#I really don’t need another fandom
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Dear PJO series…
…STOP MAKING ME THINK ABOUT THE FAMILY TREE OF THE GREEK GODS!
Also, this show makes me want to protect all the kids. I don’t need another fandom, I really don’t. And yet…it’s becoming appointment television.
Oh one last note…LIN!!! NEXT EPISODE TEASER HAD HERMES!
#percy jackon and the olympians#pjo series#pjo tv show#pjo spoilers#I really don’t need another fandom#Between descendants American football and Jatp my limit is almost up#but it’s growing on me#will I ever read the other books?#unknown but I have listened to some of the music from the musical!
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I desperately want to live in the fantasy world that people who go on about “the importance of representing healthy platonic male-male friendship in media” live in. clearly, these people live in a world where gay romances are super common in media, and platonic male friendships are extremely rare. They certainly don’t live in our world, where it feels like the majority of all media centers on platonic friendships between men, or het romances. I’d love to live in their bizarre little world where queer romances are so common
#this is a subtweet about those posts that routinely go viral in the lotr fandom#I never want to see another post about how no homo is a progressive political statement XD#You can just not ship something. it’s fine#you really don’t need to morally justify your preferences#you do not need need to morally justify your disgust or repulsion#you can just feel it#everyone is entitled to their petty fandom opinions#I don’t ship a lot of things too!!! XD#why is the lotr fandom so silly (its because it’s infested with conservatives)#(and people easily fall for conservative talking points when they’re dressed up in faux progressive language)
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There is something that I can’t understand and will never understand about fandom “culture”
Why EVERYTHING (or a lot of things) need to be canon or acknowledged by the actors/directors/producers to be accepted by the fandom? In specific ships?
And why when a “ship” (two characters, really) have more screentime than others/other characters aren’t in the picture anymore, people take that as a victory as see their ship as more valid and “actually canon”? And mock/harass others for it?
Also there is this thing people have been doing a lot too: Thats calling everyone that doesn’t like the ship you like names (and also calling them terms that before actually meant something awful but nowadays can be said for simply tagging the incorrect ship in a fucking post)
Canon isn’t always the norm here kid. At least when it relates to ships and scenarios. (Bc if we’re talking about characterization… yes it needs to be canon in a sense or we’re writing/making ocs out of canon characters)
Most of the more popular ships will never be canon and have never been, especially the gay ones. (See Drarry, Narusasu, Frodo/Sam, Johnlock, etc, etc)
So why suddenly we care so much about what NEEDS to be canon or not?
Why people NEED to see their ships be canon so badly?
Sure, I can be seen as a hypocrite because Ive been talking about Stucky a lot in the canon and what happened in EG, but they actually did that themselves. The directors talked about gay characters, the actors talked about Stucky. So actually it isn’t something ludicrous or anything. (I’ve never thought they would actually make the ship canon -bc that would be a big problem for them “how can you make Cap America gay!” And shit- but I thought they would at least make them still be friends or friendly or acknowledge the “bromance” and they just killed the friendship in one scene with the most ooc shit ever). In fact, I’m more annoyed by that. They assassinated Steve’s character and Bucky’s progress.
Nevermind…
Why people fight so much about ships and use terms that shouldn’t be brought into stupid shit like this?
Fandoms are supposed to be fun and to have discussions (in good faith) about the canon. What we like and what we don’t like about it.
Besides, a lot of current media are about stuff that’s been remade over and over again. So they have a lot of adaptations and you can pick and choose too, if you want.
And if you don’t like the canon? Easy! Do analysis, criticize it, write fics, do fanart, do creative shit or simply ignore it! No one is forcing you to keep on watching the show or the stuff you now hate/cant stand. That’s what Im doing at least.
Sure, I criticize some people and movies a lot and get actually annoyed by the disrespect towards/assassination of some characters, but at the end of the day I can only shrug and say “it is what it is” and leave it at that. (Meaning not giving them money for the new stuff/not watching nor caring about it and only acknowledging the old things I actually care about and like)
But I don’t insult or disrespect other people in fandom because of it. And also I don’t harass the directors or actors either, ffs.
Idk, Ive always been on the sidelines of the stuff I follow, I’ve never been on the thick of fandoms so maybe thats why I don’t understand.
And I’ve also not seen so many crazy shit (the most crazy stuff Ive seen is people calling others racists for tagging a ship incorrectly and also others inflating the tag of a ship in ao3 so their ship would be “the most popular” with most fics, in that fandom) because I actually curate what I see. I don’t like a ship? I mute, if I can’t stand a person or a ship? I block em. Simple and easy.
