Fannish Drift Survey

The Fannish Drift Survey is an informal survey hosted in August of 2020 to gather data surrounding fandom practices and definitions through time. It was split into two identical surveys, one for the age group between years 1943 - 1980 ("Baby Boomers" and "Gen X") and the other for 1981 - 2020 ("Millennials" and "Gen Z"). 
While it had a demographics section it's main focus was on the collection of fandom term definitions in relation to age group and the year participants joined fandom. Most criticism of the survey is in regards to this demographics section. And, though the survey may have had some issues and may have benefited from being run a little differently, it succeeded in gathering thousands of respondents of varying age to define seventeen fandom terms across multiple branches of fandom. The results are a wealth of opinions and varying definitions, and its internet/fandom history section has complied hundreds of accounts of things such as Usenet newsgroups and fandom migrations.
==Promotion==
The survey was shared across at least eleven platforms. The "main stream" social platforms it was shared on were: Tumblr, Pillowfort, Twitter, DeviantART, Dreamwidth, and Toyhouse. The forums it was shared on were: Petz Forum, The Furry Forum, TrekBBS, Creatures Caves, and The Doctor Who Forum. The post promoting the survey on the Creatures Caves forum was removed due to the nature of the questions requesting respondents define "MAP" and "lemons." The survey was not promoted on any fanfiction based websites, such as Archive of Our Own, nor video-driven websites, such as Youtube, though some definitions pertained to fanfiction and video making.
==Results==
The 1943-1980 version of the survey ended with 538 responses and the 1981-2020 version ended with 1,475, for a total of 2,013 responses. Results with decimal points are rounded up.
===Demographics===
====Birth Year 1943-1980====
The majority were between ages 40-57 years old (82%), with the smallest demographic being between the ages of 67-77 years of age (2%). Sexuality and gender were optional, with 525 answering their sexuality and 523 answering their gender. 35% were heterosexual and 34% were bisexual, with the smallest percentage being homosexual with 8%. 4% identified as other. This means that the majority chose an option that was not heterosexual, at 409 responses out of 525, equaling 77%. The overwhelming majority identified as cisgender (85%), with the next largest being Non-binary (6%).
52% said they joined fandom between the years 1992-2002, with the second largest group being between 2003-2013 (16%) and the third largest 1981-1991 (14%). The smallest group was 1965-1975 (3%). No respondents selected 1954-1964.
The three social media websites used the most were Livejournal (83%), Twitter (81%), and Tumblr (76%). The three social media sites used the least were Weasly (0%), Inkbunny (0.4%), and Furcadia (0.6%). Only one respondent selected that they used no social media websites listed.
The three sources most used for Fanfiction were Archive of Our Own (89%), Fanfiction.net (55%), and a personal website (37%). The three least used were Quotev (0%), FicWad (0.7%), and Wattpad (6%). 26% selected other and 7% said they did not read nor post fanfiction.
====Birth Year 1981-2020====
56% were between the 29-39 years of age, 42% between 18-28 years of age, 1.8% between 7-17 years of age, and no one selected 0-6 years of age. Sexuality and gender were optional, with 1,426 answering their sexuality and 1,436 answering their gender. The majority were bisexual (45%) with the second most selected answer being asexual (27%). The least selected option was pansexual (10%) and 8% selected other. This means 88% selected an option that wasn't heterosexual. The overwhelming majority were cisgender (65%) with the second most selected option being non-binary (22%). The least selected option was bigender (0.7%), and 6% selected other. This means only 35% were not cisgender.
The majority joined fandom between 2003-2013 (53%), with 1992-2002 being the second most selected (38%). The least selected was 1981-1991 (1%).
The social websites used the most were Tumblr (93%), Twitter (78%), and Livejournal (69%). The least used were Inkbunny (0.5%), Weasly (1%), and Furcadia (2%). 0.7% selected none. 
Of the fanfiction based websites, nearly everyone used Archive of Our Own (95%), the next being Fanfiction.net (79%) and a forum (30%). 33% selected other and 3% said they did not read nor post fanfiction.
===Internet/Fandom History===
This section of the survey takes less priority over the defining of fandom words, but may contain some useful information on how age groups see certain parts of internet/fandom history. It may also show how many are willing to attempt an answer, as well as how many do not know about certain occurrences at all. However, the 500 response difference between survey versions makes this section of the survey difficult to make generalizations from. There were five questions, including what a Usenet newsgroup was and what the Organization for Transformative Works was. To read all the responses to each of the the five questions it is best to view the results directly. Only the more fandom related questions are covered below.
====Birth Year 1943-1980====
One of the more interesting questions that got many long, well thought out responses, was "can you describe the events of a fandom migration that has occurred?" There are 76 instances of "strikethrough," 9 of "boldthrough," 202 of "Tumblr," 114 of "Dreamwidth," and 14 of "Pillowfort." Though many users were able to describe some form of website migration, there were some responses that described moving from one fandom to the other, or otherwise not understanding the question. A few responses are below.
