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strssed-out · 3 years

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Cancel Culture and “Educating” On Twitter

WARNING: THERE IS A LOT OF BIAS AND OPINIONS IN THIS, I WAS JUST RANTING MY THOUGHTS ON TWITTER.

thank you and enjoy :D

Before quarantine, many content creators were not as big as they are now—Dream, Tommyinnit, Tubbo, Ranboo, Corpse, so on so forth. They have grown enormously ever since the start of lockdown. With growing that fast in under a year, a vast fanbase starts to form as well. Twitter has now almost wholly controlled the MCYT fandom (Minecraft Youtubers) and having at least one to two things on the trending tab about their content creators. Many things can go wrong with a huge fanbase. But having a fanbase that is controlling a big social media site makes it worse. We have seen some of those moments throughout this year.

Twitter has two sides when they want to give content creators criticism. It’s either “educating” them with threads or just bluntly saying how they need to get better. However, both things start with the “trigger warning” represented like this: //(insert content creator name) neg. The neg is short for negative. Many of those negative thoughts get trending whenever a content creator does something their fandom doesn’t like. It’s almost expecting them to be perfect. They analyze every tweet and move their content creator makes. Once they finally find them trip a little, they announce it. Now there are some relatively rare times where Twitter is correct. As in making content creators stop some type of ACTUAL hurtful behavior. (when I refer to actual I mean behavior that affects EVERYONE on social media, not just Twitter. So, when people on other social media sites are talking about it, and are having similar views.) In this situation, you would expect them to use the educating type of idea. Well, no. Twitter users like to make it more threatening, and from what I understand, it makes the content creators understand better…? This is just wrong and disgusting to find these tweets about these small mistakes these content creators make.

Talking about those content creators. Each of them resolves the problem(s) differently. It’s either writing a lengthy apology on Twitter or apologizing on stream. Sometimes, their apologies are well made, and Twitter is happy. But if they are not good enough, people would tweet things as in, “what a half-hearted apology” or “what type of apology is that”. Usually, those apologies that aren’t the best are like that because of constant Twitter pressure. Yup, who would have known. If a content creator is still active during the trending of their name, like trying to get a video out, Twitter will start attacking them. In short, Twitter expects the BEST apology in a short amount of time. What they don’t understand is that content creators also need to figure out what the hell they did wrong. It’s not easy. Twitter doesn’t understand the stress of having thousands of people constantly attacking you on the spot. Twitter just thinks they know.

Now, you see how I keep referring to Twitter and only Twitter. Well, on other platforms like Tumblr and Youtube, people have very different opinions compared to Twitter. If it’s something to do with people of color (POC), Twitter is the one to over-react in these types of situations, while POC on other platforms seems to just laugh at that joke. Most of these “over-reactions” are because most of these people tweeting are white, not POC. Pretty much, it’s just white people speaking for POC. To make it clear, if you are someone who is ACTUALLY hurt by what the joke targets, go ahead and voice your opinion. It's just, I HATE IT when white people speak for POC. Expressed by many POC, they don’t like that and never will. So, in short, Twitter is just a place with overly sensitive users. (haha)

Now, my opinion on this whole thing. As a POC, most of these jokes that seem to hurt Twitter are honestly not that bad; they are pretty funny. Sometimes, I don’t understand how people get so overly sensitive over those jokes. I'm not saying that you can't hate on them. It's human nature, you gotta at least dislike something in life. I've seen it many times, people on Twitter like to put a trigger warning to the person and content creator Schlatt. Haha, yea, A REAL PERSON. I get it, he has made some REALLY messed up jokes, that I don't even find funny, but putting a trigger warning. Come on now. The real problem with Twitter I have had for a long time is how they can take things WAY TO FAR.

Two good examples are the Karl Jacobs drama and Tommyinnit drama. Karl Jacobs is a friend of the famous Youtuber, Mr. Beast, and a part of the DSMP (Dream SMP). Some old tweets were resurfaced about Karl supporting a content creator that has said slurs and very racist jokes. Of course, Twitter starts their routine by trending the two words, “karl neg.” This is trending for a few days. Eventually, Karl begins to stream for this whole drama on Twitter. His apology was acceptable, but the thing that pissed me off was when someone had called Karl asking him if he had eaten. Twitter had affected Karl’s health, causing him to starve himself. This is quite similar to what happened to Tommy. Twitter had affected his health, but instead of apologizing, they use that against him. Tommy streams on his alt account, and the stream was just a QandA stream. Eventually, they hit the topic of “tommy neg.” (He streamed a day after tommy neg was trending) He starts apologizing but started mixing his words up. He was very nervous and anxious about the whole thing. Why do you think he was scared? Twitter! Haha… He starts going on the topic of him going to therapy. A few minutes, tommy neg is trending AGAIN. Two days in a row. On the first day, there were some good tweets about whatever Tommy had done, but the second one was just stupid remarks towards Tommy. People on Twitter used his anxiety and therapy talk against him. They were still getting mad at him. This was vile to see and read. Who has the guts to use someone’s mental health problems against them? Oh well, that’s Twitter for you. Continuing about Tommy’s alt stream, there were multiple times when he looked like he would have a panic attack or just start breaking down. His whole stream lasted for about an hour. Eventually, tommy neg was filled with people with the same opinions as me. Such as how horrible it was to see people use his therapy against him.

In short, Twitter has become a very toxic place for both people in the fandom and their content creators. They are affecting mental health as well. Having many white people speak on our behalf in these jokes or stereotypes is tiring. We understand you have the privilege, but please use that privilege when it is ACTUALLY needed. Honestly, I find it so funny yet heartbreaking that white people are over here trying to "teach" a GAMER about how to be better when they can use that "white privilege" for other topics that are ALSO discussed on Twitter. (yea! other topics are discussed on the platform! I was even surprised) The DSMP fandom on Twitter is just a place of overly sensitive users.

- a POC

#twitter drama #twitter neg #dsmp #cancel culture #karl jacobs #tommyinnit #tommy neg #karl neg

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mariaiscrafting · 3 years

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about the sbi crit post, this is some deep mcyt tumblr lore. idk if you're interested, but the op was a user gayminecraftmen, who was part of a group called "dreamlying" consisting of users wormweeb, georgesoot, georgeeehd and warpedfungusonastick (i think you've reblogged some of their posts?). anyway, the drama connected with them was fucking wild. they were EXTREMELY critical of ccs (especially dream). wormweeb's critical post about dream and george queerbaiting people showed up on kaceytron's stream when she accused dream of queerbaiting and used the post as evidence against him. georgeeehd used dream's doxxed info to check if he was registered to vote in 2020 US elections and who he voted for. they were also friends with ozzie, a twitter user who had drama with ponk and claimed to know him personally. warpedfungus is apparently in possession of some private info about ccs they found online, some of it using wayback machine (or they're just trolling you never know lol). georgesoot is probably the most infamous name. there was a rumor that he deactivated because dream's lawyers threatened legal action against him for defamation of character, but now he reactivated again so idk if it's true. he was also the inventor of ancap!cc!dream and centris!cc!george headcanon (?). also he criticized dream team a lot for being homophobic and toxic from what i remember. they were all very popular "truthers", speculating heavily about ccs sexualities and real romantic relationships between ccs (including minors). there was also a callout post/blocklist going around saying gayminecraftmen and georgesoot are enderbee shippers, but they claimed they were just trolling and joking abt it. but what i find incredibly funny is that they all predicted dream being a trump supporter/conservative in autumn 2020, way before the slideshow and reddit posts came up lol

Someone told me about georgesoot the other day, I blocked georgeeehd a long time ago because of some post that annoyed me (I can’t exactly remember), and I actually didn’t know about warpedfungus (kinda thought they were just chill, liked some of their crit posts), but I’ve unfollowed them now, so ty for the heads up.

But anyways, oof. It’s a shame they’re truthing/doxxing scum, because the rest of the criticism, although super intense and out there, I actually lowkey vibe with? Like, I try not to speculate about things that don’t have hard evidence on this blog just because there are far too many people following me now for that to be responsible of me, but... let me just say that I haven’t not discussed a couple of the things you mentioned with people I know irl lmao.

There’s kinda a lot I want to say about all this, but I just really, really can’t. But thank you for the info, ‘twas pretty interesting. I knew bits and pieces, but had never heard the full story.

Also, I am cackling at that last bit because it’s just so fitting. I’m pretty sure I saw one of those posts back in October, when I was first learning about who the Dream Team was on Tumblr, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some part of my subconscious had stored those bits away and manifested it as a light skepticism/hesitation when it came to anything DT-related...

#asks #discourse #this is actually so interesting hmmm #theres so much mcytblr discourse lore ive forgotten or dont fully know about #mcytblr #Anonymous

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hypocrisyofandrewdobson · 3 years

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Dobson's Patreon: An Addendum to His Monument of Sins

(The following is a submission from @soyouareandrewdobson, meant to be an addendum to the multi-post submission @ripsinfest made a while back. Ironically, this one also had issues when being submitted, so I’ll be copypasting it here with all the images and links originally intended.)

In 2018, user @ripsinfest wrote a multipart series of posts for THOAD, recounting Dobson’s attempt to establish a patreon in 2015 and how it resulted in failure on a massive scale, to the point that his patreon is arguably “a monument to all his sins”.

Personally I think the post series is extremely well researched, rather “neutral” in terms of tone (letting the posts provided as evidence speak more for themselves than the opinion of the writer) and gives a detailed but quick rundown on what went wrong. Primarily that Dobson overestimated his own “value” as an artist and did NOT attempt to give his few supporters what they wanted through his artwork posted around the time.

I do however want to use the opportunity to also point out at certain obvious things that in my opinion (and likely the opinions of others) added to the failure of the patreon account, that were not accounted for in detail and are primarily related to how the internet perceives popularity and Dobson’s inability to understand, how to “sell” and make himself look good to the public.

To begin with, let’s just point out a certain truth about making money via Patreon: To do so, depends a lot on your popularity as a content creator online. That is simply because the more popular you are, the bigger your fanbase is and as such the more likely a certain percentage of people may be willing to donate money to you and your work in hopes they get something out of it, even if it is just the altruistic feeling of having helped someone they “like”. It doesn’t take a genius to see, how e.g. internet reviewers such as Linkara or moviebob (around 2800 and 4400$ earnings via patreon each month respectively) can make quite some money, while other, more obscure content creator or artists barely make money to go by, earning essentially pocket money at best.

In addition, popularity is fleeting. A few years ago e.g. internet personality Noah Antweiler aka The SpoonyOne managed to earn 5000$ a month via patreon, just shortly after establishing his account. But his lack of content over the years AND his toxic behavior online resulted in a decline of popularity and with it people jumping off his Patreon. As such, Antweiler only earns nowadays around 290$ a month via Patreon and most of that money is likely form people who have forgotten they donate to him in the first place anyway.

And Noah is not the only one who over the course of the last couple of years lost earnings. Brianna Wu makes barely more than he does, despite having once been the “darling” of the internet when the Gamergate controversy was at its peak. Many Bronies who once made more than 2k via video reviews on a show about little horses at the peak of its popularity (2013-15) earn less than 300-800 on average nowadays because interest on the show as well as people talking about it has declined.

Heck, in preparation of writing this piece I found out, that one of the highest grossing patreons nowadays is “The last podcast on the left”, a podcast that earns more than 67k a month by making recordings on obscure and macabre subjects on a regular basis.

So there you have it folks: As the interests of the internet users change, so does the popularity of certain people online and -in case they have a patreon account or similar plattforms- their chances of making money via their content.

Which now brings us back to Dobson, who was not popular at all at that particular time and managed to become even less popular as the months and years passed by.

Sure, Dobson had his fans via deviantart, people knew who he was. But the later was more because of “infamy” than popularity and the number of fans he had accumulated online were representing people interested in him at least since 2005 and did not quite represent his actual present day numbers of supporters at the time.

And mind you, the number of supporters was less than 100k, most of them likely underaged deviantart users. And if my research indicates something, then that most content creators with a halfway decent patreon earning need at least 100k+ followers in total. Because of those fans, only around 1-3% will on average then spend money on you, if you actually create content they enjoy and on a regular basis.

Which brings up the next major problem: Dobson did not create content people enjoyed and that in more than one meaning of the word.

On one hand, as pointed out by ripsinfest, he barely released any content at all over 2015 after a few initial months, despite the fact that he was obviously active online a lot, as shown by his presence on twitter. On the other hand, the few things he did create were not the stuff people wanted.

As an example: If you go to a restaurant and pay for a pizza, you expect the cook to give you a pizza. If however for some reason he just gives you a soda, you get ripped off and never come back. In Dobson’s case, the thing people wanted was not pizza but comic pages. But what he delivered was mostly bland fanart, such as of Disney and Marvel characters crossing over or KorraSami. Sure, a few strips of “So…you are a cartoonist” were still released at the time, but not really many.

To give an overview: Taking the release dates on Dobson’s official SYAC site into account, he released around 16 strips of it between March and August of 2015, the last two being “No Leia” being titled “Zip line”

Afterwards, the next official strip released was “Anything at all” in October of 2016.

