Deadwood

(Did you mean the George Locke fanzine?)

Principally an apa term: Someone who joins an apa, pays dues but does not contribute even minac and thus receives a full year's (or cycle's) mailings without providing input or feedback. Alternatively, someone who remains a member of an apa by paying dues and meeting only the absolute minimum activity requirements, usually badly and at the last minute. Sometimes it's implied that there's a degree of fudging/gameplaying going on as well, e.g., writing and publishing the required number of pages but in 14- or 16-point type. Or printing four lines of bad verse per page.

However, by extension, deadwood also applies to fans who hang around any fannish endeavor, such as a club or convention, without actively contributing.

From Fancyclopedia 2, ca. 1959

Members of APAs who join, receive their mailings, and are finally expelled for lacktivity (q.v.), having never contributed anything to the APA. (SAPS eliminated this by requiring new members to have a six-page magazine in the first mailing they receive.) In recent years the term has come to mean marginal members who hang on by publishing the minimum number of pages, of not particularly interesting material, every year.

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Fanspeak

This is a fanspeak page. Please extend it by adding information about when and by whom it was coined, whether it’s still in use, etc.