Another question with interesting results was "Do you know what the Organization for Transformative Works is, and why Archive of Our Own got created?" A relatively small number mentioned other projects that the OTW created, such as Open Doors and Fanlore itself.
====Birth Year 1981-2020====
Of the younger age groups, when asked to describe a fandom migration, there were 247 instances of "strikethrough," 47 of "boldthrough," 653 of "Tumblr," 58 of "Pillowfort," and 266 of "dreamwidth." 26 just said "I don't know." Some quotes are below.
When asked "Do you know what the Organization for Transformative Works is, and why Archive of Our Own got created," only about 5 said no. Some quotes are below.
===Defining Words===
This section of the survey was the most important and the main point of the survey. It asked the definition of 17 words from various parts of fandom, and included both old and contemporary terms. Some words made use of their abbreviations instead, such as asking for the definition of "OTA" instead of "offer to adopt." Due to the number of questions and responses not every word can be covered here, though some observations can still be made. 
The easiest and fastest way to make conclusions is by word association. This means taking the data into a spreadsheet and using the "find" function, then imputing specific words to see how many respondents associated that word with the definition. For example, taking the data for the word "god modding" and seeing how many respondents associated the word "roleplay" with it versus the word "moderator," or the data for "drabble" and seeing how many used the number "100" verses those who didn't. The nature of the find function requires some words to be simplified; for example, the word "warning" must be cut down to "warn," because "warn" will locate both the word warn and the word warning while "warning" will only locate warning. 
While this can end up drawing imperfect numbers (in cases where someone may have made a typo or used a synonym) it's helpful in drawing rough numbers for each question without having to read the entire 2,000 responses. However, for more open ended and subjective words, like crackship, this method may be generally unhelpful. These more open and subjective words may have smaller word associations, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the respondents' answers were wrong. A full list of word associations can be found directly on the survey pages, though some are listed in the section below for comparisons across surveys.
The words from the survey are as follows: 
*Fanfiction Terms: drabble, disclaimer, lemons, dead dove do not eat
*Video Terms: Vid, AMV, MAP
*General Terms: Crackship, Big Name Fan, callout post, cringe culture,
*Forum and Roleplay Terms: Chatbox, flaming, god modding
*Adoptable and Original Species Terms: OTA, AB, ARPG
==Comparisons==
Some comparisons can be made by use of the percentages, though one should continue to note the 500 respondent difference between survey versions.
For demographics, the older generations identified as the mostly non-heterosexual (77%) and overwhelmingly cisgender (85%). The younger generations identified as mostly bisexual (45%) and cisgender (65%), and 88% non-heterosexual. However, despite the younger generation having 500 more responses than the other, they still identified as 20% less cisgender than their older peers. 97% of the older generation were willing to self-identify their sexuality compared to 96.6% of their younger peers, making them nearly even, with the exact same results for gender. 
Across the board, the three most used websites are Livejournal, Twitter, and Tumblr, and the three least used are Inkbunny, Weasly, and Furcadia. However, more of the younger generation used Weasly (1%) compared to the older generation, who said they did not use it at all. Similarly, the websites used most for fanfiction are Archive of Our Own and Fanfiction.net. The third most used fanfiction website is different between surveys, with the younger generation saying they'd used a forum and the older saying they'd used a personal website. This may mean millenials and gen z are more likely to be located on forums than to own or browse other fans' personal domains, though the survey cannot determine the reason why.
Generally, both versions of the survey showed fandom members of all ages are relatively knowledgeable about internet/fandom history, including knowledge of Usenet newsgroup, strikethrough, Geocities, the Tumblr purge, and the OTW. However, when asked about fandom migrations the younger generation were more likely to mention Tumblr (44% vs 37%), but mentioned Dreamwidth less than the older (18% vs 21%). Though these are only small differences, this may mean a smaller portion of the younger generation spoke about the Tumblr purge more than the older generation, or simply associated Tumblr with migration more.
For "vid," 36% of the younger generations associated the word with some form of music, compared to 40% of the older generation. This may mean the definition of vid has become more broad with the younger generations. For "MAP," the younger associated it with animation 14% of the time and pedophilia 23% of the time. The older associated it with animation 0.6% of the time and pedophilia 6% of the time. This means the younger are more aware of both multi-animated projects and minor attracted persons, with minor attracted person being more well known than multi-animator project. 
For "AMV," 54% of younger generations associated it with anime and 25% associated it with general animation, compared to the older generation which 33% associated it with anime and 2% associated it with general animation. This may mean the younger generations are more likely to identify AMV as meaning animated music video instead of anime music video, or may see it as more interchangeable than the older.
