anonrerising | Crack, Boom.

Imagine it's 2008-2010, everyone is watching Breaking Bad, and there's message boards where you can talk about it. Now imagine you are disabled and took a liking to Flynn/Walt Jr., because seeing a disabled character be treated like a person by the rest of the cast is nice, actually. But every time someone mentions Flynn in the message board, a gaggle of Walter White cocksuckers floods the replies to that post with stuff like "Oh yeah? Well, I hope Flynn gets killed in a violent way next time he gets a speaking line."

This isn't about Breaking Bad, and the analogy isn't perfect. But this is the state of another fandom discussion board I'm in, for a background character I sympathize with for different reasons (a show that also has a gaggle of cocksuckers for one of the main characters related to this background character). I just want to talk about my blorbos in peace, man.
Is this a common occurrence or do the people just suck in this unnamed fandom?

Ime there are two very distinct flavors of this. The worst is Walter White cocksuckers descending with obvious intent to ruin the discussion for anyone that likes Flynn, because they hate Flynn, they hate anyone that likes Flynn because they can't imagine other people engaging with fandom in a way that isn't cocksucking and bullying, they think Flynn is dumb/problematic/gets in the way of their favorite blorbo, Flynn reminds them of their ex or a dream they once had so any and all discussion of him must be met with extreme hostility and rage, ect.

The other flavor is Walter White cocksuckers who don't care if you like Flynn or not, and enjoy talking about things they both like and don't like on the forum, and are oblivious to the fact that someone occasionally bringing up a character they dislike is not necessarily an invitation for them to react to the topic with their unsolicited opinion of: 'oh the forum is talking about Flynn now. I didn't like that character! This is how I react to a character in Breaking Bad the show'.

The first thing used to be way less common. Now it's the dynamic I regularly see if I enter any public fandom server that isn't 18+. Woe be unto you that has not figure out which character a large public fandom server has decided is the unforgivable fave before posting there.

It's a common occurrence sadly.

I'm a fan of Billy Hargrove from Stranger Things because hello relatable character (abusive dad, closeted queer coded, parentified to hell and back), and hooooo BUDDY the shit anti-Billy folks say to his fans is something else.

DA

This must happen a fuckin lot in the stranger things fandom, because I've literally been seeing posts and tweets of people complain about this exact type of harassment happening there for years and neither I nor any close friends of mine are in that fandom.

AYRT

It really fuckin does. I'd go into more, but it's a hot mess and will drag up politics Mindless and Vasemod don't need lol.

AYRT, also going to respond to the other anon who said:

"Ime there are two very distinct flavors of this. The worst is Walter White cocksuckers descending with obvious intent to ruin the discussion for anyone that likes Flynn, because they hate Flynn, they hate anyone that likes Flynn because they can't imagine other people engaging with fandom in a way that isn't cocksucking and bullying, they think Flynn is dumb/problematic/gets in the way of their favorite blorbo, Flynn reminds them of their ex or a dream they once had so any and all discussion of him must be met with extreme hostility and rage, ect.
...
Now it's the dynamic I regularly see if I enter any public fandom server that isn't 18+. Woe be unto you that has not figure out which character a large public fandom server has decided is the unforgivable fave before posting there."

My experience has been with the first flavor of fans only (they appear to be a clique on the message board to support their main character fave). The character I like hasn't even done anything wrong. They are a sibling to a main character, showed up once, and was never heard from again. They're basically a nobody, yet attract the ire of vocal haters somehow, to the point of wishing said blorbo gets shot???
I had NO idea this behavior was such a common occurrence either. But, looks like the only solution is to cook more food of my fave blorbo and seek out other like-minded people, even if the anti-blorbos will forever mald about it. And... make more fandergs of my faves.

Ayrt

I'd honestly be a little wary nonny, people that say 'I want x character to be shot' and that go out of their way to bully people out of any meaningful conversation about said character often turns into 'I distrust and wish harm upon fans of this character and anyone that makes art of him or writes ships with him and my favorite blorbo, ect ect'. I'd make sure to stay on anon wherever this is taking place.

