User:Ainsley

Can a person be born fannish? I've had an intense relationship with television since I was a small child, and wrote proto-fanfic in elementary and middle school for vocabulary assignments (most notably for Kids, Incorporated).

I first encountered fandom in April 2001 when I stumbled upon the MBTV boards for The West Wing. I joined immediately (because I couldn't resist responding to my then-boss's comment about one of Sam's more awesome moments), but drifted away sometime before it became TWOP because the site became too big (and full of idiots). Not quite understanding how online message board and pseud choice worked, I adopted ainsley as mine, because I could and because it suited me. (Well, except for the politics. And the accent. But we're both North Carolinians who believe that Fresca should be available in the White House mess and speak in what Lionel Tribbey likes to call iambic pentameter.)

Through a circuitous series of connections made there, I received an invite code to livejournal in the waning days of invite codes and joined under a now-abandoned pseud. I met loads of fannish people but didn't succumb to the tempting ways of organized fandom again until after I moved to my current LJ in 2006. Mostly I just read fic and converse constantly with other fans, but I do occasionally write fic and meta.

You know how you can grasp a concept intellectually but not really understand it? Monofannishness and RPF are like that for me. They're great for other people, but break my brain. That could always change--hey, I hated sci-fi and fantasy until Harry Potter and Firefly slowly re-eased me into the genres--but I'd not count on it.

I've been involved with the OTW since its fanarchive incarnation and have been on the Content Policy committee since its creation.