"EVERY WORD YOU JUST SAID IS WRONG": ONLINE RAGE AND INCLUSIVITY IN DISNEY FRANCHISE FANDOM Anastasia Salter, Bridget Blodgett The months leading up to the release of Disney franchise films The Last Jedi (December 2017) and Black Panther (February 2018) were marked by speculation, concern, and fervor in equal measures from the established fan communities of Star Wars and Marvel. Both franchises have been associated with toxic geek masculinity, a performed, communal hypermasculinity marked by exclusionary practices and rhetoric (Salter & Blodgett, 2017). By centering either non-white or non-male characters as leads in roles traditionally dominated by cisgender white men, both films became centers for toxic discourse and targeted campaigns aimed at disrupting their commercial success. In this paper, we will situate these case studies as emblematic of the changing discourse of geek fandom spaces, and its intersections with white supremacy and misogyny.
NOT SUFFERING FOOLS GLADLY: CRAFTING PROSOCIAL COMMUNITY IN ONLINE MULTIPLAYER MINECRAFT Kenzie Ann Burniston Woodbridge Over 700 million people worldwide are socializing and spending time, sometimes significant amounts, in online multiplayer games, and these social spaces can be important sites of community. Unfortunately, levels of civility, aggression, and mutual helping can vary significantly between game spaces. Given their ubiquity and importance in so many people’s lives, it is critical to understand how a prosocial community can be created and maintained over time in these spaces for those who want them. This research uses virtual ethnography and interpretive phenomenological analysis to examine how moderation and community development strategies, game design elements, and player behaviours are experienced and can be influenced by players in prosocially-oriented online multiplayer Minecraft servers. It is clear that it is the prosocial orientation of players and the commitment, social skill, and integrity of server moderators that is most key to creating and maintaining a prosocial gaming environment and that although game design can support prosociality, game design factors appear to be much less important overall. Attracting the right players—and refusing entry to the wrong ones—is the most important concern.
FAILURE OF LOVE? FAN REACTIONS TO AMAZON’S PUBLICATION PLATFORM, KINDLE WORLDS Kalia Vogelman-Natan This paper investigates fan communities’ response to a corporal attempt to monetize fan fiction, focusing on Amazon’s $2 platform and the feverish debate it incurred. A grounded analysis of discussions on FanFiction.net revealed six major argumentative themes, which relate to three fundamental tensions underlying fan communities in the digital age: fan/producer, gift/commercial, and fair use/copyright. Across all categories, fans’ evaluation of the platform was informed by the consideration of whether $2 constitutes an ‘extension’ of fan culture. An integrative analysis of the six categories reveals an overarching tension between the individual and community that lies at the heart of the discussion: fans would rather be exploited (even if by other fans) as a community than be individually exploited by a corporation.
MOVING ACROSS LANDS: FANDOM AND ONLINE COMMUNITY MIGRATION Casey Fiesler, Brianna Dym Fandom (consisting of communities of media fans and fan creators) is an example of a longstanding technology-agnostic community that has existed since long before online platforms. Mass migrations across platforms have also occurred frequently over the years—e.g., from email lists to Livejournal to Tumblr. As part of a larger project, we interviewed fan creators who have been part of this community for decades and have experienced these migrations. These interviews revealed patterns of reasons for platform shifts—including issues related to design, policy, values, and community—as well as the consequences for themselves and their communities. Our findings provide
insights into not just the dynamics of fandom specifically, but also into success and failure factors for online communities, and the relationship between community and platform.
