You raise an interesting point I hadn't thought of in terms of fandom as a community in itself.
Fandom runs along fairly free wheeling lines; whether they are anarchic lines or socialist is probably up to the individual to define. I have noticed in my time in fandom that people have contributed generously, financially especially, to those who do not have the means to get a website, or a paid LJ, or even to go to a con. In short, it seems to me, at least, that fandom as a community is used to a communal economic model rather than a capitalist model.
There's an interesting parallel to the other community with which I am involved to a significant degree: the Sims 2 custom content creation community. There are people in the community who charge for the custom content they create, and there are people in the community who decry them for charging (for various reasons, ranging from the fact that charging seems to violate EA's license agreement to the fact that many players are teenagers who may not have access to funds). The debate in this community crystallised how I feel about charging for content, whether it's fannish or Sims 2: I feel it violates the spirit of the community. Thus I subscribe to the Sims 2's largest free content site. It's not very much, but it helps defray their costs, and they do not require anyone to ever pay any money to use their site or download their content (so no one is excluded on the basis of ability to pay).
This is REALLY very important to me, I discovered.
Since I can afford $5/month, I contribute that because of the service the site provides to the community as a whole. That was initially the reason I joined LJ as a paid user: I could care less about a dedicated URL or 50 fucking icons. I don't use the icons I have. I subscribed because I felt they were doing a service to the fandom community. I would hate to see anyone excluded from the community because of race, colour, gender... or ability to pay. When I don't renew my paid account, it will be because I don't consider LJ to be providing a service to the fandom community, not because I don't think LJ isn't a business or doesn't deserve to make money.
Wow, thanks for listening. Didn't mean to go on so long.
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Fandom runs along fairly free wheeling lines; whether they are anarchic lines or socialist is probably up to the individual to define. I have noticed in my time in fandom that people have contributed generously, financially especially, to those who do not have the means to get a website, or a paid LJ, or even to go to a con. In short, it seems to me, at least, that fandom as a community is used to a communal economic model rather than a capitalist model.
There's an interesting parallel to the other community with which I am involved to a significant degree: the Sims 2 custom content creation community. There are people in the community who charge for the custom content they create, and there are people in the community who decry them for charging (for various reasons, ranging from the fact that charging seems to violate EA's license agreement to the fact that many players are teenagers who may not have access to funds). The debate in this community crystallised how I feel about charging for content, whether it's fannish or Sims 2: I feel it violates the spirit of the community. Thus I subscribe to the Sims 2's largest free content site. It's not very much, but it helps defray their costs, and they do not require anyone to ever pay any money to use their site or download their content (so no one is excluded on the basis of ability to pay).
This is REALLY very important to me, I discovered.
Since I can afford $5/month, I contribute that because of the service the site provides to the community as a whole. That was initially the reason I joined LJ as a paid user: I could care less about a dedicated URL or 50 fucking icons. I don't use the icons I have. I subscribed because I felt they were doing a service to the fandom community. I would hate to see anyone excluded from the community because of race, colour, gender... or ability to pay. When I don't renew my paid account, it will be because I don't consider LJ to be providing a service to the fandom community, not because I don't think LJ isn't a business or doesn't deserve to make money.
Wow, thanks for listening. Didn't mean to go on so long.