Let me just say that I adore the way your mind works, and I love that someone is finally going down this road instead of the in-crowd/out-crowd/waaah trauma rehash? (Which isn't to say I don't have trauma, just that I don't like talking about it).
Secondly in this prefatory part (ah-hem), I'd like to suggest that further detailed study is very necessary to provide better data, though removing observer bias may be difficult (as in all fanthropological research).
Now, on to your comment!
Biological model is probably more accurate than physics, though physics made it seem easier to understand. Easier than, in fact, it is, of course. :-> You know more about blood cell interactions in detail than I do.
It does work rather like that, with the added complication that perhaps the particle is thinking things like, "If this room isn't full of rollicking people, maybe I'll have more fun up in the parties." Since at general cons we're not only dealing with dedicated love-to-filk particles (who at worst are pulled away by the competing gravity of other circles, the entropy of sleep, or the appeal of conversations in the hall), but with drop-in mainstream fen who like to listen for a few songs and then find something 'better to do'.
This is why themed circles, on themes of general fannish interest, work so well to get mainstream fen to dip their toes and stick around for half an hour or so -- funny/sad songs about Babylon 5/Star Trek/Tolkien/Vorkosiverse/cheesy movies, are of general interest to the fannish public, and make us seem more accessible and less inscrutable (as, perhaps, might happen if someone wandered into the middle of us amusing ourselves by playing different parodies of 'Green Hills of Harmony' that had little else in common with each other).
janmagic, whether she's intended to or not, has done a great job of making Chicago's filk stickier to non-filkers, and might have data to supply.
Basically my physics model was attempting to simplify by looking only at one factor, the circle's gravity, and deliberately ignoring the subtleties. Though ability to be sensitive to circle mood greatly affects one's circle heaviness -- the best analogy I can come up with is that if you can get your filkcircle flowing like a really good mix tape, it gets heavier.
no subject
Secondly in this prefatory part (ah-hem), I'd like to suggest that further detailed study is very necessary to provide better data, though removing observer bias may be difficult (as in all fanthropological research).
Now, on to your comment!
Biological model is probably more accurate than physics, though physics made it seem easier to understand. Easier than, in fact, it is, of course. :-> You know more about blood cell interactions in detail than I do.
It does work rather like that, with the added complication that perhaps the particle is thinking things like, "If this room isn't full of rollicking people, maybe I'll have more fun up in the parties." Since at general cons we're not only dealing with dedicated love-to-filk particles (who at worst are pulled away by the competing gravity of other circles, the entropy of sleep, or the appeal of conversations in the hall), but with drop-in mainstream fen who like to listen for a few songs and then find something 'better to do'.
This is why themed circles, on themes of general fannish interest, work so well to get mainstream fen to dip their toes and stick around for half an hour or so -- funny/sad songs about Babylon 5/Star Trek/Tolkien/Vorkosiverse/cheesy movies, are of general interest to the fannish public, and make us seem more accessible and less inscrutable (as, perhaps, might happen if someone wandered into the middle of us amusing ourselves by playing different parodies of 'Green Hills of Harmony' that had little else in common with each other).
Basically my physics model was attempting to simplify by looking only at one factor, the circle's gravity, and deliberately ignoring the subtleties. Though ability to be sensitive to circle mood greatly affects one's circle heaviness -- the best analogy I can come up with is that if you can get your filkcircle flowing like a really good mix tape, it gets heavier.