What is the etymology of "fanboi"?
In a recent Daring Fireball post, John Gruber wondered about the origin of "fanboi" as a spelling of "fanboy".
I tried searching for this, but couldn't find anything definitive. Harry McCracken has a Technologizer post about the origin of "fanboy", but doesn't mention the alternative spelling.
Is anything known about the origin of the "fanboi" spelling? For example, when it was first used, how it was popularised, and what the reason for the "i" is?
Fanboi pre-dates both Avril Lavigne's "Sk8er Boi" song (2002) and Apple's iDevices (iMac, 1998), however usage increased dramatically since the 2007 release of the iPhone, and it is now often used a a put-down when talking about zealous Apple fans.
Usenet
The excellent Technologizer post says "fanboy" originates from the comic collector world, and the earliest references to "fanboi" I can find in Usenet are also from comics groups.
In a 9th October 1996 post to rec.arts.comics.misc, The Comics Journal wrote:
With our renewed dedication to running more reviews, we'll surely end up dealing more with the mainstream in terms of general reviews. We're also dedicating a new nearly-every-issue column to the mainstream called "The Fanboi Politik" by Ray Mescallado. I'm sure many opinions and critical views will be heard on mainstream works in coming months.
Two days later, PatDOneill replies, showing from the start the term has a somewhat negative flavour:
Oh yeah--that title surely indicates what an even-handed approach it's going to take.
Migawd--you can't even title a column about mainstream comics (that you're touting as being written from an appreciative standpoint) without insulting the people who are fans of such work.
How about if WIZARD retitles its column about alternative and small-press titles as "The Nihilist, Black-Clad Claptrap"? BTW--ours runs EVERY issue.
Ray Mescallado's signature in a 22nd November 1996 rec.arts.comics.dc.lsh post was:
-- Ray
--
**************************************
* Ray Mescallado * "The politics of failure have
* [email protected] * failed. We need to make it
* http://www.avalon.net/~fanboi/ * work again." - THE SIMPSONS
**************************************
The post was asking the Legion of Super-Heroes "fandom" their opinions of the comic for the Comics and Animation Newswire. He wrote a lot about "fanbois".
Urban Dictionary
The earliest Urban Dictionary definitions aren't until 2003, but both clearly have negative meanings:
fanboi
Someone who is hopelessly devoted to something and will like anything associated with their particular thing.
That damn fanboi only likes that game cause Capcom made it.
The only reason he bought that car is cause he is a Japanese fanboi.
Source: Jevin, Jun 19, 2003
fanboi
Alternate of fanboy.
You must be either retarded or a fanboi.
Source: loser, Apr 7, 2003
iPhone fanbois
More recently, both fanboy and fanboi are used to describe zealous fans of technology and products, in addition to comics, games and films. The use of fanboi is especially used to describe ardent fans of Apple products, and in particular appears to have increased dramatically around the 9th January 2007 announcement and 29th June 2007 release of the iPhone.
The Register is an IT news site particularly fond of iconoclastic slang. A quick tally of their 116 articles including the word fanboi show 111 are in the context of Apple/iPhone/iPad/iMac/Mac/MacBook. (The others are Java (x2), Rackspace, AWS, and e-voting.) The earliest was published in an article titled "iPhones, iPhones and more iPhones" on 13th July 2007, and is a round up of comments following the recent US release:
I _heart_ Apple
..........Insert sycophantic drivel here..........
Apple Fanboi
Google's Insights for Search backs this trend up. The main peak begins in November 2006, soon before the iPhone's official January 2007 announcement, as hype around Apple's rumoured iPod-mobile phone was "reaching fever-pitch".
The question is about ethymology.
To my knowledge - and living in Silicon Valley - I saw it the first time used a few years ago on a forum where Apple and Google fans were trading garbs.
I saw "fanboy" used initially for Apple iPhone fans - very much in the vein of "Mactard" - pejorative terms for users of Apple's dumbed-down systems, as perceived by the opposition.
Then Apple users started talking about Google fanboys, and when the term became loosely associated more or less with both camps, someone used the term "fanboi" to refer exclusively to unconditional Apple fans (of both sexes). The term instantly caught fire in Silicon Valley and everywhere. So for many still, it is not a synonym of the generic fanboy because it is (or was initially at least) specific to Apple fans.