Now to be fair, there was at least one more strip at the time Dobson released via patreon, that is also save to see on kiwifarms and other plattforms, which has not been uploaded to his official SYAC page. Likely because he simply forgot about it.

But I think that in itself should tell you something about Dobson’s work ethics when it comes to his webcomics. He promoted his patreon in his own video as a way to ensure he can make comics in a timely fashion again for others to enjoy, but in an environment where certain artists are capable to create multiple strips per week at minimum, Dobson could overall not manage to produce more than 16 over a course of six months, which means an average production of 3 strips per month.

For comparison, Tatsuya Ishida of the infamous sinfest webcomic (a garbage fire of epic proportions from a TERF who I think should be put on a watch list) has produced on average 4 strips per week, including full page Sunday strips, for years and nowadays even releases stuff on a daily basis to pass the covid crisis. So a mad man who wants to see trnas people die, has better work ethics than Dobson.

In other words, people expected Dobson to actually get back into creating comics (with some even expecting a return of Alex ze Pirate), but he got in fact even lazier than before, releasing only SYAC strips and random fanart as a product. Which he then also tried to justify as his choice to make because a) he had mental health issues and b) no one can tell him what to do.

And sure, people do not need to tell you what to do. But when people pay/donate money to you expecting to get a certain product in return, they should get the product. Linkara e.g. by all means doesn’t NEED to review comics to have a fullfilling life, but he got famous for his reviews, people want to see his reviews and they pay him for those reviews. So obviously, he will continue those things.

Then there is also the fact that despite Dobson’s claims how he wants to create comics for everone to enjoy and that he aims to keep his artwork online for free so anyone can view it…(his exact words in his promotional video AND text on his patreon once upon a time)

youtube

…the reality was, that he wanted to use patreon as a paywall. Something I actually kinda pointed out at on my own account (shameless self promotion) once, but want now to elaborate a bit. Basically at the time Dobson opened up his patreon, he also was on the verge of leaving deviantart as a platform people could look at his work behind. Which he eventually did.

Meaning that the only major platforms for people to watch any “new” stuff by him were his patreon or art sites such as the SYAC homepage or andysartwork. Which granted, he did EVENTUALLY put his stuff on.

But unlike other content creators who would put “patreon exclusive” new content up on more public plattforms often within a few days, weeks or a month after making them “patreon only” at first, Dobson waited longer and did barely anything to promote his sites as places to look his stuff up for a public audience. In doing so creating a “bubble” for himself that hurt him more than it helped, as Dobson made himself essentially come off as a snob.

A snob who did not create content for everybody to enjoy, but ONLY for those willing to pay him at least one dollar per month. As evident e.g. by the fact that as time went by, certain content was never released outside of his patreon at all, such as a SYAC strip involving Dobbear screaming at the computer because he saw a piece of art that featured tumblr nose.

Lastly, there is the issue of his patreon perks and stretch goals.

See, his perks were essentially non existent. Aside of the beggars reward of “my eternal thank you if you donate 1 dollar”, two other perks that come to my mind were the following: If you donated up to 5$ at minimum, you got your name thrown into a lottery to potentially win buttons and postcards of his artwork. Unsold cheap merch from years prior he failed to sell at conventions basically. There was just a problem with that thing: That lottery thing, which he also was only going to initiate when he reached a stretch goal of 150 dollar a month? It was illegal!

Patreon itself has in their user agreement a rule that forbids people from offering perks that essentially boil down to “earning” something via gambling, which this lottery by Dobson was.

(THOAD chiming in here to add that, in addition to all this, he fully admitted he would be excluding Patrons that he “knew were clearly trolls” from the lottery. Which made the already illegal lottery also fixed, so...yeah.)

The next thing coming to mind was his “discount” on previous books of his he offered online, if you donated at least 10 bucks per month to him. Or to translate it: You would get a bare minimum discount at pdf files of books such as Alex ze Pirate and Formera (you know, the permanently cancelled Dobson comics) if you paid up 50-75% of their original price on Patreon already. And considering the quality of his early works, he should have given you at least a book per month for free if you dared to donate him that much.

As for the stretch goals… lets go through them, shall we:

100$: A wallpaper per month. Something he did provide with eventually, but barely. And after less than five of those he stopped to make them overall

150$: Monthly Gift basket Lottery, which as I stated, was illegal and almost got him into serious trouble with his account. Also not an initial stretch goal he made up but instead came up with a few months into his accounts existence. Finally it got temporarily replaced by Dobson playing with the idea to use 150$ per month to open up a server and art site where people could upload stuff for free similar to deviantart, but under his administration. Promising a “safe space” for other artists. Which considering Dobson’s ego and inability to accept criticism or delegate responsibilities would have likely ended like this:

175$: Establishing a Minecraft server for him and his fans to play on. Meaning Dobson would have just wasted time he could spend on creating comics to endulge in his Minecraft obsession.

200$: Writing a Skyrim children book. Aside of the legal nightmare that this could have been (I doubt Valve would have been happy of someone else profiting of their property) I have to ask, who was even interested in Skyrim by 2015 anymore? Sure, Skyrim was a popular game and it had its qualities, but it was also a trend that had passed by that time. So in other words, there was not a market to cater towards here.

300$: A strip per week guaranteed.

… are you fucking kidding me? 75$ per strip essentially? Something people expect you to produce anyway if you want to be considered a “prolific” creator worth supporting online? Imagine if certain internet reviewers would do that, telling you that if they do not earn at least a certain amount of money, they will not produce anything, period, or less than usual. And Dobson had already proven that he can release more than just one comic within a few days, if he is motivated by enough spite.

600$: Starting a podcast with his friends to talk about nerd culture. In my opinion could only work under the assumption that people even like the idea of listening to Dobson and his opinions. Which considering how very little people like talking to him sounds doubtful. Also, considering how Dobson tends to be late to the party when it comes to nerd culture, likely tending to be out of date faster than he could upload. Finally... what friends?

700$: Returning the love, as he says it, by donating some of the money patreon users gave him to other content creators. This in my opinion is the most self defeating cause possible. On one hand sure, being generous and all that. But essentially Dobson admits here he would blow the money people give him to support HIS art on others, essentially defeating the purpose of HIS own account. He also does not clarify how much of that money he would donate, meaning there was a high chance that he would spend less than 10% of it on other creators, only creating the illusion of support while putting the actual earnings/donations into his own pocket.

2000$: A massive jump ahead. 2000$ per month would result in him getting better equipment (as in a new computer e.g.) and as such “potentially” make more comics. Mind you, only potentially.

This goal in my opinion is also the most fucked up one. Primarily for the following reasons:

Lets say Dobson would have achieved the goal and actually earned over 2000$ per month for at least a year. His annual earning would have been 24k, minus whatever he had to pay as taxes and payment for using the patreon service. And what would he do with this money? Get himself a better computer and equipment by paying a minor fraction of it once. Then he could use that computer for years to come while still having over 10k in his account, plus his monthly earnings. And he may still just produce 3-4 comics a month of a series that has as much depth to it than Peppa Pig if not less.

Sure, many patreon users have 2k+ as a stretch goal on their accounts to signify that if they could make that much monthly, they could have the necessary financial security to focus their time primarily on their content instead of a regular job. And if the content they create is actually well made, many people would support that or be okay with it.

But 2000 dollars to buy ONE computer and not account for how this money will add up over time? And that in light of such profits people may actually expect you to create more than you barely do already? That is either a case of narcissism, plain stupidity because you can't look further than 5 feet or just shows how Dobson did not understand at all the tool he had at his disposal.

Bottom line: Dobson, like many times before, fucked it up. He overestimated the potential support and resulting profits he could make, he expected that his name alone would be enough to assure gainings instead of creating content to justify support and he was unwilling to really give his supporters anything worthwhile back.

And while I am sure that there were also many other factors guaranteeing his failure, those at least to me, were his "common" mistakes most other people familiar even with the basics of internet popularity would ahve avoided.

#long post #patreon #syac #submission #very long post #andrew dobson #adobsonartworks #tom preston #adobsonart #soyouareandrewdobson #ripsinfest

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stuckinapatriarchalbullshitland · 4 years

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Hi - Ciao - Hola

Hi, guys. I’m back. I’m the Italian Anon. F Anon. I didn’t know my username wasn’t going to show up in my super long post. I think only Mari saw it (can I call you Mari?). As I said, I’m new in the Tumblr world and I’m still trying to figure out how it all works. I’m a woman and you can call me Faby. Nice to meet all of you guys.

First, I wanted to thank everyone for appreciating my post. I’m honestly overwhelmed. I really wasn’t expecting this, and you have no idea how happy this makes me. I want to thank Mari especially for posting it. I’ve read the comments from you guys, and if that’s okay with you, Mari, I’d like to keep responding to anyone who wants to talk to me through you.

To the Anon who asked if it’s possible to hack an I-Cloud:

Yes. It’s very possible. You can access iMessages by simply logging into someone else’s iCloud on a new iPhone. iClouds are one of the easiest things to hack. But when I said Caminah were hacked, I didn’t mean by ordinary people. I actually meant Epic’s IT department (who had access to all their phones so it wasn’t a fully-fledged hacking) and the ordinary people who they used and most likely paid to spread everything.

From Dinah’s phone, they managed to leak a provisional tracklist of the concert, a personal phone number, and a snippet of 5H’s song ‘Goodbye’. These are things I saw with my own eyes, but it’s rumored that there were also some of her pictures in which she was only wearing underwear, and some in which she was naked, of which, however, they covered her private parts because she was a minor. I’ve personally never seen them, so I don’t know, and I honestly don’t think that’s true.

To @omagadd:

I don’t have Twitter, sorry, Jane. I also already said this at the beginning of my post. I don’t like Twitter. Too many toxic people, too much inconsistency, too much hate, and I don’t have time for that shit. Since it can be done without being registered, I go on Twitter only if I need to see something that is there. We can have that conversation here through Mari, assuming that she’s okay with this.

To the Anon who said I’m acting like Lauren:

No, Anon, I didn’t, and I’m sorry you felt that way. I don’t put all the CS in the same box. I know there are super-smart fans. I know there are reeaally talented fans. I know there are fans from the very beginning. These are all things I said. My post was dedicated to all the CS who were giving up. I tried to remind them of past events. I literally tried to bring light into their moment of darkness. The message I tried to send them with my post is one of hope. I don’t want them to give up. That’s all. Again, I’m sorry if you (or anyone else who has read it) felt ‘attacked’ by my words. Maybe you can go read my post again and see that it wasn’t my intention at all.

For all those who have questions for me, and I repeat for the umpteenth time, only if Mari agrees, you can ask them through her. As I already said, I’ve been working on a fanfiction for over two years, and this fanfiction, it’s based on their lives, on real events. So, in order to be able to write it, I did research on research on research. I know dates. I know names. I know enough things (in a let’s say a bit stalkerish way, lol). This, is to tell you that I have the entire timeline. [I don’t know if you noticed the detailed way I put the dates and other stuff.] Like many of you, I also have proofs, and, of course, I have my theories. In my original post, there were also pictures/proofs, such as, for example, the screenshot of the conversation between Luckiest VIVIN C (for those who don’t know, VIVIN C is a medicinal product) and Nicole’s mom. I decided to leave only the text simply because I don’t want people from other fandoms to come to store them. I don’t want our truth to be taken and manipulated as they please. So I apologize already in advance if someone in the future will ask me something with proofs and I won’t want to post it.

To show you that I’m not lying, this is the example I gave a moment ago: file:///C:/Users/FabyV/Downloads/Lucy_NicoleCartolano_smom.webp (I repeat, I don’t know if I’m gonna post any more proof in the future)

I send you a virtual hug. Always with love, Faby.

Mari, I’m about to go check your message, don’t worry. Love u.

___

Hey Faby! I am very happy to have you back in my inbox. The truth is that you have caused a lot of controversy, but a good one. The one that gives a lot of hope to the fandom and I really wanted to thank you for the time and work you have dedicated to telling us all this. And yes, you can call me Mari. And you can also use my inbox to answer the anons who will surely want to ask you many things. It’s open to you, Faby. You can use it. What you say about the hacking and the girls is crazy. I remember reading a story where Fetty’s iCloud had been hacked (I don’t remember his name, but he’s the rapper that appears in the Flex MV) and that he had information about the girls or something like that, I have a post from the I talked about it and yeah, I know Apple Clouds are easy to hack (Thank goodness I don’t have that shit). But it’s gross. That is already crossing the line and committing a crime. Even if it comes from the same industry, those bastards. I don’t think you have to apologize for not wanting to show evidence because clowns do that in advance. I think your words and your story can show that we have evidence and that it is searchable because it is public. Thank you very much Faby. Thank you for giving us what you have given us and continuing to support us. A kiss and a hug, and good luck.

#submission #laucy timeline #thanks for this buddy #camren #f anon

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path-of-my-childhood · 4 years

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hey vax, i've not exactly been on tumblr for too long. has our fandom always been picking apart everything that taylor says or does? are they always angry that she didn't speak enough about politics? on instagram its uncommon and ngl, im dumbfounded by some of the things which i read.

