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batsarebetterthanpeople · 1 year

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I just want to recap this whole situation from my POV actually because I think it would be useful at this point. And I actually want to start in 2014 on instagram during the spam ig era. I was a homestuck cosplayer on spam insta when I was 13 and dealt with the 4 chan raids, if anyone remembers those. So that's my background, just so you know. I got called a retarded dyke by proto gamergaters during my formative years, and it effected the way I engage online.

Anyway, hard cut to when I watched OFMD in April. I deeply related to Ed as a character. Most of my fan engagement for the first month or so was on tiktok, but I got off of it and went back to my social media of choice, Tumblr. I saw a lot of fucking Takes TM that I hated from a certain contingent of the fandom and I was critical of them, and so I started posting my own reading. Here's where the situation starts

I start posting my own reading of the show and I tag the characters that are in the show, hoping to find people who agree with my reading so I could follow them. I got yelled at for """maintagging""" which is an issue I've only run into before once, and the people who got mad at me about the """maintagging""" I received some agressive anons which I promptly deleted. I posted my Ed is Izzy's abuser post (tagged Izzy critical), got more aggressive anons, which I deleted for the most part. Had to tell some people how to block the Izzy critical tag. Cemented myself firmly in the izzy critical camp. I continued to see Shit Takes, in fact since the Izzy is Ed's abuser meta I've only ever made my Izzy metas in response to Shit Takes. I got on Calico Jack twitter, which I don't go on twitter all that often, and there's a lot of overlap between Izzy twitter and CJ twitter unfortunately, so that made me less likely to use twitter at all. I was mostly on there for the porn, so it's cool. I didn't interact with discourse hardly at all so twitter didn't feed me anything related to this.

Now over this period of time the situation on tumblr was getting completely unhinged actually. You couldn't post anything at all in the Izzy tag without someone crawling out of the woodwork to tell you that you were terrible for it. People did slowly learn to block the Izzy critical tag, but jesus christ it was a slow learning process for yall. Every day I'd get on here and post silly little posts, and then one of mine or my mutuals posts would be a little bit too mean to Izzy, and by a little bit too mean it would be something objectively true. And then people would just descend on it and there would be another fucking drama. And it's impossible to predict what's gonna set you off.

Now one drama was completely unrelated to Izzy at all. Stede Anon as we've been calling them, L as they've been referred to in that document showed up in june, left a few nasty anons, and then fucked off because the people that they were bothering turned off anon. Then they came back in October to bother me I played with Stede Anon until I got tired. I wished them a Karkalicious 2009 and sent them on their way.

Another drama I want to recap, which I hesitate to call a drama because of the racist under ... well... overtones is the "documenting of the Izzy haters" a couple of people made a whole sideblog dedicated to documenting the worst of the "Izzy haters". Except they didn't start out with the twitter doxing, or L/Stede Anon. They started out with a mutual of mine who is a black woman and who talks about racism in fandom. She has never harassed anyone to my knowledge and has had quite a bit of nastiness directed at her. I had heard some whisperings of potential harassment being directed at Izzy stans, and I had remained firmly out of it. This blog was too much for me. If they were dedicated to documenting the nastiness they were receiving in fandom, and their third post was about someone who posts metas and minds their own business, then there must not be real problems, especially since I'm catching all this fucking flack for simply posting things that aren't even mean. It may just be that I grew up on the internet but I can be real fucking mean, and I haven't been.

One instance of this is the Izzy isn't canonically queer drama. A mutual of mine posted that Izzy isn't technically confirmed as queer, his queerness is all subtext, that might be an interesting thing to analyze. Things got heated on my dash for a while. Since may there's been a problem in the OFMD community where people get yelled at for posting Izzy critical. And after a long argument with a certain Izzy stan in regards to the post in question I posted this because I was genuinely curious. Basically the argument consisted of us talking past each other, where I said "No one is calling Izzy straight we're just trying to analyze another facet of his character" and they said "You're doing harm to x y z group of Izzy enjoyers by saying that he's straight, and you're doing harassment." On that post that I linked I got told by one person that that post was "Doing harm" and that "hurt people hurt people" which is frankly the most absurd application of that phrase I have seen to date. I got told by a different person that I shouldn't have posted that because "izzy stans are receiving a targeted harassment campaign, worse than anyone else in the fandom" This was the final straw for me. If they think that that post is doing harm, they cannot identify harm. I made a passive aggressive post about curating your experience, blocked anyone who got mad about it, and my tumblr experience has been a lot nicer since I did that, because people blocked me and I blocked them. Everybody's happy.

