'Cos BNFs are the meen girls in high school!

Oh, well that explains it perfectly. Who are the band-geeks in fandom?

The gen ficcers.

Need to write more Gen. Wanna be a band-geek again.

I play a clarinet. (In the loosest possible sense of the term "play".) And write gen. I'm a band-geek's band-geek.

Well, that'd be us. We are ALL the geeks in fandom.

Oh good, cause you're all fun and I like it here.

...I may be biased in this discussion/about the BNF thing, cause I don't think TW/DW HAS BNFs.

Er. Because people think they're entitled to shiny comments and praise but the BNFs are somehow hogging all the comments for themselves? Because there are only so many to go around, you know.

It's just so freaking weird.

There's a fannish social fallacy about egalitarianism that the existence of BNFs undercuts. I recently read this article and have been trying to put some thoughts about it and structureless online rpgs together, but I think the BNF question goes to much the same thing.

Thank you! *reads*

Okay, sorry, I feel like a moron. What does BNF stand for?

Big Name Fan!

And no feeling like a moron. Fandom's like it's own language.

I'll admit I sometimes look up fandom terms here:

http://www.netlingo.com/index.cfm

when I can't figure them out

I have rarely had a good experience with a big name fan, after enough time they are usually bloated on the adoring masses; I remember asking one about something in a story and they basically said they don't really care what they write, the readers love it so they write it (most of it was dreck). Something about that really bothered me, I write because it's something I love and find joy in, not to get praised for it. I can't stand the BNF idea because it's the whole 'that girl that was the cool girl in high school' thing, and I DESPISE that, because it happens a lot. I don't like the idea of finding cliques in my fandom even though there invariably are, it really repulses me.

mm. I've had the opposite experience and attitude, almost exactly. Usually I think people are popular for a reason - especially in fandom when the only way you're known is how you present yourself and the work you produce, and really- popularity and cliques aren't bad things to me. Cliques in particular aren't, IMO, anything more than part of social interaction. People find other people they like and get along with and hang out more there. I tend to call it making friends.

And I've had the same experience as the other poster before this comment. Most, not all, mind you, BNFs seem to have this condescending behaviour, as if they were something better and above all others.

And cliques - I don't tend to call it making friends. Cause they usually prevent you making friends with the members of said clique. They're happy as long as they can play with each other, but God forbid someone else trying to get into their precious elite circle.

Now, see, the whole BNF thing isn't one I've come up against at all.

I'm not heavily involved in the TW fandom, less so in the DW one. Can't say I've noticed any BNFs.

There are a few in Firefly, but here's the thing I love about Firefly fandom. The reason people become BNFs is for doing really, really awesome things. Like the guy who found the helicopter form Ariel and is using it to fundraise for Equality Now. Or like lexigeek who did incredible things with the SoCal Browncoats and Sean Harry and the actors involved in a cancelled-five-years-ago-show to pull together an amazing convention experience when Booster went bust and left 500 fans stranded without Flan 2.

DW used to have loads of BNFs - most of them are now working on the programme...

I knew there was a reason I loved my fandom.

In some fandoms, I understand people being annoyed by BNFs. Star Wars had a herd of BNFs who would attack anyone who disagreed with them about Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan. But I think that group was a special case, and not everyone in it was a jerk. (I use past tense because I'm not active enough in the fandom to know if this still happens.)

On the other hand, my BFF is a former BNF. And I really don't think it's fair to assume they're all bad just because you've had bad experiences in the past. It honestly smells of OMGFEEDBACKJEALOUSY as someone more eloquently pointed out above.

I've heard the term 'big name fan' banded around a bit, but I really wouldn't know how to recognise one if I came across one. Are there even any in the DW fandom?

But yeah, fandom does tend to consist of the people who didn't quite fit into the social networks at school, so it does seem a bit weird to have fandom BNFs.

I don't think DW has them - I mostly ran across a bunch of people screaming and flailing about them existing in fanficrants. I KNOW TW doesn't seem to have any. There are names i recognize and read, but BNF? Nah.

I agree; I don't think Who fandom has BNFs in the sense that HP has or Buffydom had, at least not on LJ. If outside communities such as OG and DWO are taken into account, there are some names that most people will know. Ian Levine, for instance, although the 'F' in BNF may well not stand for 'fan' in his case. ;)

I'm not even sure who the Buffy BNFs were, in part due to joining the fandom when the show itself was about to end and in part due to mostly reading femslash.