It's poorly written, and misses an opportunity for good snark. Paraphrasing, it claims, "You should see the letters we get, but we're actually not going to give examples. Just believe us."

Right on. I think they missed out by going with the "these folks are crazy, we snicker here alot" motif rather than a full-blown expose, because even though most of us have an idea of just how crazy, and a couple folks here have a stunningly clear picture of just how crazy, it still would have been pretty hilarious and frightening.

That article struggles to find a point and at times even make sense. I certainly wouldn't have put my name at the top of the article. Unless it was to say "I did not write this."

it still would have been pretty hilarious and frightening.

True. But you know? I'm getting so frelling tired of the "Internet television fans are crazy!" schtick. Sure they are! Five percent of any given fandom is completely over the bend.

But so are five percent of the fans of the Oakland Raiders (who paint their faces and wear pirate clothing to games), and Sherlock Holmes fans, and Civil War re-enacters, and wine enthusiasts, and fashionistas.

And pot shots at media fans are so easy. I find it just a little hypocritical of Teevee.org for them to mock the bulk of their readership that way, because who exactly do they think is reading those columns? It's done for effect.

But so are five percent of the fans of the Oakland Raiders (who paint their faces and wear pirate clothing to games), and Sherlock Holmes fans, and Civil War re-enacters, and wine enthusiasts, and fashionistas.

And pot shots at media fans are so easy. I find it just a little hypocritical of Teevee.org for them to mock the bulk of their readership that way, because who exactly do they think is reading those columns? It's done for effect.

I hear that, and I'm not a big thrower of rocks from inside my glass house. Are Buffy fans crazier than hardcore Trekkies or any other fandom you care to mention? Well, we can't really examine Teevee.org's position because they didn't give it to us. I've seen some crazy fandom behaviour from reasonably upclose, but some of the weirdness that front-line people like Allyson allude to makes me think it would be an interesting comparison, had Teevee.org given us any datapoints to work with, instead of just smugness. I can get that at home. [grin]

Are Buffy fans crazier than hardcore Trekkies or any other fandom you care to mention?

Yeah, and the people who study fandom are practically as bad: I've seen essays about people who literally worship Elvis as a saint interspersed among essays about people who wouldn't be considered quite so strange.

I mean, I know, the salient people are the people who yell the loudest, but I'd like to think that a book including "The Cultural Economy of Fandom" and essays about the hysterical aspects of Beatlemania would try to avoid mashing that together with uncritical chronicles of extremely atypical behavior.

Are Buffy fans crazier than hardcore Trekkies or any other fandom you care to mention?

Well, first off, what's wrong with being crazy? Sanity is overrated.

The issue, if issue there be, is that there are socially approved ways to be crazy. The overly-zealous Oakland Raider fans and fashionistas, in particular, are just taking socially approved craziness a step further than most people.

We (Buffista, Trekkie, or other SFy fandom), on the other hand, are crazy in ways that mainstream society doesn't want to acknowledge.

There are segments of society scared shitless of smart people.(Say that three times fast.) But some fans really are nuts, too.

The issue, if issue there be, is that there are socially approved ways to be crazy. The overly-zealous Oakland Raider fans and fashionistas, in particular, are just taking socially approved craziness a step further than most people.

Well, fandom -- of football or Trek -- isn't regarded as crazy, usually, so much as incredibly dorky or personality-deficient. I don't especially mind fandom being strange and unreasonable and big with the yelling and turf wars (well, I do mind it, but that's reality), but I do mind fandom of any kind being portrayed as failing to have a grasp on reality. Because there is a difference between clinical mental illness and substantial but reality-grasping weirdness.

In sum:
Thinks Joss is incredibly cool, and deserves the honorary title of god: OK
Thinks Joss is really a god, and can control the fates of people in Cleveland: Not OK.

Because there is a difference between clinical mental illness and substantial but reality-grasping weirdness.

Agreed, Nutty, and I apologize for not being clear in my post. I intended "crazy" and "sane" more in the sense of letting off steam or dealing with the stresses of daily living in modern society, and not in any mental illness sense.

cancels big move to Cleveland and order of t-shirts with "Worship the Joss" on them

I recently read through all the continuity stuff for S7 on the tvtome.com BtVS ep guide. Whoever writes that stuff deserves the fandom medal of honor. There was so many more juicy bits of continuity than I ever would have noticed on my own.