Who or What Is A Fan?

Yes, I know, an honest-to-God article after all these...weeks? So a while back I was a part of a conversation between two coworkers here the topic of fans came up and one of my coworkers was expressing how bad it is for actors to disrespect fans (specifically "Star Wars" fans) and the other coworker stated that he has no respect for "Star Wars" in general as these are the people who bullied Kelly Marie Tran off of the internet due to her character Rose Tico and made the Jar Jar Binks actor suicidal. I never thought much about fandoms, and while I consider myself to be a fan of quite a few things I tend to shy away from fandom circles in general but this got me thinking, and when I get thinking an article is soon too follow to join me if you will as we figure out who or what is a fan?