I was on a hunt for one of your stories because I never commented and I wanted to show some support when I stumbled across this and then...well, I thought why not take a pause and show some support here?
There were so many things I wanted so desperately to reply to. I felt a little attacked too (I had *just* posted an update to a story about Annie being hunted...) and it actually made me feel better when I saw you standing up for yourself. It was nice to see someone saying "hey, are you talking about me?" I think the conversation would have been more fruitful if people had referenced specific stories and specific authors--in order for a discussion to happen everyone has to know *exactly* what everyone else was discussing. Of course, in order for that discussion to happen everyone needed to read the stories being discussed too. In a lot of ways fear of hurting people's feelings led to what felt like a passive-aggression attack and produced more hurt feelings I think.
But anyway I'm commenting because I've been there. I've been in the place where you feel like you just got blindsided by the people you're supposed to be able to trust and it always made me feel better to know I wasn't alone. So I wanted to let you know: you're not alone. And while I think a conversation about our fantasies and how we choose to portray them is both intensely interesting and important, I think Livejournal only really works (and any fandom for that matter) if there's a strict "no judgment" policy. Nobody HAS to respond to a prompt/read a story etc, but no one is allowed to out and out critique what someone chooses to write based on the validity of the fantasy itself. I've seen that policy enforced in other communities and I was glad to see our mods step in with a "whoa whoa whoa" sort of attitude. Reading posts from strangers is just too loaded otherwise and then nobody posts and everybody feels judged and it all just falls apart.
So yeah! Sorry this got long winded. Like I said I just wanted to say: I'm with you :)
Thank you so much. I fear that I lashed out without thinking properly when I responded to the post (If I'd thought about it I'd have definitely prefaced my comments with the first Britta gif above!)
But seriously, I just don't understand what the point in posting that topic was for if it wasn't to call out the writers who are putting these hard hitting stories out. I think that one or two of the posters referenced my work on 'Your Hands Are In My Hair...' but in a positive way but Elsie kept saying that she didn't know specific stories or writers - which confused me! How can you start a post like she did then say she didn't want to single anyone out. If it was something that was bothering me so much I'd have sent PMs to any of the authors involved.
I too have been in fandoms where it just gets downright nasty (this was mild compared to anything in the TVD fandom where I pop my head in every now and then). Our community enforces the rules pretty well, although I don't think they've HAD to be enforced before because I had though we were all of a pretty similar mindset in the whole 'each to their own' mentality. Clearly not I suppose by account of some of the posts on there.
But thank you, it's nice to know that I'm not completely crazy and that I have someone who understands where I am coming from :)
There were so many things I wanted so desperately to reply to. I felt a little attacked too (I had *just* posted an update to a story about Annie being hunted...) and it actually made me feel better when I saw you standing up for yourself. It was nice to see someone saying "hey, are you talking about me?" I think the conversation would have been more fruitful if people had referenced specific stories and specific authors--in order for a discussion to happen everyone has to know *exactly* what everyone else was discussing. Of course, in order for that discussion to happen everyone needed to read the stories being discussed too. In a lot of ways fear of hurting people's feelings led to what felt like a passive-aggression attack and produced more hurt feelings I think.
But anyway I'm commenting because I've been there. I've been in the place where you feel like you just got blindsided by the people you're supposed to be able to trust and it always made me feel better to know I wasn't alone. So I wanted to let you know: you're not alone. And while I think a conversation about our fantasies and how we choose to portray them is both intensely interesting and important, I think Livejournal only really works (and any fandom for that matter) if there's a strict "no judgment" policy. Nobody HAS to respond to a prompt/read a story etc, but no one is allowed to out and out critique what someone chooses to write based on the validity of the fantasy itself. I've seen that policy enforced in other communities and I was glad to see our mods step in with a "whoa whoa whoa" sort of attitude. Reading posts from strangers is just too loaded otherwise and then nobody posts and everybody feels judged and it all just falls apart.
So yeah! Sorry this got long winded. Like I said I just wanted to say: I'm with you :)
Reply
But seriously, I just don't understand what the point in posting that topic was for if it wasn't to call out the writers who are putting these hard hitting stories out. I think that one or two of the posters referenced my work on 'Your Hands Are In My Hair...' but in a positive way but Elsie kept saying that she didn't know specific stories or writers - which confused me! How can you start a post like she did then say she didn't want to single anyone out. If it was something that was bothering me so much I'd have sent PMs to any of the authors involved.
I too have been in fandoms where it just gets downright nasty (this was mild compared to anything in the TVD fandom where I pop my head in every now and then). Our community enforces the rules pretty well, although I don't think they've HAD to be enforced before because I had though we were all of a pretty similar mindset in the whole 'each to their own' mentality. Clearly not I suppose by account of some of the posts on there.
But thank you, it's nice to know that I'm not completely crazy and that I have someone who understands where I am coming from :)
Reply
Leave a comment