fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2718 ]

[ SECRET POST #2718 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2718 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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[Mayim Bialik]

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[Pacific Rim]

Notes:

Might be another 12 am day. Response time will be slow, sorry.

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 016 secrets from Secret Submission Post #388.
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does anyone have any real life examples of this happening.
Not that I'm doubting anyone, but I've never seen that much backlash on just a fanfic.
I only see that kind of wank with fanart or comments.

I've seen it in the past, reported on metafandom. I remember, in particular, a Supernatural fic set in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake. The wank went on for weeks, and I've always wondered whether the writer, who was probably little more than a child, survived it. I never read the fic, so I can't tell you what it was about, and I doubt it's still online.

I remember when that happened, and read some of the fic and some of the criticism. While I don't think the flaming should have gone on for weeks (if it did) and I definitely hate the 'dog-piling' mentality, I think that the criticism was pretty justified for this fic. Using an at that time very recent tragedy the aftermaths of which were still being felt as a backdrop for the true love story of your favourite white American actors, and have all the Haitian original characters conform to lazy token black character stereotypes? Not cool. There was a reason a lot of people were not impressed.

ayrt

Totally not cool. But also not deserving of the relentless attacks the writer was subjected to.

Disasters in particular are always very hot buttons; 9/11 is still considered inappropriate to mention in many places, and it's been nearly thirteen years.

What do you count as 'little more than a child' tho? 14, 16? Or 18? (which is nowhere near being a child anymore) Because that fic had some pretty refined prose and some filthy sex scenes for me to believe anyone under 16 wrote it. I'm not endorsing it in any way, I'm just saying that it was structurally put together, more than I'd give any teenager credit for.

ayrt

I'm old, so all of those ages seem very young to me! And if I think about the sort of 'social' mistakes I might have made at 18 that I wouldn't make now that I'm more experienced...

I just hate dog piling. I hate the singling out and hurting of a real person on behalf of a largely theoretical victim. I hate the belief that a mistake gives people the right to act like vigilantes.

It was...not fun. Lots of comments about how I was a terrible writer, I didn't deserve to have my stuff posted online, I should stop writing forever, etc. - I don't remember if any of those comments actively said I should go kill myself, though I do remember getting some serious "you don't deserve to live" vibes from many of the "reviews". That said, none of it was SJW-themed.

Surprisingly, it was probably good for me in many ways, namely in that it confirmed for me that there is no such thing as a "safe space" even/especially on the Internet. That helped me in the long run, because no matter what kind of shit got thrown at me over the years, I was able to let it slide off pretty easily. If I hadn't had that initial experience with sporking - and visiting the sporkers' LJ community to boot, so I got to see a lot of sides of that particular issue - then I would have been hit a lot harder by certain fandom events later in life.

That said, this was back before fandom was supposed to be some kind of safe space. People were still coming to terms with the concept that the Internet could have real life consequences for average people, and cyberbullying wasn't a serious problem yet. Sporking back then was in a vastly different context than it would be/is today.

While I can definitely understand the appeal of doing the sporking and can see how it can be done without too much harm coming about, it's something that is far too easy to get out of hand, which is why I frown on it by default. Far too few people even process that there is a line between light mockery and bullying, letalone know how to not cross it.

I'm sorry that happened to you. That's awful.

I lived, and it was good for me in the end. Doesn't mean I wish it on anyone else.

That's awful and I can see why you hate it.

I usually would only spork my own old fics (which is actually pretty funny), so I don't hurt anyone.

I don't hate it, actually. I really do think that it was ultimately better for me, and that we should be allowed more room for constructive criticism in fandom than we currently have. I just see why other people hate it so much, and disapprove of it because of where it can lead, not where it definitively does.

Ah okay

my bad.

Yeah I always used to be wary of it as well, because of what could happen. I've seen negative echo chambers that took a turn for the nasty and nobody said anything because the rules forbade defending the thing that was being vented about because it was a "venting thread" . One time that "thing" turned out to be the author of the book series the site was for.

(I'm starting to hate how "venting" is used to justify nasty talk and behavior between the site and ..well all of fucking tumblr, but that's a rant for a different day)

I never understood that mentality. But then, I was the kind of person who hated "unconditional support for my side" even as a kid - I don't want unconditional support, I want useful support, and unconditional is not useful because if there's a flaw in my side I need to address, how else am I supposed to handle it but having it pointed out to me and analyzed?

But then, this is why I tell most people that when shit goes down, I'm a terrible shoulder to cry on but an awesome problem-solver and shit-bannisher. :P

Yeah. I remember seeing someone on tumblr talking about how they should "make it illegal to critcize their movement" and I was like "the fuck? That's a HORRIBLE idea. Not only does it make it seem like their ideology can't stand up to any scrutiny , but also makes it IMPOSSIBLE to self police- as long as someone claimed they were a part of that ideology , they could do anything in it's name and get off scott- free!

Criticism and analyzing things are actually important. I wish people didn't act as if actual criticism meant hate and if someone pointed out an error it meant they hated them.

Whenever I see that, I want to point out that's already happening in many parts of the world...and when it does, we call it a violation of the rights to free speech.

Yeah exactly.

But with some people on tumblr it's depends on what group it's happening to for whether it's "a violation of human rights" or "swift justice". If it happens to them or someone they identify with- it's the worst thing ever, but if it happens to a group they hate? Suddenly it's "justice" and "awesome" and "badass".

That kinda disturbs me, tbqh. How people can be that lacking in empathy.

I had this happen to me, too. The fic is long gone (was up on Geocities), but people were just brutal when the Internet started taking off. I'm talking circa 1996.

I quit writing for a long time after lots of nasty feedback. And in one of those incredible twists of fate, one of the things people were nastiest to me about is now a staple of fics in that fandom.

Fortunately, I'm now older and wiser with a slightly thicker skin, but sheesh...

*new headcanon that nyxelestia wrote the J2 RPS set after the Haitian earthquake*

J2 = ?

Jared and Jensen, the actors playing Sam and Dean on Supernatural.

Ah, thank you. :)

You obviously aren't in the Les Mis fandom, then. There was something that is known as "the Enjonine wars". It was... nasty. Very, very nasty. People getting told to kill themselves over a bloody ship and writing fic for that ship.

God don't remind me of that shitfest. I was luckily able to avoid the nastier parts of it but I did see some of the "if you headcanon Enjolras as ANYTHING except gay you are literally erasing queer identities and are are therefor oppressing real queer people" wank and that was just... interesting...

(Though I never saw any actual sporking. It wouldn't surprise me if it had happened though.)

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[ SECRET POST #2718 ]

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I got my first fic sporking when I was about 12.

Re: I got my first fic sporking when I was about 12.

Re: I got my first fic sporking when I was about 12.

Re: I got my first fic sporking when I was about 12.

Re: I got my first fic sporking when I was about 12.

Re: I got my first fic sporking when I was about 12.

Re: I got my first fic sporking when I was about 12.

Re: I got my first fic sporking when I was about 12.

Re: I got my first fic sporking when I was about 12.

Re: I got my first fic sporking when I was about 12.

Re: I got my first fic sporking when I was about 12.

Re: I got my first fic sporking when I was about 12.

Re: I got my first fic sporking when I was about 12.

Re: I got my first fic sporking when I was about 12.

Re: I got my first fic sporking when I was about 12.

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