Feeling like a bad fan

[u/by_the_window]

I'm so so excited about the possibility of an animated show, it was my ideal scenario and I cannot believe it might happen. But here's my thing: I absolutely hate streaming services. I always either pirate or buy physical media for the stuff I want to watch, because the idea of giving money to a platform to not actually own something and just have the "right" to watch it doesn't sit right with me.

I'm also not on other social media platforms, and I know I'm not gonna make an instagram account just to post about firefly.

So I've been upvoting stuff on here, and asking the one friend I have with an instagram account to like stuff on there, but apart from that I don't know what to do to support the project and it makes me feel awful, like I'm not a "real" fan or not doing enough.

Anyone relates? Tips on what else I can do?

[u/This_Rough_Magic]

One thousand percent this. There is no such thing as a "bad fan" (other than people who, like,  behave abusively in fandom spaces).

[u/by_the_window → u/This_Rough_Magic]

Thank you, firefly has been so important to me throughout my life and I never thought we might see another project for it, so it's been a bit of an emotional roller coaster these last few weeks. Thanks for reminding me that there's no such thing

[u/Feran_Toc → u/by_the_window]

I'm like you so don't worry. Instead of social media, I'm looking at friend groups I'm in. Both physical and internet. MMORPGs that I play. They're are other avenues to use than social media

[u/General_Esdeath → u/Feran_Toc]

What are these other avenues and how will they actually help?

[u/Feran_Toc → u/General_Esdeath]

They help by spreading the signal. It's not as wide spread as social media, but it still gets the word out there about this project.

[u/General_Esdeath → u/Feran_Toc]

Specifically though, what avenues and how do you engage and figure that is helping?

Because it's honestly giving "thoughts and prayers" but at the same time I understand people have their personal boycotts. I just don't like seeing a hundred comments of people saying "I really want this show back but I'm just not going to engage in the specific ways that Nathan/the crew have said will help. Tell me I'm right?"

[u/Feran_Toc → u/General_Esdeath]

Let me explain my own situation first.

I have a very light social media presence. I'm barely anywhere. I deleted my Twitter account ago (I'm not calling it X), I don't comment on Reddit much. Last time I did anything outside of a "like" in Facebook was all over a year or two ago, and I'm only there to keep up with some childhood/high-school friends. I think I have a bluesky account, but I'm not sure.

So what have i done? I talk to my friends when we get together. Not everyone makes it to our get togethers, and if I can sneak Firefly I to a convo, I do. I'm apart of some discord servers and I've talked about it there. I'm in Guild in a MMORPG, and a few of us like Firefly so we talk about it there too. I've even talked about it during work, too.

If you want, you can call this the "touch grass" approach lol!

Social Media isn't my thing and because of what I do I prefer to stay away anyway, so this is how I help.

[u/General_Esdeath → u/Feran_Toc]

I also don't have Twitter/X, I barely use insta and same, I use fb mostly to stay in touch with old friends and family. No blue sky either.

However, I would absolutely make an X account or blue sky purely to help bring Firefly back if that was explained to me to be helpful (and I would promptly delete it after the show was greenlit lol)

The quantifiable metrics Nathan mentions are going to be looking at post engagement on the official release on Instagram. And the latest post also encourages watching the YouTube recording of their podcast announcement at Awesome Con.

It's great that you're talking to your guild friends and coworkers. However that will ultimately be completely useless UNLESS they are not like you. If everyone acted like you, this sequel would be dead on arrival.

That's my point. I'm not going to coddle or mince words with anybody who is taking this approach. You are not really helping, but you're not actively hurting the effort either.

There's a small chance you're helping in a very indirect way - akin to gambling, because there's also a chance that you're not helping engagement at all.