Occasionally people will send me asks wanting to know “what fandom was like in your day” like I’m some old wizened crone of yore at the age of 32. But then at the same time I recall the sound of dial up, the nails on chalkboard screeching, and the absolute frustration when the signal randomly dropped and you had to start all over again. I also remember having to ration my time online to intervals during the day when it would cost less and also so your nan could use the phone to call our Kev and you had to log in as quickly as possible, cover your ears, wait for things to load then click “save link as”, disconnect from the net and then print it out on a shuddering laserjet printer* roughly the size of a small tank so you could read it at your leisure without running up the phone bill, before vacating your much coveted spot on The Family Computer and absconding up the stairs with your print outs like a gremlin to devour the words of a stranger on the internet.
By contrast, I’ve had Ao3 open in one of my tabs for the last three days while youtube plays in the background
and I can’t remember the last time I intentionally logged out and let
me tell you it makes me feel like a lush wastrel indulging in the height of decadent luxury as I flip back and forth between
fics, unable to decide which one I want to focus on. It’s great.But also yes, fandom has always been this batshit crazy. No, none of the arguments are all that different. Yes we really had to put disclaimers on things or risk being sued by the authors. And yes, I still download my favorite fics because you never know when something will vanish off the internet. I do not however have to print them out anymore, so that’s nice.