fanfic forensics

I've been spending a lot more time lately dipping my toes back into old slash fandom waters and it makes me wonder if the general attitude of "it's all good" that I see in the HP fandom has spoiled me for participation in some of the other fandoms. Especially the fandoms where the fen seem to be older (late 40's and up). I'm fine as long as I just read fics, but when I try to interact with some of the fen I often feel like I've gone back in time. Especially when talking about gay sex.

To destroy this kind of discussion in the name of preventing piracy is exactly the kind of act that ISPs and social networking services like Livejournal protest when, for instance, copyright holders demand that they be shut down because some fraction of their users are using their infrastructure to share pirated content.

"if Scans_Daily were a male dominated community it would have not been suspended like this. Why? Because I don’t think it would have been on a site like Livejournal."

Female fans populate social network sites run by panicky male-dominated corporations who want to make money from selling advertising to women, but don’t really have the brass ovaries to deal with hosting female interaction on the internet. It’s like they expect feathered sugar with a hint of spice and are shocked to discover girls have locker room talk and smoke in the bathroom. Male fan communities seem to be owned and operated by like-minded males

Reading is active participation; whether we realize it or not, our mind is engaging with the text. Choosing not to comment does not constitute passive participation. These readers have watched/read/listened to the source text (text in the broad sense) and actively sough out more for some reason or another.

Whoa! There is no passive involvement in fandom!

There's a part of me that is really annoyed by "reading deeply." That whole school mentality. Sometimes, when an author describes red shoes, they just mean read shoes - not a journey, not separation from the womb, just SHOES. And, since it is fandom, I like to enjoy it on a superficial level. If it's for fun, I don't want to have to really think about it. Lazy.I can understand that. Though, my first though is that the author might have just meant "red shoes" but the reader brings more meaning than just that.