I saw this post and wanted to introduce myself and give you a bit of my history with QAF (that seems to be the modi operandi for this post, correct?).
I am quite new to Queer as Folk, but not to fandom. I found fanfic via my 13 year old self's obsession with Roswell (*cringe*) and from then on pretty much read from whatever fandom I was interested in at the time. This has included Buffy, Harry Potter, and a brief obsession with Supernatural that I went through last summer.
I first found QAF through the British version as a result of my best friend's giant girl hard-on for Charlie Hunnam. I got both of the entire series from a friend (one of the benefits of going to a college where at least 50% of the population is some variation on queer) sometime this March and fell in love with the Brit version immediately.
I ran out of BBC Queer as Folk far too fast; so, I decided to watch the American version.
Which I promptly hated.
Having watched the British version and totally shipped Vince/Stuart (aka Michael/Brian), I was totally squicked by the idea of Nathan/Stuart (Justin/Brian) being the intended ship. Plus Charlie Hunnam totally beats 101 Justin in my book.
But I was bored, living through winter at a women's college without any eye candy at all, and sick of the shit on TV, so I kept watching.
And fell madly in love.
I love the American portrayal of Mel and Linds (who were pretty minimized in the British series), Brian's relationship with Linds, the character of Debbie, and of course, eventually, Brian and Justin.
Well, since that fateful day where I watched QAF for the first time, I have seen the entire series 2 times through (once by myself and once with my other best friend - the original friend who sparked my interest in QAF couldn't watch her beloved Charlie be not straight and, far worse, not a Green Street Hooligan). I'm about 3/4 of the way through run through number 3, though I've seen certain episodes far more times than that.
Anyways, so now I'm hooked and enjoying the plethora of wonderful fics out there. I'm even writing a bit myself.