Poll of the Day > What's your preferred size for a fanbase/community?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Well?

Didn't vote because I think it depends. I like both, but it's situational.
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Being a Rick and Morty fan isn't cool anymore.

LinkPizza posted...

Didn't vote because I think it depends. I like both, but it's situational.

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Large and bustling, personally - more discussion and more media to choose from and partake in.
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Large enough that it doesn't fade out of existence and no more games/whatever are made.

Small enough that it doesn't get tainted by mainstream tastes and tendencies.
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I prefer smaller communities. It's easier for those running things to manage everything and adress the individual needs and requests of its members. I've also found that their members are usually more social and helpful overall.
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Large, because it means more support for the things I like. While sharing things with a few fans is fun and all, you need more people to get movies, games, and merchandise made instead of it just being limited to being a book, comic, show, or whatever. Granted, you also get content dilution as a result so... it's a mixed bag.

Come to think of it, though, the larger the community is, the less likely it feels like an identifier (partly because there's a sense of ownership with more niche things). Yes, I'm a fan of Batman and Pokemon, but it doesn't feel like it means anything because so many other people are fans and, due to there being so much content available, I technically only engage in a relatively small amount of everything out there. So despite consuming as much or more content than I have from other franchises, I would be considered a casual fan when that same level of attention in other franchises would make me a more serious fan.

Krow_Incarnate posted...

Large enough that it doesn't fade out of existence and no more games/whatever are made.

Small enough that it doesn't get tainted by mainstream tastes and tendencies.

Yeah, that's a good middle ground, I suppose. However, because each thing can have its own continuity, mainstream doesn't automatically hurt it (other than smaller residual effects like souring people on the original source material or crashing a brand because it temporarily became unsustainable).

Batman is a fantastic example of distinct continuities because the films, shows, and comics are rarely connected and you have alternative versions in each. And when the adaption takes heavy liberties, it's usually surprisingly good (The Batman, for instance). By contrast, Marvel has the pretty terrible approach of trying to change the comics to match the films to cash in on their popularity so, if you hate the films, you're being hurt by stuff which leaks into the comics. (Granted, DC *has* done this as well as times. Mr. Freeze was revised based on his B:TAS backstory (although it's an improvement) and characters who get over well on their shows wind up appearing in comics, most notably Harley Quinn.)
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I prefer having a large fanbase. Digimon is very niche these days, and I usually have nobody to talk about it with.

But on the other side, usually by the time something gets big (Resident Evil for example), it has abandoned its roots and I don't like it anymore.
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Need a middle ground small but not too niche but not too mainstream
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Large. The more people there are that share the love the more likely I am to get more of that franchise. Also, I'm more likely to find fans of said franchise that I actually like.

Small fan bases tend to have a higher percentage of the dipshits that I can't stand. The self important ones that are just way too full of themselves. The sort of people that get upset when too many people like "their thing".
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I am more interested in the toxicity of a fan base than I am in its size.
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I_Abibde posted...

I am more interested in the toxicity of a fan base than I am in its size.

Why? How toxic does it have to be before you get interested? =p
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Small and niche. Casuals lower the intellectual quality of most things.
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TheCyborgNinja posted...

Casuals lower the intellectual quality of most things.

Intellectual quality is a stretch with most things =p
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Another problem with Digimon being niche is... There's now a very vocal part of the fanbase that refuses to use the official English "dub" terminology, and only uses the Japanese names for everything. It drives me nuts.

Then there's the fact that between Bandai, Toei, and Saban or whoever, it's like pulling teeth trying to get new Digimon stuff over here. But at least Bandai and Toei have started to wise up recently.
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It depends on the franchise for me, but to me, I much prefer smaller communities, since they are usually friendlier and stabler than larger communities.

For a forgotten anime series like Zatch Bell!/Konjiki no Gash Bell!!, it has a very low fanbase at this age in time (I'm still a fan of that series) and I do wish it regained a little bit of popularity (but I don't think it will ever happen). Still, I'm happy to see when I find someone a fan of that series.

But there are some trending video game series like Undertale (I love the game and part of its community) and Five Nights at Freddy's (I don't care about it at this point but I used to), where there is a huge fanbase with some messed up stuff in their communities. And the Zelda fanbase (I'm a huge Zelda fan, my favorite video game franchise) argues against each other for the best Zelda game. And I feel like the Final Fantasy fanbase is similar to the Zelda fan base.

I feel like the bigger a community gets, the more chaotic it gets. Probably doesn't happen to all communities/fanbase, but I already set examples of some of them above.
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Zeus posted...

Why? How toxic does it have to be before you get interested? =p

I should have clarified that I prefer non-toxic fandoms, but those are increasingly difficult to find.
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