I think the biggest issue with online fandom right now is fragmentation. In days gone by we had Usenet, and then livejournal, listservs gave way to mailing lists and countless message boards that were all easy to find and central locations for fans to gather. But now times have changed, discords are private, Instagram is driven by algorithms that prevent engagement in chronological order without interruption, and we've almost regressed back to the 1980s where you had to already know where you were going, to be able to find the things that you were looking for through back channels and newsletters and fan-run conventions.
There's been no clear successor to Television Without Pity to serve as a central hub. There's no clear path of breadcrumbs leading fandoms from livejournal to Tumblr, Twitter to Bluesky, and the format is very different at all the different social media playforms. Not to mention with each new generation of fans discovering fandom, the way we use the tools at our disposal changes in quantum leaps and sea changes.
but the best part about fandom is that it is cyclical and it is eternal. there will always be someone discovering King Arthur or Ovid's Metamorphoses or VC Andrews or Farscape for the first time, Who did something that was made a decade before they were born streaming on a random app and embrace it with the fervent passion of the newly converted. And those who are inclined to do so will search far and wide to find their tribe. The pace has become incredibly accelerated and there's such a massive amount of narrative fiction in every possible medium compared to back in the day's of only three broadcast networks, especially in countries where you needed to pay your tv license.
But people don't change. Even Sherlock Holmes waxes and wanes. Even King Arthur is stripped mind and told and retold over and over again every decade. Even James T Kirk and the lens we see him through changes for each new generation from 1966 to 2026.
And sure there are sad, desperate fake fans griping about Academy chancellors who wear eyeglasses as if they've never seen Wrath Of Khan and understood what eyeglasses symbolize for those characters. or who claim they are nostalgic for simple one-dimensiobal rollicking pulpy science fiction adventures as if they were never a vehicle for allegory to address every aspect of modern life from very first moment Gene Roddenberry first conceived of Robert April and Number One aboard the USS Yorktown.
We don't sit around campfires spinning tails, or rushed to the marketplace to hear the bards with new songs. We don't gather around physical water coolers on Monday morning to talk about Mulder and Scully the way we used to. We have Reddit for that now, and TikTok, and YouTube, and Instagram, and all of these algorithms cherry picking what we see and hear in those different places that are now islands with no bridges because Google no longer actually googles correctly and it's harder and harder to find your tribe.
But by and large, fans have always been predisposed to putting time and effort into creating communities. Fans build bridges and maintain them and rebuild them over and over again.
Life finds a way. So does porn. This is the way.
stormborns
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