In which I show that one is never to old to be a starry-eyed optimist from time to time
An open letter to burr86,
Wow, you got pounced on pretty good last night, eh? (ETA: Ah, the post has now been deleted. I'm sure someone out there has screencaps.) (ETA2: Screencap here.) (ETA3: Entire post preserved here.) I contributed, both by commenting myself and linking to it in my journal, which probably sent more people over to jump on the dogpile, and I kind of regret it and kind of don't. I don't regret it because I think even if you were just roleplaying, it was pretty damn poor judgment to do it in public when you obviously knew about the feeding frenzy that's been happening on LJ the past few days. Tempers are running very, very high right now, and anyone even tangentially related to fandom or LJ knows this at this point. That's what f-lock is for, and I'm pretty sure you know how that works.
At the same time, I do kind of regret it because it turns out the comm is an RP type of thing (there was no way for newbies like me to know this before it was pointed out, since the userinfo is absolutely blank) and from what I understand you are also on vacation. You deserve time off and a chance to relax just like the rest of us do.
But all that aside, I have to ask you something: Do you GET IT now? Do you see how easily fiction gets conflated with reality? Do you understand how it is really, really possible to create a piece of fiction that runs diametrically opposed to your RL thoughts and attitudes, and how very much it SUCKS when people insist that because you write about something, you must obviously embrace it and want to do or say it to real people in real time? I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt here, by the way, because you've always seemed like a decent guy and I can't let myself believe you actually consider everyone in fandom a pedophile. See how that works? I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt despite the fact that you've written the exact opposite in black and white in a public forum, because I know it's possible to write about something without espousing it. Are you willing to do the same for me, and for the rest of fandom?
Is there any chance you might learn something from what's happening here? And here's the point where I become the starry-eyed optimist: Is there any chance you might even take that experience back to your bosses, and say, "Hey look, maybe we were wrong here after all. I was part of a community with a set of guidelines that were not generally understood by outsiders, and some comments I made there were taken out of context and I got jumped on... maybe the same holds true for fandom and we should think about cutting them some slack." Because that's exactly what fandom is. You're living our experience right now. Doesn't being misunderstood like that suck?
Think about that, okay?
Thanks.
gmth
Wow, you got pounced on pretty good last night, eh? (ETA: Ah, the post has now been deleted. I'm sure someone out there has screencaps.) (ETA2: Screencap here.) (ETA3: Entire post preserved here.) I contributed, both by commenting myself and linking to it in my journal, which probably sent more people over to jump on the dogpile, and I kind of regret it and kind of don't. I don't regret it because I think even if you were just roleplaying, it was pretty damn poor judgment to do it in public when you obviously knew about the feeding frenzy that's been happening on LJ the past few days. Tempers are running very, very high right now, and anyone even tangentially related to fandom or LJ knows this at this point. That's what f-lock is for, and I'm pretty sure you know how that works.
At the same time, I do kind of regret it because it turns out the comm is an RP type of thing (there was no way for newbies like me to know this before it was pointed out, since the userinfo is absolutely blank) and from what I understand you are also on vacation. You deserve time off and a chance to relax just like the rest of us do.
But all that aside, I have to ask you something: Do you GET IT now? Do you see how easily fiction gets conflated with reality? Do you understand how it is really, really possible to create a piece of fiction that runs diametrically opposed to your RL thoughts and attitudes, and how very much it SUCKS when people insist that because you write about something, you must obviously embrace it and want to do or say it to real people in real time? I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt here, by the way, because you've always seemed like a decent guy and I can't let myself believe you actually consider everyone in fandom a pedophile. See how that works? I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt despite the fact that you've written the exact opposite in black and white in a public forum, because I know it's possible to write about something without espousing it. Are you willing to do the same for me, and for the rest of fandom?
Is there any chance you might learn something from what's happening here? And here's the point where I become the starry-eyed optimist: Is there any chance you might even take that experience back to your bosses, and say, "Hey look, maybe we were wrong here after all. I was part of a community with a set of guidelines that were not generally understood by outsiders, and some comments I made there were taken out of context and I got jumped on... maybe the same holds true for fandom and we should think about cutting them some slack." Because that's exactly what fandom is. You're living our experience right now. Doesn't being misunderstood like that suck?
Think about that, okay?
Thanks.
gmth