Snowflake Challenge Day Five
Jan. 5th, 2015 08:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
turpsIn your own space, talk about your fannish origin story. How did you come to fandom, why did you choose your fannish name, do you have more than one secret identity? Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
Way back in time, when dinosaurs roamed the earth and the internet was accessed via dial up, I searched for the tv show Poltergeist the Legacy. I didn't do so in the comfort of my own home, as at that time we didn't have home internet, so my first fannish activity was undertaken in the small library of my home town -- and I still shake my fist at the person who thought adding an automatic wolf howl on loading the page was a good thing to do.
While checking out that page I found PtL fanfic, gen only, and in my hour slot I started to read through those stories, because this stuff was awesome! I loved reading anyway and here were stories about a show that I loved. It was like magic.
Time went on and we got the internet in our house. We could only use it between 6 and 12 in the evening and pages were insanely slow to load, but still, now I had sort of free reign I launched myself into this new world of Angelfire sites, webrings, news groups and then, my next big fannish step, mailing lists.
I'm a trekker and love Voyager especially, so when I found a mailing list dedicated to the Paris/Torres ship I was in heaven. Not only could I read stories, but discussion as well. I threw myself enthusiastically into the mailing list, sending LoCs -- letters of comment if you're not a dinosaur, too -- and happily wallowing in the beauty of Paris/Torres. Then I ran out of stories to read.
Eager to explore this new cyber world, I went searching, and found E Groups, and something called Voyager slash. Oh, but I was young and naive then, thinking this meant horror stories about Voyager. As that's not a genre I'm keen on, I didn't explore that link, until one day I got desperate, clicked the link, and found my people.
My first slash story was a Chakotay/Paris n/c abuse story. I suspect that says a lot.
From that point things exploded fannishly. I joined more newsgroups, talked more, started to make friends, including![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
castalie who mentioned finding a show called The Sentinel, which she thought I'd enjoy. And man, did I enjoy it.
The Sentinel is where I cut my writing teeth. It was a huge fandom full of enthusiastic people and really h/c focussed, so perfect for younger me as I spread my wings fannishly. I made more friends, discovered that no matter what you do you can't make everyone like you when I was constantly ignored on Senad -- got my first little diva moment over with when I posted something to a beta mailing list that people didn't like and questioned. Seriously, I think back to my 'okay, I'll stop writing then, email and cringe, the very patient other fan that dealt with that was a saint.
I was having a load of fun, but then the next step on my journey began when I was offered a code to join Live Journal.
Around that time I'd started to be attracted to Backstreet Boys fic. I'd always liked the band, but what you have to remember is around that time, rps was horribly taboo. I've told these stories over and over -- hell, I've told this whole thing on many occasions, so apologies to those who've known me a long time. But at a slash con I was told that popslashers were the lowest of the low, lower even than furries on the fandom scale, and that was when popslash was my main fandom, and was also told in comments that writing rps was like character rape. So yeah, making the step from show based to real based slash was a huge step, so much so I seriously considered changing my name and writing under another one.
In the end I didn't, and I'm very glad about that. What I did do was fall headlong into popslash. Through crossover fics I discovered Nsync -- and Chris. Oh Chris Kirkpatrick, you remain one of my chosen ones always. And if TS was where I spread my wings as a fan, popslash is where I became established. I wrote lots, created my own website, created comms, ran comms, ran a weekly newsletter, ran challenges, made many friends, lots of whom are still around today. It's why popslash will always have a special place in my heart, a special sparkly, crack filled place that's stuffed with feelings of love, happiness and lava lamps.
I stayed in popslash for many years, and then, moved onto bandom, where, to cut this long story short, I've remained ever since.
As for my name. Turps is what my brother calls me. Terri = Ter = Turps in his mind. I'm even known as Auntie Turps to his kids. So when I needed a fannish name I picked turps, but of course that was taken, so I just shoved a random number on the end. And have been known as that ever since.
I use a variation of that name in most fannish places DW - turps LJ- turps33, twitter -- turpss, instagram -- turps33, Ao3 -- turps, though my tumblr is completely different, but as I haven't touched that in many years, that doesn't matter.especially as I can't remember it.
