I keep it very private, unless I learn of someone else who likes it too. I've found one person, but she's mostly into original fiction. Which is boring. Bleh, introducing characters is so dull.

I started off in a Pokemon website dedicated to shipping; bad bad start.

 

I keep it almost private. I started with a/the only real Dutch HP-forum because a friend was a member. They had meetings, parties and camps and was just much too public for me. My family knows, my brother reads it too now and that's all. My friends all have truly embarrassing addictions, they don't give a crap what I do.

 

I concur.

I concur again, though for me, it's six years rather than ten, and not so much "hate the english langauge" but "suck at the english language".

 

I've always left my reading in plain sight, if anyone has that big of a problem with what I'm reading they can leave me be. I read at school.

 

I personally keep it private mostly. My friends know I write in "those odd little books" but they generally don't ask. If they do, I glare, and tell them I'm writing a novel. I usually don't tell anyone that I read fanfiction, but if anyone sees the screen and asks, I respond based off their reaction. Sometimes that evolves into some deep discussions on Harry Potter, sometimes it's... not.

I mean, I know it's known that I used to read the books constantly, but I don't think they know how deep I've gone. I know my parents know I read fanfiction though, and have the same feelings as Blackvoice's parents, especially since I was an obsessive reader of fiction when I was younger. Considering I first came in via Yu Gi Oh! fanfiction without knowing what yaoi was, I think I came out alright. Did have a nasty shock though, especially since I was about 14.

 

Probably in the between, leaning more to public. Pretty much all my family knows that I read them, though I don't think they really understand it.

I mean I was looking at an Eragon fanfic yesterday and my dad came up and kept on asking if it was the forth book.

My brother knows that I really like Harry Potter stories and he has been a douche and pulled it up in a very public family dinner. It was embarrassing, but really not as bad as some of the other family members quirks. But yeah, generally they think I'm reading 'books' on my computer.

My best friends know about it, and a couple of friends outside that circle. I don't really care now. If I tell somebody and they react stupidly to it, then really they aren't my friend. I once tried to get one of my best friends into it, she was the one that got me into Harry Potter, but I don't think it went anywhere. I can't blame her I was heavily into Draco/Hermione smut and romance stories then, lol.

A couple of times when I was into the Draco/Hermione stuff the stories got that funny/ridiculous that me and a few friends would read them out in dramatic voices- it was hilarious to us and still to this day do we randomly go up to each other and scream "BONDALUS!" Heh, good times.

But other then that I don't really bring it up all that much, if at all. If somebody comes into the room I'll usually x the page or just minimize it. Just because I don't want to get the bemused look I usually get from people in the know, of the confused looks from people that are clueless about it.

Also, whenever I'm on someone else computer I go out of the way to delete the browsing history when I'm finished with it. I can just imagine them going on the computer, typing something into the address box and it automatically coming up with www.darklordpotter.net or www.tthfanfic.org ect.

Even then I don't really read them on their computer, I usually have my USB stick with me and I save the page or story onto it and put it on my laptop. Easy peasy.

Also at my old job, which was an Angus and Robertson bookstore, there was this one woman who was an aspiring writer herself and somehow we got into the discussion of fanfiction- it might have been the Cassandra Clare book that had just been released. She told me she had read, and really liked, Cassandra's Draco stories. I was horrified and went on to tell her that I read Harry Potter fics, but obviously I had more class... and that I wouldn't read the plagerisers shit to save my life. Sigh, then she got knocked up and had to leave. Man, I miss her.

 

I'd rather come on my mother than admit to people I read/write fanfiction.

 

I'd rather come on to your mother then admit to people I read fanfiction.

Seriously though, it's just not something that's ever come up. I'm a big sports nut so it's not something my friends would ever talk about or actually read. I played football in High School so it kind of threw people off the fact that I'm a bit of a nerd.

I don't think I've ever met anyone else who reads fanfiction, my family knows mostly because I've read fanfiction for a few years, and I couldn't always pretend to be doing something else when I spent hours on the computer.

 

New signature quote ahoy; many thanks, nmb; now get the fuck off the intertubes and back to writing The Skitterleap and By the Divining Light.

 

That's the great thing about having a twin who also frequents (or used to frequent) DLP: you both get all the inside jokes. We had a few going over the years that spawned from S&P, and I honestly read a few Hermione/Draco bonding stories when I was going through my Inuyasha, Harry/Ginny love.

My father doesn't seem to understand exactly what fanfiction is. His old, drugged out mind can't grasp it.

 

Yeah, I keep it very private. If my friends and teammates found out, I have no doubt that I'd have a new nickname, and I'd be taking shit for a long long time.

Fortunately, I'm a huge political junkie, and whenever someone asks me what I'm reading, I just tell them it's a political blog or news article. If they're persistent and ask what it's about, I'll just repeat something that I've read, and that tends to convince them.

 

iirc "Bondalus" was a spell to tie someones wrists to a bed post... :|

I'm not to sure which is worse.

 

Yea, private for me. Mentioned it one time and the backlash was severe. I was suddenly being removed from my contacts/aquantainces and my freinds started to seee me in some weird way...took 1 year to get that cleared up...

 

Public. Very public. I started reading fanfiction when I was 11 (Card Captor Sakura and InuYasha to my unending embarrassment-I was an 11 year old girl) so it didn't even occur to me to keep it secret. Most of my friends now are the same friends I had then so they've known forever. It's pretty much a long accepted fact.

My mom has sort of gone through stages of accepting it and not. For a while in middle school she thought I was too obsessed, and wanted me to go to counseling. She thinks obsession with books is normal, but for anything technology related counseling is required. My other family members talked some sense into her though. When I was 16 she learned how to check the internet history from a co-worker (everyone in the family, but me and my cousins can barely use MS word and google), and she sort of found a PWP...needless to say things were a bit tense for some time. At this point, I'm 18 and she can't say shit.

As for friends, My best friend Matt is also into fanfiction, but we have very different tastes. He exclusively likes genfic and BellaVoldie while I like nearly anything as long as it's Harry-centric (mostly Harry/Luna or Rare or slash (yes, I said it), just not Harry/Ginny or Hermione). But we will talk about fandom in general, and argue our POVs frequently. I also have another friend that used to read Draco/Ginny so sometimes I'll talk to her.

Honestly, everyone already knows I'm a nerd so it doesn't matter.

 

Unless you meant -

then she very much can say shit.

 

Not how things work in my family, luckily. If she tried to say anything, my aunt and uncle (her brother and sister who live in the same house) would take my side. And she always capitulates when they get involved. My family is pretty weird.

 

I'm going with Justblaise on this one. You don't matter until you've had to seriously contemplate eating ketchup sandwiches for dinner, whether you're 18 or 80.

On topic, private like herpes. Reading fanficion is the height of uncool around my area, and I like not getting thrown into dumpsters.

 

Rofl, I didn't know there were places where fanfiction was known enough to be 'uncool'. Most people just go WTF and don't understand the concept. It's irritating, but then again having people recognize and condemn FF would be worse. I'm too much of a nerd.

 

I agree with Snarf here, but that could be because we know all the same people...

No one really gets what I mean if I say anything about it, so I don't really worry about it.