Hardcore Fanboys are the worst enemy of any type of entertainment. They're nuts, locked into one point of view, and will whine, cry, and biatch about any minor change because it makes the show or book or whatever different than it was when they started loving it. However, a good creative team can straddle the line, appease the fanboys that are small but vocal, and still make it interesting enough to bring in casual fans.

It's only when hardcore fanboys take over and eventually are the only ones the material is produced for because they're the only ones watching or buying that you have to have to worry. Just look at comic books.

Wow, that was one poorly written article.

The worst is when the hardcore fanboys start expecting the writers to include the fandom's headcannon as part of the cannon of the show. It reaches the point where a lot of fanboys can't distinguish their theories from the show itself, and when the writers of a show start responding to the fanboys too much it kills a show.

I'll just copy this over from the other submission of this link that didn't go green:

Has spawned two knock-off non-canon films for a quick buck? Check.
Has spawned three spin-offs, a movie, and another pilot? Check.
Has had 155+ novels and countless comics since the 60s? Check.
Has seen the release of over 200 original audio dramas? Check.
Heading into its 33rd television season? Check.
Is approaching its 50th anniversary with media in numerous formats still in production? Check.

Yeah, Doctor Who fans must really be a hazard to the viability of the franchise.

rynthetyn: The worst is when the hardcore fanboys start expecting the writers to include the fandom's headcannon as part of the cannon of the show. It reaches the point where a lot of fanboys can't distinguish their theories from the show itself, and when the writers of a show start responding to the fanboys too much it kills a show.

Actually, I'd love to see some show include a headcannon. But wouldn't it knock the character off their feet when it exploded?

FirstNationalBastard: Just look at comic books.

Pretty much, yeah. Although comic books present an interesting dichotomy. The fans demand to be pandered to, and yet loathe when they feel like they're being pandered to.

That article made my eyes bleed.
The shows worst enemy is of course budget cuts.
But then we get kookier costumes and sets.

I have a theory that the number of people who will actually boycott a show they love because of some minor change is vanishingly small. But instead of ignoring the biatching, far too many creative programs bend over and cater to the complaining. When the finished product comes out, they complain that it isn't as awesome as they were hoping anyway. So what have you gained?

One example is the "racebending" controversy with Last Airbender. Huge hubbub, but I bet you every single one of those complainers went and saw the movie anyway. It sucked, of course, but they were there.

GreenAdder: FirstNationalBastard: Just look at comic books.

Pretty much, yeah. Although comic books present an interesting dichotomy. The fans demand to be pandered to, and yet loathe when they feel like they're being pandered to.

Not entirely true. As a fan of comics, I cringe when I hear a new comic movie is coming out (w/the exception of stuff from Marvel Studios). I don't expect a slavish devotion to the comic or even one particular story arc but it drives me nuts when I see it completely disregarded. The first 2 Spiderman movies, first 2 X-Men movies, & the Tim Burton & Christoper Nolan Batman movies were good. They all kept fairly close to the origin and played a little w/actual storylines from the books. The Watchmen completely changed the ending but was still well done. Kick-Ass took some liberties but was still a decent flick. Ang Lee's Hulk wasn't horrible, just boring and missing more Hulk Smash scenes.

But then you get to Spiderman 3, X-Men 3, Wolverine, Catwoman--horrible messes that just went completely off the rails. I expect and even admire a little creative license from scriptwriters. What bugs me is when they seem to go out of their way to ignore or completely change perfectly good plotlines from decades of good stories just to put their own personal spin on it. Those exercises usually end up as disasters.

Hey, I like science fiction TV/movie series as much as the next TFer, but once anyone starts talking about "canon" I tend to back away.

they're certainly among my worst enemies.

rynthetyn: The worst is when the hardcore fanboys start expecting the writers to include the fandom's headcannon as part of the cannon of the show. It reaches the point where a lot of fanboys can't distinguish their theories from the show itself, and when the writers of a show start responding to the fanboys too much it kills a show.

This paragraph made me think of Lost. I'm not sure if the writers responded to the fans or not, so maybe not that sentence. But so many fans had theory upon theory woven into their brains that when it was time to end the series, there was no way to possibly satisfy all of them.

