Dragonite Ernston

Sorry for teh ube rlate reply. It's from www.nedroid.com. It's a comic. The character int eh avatar is "harrison"

Well... also keep in mind that there's a difference between being part of a close community and being a BNF. If people talk about you even if you're not around, then you're a BNF. If people talk about you just because you're an active member of a community, then you're just well-accepted in said circle. Not that that's a bad thing. It's really better if you're the latter than if you were the former.

Example for what the difference is. I'm by no means a BNF (or I hope to God I'm not). However, people know me well here because I'm just an active part of the community. The difference is that although I'd like to think I've done some pretty big things for the forum, people don't talk about me while I'm not in it. Moreover, I don't have a huge following.

That's also part of what makes a BNF -- whether or not you're popular enough to have a following. People like Blackjack are BNFs because they happen to have hundreds of people in the fandom respect them. Mozz is the same because the ASBers in a lot of communities respect him (although admittedly not to the same degrees as other ASB BNFs I know, like Deck Knight of Smogon). And I'm not talking about just a few people on a forum, either. I'm talking followings that spread all over forums with tons of people you don't even know (let alone talk to), all talking about you even if you're not around.

So... yeah. Being a BNF's a pretty complicated thing, but trust me, you don't want to be one. There's a lot of drama involved. People will talk about you, and not all of it will be good. There's wank wars over the things you do, and I've only met a handful of BNFs who didn't let their statuses get to their heads and convince them that they could do whatever they merry well pleased. (Not naming names, and I'm certainly not specifying whether or not anyone I've named is included on this list.)

As for not getting into the fandom... XD You're not missing much nowadays. Seems like the fandom's run by the Fun Police now. Ten years ago, this franchise did some crazy stuff. It still does, but now it's not so much crazy-fun as it is crazy-please-get-help. All of these popularity contests and wars over news and other stupid stuff? Make me feel no regrets over firmly planting my nostalgia goggles on my head.

Sorry I seem really pessimistic about the fandom, by the way. Some days, I can't even figure out why I don't just up and leave it because a lot of kids these days take this thing way too seriously, as ironic as it might be for me to say that.

Farla is a general BNF when it comes to fanfiction, not just on FFNet. As in, while she's only really active on FFNet when it comes to this fandom, she's usually one of the first names that come to mind pretty much everywhere except BMGf. People have even had wank wars over her reviewing style on LiveJournal, and of course they know her on SPPf. People know her in the FF&W, either because she's very occasionally brought up as an example or because she's interacted on one level or another with its more active members.

I get the feeling the newer crowds on BMGf are new to the fandom in general. Not to be rude about it or anything, but as I understand it, some of the BNFs in general fandom aren't particularly well-known over there.

To clarify, it's not really so much where the BNF is active so much as whether or not they're talked about a lot. Blackjack, for example, is a BNF according to LJ because LJ talks about her a lot. Gin's a BNF as far as LJ is concerned because that's where her fanbase is; anywhere else, not that many people have heard of her. Farla is a BNF pretty much everywhere because people talk about her on some level pretty much everywhere. Then, you've got Mozz, who's a BNF in the ASB circles because that's where he's talked about the most, and Archaic is a BNF on Bulbagarden because that's where most of his fanbase is. (Serebii, by comparison, is a BNF all over fandom because everyone's heard of him, even if they haven't interacted with him or even if he doesn't go there. Like LiveJournal.) Not sure if this makes things any clearer, but yeah, basically, whether or not you're a BNF anywhere just depends on whether or not a lot of people talk about you.

Mm, you'll hear it the longer you travel around forums -- or, in any case, you did a couple of years back. He's a pretty big player in the general ASB circuit, and as a result, if you're into Anime-Style Battling, you know who he is no matter where you go. That's the thing about BNFs. Sometimes, you might not hear much about them if you're not in the right circles. Best example? Commander Mitsumi, otherwise known as Blackjack Gabbiani (or Blackjack Rocket/BJR/some form of this). Some people on Serebii think she's a small-name fan, and some people here haven't even heard of her. I'm not sure if she's still big in every circle of BMGf, but if she isn't, you're probably wondering where I'm going with this.

She's the biggest name fan in the Pokémon fandom on LiveJournal. Next to maybe Gin, the owner of the largest merchandise-collecting community you can find. But you probably wouldn't know who Gin was, either, if you weren't a collector. She's actually probably a better example than Blackjack in this case because she's not on any of the bigger forums (which means not many of the forum goers who don't participate in the LJ part of fandom know who she is).

So, yeah. Mozz is probably like Gin. You know who he is if you're into ASBing. You don't if you're not. That doesn't necessarily mean he's not a BNF, however, because within that circle, he is.

