Talk:Threshold Fandom
Examples
Could we add Twilight to this list, or not really yet? Cesy 17:01, 9 April 2012 (UTC)
Creation
Yet again, I have created an article without all capital letters. Sorry!--Sherrold 17:08, 22 October 2008 (UTC)
FYI, there's a typo on the name of the page - there's no "r" in "threshold." (Sorry, would fix myself but am not sure how exactly!) Kass 17:13, 22 October 2008 (UTC)
So what's the difference between a threshold fandom and a gateway fandom? I'd describe a gateway fandom as the first fandom a person participates in, that serves as an introduction to the world of fandom. It sort of sounds like the same thing, but I don't think all the stuff about slash and reinvention is necessarily the same. For example, Nikita was a gateway fandom for many of the people who were in it, but there was almost no slash, and as a fandom, I don't think it was all that innovative. --Nestra 17:18, 22 October 2008 (UTC)
- I think threshold and gateway might be see-as for each other, but I always used threshold fandom to mean a large fandom that brings in a lot of people. It is the fandom that makes you want to connect with other fans, whether it be your first fandom or your tenth. So many people want to connect with others that it forms large communities, whether they be a part of the wider media fandom body or independant of it. (see Feral Fandom) So to my way of thinking, while Nikita was a gateway fandom, it wasn't a threshold fandom, as it didn't bring a lot of people across. --rache 17:40, 22 October 2008 (UTC)
- Is gateway fandom actually a term other people use, or is it some bastardized thing I created in a dim moment? --Nestra 17:46, 22 October 2008 (UTC)
- I would have used gateway fandom to describe HP, for ex, and I don't think I'm seeing the distinction rachel makes. --Betty 17:50, 22 October 2008 (UTC)
- I think it's different communities, different terms, slightly different expressions. Gateway seems to be looking at the individual fan (it was my gateway fandom), whereas threshold is more from the perspective of talking about what fandoms fed into the larger community and brought a large population of fans with them. If the gateway community brought a lot of people in, but they never 'crossed the threshold' into larger media fandom or slash fandom, then it wasn't a threshold community. I think. --rache 17:58, 22 October 2008 (UTC)
- I'm only personally familiar with the term 'gateway fandom', but the use of that I've seen has been quite flexible. I've seen people use the term to refer to the fandom that introduced them to fandom as a whole, but also to describe fandoms which are primarily made up of media fandom newbies. I.e. SGA is not really considered to be a gateway fandom like Harry Potter is, but if I saw someone saying "SGA was my gateway fandom", it would not strike me as odd. It's possibly a case some areas of fandom having two different terms, and some having one term with a wider meaning. --Theoret 18:13, 22 October 2008 (UTC)
- So the question becomes: do these terms need a single combined page, and should one redirect to the other? Or do we leave them separare? (Says she who always wants to combine things) --rache 18:16, 22 October 2008 (UTC)
- Given the current definition on this page, I like the idea of having "gateway fandom" as a See Also, and having the two different definitions of gateway fandom listed on that page. I think there's enough of a difference to justify different pages. --Nestra 18:43, 22 October 2008 (UTC)
"They are more likely to be gen fans than slash fans (since it is relatively rare to come up with the idea of slashing characters on your own), and if they are slash fans, they probably read both gen and slash in that universe" - On what is that based? I'd say that they are more likely to be gen or het fans, and in my experience new fans are more likely to just read very exclusively slash (or just their OTP) if they are slash fans, not also gen. --Sivullinen 19:01, 22 October 2008 (UTC)
- I don't know anything about het fandoms, so please, go ahead and add stuff if you know. --rache 20:09, 22 October 2008 (UTC)
The term 'Alt' is a good example of a fandom inventing for itself concepts which have also been invented elsewhere, but is it really a great example for the 'Not-so-cool parts' section of the article? I'm pretty sure most fen would agree that unknowingly enduring wanks that have happened before is not so cool, but I'm not sure all fen would agree that growing your own new vocabulary is. Also, it might be a good idea to clarify the difference between a threshold fandom and a feral fandom. I'm not greatly familiar with either term, but it seems like feral fandoms are almost completely independent from media fandom, while threshold fandoms, despite having many members who are previously unfamiliar with media fandom, still have enough links to media fandom that the threshold fandom acts as an introduction or a lure into media fandom at large. (Correct me if I have this wrong!) --Theoret 20:29, 22 October 2008 (UTC)
Oh yeah?!
Hey, now! This article is sounding a mite biased. :) The way I hear it from Xena fans, it had nothing to do with not knowing about slash and everything to do with genuinely being a very different culture (and having no interest in joining traditional Media Fandom before, during, or after the run of Xena). It would be great to see some examples of which fandoms these generalizations apply to. I don't remember experiencing most of this stuff in my first few fandoms like X-Files and Harry Potter, though they're often cited as threshold fandoms, gateway fandoms, or feral fandoms. Many of the really big slash vs. gen wars and shipwars I've been told about were all in uber-traditional media fandoms. Franzeska 20:06, 15 November 2010 (UTC)
- I'm not sure why a new name for femslash counts as not-so-cool anyway. Nothing wrong with synonyms. Maybe the interesting note you added and the "altfic" example could go in a discussion on the Feral Fandom page? It's given as the "classic feral fandom", and there's a note asking people to add more information. --æþel 20:21, 15 November 2010 (UTC)
- Not knowing about slash and being a very different culture aren't mutually exclusive. The way I experienced it in Xena fandom, a lot of people who were enthusiastically into f/f thought that m/m, if such a thing existed, was written by gay men and/or was only about sex while X/G was clearly about their epic love. --Doro 20:55, 15 November 2010 (UTC)
- Hah. Well, shows what I know. Somebody who was actually active in Xena fandom back in the day will need to document that. I've attempted to edit Threshold Fandom to make it sound more like a piece of terminology and less like the objective truth of How Fandom Works. If someone wants to hack my TL;DR into something readable, feel free. Franzeska 21:36, 15 November 2010 (UTC)
concrit from ffa
Fail Fandom anons had some things to say about the bias in this article. I took a stab at fixing the cool/not cool assumptions, but this article could use more context, especially since it seems like no one is building fandom-specific archives for new fandoms anymore(??). See the thread [1]--æþel (talk) 01:28, 5 August 2013 (UTC)
- "more traditional fandoms" means longer-established zine fandoms like The Professionals? Or ...? Adding time frames would help. When did the term come into use? Do people still use it? The examples of "new" upstarts this term was applied to were all 90s/early 00s fandoms.--æþel (talk) 01:35, 5 August 2013 (UTC)
what is ~traditional fandom~
Any chance of getting an explanation of what traditional fandom is? Or an orderly list of which fandoms count as real fandoms and which are fake? LeaHazel (talk) 19:04, 26 November 2013 (UTC)
- I think that's pretty clear from the context, aka fandoms that aren't threshold fandoms. --Doro (talk) 12:20, 27 November 2013 (UTC)
References?
This is a really interesting article with lots of good content, but very few citations/references. I'll poke around for things myself, but wanted to flag it for other editors who might have some good sources/quotes to add in as well. - Fandomgeographies (talk) 00:12, 10 February 2019 (UTC)