I don't think this phenomenon is relegated to Doctor Who fans, but it does seem to be prevalent in Sci-Fi fans in general. Why? The internet. How come no one goes off the deep end when The Good Wife has a bad episode? Because our grandparents don't give a shiat. They say "that sucked" and move on. Sci-Fi fans, however, take to the internet. "Did anyone else think that sucked?" "Yeah, that sucked monkeyballs, man!" And then it snowballs and before you know it, it's a horde of nerds trying to one-up and out-insult each other. And then maybe someone who liked it will check in on what everyone else thinks and not say anything because they feel their opinion is unpopular and really, they don't feel like engaging in an hours-long flamewar to defend their opinion.

I like to say nice things to my favorite stars & shows on Twitter sometimes, even though it feels like gushing. But it's almost like so many fans want to be the most scathing, the wittiest, the first to let it be known that they did NOT like that story arc/episode/wardrobe choice. Positive feedback is rare, so it probably feels like everyone hated it, even when it's just the noisy, filterless pricks who hate everything anyway.

Dr. Who fans are not that "rabid" as far as I know. They generally embrace every new Doctor or at least gives him a bit to warm up to them. And the show's format is so flexible, you can have every genre and "feel".

Comic fans are pretty bad, because the audience is so inbred its not even funny. The most profitable and popular comic series is actually Archie Comics. Why? They are the only ones still being sold in grocery stores. The most popular writer is Grant Morrison, who is nothing more than a fan fiction gone bad...

Absolute worse is Star Wars "fans" How many times have their been Fark threads that just fill up due to the idiots that feel they are entitled to an recreation of a once in a generation experience?

rynthetyn: The worst is when the hardcore fanboys start expecting the writers to include the fandom's headcannon as part of the cannon of the show. It reaches the point where a lot of fanboys can't distinguish their theories from the show itself, and when the writers of a show start responding to the fanboys too much it kills a show.

Amen to that.

When you start thinking that he creator of a piece of media is getting it wrong, then you're too into it.

TheManofPA: FirstNationalBastard: rynthetyn: The worst is when the hardcore fanboys start expecting the writers to include the fandom's headcannon as part of the cannon of the show. It reaches the point where a lot of fanboys can't distinguish their theories from the show itself, and when the writers of a show start responding to the fanboys too much it kills a show.

Actually, I'd love to see some show include a headcannon. But wouldn't it knock the character off their feet when it exploded?

I am tempted to give you a hard time because this is the first DW thread in awhile where someone hasn't gotten mad at your post within the first 25.

You know, with budget cuts, a DW villain that is simply a person with a cannon for a head would be fun.

Or, a great Tick villain.

thomps: they're certainly among my worst enemies.

Especially after these appear in an episode.

Jensaarai: Judging by the massive amounts of biatching in almost every Fark Who thread, the answer is an undeniable: YES!

Sci-fi fans are the crankiest, biatchiest, most unpleasable group you could ever try to target. On top of that, they have a victimization complex, thinking that the reason their favorite shows always get cancelled or face massive budget cuts is some sort of evil conspiracy, rather than the natural result of the fact they can't be depended upon to put in the ratings numbers to keep even their favorite franchises afloat. They pirate relentlessly, then biatch when the writing quality or special effects decline.

To be fair, sci-fi is niche programming, and will probably never do major ratings. There's a dedicated set of fans that will always watch, but the shoe's viewers will probably never expand past that.

For all of the biatching about Fringe, for example... Fox gave the show, what, 4 seasons already? That's good for any show. And ratings have consistently been crap throughout the show's run, but Fox has kept giving it chance after chance. Hell, by the end of this season, the show will have enough episodes for Syndication. What more do people want? I mean, it isn't like when Sci-Fi Channel canceled Sliders or MST3K when Sliders was the #2 rated show on the network, and MST3K was still pulling in great ratings...

Counter_Intelligent: 'struth. Fanboys made Derpy go full retard.

You are a Pony's worst enemy.

Sangi: Yes most of the fans are crazy. Its not just DW. Goto any fan board after a show airs and its filled with mostly biatching about the show. Its tiring. I guess its easier for people to talk about things that they hate and nitpick that talk about what they like.

The "EVERYTHING IS FINE, HOW DARE YOU UTTER A BAD WORD ABOUT MY FAVORITE THING!" crowd are just as annoying.

ShawnDoc: Wow, that was one poorly written article

I saw the article in Den of Geek before getting on Fark and I decided not to submit it because I didn't think it was very good.