Way back in time, when dinosaurs roamed the earth and the internet was accessed via dial up, I searched for the tv show Poltergeist the Legacy. I didn't do so in the comfort of my own home, as at that time we didn't have home internet, so my first fannish activity was undertaken in the small library of my home town -- and I still shake my fist at the person who thought adding an automatic wolf howl on loading the page was a good thing to do.
While checking out that page I found PtL fanfic, gen only, and in my hour slot I started to read through those stories, because this stuff was awesome! I loved reading anyway and here were stories about a show that I loved. It was like magic.
Time went on and we got the internet in our house. We could only use it between 6 and 12 in the evening and pages were insanely slow to load, but still, now I had sort of free reign I launched myself into this new world of Angelfire sites, webrings, news groups and then, my next big fannish step, mailing lists.
I'm a trekker and love Voyager especially, so when I found a mailing list dedicated to the Paris/Torres ship I was in heaven. Not only could I read stories, but discussion as well. I threw myself enthusiastically into the mailing list, sending LoCs -- letters of comment if you're not a dinosaur, too -- and happily wallowing in the beauty of Paris/Torres. Then I ran out of stories to read.
Eager to explore this new cyber world, I went searching, and found E Groups, and something called Voyager slash. Oh, but I was young and naive then, thinking this meant horror stories about Voyager. As that's not a genre I'm keen on, I didn't explore that link, until one day I got desperate, clicked the link, and found my people.
My first slash story was a Chakotay/Paris n/c abuse story. I suspect that says a lot.
From that point things exploded fannishly. I joined more newsgroups, talked more, started to make friends, including
castalie who mentioned finding a show called The Sentinel, which she thought I'd enjoy. And man, did I enjoy it.The Sentinel is where I cut my writing teeth. It was a huge fandom full of enthusiastic people and really h/c focussed, so perfect for younger me as I spread my wings fannishly. I made more friends, discovered that no matter what you do you can't make everyone like you when I was constantly ignored on Senad -- got my first little diva moment over with when I posted something to a beta mailing list that people didn't like and questioned. Seriously, I think back to my 'okay, I'll stop writing then, email and cringe, the very patient other fan that dealt with that was a saint.
I was having a load of fun, but then the next step on my journey began when I was offered a code to join Live Journal.
Around that time I'd started to be attracted to Backstreet Boys fic. I'd always liked the band, but what you have to remember is around that time, rps was horribly taboo. I've told these stories over and over -- hell, I've told this whole thing on many occasions, so apologies to those who've known me a long time. But at a slash con I was told that popslashers were the lowest of the low, lower even than furries on the fandom scale, and that was when popslash was my main fandom, and was also told in comments that writing rps was like character rape. So yeah, making the step from show based to real based slash was a huge step, so much so I seriously considered changing my name and writing under another one.
In the end I didn't, and I'm very glad about that. What I did do was fall headlong into popslash. Through crossover fics I discovered Nsync -- and Chris. Oh Chris Kirkpatrick, you remain one of my chosen ones always. And if TS was where I spread my wings as a fan, popslash is where I became established. I wrote lots, created my own website, created comms, ran comms, ran a weekly newsletter, ran challenges, made many friends, lots of whom are still around today. It's why popslash will always have a special place in my heart, a special sparkly, crack filled place that's stuffed with feelings of love, happiness and lava lamps.
I stayed in popslash for many years, and then, moved onto bandom, where, to cut this long story short, I've remained ever since.
As for my name. Turps is what my brother calls me. Terri = Ter = Turps in his mind. I'm even known as Auntie Turps to his kids. So when I needed a fannish name I picked turps, but of course that was taken, so I just shoved a random number on the end. And have been known as that ever since.
I use a variation of that name in most fannish places DW - turps LJ- turps33, twitter -- turpss, instagram -- turps33, Ao3 -- turps, though my tumblr is completely different, but as I haven't touched that in many years, that doesn't matter.
no subject
Date: 2015-01-05 01:03 pm (UTC)I must admit, I didn't really "join" fandom until Livejournal, although I had been reading the stories for about 3 years beforehand. Mailing Lists were totally off my radar, but this was 2000-2003, so it wasn't their heyday, I don't think.
Anyway, I joined Popslash without all the baggage of RPS-hating people tainting my perspective. It was nice! I actually considered RPS *less* problematic than FPS, since you aren't infringing on someone else' intellectual property!