I am not a fan of revisionist history, so yes - fans have always been pretty harsh with Taylor. Are they slightly more harsh now than they were, let’s say - four years ago? Sure, but that kind of behavior is very much in line with social media patterns of behavior in general - people have progressively been more aggressive and toxic on social media over years. No reason why fans would be exempt from that trend. Since I’ve only become active here in 2016, over the years I’ve done a lot of digging through archives of some blogs, and I was actually surprised about the level of complaining and demanding that was going on. It’s surprising at first, but if you think about it - is it really? Taylor has spoiled her fans so much that - given people’s fickle nature - I really don’t think we should be surprised with the level of entitlement some are showing.

With all that being said, what you see on your social media and what you engage with is only, and absolutely ONLY your choice. For example, I obviously know about above mentioned behavior, but am I seeing it on my dash? No. There’s none of that on my dash. I am also a very active Twitter user and - although I do sometimes stumble upon something that makes my eye roll - it’s absolutely fine, it’s not bad at all. Literally everything can be in your control, and anyone telling you otherwise is lying. Yes, sometimes it can take a little work, but it’s very doable. You can simply unfollow toxic people. You can scroll past a mean tweet without engaging, because engagement is nothing but a reward for people on social media. So choose who you reward carefully. Even asks here on Tumblr can be controlled, and I’ve actually experimented with this a lot. It does sound a little bit crude to say, but you can literally train people in what you like being sent. And voilà, you only get nice asks in your inbox.

The key is in the boundaries you set. But you have to ask yourself and be honest - is pleasant SM environment more important to you than engagement? They don’t necessarily exclude one another, but let’s not pretend that being ”scandalous”, edgy, toxic and mean isn’t behavior that nowadays brings in the biggest engagement on Internet. And we are talking here about people who spend a lot of time online, for most of them this is their main source of social life, and that like/reblog/retweet/ask is their main source of serotonin rush.

I will say that it’s a little worrying how many people depend on Taylor for so many things, and even worse - how many seem to genuinely have no other interests outside the celebrity they “stan”. I mean, to each their own I guess, but we all start from our own example and I always think how during one day I have to do work, and then my free time is split between my boyfriend, my friends, resting and then - as the last place on the scale of importance - all my interests. And seeing how much time some spend online, it sometimes really makes me wonder, ‘what about other aspects of your life? when do you get to those? do you even work on other areas of your life?’ My point is that given all I’ve mentioned, if you think about it, is it really surprising there’s so much anger and frustration? It just doesn’t seem like a quality life to lead - and then of course people will be bitter about everything. For example, if I’ve spend my day doing good at work, then spent some time with my friends, went home, had some quality time with my bf - am I really gonna care whether Taylor did this or that? Absolutely don’t give a shit. Yes - I’ll look at it, be amused for few minutes and say something like “cool, that was fun...” and move on with my day. But if your happiness/amusement/identity is derived mostly from one thing, then chances are you will find 20 things to complain about in a 10 second clip Taylor posted online.

Anyway, I don’t wanna get further into analysis, but I hope you get what I’m trying to say. Make your environment enjoyable - you can’t control other people and their frustrations, but you can control how you live your life and how you spend your free time. So you know, be mindful of that.

#okay...this is long #but coincidentally - I've had a really eventful weekend so I'm finally getting to social media now...#gotta catch those last rays of sunshine before late fall weather and winter come along =)#asks #taylor swift #personal

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ironwoman359 · 5 years

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Hello. I saw the post you reblogged about toxicity in the TS fandom. And as someone who is relatively new (Just over 2 months, heyo!), may I ask what kind of toxic behaviour do you see in the fandom? I hope this isn't too much for me to ask, I was just a bit curious and wanted some clarification on the matter. Please feel free to ignore this if it bothers you!

Well, welcome to the fandom, first of all! I hope you’re having fun so far.

In regards to the post you’re talking about, I think @izzyfandoms said it best: “...most fandoms are okay but have a loud toxic minority, but for us the not-toxic people are often the loudest so we can come off as pure and perfect...”

Most fandoms do have an amount of toxic behavior in them, it’s very rare (I’d say impossible, actually) to find one with zero problems, but it’s also usually more noticable in other communities than in this fandom, as we have been fortunate to have the non-toxic majority also be the louder voices most of the time (most often in fandoms, toxicity is a loud minority, though there are of course exceptions to this as well).

The other thing I think is important to remember is that this fandom started out smaller than it is now. I’ve been a presence here since november 2017, and there are other who have been around even longer, and back then, the fandom was much smaller and therefore the toxic minority was even harder to notice. This led to us gaining a reputation of “purity,” which in turn made issues more complicated when they started to crop up. Every fandom is going to have issues, things that people in it disagree about, and people who try to stir up trouble. This is normal, and a fandom displaying those traits is not immediately a bad fandom. What can shift a fandom into an unhealthy one is when issues, disagreements, and drama become the focal point and people begin to treat each other poorly over these things. And I would say a majority of fanders are good at not falling into that type of thinking or acting. But it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, and it doesn’t mean that the fandom as a whole can just stick our heads in the sand and pretend everything is fine.

So, you asked me what toxic behaviors I see. I’m going to talk about some examples I’ve seen in this fandom, and before I do I’d like to state first off that it is not my intention to attack anyone specific, or to shame people for their tastes in characterizations, ships, or their triggers or squicks. This is me trying to give my open and honest opinion about this community while being as respectful and tactful as possible.

Also going forward, every time I say “the fandom” or “people” or refer to the community in some other all encompassing way, know that I do not mean every single person in it, or even a majority necessarily, just enough people to make it noticable. If you exhibit some of the behaviors I’m talking about, I’m not saying you’re a bad person or that you shouldn’t be here, far from it. But everyone has flaws, and these are just some common things that I see in this community. Maybe if you see yourself in this post, you can take a step back and consider your thoughts and actions to see how they may be harming you or others.

Regardless of everything I’ve said and am about to say, I really love this fandom and the people in it, and I’m incredibly grateful for the impact it’s had on my life. Some bumps in the road aren’t going to change that. (Also I don’t engage with the fandom much outside of tumblr, things may be different on twitter, discord, or other places, this is just my experience with this platform specifically. Okay? Okay.)

So...here’s what I see in this fandom:

It is quick to judge. Anyone been here long enough to remember the week when Roman was “cancelled” between Accepting Anxiety part 1 and part 2? I came into the community later that year, but the fandom elders can tell you, there was a rally against Roman as a character, and a slew of people calling out prinxiety shippers for shipping such a “toxic ship.” You’d think after that first time, the community would have learned to perhaps be not so quick in its judgements, but we’ve seen the same pattern over and over again.

People were quick to judge Deceit when his character was introduced, which was followed by a back and forth where people argued about what was and wasn’t “sympathetic” content, how things should be tagged, and

People were quick to judge Virgil after Embarrassing Phases

People were quck to judge Patton after SvS and Patton AND Virgil after DWIT.

People were quick to judge Remus after DWIT.

And here’s the thing, it’s fine if you have different interpretations of characters, or prefer certain versions. You see Patton’s character flaws and decide “you know what, this character isn’t for me now” or want to explore those flaws taken to their extremes? That is okay. What is not okay, and what this fandom does a lot, is insisting that YOUR interpretation and version of the character is the correct one and shaming people with different ideas. It’s fine if you don’t like Patton or take issue with his current flaws being displayed. It’s NOT fine to attack people who disagree and send anon hate to blogs who speak out in support of Patton. It’s fine if you don’t like unsympathetic sides content. It’s NOT fine to shame people who do or send anon hate to unsympathetic sides blogs. There are lots of different ways to interpret all SIX sides, and yet so often I see people go on some sort of crusade to defend their opinon and insist that it’s canon.

But that’s all just the characters, this fandom also is very quick to judge the individuals in it. Real, breathing people with lives outside the internet are often shamed or attacked for their opinions about the characters, different ships, the way they’ve chosen to portray the characters in their art or stories, I could go on. Purity culture and cancel culture are prevalant in all areas of the internet, and this fandom is not exempt from it. Demonizing people for making small mistakes, or even for just disagreeing with you, is never okay, and yet it is something I’ve seen again and again in this fandom. Which leads me to my next point...

Anon hate. God, it makes me so angry, and this is the only one that I won’t try to portray both sides of or be diplomatic about, because it is flat out unacceptable no matter the circumstance. There are so many blogs in this fandom that have horrible anon hate problems, and I am sick of seeing it. I don’t care what a person has done or what opinions they have that you may disagree with, I don’t care if they’re the worst person in the world. It’s not okay to send anon hate, and it’s not okay to tell people to kill themselves. You find a blog in this fandom that you just Do Not like, either because of their content, their opinions, hell, just their personality? Unfollow them. Block them if you want. But sending anon hate over ships, characters, opinions and statements, it’s just childish and unacceptable. And it happens enough in this fandom that there are people who are afraid of making statements about things for fear of attracting more of that energy. Love always follows the hate and drowns it out in this fandom, for which I’m grateful, but the hate shouldn’t exist in the first place. Cut that shit out.

In general, this fandom has not handled differing opinions well, be it opinions on how to tag content, disagreements over characterizations, or encountering an idea that you personally may not care for. It is ultimately up to individuals to curate their online experience, by unfollowing blogs they don’t like, blocking tags and blogs they don’t want to see, and reading summaries and content warnings before opening fics. Often in this fandom I think people get upset if something isn’t tagged the way they want it to be (and I’m not talking about not tagging triggers, I’m talking like, someone insisting a blogger tag deceit content as #ts deceit when they already tag it as #deceit sanders. In situations like that it is the responsibilty of that someone to either block the tags a blog is using or not follow blogs whose tagging system doesn’t work for them), or if someone disagrees with them and we forget that it is okay to just...unfollow people. You don’t have to follow every blog in this fandom to be a part of the community, and if a blog is making posts and content you don’t like, unfollow them, don’t attack them for it. Accept that they have as much a right to their opinions and their space in the fandom as you do, and adjust your block and follow list accordingly so that you can get the experience that YOU want out of this fandom.

I hope this was helpful, and I hope it didn’t get too long for you. I’m not putting this under a cut because I think it’s important, but I will tag it as #longpost so my mobile users don’t suffer too much. If you want to discuss this in the notes, please keep it civil, and remember that we all are fans of Thomas here, and that we probably have more in common than we do differences. I love you guys, stay awesome

#sanders sides #fanders #taylor talks #longpost #ask to tag #asks and answers

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road-rhythm · 3 years

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also aquinian anon again one thing i realized after typing out stuff to you is that curating fandom experiences also largely involves avoiding toxicity and doing your own thing, so I'm very interested and grateful to your insight but after taking some time to think about things I realized i was not following stuff that brings me joy or I'm in spaces with people who don't have boundaries. so if you have advice for keeping boundaries and curation of fandom stuff, im all ears too

The best I can tell you is what works for me. And I've fucked up plenty. But I'll give it my best shot.

First of all: judging by your previous asks, yeah, I reckon a lot of your headaches have been as much a result of others' boundary issues as your own. Sounds like you're already headed in the right direction just by recognizing that this isn't fun for you, and that you are, in fact, here to have fun. Keep that at the forefront of your mind, and the perspective will probably help more than anything else.

As far as setting and keeping boundaries goes, you've got two questions to contend with: what sort of boundaries exist (or don't) in the fanspaces you frequent, and what sort of boundaries you set for yourself. I'm assuming that you interact with other fans/their fanworks here on Tumblr and on AO3, that you're at least familiar with Twitter and Discord as general ideas, and that you'll have seen some LJ and/or Dreamwidth pages even if you're not a regular on those sites.

ETA: Oh, shit, I forgot the cut 🤦‍♀️ (And you get a table of contents again) (small one this time)

External boundaries: affordances and engagement

Internal boundaries: when (not) to argue on the internet

Spötterdämmerung: Twilight of the Gits

———————————————————

External boundaries: affordances and engagement

Present-day fandom exists overwhelmingly on the internet. That means that fandom's infrastructure is the websites fans interact on. Within the last ten years, and even more so within the last fifteen, the sites where fandom takes place have changed a lot.

You probably know that Strikethrough on LiveJournal was one of the big pushes that led to AO3's creation. What's easy to forget now, even for those of us whose first fandom experiences were on Usenet eight million years ago, is that AO3 has been wildly successful in ways no one at the time foresaw. (Skip to the bottommost post, by Ellen Fremedon.) Prior to AO3, it was common for people to post fic primarily or even solely to LJ. That had a lot to do with how hoppin' LJ was socially.

But the Archive of Our Own is just that: an archive. It's not a blogging platform, and there are no fora. So when the fic migrated to AO3, the rest of fandom moved onto Twitter, Tumblr, and eventually Discord.

Designers consider affordances: "properties of objects which show users the actions they can take." Good design lets users understand at a glance what they're meant to do with the tool/furniture/website before them; skilled designers can use this to steer people through the environments they create, profoundly influencing their behavior. It's both cool as hell and kind of scary to think about. Anyway. The affordances on Tumblr and Twitter are designed to maximize user interaction.

