Oldbies and BNFs

[heiditandy]

> > Anne U wrote:
> > 
> > > Mostly I'm focusing on a few of the BNFs (AngieJ, Lissanne, 
Lori, 
> > > now working on Barb's HP and the Psychic Serpent, which is 
lots 
> of 
> > > fun).


David wrote: 
> > Here's another term requiring definition.  I assume BNF stands 
for 
> > Big Name Fan?  How does one decide one of those?  Is there a 
list 
> > somewhere?  I suppose it's too much to hope that all names are 
> equal 
> > here, but seeing a categorisation like that does make me 
perversely 
> > proud that I don't know who Lissanne is.  (Apologies to him/her 
if 
> > it's somebody regular here under another name.)

Not regular, just a member of long standing. I think Liss has been 
on this list since early 2001 - Cassie's been here since the list 
was founded in 2001 as well (and posted here a few days ago), and 
Lori is one of the longest-term subscribers on the main list, 
although she doesn't post much anymore. 

No, David, there is no list. In fact, there's been a lot of 
discussion of the term on livejournals and on FictionAlley in the 
past year or so, and generally, people who are termed BNFs get 
jittery around the term, because, while Anne applied it in a nice 
way, it is *very often* applied in scathing terms, or as an insult, 
or as a complaint about some inner circle, or by people who are not 
doing it to be complimentary - although Anne certainly used it in a 
and positive and complimentary fashion. 

On the same note, of course not all fans are the same in terms of 
their committment to the fandom - someone like Stev Vanderark, who 
spends hours each week working on the Lexicon is more likely to be 
well known, and well respected - not for his name, but for his work 
product. People generally respect the time commitment that people 
put into "fandom volunteering", even if they aren't necessarily fans 
of the work, IMHO. 

Anne also wrote: 
> Well perhaps I should have clarified that by saying BNFs in the HP 
> Fan-Ficdom. Lissanne Jones is a BNF on FictionAlley, as are Lori 
> Summers, AngieJ (Ebony's nom de plume), Heidi Tandy, Barb and 
> Cassandra Claire, to name a few. 

Blush, blush - to you and to Sushi - and thanks. And I certainly 
don't think I belong on that list of fanfic-authors at the moment, 
as I haven;t managed to finish my novel-length fic yet (and likely 
won't before I have my bebe...) but it  is flattering...

> Also, there are numerous Yahoo groups devoted specifically to the 
> writings of various fan-fic authors and artists, not to mention 
all 
> the Y! groups devoted to the various SHIPs. Some of them have as 
many 
> members as some of the "regular" HPFGU groups. How much crossover 
> membership those groups have with the HPFGU groups is anyone's 
guess.

There's actually a tonne of crossover, but it's not as much as it 
was once. Back in 2000 and 2001, fanfic discussions took place on 
the Main List all the time - you can find the earliest post about 
Paradigm of Uncertainty on the Main List in April, 2000. Most of the 
more well known fanfic authors are members of HPfGU, although lot of 
discsussion about canon, especially as it bisects fanfic, takes 
place on LJs and FictionAlley these days, instead of the main 
list,    where those discussions were born.


heidi, keeper of fandom history (also found here: 
http://www.livejournal.com/users/fandom_history)