That’s another piece of insider bullcrap, that they have ownership over an entire genre of art and have the right to tell other people what it’s called.
The people who disparage the term “sci-fi” don’t own the genre.
I think Wendell Wagner’s post 11 in the thread he links is a good explanation.
As far as the term “sci-fi” goes, I have to agree with Ascenray. To me, sci-fi was just an abbreviation for Science Fiction. I was unaware of the negative connotation it carried within the fan community, because I didn’t know any fan community. I think plenty of folks like us became active in the community and dismissed the previous prejudice over the term. That’s not to say all of the community has come along, just that there are plenty of us who see no “Sci-fi is just the bad stuff” distinction. The bad stuff is bad, the cheap stuff is cheap, and the good stuff is good, whatever you call it.
And I’ve loved my share of the bad stuff.
And I’ll keep my hands tightly clenched around my virws, TYVM! No one is taking them away from me and selling them on eBay. :mad:
Last night I saw that Amazon had put a movie on the servers that I had only seen a couple of times and not at all for prolly 5 or 6 years, so I happily watched Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel and guffawed to find that the whole “sci-fi” “science fiction” was a part of the interplay between 2 of the main characters; I had totally forgotten it until the first time it played out.
Excellent time travel movie, btw. Particularly cool because it has virtually zero special effects.
Then there are those who know nothing about the art, who “discover” it as the Next Cool Thing, and start dictating what it is and is not to those who have been enjoying it for more than a generation.
Imagine how well received a bunch Sheldon-types walking into a sports bar and start criticizing the tactics of the winning team would be, especially when it rapidly becomes evident they don’t know jack about football.
“Eureka was such a great SfiFi program!”
“Uh, great or not, it’s not science fiction.”
“But it’s on SyFy!”
<shrug>