Online Harry Potter fans transformed what it means to love a story.
We’re featured alongside @melissaanelli, @flourish, @usquidditch & @hpallianceua-blog in a Slate talking about Harry Potter fandom history including IP issues and concerns within fandom circa 2000/2001. Hope you like it!
“When she first got excited about Harry Potter in 2000, Tandy recollects, mailing lists and Usenet (an early form of discussion group) could be difficult for less internet-savvy people to access, especially because many fans tried to fly under the radar. “A lot of people thought being hard to find was important to fandom because if you didn’t, the Powers That Be would find out about you and shut you down,” Tandy said. Other groups shared fan fiction with adult themes and wanted to avoid exposing children to it. People who got very excited about, say, Star Trek were often met with ridicule and worse for their nerdiness, leading to shame or just an excess of caution when it came to talking about their taste.”