I’ve always drawn stuff for myself, read fics and made headcanons. Only recently I’ve been sharing stuff more openly, so maybe it’s that.
Idk.
I’m just tired of seeing discourse and people fighting over this stuff.
#kinda personal#im really tired pf people fighting over ships#also the inflating of the tag in ao3 was a big problem bc most of those supposed works were a phrase written over and over again#it was the most petty pathetic shit ive seen#you like a ship? good do a fic or write headcanons#you dont like that another ship is more popular than your otp/the ship you like? DO MORE FICS OR ARTWORK OF IT#also… like in canon MCU Nat and Bruce were together kinda#but in some comics Nat is with Bucky#and so on and so forth#So a lot of ships can be canon in different media#Steve was supposed to be with Sharon but they didn’t flesh the ship and then used Peggy to stop us from shipping Stucky#in Mcu#But that will discourage me from shipping what I like? No.#my shipping tastes don’t depend on canon#im very particular in the ships I read content sometimes…#particular in the sense that I take a character and ship it with a lot of others#lmao#you can see me liking canon ships and then the most random ship in the same series/movie#Like Blaise Zabini x Harry Potter my beloved#or sometimes crossovers bc sometimes I need to read that shit#Jasper Withlock x Harry my other beloved#but how I said I don’t understand the need to fight or shame/antagonize others#and welp sometimes the fandom makes me despise or avoid a ship too bc of how they actually write and interact with em#like I see that ship tagged? not going to interect bye#and I leave it as that#simple and easy
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:( patheticposting
nearly literally reduced to tears rn by how overwhelmingly it feels like nobody cares what I make or like or think about and how meaningless any of my creativity and love and effort is
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guys im actually a bit (cautiously) excited for v.eilguard (still hasn’t finished inquisition)
#i have some concerns specifically concerning how heavily involved the crows are#and the fact that we can be a crow ourselves + another crow companion who has a very different background from zevran#from what i understood#like if i had to guess they’re probably do another character contrast? like how they did with vivienne and anders#but also it’s like dgjdgjdg i just don’t trust bw to handle it well 😭#if they don’t retcon the antivan crows to this cool edgy assassins guild which from what i have seen……. it seems so 😭#like there’s nothing in the world that could make me give a shit about the antivan crows im so sorry#i also wonder how they’ll handle the rook crow background which i also suspect won’t be handled/addressed well :/#BUT IDK I COULD BE WRONG im gonna actually withhold my judgments until i actually play the game and see it for myself#which i will be playing on release day ❤️#it’s just something that’s on my mind every time i see vg spoilers 😭#im just so worried about this and im still not reassured that they won’t do this but i can’t say i’d be surprised if they did#im also soooo happy and excited to see the grey wardens again im so glad they brought them back 🥹#UGH I NEED TO KEEP PLAYING but trying to finally get a specialization (knight enchanter) is sooo annoying 😭#out.#im so excited to start planning my rook im thinking of going for lords of fortune#and predictably im gonna make a sideblog 😭#and there’s gonna be a huge da fandom revival when the game comes out and im not looking forward to it really 😭 the fandom is so annoying#AND ALSO WE’RE GONNA SEE ANTIVA I THINK? IM SO EXCITED
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LMAO IT HAPPENED THE OTHER GIRL QUIT AND STORMED OFF AHAHA back to having no days off for meeeeee
#whatever#she was kind of a nut job anyway like#if ur just gonna blame all ur problems on everyone around you#and constantly be negative about every fucking thing#then of course you’re never gonna get anywhere in life like#i’m sorry but nobody in this world is gonna hold ur fucking hand and save you from your own toxicity that’s not how it works#ANYWAY#probably for the best tbh her neurotic freakouts were affecting my client’s mental health really bad#she already has to deal with a permanent disability that traps her in her own house#she doesn’t need to deal with someone else’s problems too jfc#😭#finding someone else is gonna be such a goddamn nuisance tho#i don’t think i’m gonna have another day off for a long time lmao#apple babble 🍎#non fandom
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Man… I dont really talk about my writing life outside of fandom, but I’m having SUCH a good streak right now. Several works got accepted to various magazines the past month, and one of my professors from Uni just mailed me a copy of his newest anthology (I didn’t even know it was in the works?!?) with the nicest dedication note I could cry. Sometimes persistence pays off so sweetly.