Retweeting and reblogging are super-easy and essential to the function of the sites. Liking is as easy as possible; commenting is as easy as possible; navigating on either site is hopelessly chaotic, but not knowing where the fuck you're gonna end up doesn't seem to stop anybody from tag-surfing. It's not just that everything is public on Twitter and Tumblr; it's more than that, almost hyper-public. People often liken conversations on these sites to talking to your friends in a public park—usually so that they can compare visitors engaging with their content to strangers accosting them in said park and interrupting. But there really is no comparison.

And that's before you even get to the algorithms these sites employ specifically to encourage conflict, because conflict generates more engagement than concord, and engagement is how the sites make money.

In days of yore, much of this would be rendered moot by the existence of friends-lock, and a lot more by the absence of reblogs/retweets. What constituted a community was much clearer on LJ or DW than it is on Twitter or Tumblr; as a result, boundary etiquette generally was, too. Currently, Discord replicates a lot of the community and conversation functions that LJ once did, but since it has no individual blogging/microblogging space, fandom still needs social media.

The closest thing to comms on those media are hashtags. Even discounting tag spamming/trolling/hate-reading, people interested in a given hashtag are a lot more likely to disagree about key fandom issues than people interested in the same LJ community.

And if they disagree, do they have an obligation not to talk to each other? Ninety-nine times out of a hundred they'll have a much nicer day if they don't, but I don't think it's inherently wrong or in all cases rude to do it. Some people go out of their way to make sure it's rude in the extreme, but strangers engaging with other strangers' content, even negatively, are literally doing what the site is designed to get them to do.

So yeah, fans who bang their shipwank up on sites specifically designed to get their content in front of as many eyeballs as possible and then shriek bloody murder about how reblogging something to disagree with it is exactly like somebody breaking into their living room are being… unreasonable. They are setting themselves up for outrage. They are demonstrating extremely poor boundaries. They are a throbbing, hemorrhoid pain in our collective ass. But I kind of feel for them, because I think a lot of what's happening is that they unconsciously miss the clarity and boundaries that things like comms and f-lock used to provide, even (maybe especially) the generation that was never even on LJ.

Once upon a time, fans were not any more mature or less hateful than they are today, but they mostly interacted with each other on sites with affordances that created some environmental boundaries that could be readily understood and took a bit more brashness to override. Now everyone has to bring those boundaries to the table themselves, and honestly, it's completely predictable that a large proportion would fail.

Internal boundaries: when (not) to argue on the internet

Since a large proportion of them are going to fail, if you want to have a nice time, you will have to do better.

As social beings, there are all kinds of internal boundaries we need to establish and observe. I don't feel remotely equal to giving any much advice about most of them. Here are my personal rules for getting into (and out of) fights on the internet instead.

Again, I don't think it's necessarily wrong or even rude to dispute with someone (and I think some of the times when it's rude, it's still right). So I won't advise anyone never to fight on the internet, but I try to follow two rules: 1) Think carefully about the fights you pick. 2) Walk away after you've said what you came to say.

The payoff can't be something that comes from another person. Particularly if you're arguing with someone across a major divide of some kind, you are not ever going to change their mind and it's unlikely you'll change the minds of their social group. Not that way. If you're going to do it, do it because:

you want to clarify your own thoughts.

you want to make a point to onlookers who aren't already polarized.

you want catharsis.

you care a lot about saying it.

If your motivation is catharsis, really weigh the payoff against the emotional costs of conflict. I mean, do that anyway, but especially if you're wading into something because you think it will make you feel better. In the short term, at least, it probably won't.

Whatever your reason for participating in the argument, once you've said the part that was important to you, stop there. You don't have to keep going just because someone responds. Opening your mouth does not create an obligation for you to keep engaging—not even with someone you addressed directly.

I think walking away is harder than not getting involved in the first place, because most of us have internalized that once we insert ourselves, we have to stick around. We feel like the fact that people are upset with us means we're responsible for that, and thus that we owe them something. But we don't. Not only can you walk away whenever it suits you, but you should. Be open to the possibility that any anger you've incurred is warranted, but if you're careful about step one, your conscience should stay fairly quiet.

This is the part that requires you to enforce the boundaries you've set for yourself. Are people shitposting about you? Yep, they're apt to. Are they twisting your words, making ad hominem attacks, speculating about your motives and getting them wrong? Yeah, they're gonna do that, too. Are they bragging about how they clearly destroyed you, since you haven't said a word since they returned fire? Let them. If you ever want to get of the carousel, sooner or later you're going to have to shut up and leave them to it; better it be right after you've said the thing you wanted to say than after you've said a bunch of things that you never really did because you got sucked in.

Practice it. Practice walking away from the conflict. Practice saying what you want despite knowing it's assailable; practice blocking people when you're done and letting them call you a coward because of it. Practice by fucking off and reading a nice book, or writing a nice fic, or making a nice meal. Practice switching mental gears, because that is not an ability most of us get for free. It's a learned skill.

Speak to satisfy yourself. Because any time you get angry at a stranger on the internet, the only resolution to that feeling you will ever experience will come from your end.

That is true of a lot of real-life situations where the person you're angry at is not a stranger, as well. It shouldn't be, but it is. Particularly when you are experiencing systemic injustice of some kind, there will often be sharp limits to the practical redress you can extract from a company, government, other power structure, or individual within that power structure. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't work for change, but if you're going to do it, you'll need to husband your mental and emotional resources for the fights that matter.

Spötterdämmerung: Twilight of the Gits

I have no idea if it's your only fandom, but since you've mentioned ships with its characters and you evidently follow this blog, I assume you're in Supernatural fandom. SPN is one of the biggest, best-established, and most transformatively productive fandoms out there; it ain't gonna evaporate overnight. It may well be one of those fandoms that never dies at all. But it will contract.

It already is. People drift away to other things; networks reshape themselves; communities slow down, consolidate, shutter. It can be melancholy for sure, but I prefer to think of it as a renaissance, as people trying out new interests and getting excited about new stories. And another major bonus: it tends to get way less wanky.

There's always a wank bubble when series end, but the thing about bubbles is they don't last forever. Eventually, the loudest voices lose interest as they lose relevance, and things calm down. Usually what's left is a quieter place where, yeah, maybe it's not quite the hectic pace it used to be, but mostly the folks who've stuck around have done so because they care more about the story than the adrenaline rush they can get from stirring shit.

Point is, you're in the market for stuff that's more fun and acquaintances who don't drive you crazy, and this is actually a really opportune time to find some. Things are already in flux; define yourself and your space any way you want.

In sum:

pick your battles

back-button and bitch in private

accept that not everyone will like you

practice saying, "Screw you, I do what I want" at odd times of the day

get better friends

screw haters, do what you want

#asks #anon asks #Aquinian Anon #discourse for ts #fandom history #(a smidge)#fandom infrastructure #social media affordances #long post is long

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faranae · 4 years

Text

Rant Incoming:

I’m not blind to the fact a few thousand of you are probably only here for my rants at this point, but for those of you who are here for my more wholesome takes and guide-related content I encourage you to please block the #discourse and #fandom drama tags. As always, your dashboard content is in your hands. Please stay safe out there, and try to prioritize your own mental health over sipping the latest tea.

This post may include some vaguely accusatory language directed at a lot of “you”s and “they”s, but I am not singling out any one individual here. I’m just very frustrated and disappointed in humanity right now and no amount of editing is going to scrub that squeaky clean.

Now, with that said...

Y'all really out there actively threatening a woman's life and livelihood in the middle of a global pandemic over:

A: An opinion on a kid's movie;

B: Two paragraphs in said opinion warning that toxic fans might pull exactly this, which the author admitted herself was childish and apologized for very quickly;

C: Some reblogs screenshotted out of context and posted to Twitter, some months or years old.

Cancel Culture™️ is horrifying.

I've been sitting here for days watching maliciously crafted screenshots circulate on Twitter; screenshots taken in such a way that masks they are of reblogs, not original posts. To anyone who uses Tumblr regularly it's obvious, right? We all know that left-hand bar means quoted text that doesn't necessarily belong to "OP" or reflect their views (usually).

Twitter users and global news outlets, not so much.

Some people are taking advantage of that social media divide to blow this discourse way out of proportion in an attempt to decimate an innocent woman’s life and livelihood. Bot accounts are repeatedly posting accusations against OP with no proof only to disappear without a trace once their "tips” take off.

I sincerely hope that none of you reading this are taking part in the current brigade. If you have, I implore you to take a step back and ask yourselves if you have the whole picture. Ask yourselves if you truly believe you have the right to threaten a regular person over a difference in opinion, even if you think it's a bad take.

Try not to assume malice when ignorance could just as easily be the underlying factor. This is why civil discussion even when things get heated is so tremendously important.

Nobody deserves to have their life threatened over a fandom, no matter what their opinion is. Nobody deserves to have fame-chasers jump out of the woodwork claiming OP is a "racist ableist abuser of minors" without proof just because they're globally trending on Twitter. Nobody deserves to have their entire livelihood put at risk over a kids' movie.

This is a regular person, not some hot-shot politician or celebrity who has an agent to go over their posts with a fine-toothed comb. She doesn't deserve to have those other posts she didn't even write taken and added as fuel to the fire for the sake of drama. Folks are adding lies to the pile of “evidence”, either through malice or misinformation, and claiming they're some “smoking gun” with regards to both her strength of character and the supposed skeletons in her closet.

Even if they were: Our skeletons give structure to who we have grown to be in the now. Full stop.

Actually, once more for the people in the back who don’t understand why Cancel Culture™️ is so dangerous:

Our skeletons give structure to who we have grown to be in the now.

Even if you think someone’s suffered a fracture or two in their life, you don’t invasively cut them open to check the bones directly. You take an x-ray, say “Oh yeah, that was broken once but the patient has taken steps to make sure it isn’t impacting their current quality of life”, and move on.

(Or, alternatively, point out “Yo man you might wanna have that looked at further because I’m pretty sure it didn’t set right the first time.”)

I hope you can forgive the shit metaphor.

The point is be kind. Even if you don't agree, try to take the road of civil discussion. Keep a level head. Ask questions. Educate yourselves if not others, or leave it alone if you genuinely don’t care.

It's a choice we all have, and it’s all some of us have left.

Disclaimer: I suppose I technically know Hailey/Squigg in passing - she’s a friend of a friend, though since we frequent different social and academic/professional circles we’ve never really been acquainted proper. Does that still introduce some level of bias? Of course it does. However, I can condemn the mob mentality currently surrounding her without agreeing with the post she made.

This isn't black and white. She is more than a subject of discourse. She is a passionate theorist and a talented storyteller. She is an industry professional with several fantastic portfolio projects under her belt. She is in my limited experience kind and empathetic and more than a tad mischievous, but also opinionated and far from perfect.

We all have moments where our mouths outrun our brains in the moment; Not only is Hailey no exception, she near-immediately took the steps to correct her slip-up when she realized part of her wording was pointlessly accusatory. You’d be surprised how rare that is. Unfortunately the post had already taken off and Cancel Culture™️ deems the appropriate response is to glass the planet rather than acknowledge any gestures of correction or goodwill.

Anyway!

Standing up against bullying and cancel/doxx culture isn’t bootlicking, it’s just common sense.

Be kind.

#Lilo and Stitch #Disney #cancel culture #Discourse #Long Post #Fandom Drama #Fara Rants #I've been watching this develop since the beginning #From afar #Last time I tried to play devil's advocate I got threats sent against not just me #but also my kid #I can't just say nothing when folks are straight up lying #And not even lying WELL #SMH

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volixia669 · 5 years

Text

Internet and Fandom Safety Tips

So due to some discourse about minors in fandom, as well as some things that I’ve seen go on, I’ve noticed a weird divide as to how we’re taught internet safety. My generation/age group of that generation? We were taught to be careful, every stranger on the internet is dangerous, etc. Nowadays? The focus is less on how to be safe on the internet, and more to stay in safe spaces. Which works...When you’re eight. By the time you’re thirteen and allowed on various websites, you’re beyond safe internet spaces. So have some more...helpful tips from one of those who’s been traversing the wild west for awhile.

TRIGGER WARNING: Mention of pedophilia, mention of the nastier aspects of the fandom and internet.

1. NEVER state your age. Ever. Even anonymously. On tumblr. On twitter. If you mention it on facebook, then make your facebook *PRIVATE*. Is everyone on the internet a pedophile? No. Are there pedophiles on the internet just looking for minors? Yep. By not mentioning your age, you are protecting yourself from dangerous situations. Likewise, don’t mention where you live either.

2. Look. It is absolutely no one’s job to protect you from content you don’t want to see. As various people have pointed out, we are adults making content for other adults. This is where tags and filters are your friend. You can filter out the content you don’t want.

3. Use an adblocker if you aren’t already. ESPECIALLY if you’re in any sort of anime/manga fandom. Because you’ll probably end up on sites that either have ads with NSFW content, ads with bordering on NSFW content, or just ads with viruses. Ublock Origin is a solid extension that should prevent any of that. (You should still have an antivirus on your computer.)

4. ANIME/MANGA/OTOME FANS IN PARTICULAR. Look. The guys are pretty. The voices are sexy. But a lot of this stuff is not made for anyone under 18. Or may seem fun now, but you look back and it’s actually pretty toxic. So there may be weird content, toxic relationships, or NSFW content. Some anime/manga fandoms have fans who are obsessed with “lolis/shotas” which, means things can go south REAL FAST. (Again. Never. Ever. Mention you are a minor.) Enjoy the media, but be very selective with which parts of the fandom you hang out around, and which parts of the fanart/fanfiction you look at.

