Are we Technically Fans of the Lolcows we Follow?

On one hand, we are the ultimate fans because not only we follow and discuss in-depth every little detail of their lives, we also stalk them online, theorycraft and crawl every possibility space - be it in their digital footprints or in analyzing their personalities and the motives behind something.

"Normal fans", even the most extreme ones, sometimes don't even go that far, content with only following Twitter, news, etc. They're not that involved - not as individuals trying to archive every single piece of info as we do, nor as groups covering all bases over a given piece of news, etc. In that sense, we are as much fans as it possibility gets. Perhaps even more than "fans", really. You'd be hard-pressed to find a similar fandom, except for maybe ARGs and such - but then it's part of the expected interaction, not freely given.

On the other hand, we are not fans of the cows themselves. We are fans of their collective lunacy, self-destructive behavior and all the drama they manage to create - which is why these forums very quickly grew from an OPL community to a general-purpose one. In that sense we might be fans... but anti-fans at that - and I don't mean "haters" but literally fans who are interested in the opposite of what traditional fans are all about. Anti-fans.

So where does that leave us? I guess at face-value sure, you could say we are fans, more or less? Why not?

Also this is a "deep thoughts" thread if I ever saw one, surprised it's not there :biggrin:
 
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This topic reminds me of one of the good bits of dialogue from Howard Stern's Private Parts.
____
Researcher: The average radio listener listens for eighteen minutes a day. The average Howard Stern fan listens for - are you ready for this? - an hour and twenty minutes.
Kenny: How could this be?
Researcher: Answer most commonly given: "I want to see what he'll say next."
Kenny: : All right, fine. But what about the people who hate Stern?
Researcher: Good point. The average Stern hater listens for two and a half hours a day.
Kenny: : But... if they hate him, why do they listen?
Researcher: Most common answer: "I want to see what he'll say next."
___

So yeah in a sense if you follow someone because you loathe the person you're a fan. If you watch lolcow streamers like DSP or Cosmo you definitely can be counted as a fan.
 
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I do like to think of furry drama as a spectator sport, just because it's so public and so buckwild. To that degree I'm a 'fan' of watching autists try to knife each other in the proverbial streets of Twitter over cuddly wuddly neon fox owo role play. It's as entertaining and satisfying to watch as any sportsball game. I can't say that on an individual level I'm a fan of people who rape their own dogs to death though.
 
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Wake me up said:
On one hand, we are the ultimate fans because not only we follow and discuss in-depth every little detail of their lives, we also stalk them online, theorycraft and crawl every possibility space - be it in their digital footprints or in analyzing their personalities and the motives behind something.

"Normal fans", even the most extreme ones, sometimes don't even go that far, content with only following Twitter, news, etc. They're not that involved - not as individuals trying to archive every single piece of info as we do, nor as groups covering all bases over a given piece of news, etc. In that sense, we are as much fans as it possibility gets. Perhaps even more than "fans", really. You'd be hard-pressed to find a similar fandom, except for maybe ARGs and such - but then it's part of the expected interaction, not freely given.

On the other hand, we are not fans of the cows themselves. We are fans of their collective lunacy, self-destructive behavior and all the drama they manage to create - which is why these forums very quickly grew from an OPL community to a general-purpose one. In that sense we might be fans... but anti-fans at that - and I don't mean "haters" but literally fans who are interested in the opposite of what traditional fans are all about. Anti-fans.

So where does that leave us? I guess at face-value sure, you could say we are fans, more or less? Why not?

Also this is a "deep thoughts" thread if I ever saw one, surprised it's not there :biggrin:
Click to expand...

This reminds me of people who are ironically fans of trainwreck celebrities. Kanye is an example - people love to hate him and will talk about every new controversy he stumbles into. I guess the only difference between a lolcow and a trainwreck celebrity is that the celebrity usually has actual achievements under their belt, eg. you can't deny that Kanye has had widespread musical success.
 
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