In general, I'm a fan of the "look, if you post it publically on the Internet it's gonna get linked and forwarded to your Great-Aunt Ethel" argument. In this case, though, b.org has specific negative history with being linked to on Whedonesque--didn't they crash us a couple of times?--so we try to avoid advertising our existence in that way. Just one of those cultural things.

And the awesomest mod, Simon, always asks about it, makes sure we're cool if we get a link or a cite. Which is the awesomest.

I still remember the ridiculous kerfuffle when the Serenity board first got created and was linked on Slashdot. Fanpimp was woefully underprepared, and it showed. But people tried to blame it on the story submitter.

Well, you see, now I know this unspoken etiquette I'll follow it. I didn't link here because I figured there might be database type problems here for a bunch of people, I just mentioned it from a politeness point of view.

Kernel: Chris Bridges got an email about the last time he linked to SerenityMovie.com from Slashdot last month from Spec Ops Media.

But people tried to blame it on the story submitter.

You have to understand from whence we came. We were sized for us. The very idea that anyone would say anything here that'd make the interweb look in our direction? Sheer madness. So when Joss'd stop by and burp, or Tim'd leak a tidbit, we were unprepared -- like a chocolate cake is unprepared to tow a motorboat.

And, mostly, we prefer being chocolate cake, though care has been taken to beef up our undercarriage, just in case.

• nods* That's understandable. It might be a good idea to make it more explicit though that you don't want to be linked. Newbies find this board all the time and they might not know.

Kevin: *boggles* Universal had a problem with exposing the site promoting their movie to countless eyes?

I don't suppose anyone's buying that my parents were transcendental hippies and Zenkitty is my real name?

My real name is very very common. To use it as my online nickname would, rather than asserting my identity, more likely bland myself out of anyone's notice.

I've been called some version of my online nicknames in RL by people who've met me online. It pretty soon starts feeling like my real name. Though considering I've changed my name once and also gone by a stage name for years, maybe I just have a looser association of myself with my name(s) than most people do.

And now I want chocolate cake. Dammit.

Kernel, they asked to be warned in future to try to balance the load a bit. It's a reasonable request, but for a professional film site I think it is a little bit strange.

To be clear, also, I edited my post from Universal to Spec Ops Media, who ran the site for Universal - I believe it was Spec Ops who asked. But let's not even get into the management of that site.. I think that's going to be a chapter of a book I never write.

Not to pile on, but to get back to a point I found interesting -- online personas are personas, but they vary in the ways the individuals own them. I've never even considered putting someone's screen name (I was going to say 'pseud', but that would negate my point) in quotation marks. Meara is Meara, Shrift is Shrift, and Msbelle is Msbelle.

Those are the people I interact with, not the (to me) hypothetical flesh-and-blood individuals on the other side of their monitors. Putting their names in quotes would negate the reality of their personas, and, to me, imply they were lying about who they were.

It's a weird thing, the internet.

Also? I'm not in Firefly fandom. I am fannish, and I loved Firefly, and I've posted about it and read some fic and saw the movie three times. That doesn't make me a member of the fandom, and it sure as hell doesn't make me a Browncoat.

I am or was a member of 3 fandoms, and Joss didn't write any of them.

Where do you draw the fandom line, Suela? Writing fic? Organising stuff?