What makes a shrine a shrine?

[dubiousdisc]

I might have misunderstood your "just like", seemed sort of dismissive to me. Maybe it wasn't. In either case - what I'm trying to say is that people can be really involved in different things, and not necessarily characters or series or I don't know what. I wouldn't call people who like cats the fanbase of cats because it sounds odd (which might be my own limitations talking, because in a way it does make sense), but I definitely wouldn't scratch it off as "just like". People can be very involved in things and support them in many different ways...one of which might be to let people know about them and how awesome they are to you, right?

[anon]

lol it's cool, I wasn't trying to start a discussion about measuring the extents of "like" and "interest." Both are pretty general terms and like you mentioned, people have different ways of supporting stuff and expressing how important it is to them.

Edit: grammar what is that

[dubiousdisc]

Naturally it's not possible to measure how much you like something. But I'd say the definitions of fan and fandom can be more flexible than how you say. It does sound odd to me too to talk of someone as a fan of a planet, or of astronomy as a fandom, but, even if they sound sort of "off", wouldn't they be viable terms, concept-wise? I don't know, to pick a weird and extreme example, there are people who consider the Bible as their fandom, because they appreciate the stories it contains and are interested in them and like to find derivative work related to their favorite stories. If you like something in that way, that sounds like being a fan to me. If you really dislike the word fan in this case, you could also say they are interested, or they are scholars, or something. But I would think it's more of a matter of finding the word "fan" odd in this case because we're not used at seeing it applied to something like that than it being the wrong word.

Regardless of wanting to call someone who is interested in that way a fan, or that subject a fandom, or a site built in a certain way to that subject a fansite, all of these terms sound awfully close to a good definition of each of these things. I don't know, if you have better terms, throw them around, because I don't know either. It does sound too dismissive to me to call someone who is very invested into some subject "just someone who likes [x]". I would think that what makes you a fan of something at a certain point in time is the fact that you are invested in it, as opposed to just not disliking it. Personally I wouldn't call a site devoted to a story in the Bible a fansite just because it does sound odd, but I would consider it something that's at least in the same spectrum.

[Mikari]

Celebrities are fictional?!

lol no, but their characters are, like with Todd's Breathe.

Just trying to steer any "idea" of what a fan site just escalates a discussion into a hot mess.

Or a fun mess... er discussion I mean. XD

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That's another point, how we define "fan". To me a fan might not necesarrily be about support, but about making something a part of your life (and by consecuence support would happen, but it's not the main thing, just a side effect).

[anon]

That's another point, how we define "fan". To me a fan might not necesarrily be about support, but about making something a part of your life (and by consecuence support would happen, but it's not the main thing, just a side effect).

I already corrected myself by indicating that fan typically is attached to figures of popular media, culture, and entertainment.

[Eden]

That's another point, how we define "fan". To me a fan might not necesarrily be about support, but about making something a part of your life (and by consecuence support would happen, but it's not the main thing, just a side effect).

I already corrected myself by indicating that fan typically is attached to figures of popular media, culture, and entertainment.

Everything Joe said here and before in other posts I have to agree with. I'm pretty sure it's all a matter of self-opinion, but what she said took the words right out of my mouth.

I also apologize, I didn't mean to string in celebrities as being fictional. I just meant that the term "fan" to me really only correlates to celebrities, entertainment, fiction, etc. I wasn't clear on that. ^_^