Hrmmm.... I don't like the fan club aspect, actually. It turned me off to SWFA. In that instead of feeling like the sales were there to make sure you were pro before being accepted (which is fine) that they were there to keep the young whippersnappers out. As with some of the changing rules and ignoring of online that was going on when I was seriously looking.
I should break this out into its own post, because your reaction is pretty much exactly the reaction that's so much of a problem, imho, for SFWA.
I was probably a young whippersnapper at the time that I joined SFWA (I had nothing published, but did have a contract for my first novel, when I applied). Possibly because the on-line venues didn't exist at the time, I didn't have any sense of exclusion when I joined. But I didn't join as part of an already flourishing community; I really didn't have much expectation. I knew that people who knew the ropes were in SFWA, and were willing to answer questions, or just hold forth, in long posts on GEnie, and I really, really wanted access to those. At the time, everything (CompuServe, GEnie, non-faculty/student usenet access) cost an arm and a leg (like, say, 75.00 a connect hour) so the perception that the SFWA membership was of value for the services that it (indirectly) provided was high.
A lot of the people that I met through GEnie, I still socialize with now, where possible. SFWA at the time was a way of meeting people who were dealing with the same issues I was dealing with, often at the same stage in their careers. Much of the core SFWA sff.net group (certainly not all) was active on GEnie at the time; I was quiet there, except in kateelliott's topic, and janni's topic. I'm sure it was a shock to them to meet me in person, where I was, well, me. I tend to be a lot more careful with words that are not guaranteed to convey my tone of voice or my facial expression because I don't know who's reading them, and what expectations they bring to the words themselves.
But a better way of putting it would be this: LJ is the closest I've seen to the GEnie environment since GEnie went away. If you couldn't access LJ, except at per-connect-hour pay, unless you joined SFWA, would SFWA then be of value? Or would it seem as exclusionary as it does to you now? There were always, and probably will always be, groups within those groups, where interests or career paths converge and where conversational styles mesh rather than clash. There probably still are.
But if you've found a community that speaks to your needs in your current situation, and in the future career path you hope to follow, how would SFWA even be relevant, or make itself relevant?
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2007-03-29 01:24 am (UTC)I should break this out into its own post, because your reaction is pretty much exactly the reaction that's so much of a problem, imho, for SFWA.
I was probably a young whippersnapper at the time that I joined SFWA (I had nothing published, but did have a contract for my first novel, when I applied). Possibly because the on-line venues didn't exist at the time, I didn't have any sense of exclusion when I joined. But I didn't join as part of an already flourishing community; I really didn't have much expectation. I knew that people who knew the ropes were in SFWA, and were willing to answer questions, or just hold forth, in long posts on GEnie, and I really, really wanted access to those. At the time, everything (CompuServe, GEnie, non-faculty/student usenet access) cost an arm and a leg (like, say, 75.00 a connect hour) so the perception that the SFWA membership was of value for the services that it (indirectly) provided was high.
A lot of the people that I met through GEnie, I still socialize with now, where possible. SFWA at the time was a way of meeting people who were dealing with the same issues I was dealing with, often at the same stage in their careers. Much of the core SFWA sff.net group (certainly not all) was active on GEnie at the time; I was quiet there, except in
But a better way of putting it would be this: LJ is the closest I've seen to the GEnie environment since GEnie went away. If you couldn't access LJ, except at per-connect-hour pay, unless you joined SFWA, would SFWA then be of value? Or would it seem as exclusionary as it does to you now? There were always, and probably will always be, groups within those groups, where interests or career paths converge and where conversational styles mesh rather than clash. There probably still are.
But if you've found a community that speaks to your needs in your current situation, and in the future career path you hope to follow, how would SFWA even be relevant, or make itself relevant?