5. Trigger Warnings. Use them and be aware of them. When other people use trigger warnings, it means you know when something might make you uncomfortable, or might trigger some sort of PTSD or anxiety reaction in yourself. If anything you create might need a trigger warning, then use it. Even a post, like this one, could warrant a warning. Content Warning is another term that is often used.

6. Shipping. Oh boy. Where to even start? First off, it’s perfectly okay to ship characters. That’s just how fandoms operate. Things that are not okay however are...

a. Dissing people’s ships just because you don’t like the ship. Everyone has different reasons for liking ships. Someone probably doesn’t like your favorite ships. Just respect that everyone ships differently.

b. Insisting canon ships are the only real ships. Look. I did this when I was young and stupid. But try not to be that person. Sometimes non-canon ships can be more interesting. Sometimes non-canon ships are more canon than the canon ships. (Trust me, it happens) Ships are ships, and people will do what they will.

Also. It should be noted that sometimes people ship unhealthy relationships. There’s plenty of reasons for this. Often they know the relationship is unhealthy. Once again, this is a case of adults making content for adults.

7. This goes for real life as well. Always avoid those who are 18 or older and state that you’re “cool” and want to date you. Often they’ll use phrases like, “You’re so mature for your age.” Those are creeps and pedophiles. Stay away. They don’t actually think you’re mature. They just want someone they can groom.

8. I mentioned at the beginning to never state your age, and emphasized to never state you’re a minor. Never lie and say you’re 18 when you’re not. For several reasons. Creeps may assume it’s legal to DM stuff if you state you’re 18 in your bio. If you tell a website, or server mod you are 18, then for all intents and purposes they have to assume you are 18. Which doesn’t sound like a big deal to you, but websites and discord servers can get in HUGE trouble for allowing underage users to view and use NSFW content. Protect yourself by not lying in those cases.

9. Discord servers are a weird part of the internet. Honestly. If you’re under 18, just avoid the huge 2000 members servers. A lot of weird dangerous stuff can happen. Keep to smaller servers, with mods who keep NSFW stuff in the NSFW channels, and will prevent weird stuff from happening to you. Safety tip! Since you will need to disclose your real age (or just that you’re a minor) I highly recommend using a different username than you use for the rest of your online accounts, and not sharing your social media on the discord server.

There’s all sorts of other topics regarding the internet and fandom, but this is just the basics that should help you out. The internet can be a cool place, but it’s not a safe place. Be wary of strangers. Know that just because it’s mostly adults, it’s not our job to protect you from every little thing. And for the millionth time: NEVER MENTION YOU ARE A MINOR.

#internet safety #fandom #trigger warning #shipping #use adblocker #for the love of god never mention your bloody age #or where you live trust me you don't want stalkers #creeps live on the internet

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jakkuvian · 4 years

Note

what's your most and least favorite thing about tumblr?

hhhhho buckle up peanut bc...

imma start with the positives first:

Okay well i've been on tumblr for almost 10 years and i've seen my fair share of shitt, weird and amazing things. This site has a great platform, it's unique in a way what you can't find anywhere else, maybe that's why most of us are so attached to it. The people..when you find that circle where you feel safe, you can meet the nicest and loveliest people ever, i still think about the friends i made years ago, even if we don't talk now. I feel this even stronger now, mostly because this overall might be one of the worst fandoms to be in (meaning the star wars fandom) and that small understanding circle of us reylos/the people who might not be one but still kind and accepting are something important to hold onto. The format of this place and the note and sharing system you could say is also a great thing, even though creators really have a rough time lately, but maybe this will change for the better sometime soon. Again the messaging system has both the pro and con side of it, but the fact that you can leave users asks is a pretty great thing in my opinion, even the dm system is great, compared to the fact that back then you had to stick to fanmails if you wanted to message someone privately, and a lot of time those got lost.

Now onto the negatives:

Hhho boy....okay i start on a positive note, because tumblr might be a shithole, but still better than what twitter actually is. That being said this site has so many bad sides to it that would make you question why you are actually here...(but that leads back to the previous section). The constant unnecessary changes are something one can never get used to when there could be y know smart things to be done, like removing n*zis, and their content, instead they just keep adding shit what no one actually needs. The staff turning a blind eye to a lot of things, not listening to their users but it is nothing new. And now onto the grand high bitch of a problem...the users. This site has some of the most vile and dumbest people ever for a fact, who take their idiotic views as if it was the bible, they keep spreading it, and treating it like it should apply to everyday life, believing everything without backup proof or you know doing some research before they start jumping at other peoples throat and cancelling everyone here and there. Tumblr has a highly toxic culture, in general internet culture became something of a disgusting mess, people being comfortable saying any possible shit ever without thinking about the outcomes, because this is the internet and the recieving end cannot hurt me, so it's my right to be a colossal asshole. People abuse the ask system sending disgusting messages, not thinking about how it can actually affect that person on the other side really badly. This comfort that they were given where in real life they surely would get their teeth punched out for the shit they say. They allow themselves to form opinion about others without knowing the bare minimum about that person, and they consider it a job done that yeah a certain bunch of people are the worst people ever to exist on this world. It's the freedom of speech they say, but many of them quite frankly abuse that fact. They learn phrases and ideologies that they can stick onto things and keep going around like that without truly knowing anything about the said thing. I'm not trying to tell people how to live their life, but the world is a shithole to begin with, and giving the other person a bit of respect, rather than saying disgusting things without you literally knowing 0% about them, if they did shitty things or etc. is the easiest and cheapest thing you can do. Live and let live this is always what i say. Obviously not meaning actually terrible people.

#i...went off im sorry #answered #anonymous #anyways idk i love this fandom bc its the sweetest and kindest ive ever been in #long post

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utaprifanzine · 5 years

Text

Shining Live Fanzine: Concept Pitch

I believe @utapri-idol-hell has already mentioned this upcoming project on her blog so, without further delay, this is the completed concept pitch for an SL-themed Utapri fanzine!

(Note: there is also a link to this post on twitter! If you have a twitter account, please consider retweeting the post from this account so that non-tumblr users can also see this!)

I would like to first put emphasis on the fact that this is a concept pitch. That means this is a presentation of the initial idea to anyone who might be interested in this project. At this point in time, most of the rules and concepts are still malleable - they can be changed and shaped according to feedback from this post.

If you are interested in this project (as either a contributor or as someone who would want to acquire a copy of the zine) please consider filling out this feedback form. Any responses will be useful to determine how the zine moves forward, but the feedback is particularly important in regards to the “Application Methods” section of this post (see below).

There are, however, three rules which are already “set” and would not be changed. They are as follows:

This zine would feature work from both artists and writers.

Due to Broccoli’s history with ordering “cease and desist”s against utapri doujin artists, this would be a non-profit zine. Thus, digital copies would be completely free.

The concept for this zine is based on the intention of it being a fun project that would appeal to the majority of the fanbase. Therefore, some rules are set in place to avoid content that might spark conflict and/or be geared towards a specific audience.

Below the cut, this post is split into three sections: Concept, Rules, and Application Methods. Each section is clearly noted with a header. “Concept” covers the general theme, content, and layout; “Rules” covers additional restrictions and/or allowances for the zine content; and “Application Methods” covers various possible ways a writer or artist could possibly apply to do a page for the zine. That last section is particularly important, because at the moment the application method for the zine has yet to be decided and the final decision will depend feedback.

There’s quite a bit of information below, so for anyone who is dyslexic or has any other reading difficulties, the most important information is in bold.

The ask box is also open for anyone who has any additional questions, or would like further expansion on something mentioned in the following text.

Please also consider reblogging this post so more people can see it!

The initial concept for this zine, was that it would (hopefully) be the first in a series of SL-themed zines that followed the chronological release pattern of the in-game events and gachas.

This seemed to be a good way to establish a kind of content equilibrium, so that no specific character/event/gacha appeared too often or too little. The pages would be themed after the events/gachas and each one would have a specific amount of pages allotted to it. Since KLab has only screwed the rotation once thus far, it seems like an easier method of creating balance.

Originally, it was going to be an annual digital zine with a high page count. However, since people have expressed their interest in physical copies of a zine, the concept was revised into something that would also translate well into physical format.

The following are the revised restrictions/guidelines for the current concept of the zine:

The total page count would be 44 pages. This includes the front/back cover, index and closing pages.

The content would cover from the release of the game (Aug/Sept 2017) up through January 2018. This covers 8 gacha and 10 events, not including the SL UR set which would also be featured.

Each event and gacha would be allotted two A4 pages of content - one for art and one for a piece of flash fiction. The cover and its related story would have double that amount: front/back cover + a two page short story.

The zine would have the potential to run in both physical and digital formats. Digital zines would be completely free (hence, non-profit project) however they will still require the purchaser to put in an order/request for the file. There will be no public download link posted.

All contributors are entitled to a digital copy without placing a request. Free physical copies may be a possibility, but that depends on a number of factors (namely the amount of contributors, zine orders, and if a print run is made at all) so I can’t promise anything at this point.

Print runs would be made if there is enough demand for physical copies, and there would only be one run per zine. This is reduce the risk of Broccoli viewing the zine production as a competitive merchandise and thereby becoming offended by the project.

(The following rules were put in place regarding the intentions and concept for the zine. Since this is a concept pitch, each rule is followed by an explanation of why it exists. If you believe any rule is unnecessary, or flawed, please note that in the feedback form! Passive-aggressively ranting about it on twitter doesn’t help!)

The UR Rule

The featured UR pair (for gachas) or the featured UR/SR pair (for events) MUST be the focus of the piece. Other characters can be mentioned and/or appear, but the piece has to be clearly centered on the two featured characters for that set/event. This is to help ensure the balance of content set by following the release patterns.

This goes without saying, but the pieces must also be themed after the event/gacha for which they are the pages for. A simple mention, hint, or acknowledgement toward the set/event isn't strong enough to be considered a theme.

Non-Shining Live Characters Are Allowed

Although the zine will be SL themed, all other characters that are part of the Utapri franchise can be featured within artwork and fiction pieces submitted to the zine. Since they’re official characters, I see no reason to purposely block them out.

The UR rule still applies, however, so these characters cannot become the focus of the pieces.

Keep it PG 13/15

This is partly in place to acknowledge the younger fans of the franchise (as well as those who aren't big fans of higher rated content) and partly because there is no fail-safe way to verify someone's age over the internet.

There are a lot of minors who consume and produce adult content for this fandom, and while their choices are theirs to make (I'm not the fandom police, it's none of my business), I don't want this project to be held responsible for distributing inappropriate content to minors in case issues do arise.

It's also worth noting that this rule does not only apply to sexual content (because some people think R18 only means sex). A piece depicting other mature themes - such as serious cannibalism, gore, or class A drug use - would not be acceptable.

No Romantic Ships

I feel like this is going to be the least popular rule, so the explanation for this is twice as long. Hear me out for a minute, and, if by the end you still think it’s unnecessary, by all means put that on the response form!

There are two main reasons for this rule.

Firstly, although shipping as a concept is extremely popular within fandom, individual ships still only cater to very specific audiences within the fanbase. No matter which way you twist it, no matter the popularity of any given ship, no single ship is universal. Some fans don't even connect to the idea of shipping in the first place.

Under most circumstances, that's completely fine, but within the context of a fanzine that's intended to appeal to as much of the fanbase as possible, allowing ships starts to seem very juxtaposed to that goal.

Case and point: if I have to include an extra contents page that lists all of the ships mentioned inside the zine so people can pick and/or avoid certain ones, that, to me, completely negates the idea of having a zine that most people can just pick up and read without issue.

Secondly, as I'm sure most people already know, ships are a primary source of conflict and motivator for harassment within fandom.

In terms of problems arising from including ships in a fanzine, I'm mainly worried about contributing artists/writers as well as the other admins getting harassed for content they did or didn't include within the zine. As someone who has not only seen utapri fan blogs run offline because of ship-based anon hate, but has also seen people ridiculed and kicked out of groups for not liking a popular ship, I would rather not risk exposing contributors and admins to that kind of toxic behavior.

When thinking about potential application methods for zine contributors, I realized that the traditional method - where people send in entries and these entries are reviewed/accepted/denied by an admin panel - may not be the best suited for a project that a) is supposed to be fun, not stressful and b) is looking for as many applicants as possible to hopefully be a success.

After brainstorming several alternative ways that applications could be handled, I decided the best possible way to choose one, would be to ask people who are interested in contributing to the zine how they would prefer to apply. After collecting the feedback, the most popular application method would be the one used for this zine.

The following are three different possible application methods. Each has a description of how it would work followed by a list of pros and cons for that method.

Method 1: First Come, First Serve

This method is very well-known, and very straightforward. Essentially, the list of available pages is posted at a specified time and date, and contributors would simply message the zine admins to claim whichever pages they want to contribute for. The first person to claim that particular page is the person who that page is allocated to.

Method 2: Random Chance

There are two variations of this method.

