Go. Read. Angel/Wes, before it all went weird. And remember we'll always have fanfic.

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Where did "fanwank" come from? Cause "Homicide" fandom had never heard it...they think I'm brilliant. Not that I don't love that, but, in this case the credit's not mine to claim. Cause I was all "My personal fanwank is..." And they're like "Cute. Can I quote you?"

Hey, erika, where do you think people get the reps for being brilliant? You're just transplanting cool stuff.

And, no, I don't know where it comes from.

Well, I said it'd been in fantasy fandom for ages...that's good enough, yeah? Cause I'm Attribution's Bitch.(And apparently quite the little cross-pollinator...it never occurred to me they wouldn't have heard it. So I left you guys "eyefuck" and them "fanwank". Huh.)

I think fanwank has two meaning out in the real world -- one is to throw bones to the fans so they feel pleased with themselves, without actually contributing to the quality of the product (continuity nods that don't add to the story, but make you feel all cool for noticing), and then our usage.

Not to be confused with a fan wank, also spelt kerfuffle.

I think fanwank has two meaning out in the real world -- one is to throw bones to the fans so they feel pleased with themselves, without actually contributing to the quality of the product (continuity nods that don't add to the story, but make you feel all cool for noticing), and then our usage.

I've been googling with little result. I will say, my received notion of "fanwank" is very different. As a verb, I've used it for a person obsessively and intrusively pointing out details of [fandom object] in a way that distracts from the existing conversation. So, a conversation about how [widget] works would not itself be a fanwank, but someone hijacking a conversation about xenoanthropology with an in-depth examination of [widget-workings] would be a fanwank, moreso the longer, more repetitive, and more WTF-y it is. I think the wanking involved is figuratively the sense that the offender is not talking to other people so much as performing a self-involved braindump.

Whereas, the Buffista sub-meaning of fanwank has a lot more to do with elegant fanon-fixes to canon holes or contradictions. I suppose Buffista-fanwanking is sort of like doing a PR spin for the fannish object, which although it may involve massive description and elaborate logic, is at least an activity that is social, and even useful, to the larger fannish discussion.

psst, erika's a cross-pollinator, pass it on.

I admit, I tend to use fanwank as a way of correcting for The Handwave (i.e., fixing or explaining things that make no sense in the canon universe, like working out translator microbes or PK genetics). But the word "wank" isn't quite so genial in origin, so it sounds like there are two conflicting definitions for fanwank.

OTOH, you can generally tell which use is meant by context.

"Oh, go see the fanwanking over in Lotrips where the tinhats are all kerfuffling about someone showing Dom some manips!"

vs.

"Nutty came up with an elegant fanwank to explain why Aeryn came back as a pod person this season."

I think the Buffista meaning of fanwank is a genial, logical outgrowth of the general meaning; it's just that words usually go downhill in connotation, rather than uphill.

"Nutty came up with an elegant fanwank to explain why Aeryn came back as a pod person this season."

I wish I had. Mostly, all I could come up with was, Christie Brinkley is the evil queen of the pod people! Eyebrow waxing for EVERYBODY!!