Fandom Geek

This week, we’re bringing you a piece of ancient fandom lore with our featured article on The K/S Netfan-Printzine Fan Wars - the clashes between the Kirk/Spock (K/S) print zine community and the online Star Trek fandom.

Print zine fans were authors, readers, and artists who, since Star Trek: TOS was on the air, forged the path in fan fiction writing. Before the internet, letterzines were the only means for fans to have regular and organized discussions with other fans. The K/S fandom, which sprang from the wider print zine community, was highly protective of their works and was adamant on staying out of visible spaces for fear of legal actions from Paramount.

The introduction of Usenet in 1979 ushered in a new generation of Kirk/Spock fans, many of whom were either oblivious to the print zine fandom, neutral towards its existence, or openly dismissive and hostile to these previous fans. The online Star Trek space was also not exclusively for Kirk/Spock fans but included other pairings from Star Trek: TOS, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. For online Trek fans, alt.startrek.creative and alt.startrek.creative.erotica.moderated were platforms where they could post fanfics without having to conform to traditions or worry about expectations from others.

While the Usernet fan groups grew into lively spaces, Kirk/Spock print zine fans began to feel at a disadvantage in terms of attracting new fans and that their favourite pairing was diluted in this online space. Another point of contention between the two communities was “elitism’’, as zine fans argue that not everyone has access to a computer and the internet, while online fans point out that not everyone wants to pay a yearly fee for letterzines.

The resulting culture clash included turf wars, blacklisting, and blanket statements by fans on both sides who fanned fires fueled by tribal alliances and relationships.

Curious how this epic fandom war went down? Head over to Fanlore!

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so, look at it like this--so, sirius is from a world where jade was a harry potter fan jalker baby was named sirius, and orion is from a world where jalker baby was named orion. cool, i get that. but this means that there's an infinite potential amount of jalker baby reskins. where's the baby from the world where he was named sirion? where's the baby from the world where he was named jalker? where's the baby from the world where he transitioned?

when the writing leans on foregrounding a multiverse (and, even worse, a multiverse without a consistent set of rules) it eats away at the bone marrow of the storytelling. you start to realize that there's no story reason for these characters to be these characters--they've been selected for marketing appeal, picked because they stir up an exciting sense of rivalry and factionalism in the fandom that's well-suited for advertising itself.

a usually reserved and mild-mannered character

going apeshit for the first time

on behalf of their loved one

who, as they think, is being horribly mistreated by the target of their rant

(even though the loved one endured some great hardship for the sake of the target in the past)

and so despite knowing that the target isn't aware of their loved one's suffering

(and the speaker themselves being involved in inflicting that suffering)

"WELL THEY SHOULD FUCKING KNOW ABOUT IT, THEN"

they deliver the truth in the most accusational way possible

to make the target feel bad and leave their loved one alone and stop causing them harm

while, crucially, not knowing that the target cared about their loved one just as much