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Can You Separate Fan and Fandom?

Azure Sage

March onward forever...
Staff member
ZD Legend
Comm. Coordinator
This applies to both video games and other types of media like TV shows and anime. There are times when the fanbase of a thing is utterly awful and it feels like a collective of bad people with loud mouths. But when you get right down to it, there's no such thing as a fandom hive mind, however much it may feel that way at times. Are you able to enjoy something without letting the awful fans ruin the experience for you?

I honestly find it really easy to separate the two. I'm often perfectly content to enjoy a thing in my own little bubble without concern for how other people that consume the same media behave. At the same time, I have friends who have had their love for things ruined by awful fandoms and they felt like they could no longer enjoy those things anymore. I just can't relate to that, personally.

What about you guys? Is this something you can do, or is it not?
 
I don't do fandoms at all, other than being on this site, and even then people who I disagree don't ruin anything for me.

I like a lot of things but have no idea at all how the majority of people feel about them because I don't burrow into the fandoms at all. But like I say, even if I did, it wouldn't matter.

I don't want games reminding me of toxic behaviour from the fan bases either though, which is another reason why I don't bother with them.
 
Joined
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I disagree, fandom hiveminds are very much a real thing. That doesn't mean every fan is part of the hivemind or that every fandom has one, but I've witnessed it on many occasions. There's a huge trend, I think really since the rise of social media and the death of forums, for fandoms to become monocultures with very little variety of opinion and thought being expressed. Again it doesn't really mean that everyone is thinking the exact same thing, but the culture that's inculcated by modern platforms and the domineering personalities that tend to latch onto (especially new) fandoms tends to guide things in a direction and people either don't speak out against it or anyone who disagrees or just has a difference of opinion is drowned out or has hostility expressed towards them. It varies and some fandoms are worse and others better, but it's kind of endemic to a lot of communities now, it's kind of the reddit effect imo where you just have people robotically repeating things that they hear or that "fit" in the community until posts become less and less distinct and anonymous.

Individual fans can be great and genuine people, even fans part of a toxic fandom, so I think it is actually very important to separate them, but the tendencies mentioned above really ruin a lot of communities for me.
 

TheGreatCthulhu

Composer of the Night.
Joined
Jan 22, 2016
Location
United States of America
Gender
Very much a dude.
This applies to both video games and other types of media like TV shows and anime. There are times when the fanbase of a thing is utterly awful and it feels like a collective of bad people with loud mouths. But when you get right down to it, there's no such thing as a fandom hive mind, however much it may feel that way at times. Are you able to enjoy something without letting the awful fans ruin the experience for you?

I honestly find it really easy to separate the two. I'm often perfectly content to enjoy a thing in my own little bubble without concern for how other people that consume the same media behave. At the same time, I have friends who have had their love for things ruined by awful fandoms and they felt like they could no longer enjoy those things anymore. I just can't relate to that, personally.

What about you guys? Is this something you can do, or is it not?
I'm in agreement, here.

My enjoyment of a thing isn't based on what other's opinions of that thing are.

If I enjoyed it, I enjoyed it.

If I didn't, I didn't. Simple as that.
 

GrooseIsLoose

Slickest pompadour in town
ZD Legend
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Aug 16, 2019
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You can be a kpop enjoyer and that's okay. If someone is calling themselves army, a humble advice, stay away
 

twilitfalchion

and thus comes the end of an era
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Crossbell State
Separating the two is possible, but let's face it. It's incredibly easy to form negative associations between things even with minimal interaction.

I've had it happen, though that possibility is why I generally keep most fandoms at arm's length, so to speak. The recycled opinions, toxic behavior are usually just not worth bothering with in exchange for interacting with a community of shared interest. Better to know a few individuals with shared interests outside the fandom.
 

Link&Midna

K-Dawg
Joined
Apr 16, 2021
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walrus
Yes I can, why should I care what some other creep is doing with the same thing? I just don't really care, if I like something then that's not gonna be swayed by others.
 

Vanessa28

Angel of Darkness
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This is why I don't really follow fanpages because there's always this group of fans who ruin it all. I know that the franchise in itself isn't like that but some rotten apples can ruin a lot. Still I don't let this take away my love for the things I love. I ignore all the "crap" being said or done by fans
 

Jimmu

Administrator
Staff member
Administrator
I tend to just avoid a group if I find they are unpleasant without letting that taint my view of the media that they are a "fandom" of. I'm sure that for the vast majority of popular media there is a much larger group of people who enjoy it on their own without participating in these fandoms anyway.
 

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