#I’m in such a good mood#every day is a mixed bag but today is decidedly a very good day#I started it well AND ended it well. that is so so so rare#all of my days used to be like this. having another one after so long motivates me to work hard and have them again#depths talks#I needed a win could u tell ansgsgsjhdnfg#man I’m just out walking right now and my brain is spinning cooking up a response letter to my professor#pushing for pen pal relations really pays off sometimes#oh also I’ve been asked about my original work here before#but that was in regards to fiction? I don’t use this account or my name as depths to explore poetry#so uh. sorry to my readers who have asked because I swear I’m not like. hiding it?? this just isn’t a poetry account#someday I’ll be comfortable connecting my professional pen name to my fandom pen name but that is not today sndhshfjf
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The kny fandom never really irritated me THAT much about anything until their reaction to the stupid Hantengu clones
#‘oh you want us to talk about Kanao or Tamayo or Daki or Nakime or even mitsuri shinobu or nezuko in in depth ways?’#‘sorry I just can’t do that 😩 but I can make five billion posts and write meta about these characters that are LITERALLY created to be#one-dimensional aspects of another characters personality!! isn’t that so cool!!! also they’re hot guys :D’#like I actually fucking hate it#and I have hit a point where I block literally everyone who talks about them lol#like there really is just no saving some of y’all#I already unfollowed a shit ton of ppl for never posting about female characters but it’s not enough#I need to unfollow and block everyone who likes me At All this is getting so fucking annoying#like idc if I sound bitchy about this it’s genuinely so frustrating and honestly kinda alienating#like I get it it’s fandom it’s not actually a big deal#but for it to be so clear you don’t ‘fit in’#because you aren’t attracted to men or because you actually like female characters#is EXHAUSTING#(not that I want to be attracted to men or be like them lmao absolutely not its just annoying to deal with)#kaz rambles
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Too many thoughts too little organization of them BUT something about the ways that we heal from trauma and how we work through the same shit over and over again learning something new about it/ourselves everytime it comes up, and how WCS feels so important to the midnights story (memories feel like weapons, your finger on my hairpin triggers, etc) and the ways that processing and healing from trauma significantly impact relationships and sometimes we find ourselves in situations that we thought we wayyyy better for us because of some important differences but looking back on them they end up having more in common than we ever would have admitted while we’re in it. Idk!!! Just, these things feel related and (not necessarily in an accusatory way towards joe, let’s let her tell the story first) I think we swifties need to be prepared to have serious conversations about trauma and triggers and love bombing and the themes of violence in her work and how difficult it can be to extract yourself from bad situations and and and and and
#I just am so concerned that I may have been taking a lot of her imagery the last few years too metaphorically#That is so upsetting and terrifying to consider so I’m trying not to get ahead of myself but I want to treat it seriously#Would’ve could’ve should’ve hours#TTPD predictions#And this kept coming up with WCS/redTV/speak now related to jm and jg but I am comfortable calling things abuse even if that word isn’t use#Bc most survivors don’t know that what they experience is abuse because “it wasn’t XYZ” when really LMNOP is also abuse#And in fandom I think it can be very useful for us to talk realistically about this stuff so that we help each other understand abuse#And it’s one thing to describe stories and use imagery in art and it’s another to publicly accuse someone of abusing you#And defamation suits are a very real thing that if I were in her shoes I would want to avoid#And the music can speak for itself#So yeah that’s just my lil disclaimer about how I’m going to approach TTPD too IF it leans in that direction#I hope it doesn’t omg but we really need to be prepared to discuss it clearly and sensitively without making excuses or minimizing stuff#C#trauma#ptsd#Dear john
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do yall know any simple and cheap ways to make custom pins?
i really REALLY wanna make some for myself (and maybe to sell) but idk how ;-;
#question#diy help#help#text#buggie’s rambles#this just in: silly emo boything wants to Make Something but (as per usual) has no idea how to make it#more at 11#all jokes aside tho#i really wanna make some lil fandom pins and stuff like that to add to my gay little outfits#but i uh. don’t know how. and im also broke#and so i probably cant afford equipment needed to make PROPER pins#i saw a tut once on tiktok abt how to make simple custom pins with bottle caps and pop tabs#but first of all#i saw that like. 4 or 5 years ago when i scrolled tiktok regularly#and second. i dont have any bottle caps lying around.#i mean i could make some out of clay like i did with the weaversong pins#but i dont have the energy or space to do that and also i have no idea where the clay is#so yeah im just kinda. stuck. until i find another tut or someone tells me what to do
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Babeees love the rhys montrose x reader fic, can't wait for more. What are your plans for the other fics?
