I wish you hadn't edited, Steph. Now I'm damn curious.

You're crazy in categories 2 and 3.

I wish you hadn't edited, Steph. Now I'm damn curious.

I can re-post; I just don't want anyone to think that *I'm* being all judge-y toward them. (I *do* think the Kittens are batshit crazy b/c of the don't-go-near-an-open-window insinuations, but beyond that, I don't judge people on their craxyness.)

That's the thing to remember. I sit here on the b.org, pointing and laughing at the people who seem so crazy, and then I remember...

This. I can't tell you the number of people (DF included) who actively worried about my sanity levels and mental health when they found out about my involvement in fandom? This is his first experience with it, and he still doesn't quite know how to deal. It's beyond his comprehension as to how I can be friends with certain individuals (that I met online) because of a TV show. But he trusts me, and we're both aware of what pushes each others' buttons, so landmines are avoided and we both end up happy.

I work with someone who met his wife in a chat room. So I'm evidently less crazy, but more loserish -- he does have a spouse, after all. They are realer (usually) than invisible friends.

Which is to say, 'net activity is one thing -- lack of balance is another consideration in the hierarchy. So the basement-dwelling, inappropriately-attached folk should be bumped up a level.

I can re-post; I just don't want anyone to think that *I'm* being all judge-y toward them.

I admire the caution, but I think it was pretty clear that you were objectively noting fandom levels, not giving a personal opinion on how much craxy is too much craxy. I was also sorry you deleted.

[NOTE: if you 'fuffle over this, I KEEL YOU!!!]

Hierarchy of Fannish Craxiness
OR
How we justify thinking that other people are nuttier than we are

The levels of fannish craziness are basically like a ladder: rung 1 is batshit crazy, and everyone thinks so, except them; rung 2 thinks rung 1 is crazy, but rung 3 thinks 2 AND 1 are crazy, which is funny, because rung 4 thinks that rungs 1-3, inclusive, are nutso. And so forth. To wit:

1. Kittens, or similar -- fans who become menacing unless they get what they want. (Highest level, c.f., the threats to Joss.)

2. Save [insert show here] campaigns. (Considered crazy *by others*, I would assume, because of the amount of investment on the part of the people involved.)

3. People who run fansites. (Crazy in the sense of, "Dude! It's *just a TV show*!" And barely a rung above #4.)

4. People who are involved in fansites. (Again with the *it's just a show!* reasoning.)

[Somewhere in here is the issue of fic, which runs parallel to this hierarchy -- people who write fic, and people who read fic might just be on the same rungs, respectively, as #3 and #4. Oh, and people who write real-person fic and put *themselves* in the fic, particularly as, say, David Boreanaz's love interest -- yeah, they're probably just a skosh below rung #1 but well above rung #2.]

5. People who watch a show, love the show, and can. NEVER. miss. an. episode! Who, if they suddenly find themselves in an unplanned situation where they'll miss watching it, will call friends to make sure they tape it. Who will call friends who don't even watch the show and ask them to tape it. Who will call 411 to get someone's phone number to ask them to tape it. (That last bit -- the 411 part -- happened to me last week, and an observer labelled the person who begged me to tape as, you guessed it, "crazy.")

6. People who love a show and make a point to watch it, but don't really care if they miss an episode.

7. I don't know what the bottom rung is -- maybe people without TVs? Or totally non-fannish people? Though that's more rung #6, IMO. Dunno.

Eh, I wasn't offended, Steph. I say pretty much the same thing in my title story.

It seemed to me, from the outside, that you were exercising organization skills, learning how to cope with/ignore prima donnas, learning how to get useful work out of volunteers even when they'd rather savage one another. Does it seem that way to you?

I think I walked into with these skills which made things easier.

The things I learned about myself are pretty embarassing. I learned that I did a lot of things to impress my heroes, because i felt so crappy about myself that I thought if I could do something to make them happy, to make them think I was smart and cool, then of course that would prove I was smart and cool.

That's not all of it, of course, I love a good David and Goliath story and wanted just once for the fans to win, to prove that we dorks/kraxy people were in fact powerful and savvy.

But prove to who? Eh.

Tep, you could have just linked to this.

I *do* think the Kittens are batshit crazy b/c of the don't-go-near-an-open-window insinuations

Yeah, but that's a level of threatening other people, real living people, with family and friends. It wouldn't be considered OK regardless to any sort of reason it's attached to, right?

actively worried about my sanity levels and mental health when they found out about my involvement in fandom

People here think I'm straight out insane if I ever say that my online friends are from a tv-show forum. Usually, when I talk about my trip to the USA, I just say "internet friends", and even that makes most people shriek for my sanity, wellbeing, lack of logic and the like.

Tep, you could have just linked to this.

And save myself all the emotional melodrama? Pfft!

YOU, missy, are the one who is CRAXXXXY if you think I'd do something that sensible!....