You Ever Get That Feeling...

[fenderlove]

Have you ever felt like you were sorta alone in your fandom opinions? Sometimes, I feel awkward asking fandom questions for fear that it might unintentionally offend someone. I'm trying to stop arguing on the internet because Tara threatened that if I didn't stop she was going to make sure that my grave marker would read, "She argued on the Internet. A lot."

Comments

[rahirah]

A large proportion of the Bad Fandom Experience I've had boiled down to someone identifying so strongly with their favorite character that any criticism of that character was taken as a personal attack. (And if you think it's bad in BtVS fandom...oh, the Elfquest fandom stories I could tell...)

[fenderlove.livejournal.com]

I concur. I must admit I don't know that much about ElfQuest fandom, but I've heard stories...

[rahirah]

It was SO much worse because we were all writing OCs.

Writer A: They hate my character because she's [insert disorder]! And I'm [insert disorder], so they hate me and all other [insert disorder] people!

Editor!Me: Um, no, they hate your character because she's a raging Mary Sue woobie villain whom you have capturing, torturing, and stealing from their characters, and who always has to have the last word and be best at everything, and all of whose faults they're supposed to forgive instantly because she's so misunderstood, and you keep foisting storylines in which she totally pwns their characters on them without consulting them beforehand. If you'd just -

Writer A: AHAH! YOU HATE [insert disorder] PEOPLE TOO!

[fenderlove.livejournal.com]

Writer A: They hate my character because she's [insert disorder]! And I'm [insert disorder], so they hate me and all other [insert disorder] people!

Oh, my lord... That's exactly what happened with the whole rage that started off my inbox getting spammed and trolled for almost two years now. *cowers and hides*

[rahirah]

Uh huh. I recognized the symptoms when it started happening here on LJ and I backed the hell off from the people who were doing it. Not always far enough, because I can't always control my desire to argue with people who are being Wrong On The Internet, but I gave it the old college try.

[fenderlove.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to be better about it. I do think that I want the epitaph on my crypt vault to read, "I wish I spent more time arguing on the Internet." It's either that or "I hate these curtains." XD