xx
AWWW IM SO GLAD YOU LIKED IT 💞💞 Writing him is so gosh darn difficult. Like I would type out his dialogue and try to read it in his accent and then question myself if he’d actually say that lmaooo
Regarding my other plans… it’s a very funny story. I legit have no idea 💀 My brain comes up with these random potential scenarios at like 3am and then it’s a 50/50 chance on whether it actually gets done. However, my strong will power and motivation to help populate this man on this app will overcome that (hopefully). I just have to be very VERY creative on the scenarios, given the canon storyline 👀
#anon ask#rhys montrose#x reader#I want to write some Joe Goldberg in the future too#but make him more creepy in the sense of Beck’s or Marienne’s pov#maybe some Lady Phoebe too since she was my favorite of the season#I really need more diverse characters#my mind is so limited in fandoms#I currently want to write a dexter/joe crossover as well#so we’ll see how that goes#but don’t worry you’ll get more Rhys#maybe I’ll post another this week.#honestly just depends on my creativeness
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My stats made me realised that people actually do not like my writing, and again i can’t force people to like it, but the realisation made writing unpleasant
#i might write more bcs i still have some blp ideas i need to get rid off and one specific fanfic for another fandom i would like to write#anyway seeing the difference between hits and kudos and word count is just#idk makes something i enjoy#become disagreeable#especially that i don’t understand where’s the problem#anyway#when someone comes to tell me they liked something i just cant trust them#especially that they dont leave me a comment?????? did you really like it??????#i’ve had a few people say that and i never ever saw their username on my ao3#again anyway pls dont hate me for venting#i just wish i could do better
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#i dont know man#like i love buddie as much as the next but the likelihood of it ever actually going canon is super low#and at the end of the day i’ll always root for buddie but like we don’t need to hate every love interest just because they’re not buddie#i know it’s not that deep and it’s just people loving their ships but#at the end of the day all the queer undertones of buddie that we see as a fandom are also just normal and healthy forms of friendship#and if buddie is not going canon then we have a story about two male best friends who treat each other gently and love one another and that#in and of itself is a beautiful and worthwhile story#at this point i’m betting on buddie not going canon and id love to be surprised but i’m not holding out hope#so them finding canonical romantic love seems really wonderful#i’m just venting if you don’t like don’t interact with this post
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While it’s understandable when people are against a live action adaptation of a source media- and I’ve had many such thoughts and opinions on that topic myself- there’s a certain extent that starts to bother me. There’s been an enormous amount of adaptations that completely fail to understand the source material and were clearly made with the hopes of a quick cash in on something without a doubt, but there’s some other stuff to be talked about…
1) It’s another no brainer that things would change from one medium to another. Yet, the things that would need to change, and the things that were changed gratuitously are not the same despite some viewers trying to say otherwise. I often see people shrugging the most unnecessary differences in characterization as an “obvious” thing because it’s in live action. There are certain things that can easily remain intact if the people behind it put forth more effort.
2) Not having played/read/seen the original it’s based off before taking on a role is another big one. This is up in the air depending on how things go with the adaptation. Sometimes, there’s a very reasonable explanation behind why the actors involved didn’t, or they were told not to by the show runners/movie people because of [insert reason here that makes sense]. Regardless, there’s no reason for the very gatekeepy attitude taken by fans when they get offended by “filthy casuals and locals” *looking at you gamers*. And I don’t think it’s completely fair to expect every single last person involved to have encyclopedic knowledge on something. All I ask is that it be respectful to the original. Which can be a tall order depending on who’s involved. I know this type of behavior stems from people believing fans will be nicer and more accurate about the original, though.
3) Adaptations that are 1:1 with the source material feel useless, admittedly. I don’t want them to veer off track heavily to the point it becomes unrecognizable, but I also don’t want a clone of what it’s coming from. I like a nice middle ground where that adaptation is able to stand on its own.
