[ SECRET POST #2449 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2449 ⌋

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

01.


__________________________________________________



02.


__________________________________________________



03.


__________________________________________________



04.


__________________________________________________



05.


__________________________________________________



06.


__________________________________________________



07.


__________________________________________________



08.


__________________________________________________



09.


__________________________________________________



10.


__________________________________________________
















Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 041 secrets from Secret Submission Post #350.
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.

Comments

Re: Well at least you learned from the experience, OP?

[(Anonymous)]

I've honestly never done anything terrible in fandom. Maybe someone else would disagree? But I don't think I have. I've gotten overinvested, absolutely, had some 'debates' that maybe went a little far, but I've never done anything really bad. When I feel myself growing angry, I step away from the keyboard. I don't see why that's so hard? Maybe it's because I've always been in small fandoms and it'd be hard for people to forget my bullshit, it feels less anonymous, so you feel a greater sense of responsibility? Idk.

I'm glad you've made up for all the stuff you did in the past, though. :) Sooo many people think that the internet isn't 'real' and can't have lasting repercussions in the real world, it's great to see someone who's making a determined effort to change.

Re: Well at least you learned from the experience, OP?

[(Anonymous)]

DA
Me neither. I am kind of side-eyeing all the "everyone's a horrible person when they're a teenager!" ITT.

Re: Well at least you learned from the experience, OP?

[nyxelestia]

My biggest regret actually has nothing to do with being angry or overly invested or getting into any kind of fight, and everything to do with being an idiot and relatively new to writing.

In short, I started out in a gigantic fandom where writing works similar to someone else's with a minor tweak would pass as your own. But then I jumped to a very tiny fandom, and they were far more strict. I did the same thing I did in the previous fandom - if I liked an author, I often tried to emulate their writing in my own. However, what passed for homage, tweak, or different interpretation in the previous fandom became plagiarism in this new one. Combined with a lot of other stuff going on at the time, I basically got booted out of there on grounds of being a plagiarist.

I look back on that experience, and while I don't think that the other people in the fandom are completely blameless - it was rather BNF-y/cliquey, and they did some truly ridiculous things, and from talking to other fans from that fandom down the road I know it wasn't just me or my individual perception/experience - I should definitely have known to take a closer look and figure out what the fandom norms were and I probably could've handled it better if I had looked before I jumped. While my writing was meant to be an homage or emulation of an author I adored, I really was an idiot for not realizing that from the outside looking it, it was plagiarism. At the time I also attributed a lot of the friction to being a teenager in a fandom composed primarily of middle-aged women, but now I realize that while the age-gap may certainly have exacerbated a few things, it was my own immaturity that started it all.

Ironically enough, one of my next fandoms down the road was one where everyone was basically doing their own versions of a few specific fic tropes/tweaks. At the time I was just deeply interested in the book series, but looking back I wouldn't be surprised if the pseudo-plagiaristic norm was part of the subconscious appeal. That said, in THAT fandom, I didn't do the whole rehashing a popular fic/trope thing - instead, I posted a lot of passive-aggressive A/N's along with my story. (Now instead of passive-aggressive, I just do straight out aggressive or no-confrontation-at-all. Some would call that an improvement, others would call it exactly the opposite of that; I think it's both, as I've learned to both pick my battles, but also invest myself more fully in the battles I choose to take on. Tremendously helpful both in fandom and in real life.)

So you may have done something noteworthy, you may not have. I know a lot of people who have done god-awful things in fandom who don't think they did, I will say that much (including in that tiny, BNF-y fandom mentioned above). But I have no idea who you are and I don't really know anything about you or your experiences in fandom, so I won't try to pass judgement.