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selenayCollege is bad for me.
It makes me think about things like virtual communities and how things like LJ and the mailing lists relate to the texts I'm reading for course work. The fact that I have to write a paper explaining all this stuff is, in many ways, very intimidating. The example of a virtual community that they described had a surprising resonance with my experience with lists like FDAS. We spend most of the time nattering about stuff in the vicinity of the list topic, experiencing the ups and downs of fandom, new episodes and hiatus boredom, yet there are also times when we all spring into action to support someone who's going through nasty crap. My short experience on LJ has shown that the groups of friends do the same thing, maybe more personal stuff and slightly less topic stuff, but not dissimilar from the list communication. We are a virtual community. We even have unwritten ground rules of what is acceptable behavior and one of the fastest ways of getting ostracized is to continuously break those rules.
It occurs to me that anyone who hasn't experienced it probably won't quite understand it. They can look in and make some observations, but they probably won't understand it completely. It would seem utterly weird to them to discuss some of the things we do. I've had evenings when I've not wanted to log of the computer because a discussion somewhere is so addictive. I've had finger cramp from long IRC chats that had equal measures intelligent conversation and silliness. When I was a regular poster on the old Buffy Bronze, there were afternoons when we'd all get bored and play Calvin ball. Virtual food fights can almost be explained, but I'm not sure that I could explain Calvin ball to anyone outside the Bronze.
All of this is making my brain hurt. It's philosophical, psychological and sociological and I'm just a poor little geek who understands code much better. And yet I take part in it every day and understand it on a deeper level that I find almost impossible to explain.
Onto less serious stuff...
I feel a need to point out![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sabine101's fantastic overview of B5 on the ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
crack_van journal that can be found here. It is just a perfect summation for newbies to the fandom and reminded me of all the reasons why B5 was so fantastic.
It should also be pointed out thatningyouhime has a birthday *g* Possibly a little late, but then I've always been a bit slow on the uptake.
paranoidangel42 wrote a fascinating post about fandom here that is just beyond cool. I love reading all the thoughts that people have on these subjects *g*
In even more trivial news, I spent the afternoon in the hairdresser and my hair is now not faded red. It's rich, vibrant, freshly coloured red. It also looks tidier due to a trim. The colour isn't quite what the hairdresser and I had hoped (we'll be going for a brighter red next time - my hair is distressingly dark), but it's much better than it was. It's my girly thing for the month. I love getting my hair done, especially when I can afford the dyeing. I feel so silly getting excited over something so girly. But I got ridiculously excited when the hairdresser produced the Big Book of Colours for me to choose from and I must conclude that sometimes I am insanely girly.
It makes me think about things like virtual communities and how things like LJ and the mailing lists relate to the texts I'm reading for course work. The fact that I have to write a paper explaining all this stuff is, in many ways, very intimidating. The example of a virtual community that they described had a surprising resonance with my experience with lists like FDAS. We spend most of the time nattering about stuff in the vicinity of the list topic, experiencing the ups and downs of fandom, new episodes and hiatus boredom, yet there are also times when we all spring into action to support someone who's going through nasty crap. My short experience on LJ has shown that the groups of friends do the same thing, maybe more personal stuff and slightly less topic stuff, but not dissimilar from the list communication. We are a virtual community. We even have unwritten ground rules of what is acceptable behavior and one of the fastest ways of getting ostracized is to continuously break those rules.
It occurs to me that anyone who hasn't experienced it probably won't quite understand it. They can look in and make some observations, but they probably won't understand it completely. It would seem utterly weird to them to discuss some of the things we do. I've had evenings when I've not wanted to log of the computer because a discussion somewhere is so addictive. I've had finger cramp from long IRC chats that had equal measures intelligent conversation and silliness. When I was a regular poster on the old Buffy Bronze, there were afternoons when we'd all get bored and play Calvin ball. Virtual food fights can almost be explained, but I'm not sure that I could explain Calvin ball to anyone outside the Bronze.
All of this is making my brain hurt. It's philosophical, psychological and sociological and I'm just a poor little geek who understands code much better. And yet I take part in it every day and understand it on a deeper level that I find almost impossible to explain.
Onto less serious stuff...
I feel a need to point out
sabine101's fantastic overview of B5 on the crack_van journal that can be found here. It is just a perfect summation for newbies to the fandom and reminded me of all the reasons why B5 was so fantastic.It should also be pointed out that
ningyouhime has a birthday *g* Possibly a little late, but then I've always been a bit slow on the uptake.paranoidangel42 wrote a fascinating post about fandom here that is just beyond cool. I love reading all the thoughts that people have on these subjects *g*In even more trivial news, I spent the afternoon in the hairdresser and my hair is now not faded red. It's rich, vibrant, freshly coloured red. It also looks tidier due to a trim. The colour isn't quite what the hairdresser and I had hoped (we'll be going for a brighter red next time - my hair is distressingly dark), but it's much better than it was. It's my girly thing for the month. I love getting my hair done, especially when I can afford the dyeing. I feel so silly getting excited over something so girly. But I got ridiculously excited when the hairdresser produced the Big Book of Colours for me to choose from and I must conclude that sometimes I am insanely girly.
