, expecting others to listen, means you have to be willing to encourage and support those others return, is ALSO a part of online fandom.
The better we protect real life people online, especially creative souls already facing fake news and AI, as well as many other challenges, the more we protect the future of fiction...
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