#live action adaptation#video games#books and reading#gaming#there’s specific things that I could tag this with but I’ll just leave it vague and talk about one specific thing#I respect those who aren’t interested in the upcoming RGG adaptation on Amazon#I myself don’t really lean one way or another. just cautiously waiting to see and learn more since we still don’t know anything really#but I feel like what the actors have said about not played the games makes sense#especially at the end of the anime news network interview#the things Yokoyama said in the video shared at the panel are something else I’d need to properly post about on its own since that’s a lot#I guess I’d describe myself as intrigued with it 🤔#the aggression about it is just way too much jfc#a bit of a rant but I’ve been finding myself getting increasingly tired and frustrated with a lot of fandom behavior in general
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I’d be so insufferable if I talked about the fandom shit that pisses me off
#logically Ik that it’s completely reasonable for a fandom to not care#when a character is offhandedly and not explicitly stated to be aro#(also ace but that was essentially stated by the player in a early QNA)#but also it frustrates me so much#someone drew art of her for lesbian visibility day and it’s not a big deal but I was upset#the thing that REALLY upset me was when someone said that#‘the idea of [her] being straight upsets [them]’#bc that person regularly calls her a lesbian#like I understand logically she’s only heavily heavily implied to be aroace#but also someone once referred to the ship between her and another girl#who it was explicitly stated she wasn’t interested in#as SEMI-CANON#TLDR; it upsets me when aroace characters are written or discussed as gay in the fandom#I’m not gonna say what character I’m talking about bc I don’t wanna put this in the tags#of that fandom bc ppl there don’t need me being an ass to them#also I forgot I didn’t say this earlier and tumblr tags suck#it was said in s5#it is reasonable nobody else cares#4 episodes before the finale#if anyone who knows what I’m talking about sees this#dw about it I’m just ranting
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Fandom can do a little gatekeeping. As a treat.
So I finally decided to archive-lock my fics on AO3 last night. I’ve been considering it since the AI scrape last year, but the tipping point was this whole lore.fm debacle, coupled with some thoughts I’ve been thinking regarding Fandom These Days in general and Fandom As A Community in particular. So I wanna explain why I waited so long, why I locked my stuff up now, and why I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m a-okay with making it harder for people to see my stories.
Lurkers really are great, tho
I’m a chronic lurker, and have been since I started hanging out on the internet as a teen in the 00s. These days it’s just cuz I don’t feel a need to socialize very often, but back then it was because I was shy and knew I was socially awkward. Even if I made an account, I’d spend months lurking on message boards or forums or Livejournals, watching other people interact and getting a feel for that particular community’s culture and etiquette before I finally started interacting myself. And y’know, that approach saved me a lot of embarrassment. Over the course of my lurking on any site, there was always some other person who’d clearly joined up five minutes after learning the place existed, barged in without a care for their behavior, and committed so many social faux pas that all the other users were immediately annoyed with them at best. I learned a lot observing those incidents. Lurk More is Rule 33 of the internet for very good reason.
Lurking isn’t bad or weird or creepy. It’s perfectly normal. I love lurking. It’s hard for me to not lurk - socializing takes a lot of energy out of me, even via text. (Heck it took 12 hours for me to write this post, I wish I was kidding--) Occasionally I’ll manage longer bouts of interaction - a few weeks posting here, almost a year chatting in a discord there - but I’m always gonna end up going radio silent for months at some point. I used to feel bad about it, but I’ve long since made peace with the fact that it’s just the way my brain works. I’m a chronic lurker, and in the long term nothing is going to change that.
The thing with being a chronic lurker is that you have to accept that you are not actually seen as part of the community you are lurking in. That’s not to say that lurkers are unimportant - lurkers actually are important, and they make up a large proportion of any online community - but it’s simple cause and effect. You may think of it as “your community”, but if you’ve never said a word, how is the community supposed to know you exist? If I lurked on someone’s LJ, and then that person suddenly friendslocked their blog, I knew that I had two choices: Either accept that I would never be able to read their posts again, or reach out to them and ask if I could be added to their friends list with the full understanding that I was a rando they might not decide to trust. I usually went with the first option, because my invisibility as a lurker was more important to me than talking to strangers on the internet.
Lurking is like sitting on a park bench, quietly people-watching and eavesdropping on the conversations other people are having around you. You’re in the park, but you’re not actively participating in anything happening there. You can see and hear things that you become very interested in! But if you don’t introduce yourself and become part of the conversation, you won’t be able to keep listening to it when those people walk away. When fandom migrated away from Livejournal, people moved to new platforms alongside their friends, but lurkers were often left behind. No one knew they existed, so they weren’t told where everyone else was going. To be seen as part of a fandom community, you need to submit to the mortifying ordeal of being known, etc. etc.
