Kansas City Star Trek Meetup Planning Post!

[mijan]

The USS Macchiato is ready to set out on her second mission - to explore strange new parts of Kansas. To seek out new life forms and new sources of caffeine. To boldly geek where no geek has geeked before!

In other words, we're getting together for food, coffee, and Star Trek. JOIN US!

Please go to THIS POST on our meetup community and participate in the poll. Let us know when and where you'd like to meet up, and what you want to do when we get together. It'll be fun! DO IT! DO IT! DO IT!!!

Comments

[cool-tre-cool.livejournal.com]

Ah, I wish I knew more people like you, so awesomely willing to wander around with folks from the fandom... If I knew more about Trek, or lived near Kansas lol, I would try to make it out there. Good luck and have fun, though!

[mijan.livejournal.com]

I just deeply enjoy it. Fandom folks are some of the most awesome people I've been privileged to meet. It's always fun. If you ever come out this way, let me know!

[tourdefierce.livejournal.com]

Just so you know, I'm holding you personally responsible if I can't go.

*grumbles*

[mijan.livejournal.com]

Bwhaaaa???

*wibbles*

[tourdefierce.livejournal.com]

Okay... maybe not completely responsible. ; ) I'm excited. I hope I get to join one of the meet ups.

[mijan.livejournal.com]

LOL - I hope you get to come, too! I'll do my damnedest to make sure you get to come to something. And if push comes to shove, you come hang out at my place and we'll watch some movies or TOS. :D

[tourdefierce.livejournal.com]

Well, now I feel better about the whole thing. ; ) I think the two meetups are a good idea. Especially with December being insanely busy and all.

A favor and a paragraph

[purebloodmagic.livejournal.com]

Hello there.

I don't know if you read my livejournal or if I've been lurking on your journal or not.. but I had a favor of sorts to ask you.

I'm in a class this semester called "computer mediated communication", and we have to write a 5 page paper about something under that broad umbrella of a topic.

You posted an entry a few weeks back, about a fandom meetup with your Star Trek fans, and the part that really inspired me was something you said about you and your girlfriend having no problem opening your home to fandomers. So I decided to write my paper about trust in online communities. People who met online, and then have no qualms at all about meeting these people in person. I find it inspiring, the trust people have in fandom, and since you were my inspiration I thought I would ask you for help.

Do you think you can point me in the direction of articles about this topic? Or websites and forums that exemplify the idea of trust. Something like that. Perhaps you can put the word out around your fellow fandomers?

The rough draft is due tomorrow, and I don't know why it took me so long to realize I could ask you for help.

Thanks in advance, and even if you can't find anything, I thought you'd like to know that your journal has inspired me in this silly way (:

Re: A favor and a paragraph

[mijan.livejournal.com]

Huh - fascinating! I'm not sure if there's a website or other studies about this topic. I know there have been essays and discussions about fandom society in general.

The thing about fandom is that fandom sites aren't really set up to cater to folks with ulterior motives. If you're a child predator - most of us aren't children. If you want gullible people - fandomers are usually VERY smart and VERY perceptive. If you want to get "inside" the fandom to sucker people... you have to REALLY KNOW FANDOM before anyone will trust you. You need to speak our language, communicate the way we communicate, know the canon of the fandom, and blend into the geek society of that community. You CAN'T FAKE THAT. Not easily.

Online, there are many easier targets. If you want to screw with people, fuck them over, steal from them, or get little children, there are other online sources to target. Fandom isn't an easy target.

I've found, in my experience with fandomers, that if someone else is a fandom geek, the chances of them being AWESOME is extremely high. It takes a certain type of person to truly love fandom.

So... why do I trust fandom folks? Because even if I don't know them, I DO know them. If you and I share a fandom, we can sit down at a table together and within thirty seconds, I guarantee you that I'll be able to tap into a shared experience or a common interest that could launch a five-hour conversation. Fandom is like family, and we know our family. We might not always get along about every little thing (for examples: "OMG Harry/Hermione is so much better than Harry/Ginny!!!1111" and "Picard is AWESOME and Kirk SUCKS!"), but at the end of the day, if an outsider challenges us, we'd stand back to back, phasers drawn, wands at the ready, prepared to defend each other against non-fandomers.

Fandom is family. We know each other. We take care of our own. In the 8 years that I've been in fandom, I've never seen anything that would convince me that there isn't a more honest, true, and trustworthy community I could ever be privileged to encounter. Small shit not withstanding, fandom is good people. When someone is fandom, you know it. And my home will always be open to fandom. :)

Re: A favor and a paragraph

[purebloodmagic.livejournal.com]

Beautifully put! I agree wholeheartedly. Thanks (: