You're probably right on Harry Potter - I have to admit I have low expectations. The books are fun, but I forget them more or less after I read them. Much prefer Butcher's Harry Dresden - whose writing, while less popular, is better and more interesting.
I didn't belong to the Bronze Beta either - it was too chatty and went far too fast. Not a chatter. Never have been. The writers of the series adored it though and I worried that it influenced what they wrote - it didn't thank heavens. I did however belong to two popular ones - mainly because I liked reading essays and writing them - and found character centric fanboards limiting in scope. I was the rare fan who loved all the characters and was obsessed with analyzing all of them. Started with Giles on BC&S (that one is lost), then Xander - because the board was crammed with Spike debates/essays and I wanted to try something different.
A lot of fans online - really weren't interested in the story Whedon wanted to tell - they were interested in the story in their heads. It happens, particularly with long breaks and hiatuses. Several for reasons I'll never understand - basically wanted the Buffy/Angel adventures - pretty people in costumes, kissing, and killing monsters with funky quips, and safe in each other's arms at the end of the day. (Sort of like Doctor Who except with kissage and well sex). The writers tried that by the way, the ratings dipped, people got bored and drifted away. They turned Angel into Angelus - the ratings soared, and they got write-ups. Lesson learned. Ignore the fans.
Same thing happened on Veronica Mars - the online fans wrote fanfic and begged and pleaded for the VM/Logan show. They got the VM/Logan show and got bored and drifted away.
Whedon is absolutely right - don't give your fans what they want. Give them what they need. Angst. Pain. Anticipation. Foreplay. Otherwise they'll grow fickle and leave you.
People think they would have loved seeing on screen their fantasies = not necessarily true. (Okay, I did see on screen my fantasy and adored it...not sure what that says about me. ;-) Except maybe my fantasy isn't as lame and predictable as most fans? Sorry that was snippy. LOL!)
Also a lot of fans were under the odd impression that they were watching Scooby Doo mysteries or Charmed or a dark version of Seventh Heaven (which come to think of it, might have been fun) or Supernatural or even the X-Files. They had gotten used to formula television and a lot of tv is like that. The actors grow older but the format and setting and story stays the same. Can't really do that with a show that starts in high school - folks grow up.
And of course there are the fans who wish it ended in the fifth season who see that as a perfect arc and think the last two seasons ruined everything.
I've had to deal with all of them and made friends with several of them. Used to bicker endlessly with them over it until we more or less drew a truce and admitted, heck it's just a tv series. If you don't like it? Don't buy the DVDs.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2007-04-08 03:20 am (UTC)I didn't belong to the Bronze Beta either - it was too chatty and went far too fast. Not a chatter. Never have been. The writers of the series adored it though and I worried that it influenced what they wrote - it didn't thank heavens. I did however belong to two popular ones - mainly because I liked reading essays and writing them - and found character centric fanboards limiting in scope. I was the rare fan who loved all the characters and was obsessed with analyzing all of them. Started with Giles on BC&S (that one is lost), then Xander - because the board was crammed with Spike debates/essays and I wanted to try something different.
A lot of fans online - really weren't interested in the story Whedon wanted to tell - they were interested in the story in their heads. It happens, particularly with long breaks and hiatuses. Several for reasons I'll never understand - basically wanted the Buffy/Angel adventures - pretty people in costumes, kissing, and killing monsters with funky quips, and safe in each other's arms at the end of the day. (Sort of like Doctor Who except with kissage and well sex). The writers tried that by the way, the ratings dipped, people got bored and drifted away. They turned Angel into Angelus - the ratings soared, and they got write-ups. Lesson learned. Ignore the fans.
Same thing happened on Veronica Mars - the online fans wrote fanfic and begged and pleaded for the VM/Logan show. They got the VM/Logan show and got bored and drifted away.
Whedon is absolutely right - don't give your fans what they want. Give them what they need. Angst. Pain. Anticipation. Foreplay.
Otherwise they'll grow fickle and leave you.
People think they would have loved seeing on screen their fantasies = not necessarily true. (Okay, I did see on screen my fantasy and adored it...not sure what that says about me. ;-) Except maybe my fantasy isn't as lame and predictable as most fans? Sorry that was snippy. LOL!)
Also a lot of fans were under the odd impression that they were watching Scooby Doo mysteries or Charmed or a dark version of Seventh Heaven (which come to think of it, might have been fun) or Supernatural or even the X-Files. They had gotten used to formula television and a lot of tv is like that. The actors grow older but the format and setting and story stays the same. Can't really do that with a show that starts in high school - folks grow up.
And of course there are the fans who wish it ended in the fifth season who see that as a perfect arc and think the last two seasons ruined everything.
I've had to deal with all of them and made friends with several of them. Used to bicker endlessly with them over it until we more or less drew a truce and admitted, heck it's just a tv series. If you don't like it? Don't buy the DVDs.