Well…it's THAT time again, time to reflect on the year that was 2001 and look ahead into the BIG 2002.
Where did the year that was 2001 take the Ghostbusters Community? To answer that question, we really have to look within ourselves and ask, “What did I do for the community this year?”. Were you one of the creative gb fans? Working hard on your props, uniform, etc? Did you spend your time writing a GB story to post? Did you slave for months over a brand new GB fan website?
I know what I did this year…I recruited a new MTGB member, took gobs of new pictures, made several public appearances, worked a birthday party, got an article published about the MTGB, and made an appearance on a local television show,,, ALL while proudly wearing my Ghostbusters duds! All to further the cause that I really enjoy…GHOSTBUSTERS! What did YOU do to further the cause in 2001?
I've heard it said that there's a fair
bit of elitism and snobbery that exsists within the GB fan community. And at first I didn't see it. But then I really got down to thinking about it…In the GB community, only about 5% of us do the work…create the stories, props, pictures, websites and message boards that the other 95% spend your time frequenting.
95% of you spend your time bleeding the 5% dry in the creative sense, never producing anything of your own to contribute to the community. This is how fan communities are killed…because eventually the 5% that does ALL the work gets tired of working for nothing. And you know what? If being a part of this 5% makes me a “snob”, then so be it.
Since I joined this community, I've seen a million posts talking about how someone was going to make a GB fan film, or create a new GB franchise site, or a cartoon or comic…a thousand promises of things that sadly never come to pass.
There are alot of fan communities out there that really crank out the cool fan made stuff and sites (Star Wars, Star Trek, etc) Did you know that there's an entire network of stormtroopers out there? Not just across the nation…I'm talking around the world here guys! (see: www.501st.com) Literally thousands of Star Wars fans all over the planet with their own stormtrooper uniforms and gear, organized in battalions by state and country. These are guys who are seriously INTO their fandom.
So, let's ALL think seriously for a few moments about what it is we're gonna do for the Ghostbusters Community that we love in 2002. If we all pledged to try to become a member of the 5% who do all the work, we'd have a fan community that really rocked, as opposed to the so-so community that exsists now.