It's the date of a fan convention in Dallas where one person on staff had a fight with another person on staff over whether conventions should be done pureply for profit or for passion first and profit second. They each started their own conventions and twenty some odd years later, only one of them is still doing it.
The one who was doing it purely for profit failed, because he felt that "fan = Stupid", and set out to make profit off them by chaining them to distributors and studios as a captive market demographic, and himself as the middleman. The one who put fans in charge of the convention* has ended up doing surprisingly well**.
*except being in charge of the money. Cat-piss men are notoriously bad with money, hence why it is possible to make money off them.
**The secret is to ask them what they want and then give it to them for a moderate fee, rather than tell them what they want and market the hell out of the product. The successful person in this equation has little or no idea what the teenagers today are into, but will certainly accommodate them. The failure tried to sell Pokemon to teenage boys.
All we need to do is get a new kind of keyboard bundled with inexpensive machines and made a condition of software support contracts. They wont notice the stungun contacts built into this keyboard until they are used.
'Zines and letters pages involved a certain amount of dedication, perseverance, and patience, a willingness to engage a particular culture, cultural trend, or cultural artifact without needing a community to support one's involvement. Stupid people tend to do things because the crowd is doing them. Intelligent people tend to do things because there is a reason, or because they want to, regardless of whether the crowd is doing it.
"Fan" is a contraction of "fanatic". Fanatics aren't noted for their incisive reasoning.
-- Steve's thinking that the concentration of stupidity in humanity's general population is fairly high in any case; fans are merely concentrating its expression.
I can't choose which of my user icons is "most" fannish, for it might be the lyrics of the country music ballad rendered in a bastard English-mode Tengwar, or the horrendous Middle-Norse reconstruction of the horrendous Modern-English interpretation of a horrendous Middle-Persian translation and interpretation of an alleged Middle-Norse prayer.
One assumes it was what a friend (in a locked post, so I've yanked the friend's name) called "another cultural appropriation fight going on (iteration umpteen; I count it as a standing drama since WisCon 30, in 2006)."
I think my response has switched to what seems to be this year's default response on Reoccuring Issues: I Am Tired. Deal. Also, so glad I am not a writer.
Sometimes. I'd even go so far as to say "usually" - but often you'll see "fandom" "fen" "fannish" etc independent of what specifically they're a fan *of*, and THAT is the class of person who inspired the original post.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-26 05:49 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-26 06:04 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-26 06:28 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-26 05:55 pm (UTC)Why are you asking?
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-26 06:04 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-26 06:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-26 06:19 pm (UTC)We're talking about an event that *self-selects for cat piss men*. And you want to get enough money out of them to make a living?
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-26 06:30 pm (UTC)*except being in charge of the money. Cat-piss men are notoriously bad with money, hence why it is possible to make money off them.
**The secret is to ask them what they want and then give it to them for a moderate fee, rather than tell them what they want and market the hell out of the product. The successful person in this equation has little or no idea what the teenagers today are into, but will certainly accommodate them. The failure tried to sell Pokemon to teenage boys.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-26 05:57 pm (UTC)Yeah. I dunno.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-26 06:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-26 06:06 pm (UTC)Our knuckles would suffer for it, but it's a small price to pay in service of the greater good.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-26 06:16 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-26 06:21 pm (UTC)This is incorrect.
*I* need to be able to punch *other people* over standard TCP/IP.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-26 06:32 pm (UTC)*GASP* that's why Microsoft doesn't include Telnet.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-26 06:52 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-26 06:02 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-26 06:03 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-26 06:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-26 06:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-26 06:12 pm (UTC)fan:person
person.stupid=true
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-26 06:37 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-26 08:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-26 06:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-26 06:41 pm (UTC)-- Steve's thinking that the concentration of stupidity in humanity's general population is fairly high in any case; fans are merely concentrating its expression.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-26 06:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-27 02:58 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-26 06:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-26 07:11 pm (UTC)(Edited to use the most fannish icon I have, in the spirit of contrariness.)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-26 07:26 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-26 07:29 pm (UTC)I consider those geekish more than fannish, though. See mine.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-26 07:55 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-26 08:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-26 08:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-26 09:00 pm (UTC)I think my response has switched to what seems to be this year's default response on Reoccuring Issues: I Am Tired. Deal. Also, so glad I am not a writer.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-26 08:02 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-26 08:06 pm (UTC)When people say "fan of [something]", it's usually not nearly so bad.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-27 12:57 pm (UTC)Seems to be the case to me.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-27 01:48 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-26 08:46 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-26 11:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-27 12:39 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-27 08:27 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-27 02:01 am (UTC)I am a fan of Firefly.People who are Fans of Firefly, wear brown coats, and stalk cast members for autographs.
/Kaylees mine you vultures!!!!
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-27 08:55 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-27 01:17 pm (UTC)