Application for Specific Pages: using this method, applicants would apply for specific pages at any point during the application period. Then, once the period has ended, the contributing artist/writer would be drawn at random for each page.

General Application: using this method, applicants would apply to the zine in general during the application period then, once the period has ended, the contributing writers/artists for all the pages would be drawn from the same pool. Applicants would be allowed to veto certain characters/sets/events and trade among each other if desired.

Method 3: Traditional Application

This is the method that’s most often used to manage and select applications for a zine.

An applicant would send in an entry form during the application period that contains, among other possible things, which pages they would like to apply for and an example of their work. At the end of the period, all entry forms are reviewed by the admins and the contributors for each page are decided by majority/unanimous vote.

And that’s everything! Please consider filling out the feedback form if you have the time!

#utapri #utapri fanzine #uta no prince sama #concept pitch #SLfanzineV1 #looong post

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clickabletale · 4 years

Text

Guess who’s back? Back again-

I thought I was done with this but alas I found out @wolfwarrior142 who apparently unhid her profile after mines came back and got some anon hate over this.

I hadn’t touched her Tumblr after my reblog since I did mine’s publicly on my blog which I thought was enough to illustrate how bizarre her response was and after her posts disappeared, and I thought that was that so there was no need to talk about the matter.

Until now where I checked her account from my reblog and saw it was up to see this new text post. The reblog feature was disabled so I will have to reenact it here.

I only ask, whoever is sending her messages, please stop. That doesn’t solve anything and from how insane her posts and logic are, it’s not worth the issue and it isn’t your place to tangled with it.

This will be (hopefully) my last message. I say hopefully since I don’t know what will happen after so I keep in mind what could change if something new comes out.

The post went like this

Anonymous asked:

don’t you feel stupid now for attacking someone over their opinion publicly, now you’re gonna hide? hypocrisy, hypocrisy~

wolfwarrior: I’m assuming you’re the dumb bitch who made that post (or their friend). Just gonna say that you shouldn’t post your dumbass ship hate in the ship tag. For one, it wasn’t even valid hate. You made it sound like you never watched the fuckin show. Also, just to make things clear, I’m not mad that plance didn’t become canon. I was sad, but I figured, oh well. It ain’t my show, it’s not the end of the world, they’re just fictional characters, and there’s no point in getting worked up over it. And then this dumb bitch drops by, tags the goddamn ship tag (even tho its common knowledge for anyone with a brain to be a decent fucking person and not do that, regardless of whether or not they like the ship), and makes a dumbass post while whining that oh boo hoo, poor me, I’m gonna get attacked. Yes you will, you dumbass, because you’re being a moron and an asshole for no reason while literally begging to get shit on. I know you probably get your rocks off to people calling out the dumb shit that you do, but I still wanted to call you out for being antagonistic. Legit, tagging any tags for a ship and then shitting on the ship opens you up to being shit on for needlessly being a bitch, and we have all the right to for you coming into the tag and acting that way. And you or someone else said in another anon message that I’m being “toxic,” but nah, I’m not. I’m just calling you out for being an antagonistic asshole who has no regards for decent tagging, and then I left. I said what I wanted to say, and then I left. I could have picked apart your post, because you made piss-poor “points,” but that was pointless because I knew you wouldn’t have cared if a plance fan had debated with you. I at least wanted to point out your poor decision to tag the goddamn ship names, you dumb fuck. Sorry that I didn’t roll over to you being an asshole and be nice. I’m not gonna do that, and I shouldn’t have to when you were being an antagonistic bitch while crying that “I’m afraid of getting attacked for this.” And I wasn’t attacking you, or at least not extremely. I’m just calling you out for making dumbass choices, and you didn’t like that. Oops, not fucking sorry. Also, I love how you say I’m being a hypocrite for “running.” I blocked you and that other fuck because I didn’t want anymore comments from you popping up in my notes. I said what I wanted to say and was done, because if I hadn’t I knew it was gonna further the argument. Also cuz I was about to go into class for 4 hours and didn’t want to be distracted by your dumbasses. But no matter what, at least I had the decency to actually say my opinions in public where my name was visible. I wasn’t afraid of doing that, cuz I meant what I said and wanted to be publicly honest. Apparently you can’t tho, and neither can the person who sent that other message if it wasn’t you, cuz both are anonymous. You’re too much of a little bitch to show your actual name or use an alternate account to send a message, so you send it anonymously instead. Its never looks good for you when you send anon hate. I try my best to never send anon messages unless it’s not antagonistic, because if I’m gonna say it, I need to make sure I’m confident enough to say it with my url showing. Otherwise, I’m just being immature by sending anonymous hate. But obviously you don’t care about being an immature little bitch who is too much of a wimp to send hate directly to someone with your name showing. That let’s me to know that I’m not the immature one here. Also, if you decide to continue to be immature and send anon hate, I’m not gonna respond further. This is the last response you’ll get from me, because antagonistic babies like you aren’t worth more of my time. Have fun hiding behind disguises and crying about being shit on even tho you 100% asked for it.

First off: I’m assuming you’re the dumb bitch who made that post (or their friend). Just gonna say that you shouldn’t post your dumbass ship hate in the ship tag. For one, it wasn’t even valid hate. You made it sound like you never watched the fuckin show.

So just gonna say, I didn’t send these. When you went dark, I left it at my reblog. Simple as that. I also don’t know a “friend” you’re talking about. I talked about this to my mutuals but I didn’t see them involved in this at all after the topic went dead. The only one I know who was involved with the post was princessbuttershitz I think? (I can’t with the name, I’m sorry XD) I had not known this user until I saw they joined in and reblogged my post on some stuff I hadn’t talked about, but for transparency that is it. They don’t follow me from what I can see or talked to me further than that so it’s just whatever.

And second, how was my post ship hate? Flat out tell me? Did I call Pidge a horrible person for Lance? No. Did I demonize the age gap? No. Where did you see hate in that post when all I talked about was doubting Plance being canon, talked about the “development” in comparison to Lance’s romance with Allura and rivalry to friendship with Keith? Please tell me with highlights, I’d like to know.

You also say you don’t care Plance wasn’t canon (good for you, I hope you still enjoy it regardless.) and that it wasn’t something to get worked up over. I completely agree, however, if you did believe that why did you bother to respond so hostile like you did? That doesn’t sound right, you said you shouldn’t get worked up over those things right? Especially my post was only a few sentences talking about doubting Plance was going to be endgame, not as the ship as a whole. (Catch me repeating that here.)

Also I have seen the show since 2017-2018. I got into it and it got me through a hard time, I was there for a lot of the seasons. You can see it on my archive. So a big statement you make there.

Moving on-

“And then this dumb bitch drops by, tags the goddamn ship tag (even tho its common knowledge for anyone with a brain to be a decent fucking person and not do that, regardless of whether or not they like the ship), and makes a dumbass post while whining that oh boo hoo, poor me, I’m gonna get attacked. Yes you will, you dumbass, because you’re being a moron and an asshole for no reason while literally begging to get shit on. I know you probably get your rocks off to people calling out the dumb shit that you do, but I still wanted to call you out for being antagonistic.”

Guys. I implore you to read my first post. It is the lightest thing I have made. I made it to just be upfront about my opinions in a respectful manner in words than how many other fans would recycle argument to make the ship or characters look bad.

Also with the parentheses, what if it was a Plance shipper who actively made content whether it be theories/fanfics/art/etc. and made my post, you would attack them the same? I sure fucking hope not. Jesus.

I didn’t want that to happen since I genuinely wanted to treat it like a discussion instead of another poorly made ship insult like people on Twitter did back then. I could’ve gone harder and made it pettier than I did but that would delegitimize my argument.

Once again, besides your tag claim, how was I antagonistic in my post? It’s on you to prove it since you’re making the claim. Shouldn’t be hard to prove if you insist it this much.

My blog is open for people to see and the only person who has made this an issue is you, no one else in the notes. Only person who I can think of is Swindle94 but they were at least more mature than you.

Legit, tagging any tags for a ship and then shitting on the ship opens you up to being shit on for needlessly being a bitch, and we have all the right to for you coming into the tag and acting that way. And you or someone else said in another anon message that I’m being “toxic,” but nah, I’m not. I’m just calling you out for being an antagonistic asshole who has no regards for decent tagging, and then I left.

Once again focusing on the tags. Okay, upfront. So? If I was attacking Plancers with that tag on, that would be valid. All I did was say “hey plance being canon? i disagree, here’s why.”

I’m sorry but if a few sentence post gets you riled up like that, I don’t believe you don’t care. You obviously do. Especially when you replied publicly to this anon. That is your fault.

Also, yes, you are being toxic for responding like this. I had no insults to the Plance community or the ship in my first post. You charged head-on with no regard and decided to belittle me instead of either ignoring or talking it out like the others. Which is a toxic mindset, using insults to defend your fictional couple. So don’t try to have both, it’s not gonna work.

I could have picked apart your post, because you made piss-poor “points,” but that was pointless because I knew you wouldn’t have cared if a plance fan had debated with you.

Link to my replies to two others who reblogged my post: https://clickabletale.tumblr.com/post/190254499687/swindle94-thats-not-what-i-meant-i-shouldve

https://clickabletale.tumblr.com/post/190254645477/i-shouldve-used-another-word-for-it-while-they

Honestly, if you did pick apart my points instead that would be fine and I welcome it. Would’ve been better than your first response. I’m just gonna say you aren’t going to because you know you can’t.

I at least wanted to point out your poor decision to tag the goddamn ship names, you dumb fuck. Sorry that I didn’t roll over to you being an asshole and be nice. I’m not gonna do that, and I shouldn’t have to when you were being an antagonistic bitch while crying that “I’m afraid of getting attacked for this.” And I wasn’t attacking you, or at least not extremely. I’m just calling you out for making dumbass choices, and you didn’t like that. Oops, not fucking sorry. Also, I love how you say I’m being a hypocrite for “running.” I blocked you and that other fuck because I didn’t want anymore comments from you popping up in my notes. I said what I wanted to say and was done, because if I hadn’t I knew it was gonna further the argument.

Once again, to anyone who wants the original post it is here: https://clickabletale.tumblr.com/post/190247521977/i-remember-i-was-scared-to-say-this-back-when-the

If I’m being antagonizing in my words, let me know where please and thank you.

And you only worded your post in an attacking manner (you did, throwing insults fast. Don’t tip toe around it, you fired at the most minial shit.)

Also not sure about the running comment? I don’t recall calling you a hypocrite on that, I don’t know what you mean by that.

Also cuz I was about to go into class for 4 hours and didn’t want to be distracted by your dumbasses. But no matter what, at least I had the decency to actually say my opinions in public where my name was visible. I wasn’t afraid of doing that, cuz I meant what I said and wanted to be publicly honest. Apparently you can’t tho, and neither can the person who sent that other message if it wasn’t you, cuz both are anonymous.

I did, my original post. I did so in a way that explained my thoughts in a non-insulting manner.

You just came in unloaded and wrong, you should just step back to think before replying so people will actually listen and reason with you and no think you are insane.

At least your honest I guess? But that kind of backfired if you hid your profile after. My post is still up, with your words for anyone who wants to see it. Even linking right here.

And once again, I don’t care to message you since you did block me and dipped. I left it at my reblog with responding to you and talked about the isssue on how dumb it was to get angry over since the only one who seems to be this angry over it, is you.

I don’t want anyone coming for you, and I will say again if anyone intends to: don’t. That doesn’t solve anything so don’t come to belittle her.

You’re too much of a little bitch to show your actual name or use an alternate account to send a message, so you send it anonymously instead. Its never looks good for you when you send anon hate. I try my best to never send anon messages unless it’s not antagonistic, because if I’m gonna say it, I need to make sure I’m confident enough to say it with my url showing. Otherwise, I’m just being immature by sending anonymous hate. But obviously you don’t care about being an immature little bitch who is too much of a wimp to send hate directly to someone with your name showing. That let’s me to know that I’m not the immature one here. Also, if you decide to continue to be immature and send anon hate, I’m not gonna respond further. This is the last response you’ll get from me, because antagonistic babies like you aren’t worth more of my time. Have fun hiding behind disguises and crying about being shit on even tho you 100% asked for it.

Once again, wolfwarrior142. I don’t care to see you or send things like this. I don’t advocate those messages or hate to you, I want it to stop if it keeps happening but you don’t have a smoking gun in this.

You obviously have some issues and you aren’t arguing them rationally, and you are advocating for attacks over the smallest shit being a tag about disagreeing two fictional characters were gonna bone. How do you justify something so ridiculous?

So no matter how much you try to say you’re not a toxic fan if you go out to insult people over their opinion or the tags or whatever when it’s not inciting hate against the ship or you don’t bother to show how it’s hate or debate it.

That is toxic. You can’t spin it around.

So that is it. I hope this is the last. I’m still in disbelief at how insanely she reacts and justifies her behavior. This is not okay, nothing about her response is okay. It’s a shitty thing to do and I hope you don’t do this to anyone else, that’s all I gotta say.

