> James Nicoll – science-fiction reviewer and retired game-store owner. As a Usenet personality, Nicoll is known for writing a widely quoted epigram on the English language, as well as for his contributions of concepts like the Nicoll-Dyson Laser and the "brain eater" to Usenet groups like "rec.arts.sf.written" and "rec.arts.sf.fandom"; and for his accounts of suffering a high number of accidents (known collectively as "Nicoll Events") recounted in these groups.

A strange thing about boomer-era SF fandom is that they seem to think that popular fans are just as important people as, say, SF writers or actual scientists. This especially extended to SF conventions where you could become famous just as a guy who went to a lot of conventions.

(SF conventions have a somewhat dysfunctional setup where as far as I can tell, the people who attend them spend the entire weekend fighting over who gets to host the next one. Anime conventions adopted a similar but simpler and better format which is actually capable of attracting normal people and young women.)