Of Fans and Friends

A few people I know online occassionally ask why I don't post my opinions on such and such a forum/message board/community chat/whatever on a regular basis. This is flattering, but to me, it's not a big concern for a couple reasons.

The first is that I realize that some of my opinions are polarizing and deeply unpopular among the message board poster crowd - so be it. While this bothers me not in the least, I have neither the urge nor the disposable time in my life to spend arguing with people on the internet. Just getting posters made and semi-regular posts up is going to be a challenge in the coming months, nevermind trying to change people's opinions using only words on the internet - which has proven to be a path with very low likelihood of success on any given subject.

More importantly, it's because I've never really gotten a sense of community out of many of my fellow fans. I never had a click of my fellow nerds and geeks in school, so I'm rather used to sharing my fandoms very very selectively, if at all. The fact that you and another person like the same TV show or comic or movies or whatever doesn't make you friends or even mean you like each other that much - it's just a shared interest. It doesn't really matter that much because relationships of any endurance or quality are built on shared values and experience. The fact that you helped me moved into an apartment, or you really care about an issue that's important to me in the real world matters a hell of a lot more to me than the fact that we both really think Superman is Awesome. I'm increasingly disturbed that people seem to get mixed up by all this, both online and in real life.

We are all fellow fans, but it takes time and effort to become friends.

Let's work on that together, shall we?