There’s nothing wrong with lurking. There can actually be benefits to lurking, both for the lurkers and the communities they lurk in. It’s just another way to be in a fandom. But if that is how you exist in fandom--and remember, I say this as someone who often does exist that way in fandom--you need to remember that you’re on the outside looking in, and the curtains can always close.
I’ve always been super sympathetic to lurkers, because I am one. I know there’s a lot of people like me who just don’t socialize often. I know there’s plenty of reasons why someone might not make an account on the internet - maybe they’re nervous, maybe they’re young and their parents don’t allow them to, maybe they’re in a bad situation where someone is monitoring their activity, maybe they can only access the internet from public computer terminals. Heck, I’ve never even logged into AO3 on my phone--if I’m away from my computer I just read what’s publicly available.
I know I have people lurking on my fics. I know my fics probably mean a lot to someone I don’t even know exists. I know this because there are plenty of fics I love whose writers don’t know I exist.
I love my commenters personally; I love my lurkers as an abstract concept. I know they’re there and I wish them well, and if they ever de-lurk I love them all the more.
So up until last year I never considered archive-locking my fic, because I get it. The AI scraping was upsetting, but I still hesitated because I was thinking of lurkers and guests and remembering what it felt like to be 15 and wondering if it’d be worth letting a stranger on the internet know I existed and asking to be added to their friends list just so I could reread a funny post they made once.
But the internet has changed a lot since the 00s, and fandom has changed with it. I’ve read some things and been doing some thinking about fandom-as-community over the last few years, and reading through the lore.fm drama made me decide that it’s time for me to set some boundaries.
I still love my lurkers, and I feel bad about leaving any guest commenters behind, especially if they’re in a situation where they can’t make an account for some reason. But from here on out, even my lurkers are going to have to do the bare minimum to read my fics--make an AO3 account.
Should we gatekeep fandom?
I’ve seen a few people ask this question, usually rhetorically, sometimes as a joke, always with a bit of seriousness. And I think…yeah, maybe we should. Except wait, no, not like that--
A decade ago, when people talked about fandom gatekeeping and why it was bad to do, it intersected with a lot of other things, mainly feminism and classism. The prevalent image of fandom gatekeeping was, like, a man learning that a woman likes Star Wars and haughtily demanding, “Oh, yeah? Well if you’re REALLY a fan, name ten EU novels” to belittle and dismiss her, expecting that a “real fan” would have the money and time to be familiar with the EU, and ignoring the fact that male movie-only fans were still considered fans. The thing being gatekept was the very definition of “being a fan” and people’s right to describe themselves as one.
That’s not what I mean when I say maybe fandom should gatekeep more. Anyone can call themselves a fan if they like something, that’s fine. But when it comes to the ability to enjoy the fanworks produced by the fandom community…that might be something worth gatekeeping.
See, back in the 00s, it was perfectly common for people to just…not go on the internet. Surfing the web was a thing, but it was just, like, a fun pastime. Not everyone did it. It wasn’t until the rise of social media that going online became a thing everyone and their grandmother did every day. Back then, going on the internet was just…a hobby.
So one of the first gates online fandom ever had was the simple fact that the entire world wasn’t here yet.
The entire world is here now. That gate has been demolished.
And it’s a lot easier to find us now. Even scattered across platforms, fandom is so centralized these days. It isn’t a network of dedicated webshrines and forums that you can only find via webrings anymore, it’s right there on all the big social media sites. AO3 didn’t set out to be the main fanfic website, but that’s definitely what it’s become. It’s easy for people to find us--and that includes people who don’t care about the community, and just want “content.”
Transformative fandom doesn’t like it when people see our fanworks as “content”. “Content” is a pretty broad term, but when fandom uses it we’re usually referring to creative works that are churned out by content creators to be consumed by an audience as quickly as possible as often as possible so that the content creator can generate revenue. This not-so-new normal has caused a massive shift in how people who are new to fandom view fanworks--instead of seeing fic or art as something a fellow fan made and shared with you, they see fanworks as products to be consumed.
Transformative fandom has, in general, always been a gift economy. We put time and effort into creating fanworks that we share with our fellow fans for free. We do this so we don’t get sued, but fandom as a whole actually gets a lot out of the gift economy. Offer your community a story, and in return you can get comments, build friendships, or inspire other people to write things that you might want to read. Readers are given the gift of free stories to read and enjoy, and while lurking is fine, they have the choice to engage with the writer and other readers by leaving comments or making reclists to help build the community.