Good times, good times.
no subject
Date: 2015-01-05 01:11 pm (UTC)Mailing lists were weird things. It's so strange to think that back then I'd get all my discussions via emails or by having to check the mailing list archives. It seems even stranger to me that I'd write slash and gen versions of the same stories, but it was just the done thing in TS fandom.
Considering how accepted rps is now it seems insane it was so taboo back then. I wish I'd known you back then, I would have turned you and your less problematic point onto the people who thought I was carrying out character rape.
You more than anyone know how much I want certain times back, but one thing I can say about now, fannish tolerance is so much better.
no subject
Date: 2015-01-05 01:35 pm (UTC)Writing slash and gen versions of the same story is totally weird.
I do like how tolerant fandom is these days. It is much better, even if I was only on the periphery of RPS-hate in the beginning, you know how I still find it going on even now. *shakes fists at the haters*
no subject
Date: 2015-01-05 02:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-05 02:38 pm (UTC)I've often been tempted to try and find the episodes again, either via torrent or DVD, but am worried it won't live up to my memories.
no subject
Date: 2015-01-05 07:37 pm (UTC)I remember encountering The Sentinel when I went to MediaWest Con—everybody was obsessed with it, I think it was mid-1998. But apart from enjoying the bloopers reel - oddly slashy! - I wasn't smitten.
I'm glad I missed the 'popslash is evil' phase, for the most part.
no subject
Date: 2015-01-05 09:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-29 04:14 pm (UTC)You've just reminded me of the reams of Poltergeist the Legacy fic I printed out. It's hard to believe it's gone from that to saving stories on ereaders, tablets etc.
The Sentinel blooper reel is a thing of beauty, but I have to admit, despite enjoying the show itself, some episodes are terrible! Some are great, of course, but it's one of those cases where often the fic is better than the source material.
no subject
Date: 2015-01-05 09:11 pm (UTC)It's funny how I actually see more "RPS is evil" these days than I did back in the day. Probably because back then I was a complete lurker and didn't get an LJ until 2005. I don't think I was even aware it existed before I fell into popslash!
no subject
Date: 2015-01-29 04:10 pm (UTC)Yep. We didn't get our own computer for a long time so the library it was. I can clearly remember being taught how to actually search for something and the difference between the search bar and the URL bar *g*
But that howl. Embedded sounds should be banned!
Thankfully I haven't seen any rps is evil comments for a long time. I must be hanging out in the right areas.
no subject
Date: 2015-01-05 09:14 pm (UTC)It's totally interesting to learn about fandom-history in your and in the others' entries for Day 5.
no subject
Date: 2015-01-29 04:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-05 11:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-06 02:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-06 06:54 am (UTC)And I know I'm relatively a fandom babe in diapers but I totally remember mailinglists(and yahoogroups). Believe it or not I was a member of a few even if I didn't actually participate much.
I need to revisit my own history. Probably tomorrow I'll use my off day to catch up on missed Snowflake days(Sunday was a 10hour shift and today/Monday was a 9 hour stock truck shift >.<)
Stay awesome <3
no subject
Date: 2015-01-06 12:02 pm (UTC)I wonder if people still use mailing lists now? I'd imagine they do, but they're so slow compared to places like this and AO3.
No wonder you're behind. Take care, bb. As always I'll be looking forward to your posts.
no subject
Date: 2015-01-06 05:01 pm (UTC)UGH MAILING LISTS. Man, I'm so glad that we don't do that anymore.
I'm seeing a resurgence of anti-RPS sentiment happening over on tumblr. Which sucks, and I'm super tired of having the same damn argument over and over and OVER. Then again, I also don't care what the kids think, and they can get the hell off my lawn. :P
I think that's the first time your name's been thoroughly explained to me. Neat! I love that you're Auntie Turps IRL. That's like some balance point in the Force.
<3
no subject
Date: 2015-01-20 07:44 am (UTC)Mailing lists were very annoying, also time consuming. I'm glad they've gone too.
Oh man, I didn't know anti-rps feelings were coming back. That sucks. I'm glad I stick to my own safe corner of fandom.
I'm surprised you didn't know about my fannish name. But yeah, all my brothers fault. I can't remember the last time he called me Terri.