This is a question I've been asking myself rather a lot lately. What is it the makes a fandom good? Looking at fandoms from a purely fanfiction based perspective it seems to be based on depth. Enough substance to give a solid base for expansion, but not so detailed that all possibilities are mapped out.

Specifically, I'm wondering what makes the HP fandom so popular. The most stories written (on ff.net), the biggest moneymaker, the biggest reader base. Why? Is it the tone of the series? I know its not the premier writing and consistency.

For fanfiction it fits into the above model, introducing a pretty large cast and malleable magic system but not really exploring either. In that respect it works, but the world itself is pretty simple. You've got a mall (diagon), a school and a government. People run around in these places and act dramatic.

I guess what I want to ask DLP is why do you think its so big. The times, the type of media, marketing or...something.

Also, what other series are popular, and why? eg. Dresden: Because mysteries and magic stick like glue. Which then explodes. Awesomely.

 

I write for it.

/thread

 

I guess it's because the original novels have a lot of untapped potential within them. A lot of things weren't explored in canon that can be happily explored/exploited for fan fiction usage, be they genres (such as simple "What if?" scenarios to the whole exotic necromancer!Harry angle) or alternate pairings (Harry/Fleur or Harry/Hermione), etc.

The last two books are generally thought to be complete let downs: that's fueled quite a lot of people's creativity, as well.

 

It's like playing Oblivion vanilla, compared with making/using mods.

It's good, but there's a shitload more that could/should have been done with it, a void which is filled by an innovative fanbase.

 

Agreed.

I believe that this is the type of motivation that fuels fan media and modification as a whole.

 

Before HP and Naruto blew-up the ff scene, the big ones for me were DBZ, around 30,000 on ffnet, Zelda(6000), and Evangelion(around 8000). Then came HP and Naruto.

I think it actually comes down to two things. Appeal and how if it makes you wonder 'what if?"

Look at HP, what if he were in Slytherin? Boom. What if he wasn't with Ginny? Boom. Some what ifs come from the readers disappointments. Harry with Ginny and his power relying on love. Also look at the Gohan fics in DBZ. He was made out to be so bad-ass with more power than Goku, but he ends up a scholar. Look at Eva fics where people give Shinji a spine, or insert a more assertive character.

All this takes place with the writer's side, wanting them to explore the world. The ability to make a person wonder and then execute their imagination lays the foundation of a fandom.

On the otherside is the appeal that a fandom has, the thing that makes a reader want to know more and explore that world and look online for fanart or fanfiction. This drives the fandom and lets other authors pick-up the torch and try their hand at a story.

I think it is the characters that readers find appealing. I find each series I read appealing for different reasons, but it really always boils down to the characters. I love the character depth of Eva, and love exploring how one change could effect them and the plot. In DBZ, you have people striving against what seems like impossible odds and still not giving up. They're all different(though they all end up screaming a lot and gasping at some impossible power level), but each is funny, or quirky, or intelligent or brave. In Zelda they are blank slates, but their are some things known about them. (Similar to the lesser known characters in HP. Daphne=ice queen and whatnot.)

tl;dr. If it can make a writer wander what if and if the characters can appeal to the readers. Take this and the broader an appeal a story has, with these elements, determines the size of the fandom.

 

Because JKR's universe is so fucking open that anyone can walk in and start writing without fucking it up to the point where it's unrecognizable. Because it's easy. There are no complex over-arching political situations, crazy amounts of characters each with their own personality (Star Wars), huge amounts of source material (again, Star Wars), an overly detailed history (Lord of the Rings has a small fic bas for a reason) or cliffhangers that only the author would have the answer to (writing post-Changes is a bitch for this reason.)

And just as importantly, the universe is not threatening because frankly, there are loads of people who are better writers than JK and/or know and want to fix the problems of the HP-verse.

And there's that section of the writing fans that can't stand breaks in the series so they try to fill it up with their own shit, and since HP is, like I said nice and friendly to people wanting to continue the story, it ends with them writing something..

 

@Jon: I think the high-quality authors standard changing from places like fictionalley to DLP is an indicator of improvement ^.^

Seriously, though, 2/3 of the fics on my favorites list are from the 01/01/08 - now. And while I've only been an active reader for five months, I've literally been reading 6-10 hours of fanfiction nearly every day for those five months, so I've covered a fair bit of material =D
I mean, the old classics were Barb and her ilk, and while not terrible, her writing doesn't really match up to Santi's and Joe's.

 

I think another key element is the length of time that HP has been in the attention of people and the amount of people that are fans.

It started in 1997 with the publication of books an now in 2010 we still have one movie to go before people start to forget about it.

