Ok, there is some fan terms that get thrown around and sometimes even find their way into official use (Chain guns of doom, punch of kill everything, etc.)and there is some that never really go anywhere but into regular fan use (coneheads, carbots, kibble, etc.). One thing that's been on my mind a little bit recently is the term Transfan.

 

There was a time when TF fans were all transfan this, and transfan that. Then at some point the transfan name became more phased out and people started saying transformers fan. Of course this can be attributed to a couple of reasons.

 

Reason one, between the terms transfan and the trannies (miss those, some eyes were raised and explanations given. Turns out transfan is also a term for another unrelated group of individuals and well... the trannies... everybody knew, but it was all for laughs right? So of course out of these term complications, could be why it fell from popular use. You know between those terms, Kissplay, Alpha Q, and Nexus Maximus, we don't even need slash to make people wonder about what goes on in this fandom. Not that's stopping anybody... ew.

 

Reason two, it is kinda a goofy word. Made some people feel a bit silly, I suppose. Yet nobody seems to care about Trekkie as a term. That and at a TF con, people really deck themselves up sometimes in TF gear without any regards to how silly they look. Oh, and look around next time you go to the store and search for the TF product your looking for, check out the people around you. So could feeling silly couldn't possibly be it, or could it?

 

Reason three, transfandom.com. Oh sure, a lot of us have both good and bad memories of this site. However, think because the site named after the fandom (which was an attempt at unifying the fandom, believe it or not, and hey it's fall made even more splintered TF fan groups... IRONY!) could have contributed to the terms downfall? After all, people on different sites get territorial and when the site began its slow creep to getting closed down, possibly the term went with it due to association. Which may sound silly, and it is, but think about it. Even at RFC, we sometimes use the tag line 'The Voice Of Transfandom'. Because, hey we're old school and think that transfandom still means this particular fandom. Yet, even we can't help but to say 'not the site'.

 

Reason four, the movies. Ok, now work with me on this one. Every time a new form of Transformers media/product is released, the fandom experiences a (sometimes brief) influx of new fans or fans who have regained their former interests. Now the movies, like them or not, are huge. They make serious money and have really grown Transformers as a brand and brought in a HUGE bunch of new fans at every level. Now here's the kicker (not the kid, the action), a good deal of them have side stepped the long existing fandom and set up shop of their own. Don't believe me? Google search Transformers fans, and see how many movie related sites pop up with no regards to anything other than the movies. Weird huh? So somehwere in this sudden rise, it's reasonable to contribute this as one way the term went away. it was already on the decline, and suddenly got out googled.

 

So hey, what do you folks think?

 

*Yes, I'm currently bored.*

I use and see the term "Tfan," which is an abbreviation of "Transfan," which in turn was a shortening of "Transformers Fan."

I use TF Fan a lot myself, which is similar.

In fact, this place used to be called "TFans," though it was a lot more active and fun back then.

Yeah, I remember. I was on staff at Transfandom at the time and some of the staff was helping out. Some left permanently for TFans. I should have offered to myself, but at the time I was losing interest in helping out with a site all together.

 

Remember TFexchange? I did like the TFans name though...

I just refer to myself as a collector. If you knew me in the outside world(especialy out of my house) you'd never think I'd care a dam thing about stuff like this.

 

hence, I'm just a collector, no fanboys here.

I just refer to myself as a collector. If you knew me in the outside world(especialy out of my house) you'd never think I'd care a dam thing about stuff like this.

 

hence, I'm just a collector, no fanboys here.

 

The Same just a collector don't care about any proper terminaology

I just refer to myself as a collector. If you knew me in the outside world(especialy out of my house) you'd never think I'd care a dam thing about stuff like this.

 

hence, I'm just a collector, no fanboys here.

 

The Same just a collector don't care about any proper terminaology

 

Me three. Just a collector.

I still thought that Transfan had weight. I'd always say I am a Transformers Fan or Transfan. Never thought that Trannie was a word to shorten that word. Sigh, The laziness of abbriviations. I'm waiting for someone to say, "Hey, erebody!! Ah'm a "T"!" LOL!

 

Sigh. ^_^

 

Edit: YIKES! If we started saying, I'm a "T" then what would the MR. T fans call themselves??

I'm waiting for someone to say, "Hey, erebody!! Ah'm a "T"!" LOL!

 

We'd be pitied. :)