#holy shit #voltron fandom #toxic fans #hope i can be done with this #this is a fucking ride god #gonna be off now

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mariaiscrafting · 3 years

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ahhhh ty ty ty <3

ok, so I think that what makes Dream act this way (iykyk) is how dreamwastaken became so big so quickly. and by quick I mean fucking lightning speed.

he didn't have enough time to learn enough about cc etiquette, especially in these three aspects: influence, boundaries and fanbase/stans/whatever you call it. I'll try to explain it:

• Influence: Does he know the influence he has? Like, when he hears that he is the myct with the largest fanbase, does he really process that? I remember he talked about not being able to control all of his fanbase and there's bad apples everywhere -- which is true, and that only like 1% of his fanbase breaks his boundaries (that include sending hate for him, harassing, doxing, etc. yk, basic twitter culture lol) but, honey, with your big ass fanbase, 1% is still a lot of people. As a content creator you *have* to be aware of that.

let's take the hbomb situation. First off, as a streamer, it's you that set the mood of the stream. Even if he was only messing around with his pals, even if they did say to do not send hate to hbomb, dt dunking on him created a toxic environment, which caused his fans being toxic towards hbomb and you know what happens next. Hell, when this happened, I was watching Tapl and he was watching them and he was crying laughing over them screaming bc they were just. so loud and so aggressive that it was kinda ??? Sirs, this is literally a Minecraft Stream lmaooo

my point is, that was not the road that dreamwastaken, 21M fans, should've taken. he don't condone his fans actions but he knows his fans are diehard and will always be on his side, he should be more careful before stating negative opinions, especially if its towards another person.

• Boundaries and Fanbase: He posted a list of his boundaries a while ago, idk if you know or seen it (btw please george copy your bestie for the love of god <3) but I'm not talking about those boundaries, I'm talking about the basic boundaries between cc and viewer. boundaries that, in my opinion, should exist between cc and viewer. I get that Dream is an open person, an oversharing type of open person if I may add, but I think he should take a step back regardless. When I heard that he was taking a time from twitter, I genuinely got so glad, not because he couldn't start any drama then, but because it would do so so good for his mental health. I'm not even that fond of him, it's just that for me, any cc taking a break or outright leaving twitter is a win for me. I know how RSD is hard to deal and honestly letting shit out it's better but dream you have dt you have bbh so please don't make things worse online 😭 I know how good can be to feel validation from millions of people but. it's not a good idea, especially in the state that his fanbase is on rn (this topic is kinda sensitive to talk abt for me bc people be outright ableist and hide it as criticism like. say that shit's not helping his reputation and whatever without acting like he's fucking. manipulating his fanbase for being affected by his rsd💀 or, on the other hand, don't say that hes just being adhd🤪 when he's just being an asshole like damn that's a Him thing bro lol)

(omg it's so big I'm so sorry and theres a part two I'm so sorry tumblr user messed-up-gal ToT) - morango 1/2

pt. 2:

Dream is the proof that the people who loves you can be your downfall. istg. Have you noticed that every drama that Dream enters, people usually get more mad abt how his fanbase reacts (85% they'll react in a bad way) than Dream himself? it's not always, but its definitely more likely. I'm not saying Dream is saint, he Is petty and his ego does him dirty and made him choke multiple times before,, But! i dont think hes a bad guy. he's literally just a dude. ok, he's a 21yr old white gamer man that has a trumpie past (maybe?? idk. I think hes cured now ig lol) so he's bound to do some shitty things but he still tries to get better and hopefully he'll mature. 21 is old enough but it's still so young, yk? I kind of lost my mind during the end and my eyes are literally begging to be closed so tl;dr: Its gonna be hard for him to become a better cc bc his fans don't let him be criticized (by infantilizing his adhd symptoms or the mob mentality as soon as someone says anything abt him), the honest criticism get lost between lies from antis that don't know shit, he still has a lot of growing up to do and overall he became famous too fast and he needs to learn things even faster bc as soon as there's not a single one dream hater on sight they'll turn their back and attack him instead lmao I hate twitter i definitely have more to say but I'm tired and my memory is shit. just-- hate dream if you want, love dream if you want, nobody is obligated to have an opinion but I wanted to express mine. have a lovely day! -morango 2/2

Aight, there's a lot to unpack here, so Imma try to only go into the points I have something to add to (here's what I talk about in each paragraph, if you want to jump to a specific point):

Speed of Dream's rise to fame

The "bad apples" in the Dream fanbase

Post-MCC HBomb stream

Not condoning versus actually condemning his fans

Manipulation & RSD

Criticism of Dream, his fanbase, and his brand

The “just a dude” argument, flipped

First, I agree that one of the many factors that has resulted in the current image Dream has set up for himself, the way his fanbase functions, the ways people hate on him, and the way the Dream brand functions, is the speed of his rise to fame. It's unique, and there are probably a hundred social/psychological angles that could be used to examine the exact effects of that speed upon all of these facets of the Dream Name; did rapid fame beget the rapid rise of unrighteous hatred, did those waves of hatred then instigate the rise of a surprisingly overdefensive fanbase, did that rapid fame get to his head and/or result in an inability to appropriately handle all the after-effects of rapid fame, etc.? That point you bring up, about how the speed of his rise to fame requires him to learn even more quickly, is so interesting to me. I think that maybe Dream expected to get pretty famous pretty quickly, hence the preparedness in regards to some mechanics of influencer fame- merchandise, business-building, networking, knowing how to manage his fanbase to best benefit him. But I don't think he expected to get this famous this quickly. This is all speculation of course, as are this entire post and your ask, but I think that he just couldn't anticipate having to learn how to handle enmasse controversy, waves of antis, or every Youtuber speculating/knowing about him; and yeah, that results in him having to learn all of these things very quickly, lest he allow his whole brand and fandom to fall apart.

Second, I disagree with the frequent argument that Dream's fanbase is only marginally toxic. Personally, I think that the circumstances of Dream's fame, his personality and management of his fanbase, and his brand of content have resulted in the very specific kind of stan that Dream stans are. I don't think this is simply a case of "all fandoms have a small percentage of assholes who take it too far;" rather, the nature of the community itself breeds the kind of mentality of "an asshole who takes it too far." I only even know this because I was a Dream fan (kinda a stan, I'm ngl). At one time, I watched every single Dreamwastaken & Dream Team video multiple times; I listened to the Manhunts on repeat, as though they were podcasts; I followed mostly smiletwt and dttwt accounts on mcyttwt; I had upwards of 10 tabs for AO3 DNF fics open on my phone at a time; I watched DNF and Dream Team Being A Family-esque compilations on repeat; I watched every George and Sapnap alt stream I possibly could; I went out of my way to defend Dream against Redditors and Twitter antis regarding the cheating scandal. For the latter half of 2020, and a couple months of 2021, I lived and breathed this part of the fandom; so when I say that Dream stans are a whole other breed than any other kind of mcyttwt stan, I say that because I used to be like that, too. I usually use parasocial very loosely or ironically, but Dream stans are genuinely one of the most parasocial fanbases I have ever seen or been a part of. The level of investment Dream stans have in this man's life, the lengths they will go to to defend him, the amount of psychonalysis and digging they do on his life and character, the amount of emotion he can evoke in them- it's taken to another level, man. This isn't just characteristic of a fraction of his fanbase; this is what the fanbase is like as a whole.

Third, I partially disagree with your take on the HBomb thing, but not in the way one might think? I actually empathize with the way they reacted much more than I thought I would, simply because I suspect I have RSD (also suspect I have ADHD, have for several months now) and I can see myself getting insanely frustrated because of something like that. Like yeah, it was "just a MC stream" or "just an MC game," but that's kinda disregarding the fact that something that might seem like "just a [insert inconsequential thing]" to a rational mind might have a major emotional consequence/take a major emotional toll on someone with RSD, or really anyone who gets easily impatient/angry about video games (Sapnap reminds me of many of my friends, in that way). The issues I, personally, had with the way they handled the HBomb situation is that these are simply explanations and reasons for my empathy; they are not excuses. I have no excuse when I get irrationally angry about something inconsequential in my own life, for a couple of reasons. One, because I am an adult and I need to learn how to handle my reactions and manage my own anger. Two, because as someone with many mental problems, it is my responsibility to learn coping mechanisms to ensure my own emotional stability and livelihood; this includes learning whatever I need to handle RSD- whether that be isolating myself from others when I know I will become violently/passionately angry about something, creating and sustaining a support system that can get me through bouts of extreme emotion, finding healthy emotional outlets for my negative emotions that won't harm myself or others, or a combination thereof. I don't think what they said about HBomb post-MCC was an irreversibly horrible thing, or anything. I think there were errors committed by two men who should be fully capable of foreseeing and preventing those errors, but I don't unconditionally hate Dream or Sapnap for the post-MCC stream or comments. I just wish they had made amends quickly, publicly, and sufficiently, because the greatest consequences from the whole thing weren't even from those two criticizing HBomb themselves; they were from the waves of backlash because of their immense influence on the MCYT fandom, which could've been prevented, if they had acted maturedly and responsibly after the stream.

Fourth, you’re right, that he doesn’t seem to condone his fans’ behavior. I detest the frequent anti argument that one of the reasons Dream should be criticized is because he explicitly uses his fanbase to attack others, or something of the sort. Personally, I think he created his fanbase in a very specific way and interacts with them in such a way so as to benefit him as much as possible, yes, but he never actually tells his fanbase to go and yell at or harrass anyone. Still, there is a significant difference between not condoning something and condemning something. It might seem unfair, and it might be annoying of me to say this, but I truly think that someone with this large a fanbase, especially one as overzealous as Dream’s, needs to be condemned every single time it goes on some kind of rampage/harrassment campaign. Either that, or Dream needs to make a definitive, permanent statement against any kind of harrassment of others on his behalf. I know he’ll occassionally make the odd tweet or serious stream addressing something his fanbase did, but one of the many reasons his fanbase keeps doing the same damn thing is because he’s so lukewarm and spotty about this condemnation. A fanbase like his needs to be given explicit guidance and boundaries for the numerous things they do in his defense- harrassing/doxing antis, harrassing people who criticize him who aren’t antis (respectful criticism, other CCs, other MCYT stans, etc.), harrassing the people he critcizes (i.e., HBomb), speculating about his personal life (his relationship with his gf, his mental health/ADHD, his romantic life, his childhood, etc.), and speculating about his relationships with his friends and colleagues. My personal ideology is that, if you have significant influence over someone or a group of people, you are at least somewhat responsible for the things those people do or don’t do, if it at all relates back to you. I’m so fucking tired of the argument that CCs aren’t responsible for what their fans do. Obviously they aren’t responsible for every single one of their fans, and obviously they can’t fully control their fans at the end of the day. But I think there are certain things that reach such a level of extremity that does make those CCs responsible. This can be measured by either scale or intensity; that is to say, if a CC’s fanbase does things on an extremely large scale, or one person from/a fraction of the fanbase does something really extreme, then the CC is made all the more responsible. Another CC I’ve always had trouble discussing with other people on this subject is Pewdiepie, in particular, about the extremists in his fanbase. Because the things a small handful of his fans have done in reference to him and/or in his name were so fucking extreme, I thought Pewdiepie had to take at least some responsibilty. Along a similar vein, because the things Dream’s general fanbase does are so widespread and on such a massive scale, Dream has to take at least some responsibility.

Fifth, okay. Hmmm. I want to tackle this point you made about the ableism he faces in some criticism of him carefully and with empathy, but not coddling. One, I do think a lot of the criticism he receives for the ways he handles criticism (post-cheating Tweets, reactions to John Swan, post-MCC HBomb stream, etc.), disregard his RSD and can be oftentimes ableist. I’ve actually encountered people irl who criticize this aspect of Dream’s character, and have had to explain to them their disregard for how ADHD/RSD affect neurodivergent people’s reactions to criticism. But - and this is a big, and very controversial but - I think mentally ill/disordered people can 100% leverage their mental illness/disorders for the sake of manipulation. This is actually something I’ve learned from a psychiatrist, regarding the ways people I know and I handle our anxiety and depression. This manipulation can be unwitting or intentional, but it is entirely possible, and the possibility shouldn’t be entirely dismissed as ableist. Living with a mental illness or disorder that others know about/that you are very public about puts you in an interesting position to receive frequent sympathy, empathy, and/or pity. I’m not saying that empathy for Dream having ADHD/RSD is entirely unjustified; on the contrary, I have frequently expressed how I can relate to his ADHD symptoms and have defended him for expressing those symptoms, both on mcytblr and in real life. I am saying that Dream fans tend to use his ADHD as a kind of shield for a lot of criticism levied against him, including the supposition that he could be manipulating his fanbase to defend him because of his public expressions of RSD. So yes, my theory is that Dream knows how to levy every aspect of his life for his personal gain and for the growth of his brand, and that includes his ADHD. I think he has courage for his openess about his ADHD, I think his openness has contributed to the rise in awareness of mental health and empathy for neurodivergent people within Gen Z, and I think at least some of his expressions of RSD publicly/online weren’t intentionally made public. All that being said, I also think he has to know just how much his fanbase cares about defending him for his ADHD, and I think he has to know that some of the things he does related to his neurodivergence endear him to his audience, in a coddling, baby-ing, mildly ableist sorta way. Maybe this is all incredibly presumptuous of me. Of course, I can never know the real intentions behind any Dream video, Tweet, or stream. Maybe I’m just projecting, because I can see myself doing just this, if I had the maturity I had circa 2018-2019. Idfk know, man.