 

Fix'd that for you.

Seriously, though, I agree wholeheartedly with Scribblerus' view.

 

First off I wanna say I'm happy for you, you're like a 28-year-old hot chick, enjoying life at the moment .Too bads it's all downhill from there.Trust me, in a few months, you'll be confused as to were all the good fics went. And then, after a bunch of burns after you invested time into a dressed-up shitfic, you'll stop reading anything not recced or backed-up by DLP and then... Then you start waiting for months for updates.

/sadness

Tell me, when was the last time a good new fic entered our library? It used to be the go-to place for quality and nowadays I can't read anything on it not by someone I know because -with all due respect to our fledgling authors- a lot of it is crap, and I don't have the patience to watch an author "mature" anymore, I've already been burnt by one particular author who gets her "mature" much trumpeted.

The HP fandom is leaking people to Twilight, which is probably going to be the only active mega-fandom left (sad though innit), disregarding whatever Japanese stuff people read.

The sad thing is, for reasons given by me and others, they'll never be another HP. And Dresden Files sure isn't going to make up the slack. So that Dark Lord Cullen April Fool's joke is seeming pretty prophetic...

/herp-derp fandom is dying spiel.

 

it isn't actually. After reading for a year (3 hours every day at least) I can honestly say only select few is good enough to read.

This days I am spending more time to look for good fic than read it. that should say something.

on the other hand Naruto going strong for some time. Hmm ...

 

It's leaking some authors to Twilight, but I can't help but think that the fandom's leaking more, including some of its best writers, to original fiction. I know of ten HP fanfiction writers (myself included) who spend at least half their writing time doing original fiction now.

What makes a fandom work is eyeballs, excitement, and rich source material; the third is why I think that ultimately Twilight will fall short of HP. HP was something to everyone and I've met few, male or female, adults or children, who read the series and hated it. This can't be said for Twilight, a sappy urban fiction romance whose protagonist holds an idiot ball throughout. I've been told by female friends that if you weren't once a teenage female, suffering all the self-doubt and associated silliness of such a state, you can't ever really appreciate the series. I've also heard that Twilight fanfiction is far more homogeneous and fluffy than HP, that getting into it is like wading through the fluff on SIYE or Phoenixsong. If true, I can't help but think that this won't hold people's attention for long and that the space of potentially good writers in the fandom is going to be abridged accordingly.

Dresden Files has the problem that the first two books in the series are quite horrible and people only really continue with it if told that, "No really, it gets good. Just keep reading to X." And there's no big feature film (yet) to drive book sales and excitement for the series.

 

Because its essentially a children's book, it doesnt really go too deeply into characters (or anything really) and the magic system is like some sort of plug and play device for your computer. There are no major limitations with what can be done with magic in HP, a lot of fantasy novels have complicated rituals and drawn out spells and has a negative side to magic, or at least to the responsibility of practicing magic.. In HP all they have to worry about is keeping the Statute of Secrecy.

You also have the fact that HP is set in our world and a modern one at that, and stays in it. Its an appealing canvas to immerse yourself in. If HP had been set in a middle earth type setting it would have just been another fantasy novel by another menopausal woman.

 

'Why is it good?' relates directly to 'why is it huge?', and Raggerd has the key here- it grew at the same time as public use of the internet exploded.

To its credit, HP is very accessible- nearly everyone online can identify with school and its struggles. Add in an everyman hero with a destiny and some equally believable friends, and 'self-insert' almost becomes an imperative.

It wasn't just the books themselves that fueled that growth either- it was the gaps between that set fire to the fanfiction notion. I can't help but think of some strung-out teens in a cafe in 1999, bemoaning the delay in the next book and worrying about how the films may ruin the story, when some guy in a long trenchcoat wearing Vulcan ears shuffles up to them and asks in a throaty whisper "Have you ever heard of... fanfiction?"

OOoooooOOOOOhhh!

 

If that happened to me, i'd never have tried fanfiction. Ever

 

Fixed.

Not much I can say except for that I agree with this view point.

The breaks between the books did inspire a lot of fan fiction writers to push for their own 'ships (from the somewhat plausible to the damn right impossible) and storylines: the breaks between Order of the Phoenix and Half-Baked Plot (and the eventual fan reaction/fallout of the last two books) were the worst/best example of this, I think.

 

I haven't seen anything from you lately, which makes it more of a "wrote".

 

I wish the Dresden Files fandom would suddenly burst overnight. I started reading HP when I was 10, which is the audience the first book was written for. Now that I've grown up, I need more books/fics that are like Dresden Files to keep me entertained.