Dear Icon Makers...
I posted this in my own journal, and yourlibrarian suggested I post it here as part of metametameta 's IJ Asylum meme. So here I am!
Dear Icon Makers,
I remember once I was waxing lyrical about my love of icons, and how excited I was that InsaneJournal allows you to have five thousand of them... FIVE THOUSAND!
Some fangirl who did not share this passion said it was "ridiculous" to like icons that much, and expressed her scorn that anyone would pay extra for more than a handful, let alone get all excited about it, and most of all, that anyone anywhere for any reason would even contemplate having FIVE THOUSAND icons.
"But I love them," I said. "They're my favorite thing in fandom other than the people and, of course, the show."
"Better than fic?" she asked, in tones that would have been horrified were we not conversing in the comments section on one of our journals.
Yes, yes, I confessed. I love icons better than fic. I love them. I do.
So let me right now tell you how much I love you, and appreciate you, and look forward to your new posts. Let me tell you how excited I am when someone makes an icon with a scene capped and cropped in a way I've never seen before, or even better, finds an angle, a moment, an expression that's new to me.
I love when you learn a new texture or technique, and revisit even much-iconized scenes in a new way.
I love when people just start making icons, and in a post where most are mediocre or even a bit weak, I see one or two that tell me this icon maker has something... some little bit of vision or talent... that's going to be amazing one day.
I love when an icon maker tries something new, even when it fails.
I love when icon makers play with text, and I love it when they let the images speak for themselves.
I love that icon makers seem to support each other.
I love it when someone I've never heard of or seen in the fandom before posts icons to an icon comm, and it makes me realize there are new people falling in love with our show every day.
I love it when icon makers make me an icon that I've asked for... and when they surprise me with one I didn't.
I love it when icon makers say something I've said, or a story I've written, has inspired them to create an icon.
So thank you to every icon maker whose tiny pictures live on my user pics page, and all those who I have yet to discover. THANK YOU THANK YOU ALL! You've made me insanely happy.