And this just reminds me how little of a life I actually have. I could probably tell you about allll the fun parts of fandom I've seen in the more-years-than-I-wish-to-share that I've been in this fandom. And I could also tell you it was definitely better when we didn't go through these big-name forum shenanigans or news site drama and stuck to mailing lists and tiny small-name boards. Less stress and crazy.

Keep in mind that a Big Name Fan is just anyone who's well-known around the fandom, not necessarily the biggest name on the board. Mozz's name gets around, so he's still a bit of one.

That I have to admit is true, although honestly? It's why I can't stand the BNFs in this fandom. (Or any fandom, really.) A lot of them think they can get away with murder when, really, people need to realize that there's no excuse for treating someone else like crap.

And I'm sorry if I seem a little testy. It's not you; it's just that there's certain parts of this fandom that piss me off to incredible degrees. It's why I've pretty much retreated to tiny corners of it. (I used to be active all over the place, but now? Almost exclusively fanfic and small-time forums.)

I'm trying to think where he might've gotten away with it beside BMGf. Here is a maybe because they've had spotty leadership in the past. (Nowadays, not so much.) Anywhere else? Certainly not unless it was a crappy small-time forum to begin with.

Oh, I know. Remember, I was in with the cool kids back in the day. Or at least hanging around them enough.

And even then, I can understand if someone wants to joke around with friends, but he was a staff member, even back then. That kind of behavior is not excusable; if he was anywhere else, he would've at least been reprimanded. (And if he was at any of the boards I ran -- one of which was a pretty active and popular place back in the day -- he would have not only been demoted but also banned.) I mean, that's outright flaming there, and all it got from anyone else in the thread was, "Oh, you rascal you."

I mean, quite literally, I was minding my own business, posting what I thought would pass as decent BMGf discussion (considering, you know, it's advertised as "the thinking man's Pokémon board"), and what's the first response? That. From a staff member I didn't even talk to before.

And yes, it was a few years ago, but you know what they say about first impressions. And then the second and third weren't any better, so I'm inclined to say I'd rather do anything mentioned in this video than try my hand at posting there again.

And to make it easier for them if, on the off-chance, they even care enough to find this conversation, I'm going to preemptively say "and nothing of value was lost" goes both ways in this case. I am completely happy with sticking to SPPf, PC, LJ, and my own board.

To be honest, I know one of the people involved has been known to hold grudges and bring up stuff from years ago (and I honestly can't tell if we actually reached any sort of closure the last time we spoke), and part of the rest of the reason why I don't want to go back is because I don't get along with a number of other people on the mod staff or in the older members' circles. (One of the staff members told me to get laid. In a public post. Another one -- or maybe it was the same one -- once plotted to troll boards I ran or helped run over something petty. And then another one actually did.) Needless to say, I honestly would be happier being doused in a battery acid-gasoline mixture and set on fire than I would be going back to BMGf. Not to insult all BMGf users or anything. I'm sure some of the new staff or community bits aren't that bad. It's just that it's not a question of whether or not it's safe for me to come back as it is whether or not I want to punch people out. And yes, I realize that this last part is ironic compared to the first part of this VM, but hey. It was a rather nice first impression on their part. And by that, I mean not really. :|

Yeah. I joined when that RPG in my sig just started out because I was actually decent friends with some of the old BNFs around there. (Commander Mitsumi, for a good example. And then, there's others who I don't know if you'd know because I'm pretty sure they left the fandom completely around 2007 anyway.)

...And then I left because of multiple stacks of drama. :|

But lol. Looking at that account again, I can tell it's been years since I've been at BMGf. Neither of the links in the sig have been operational in forever. And because I changed e-mail providers since leaving, that particular address hasn't been touched in about a year.

Try Jax Malcolm.

*le bow at the first VM*

As for the second, think of it this way. The most common argument as to why Pokémon get capitalized is because it's canon that they do. However, canon capitalizes Pokémon names because they're practically brands in themselves. Every single Pokémon species and item are basically seen as sub-brands of a larger franchise -- as in, they're owned and copyrighted by Game Freak, Nintendo, et cetera. So, the media basically capitalizes them to separate those words that they most certainly own from pretty much everything else. Otherwise, it wouldn't make sense to capitalize words that essentially function as common nouns. (Note that most media that do capitalize words that would function as common nouns are referring to races, not just animalistic species.)

And you now have it!

By many you mean 'nothing' I suppose? =p

But sure, I'll take it on. =)

There are a few Cyrus fics, though I'm talking about ones not featuring Giratina. XD I had done one a while back and a friend of mine did one too.

Well, since I'm not going to change my name at all here, I'm stuck with this "Excessive bloom" thing.

Recognise me?

Yes. lol. I got in the moment. ;/

Yeah, after awhile, I realized I kinda wanted to take the challenge a little more seriously than I originally intended. XD

And... *le bow* Although I have to say I'm already getting burnt out, so I might end up shortening my review for a few days. Buuuut in the meantime, yeah, I just have a lot to say for most stories.

