Rec.arts.sf.written.robert-jordan

Newsgroup
Name:	rec.arts.sf.written.robert-jordan
Date(s):	July 1994-
Moderator:
Type:
Fandom:	Robert Jordan, Wheel of Time
URL:	Google Groups Robert Jordan Fandom
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USENET groups usually spawn off of other groups. In this case it was no different...Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time fantasy book series was generating an overwhelming number of posts to rec.arts.sf.written. (And a large number of posts of people complaining about the number of Robert Jordan posts.) So, around mid-1994, a new group was created, rec.arts.sf.written.robert-jordan.

I should add as an aside that I didn't join the group until around 2001; my understanding of some of these events is limited to what I've read and heard.

Over time three events occurred...the first was that, with two to three years between books, there would be an initial flurry of posts while the dedicated fans dissected every passage. This would take a few months, then start to die off with nothing new to discuss. A large (and I do mean LARGE) FAQ was created--and is still being maintained at http://www.steelypips.org/wotfaq/ --which listed all the facts, the theories, the crazy ideas, that the newsgroup could come up with. Eventually, every time somebody introduced a new theory, the odds were good it was listed already.

The second event was that the books started to get worse. People felt (and feel) like they were reading them more for tradition, or inertia, or just wanting the series to end already, than for the story. Though Jordan has had a few good moments recently, his general quality, all agree, is declining.

Both of these two events led to a lot of discussion about Other Stuff on the newsgroup. Tangential postings (labeled with [TAN] in the subject line) could be used to talk about anything, and soon became more interesting than the on-topic discussion.

The third event was the Darkfriend Social. Named for a scene in the second book, the DFS was a nickname for any meeting of members of the newsgroup. As NextCon/TryCon is for the SVAM/C-ko's crowd, DFS's are to the rasfwj-ers. They were happening when the newsgroup started in 1994, and over time became bigger and bigger deals. People who met their best friends on the newsgroup (and some people have) would sometimes only see them at Socials.

More people joined the group--I did in 2001--but, in the words on a pin given out by one member, "librorum veni, populi maneo causa." [1] "I came for the books, I stayed for the people." At this point people stay if they like who they're talking to, and the subject can be anything. The group has become less about the books, and more about a group of friends who stay in contact in a newsgroup, and see each other around once a year (more if they're lucky).

So, what was once a fandom has become a meta-fandom.

[1] Latin from memory; I may have mis-conjugated or mis-declined.