Fandom Meta: How Wank Kills Fandom a Little More Every Day ...

[dodger_winslow]

Because she is one of the most awesome, awesome people in this fandom, and because she seems to be capable of incredibly fearless acts of pure courage when it comes to speaking her mind in a public forum, I'm going to re-post a comment I made in response to something the incomparable janissa11 touched on in her Live Journal HERE. Because I really

Comments

[pinkphoenix1985]

I totally agree with you!! It is sad that it seems that for every little thing- some people just yell WANK! it has really made me loose confidence in believing that we are all here together enjoying a shared fandom and being respectable to one another.

on a more cheerful note- have a great weekend :D

[dodger_winslow]

Thank you! I did.

[pinkphoenix1985]

I am glad that you did! as you can see I am using your respect icon especially since all the turmoil lately

[izhilzha]

*applauds you*

And because I'm not sure I've said this: thank you for allowing discussions to happen in your LJ, when they do happen. I appreciate that as much as I appreciate your meta and your fic combined. :-)

[dodger_winslow]

I love a good conversation, and usually enjoy it far more when not everyone agrees with me. Where's the fun in that? Or the potential to learn and grow?

So for me, hosting a disscussion here is great fun. And most of the time, I'm lucky in that the participants are all great people who show great respect for one another. I think I may have teed off on a few wankers early on that put them on notice my LJ wasn't the best place to show their asses unless they wanted to get bit. :D

Which is good, it allows the rest of us to have good conversations.

But it still bums me that there are several subjects that are just such hot topic buttons in fandoms that you can't really speak to them without drawing enormous criticism simply because of the subject being discussed. And that's extremely unfortunate ... and something that periodically makes you want to smack your head against the table repeatedly.

[coolgrin]

Why can't people like what they like and leave it at that. And why can't people ask a valid question and not be wanked at? Janissa11 is so thoughtful and no one should have mistreated her. She wanted to discuss the fatjensen thing and she did it in a very unoffensive intelligent way. She just wanted to understand something within her fandom and to have people be mean to her is awful. It was a brave thing opening up herself that way and then have people spew at her. So you rock and I agree with everything you said.

[dodger_winslow]

Janissa is invariably thoughtful and brave. Some some of my favorite things about her. :D

[amothea]

I completely agree with what you wrote here nad what Janissa wrote in her LJ. I also find it frustrating to try and have a good conversation and yet I'm worried at the same time that it'll turn into "wank" I actually try and friend people I disagree with but can have intellegent conversations about that disagreement. Because it's so much more interesting to know people who have different interests adn viewpoints and yes it's fun to discuss them but sometimes with LJ and fandom it's not easy to pull that off and sometimes it blows up in your face. :(

[dodger_winslow]

I've found some subjects are almost untouchable without them turning into wank. But with a little cooperation, many others can be broached and discussed in a quite reasonable fashion.

And I, like you, find it far more entertaining and enlightening to have those kinds of debates with people who hold differing opinions from my own. I'm not a big fan of homogeny. I like my world colorful and unique and full of interesting things.

[amothea]

looks like we're on the same page here. :)

[dodger_winslow]

Absolutely. But a colorful, unique and interesting page, despite the fact that we agree quite often. ;)

[gretazreta]

Yes.

I think the whole idea of discourse gets flattened mighty quickly if people live in fear of "lj-smackdown" on any opinion they may care to have. And that really upsets me, because I love few things more than a well-thought-out, engaged debate over issues that people feel passionately about.

And disagreement doesn't mean "OMGIHATEYOU": the last week or two has been quite an eye-opener in discovering that in some cases, people are so very touchy about people not thinking the same way. That's the scary wank thing, to me, not that people disagree (or are even offended by what other people say), but that they think that everyone should think the same.

And now we have super lj flags to enforce that with. *rolls eyes*

and... Em for president, I think.

[dodger_winslow]

The LJ Smackdown. I like that. Very appropriate.

Em for president indeed. That would be an interesting and entertaining years, eh?