Wednesday Chat: Trolls, flames, trolls who flame...
It is the month of birthdays it seems for these hot mod ladies!! By the next Wednesday chat, I will also be older! *throws confetti* Ah, I am slowly creeping into COUGAR AGE. However, I have been informed by my other gay ladyfriends that we are called...."lezgers." I don't even know, guys. I don't even know. Anyway.
Nimsy, I'm sure you're recovering. For everybody else, here is Wednesday's chat!
Community Happenings: Fanfiction
Older* by blackestfaery (Don't worry, gurrrlll, that star is not a rating, haha :D)
Touch: Chapter One** by subtle_shades. Please feel free to give a read as well as a welcome to the community!!
Interludes** by seoinage
The Honorable Path*** by amber_intricacy
Wishing*** by juniper_11
Community Happenings: Fanart
Bonding Time* by cynchick . For cutecrazyice 's winning fic from the Blindfolded Challenge!
Lipstick Stains** by saphri . For bluerising 's winning fic of the same name! It is good to see you around here again, Saph!
Waffles Of Mass Destruction** by oroburos69 .
Other Community Happenings:
janually has created an interesting post concerning flames. I've been reading this thread today, and it will concern our community chat tonight. Please stop by and give your input if you can.
oroburos69 is looking for some plot bunnies, and is also willing to write you some comment!fic over this way!
cheekypo is taking requests for fanart over here.
Contests And Challenges:
Our new May Challenge, Family Portrait, is now underway, and y'all had better get a move on--entries are due in the 26th!!
Featured Member:
This month's featured member is none other than J-Pop Princess / superduperotaku !! I think that anyone in this fandom is familiar with this staple of the community, but if for some crazy reason you're not, her featured member post is right this way!
Well, for this community chat, I'm going to hope janually is a gracious sort of community member (as we all shall be) and jump off of her post a bit here to talk about flames and when fandom can get a little nasty.
I think that everyone in fandom has had at least one bad flame or experience--if you haven't yet, consider yourself lucky!! But I think it's sometimes good to talk about these experiences with other upstanding members of fandom (such as ourselves!!). It's a little cathartic, and it reassures us that we are not alone! Not in the SLIGHTEST.
Fandom nastiness began for me when I was in the Gundam Wing fandom and someone decided to out a few of us all over the internet. Our real names, where we lived, etc. Like, someone actually took the time to do this. Obviously they didn't have anything better to do with their sorry life, but when I was, you know, SEVENTEEN, it was pretty traumatic.
Needless to say, I was more than a little anxious when I was looking to write again, and be active in a fandom. And this is YEARS (*coughnotsayinghowmanycough*) after the previous incident. And of course, the second story I post comes with a flame. I will admit, it did take me aback for a second, but when you really think about it...these people probably just post, feel good about themselves for a minute, and then forget all about it. When the person they flamed will probably think about it for much longer, and most likely be very upset by it. Doesn't seem right, does it?? I feel like the more we think about it, the more power we are giving the flamer, and they don't deserve that at all!!
I used to think that these hurtful and unnecessary comments were limited to the internet--the anonymity is a big draw for morons to start running their lips--but I have been confronted with some of this negative nonsense to my face when I table at anime and comic cons in the artist alley! I remember I had done some commissions for my lovely friend caitiy , for her story Simple Things--a Kakashi/Sakura story. So, naturally, they depicted the happy couple together. Some people who walked by and saw these pictures literally said "Ew" or "Gross" or "That's not right" or one particularly brilliant girl: "How COULD YOU DRAW THAT?"
I wanted to say, "You might want to watch your mouth--there are stupid words coming out of it, I don't know if you're aware." My response: "Quite easily, actually." I was kind of amazed with the comments, because THE ARTIST (ME) IS SITTING. RIGHT. THERE. It's not like the internet where you don't have a face. I could see all of them MAKING THE COMMENTS. The loud girl with the unfortunate tattoo choices, the girl with the crooked Tsunade robe, the guy dressed like Cloud EXCEPT WEARING JNCO JEANS (fail), the girl with her two friends that all looked the same with those stupid pants from Victoria's Secret with the word PINK across the butt. I could interact with all of them IN PERSON if I could!!
But, like I said before, why bother?? It would just fuel a fire that you can just douse with your relentlessness to write/draw/do the best you can at what you're doin'. Ignore and move on.
We actually had an amazing post at this community on leaving constructive criticism. Although, now I think is a good time to bring it back up, with our onslaught of glorious new members to add their 2 cents. So, guys, what makes a good, constructive crit? Do you give more indepth, now that you have been given some not-so-nice ones? What is your experience with flames / trolls / trolls who flame? How do you respond?