And look, don’t get me wrong. People have never engaged with fanfic as much as fan writers wish they would. There has always been “no one comments anymore” wank. There have always been people who only comment to say “MORE!” or otherwise demand or guilt trip writers into posting the next chapter. But fandom has always agreed that those commenters are rude and annoying, and as those commenters navigate fandom they have the chance to learn proper community etiquette.
However, now it seems that a lot of the people who are consuming fanworks aren’t actually in the community.
I won’t say “they aren’t real fans” because that’s silly; there’s lots of ways to be a fan. But there seem to be a lot of fans now who have no interest in fandom as a community, or in adhering to community etiquette, or in respecting the gift economy. They consume our fics, but they don’t appreciate fan labor. They want our “content”, but they don’t respect our control over our creations.
And even worse--they see us as a resource. We share our work for free, as a gift, but all they see is an open-source content farm waiting to be tapped into. We shared it for free, so clearly they can do whatever they want with it. Why should we care if they feed our work into AI training datasets, or copy/paste our unfinished stories into ChatGPT to get an ending, or charge people for an unnecessary third-party AO3 app, or sell fanbindings on etsy for a profit without the author’s permission, or turn our stories into poor imitations of podfics to be posted on other platforms without giving us credit or asking our consent, while also using it to lure in people they can datascrape for their Forbes 30 Under 30 company?
And sure, people have been doing shady things with other people���s fanworks since forever. Art theft and reposting has always been a big problem. Fanfic is harder to flat-out repost, but I’ve heard of unauthorized fic translations getting posted without crediting the original author. Once in…I think the 2010s? I read a post by a woman who had gone to some sort of local bookselling event, only to find that the man selling “his” novel had actually self-published her fanfic. (Wish I could find that one again, I don’t even remember where I read it.)
But aside from that third example, the thing is…as awful as fanart/writing theft is, back in the day, the main thing a thief would gain from it was clout. Clout that should rightfully go to the creators who gifted their work in the first place, yeah, but still. Just clout. People will do a lot of hurtful things for clout, but fandom clout means nothing outside of fandom. Fandom clout is not enough to incentivize the sort of wide-scale pillaging we’re seeing from community outsiders today.
Money, on the other hand… Well, fandom’s just a giant, untapped content farm, isn’t it? Think of how much revenue all that content could generate.
Lurkers are a normal and even beneficial part of any online community. Maybe one day they’ll de-lurk and easily slide into place beside their fellow fans because they already know the etiquette. Maybe they’re active in another community, and they can spread information from the community they lurk in to the community they’re active in. At the very least, they silently observe, and even if they’re not active community members, they understand the community.
Fans who see fanworks as “content” don’t belong in the same category as lurkers. They’re tourists.
While reading through the initial Reddit thread on the lore.fm situation, I found this comment:
[ID: Reddit User Cabbitowo says: ... So in anime fandoms we have a word called tourist and essentially it means a fan of a few anime and doesn't care about anime tropes and actively criticizes them. This is kind of how fandoms on tiktok feel. They're touring fanfics and fanart and actively criticizes tropes that have been in the fandom since the 60s. They want to be in a fandom but they don't want to engage in fandom
OP totallymandy responds: Just entered back into Reddit after a long day to see this most recent reply. And as a fellow anime fan this making me laugh so much since it’s true! But it sorta hurts too when the reality sets in. Modern fandom is so entitled and bratty and you’d think it’s the minors only but that’s not even true, my age-mates and older seem to be like that. They want to eat their cake and complain all whilst bringing nothing to the potluck… :/ END ID]
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“Tourist” is an apt name for this sort of fan. They don’t want to be part of our community, and they don’t have to be in order to come into our spaces and consume our work. Even if they don’t steal our work themselves, they feel so entitled to it that they’re fine with ignoring our wishes and letting other people take it to make AI “podfics” for them to listen to (there are a lot of comments on lore.fm’s shutdown announcement video from people telling them to just ignore the writers and do it anyway). They’ll use AI to generate an ending to an unfinished fic because they don’t care about seeing “the ending this writer would have given to the story they were telling”, they just want “an ending”. For these tourist fans, the ends justify the means, and their end goal is content for them to consume, with no care for the community that created it for them in the first place.
I don’t think this is confined to a specific age group. This isn’t “13-year-olds on Wattpad” or “Zoomers on TikTok” or whatever pointless generation war we’re in now. This is coming from people who are new to fandom, whose main experience with creative works on the internet is this new content culture and who don’t understand fandom as a community. That description can be true of someone from any age group.
