Fandom Why is Modern Fandom So... Bland?

[CM30]

Especially with wikis, websites, the idea of 'canon', etc?

Because growing up in the olden days of the internet, it felt everyone was a lot less formal than they are now. Fan sites would include information, but they'd also be willing to make a joke here and there and make inferences where logical. Like say, translating a name that's only in Japanese to other languages, like would happen if it got officially localised.

Nowadays? Everything feels like a medical textbook or professional documentary. Only the exact things mentioned in the source material are referenced, humour is basically forbidden by law and the idea of making any sort of inference about anything seems to be seen as a fandom taboo. Out of all the major websites I know of, it seems like the Transformers Wiki and DK Vine are probably the only ones that don't take everything super seriously and have fun with their source material.

So what happened? Why is modern fandom just so boring by comparison?

 

[Really Ilini]

Perhaps there's more of an effort to be informal and concrete on wikis out of respect for the source. On the surface it makes sense to come up with a name in another language by building off of the original, but not every creator would want it to be done that way, and to do so in those cases could be disrespectful. I wouldn't exactly call such sites being less humorous a modern idelology either; I've been on wikis in my youth that kept a lid on cracking even small jokes on the pages, but I feel that's more of a unique thing per the people in charge.

I wouldn't say I participate in fandom spaces, but from what I observe there has been a change of pace for sure. Perhaps it comes with the desire of making things shorter, brought about by the internet. Shorter videos, games broken up into shorter updates across time... anything to keep up with shorter attention spans I suppose. I will say these spaces feel a little less imaginative, if that makes sense? I hate the gravitation toward the word "content" to describe certain pieces of art. Maybe some games or shows can be described that way, but when I engage with something, I don't want to walk away from it thinking "that was great content". Feels more manufactured that way.

 

[Cirta]

You may call me a hater for what I'm about to say but I think it's due to 2 things:

1. Since a lot of fandoms have adults being interested in media targeted at a younger audience, I feel like some people have some sort of complex which makes them want to take everything seriously.
2. Some mods have an authority complex where having and feel their ego inflate when they realize some sort of power over others... even if said power is deleting a post over a petty reason.

Obviously not everyone is like that (I shouldn't have to say that) but a lot are. I understand that things like databases (e.g. The Spriters Resource) need to be rigorous and it makes total things but other media sites where you just talk about the games or show you like or dislike and then get your opinion called "invalid" you made a mistake in what you said is really not needed. They're talking about a Mario game, not a political conflict, them getting some irrelevant fact slightly wrong should not make their opinion invalid.

Same thing applying logical fallacies to tastes. We're not talking about politics or religion, we're talking about Sonic the Hedgehog.

 

[ZeloTheGremlin]

You may call me a hater for what I'm about to say but I think it's due to 2 things:

1. Since a lot of fandoms have adults being interested in media targeted at a younger audience, I feel like some people have some sort of complex which makes them want to take everything seriously.
2. Some mods have an authority complex where having and feel their ego inflate when they realize some sort of power over others... even if said power is deleting a post over a petty reason.

Obviously not everyone is like that (I shouldn't have to say that) but a lot are. I understand that things like databases (e.g. The Spriters Resource) need to be rigorous and it makes total things but other media sites where you just talk about the games or show you like or dislike and then get your opinion called "invalid" you made a mistake in what you said is really not needed. They're talking about a Mario game, not a political conflict, them getting some irrelevant fact slightly wrong should not make their opinion invalid.

Same thing applying logical fallacies to tastes. We're not talking about politics or religion, we're talking about Sonic the Hedgehog.

Fandoms are batshit insane sometimes. Aren't they?