I could probably write a white paper on this, sadly

[petronia]

Monitoring the starting conditions of an incipient ficcing fandom: my favourite activity! XD In XM:FC a pairing-centric comm seems to have won out as the pillar, which means it's going to look really different from Sherlock (where a mixed-use but strictly-enforced on-topic comm won) and NuTrek (where an ONTD-format comm won). I prefer the flexibility of the last option - the scope is both broad and conceptually well-defined - but suspect one would need a pre-movie head start, plus a canon backlog full of endlessly-trawlable deep weirdness thereafter (which the three I've just named have, of course, but eg. Inception didn't...). I think XM:FC is distinguishable from the earlier iterations of the X-Men movie fandom by... a lower activation energy? Perhaps? K-memes didn't really exist circa X1-X2, let alone as the sandbox environments they are now. I have a memory of sort of lacklusterly poking about on FFnet. XD;;; So there is an impact. On the other hand - should I even make an attempt to phrase this delicately - a lot of the younger characters had superpowers with narrow applications. Or ones where the interest was actually in the workaround. That is not the case with XM:FC. Possibly it is a truism in every 'verse that sex was better before the 1980s.

On the other-other hand, I am in my corner until someone comes to inform me that the geographical proximity of the words "Holocaust" and "kink meme" has come to an end, thx all the same.

EDIT -- I forgot to talk about the dreaded seme/uke issue, but that's because with NuTrek it was interesting, you could sort of ponder the wherefores. The wherefores of XM:FC = "the casting director's brief said to find dudes who are quote incredibly easy for amateur manga artists to draw unquote"

Comments

[fahye.livejournal.com]

I find fandom genesis so fun to watch, having been 'in' Torchwood fandom in the weeks when all that existed were promo pics (people were writing Jack/Ianto ALREADY) and watched it kind of explode into monsterism.

XM:FC annoys me a little because the only 'general fic' comm I could find is not that well frequented, and personally I have an aversion to kink memes as a primary location for fandom interaction because they imply a need for TIME and PRESENCE (the ontd format does too, to a lesser extent).

I am also totally underwhelmed by 99% of the fic, which is odd for such a populous and young fandom, but there it is. So much shite. So, so much shite.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I think XM:FC was only very slightly less fangirl-id-y than Fassbender's version of Jane Eyre, so the first crop of kink meme fills etc. was pure blubbering. XD (People! The whole point of this is that it doesn't get fixed in AU!) To write proper XM fic you need comics canon, because the films can't even stay consistent to themselves. So then there's a pause and scramble as ppl get up to speed, rent the earlier ones for the pleasure of Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen and get distracted by watching McKellen's Edward II on YTube (haven't seen that much gay in a v-necked shirt since the last time I was in American Apparel). This was also the case in Sherlock, theoretically, except Holmesians are the original nutters and have canon at their fingertips always. I'm predicting the long-form fic will start trickling out in a month, assuming momentum keeps up.

I do think because there's no general-fic hub that ppl will end up relying more on recs and filters. But we'll see!

[fahye.livejournal.com]

Hahaha you are going to HATE me, I haven't read the comics at all and I have not only a) just written fic, I am planning to b) write a sort of fix-it AU developing the idea of mutations becoming exponentially more common in the human population with each year, until it becomes clear that the unmutated human race IS heading for extinction. Mostly I want an excuse for Raven to be CEO of something, Storm and Nightcrawler to be handwaved into existing as adults in FC-verse, and Erik and Charles to have long arguments about pedagogy while raiding the mansion's kitchens at midnight.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Oh I totally don't mind, my knowledge of any comics canon is on the order of "plot recounted by someone else in the pub after two pints". XD It's just that generally speaking, when you're working off a movie, ppl start checking out the older canon because there's nothing else coming out (as with a TV show). It's either that or the "100K-word AUs for all" route Inception went down.

Looking forward to your fic! I really enjoyed your Raven one! Remember seeing that Magritte. XD

Meanwhile I have just finished reading On The Origin Of Species, by total coincidence, so in my head it's all Erik being sort of trollish like "Shaw force-fed me that, so FTR it's not the individual adapting to survive," etc.

[labingi.livejournal.com]

Funny, I've been quite impressed by the overall quality of the fic, though I have been underwhelmed by most of the prompts, so there's a lot of fic I skip. Ex. Petronia mentions the AUs: I haven't clicked a single one. What I've read has mostly been quite good though.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

You and fahye are the only two I'd get off my butt to rec, though. XD

[labingi.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I greatly respect your judgment and take that as a very high compliment.

[akatonbo.livejournal.com]

I am thinking that half of fandom is glommed all over XM:FC and the other half is glommed all over Tiger & Bunny. (I'm in the latter half.)

[takadainmate.livejournal.com]

I'm gleeful you are into T&B. Gleeful.

[akatonbo.livejournal.com]

It is PURE DELIGHT and all of our favorite tropes wrapped up and tied with red ribbons. Fannish activity is mostly occurring on Andrea's DW account. ;)

[applegnat.livejournal.com]

On the other-other hand, I am in my corner until someone comes to inform me that the geographical proximity of the words "Holocaust" and "kink meme" has come to an end

Staying away from the kink meme, into which I curiously wandered, until that day. Relatedly: do you think fandom first contact is largely initiated by curious people trawling through page after page of fills, browsing for what they want? Or is there a new reliance on rec resources, etc?

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I think it always starts with browsing, but that patterns of use are largely determined by what's there at the start. If there's a central community that allows all fic and has a good set of tags, people will use that. If there's a Delicious account dedicated to indexing the kink meme (I would call this a "best practice", except it's by no means easy to find someone willing to put in the massive amount of work involved), people will use that. It's only when the fandom gets really big - big enough that someone like me, who goes through fic like whales go through krill, can't read everything that gets posted to the main fic comm or k-meme in a week during that week - that the more curatorial sort of reccing comes into play.

[takadainmate.livejournal.com]

This is interesting. I've never thought about the dispersal of fandom before, mostly because I follow recs for the most part in terms of fics, and interact with people IRL in other aspects of fandom.

I will say though, whilst not a kink person myself, I do hold to the, "accept one kink accept them all" addage, even if I don't understand them.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

So do I! And frankly, these days k-memes are more like generic prompt memes than anything else. Were they all as weird as the Doctor Who k-meme. XDD It's stretching my faith in humanity to hope that the Holocaust thing won't cause wank sooner or later, though; but at least it'll be the sort of wank that leaves some ppl better-educated.

[takadainmate.livejournal.com]

Heh. My main exposure to kink memes comes from Hetalia and Supernatural, and i've got to say, ANYTHING is compared when set against those. The Supernatural meme apparent is a place of discovery the likes of which I never wanted to see. I have learnt my lesson well: KEEP AWAY!

Is it not a law of the internet that sooner or later comparisons to the Nazis must be invoked? Thus, XM:FC is primed and ready for fully fledged fandom wank.