Fansites: Super Heroes or Super Villains? (I'm totally joking, please don't kill me)

So I'm taking a break from writing about Bonnie and Clyde and some other tedious little topics we're working on and I want to write a little bit about fansites. Mainly because people ask a lot of questions via ask.fm about this fansite or that fansite or just general questions.

The Secret Identity

I want to start off by saying: no one knows WHO exactly is responsible for what fansite unless they're friends with that person or know some one who is friends with them. Fansites don't wear badges or signs at events announcing who they are and they certainly don't introduce themselves using their site name. If you do somehow catch wind of a fansite's secret identity you're expected to keep it pretty hush hush. It's a pretty asshole thing to do if you're at a SHINee event to point at someone and loudly announce; 'Oh that's Keylovelove91' (as an example).

Keeping that in mind you can probably guess that it's really super hard to know anything substantial about any fansite. If you make friends with some people who know some fansite crews, chances are they're only going to have any connections to one or two fansites. Also a fansite often times does not consist of just one person. They might have 2 - 4 people (maybe more) situated in different areas taking photos and videos on DSLR and video cameras. Those people, at the end of the event, will rapidly take photos of their screen with their phone and shoot them off to someone waiting on a computer who might photoshop the preview picture, add a watermark and then upload it to twitter. So if you're a fan of a particular fansites work chances are you might be fangirling a group of people's dedication. Some people also will take fancams of both Taemin and Jonghyun, for example, and then give their Taemin footage to a Taemin fansite and their Jonghyun footage to a Jonghyun fansite. At events with multiple artists a fansite photographer might spend the whole time taking photos and filming other artists and send their stuff to other friends or do who knows what with it.

I can pin a few faces to certain sites from the few times I've been standing next to them at events, but like I said, they could just be taking photos for someone else. The point I'm trying to make by even writing this is that fansites don't want their personal information getting out. They don't want their looks described or any questions to be answered about them. Any information you're lucky enough to stumble across about a fansite is expected to be kept to yourself. So I can't answer any questions about anyone, not that I even know that much to share anyway.

Fansites are actually anti-heroes

Some fansite photographers are the biggest assholes on the entire planet. Anyone who's been to an event where photography was allowed would know that it is pure, unadulterated hell. I mentioned Gangnam Festival a few posts ago and while it was one of the most amazing SHINee moments of my entire life I should also mention that fansite photographers completely ruined that event for a lot of unfortunate people. Gangnam Festival featured not only SHINee, but also EXO and Infinite among other groups. Three of the most popular groups in the entirety of Korea. There are like 7 people in Infinite right? So 5+12+7= 24 popular male idols. Each of them might have had at least 5 fansites in the audience each. And each fansite might have had multiple photographers. You can imagine how many camera's were in that audience. To the point that Jonghyun made a comment about how many camera's were present (said very politely and kindly, Manners Jonghyun ^.^). While there were a lot of normal fans in the crowd, towards the front where I was the majority of people seemed to be fansite photographers. They are completely relentless. They do not care about anyone around them, they just live to get the perfect shot. Most of them had portable folding stools to stand on, leaving everyone else to see nothing but the back of their heads for the entire night. They scream at each other and people around them, glare, push and hiss. Generally act like possessed psychotic demon spawn (yes, I hold a bit of a grudge from all the times I've come away from events bruised thanks to some of them). I should probably add: not all fansites act this way. Just enough that it's a huge problem at events where camera's aren't banned.

Also let it be said that One In A Million really is one in a million. What I mean by this is that OIAM is notorious for being Jonghyun's only pre-debut fansite since debut. She gets all the best shots and all the best fanservice. Legend is Jjong can smell her in a crowd (I'm joking, don't take that seriously). My point is everyone has this Jonghyun/OIAM head canon where they're secretly in love evidenced by his shameless eye flirting with her camera. A lot of people have these fantasies about SHINee having special heartfelt connections with their fansites but I don't really see it. Maybe they do, but I think the most SHINee ever see of their fansites is massive camera lens'. Actually SHINee probably are able pick faces of their fansites but only because those fansites ask their autographs to be signed to their fansite name at fansigns. But in terms of their eye contact pictures, SHINee can't tell one camera from the next would be my guess. 

So in conclusion; Yes, fansites take fantastic photos. Yes, they're there at all the events you can't be at taking photos and fancams so you can see what's going down. Yes, they make pretty fansite goods and sell them overseas. But just be aware they do do it at the cost of A) stepping on everyone around them at open events or B) breaking the rules and secretly taking photos. Because every concert fancam or picture, every photo ever from a recording or a closed event or musical, they took secretly while staff were trying to stop them. I'm not saying they're evil or anyone should hate them or stop following them. It just pays to always know where the media you're consuming comes from.

Edit: I was talking with a friend yesterday and we were discussing fansites and I kind of wanted to add something to this post. I was saying that fansites can be really mean in some contexts but I should also say that you won't find a person out there that loves SHINee as much as your average fansite. What I mean by that is the length they go to too support SHINee in every way really is above and beyond what any of us could expect. They dedicate their lives to not only taking photos but to organizing fan supports, going to events, raising funds for birthday charity donations and catering on set at drama shootings and variety appearances. They work hard online at promoting SHINee in a positive manner and trying to stop any negative publicity people might throw around. So I guess that's what I meant by Super Hero vs. Super Villain. They do amazing things for SHINee and fandom but sometimes it comes at a cost.