You have a thread seemingly open to arguments about the best time in Star Wars. (To be fair I know your question there was essentially rhetorical.)
I’m not sure what about the question was rhetorical, and my thread didn’t really have anything to do with the “fandom” or this forum. I don’t care about the concept of “fandom” and don’t personally identify with it. There’s a difference between the content and how the fans respond to it.
It was a thread about the best time in Star Wars, as I said. Or as you titled it, “Is Star Wars ‘Better Than It’s Ever Been’?” I took that in the same sense I’ve been using “Star Wars” to refer to the content and the fan response, the latter referenced several times in your initial post of that thread.
When I think of Star Wars I don’t really think of the fandom at all. The title wasn’t the best “time” in Star Wars, which would potentially imply that, but whether Star Wars is “better than ever,” which in my mind narrows it down to the content. I only talked about fans in my first post insofar as the general popularity of the series and hype pertained to my own excitement. I didn’t say anything about the community, if anything I was talking about how it’s not just an insular “community.”
From my second post in the thread
I’d say it might be if every nerd wasn’t at another’s throat 110% of the time because of it.
That’s a very good point, though I guess I was mainly thinking content-wise. Certainly the internet discourse is probably worse than it’s ever been, though I’ll say my in-person discussions have grown and they’re usually pretty pleasant, even if we’re not always entirely on the same page.
I mean if you want to talk about the “fandom” in that thread that’s fine, but I was definitely coming at it from the perspective of the content, mostly because my own experience with the “fandom” is entirely nonexistent (I have had interactions with other people who like the series of course, but have no involvement whatsoever in the fan “community,” beyond I suppose being a member here, which I wouldn’t count*), and I myself have only been alive for roughly half the saga’s life. It’s hard for me to judge what I didn’t experience, but all the content overtime can be looked at easily.
*this conversation started about the quality of discussion on this forum as whole over time, which I think is only tangentially related to the state of the “fandom” in general at best
This is somewhat tangential at this point as I was responding to one particular statement of yours. You’re straining to say you weren’t speaking about the best “time” in Star Wars. You ask in your thread, “With that out of the way, has there ever been a better time for the series?”
You say you were thinking “mainly” about content. Fair enough, but you also had a full paragraph about popularity and excitement, which goes beyond quality of content. It can be related but isn’t necessarily.
And you wrap up with, “Whatever you think of some of the movies, this is inarguably an exciting time. Is it the most exciting time?”
So even setting aside “some of the movies” you ask about excitement.
Back to your statement: “Saying ‘Star Wars fandom was in a better place before Disney’ just seems outright silly though.”
As I said, you have a thread (at least partially) related to that question.
I guess I’d be curious to know why you think Star Wars fandom is better (or the same?) since Disney.
I only mean in regards to “best time,” that my phrasing for the headline was more specific. Obviously they are related concepts, I just feel like the way I worded it in my title seemed to pretty clearly (in my mind at least) imply that I was speaking mainly to the content. You seem to be anxious to prove me wrong, and I don’t know maybe what I’m saying doesn’t make sense and there’s no difference, I’m just telling you what went through my mind when I made the thread.
As I’ve said multiple times now, the thread as I conceived it has nothing to do with the “fandom.” I think that’s a different concern than “popularity and excitement,” those concepts pertaining to the general audience opinion (as well excitement having to do a lot with the steady stream of content and hype for the series), not that of the insular fan community. I feel like that’s the distinction that you keep missing here. I don’t care about the community because I don’t consider myself a part of it.
Making declarations about it being worse now seems silly to me because a) it’s nebulous and hard to measure, and b) based on what I can tell from fan conventions it seems like they’re having a good time, it’s really only the internet discourse that seems to have deteriorated (but as I said I don’t think that is exclusive to Star Wars and because of Disney).
I’m not sure what about this topic has so moved you to persist in arguing with me about the purpose of my own thread. If you felt so adamant that this conversation fit there, you easily could have posted it there (as I’ve now mentioned multiple times, it wasn’t what I had in mind for the thread but isn’t necessarily outside the scope of what I established).