The odd things · 10:40pm Aug 2nd, 2023
I've just been reading through old comments on my scraps story, after publishing yet another chunk from the ancient cutting room floor. It's remarkable how many of the commenters are still around - but also how many logged off for the last time, soon after making their last comment there.
I've been around fandoms for a while. My first fanfics were written some time in the early 90s, on an Amiga; one for Star Trek, about Scotty leaving a window open on the Enterprise, and one for an obscure Christian book series about cowboys. That was quite a trip, let me tell you...
The one constant, in my experience of every fandom in which I've participated, is that most of the people you interact with will leave it before you. A few will last as long as you; a fewer still will outlast you by years. Any fandom experience ends up being an elimination race, a competition to see who will be the last one there to turn out the lights. There are fandoms out there that are kept alive by a single, determined creator or compiler, who refuses to let that last little light die. They aren't always the best and the brightest; their stories may be schlock, their art may be terrible, but they are still there.
I'm not sure where I'm going with this.
Oh look, it's in the sinbox.
I look over all the aborted projects, all the stories that could have been but never where. All the people who thought I should do something with them, then disappeared into the great beyond of some other life and never returned. If I finished those stories now, would they come back to read them? It's a nice fantasy.
Those who are still around seem to be creators themselves; or if not creators, they are persistent voices, always ready to encourage the thing they want to see more of, or to show where you may have fallen short. No fair-weather friends these. Not friends at all. Instead, travelling companions on the journey, who haven't yet reached their stop, and are content to continue and encourage your ramblings. You should encourage theirs.
Until the ride ends.
Assuming it ever does...
it'll be a few of us riding the coaster till the sun burns out
Here's to the companions.
I mean, I'd read them...
An Amiga? 500, 1000, or 2000? I mean I had a 500 for a short time, wound up being terribly frustrated at a shortage of usable parts that you didn't have to hock a lung for, traded up to a 2000 because it had drive bays and slots, then found out how *much* things cost that went in those drive bays and slots, and traded it off to buy a PC clone put together with parts that a friend of mine had outgrown. Commodore murdered the computer series by putting it into the hands of pound-wise and penny-foolish corporate drones with no clear vision on what their end goal was while the design crew was technically brilliant but likewise wandered around in what their goals were other than to make the coolest graphic widget they could. (and they succeeded, until the company died) I still have a 1000 in the basement. The design crew signed the die used to press the plastic lid so they're immortalized.
:O
I am hereby encouraging your ramblings until the end of time. Or until I expire. Or you expire. Wow, that went depressing fast.
Well, the ride never ends.
Every so often lately I come to read an old fic that I haven't read before. And when I do I go through the comments at the end of each chapter and play the "When Did This Person Last Log In?" game.
Yeah...there are a lot of users that haven't been on in a while. Some ages ago. Some fairly recently-ish from a year to a few months ago. Some are even banned.
And still, there are still some apparently chugging along daily.
5740448
If only I had a few extra pairs of arms, I'd write them, too.
5740451
500+, with a 50mb harddrive attached to the expansion port on the side. It was crazy fun. Couldn't play Elite 2, sadly, but I still spent hours watching it render at 5 frames a second.
The site is quieter than it ever was. But that's fine. We live on.
Only thing that pisses me off is the cancelation notice for All American Girl.