I'm one of nature's lurkers, and I was aware of fandom long before I found it properly.
I first became aware that fandom existed as a teenager in the 80s, devouring all the books and magazines I could about Doctor Who and Star Trek, but I didn't have the nerve to try and contact anybody about it. It wasn't until I got online in the late '90s that I'd say that I was in fandom, and even then I was a lurker for a long time. The first fandom I read in was Buffy, but it was two or three fandoms later before I actually started talking to anyone. I do miss the days of LJ, partly because I had quite a few friends there, and partly because the main form of interaction was text, which is what I love most.
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I first became aware that fandom existed as a teenager in the 80s, devouring all the books and magazines I could about Doctor Who and Star Trek, but I didn't have the nerve to try and contact anybody about it. It wasn't until I got online in the late '90s that I'd say that I was in fandom, and even then I was a lurker for a long time. The first fandom I read in was Buffy, but it was two or three fandoms later before I actually started talking to anyone. I do miss the days of LJ, partly because I had quite a few friends there, and partly because the main form of interaction was text, which is what I love most.