I think you're right that there were always people on the periphery and more likely to feel alienated than included by the juggernaut pairings, but I don't think I agree that big pairings don't lead to a sense of community. I think your observations would be right if fans tended to be segmented into groups that all share one team and read and write fic about that team and those players, but that's never been the case. A lot of fic writers who've written for a large variety of pairings have also written S/G and K/T, and a lot of people who aren't Pens or Hawks fans or who would never write those pairings themselves have read that fic nonetheless and formed fandom connections that way and have common reference to certain "big name" authors and fic. So yes, the general existence of juggernaut pairings does mean a random fan is more likely to find someone who likes the same pairings, especially because people don't choose pairings in a vacuum, they often become interested in pairings because someone else in fandom is interested, too. (Just not a particular person who doesn't care for any of those juggernaut pairings.) I think activity around juggernauts also creates a lot of general fandom growth (not just Pens and Hawks fans -- plenty of people discovered fandom that way and moved on to other teams and pairings), while activity around many rarer pairings is less likely to do that.
It's the nature of a community that some are included and some are excluded, so for people who never had anything to do with the juggernauts, I wouldn't be surprised if many feel like not much has changed. But even as someone who made a lot of effort to avoid one of those juggernaut pairings, I never felt its popularity was "irrelevant" to my fandom experience because it was everywhere, I couldn't block or mute everyone who talked about them because I would be blocking nearly everyone who wrote the fic and pairings that I was interested in. I do think there are tangible effects of the juggernauts' declining popularity that go just beyond Hawks fans and Pens fans. Or maybe I'm just mistaking causes and effects.
I do agree that juggernauts and variety aren't a zero sum game. I think some of that perception probably comes from the feeling that someone writing a pairing you aren't interested in could be expending that effort to write a pairing you like instead (see: attitudes towards oflights).
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Re: Fandom Venting
From: (Anonymous)I think you're right that there were always people on the periphery and more likely to feel alienated than included by the juggernaut pairings, but I don't think I agree that big pairings don't lead to a sense of community. I think your observations would be right if fans tended to be segmented into groups that all share one team and read and write fic about that team and those players, but that's never been the case. A lot of fic writers who've written for a large variety of pairings have also written S/G and K/T, and a lot of people who aren't Pens or Hawks fans or who would never write those pairings themselves have read that fic nonetheless and formed fandom connections that way and have common reference to certain "big name" authors and fic. So yes, the general existence of juggernaut pairings does mean a random fan is more likely to find someone who likes the same pairings, especially because people don't choose pairings in a vacuum, they often become interested in pairings because someone else in fandom is interested, too. (Just not a particular person who doesn't care for any of those juggernaut pairings.) I think activity around juggernauts also creates a lot of general fandom growth (not just Pens and Hawks fans -- plenty of people discovered fandom that way and moved on to other teams and pairings), while activity around many rarer pairings is less likely to do that.
It's the nature of a community that some are included and some are excluded, so for people who never had anything to do with the juggernauts, I wouldn't be surprised if many feel like not much has changed. But even as someone who made a lot of effort to avoid one of those juggernaut pairings, I never felt its popularity was "irrelevant" to my fandom experience because it was everywhere, I couldn't block or mute everyone who talked about them because I would be blocking nearly everyone who wrote the fic and pairings that I was interested in. I do think there are tangible effects of the juggernauts' declining popularity that go just beyond Hawks fans and Pens fans. Or maybe I'm just mistaking causes and effects.
I do agree that juggernauts and variety aren't a zero sum game. I think some of that perception probably comes from the feeling that someone writing a pairing you aren't interested in could be expending that effort to write a pairing you like instead (see: attitudes towards oflights).