It’s so easy to find fandom these days. It is, in fact, too easy. Newcomers face no hurdles or challenges that would encourage them to lurk and observe a bit before engaging, and it’s easy for people who would otherwise move on and leave us alone to start making trouble. From tourist fans to content entrepreneurs to random people who just want to gawk, it’s so easy for people who don’t care about the fandom community to reap all of its fruits.
So when I say maybe fandom should start gatekeeping a bit, I’m referring to the fact that we barely even have a gate anymore. Everyone is on the internet now; the entire world can find us, and they don’t need to bother learning community etiquette when they do. Before, we were protected by the fact that fandom was considered weird and most people didn’t look at it twice. Now, fandom is pretty mainstream. People who never would’ve bothered with it before are now comfortable strolling in like they own the place. They have no regard for the fandom community, they don’t understand it, and they don’t want to. They want to treat it just like the rest of the content they consume online.
And then they’re surprised when those of us who understand fandom culture get upset. Fanworks have existed far longer than the algorithmic internet’s content. Fanworks existed long before the internet. We’ve lived like this for ages and we like it.
So if someone can’t be bothered to respect fandom as a community, I don’t see why I should give them easy access to my fics.
Think of it like a garden gate
When I interact with commenters on my fic, I have this sense of hospitality.
The comment section is my front porch. The fic is my garden. I created my garden because I really wanted to, and I’m proud of it, and I’m happy to share it with other people.
Lots of people enjoy looking at my garden. Many walk through without saying anything. Some stop to leave kudos. Some recommend my garden to their friends. And some people take the time to stop by my front porch and let me know what a beautiful garden it is and how much they’ve enjoyed it.
Any fic writer can tell you that getting comments is an incredible feeling. I always try to answer all my comments. I don’t always manage it, but my fics’ comment sections are the one place that I manage to consistently socialize in fandom. When I respond to a comment, it feels like I’m pouring out a glass of lemonade to share with this lovely commenter on my front porch, a thank you for their thank you. We take a moment to admire my garden together, and then I see them out. The next time they drop by, I recognize them and am happy to pour another glass of lemonade.
My garden has always been open and easy to access. No fences, no walls. You just have to know where to find it. Fandom in general was once protected by its own obscurity, an out-of-the-way town that showed up on maps but was usually ignored.
But now there’s a highway that makes it easy to get to, and we have all these out-of-towner tourists coming in to gawk and steal our lawn ornaments and wonder if they can use the place to make themselves some money.
I don’t care to have those types trampling over my garden and eating all my vegetables and digging up my flowers to repot and sell, so I’ve put up a wall. It has a gate that visitors can get through if they just take the time to open it.
Admittedly, it’s a small obstacle. But when I share my fics, I share them as a gift with my fellow fans, the ones who understand that fandom is a community, even if they’re lurkers. As for tourist fans and entrepreneurs who see fic as content, who have no qualms ignoring the writer’s wishes, who refuse to respect or understand the fandom community…well, they’re not the people I mean to share my fic with, so I have no issues locking them out. If they want access to my stories, they’ll have to do the bare minimum to become a community member and join the AO3 invite queue.
And y’know, I’ve said a lot about fandom and community here, and I just want to say, I hope it’s not intimidating. When I was younger, talk about The Fandom Community made me feel insecure, and I didn’t think I’d ever manage to be active enough in fandom spaces to be counted as A Member Of The Community. But you don’t have to be a social butterfly to participate in fandom. I’ll always and forever be a chronic lurker, I reblog more than I post, I rarely manage to comment on fic, and I go radio silent for months at a time--but I write and post fanfiction. That’s my contribution.
Do you write, draw, vid, gif, or otherwise create? Congrats, you're a community member.
Do you leave comments? Congrats, you're a community member.
Do you curate reclists? Congrats, you're a community member.
Do you maintain a fandom blog or fuckyeah blog? Congrats, you're a community member.
Do you provide a space for other fans to convene in? Congrats, you're a community member.
Do you regularly send asks (off anon so people know who you are)? Congrats, you're a community member.
Do you have fandom friends who you interact with? Congrats, you're a community member.
There’s lots of ways to be a fan. Just make sure to respect and appreciate your fellow fans and the work they put in for you to enjoy and the gift economy fandom culture that keeps this community going.
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