Opinions wanted!

[facetofcathy]

Edited to add, January 11, 2010:  I did some tweaking to the usage section of the page.  I tied the dictionary cite into the part about aca usage, so that it now clearly says that the fan fiction usage is correct in academia and American publishing.  I shamelessly borrowed some phrasing from this conversation.  I found some cites, but there is no cite for the idea that the fan fiction usage denotes aca or noob anywhere other than here, and the talk page itself.  Anyone got one?

Go check it out and edit that page or something else while you're there--if the urge hits, that is. 

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As I found out on the OTW news site, fan fiction has hit the dictionary.  There is a discussion on the Fan Fiction page from a while back about usage on the page itself, and about what that usage says about the person using the, er, usage. 

We could really use (had to, sorry) some fresh opinions, and even some cites on this. 

Should the Fan Fiction page use the term fanfiction, or fan fiction?  Does writing it as fan fiction make people think you're a noob or even an acafan in disguise?  Should I have made this a poll?

Opinions here, or on the talk page at Fanlore would be appreciated. 

Comments

[sporangia]

I have been using fan fiction, fanfiction and fan-fiction (somewhat) interchangeably since the early seventies. I prefer different forms for different usages, though I have no linguistic reasoning to back up any of my choices. It's just the way I have always done it.

I am a fan-fiction fan.
Fans of fan-fiction are very perceptive people.
I like the hyphenated form when the word fan is a used in the same sentence.

I use fanfiction when I'm talking about the fiction works of fandom as a whole, and fan fiction when I'm talking about what I write. I'd never thought about this until I read your post. Shows how clueless I've been about my own fannish vocabulary.