Kevin, I think there are a lot of us who came to Buffistas for the Buffy, then stayed for the fine cheese plate.

ETA:That is to say, there's part of this community that has little to do with current fandom as much as it has to do with the community that grew up around the fandom. Not that we're not fans...of something.

I think a lot of sites are the same, to be honest. Well, they have to be, given there's no shows on the air, thinking about it. There's certainly a 'fandom community' aspect with a great many fans.

people obsessively posting on Buffistas, I class as part of the fandom regardless of if they read fic or not

Even if they aren't on show threads?

Consider our genesis, again ... we didn't start as a Buffy-only group -- we were part of table talk, and formed a community that already talked about crap that wasn't the show before we made our own site. And we made our own site because other hosts failed us.

People who post exclusive not in the show threads and have no interest in Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Wonderfalls, The Inside, Blah Blah, Joss Blah, Minear Blah - I wouldn't consider part of fandom, but more part of the community. But as a majority, I suspect, graviate here now because of the show aspect in the first instance, I'd call it a fandom site.

But as a majority, I suspect, graviate here now because of the show aspect in the first instance, I'd call it a fandom site.

I'm not saying it's not a fandom site. But I *know* that there are people posting quite merrily here who aren't part of fandom, and some of them are on show threads. Have you been to WX or TT or TPW? Are the people who post about the shows there in fandom? Are the people I IM with at work about shows in a fandom? Where's your dividing line?

For me, it's seeking out people you don't already know to talk about your object of interest. Many people here already knew each other, and were chatting about a million things they had in common. Buffy was how we defined this splintering, but not everyone could be called fandom.

The thing is, though, to pick an example: I believe Allyson says she isn't part of any fandom. But she posts on a fandom site, has written a book about it, which is mentioned on Whedonesque (a Joss Whedon fandom site), which will probably retail to people in the fandom. She's part of that fandom, completely, in my opinion, because of this.

I'm sure there's exceptions here where people literally have no interest in the fandom, or anything to do with the shows - but I presume (always a bad idea) that's a very small number of the populace here, and they are more or less incidental that they know people here.

but I presume (always a bad idea) that's a very small number of the populace here, and they are more or less incidental that they know people here

You're right -- it is a bad idea.

I don't think I'm part of fandom. I wouldn't have considered myself that at all except that I post here. I tried fandom for a while but it dind't hold my interest. Buffistas, OTOH, have held my interest for over a year without any particular allegiance to any current shows.

(eta: see, that only took 3 minutes.)

Like ita says, I think it's subjectional as to where the lines fall in defining fandom. And it's also not a terribly interesting subject.

I can write a book about ass cancer. It doesn't mean I have the ass cancer.

I think there's an ocean of difference between fandom and general interest. I threw a LOST party but I'm not a fan of LOST.

Buffistas tend to be generalists. Hec may be a bigger fan of good sandwiches than Buffy. Krav is probably more important to ita than Firefly ever was. My next book has nothing at all to do with fandom.

But it's your definition we're discussing, Kevin. Is Tim a part of fandom because he posts here?