fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #4073 ]

[ SECRET POST #4073 ]

⌈ Secret Post #4073 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 21 secrets from Secret Submission Post #583.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

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What are some things you've done in fandom that you're not proud of and/or embarrassed about? Did any wank come out of it?

I was a TOTAL bitch on the NBC Heroes forum years ago. Everyone used netspeak, and it wasn't something I was used to. I had previously belonged to very strict forums where misspelling something got you snarked at, let alone "u" instead of "you". I was also dealing with insecurities at school.

So what did I do when I discovered everyone on the forum used netspeak? I first asked "nicely" that people type like adults. It wasn't nice, but I think in my warped mind I really thought I was being reasonable. It escalated until I finally realized I had to leave.

I still feel bad. I tried apologizing about a year later, but the forums had been completely revamped and it seemed to be new people.

Man, you were annoying. Thanks for not being that way anymore.

It's pretty rare for me to see netspeak these days, at least like 'u' and 'ur', it's more a lot of exclamation points and lowercase letters.

Re: Dark Fandom Past

(Anonymous) - 2018-02-28 00:17 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Dark Fandom Past

morieris - 2018-02-28 00:22 (UTC) - Expand

It sounds like you weren't a good fit for the culture, but... I sympathize 100% and miss the days when more people made an effort to write properly.

Re: Dark Fandom Past

(Anonymous) - 2018-02-28 00:21 (UTC) - Expand

Lol did you perhaps spend a lot of time at MBTV/TWOP before finding this new board? They were notorious for insisting on proper grammar/spelling.

Re: Dark Fandom Past

(Anonymous) - 2018-02-28 01:19 (UTC) - Expand

I once wrote an angry email to a fanfic author because they abruptly finished their fic because they got sick of writing it. It wasn't like...calling them names or anything but it makes me cringe.

Ugh, I did something similar, but on fanfiction.net. It definitely makes me cringe. :/ Although to my credit, I apologized to her for it, and she was even on my LJ flist for a while (she kinda disappeared into the void). I think she knew I was just being a stupid teenager.

I did the very same thing, except the reason I was going off on the person was for taking down their fics. Then I blocked them so they couldn’t reply. I did apologize a year or two later and even became friends with the person for a while, but I still feel horrible thinking about it, especially when I learned that the author took the fics down because of depression, so getting angry mail probably really hurt.

I was too intimidated to confront a "friend" over her shitty elitist behaviour. She was so rude to new people and she abused her mod privileges. When we met up in person she made a lot of comments over my appearance and had nothing but negative things to say about everyone else and how wrong they were to even dare to show up because they were being fans of this thing in the wrong way.

I was so spineless!

Wow.

I almost thought you were talking about me (similarly, I was a raging cunt back in the day), except when I met the other person, I said nothing of his appearance or anyone's right to be a fan (especially since the gathering had nothing to do with fandom).

A friend of mine goaded me into leaving an RPG.

In a scene in the game. We just both left.

(There's a lot more to it than just that. There was a lot of drama already. But that was not the way to handle it. One of my friends from the RPG never spoke to me again. Not that I blame her.)

Wanked on ff.net. Badly. Because RRRRRRGHGHGHGH EVERYONE SHOULD USE GOOD GRAMMAR OR ELSE KEEP YOUR SHITTY FICS OUT OF PUBLIC EYE!

Yeah.

I once got a really angry review on a fic bashing my OC. I'd just started writing fics and didn't know what a Mary Sue was, so I was pissed that this random person was trashing my character and I wrote her a really angry email. She sent me back an angry reply and we bitched at each other for a few more messages. I don't remember exactly what I wrote (something to the effect of, "I'm sorry I'm not a perfect writer 'cause I just started writing fics") and she ended up apologizing to me. I ended up apologizing to her too and we exchanged a couple more (nicer) emails. Looking back, I wish I'd handled the criticism more maturely.

Well you both apologized and moved on from it. And now you know now to snipe at criticism like that.

It's not surprising you didn't respond "maturely" to her review. Going on Mary Sue fics and writing "angry" reviews "bashing" the OCs isn't the most mature way to dole out criticism.

Re: Dark Fandom Past

(Anonymous) - 2018-02-28 01:20 (UTC) - Expand

Going around writing angry reviews of fics with Mary Sues seems like such a waste of time. Yeah, a ridiculous self-insert is dull and annoying, but I would either back out of the fic or just keep reading for amusement but not say anything. Even if I did want to say something, there are ways of doing that gently, like "Inventing a fantasy avatar like that is really common, but it's often not very entertaining to read about someone else's self-insert character when it's so blatant and over the top..." (assuming your OC even was blatant and over the top self-insert).

I was totally the crazy shipper in the Harry Potter fandom back in the day.

I mostly kept to myself even in my early days of fandom, but I'm pretty sure younger me left snotty comments on ship-fic for pairings I didn't like.

I didn't grasp the concept of 'don't like don't read' back then.

I left anonymous comments on my sister's fanfic so she'd think more people were reading it.

Re: Dark Fandom Past

(Anonymous) - 2018-02-28 03:04 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Dark Fandom Past

(Anonymous) - 2018-02-28 03:30 (UTC) - Expand

A friend and I wrote a tongue in cheek "How not to write [fandom] fic" guideline and posted it to a public message board. Honestly, we didn't think anyone would read it or care because it was just the two of us goofing off. It touched off a lot of controversy between people who agreed and people whose feelings were hurt because they thought we were talking about them specifically... which we weren't. If I could do it over, I don't regret writing that, but I wouldn't post it publicly.

Step 1: Be obsessed with becoming popular on a forum.
Step 2: Develop a crush on the forum's "king" (yeah, it was THAT kind of place).
Step 3: Let jealousy over popularity and unrequited crush bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or until golden brown.
Step 4: Have a huge public fight with "king" over something I can't remember but it was probably just an imaginary reason to lash out at him.
Step 5: Flounce.
Step 6: For the next five or so years, insist that I "changed" my birthday. Why? Because he and I had the same birthday so I felt like it was tainted.

I've written RPF incest slash that I truly regret ~4 years later. I'm also pretty sure the person I wrote the give about knew. The community was small back when I wrote the fics, and the guy made some public comments that seemed to allude to my fics. I've never been more embarrased. I orphaned the give. *shudder*

Baby's first fanfic experience (16ish?) was on one of those geocities anime sites, where the webmistresses had a fairly coherent (if, in retrospect, all kinds of juvenile and clichéd) fanfic saga involving their OC self-inserts. Eventually I wrote my own in the format, which, in hindsight, held up OK writing-wise, to send them and join in the party. The e-mail I sent with the file was the most insecure, grovelling, unfunny thing. Also, in my fic my self-insert didn't even get with my lust object. My Mary-Sues couldn't transcend my lameness.

Later on, on a snarky elitist LOTR forum, I did a great amount of MST3K-style Mary-Sue bashing. Smartass unkind.

I managed to ghost a forum I was a mod in and my other fandom spaces without meaning to.

In hindsight my undiagnosed depression and a toxic friendship played into it, but I still could've said "sorry guys, I'm stepping down as a mod" instead of just disappearing.

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