[ where do we go from here ]

[winterlive]

my own cee has said a thing about the exodus which i think you should read. it's about where those of us who are leaving should go, what we should be trying for.

fandom_flies is trying to work up something new, something from scratch. same with scribblit. and i think those are admirable aims, like, i think that's fair, but they've talked to each other and instead of deciding to pool their lumber and their workers and their time to build a big ark, they have decided to diverge. go their own ways. that's not what fandom needs.

the american statesman and orator henry clay once said: I know no South, no North, no East, no West, to which I owe any allegiance...The Union, sir, is my country.

i feel the same way about fandom. the ideal is the same: harry potter fen and star wars fen, artists and vidders and writers, friends and total strangers - we all have one thing in common, and that's that we are all us. of course, we have our insane cousins and crazy uncles and cat lady aunts that we'd lock in the attic and feed fish heads to if we were worse people, but every family does. if there's one thing i don't want, it's to lose the notion that there are dozens of people out there that i just haven't found myself in the same fandom as yet, that there's so many awesome people that will come through my flist soon. you guys, warts and all, are my community. i care about you; no matter how ridiculous you sometimes get, no matter if we fight on the issues of the day, i would miss you if you were gone.

so when we go somewhere, i want to go together.

cee makes a few excellent points about journalfen as a potential place to go. what do you guys think? do you think it's better to start from scratch, or what? wherever we go, i want you with me.

*holds ur hands*

Comments

[winterlive.livejournal.com]

i totally think that's a reasonable objection. i'm not sure what i think of it, myself.

on the one hand, i know that that age restriction doesn't limit the oversexed teens (such as i once was) from reading public posts. i know it doesn't keep them from commenting, even - as anonymous users. so i feel like we're not restricting them from much, not until they get old enough to play with the big kids without putting them in danger of legal action.

on the other hand, i do recognize that it keeps them from being members of the community, which is what fandom is all about. i'd hate to keep that sense of acceptance and understanding from a kid that might really need it.

it's a tough call, but i think in the end i come down on the side of the age restriction not being enough to keep me away. a fan-operated service doesn't operate at much of a profit, if any - journalfen certainly doesn't pay the two girls who run it anything. any fan-operated service is going to be exactly the same way with regard to money, and if they don't have that age restriction, they're looking at impressive legal fees in to the bargain to keep somebody on retainer for the whack jobs dying to scream about the children.

[maygra.livejournal.com]

And at the same time...any fan under the age of 18 who we'd consider mature enough to be participating in fandom like those over 18 should also be mature enough to get why the age restriction, arbitrary as it is in the US, is in place. The bald truth of it is that it's legal adults held up to repercussions of so influencing or "abusing" minors and not the minors themselves. So yes, there are ones who will slip over and under the wire (Always have, always will) who will drink before it's legal, have sex when the state says they shouldn't, smoke, party and raise a ruckus as teens are wont to do. I'd argue that their parents should keep a closer eye on them.

I don't mind mentoring or encouraging younger people (including my own nieces who were up to all kinds of stuff) but I'm not eager to take the rap for being in loco parentis.

If the less than 18 crowd are mature enough to be playing where they legally shouldn't be, that maturity also need to have a full understanding of the full weight of responsibility that falls on those who would otherwise welcome them. It's not fair, but it is how it is.

Maybe a reminder of those who are the cusp of 18 to take all that hard won maturity and vote to ensure the adults who would be on their side aren't paying the price for wanting to be inclusive.

[winterlive.livejournal.com]

i do concur, y. i'm sure there are a lot of compelling arguments on both sides, but for now it seems to me that the pros to age restriction outweigh the cons.