Five Things Ryan Smith Said
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| Interviews by Fans | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Five Things Ryan Smith Said |
| Interviewer: | Claudia Rebaza |
| Interviewee: | Ryan Smith |
| Date(s): | July 9, 2016 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom(s): | |
| External Links: | Five Things Ryan Smith Said |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Five Things Ryan Smith is a 2016 Q&A guest post, conducted by the Organization for Transformative Works' Communications Committee with OTW volunteer and Development & Membership Committee staff member Ryan Smith.
It was carried out as part of a series. See Five Things Said.
Excerpts
What fannish things do you like to do?
Well, mostly I’m a consumer of fannish things, though I do have some pet projects I work on. What I tinker with rarely sees the light of day, because it rarely moves beyond the confines of my brain! I love reading fanfic on the Archive, seeing fanart on Tumblr, and recently being a bit more involved in the fan game community. I am a huge Pokémon fan, and some of the biggest projects for Pokémon fans out there are fan games. Recently I joined up with the Pokémon Phoenix Rising team as a writer. We hope to have our first release out before the end of summer, so here’s hoping! In the past, I’ve been more involved in the fannish community overall on forums and such, but in recent years that has faded.
What’s the most fun thing to you about volunteering for the OTW?
For me, I have to say it would be getting exposure to and interacting with other members of fandom. I’m definitely part of fandom on places like Tumblr, and have been on other things like fandom message boards. But in situations like that it is incredibly easy for me to either fade into the background noise or not really take part (lurking for the win).
Being a volunteer within the OTW though, depending on what committee you serve with, you have varying levels of interaction with others. This is great for a wide range of people, because even the shyest of wall-flowers can find a way to help. Even with our most interaction-heavy committees, there are generally ways for you to stick to the background by performing a less communication-intensive role within the group. For me specifically though, I’ve come to know so many people and have made so many friends from my time within the organization. There are also those crazy, serendipitous moments where you find odd connections between volunteers that leave you going, “Whoa!” For instance, another volunteer and I discovered that she lived in my tiny Louisiana hometown for quite a while!