Oh my god, I know who you’re referring to. sigh If we could get rid of the tinhats, the fandom would be eight million percent better. But no, they insist upon being psycho all over the internet and horrifying the rest of us with their embarrassing behavior.
Zsofia, I’m in grad school now. I wonder if I’ll still read fanfic when I’m done. I think a lot of the time that I enjoy it now because it’s not serious and it’s a nice break my actual work. I like to think I’ll read more books.
Fan fiction is probably about 99% crap. But I’ve read some fan fiction that was so well-written that it was better than 99% of published fiction I’ve ever read.
Dude, I was in SGA; the endless meta-turning-into-embarrassing-behavior… And now I’m in RPF. I know from shame. sympathizes
I also enjoy me some RPF. You can probably feel my shame through the internet. Do you even KNOW what people in SPN RPF fandom get up to? It’s bad. It’s REALLY bad. It’s…interfering-with-the-actors’-lives bad.
Another aspect about fandom is that it gives writers and artists a chance to really practice their skill set. Sure, not everybody takes advantage of the opportunity, but fandom is pretty self-regulating and encourages revisions and the use of multiple beta readers. There’s also plenty of professional types participating in fandom, and plenty of others who eventually go pro.
RPF is one of the few things that does creep me out…
It is actually pretty creepy, and that’s coming from someone who reads it. When I first started reading fic, and I discovered its existence, I was horrified. I not only didn’t read it, just thinking about it freaked me out.
I don’t know what happened along the line.
P.S. In case you’re scratching your head: Real person fiction.
I used to be part of a fanfic community (Rurouni Kenshin) and there are some really good stories out there. We even had annual awards for different genres (I was nominated once! not sure whether to be proud or ashamed though :: looks shifty :: ). It’s so true that there are some fan fics that EVERYONE in the community knows about and follows. There was a famous one in the Rurouni Kenshin community that had everyone addicted and then the author simply vanished into the ether and no one knows what happened to her. Shame, it was a good story.
You know what, I thought about the OP again, and realized that actually, I do enjoy bad fanfic.
Okay, so, a lot of bad fanfic in my fandom tends to read like really, really cracked out soap operas. Just totally crazy shit happens all the time. I find this stuff hysterical, and there are a couple I’m particularly fond it. Not all of it is necessarily badly written, in terms of style and grammar, it’s just the batshit content. (This is RPF AU stuff, so the author can do whatever they want…this is pretty much where you cross the line from fanfiction into original fiction.)
A lot of fic is crap, without a doubt. Maybe the majority, though I wouldn’t feel comfortable going that far in a definite statement. There’s a lot of porn out there, but that’s not all of it. At it’s best fanfic allows fans and fledgling writers to explore characters, themes, and ideas that the original creators couldn’t or wouldn’t tackle. Sometimes it can be surprisingly effective.
Once upon a time, when a little show called Xena was still on the air, I got heavily involved with following it’s fanfic scene. A significant number of writers delved into the shows themes and characters with a level of maturity and depth that a campy action show might not have felt safe exploring. Some of those stories gave me a different perspective on what the official show writers might have been going for. When a fanfic causes you to appreciate an original works depth in a new light I think it’s transcended any stigma of being an amateur or fan’s endeavor.
And to reiterate a point others have made, sometimes fic writers do go “legit”. There was a Xena fanfic writer by the name of Melissa Good who attracted so much attention she was actually invited to submit a script for the show’s final season. She wound up writing two different episodes that were produced and aired back in 2000.
Another example is that of [Devin Grayson](Devin Grayson). She was a fan of Batman and a fanfic author before being tapped by DC to do official comic scripts for the company in the late 90’s,
Also… I’d never heard of “RPF” before reading this thread… I thing I might have been better off not knowing about it. 
Not disagreeing that Potter fandom isn’t utterly nuts, but I think I’d have used Hogwarts/Giant Squid or “Buckbeak is totally symbolic proof of Harry and Hermione’s TRU WUV!” as my pairings of its craziness.
(What fandom are you writing fluff in? I feel like reading fluff now.)
I enjoy reading good fanfiction - or even just adequate fanfiction. Bad fanfiction makes me want to set people on fire. It’s quite disappointing when you realise an archive has hundreds of Mary Sues, Vampire AUs and inexplicable hurt/comfort slashfics for every story that at least resembles the source material.
I also write some fanfiction, but that’s for my own enjoyment, and not posted online.
I have heard it said that if it is good, it is not fanfic. It becomes a pastiche.
I write pastiches, mostly because the fandoms I feel inclined to write about do not have current live canon. My daughter writes Hetalia fanfic, I write Lovecraft pastiches. (I tried writing Doc Savage but just cannot make the words come out right.)
Yeah, you do read more real books. But you kind of miss the fanfic sometimes.
I remember the time they tried to get Danneel thrown out of a convention! That was bad, and worse, kind of creepy.
By the way, I’m not really in the fandom, but I do read some Dean/Castiel.
ETA: Heh, coincidentally, I just turned on TNT in time to see Jensen Ackles doing “Eye of the Tiger”.
Oh yeah, I think most of us agree. I took me a couple of months to get past that when I joined bandom, and even now something that breaks the fourth wall can sometimes make me cringe a little. At those times, I just remind myself that it’s not much different than what the Beatles and the Monkees were doing with themselves in movies and on TV back in the 60s.
For some reason, I just remembered a great icon I’ve seen - “Top Gear Slash: for times when there’s no God”. 
Look, I’m not saying I want to think about them having sex, but come on, James May/Richard Hammond is adorable.
[SIZE=“1”]There is a persistent rumor in the fandom that someone once saw Danneel kick a puppy.
That’s right: Danneel kicks puppies.
It took me literally months to realize that this was not a joke, and that some people actually take this seriously.
facepalm No seriously, I can’t even think about this without giggling. I’m laughing as I type right now.
Also, Danneel has a cute little doggy named Icarus. I’m sure she’s very nice to all animals.
P.S. Awhile ago, I told Cat Whisperer that my brain was overflowing with useless information about this show and the people who make it. And now it comes out: I know the star’s fiancee’s dog’s name. Why? I have no idea. I don’t even know how I know. It certainly isn’t something I ever intentionally looked up.
Okay, back to reading about transitional justice after conflicts. See? See? I do other stuff. I have other interests!
Do you think he calls him “Hamster” in bed? (Yes, I know that’s Jeremy Clarkson’s name for him, but come on, it would be so cute!)
Oh. My. God.
joins you in facepalming