The Fangirl

"It became more and more usual to watch something and then jump online to see what everyone was writing about it—or against it, or in it, or around it."

I have to point out how this is a missed opportunity to talk about the huge role early forms of social media, like LiveJournal, played in the transformation and growth of online fandoms by hosting interactive dialogues like the one described above.

LiveJournal especially provided an open forum, in the form of loosely associated blogs, allowing fans to publicly post and share their insights, ideas and opinions on canon. Not to mention a platform to host their own fan fiction. The interconnected design of LiveJournal allow anyone to search for blogs based on interests, or by association to other fandom friends' blogs. 

While online groups (like Yahoo), message boards hosted similar conversations they required membership to access them. While LiveJournal, and other blog sites, was open to searches and could be viewed by anyone (unless you kept your LJ private).

Even more relevant, it hosted these conversations in a written presentation. On your LJ how you said something was as important as what you said. These weren't just casual conversations about tv shows, books, etc. They were critical analysis. Both the expectations and presentations were elevated because of the format. These blogging sites set a foundation that other social media and blogs would follow. 

LiveJournal wasn't the only social media to do this, but it is one of these most widely recognized. Many current fandoms are still influence by the communities and interactions that were seen on LJ. The similarity in how Twitter and Tumblr are utilized by fandom shouldn't be ignored. 

While LiveJournal is mentioned repeatedly in the book, it's impact and influence on modern fandoms, and the fan fiction is never explored.