The last word on meta... maybe

Victoria on why she metas. My take on it is different. The question of why I don't meta. I did come dangerously close in chat the other night when I asked the question of whether LJs/blogs might speed fandom erosion. But Liz Barr warned me off and things were good again.

I don't know why I stopped with the meta. I enjoyed it for a while. I enjoyed it enough to read 80 million blogs a day, write snarky little metafics (ie, the blog wars), and respond to other people's blogs line by line here or in their comments. And one day, I just stopped. I can't say it was a matter of time - I have more time now than when I was actively metaing. I could blame it on Europe - six weeks without consistent web access has a way of making you fall behind on the meta and what's what in fandom. It could have been flamewars, that were inadvertantly started when simple questions were asked. It could be that I'm tired of groundless accusations and misinterpretations. It could also be that, unlike the craziness of last year, I'm spending a lot more time with Real People doing Real People things. And Real People don't do fandom (or if they do, they're really, really quiet about it).

A part of me also feels like everything has been discussed to death - or at least the topics I'm interested in. While I enjoy a good slash fic every now and then, it's not the overwhelming focus of my fannish experience so for the most part, most of the LJ/blog conversations don't appeal to me (Would it be wrong to say, in a strange reveral, that all of the slash discussion does in a way make a lowly het/gen writer feel marginalized?). I suppose I could generalize some of the meta to Trekkish and het experiences, but that would take more brain power that I really want to expend. Plus, when a generalization is made, invariably Ungood things happen. Possibly the only generalization I could make that would apply to all fandoms equally that wouldn't start a flamewar is that spelling and grammar are not optional.

Which all sounds very negative. Excessively negative. It's not that I think meta isn't good, but it's served its purpose - at least for me. Sometimes, I do read a discussion and I sit up and take notice, and occasionally link to it. But I'm pretty sure that I'm done in the meta realm. No more metablog for me, no more leaving intelligent (so I hope) comments in other people's diaries. Is it just me? That after a year of this kind of stuff, I'm longing for a laundry list of what people did or ate for lunch. It's more interesting to find out about the people behind the fic, what they do, what they are all about. I'm not necessarily interested in their views on pretty boys or whether realism is rated differently in different fandoms.

I used to think meta took away from fic writing and fennish interactivity. That was just an excuse not to meta. Even without meta, I'm not writing excessive amounts of fic (no matter what the Mod Squad may say about my prolickness - is that even a word?). I'm really just a BOFQ - well, not bitter, but definitely the OFQ. I'm not looking for "the why" - I'm going on six years in Trek fandom now and if I haven't figured out "the why" yet, then I'm not sure that I ever will.