User blog:SodaCat/BFW & Me

I know these died out but I kinda wanted my daily dosage of nostagia so I decided to do one of em "my life on BFW" blogs. I mean, yolo, amirite??? (sorry)

The Beginning

So, there wasn't always a Bully Fanon Wiki. It actually came a decent amount of time after the Wikia Bully fanfiction movement began. It originally started over on Bully Wiki.

I first joined BW in... 2010? 2011? Not quite sure, I think it was 2010. Anyway, I remember my first impression of it was... confusing. And then, I thought Dan hated me, 'cause I didn't get how forums work. Ahhh, those were the days.

I'm pretty sure I was the first to post a full fledged blog-story thing on the wiki. It was called Jenny Wolf's Diary, and it'd have everything you'd imagine from someone who sat down and wrote out the beginnings of their fangirliest dreams. Oh yeah, I used to be a major Johnny Vincent fangirl. Now I'm just a like, Chipotle fangirl. It's sad.

Anyway, JWD had a lot of spelling errors, run-on sentences, and improper formatting. It was poorly written and... outright terrible.

Irregardless, it received some attention. That was kinda when I met Kate, one of the first writers. She said she was inspired by my fanfiction, and soon started her own, about her OC Kate Harrington. We had a couple conversations along with some anon users. About 5 days after it was posted, Link commented, and I met Link! He compared my fic to reading a book, which of course made little young amateur writer me become even more motivated to keep writing.

The funny thing is, a lot of people told me they loved it and that it was like reading a book. Someone even told me I could publish it and make a million dollars. I mean, that's totally not true--not only is there copyright issues, but also the fic was just... not book worthy. It was really shitty. The blogs got a lot of attention though--especially for a low-traffic wiki. It wasn't until the fourth chapter that Dan commented, telling me it was a good read. Of course, that was like, the ultimate approval for me. I started moving up in the wiki.

It was wild. We had a ton of people starting fanfics, and I gotta admit--it was pretty overwhelming/flattering for me to realize that all of these fics were starting because of me. I was pretty young when I started writing, completely inexperienced, and all the positive feedback I was getting was just... incredible. It made me want to become a writer.

That, and my work on the canon side of the wiki helped me get promoted to patroller, and later to administrator, a title I'm still proud to hold today. It was all because of the fanfiction; it made me want to know everything about Bully. It made me want to teach everyone everything about Bully.

The summer of 2010 was honestly such a nice time. Every time you refreshed Bully Wiki, there'd be 6 new activity things. Everyone messaged each other back and forth about story collaborations, trading art of each others OCs, and just plain joking around. Even people who didn't write, still joined in on the fun. It was one of the best wiki bonding things I've ever seen.

The End of the Beginning, but a New Beginning

It got to the point where Bully Wiki was just... overwhelmed. Too many people were editing fanfiction, nobody was editing canon. You couldn't see if someone vandalized a canon page because of the fanfiction writers. We all knew it had to go.

I was really upset we had to delete all of our blogs, or at least stop posting. I used to be a really shy kid, so the idea of losing my internet heaven seemed like hell. I don't know where I picked up the word fanon; I think I got the idea from the Twilight fanon wiki? Not sure.

Anyway, I was just roaming the internet, when my heart rate shot up as it does when I get an idea. I typed in "bullyfanon.wikia.com" to my browser as fast as I could, prepared to create the wiki if it didn't exist. But it did. This place was sitting there, abandoned. The founder had made around 35 edits over the span of 3 days and then quit. I knew I had to act fast, before everyone quit Wikia.

I put in my request to adopt Bully Fanon Wiki as soon as I could, and I didn't tell anyone on Bully Wiki about it just in case it was denied. It wasn't. Community Central replied and suddenly there I was, inexperienced as a bureaucrat and obsessed with Johnny Vincent and fanfiction, suddenly in charge of a whole damn wiki.

The Baby Years

Once my step-ownership was granted, I let people on Bully Wiki know that Bully Fanon existed. I posted JWD on here, making it the first fanfiction ever posted on Bully Fanon (the founder of the wiki never made any fanfiction/fanon pages). I think Link was the second one to come over. Kate had quit about two days before I found BFW.

It was a slow migration, but a steady one. People came on, started posting their fics. It seemed a revival of the summer of 2010 was in order, and it more or less was. We'd lost a couple people, but in the long run, it became a community again--of writers. Of course, my first staff promotions were Jeff and Dan, as I was terrified of running a wiki by myself.

I won't lie, the wiki wasn't that visually appealing. I still had no idea what I was doing customization wise, and nobody else really had interest in making it look pretty. All we wanted to do was write our fanfictions--so we did.

A Brief Abandonment

Around late 2011, I called it quits on Bully. I don't know; it was dumb. I got more into visual art and other fandoms, and I guess I just kinda lost interest in Bully. So I just left. I'm disappointed in myself for that; it was an irresponsible move to leave without leaving anyone in charge.

I'm not gonna make up that I came and visited, because I seldom did. I don't know what happened between that time and when I came back. I was gone for like two years. Well, maybe it was less, but it feels like two years. I think I visited on occasion, posted stupid blogs but... I wasn't really here.

The Return

As it happens with all phases, I got out of my other fandoms out of boredom. I came here because I missed the feeling of community. When I came back, I was... disappointed.

People wouldn't be active for days. Things were posted very rarely. It was depressing. It was like an empty shell. Just faded memories of what it used to be; home.

So I dipped out again.

I came back soon enough, because I guess I just couldn't stay away. I told Michael I was coming back for good. As if by magic, suddenly everyone started coming back. Well, not everyone, but a decent amount of people.

Our wiki is growing, and that's what makes all of this worth it. I'm so happy everyone is here; this place feels like home again. It's growing every day, not only in numbers but also in quality. Everyone's writing improves every day, and I'm glad with the new ideas we've had here to help people grow even more.

I personally started writing shit, but it was the encouragement I received that made me keep going and become a stronger writer. I won't say I'm the best, but I'm a whole damn better than I was five years ago. I love seeing people improve in the same way I did; and have fun all the while. I think that's what I love most about this place; we don't knit-pick and criticize. We help.

It's still shocking to me that all this started with the simple posting of a fanfiction one day when I was bored.