Fandom Appreciation Challenge: Love Song To . . .

[jule1122]

qaf_challenges, qaf_scavenger and the fabulous women who run them!

Today's Fandom Appreciation challenge is to give feedback to reccers, community moderators, challenge organizers etc. I decided to do this in a post about 2 communities that are especially close to my heart, and as I said the fabulous women who run them.

As many of you know, I have been in the QAF fandom for a long time. Fandoms ebb and flow. After the show ended, the QAF fandom was in a transitional phase. Many of the authors and readers I knew were drifting away from QAF, and I wasn't really active enough to know who was coming in. I was writing less, reading less, and basically losing QAF.

Then qaf_challenges came along (okay there were a few separate challenges run before it became a challenge community, but this is a love song not a history). Suddenly I had a reason to write! Not only that, but there were new stories by authors both new and old at my fingertips. I was excited about QAF all over again. The wonderful _alicesprings began qaf_challenges and I will always think of her as the women who reminded me why I love writing for Brian and Justin. She is no longer running challenges herself, but the equally fabulous xie_xie_xie has stepped in and run some wonderful and unique challenges. And Xie is one of the best challenges moms ever. I can personally attest to the fact that you can send her crazy freakout emails in the last hours before stories are due and she will still speak to you.

So I was writing again, but I was still pretty lost in this newest version of the QAF fandom. Then there was this amazing fandom scavenger hunt run at qaf_scavenger. It was interactive, it was fun (and really hard), and best of all it was a map to the QAF fandom past and present. I found authors, artists, and communities I had never known about. I was watching scenes I'd forgotten about and loving every minute of it. I fell in love with QAF all over again. Not just Brian and Justin, but all the characters and the crazy fandom they brought me too. qaf_scavenger had a lot of people working to pull off that first, brilliant hunt, but since then the amazing happier_bunny and sanami276 have kept things going. They hunt for the best ways to celebrate Halloween, Un-Valentine's Day, and Pride. They see they fun in fandom and helps us remember to celebrate it. It is also through this community that I first got to know my darling happier_bunny. I have told her this many times, but it was her welcome that made me feel a part of fandom again.

Without these communities and the wonderful women who give their time and talent to run them, I probably would visit QAF on occasion, but I would be here like I am now. They helped me remember why I loved QAF so much, taught me new ways to look at the characters and scenes and made me feel creative again. I cannot thank them enough.