#i dont think ikon has the 'winning' mindset

[ikonist]

who do you think will end up winning kingdom? also if ikon were to win the streaming portion for this round, would it be enough to win?

it's skz since day 1, and if i'm not mistaken the points are accumulative so... no <3

[wingsofkpop]

i dont condone the toxicity but the least you can do as a fan is put in some effort to help skz win kd by voting and streaming. they work really hard to put on the best perform so we can at least give back by doing everything we can to support them. if stay tumblr just put a little more effort then we could show skz how much we love and support them. real fans want to see our boys happy and will help them succeed

I apologize, anon, but this type of mindset is what fuels this exact toxicity.

The entire concept of what constitutes as a “real fan” is ambiguous and, pardon my French, complete and utter bullshit. It’s a poor excuse to perpetuate gatekeeping culture and actually works to deter people from joining and/or participating within the fandom community. It’s one thing to encourage others to vote and stream, but it’s another to bully, degrade and shame others on the basis they’re a lesser fan because they don’t have resources to do so.

That being said, this whole claim of “not putting in the effort” is baseless and purely ignorant. If a person chooses not to vote or stream, then they have their personal, valid reason for doing so. Some simply don’t have the time nor the energy. And some show their support through other methods. As I mentioned previously, there’s so many ways besides voting and streaming that a person can show their love and support for their idols.

This post is by no means belittling Stray Kids’s work on Kingdom. I know they’ve worked extremely hard. But you know what? So has Ateez. And The Boyz. And SF9. And Ikon. And BtoB. All of these groups have put in the maximum amount of effort and are as equally deserving to win as the others. And in my opinion, I think whoever decided the whole point system were complete and total idiots.

This post is already long enough as it is, so I’ll leave it at this. If you choose to vote and stream, then continue to do as you please. And if you don’t, then that’s perfectly fine too. Don’t be hateful and intimidate others just because they choose to spend their time and energy elsewhere.