For "OTA," the younger got the definition of offer to adopt right 7% of the time and the older got it right 1% of the time. Some people thought OTA was similar to One True Paring. The younger associated it with one true 3% of the time and the older 5% of the time. For "ARPG" the younger associated it with art 5% of the time and action 15% of the time. The older associated it with art 2% of the time and action 12% of the time. This means more people may read ARPG as action roleplay game instead of art roleplay game. For "AB" (autobuy) the young got the answer correct 3.8% of the time and associated it with alpha/beta at least 11% of the time. The older got it right 0.1% of the time- meaning only one person answered correctly. At least 12% associated it with alpha/beta. This means while the younger seem only slightly more likely to understand this adoptable term, across the board just as many understand it as alpha/beta or simply didn't know the answer.
For "chatbox," the younger associated it with forums 6% of the time and RP 0.4% of the time, and mentioned Discord and Skype 1.3% of the time. The older associated it with forums 2% of the time, RP 0.3% of the time, and Discord and Skype 0.8% of the time. The younger associating chatboxes with forums more than the older somewhat corresponds with the fact the third most used place for fanfics among the younger were forums. For "flaming," the younger associated it with hate 16% of the time and flame war 3% of the time. The older associated it with hate 5% of the time and flame war 7% of the time. For "god modding," 10% of the younger generation associated it with moderators (i.e. mods on a forum) compared to 11% of the older generation, meaning consensus on this word is likely pretty consistent. 
For "Big Name Fan," the younger associated the word with popular 28% of the time while the older associated it 21% of the time. The younger also used the abbreviation BNF 7% of the time while the older did it 9% of the time. For "callout post" the younger associated it with Tumblr 5% of the time, and the older associated it with Tumblr 3% of the time. This word is more open ended and subjective. For "cringe culture," the younger associated it with "bully" 3% of the time and embarrass 23% of the time, while the older associated it with bully 1% of the time and embarrass 13% of the time. This is another mostly subjective word.
For "lemons," the younger associated it with smut 26% of the time, explicit 34% of the time, fanfic 24% of the time. The older associated it with smut 10% of the time, explicit 28% of the time, and fanfic 14% of the time. The younger also mentioned the citrus scale 4% of the time and the older 2% of the time. For "dead dove do not eat" the younger associated it with warn 34% of the time, tag 30% of the time, and fanfic 5% of the time. The older associated it with warn 25% of the time, tag 17% of the time, and fanfic 2% of the time.
On the definition of "drabble," 65% of the younger generation mentioned the 100 word rule, compared to 72% of the older generation, for a 7% difference. This means the younger generation may slowly be changing the 100 word rule into something more broad. For "disclaimer," the younger associated it with being sued 32% of the time and mentioned Anne Rice 7% of the time. The older associated it with being sued 28% of the time and mentioned Anne Rice 4% of the time.
Overall, using word associations, there shows a difference between responses between the two surveys. The survey for older generations of fans tends to have fewer word associations, even for older words with clear definitions, such as "lemons." One would assume that for a word like "lemons" there would have been straight forward associations, specifically with words related to NSFW or even the citrus scale. However, there is still a 24% difference with the association of the word smut, and a smaller 2% difference for the phrase citrus scale. This seems to be the pattern for most of the associations used, with some small outliers like "drabble." Possible Conclusions: Majority of respondents responded with some form of "no" or "idk," the majority responded something wrong/unrelated, or majority of respondents defined these words using phrases that aren't as obvious (example: though "lemons" SHOULD be associated with NSFW words like smut, it's possible this age group could have used words like 'nasty,' 'gross,' 'inappropriate,' 'x-rated,' etc, to refer to NSFW content instead).
==Issues and Criticisms==
Most criticism surrounded the demographics section, as it was lacking. For example, though the section asking respondents to mark down every social media website they've ever used was generally thorough, the section asking respondents to mark down every site they'd used for fanfiction was less so. This section did not include any blogging websites, such as Livejournal or Tumblr, causing some respondents to choose "other" to make up for it.
Though optional, the demographics question on gender did not make any distinctions between trans men and trans women, nor cis men and cis women, simply leaving the options as "cisgender" and "transgender." Some respondents wanted to be more specific with their gender but thus did not have the option.
The survey covered four generations, but each survey grouped two generations together rather than separate each one into four surveys. While this may not have been a big issue, it may have served the survey better to also make a distinction between the years the respondents joined fandom. For example, two fandom members who were both born in 1952 may have different answers if one of them joined fandom in the 1980s while the other joined fandom in 2012, regardless of age.
When originally posted, the survey for the older demographic had one or two questions in the demographics section in which respondents could only chose one option, despite the questions being meant as multiple choice. The issue was fixed after 4 responses, making the problem have minimal affect on the survey.
The first question of the younger demographic survey was edited. This was a minor edit meant to make the age range seem more clear, but it did not change anything else about the question otherwise. Due to the nature of Google Forms this caused the results page to display the answers as if there were 8 separate answers rather than 4. While this did not alter the raw data at all this mishap meant that in order to understand the respondents clearly the surveyor(s) would have to add up the responses to the question by hand, rather than rely solely on the result's page split answers.