Well, see, that's the thing. If most people can't get licenses anyway, it's not as big of a deal, y'know? Where I'm from, you get a permit at sixteen and then a full license a few months after that. Additionally, because my area is very reliant on cars (so there's not a great bus system and so not a lot is within walking distance), it's very unusual to have someone who doesn't have their license or doesn't drive that often. Granted, you have a point in that society differs from area to area, but the main point I was making with the analogy is that getting a Pokémon trainer's license is a lot like a situation where it's unusual for a person not to drive. As far as we've seen in canon, the society pushes a person to get a license at ten because it's just strange for someone not to -- as in, most other people who intend on being trainers get their license at ten, and it's not exactly a frequent occurrence to see someone who's older go out for one.

With that being said, it depends on how you handle it. As I've said before, there's really nothing wrong with the age itself. It's all about how it's treated and why her parents decided to hold her back. I haven't actually read your story yet, and I can't quite grasp the full details of her situation just from what you've told me. For that reason, I don't know if you've actually explained it well. All I can say is that it could go either way. It's possible that if you took care of the more pressing issues, that one will stand out more (if, of course, it's a shaky explanation), or readers still won't mind (because it's at least not as drastic as aging up a trainer to fourteen or sixteen for no apparent reason). For the sake of avoiding shaky narration, if you're going to bring it up at all, it's best to err on the side of caution and make sure that part's strong (read: well-explained) as well. After all, you don't want to bring any fact into a story without having a reason for presenting it to an audience, which is my main point, really. (As in, if it's important for her to be eleven, that's fine, but you don't want to mention this if the reader doesn't absolutely have to know how old she is. Otherwise, you'll be implying that there's some important reason why she's eleven, hence the "explain it in detail" advice -- because then you'd be obligated to make sure it makes absolute sense to a reader.)

On that note (although I might be repeating myself by now), it's actually perfectly possible to go an entire story without mentioning how old a character is at all, especially if it's not particularly important. Have you thought about that? I mean, if you're really concerned about whether or not your reader would be put off by which parts of canon you're bending.

Mmm, what's meant by standard age exactly? Because there'd of course be a minimum age for getting a trainer's license (considering it's a lot like getting a driver's license in that there's just rules and laws in place that keep people too young to do things like that from going out and trying anyway), but it's not like you're forced to get a license at the minimum age. Going back to the driver's license analogy, the minimum age is put in place to avoid letting just anyone drive a car, but you're free to go get it any time you want so long as you're at least that minimum age. It's just that most people get their licenses at sixteen (or whatever minimum age getting a driver's license is in whatever other country) because it's a milestone a lot of teenagers look forward to. There's actually social stigmas attached to people who don't have a driver's license by that age. (Trust me on this. I got my license months after my sixteenth birthday and very rarely drove after that. People look at me funny when I bum rides off my friends.) So, quite literally, although there's no laws that say you have to get a driver's license by a certain age, society just pushes you towards getting one anyway.

Same thing applies for the Pokémon world. There's no standard age in canon, either. There's just a minimum age for receiving one's trainer's license, and that's the age of ten. (Note: In the games, the trainer's license is basically a trainer's card.) This just means that you're not allowed to become a trainer (read: participate in League-sanctioned events, most likely, as it's apparently okay to keep Pokémon as pets if you're younger than ten) before the age of ten years old, but it's actually not that unusual for a character to become a trainer at a later age. (Example.) That's because there's really nothing according to the laws that state that you have to get a trainer's license on your tenth birthday. However, most kids do because it's just a milestone they wait for most of their lives and because the Pokémon world's society is canonically structured to push kids into getting one. (Ash even gets teased and told off by Gary in Electric Tale of Pikachu because he didn't run out to get one the moment he turned ten. ...Although this was partially Ash's fault anyway because he bragged about how he would, but the fact that Gary rubbed his license in Ash's face should say enough either way.)

That all being said, you might still get a few questions about it unless you go into a bit more detail as to why her parents decided to keep her for another year. The reason why is because eleven seems like a bit of an arbitrary number. A person isn't much more mature at that age than they are at ten, and with the number of OT fics that try to have the main character start at a later age, you'll want to separate yourself from the average fic by explaining enough in order to avoid making it seem like you just wanted Rachel to be eleven (as opposed to doing this kind of thing for a plot-related reason).

Not sure if any of that made sense, but basically, I'm just saying that if you acknowledge the minimum age is ten, you'll want to be as detailed as possible for why she didn't set out/her parents didn't let her go at that age because you'll still be asked a lot of questions. And this is a question you can't really just answer by explaining the society so much as it is a question you'll have to address by figuring out the parents' motivation for keeping her.