Sixth, I actually agree with you here, people probably do get more mad at his fanbase than him. Dream puts out content pretty seldomly, considering the frequency of content output for other Youtubers/streamers in his field/at his brand size. And yet, he has received masses of criticism. Considering that the things Dream himself does/says do not entirely correlate with the amount of criticism he receives, I think it’s a logical assumption that a lot of that criticism actually goes back to the size of his presence online, rather than the man himself. That is to say, because of the massive community he’s amassed, the exponential growth of his fanbase, their presence on every single social media site and in virtually every single Internet space/fandom, and the size of his metaphysical presence in his fields, Dream is much bigger than the man himself, so the criticism he receives will, at least in part, be a direct or indirect result of all these other aspects of the Dream brand. Something I don’t think many Dream fans/stans, or even most MCYT fans in general, understand, is that Dream isn’t just “one guy” in the eyes of the Internet- at least, not anymore. He hasn’t been for nearly a year. Like Pewdiepie, Mr. Beast, and other CCs who have amassed similar levels of fame and wealth via Internet content creation, Dream is a brand now, and most people will treat him as such. He isn’t just some uwu soft boy playing Minecraft anymore. He is on a whole other level from any other MCYT in his friend circle or colleague interaction bubble. His words will never again live in a vaccum or private bubble, his friend circle will never again be under anything less than intense scrutiny, his past actions will never again be simple mistakes or silly errors, his words will never again be casual tweets or streams for laughs among a couple thousand followers. Dream’s name represents something much bigger than just the one man. As such, all aspects of his brand, including his fanbase, will tie back to him and, ultimately, to any general criticism of him.

I’m not saying I like any of this, and I actually think the evolution of influencers from people to a marketable brand with similar mechanisms, responsibilities, and liabilities as a corporation is some kind of late capitalism nightmare fuel; I’m just stating my own observations and theories as to why so much anti-Dream criticism seems to be directed at his fanbase, rather than him.

Seventh, he’s just a guy, you’re right, but I think a lot of the antis on Tumblr understand this more than you know. As I’ve seen it, the sentiment among much of the “DSMP stans DNI” crowd seems to be that of “Dream/other MCYTs are such ‘bad’ people, so why do their fans stick to these mediocre, racist men, when there are so many better people to watch/better content to consume?” We know this argument is flawed for many of the obvious reasons - the conflation of all MCYTs’ actions regardless of individual identity, the equating of a CC’s fanbase’s morality to that of the CC they enjoy watching, the exxageration of any error MCYT CCs have committed as bigotry/racism, the fundamental misunderstanding and misinformation that led antis to believe this exxageration of the facts, etc. But I want to focus on the general, underlying sentiment of, “why not watch someone better, when your creator is problematic?” Sometimes, I ask this of Dream stans. Yes, being mildly ignorant, getting involved in the scandals Dream has, and being a right-leaning/libertarian centrist in the recent past all seem like harmless things, all things considered. One could say Dream isn’t nearly as bad as many antis who are misinformed seem to believe, and that there are much worse CCs Dream stans could be watching and creating fan content for. But I think what Tumblr antis wonder is, aren’t there also much better MCYTs/CCs people could be watching and stanning? Because he’s just some guy, right? Is his content truly so exceptional or is he really so exceptional a person, that people have to stick by him, despite the things that spike up regarding his current or past actions? I think that’s what made me finally decide to stop watching Dream. I realized he was just Some Guy. The Dream Team was a comforting dynamic to indulge in, DNF was a cute ship to read and speculate about, and Manhunts were fun videos to watch; however, once the Reddit posts came out and I read them in-depth, the cost-benefit analysis tipped over to the “not worth it” side for me. I realized Dream’s content, while fun and comforting, was not entirely unique, and wasn’t worth sticking around for, given what I then knew about his past political leanings. If he is just Some Guy, then there are a hundred more like him out there. There a hundred more ships, a hundred more found family dynamics, a hundred more entertaining and skilled Minecraft players. So while I agree with you on the point of people being allowed to love him regardless because he is just a guy, at the end of the day, I think that, if we are to believe that sentiment or use that argument in such a manner, we should also understand the flip side- that, if he is just some guy, why is it worth sticking around? To that I say, maybe because people just enjoy the simple things they enjoy.

Anyways, I wholly agree with your tl;dr. Thanks for that insanely long ask, this was a fun thing to keep me occupied while I’ve been at work, facilitating Zoom sessions this whole morning.

#ive been writing this on and off since 830 am est SHEESH #dreamwastaken #dream critical #eh i think im relatively lenient of him here given my past posts ab him #but still just in case the blacklist tags for yalls convenience:#discourse #/neg #asks #long post #long posts #this a LONG one bois #morango

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so-shiny-so-chrome · 5 years

Text

Witness: Kalashnikorn

Creator name (AO3): Kalashnikorn

Creator name (Tumblr): Main-force-patrol

Link to creator works: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kalashnikorn

Creator name (other platform- please specify): @Riccarterfans (twitter)

Q: Why the Mad Max Fandom?

A: My interest in Mad Max started early. I was maybe 12-14 when my mom picked it up on VHS at a garage sale because she had fond memories of the film when it came out (she saw it in theaters, which is rare for her). We’re both fond of cars and dystopian/apocalyptic stuff, so I easily connected with the movie and fell in love with WAY too many of the characters. So there was my weirdo self, in the early 2000s, loving MM1 but not really having a fandom to join. I had fun on my own, drawing stuff, making toys of the characters, writing doofy adolescent fanfic. You know, the works. But I did it in isolation, because I was a LONELY kid. Not just in terms of fandom, there were just never other kids around, or adults (other than my parents) around. Therefore, I spent most of my time online, and lost countless hours lurking on the MadMaxMovies.com forum. But I didn’t feel safe talking to people there, because the only other fans were guys my dad’s age. For years, if I had any kind of fandom-related wish that I’d give an arm to fulfill, it was that other girls and queer folks would embrace the MM series so I could finally share my excitement with people that would “get” me. Fast forward to 2015. Fury Road fulfilled that wish. I knew tumblr was my best chance at getting those friends I’d wanted for so long. It’s better than I’d ever dreamed. Mad Max Fandom, I love you! Special shoutout to @d--t, @crunkmouse, @sillyb0yblue, @sleepymayo, @lethalpr0tector, @legendofstraydog, @partyinvalhalla and @vanessa-geraldine-carlysle!

Q: What do you think are some defining aspects of your work? Do you have a style? Recurrent themes?

A: I love to write first-person fic that delves into the darker aspects of the human psyche. How do we justify killing others? What impact does a hypermasculine culture have upon a man with depression and anxiety? Is violence really the key to surviving the apocalypse? I also enjoy writing about people seeking control or freedom, and wrestling with that they believe they need to do to achieve that.

Q: What (if any) music do you listen to for help getting those creative juices flowing?

A: Since I do first person, I like something to get me into the head of the character I’m writing, so I make playlists for certain characters. 99% of the time, anymore, I’m writing as Roop, so on his playlist I’ve got a bunch of stuff quasi-hipster stuff that touches upon themes of isolation, anger, violence, and feelings of helplessness. There’s a bunch of indie rock, some seventies stuff, and A LOT OF PINK FLOYD. Oh, and there’s some Aussie rock in there too, of course.

Q: What is your biggest challenge as a creator?

A: Finding the time to write!

Q: Which character do you relate to the most, and how does that affect your approach to that character? Is someone else your favourite to portray? How has your understanding of these characters grown through portraying them?

A: Roop… And Roop. And my understanding of him has absolutely grown through portraying him. He’s a character that’s in MM1 for like.. Ten minutes? And after the opening chase scene, he hardly has any lines. But Steve Millichamp does an excellent job portraying him with his posture, body language, etc. So I gleaned ideas from his non-verbal performance. Honestly, if you look at the number of times he makes a mopey face, it’s astounding. Other times, he looks at Fifi for guidance, the way a kid looks at a parent or teacher. He doesn’t seem to have any friends at work, partially due to his own personality. I could go on for hours. From all that, I extrapolated that he’s basically caught between childhood and adulthood, and he’s trying to sort out what it means to be a good cop and a good person. Sometimes those things aren’t congruent, and it tears him up because he’s a very type A, hardworking perfectionist. Growing up, he was told that he was gifted, smart, etc., and he feels like an imposter because he fixates on his shortcomings and mistakes. And when trying to live up to this impossibly high standard, he puts a lot of pressure on himself and struggles when he has to surrender or when he fails. There’s a ton more, but those are the highlights. The vast majority my MM/Roop fic stays offline. Pretty much all of it is irrelevant to the rest of the Mad Max universe, so there’s no point in posting it. It’s taken on a life of its own. Of course, some people have let me know that they dislike or disagree with my characterization of Roop. That’s fine. Nobody’s forcing them to read my fic.

Q: Do you ever self-insert, even accidentally?

A: Oh hell yes. And I’m completely shameless about it, because I don’t think the practice should be taboo or frowned upon. We wouldn’t shame an actor who tapped their lived experience to bring authenticity to a role, would we? I think we should extend the same understanding to writers. Aside from being a great way to understand more about our selves, enjoy an escapist fantasy, or work through trauma, I think self-insertion can be a great way to evoke emotional authenticity in a story.

Q: Do you have any favourite relationships to portray? What interests you about them?

A: I pretty much stick to what I consider my strength, which is genfic. So I mostly stick to portraying platonic interactions, both friendly and unfriendly. I particularly like exploring how Roop interacts with/judges his co-workers. I’m also fond of writing about good moms who love and encourage their kids. Sometimes the mom is the viewpoint character, sometimes it’s the kid. Regardless, I like looking at how parental relationships can shape a person’s worldview.

Q: How does your work for the fandom change how you look at the source material?

A: My work makes me hyper-analyze MM1 and its novelization. I mostly write MM1 fic because I feel like we could have gotten a lot more mileage out of exploring MM1’s world, before society fully broke down and became the more fantastical wasteland we know and love in MM2, MM3, and MMFR. As much as I like the later worldbuilding stuff, I can really appreciate watching a civilization crumble in a grounded, slow-burning manner.

Q: To break or not to break canon? Why?

A: Depends on what you mean by “break.” I think a lot purists would say that I break canon, so I’ll put it this way: I like to write stories where I add to canon without directly contradicting it. We’re never shown Roop’s home life, for instance. It’s free real estate! I do this because I just want MORE MM1. More Roop, more MFP, more Armalites, all of it. I don’t feel the need to change anything, just add more volume to it. That said, I love it when others break canon! I have a ton of fun reading AUs and alternate scenes.

Q: Share some headcanons

A: GRAB A SEAT AND PUT YOUR SITTIN’ PANTS ON. Here we go: In addition to recruiting local police officers and other traditional recruiting strategies, the MFP uses conscription to fill out its ranks. Roop is one such draftee. Roop doesn’t spend any time with Charlie outside of work. He really just tries to minimize contact with the guy. If we do all my Roop headcanons, we’ll be here until the Miller completes MM5. Charlie wanted to go seminary school and become a priest, but was drafted. Losing his voice pretty much killed his dream of preaching. Fifi takes an interest in his men, but only so he can better manipulate them into staying/reenlisting. Bubba was a former MFP officer who went rogue once budget cuts and bureaucratic decisions made law enforcement abandon his rural hometown.

Q: Who are some works by other creators inside and outside of the fandom that have influenced your work?Inside the fandom, the old RP crowd and I bounced a lot of ideas off each other, and interacting with their muses helped Roop’s story grow by leaps and bounds (finger guns at @d--t’s OC, Renholder, @vanessa-geraldine-carlysle’s portrayal of Charlie, and @legendofstraydog’s OC, Syrup!) Outside the fandom, my biggest influences are Kurt Vonnegut, J.D. Salinger, Quentin Tarantino, the Coen Brothers, and Sam Esmail.

Q: Have you visited or do you plan to visit Australia, Wasteland Weekend, or other Mad Max place?

A: Not yet, but I'd love to go someday!

Q: Tell us about a current WIP or planned project

A: “Autotomy” is my big current WIP. It’s 7 chapters into its 9 or 10 chapter run (I’ve literally got chapter 8 open in another window as I’m writing this). It follows Roop immediately after MM1 ends. He sees the aftermath of Max’s rampage, and begins to question his own ideals. Then his morals are put to the test when an unexpected guest arrives at his home. The word “autotomy” describes cutting off a part of oneself to escape a greater threat. Think of a lizard that sheds its trapped tail to avoid being eaten. I’m using it in the literal and metaphorical sense. At the end of MM1, we see someone have to make a literal life-or-limb decision. And in this story, Roop has to decide whether or not to cut off the toxic ideology that has guided his actions.

Thank you @main-force-patrol @richardcarterfans some of your tags got lost in reformatting. You may want to retag your peeps

#Mad Max Fandom Creator Spotlight #Mad Max Fandom Spotlight #mad max fic #mad max fic author spotlight #kalishnakorn #main-force-patrol

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