BNF-- what is this shit?

[timepiececlock]

Ok, I've been hearing recently about this concept of a "BNF", I figured out eventually, meant "big name fan".

When I first heard of this label, I didn't really understand the point. In fact, I still don't.

Ok, so some people write a lot of fic, or make a lot of fan art, or manage several forums or lists. And this is somehow bragging rights? Why bragging to what?

Are there people who go around saying "HA! I'm a BNF and you aren't! Eat that!" ? If someone had written or said that to me a month ago, I would have been completely clueless, and asked them what they were talking about and could they please speak English because not everyone lives on acronyms, you know.

So, as I understand it, from looking at fandom_wank, a group which, I think, mocks people who claim to be BNFs, and someone else who wrote an opposing view on the topic, saying it's their write to be proud of their hard work.

I look at all of this, and I go, "Huh? Who cares?" I don't own any forums, but I mod at very large B/S forum. I don't have a website, and I write maybe one fic every month or two, and even then its a one-shot, not a chapter story. My career in fanart is a few spoofs of screencaps and the occasionaly LJ icon. True, I don't devote hours of my time to keeping up with a lot of stuff, like I know list-owners and board-owners do.

But if I did, I can't imagine myself ever running around giving myself a label and claiming that I deserve to be worshipped for it or anything.

And the people that I DO know & talk to often who run boards-- I'm pretty sure they don't do that either.

And it seems tied to that is the argument over responding to feedback.

My opinion on that is that feedback or reviews are given, it's not a fucking trade. I rarely answer reviews I get on ff.net (unless its particularly thorough or interesting, or if I know the person already). I try to answer most LJ comments. I almost always answer emails. Do I feel obligated to do this? Well, if its fic feedback, no. I do it because I like to be sociable, and because I like talking to other fic readers/writers. When I write feedback, unless I ask a specific question, I don't feel bothered if they don't reply. Most people don't. And if a person's fic is good enough to appear on multiple rec lists, then anyone with a brain enough to understand gradeschool logic ought to realize they're going to be getting a lot of feedback, and the chances of them replying is less.

This BNF thing. I've read fic on a lot of fandoms, but I've only been fully immersed into BtVS fandom, to a degree where I converse daily with other fans, and go often to sites and messageboards and lists. But I don't get why there have to be labels, why ther is this idea someone has to be better than someone else, or why other people then have to drag them down for it? What's the point here? It's the internet, it's fucking HUGE. And it's totally up to you what you do with it.

Who says there have to be rules in fandom? Why? What makes someone a BNF, and why does such a label even exist? Am I supposed to treat someone differently, because they claim to be one or to be against one?

I look at internet, and I see a place where you can share ideas, art, fiction, and discussion with other people who like the same things you do. I don't see a hierarchy, or a class system, or labels of who is "better". Fandom is not "king of the island." It's a freaking ocean, where everyone is a guppy. And some guppies do more swimming than others, and that means they get to see prettier reefs and meet more guppies than the ones that don't swim much. But there's no whales here, no sharks. Every fan is just a fan, and it all boils down to a person and what they do with their computer time.

I've never even knew there was the idea of "BNF", until someone brought it up to me. And I think of all that, and I still say "Who cares?"

Comments

[ex-kimera823.livejournal.com]

A BNF is, to me, one of those people who manages to become so well-known in a fandom that ANY opinion that DARES to oppose theirs is shot down. Any fic they write is Literary Genius, their commentary is always Insightful and Accurate, and more often than not they tend to be a bit... full of themselves. IMO, you can be well-known and well-respected in a fandom without being a BNF (since, in my little corner anyway, the term seems to have... negative connotations)

FW doesn't exist just to mock BNF's but rather ANY overly-dramatic kerfluffle that happens in fandom. It's just fun, for me. Possibly because I have a very sarcastic personality.

And my opinion on the feedback issue is that it's a personal choice, whether to give feedback, or, as an author, respond to it. What annoys me is when people 1) post impassioned rants on the subject on why they DESERVE feedback, damnit, because they are giving you a GIFT and you'd better appreciate it or else, and 2) feel the need to make another post explaining that they are too busy with their Life and their Art to respond to aforementioned feedback (yet they have time to post a nice long justification for their actions? WTF?). An opinion is one thing, making a huge LJ post about emailing habits (or lack thereof) just seems a bit silly and excessive to me.

Re:

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

A BNF is, to me, one of those people who manages to become so well-known in a fandom that ANY opinion that DARES to oppose theirs is shot down. Any fic they write is Literary Genius, their commentary is always Insightful and Accurate, and more often than not they tend to be a bit... full of themselves.

