fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #5454 ]

[ SECRET POST #5454 ]

⌈ Secret Post #5454 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 38 secrets from Secret Submission Post #781.
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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05. https://i.imgur.com/2QySGTa.png

My favorite ship of probably all time has been overrun with truly awful people and it’s the worst. Instead of positive content about the ship, all you get is people attempting to argue that it’s morally superior to the competing ship and if you don’t agree you’re racist, homophobic, transphobic, abusive, whatever buzzword they’ve latched onto this week, all while being wildly misogynistic and racist themselves. It’s a mess. Truly has me lowkey rooting for my ship to lose so these clowns suffer.

Hijacking social justice is an easy way for these people to troll and be mean.

I'm not into shipping-dominated fandoms, but I feel this hard.

As frustrated as I am by multiplayer cosmetics being behind expensive paywalls, Halo's fandom became outright sickening when protesting over that.

Jesus Christ, by the vitriol and death threats they gave, you'd think they would've been politicians or something instead of game devs that tried their best under a boss over their shoulders and a fanbase that could swat them for making them unhappy.

And this was over a game that was for free on multiplayer and a campaign available through Xbox GamePass.

For the record, Halo: Infinite is a fun game, both multiplayer and campaign. I like the BNFs that theorize and talk about the lore and gameplay, and I likewise feel frustrated when something is dumbly written in the lore. But the entitled gamers themselves are what disgust me.

That sodding (adapted) MIB quote still rings true to my mind: "A fan is smart. Fandoms are stupid, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it."

Fandom hasn't gotten worse so much as the structure of the Internet and social media has gotten worse.

+1, there were always nasty people out there but it was much easier to avoid them and to curate your entire fandom experience.

But the latter has definitely facilitated the former.

The experience of being in fandom is (often) worse, but people in fandom aren't really worse.

Absolutely agreed.

not much to add. pretty much what i wanted to say.

Yes, it reminds me of middle school too. The mean girls used to go 'AaahhhHHHH!' really loudly if they thought they'd found something out to bully someone else with, or to feel superior about, and I keep 'hearing' that noise.

Fandom used to be my happy space but no longer. I hardly do namespace at all. I can't help but wonder if these people are doing anything at all to make the real world a better place, like volunteering, standing for Parliament or whatever.

It's cause the whole internet is like junior high now and it didn't used to be.

I disagree. Fandom has been full of nastiness for decades. When I think back to the fandom in the early 2000s, I remember the one brave writer, who posted a fic with an implied m/m on a popular fanfiction forum, which resulted in over 20 pages of angry comments, before the author finally gave up and deleted the fic to repost it on a website specifically for yaoi fanfiction. I remember entire communities built around searching for and mocking of fanfiction written by inexperienced and young authors. I remember the Mary-Sue litmus tests that not a single female character could pass. I remember accusations of forced diversity any time a canon had more than 1 POC character. I remember the aggressive policing of trans and bisexual fans' life history and presentation for even the slightest hints of faking. I'm happy that your little pocket of the internet was free of those things, and you weren't exposed to them until now, when the internet has seemingly shrunk from thousands of websites to just 5 so it's no longer as easy to form semi-isolated communities, but fandom has always had nasty people in them. Some of what I described was even present here in f!s.

DA Agree with your entire comment. I only joined fandoms in the late 2000s and early 10s so m/m fic was more common, but I've seen examples of all the rest on ff.net, lj, various forums, tumblr, twitter and even here too.

+2

I could not be openly gay back when I started fandom, I had to hide that shit as much as I could unless I was in a group of people I trusted(other gays basically) and several of my fandoms would not accept any gay-fic, m/m or f/f, being posted in the main comms or webshrines because it was 'immoral' and 'disgusting'. And that's not even getting into the 'fictional gay is only okay because it's not real' sentiments that were EVERYWHERE back then, like christ, people really do forget how rampant and casual being openly bigoted was back then(hell people still are in pockets now, it's all about what fandoms you're mainly into).

sporking was so nasty and mean spirited and yet people keep telling me this was the golden age of fandom. lmao, yeah okay.

As much as I do agree with you - my only main complaint is that fandom has become a lot more public and accessible to people who's main interests are 'oh wow people are into fiction stuff? how pathetic haha'.
At least back then even the most insane and wanky shit was mostly witnessed by people who were involved with fandom culture in contained areas like a LJ community where you would have to go out your way to follow each and every community to be in the know of what was happening.

Now you don't have to be in the fandom - you just find out through osmosis of sites like twitter and tumblr and any other platform that shares/reblogs a post - then people who absolutely have no context will make a judgment and suddenly a post will be on blast, half a dozen fake accusations with the wildest takes get passed along as truth (ie: someone interpreted a 30 year old x 40 year relationship as peddophilia -> that person ships a pedo relationship -> that person is a pedo).

It was shit then and its shit now, but there's no changing that it's shit in a vastly different way.

I agree. A different kind of shit existing then doesn't negate the shit now.

Now, you can find someone's stupid hot take from twitter reposted to reddit and landing on /all so even if you have zero interest in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, now you're one click away from watching stupid dick-waving fights about JoJos. Yes, don't click and you're safe, but it's a far cry from being isolated on a forum only accessable through a webring - that shit was much, much easier to avoid or not even realize existed compared to seeing a meme you have to scroll past on your reddit page despite the fact you don't follow any fandom subs at all.

I think the main difference is how such a high number of assholes these days try to justify their hate with some sort of moral highground. They disguise their obvious bullying by pretending they're one some sort of righteous crusade. Sure, that was the case (with a more bigoted flavour) with the "think of the children before you post such evil gay filth" crowd but it's much, much more prevaltent and under the guise of social justice or inclusivity now.

(no subject)

(Anonymous) - 2021-12-12 03:08 (UTC) - Expand

The secret didn't say fandom was never bad. It admitted it always has been. All you have said is true and yet, fandom is still worse today. That just speaks for how bad it's gotten, it's not a claim that fandom used to be great.

I have been a fan on the internet since the late eighties.

Before that I read magazines that had fan columns.

Before that I read how people used to debate about Charles Dickens, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Michelangelo.

If a time traveller arrived at my home and told me that the first cave painter was killed by a fan who didn’t like his work...

...I would not be surprised in the least.

"When I think back to the fandom in the early 2000s, I remember the one brave writer, who posted a fic with an implied m/m on a popular fanfiction forum"

What fandom was that in? Because the fandoms I was in in the late 90s/early 2000s were 95% m/m and it was hard to find m/f in them.

(no subject)

(Anonymous) - 2021-12-12 21:51 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

(Anonymous) - 2021-12-12 23:01 (UTC) - Expand

I think fandoms have always had petty and spiteful drama, only we were apart of it and didn't notice it as much. Now we're older and "past all that" and are looking to hang out in fannish spaces online. ...However with the newer generation cropping up (to me) it looks like they are doing the exact same things we used to do lol but to us instead. Kinda makes me laugh.

The ones that really get on my tit are people who go on about how 'cringe is dead' and that everyone should just enjoy whatever they want :))) - and then immediately get onto a fandom that's been getting popular to hate and join in with the mob mockery.
At least if you're going to make being such a hateful person your personality, don't leave written evidence all over your social media saying otherwise.

Secret OP here. Thank you for making this, Secret Maker! The picture you used is perfect!

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