So anyway then Stede Anon returned with a vengeance. My working theory is that this person is in school and they're on winter break and have more time to be a huge bitch. They accused me of being an Izzy stan I said "nice try you fucking idiot" in a way that was sort of dry, and I said Izzy stans have paper thin skin, and I refuse to loose sleep over them getting mean anons, but you still shouldn't harass them. That response got screen shot and lied about. Because of course it did. I was an idiot for thinking it wouldn't. I stand by what I said but if I could go back I would have been nicer I guess just because it would have caused me less drama. Some Anons came into my inbox and said hey you're a fake ally and you don't care about harassment and I was confused where they were coming from but essentially I said. "Girl, it's an anon" and then someone directed me to uselessheretics blog. And so I go check out the anon harassment that's got yall so worked up. And do you know what I see there? It's fucking Stede Anon!

So for a couple weeks I've been getting these vague messages about harassment and when I finally get directed to the harassment I see an anon that I have been fighting with and have blocked because of how fucking annoying they were. This, Stede Anon of Stede Anon Gate fame, is the unique threat facing the Izzy stan community. So of course I had a fucking field day with it. All of our fandom problems originate with this one shithead and I am going to hold hands with T*zzy*zzy and sing Kumbaya as we all collectively banish Stede Anon to the shadow realm. Hit that block button babes

And then today someone posted the link to the google doc receipts. And I realize now that there's actually been some harassment unrelated to Stede anon happening on twitter, and Stede Anon has been a real terror on IG. So perhaps I jumped the gun on casting doubt, but I maintain that I would not have said anything if not for certain people behaving completely out of pocket and crying about harassment on posts that are not harassment.

And I do want to address that actually. The reason for this whole thing, is because certain people are dragging up the harassment to try to get us to stop criticizing them. The undertone to all of this is very clearly "we're being harassed so you have no right to criticize us or talk about our blorbo in a way we don't like," which doesn't feel related, does it. I've seen the arguments that "they're using your rhetoric" but the thing is you're pointing me to a couple deeply mentally unwell people who I have no control over and you're saying "you should feel bad about this because you made a meta post about your reading of fictional characters that I didn't like" and getting mad when I'm confused that has to do with anything

So basically i retract my assertion that you're not being harassed, but you can clearly see how I got here, and also you keep bringing this harassment up to me in situations that have nothing to do with the harassment. And if you had fewer shitty takes I would make fewer metas.

I also do maintain that L/Stede anon is the source of most of our problems and we should be using the block button prodigiously

Here's how:

#stede anon gate #izzy drama #fandom fuckery

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mcmoth · 3 years

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Dream SMP fandom etiquette

So. This post is probably too little, too late, considering the fandom and the issues I'm about to talk about have existed for so long now, and a lot of the people who need to hear this probably aren't on tumblr anyways, but I just wanted to dedicate a quick post to talk about fandom etiquette. Mostly pertaining to discourse, and interactions with people outside of our circle. These are just going to be my own personal thoughts, of course, but I felt it could be good to bring some of this to attention. So without further introduction:

Where to (not) talk about discourse:

Don't go into other streamer's vods to only focus about a different character. If you want to analyse, for example, c!Techno, do it in Techno's stream. Don't go into unrelated streams, like Tommy's, Tubbo's etc. to do it, even if they were a part of the event in question. This is, of course, with the exception if the character in question didn't stream their own pov. But otherwise, stay in your own space. This is to prevent cluttering a streamer's comments about unrelated discussion. To give further example: Tubbo's vod comments should primarily focus on Tubbo's character. Not Tommy's, Ranboo's, Techno's or whoever else's.

Don't start discourse in the comments of animatics. Seriously, stop that. Animatics aren't discussion boards. The comments are there to analyse and appreciate the video presented, not argue. It's especially rude if you pick a small detail, that wasn't even the focus of the animatic, or even a completely unrelated issue to rant out your frustrations about. To give examples: starting disc discourse in an animatic of Tommy talking to Wilbur, or rambling about how tragic Techno's character is in an animatic focused on clingy duo, etc.

This applies to fan songs as well.

Video essays are the exception to these rules. I think it's safe to say they're the place to bring your hot takes, if you really feel so inclined to argue in youtube comment sections (Though I'd personally advise to still keep the topic relevant).

Keep negativity out of fanfic comments. This isn't nearly as big of an issue as the last points, but I've seen it happen a couple times, so I'm deciding to mention it. Fanfics are written for fun. Even if you disagree with the characterisation or something else, unless the author is clear in accepting critique, keep criticism to yourself. And definitely don't rant about how you dislike a character unrelated to the fanfic. Sharing your thoughts on the fanfic itself is of course fine and welcomed, but when it turns from discussing the author's story to talking about how you dislike a character in canon, that's when it crosses a line. Example: comment talking about what you don't like about c!Tommy on a Bench Trio fanfiction.

