

Fan is a Tool-Using Animal - maxerickson
http://idlewords.com/talks/fan_is_a_tool_using_animal.htm

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btown
Fandom is incredible. From Japan's Touhou dōjin music scene, to a My Little
Pony fan community so enthusiastic that it spawned completely custom-coded
fanfic sites (i.e.
[https://www.fimfiction.net/statistics](https://www.fimfiction.net/statistics),
with 2mm+ pageviews/day), to the more-obscure crossover fanfiction on forums
like [https://forums.spacebattles.com/forums/creative-
writing.18/](https://forums.spacebattles.com/forums/creative-writing.18/) , to
AI researchers moonlighting as lauded fanfic authors (see
[http://hpmor.com/](http://hpmor.com/)) ... it's mind-boggling how rabid fan-
media consumers and producers can be. They're also incredible power-users of
their sites; as this article indicates, many obsess over tagging and taxonomy,
and they'll self-police if the sites can get out of their way. If you're
looking for growth & engagement numbers (and you're able to segment your site
with policies like strictly opt-in questionable content, which Reddit is
admirably trying to get right) don't discount the power of fandom.

