I almost always thing of "Maven" as female, don't know why.

As for afficianado...I've also always regarded it as fitting when applied to someone who is very knowledge and, esp. someone who is a bit fantatical in their "collecting". I am reminded of a music group in Connecticut. They got together every month to discuss the miniscule differences between recordings, productions, and live performacnes of classical music. Everyone of them had multiple copies of the same works, different artists, conductors, etc. and the scores to follow along. I don't find anything wrong with that and I do have my preferences, but I buy the one I like best and that does it for me. Anyway, we considered them *that big word.* **BG**