When commenting on art, keep the feedback positive. Even if you dislike any presented character, keep that to yourself. Example: Don't say things like "I hate x character, but this art is good". You might think the author would feel honoured, but it's actually just hurtful.

How to deal with discourse:

This is gonna be a shorter section, because I think we all chose to do it in different ways, and that's valid. Also, it's just that I, myself, am still learning how to do this well, but I thought it could be good to try to lay it out anyways.

Try to scroll past takes you disagree with instead of arguing if you don't think you'd be able to keep your cool. Noone likes a random person yelling at them through a screen, and if you rant, you'll get an equally frustrated reply back, and noone will be happy. Either explain your point in a calm manner, or scroll past/ unfollow/block.

On the keeping cool thing, remember to just step away. Take a deep breath and calm yourself down before proceeding. To minimize the frustration you feel on a daily basis, filter tags, block people, avoid videos and youtube comment sections that you know will upset you, and leave certain internet spaces if you find yourself unable to escape negativity even with all those steps. Remember: in the end, it's all a game played by friends, a story, and your enjoyment of it lies in what you take from it. Abandon what makes you unhappy. Marie Kondo your fandom experience.

Also, here's your reminder, to whom this is relevant, to take care of yourself. Hydrate, eat, sleep, clean up, get fresh air, remember the things outside of all this. There's plenty to do outside of this fandom, and what you can do here can wait. There is no pressure, or obligation. Not for the content you create, not for the discussions you bring, not for responding to discourse, not for anything. Fandom is meant purely for fun, so take care <3

Interacting with people outside of the fandom:

This is something that I've seen a bit of talk about, and I thought I'd drop in my own thoughts on this as well. No matter the differences, we're all just trying to vibe, and I think these are important things to keep in mind to leave both sides better off:

Don't interact with hate posts. Just don't. You don't want to see them, they don't want to see you. Even if your response is lighthearted, their animosity is not. They will feel frustrated regardless, and the grudge will only grow. And if they're being agressive, calm discussion most likely won't happen even if you're being polite. Just leave it, please.

Correct misinformation calmly. I completely get how it can be frustrating to see blatant lies and all, but with our reputation, people will not listen if you're being antagonistic. Provide sources, explain, and leave it at that.

Don't be hateful, send death threats, or assume privilege or whatever else. That's stepping into the same shoes of the people you hate. Misunderstandings go both ways, and the fact of the matter is, I think most people who dislike DSMP, even the ones who are agressive about it, don't have their stance rooted in maliciousness. To expand on why the situation became what it is today, taken from a discussion on discord:

I think it's just a combination of Dream growing so insanely quickly + how internet spaces have changed over the years. When ccs like jackstepticeye or pewdiepie etc. grew popular, activism wasn't as prevalent and held to such importance. Now it's thankfully more talked about, but that also leads to Dream being more scrutinized in comparision. Add twitter trends and the general prevalence of the fandom, and you've got everyone feeling tired and frustrated and paranoid. People also tend not to fact check stuff, especially when it comes to celebrities and stuff they're not really interested in, so rumors spread fast.

And actually, I think there's absolutely valid reasons to be made uncomfortable by Dream SMP, either in it's creators, content or fandom, and there is, of course, stuff to criticise in general. The problem is the hate and misinformation and overexposure, but we are not going to solve any of that by being aggressive in return.

(This is, by the way, not talking about more serious cases. Like doxxing, or leaving gore images in hashtags, or similar instances. That's a whole different complicated issue that I don't feel qualified to tackle.)

And finally, don't overwhelm outsiders who merely mention the Dream SMP. Don't send asks asking them to watch it, don't write paragraphs explaining the lore, don't confuse them with inside jokes, just... Don't jump on people like that. Unless they're explicitly clear in wanting interaction and getting into the fandom, that kind of thing will just drive them away. This is in no way exclusive to the Dream SMP fandom, pretty much every fandom has people enthiastic to have more people involved, but since there are so unbelievably many of us, it's especially easy to go overboard with this stuff. Just... be polite, and don't pressure anyone. Be nice, please.

So.... ya! This would be it for this one, I think. Sorry that it's kinda long, thank you if you read it at all. Hope y'all have pleasant days ^^

#dream smp #mcyt #fandom #fandom etiquette #fandom critical #tommyinnit #technoblade #tubbo #dreamwastaken #let me know if i should remove tjose tags - i'm not sure whether it counts as crosstagging or not sorry #long post #my own post

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