You know, this possibly explains why I've never heard of all this until recently, and I've been chin-deep in Buffy fandom for a year. I completely edit that kind of thing out of my personal fan world comprehension. When no one tells you that the person you're talking to is regarded by some as extra special, you don't think of them as extra special, you treat their opinions like anyone else's, and remain happily oblivious. And upon reflection, I think that was the best way to look at it, because they're only one person's opinion anyway.

An opinion is one thing, making a huge LJ post about emailing habits (or lack thereof) just seems a bit silly and excessive to me.

I sometimes make a one-line or one phrase request for feedback in the beginning of the text of a fic's author's notes. When I was younger, I used to phrase my requests in a funky, funny, or silly manner, which sometimes menat it was a few lines. I've never had the need to make an entire post to excuse myself on feedback before. I don't think responding to feedback is important enough to me to take the time, even if I felt such an excuse was necessary.

[ex-kimera823.livejournal.com]

*shrugs* requesting feedback is one thing, demanding (and explaining why you're "allowed" to make such demands) is another. Like those people on ff.net who say "If I don't get 5976475231 reviews by next Tuesday I'm never posting another part to this fic ever!"

Re:

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Like those people on ff.net who say "If I don't get 5976475231 reviews by next Tuesday I'm never posting another part to this fic ever!"

That kind of thing always annoyed me.

[minim_calibre]

Most BNFs are not BNFs on purpose, and most that I know would shout "HEY! TAKE THAT BACK!" if you happened to call them a BNF. The problem comes when a fan who IS, for lack of a better term, a BNF, says something, anything, that appears to be an opinion. For whatever reason, and there are many I can think of--and none of them relate to the actual BNF, just to people's perceptions of the BNF--it's not taken by readers with the standard heaping of salt granted to most opinions. Because opinions are just that, opinions.

At times, it seems that Fandom_Wank, which I do track, and which has some good purposes, takes the opinions of BNFs (generally prolific and talented writers and list/archive runners) and makes it seem as if those opinions were some sort of pronouncement from on high, simply because it's a BNF stating the opinion.

I could, in this format, say whatever the hell I wanted (and I often do), and no one would think that what I'm saying is somehow a YOU MUST ALL OBEY ME! DO AS I SAY NOW! post or proclamation. Were I a BNF, this wouldn't be the case. I don't think I'd let that stop me from speaking my mind, it would just mean that speaking it might stir up your standard issue shitstorm.

Of course, as thebratqueen has pointed out, how the devil does one know, especially in a large fandom, if one has been declared a BNF? You don't. You can be sitting there happily swimming away and assuming that you're just like all the other fishies in the sea, when suddenly someone points and screams "Look! Shark!", and you blink and wonder what they're talking about before you realize all the fins are pointed in your direction.

If any of that makes sense.

Re:

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

If any of that makes sense.

Actually, it does. :) I think it helps that you used the fish anology. I'm rather proud of that analogy, actually. Seems to put things in perspective.

[kita0610.livejournal.com]

BNF started out as a nice thing to say about somebody. Like "wow! you're famous! people love your fic! you run great sites/lists!"

Now it's becoime an insult, and most folks are not gonna want the label.

[crevette.livejournal.com]

There was actually just a discussion of this on one of my LotR lists. One of the women who posts there (who is EXTREMELY anal and almost cruel to people whose work does not live up to what her high standards of writing or usage of canon) that admitted that she is considered a BNF in Star Trek circles. She was proud of this and went on about it for a while.

She actually has her resume online and lists ON HER RESUME that she has won fanfic writing awards and that she maintains several fanfic sites. ON HER RESUME. She also has a fanfic novel she's written that you can download or get a copy of for a fee. (I wonder if Paramount knows about that, eh?).

I think the thing that horrified me the most was the fact that she was so damned proud of being a BNF, that people recognized her as a BNF, but she still hasn't mastered the simple art of being decent to another human being.

/rant.

Sorry. PMS. Plus, I *REALLY* just don't like this woman.

Re:

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

I don't think I'd like her either. And I think one of the reasons that I don't see it as much of a thing to flaunt is that I just don't take the internet that seriously. I really don't. To me, it's free time, fun time. The few responsibilites I take on with others, I do treat with respect, because I agreed to do it. But I can't get ovelry passionate about it, because it's really not that important to me. I'll write fic whether I post it or not. To me, the internet is for fun, is for messing around, and LJ is sometimes for venting, like a diary.

I can't imagine putting it on my resume. It seems.... silly.