I wish this was just me imagining this and being paranoid, but I keep seeing direct examples of this kind of harassment escalate in fandoms I'm in or adjacent to.

"But, looks like the only solution is to cook more food of my fave blorbo and seek out other like-minded people, even if the anti-blorbos will forever mald about it. And... make more fandergs of my faves."

+100 this is the correct answer. A closed invite-only discord for people that want to talk about your fandom that pass the low low bar of they haven't even told anyone to kill themselves over x character on Twitter is an great time, actually. And receipts of anyone acting otherwise should be passed around so everyone knows the assholes to avoid.

Yep. I'm in a discord server that's invite only for a "problematic" character and it's been so great.

Watching huge chunks of fandoms gradually flee twitter and tumblr for discord, and then seeing invite-only servers become more and more the norm for the reasons discussed above has been interesting. At one point I think nearly all the artist activity in one of my medium sized fandoms transitioned to closed servers. For everyone in those servers, which was most of the fandom, it was all the food you could eat. If you weren't in the closed servers then congrats, this fandom is now a handful of toxic assholes sniping at each other on twitter.

It's honestly really funny to watch the people that didn't make the poo cut (the 'don't viciously harass people for fun' cut) complain publicly on twitter or tumblr that everyone in their fandom ~mysteriously~ stopped posting and that they have some weird hunch that nobody likes them because they've been mass blocked on twitter and can't reblog a lot of the old fanart on tumblr. Gee, I wonder why.

I'll be honest, I feel bad for the ones starting fresh that can't find community outside the dicks because all the people are in private servers.

Hope some folks are watching for potential fresh blood to bring into the servers.

Yeah bringing in fresh blood can definitely be a problem if the mods get overwhelmed and stop actively looking for new people to bring into the server. Most closed general fandom discords I've seen have actually been pretty good about bringing in new fans though, and you're likely to get an invite to the bigger main fandom servers if you show a sliver of interest in connecting with the fandom through ao3/twitter/tumblr/forums ect and there are no receipts of you openly being a bully. Good places to look for hints as to who to ask for invites are character specific tags on tumblr and author notes on ao3. (Character and ship tags on twitter used to be a good place to look but not anymore lol)

I've definitely noticed that the mods making invite decisions over the past few years have been giving less and less leeway when it comes to extending invitations to anyone that's friends with/follows known harassers. This is partly because of the instances of server raids and banned users trying to use socks to sneak into servers they were denied access to because of their behavior.

Pro-tip, if you've been in a fandom for a while trying to find the action and nobody's hooked you up with an invite to a vetted discord, you might want to check your twitter follow list for wankers. I've seen a lot of mods debate over invites with arguments that go something like: "should we invite user xxxbunnycheeks? They haven't openly harassed anyone, but they follow a lot of people on twitter that post about calling for the degenerates of fandom to kill themselves, hmm. We probably shouldn't invite that person."

The thing is not everyone wants to be proactive in reaching out for an invite no matter how easy it seems to you. 90% of people online are lurkers who never actively participate. By requiring that these people ask for invites and have active profiles that are considered to be “good enough” when vetted, you’re driving tons of people away.

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Wow. I only share art in private servers for this exact reason. That's a smart move. Twitter and Tumblr are festering toxic wastelands.

+1

I think a grand total of 2% of my fanart makes it out to social media these days. If you're wondering why people that worked in various arts industry like animation seemed to stop making and posting fanart on twitter over the past few years, this is why. They have not stopped. There are a bajillion industry artists still making fanart, it's just all behind a very guarded locked door on discord now.

How are you so sure that everyone in a fandom uses discord? Personally I don’t spend that much time on discord for a lot of reasons and I’m sure a lot of people don’t use it too. Also, a lot of servers you need to know someone in order to find a link and join. So if you can’t get an invite because you don’t know the right people, you’re not good enough to join the fandom, I guess.

DA

Fandom doesn't exist on discord only; it's just where folks tend to create closed communities that don't have the toxic folks in there.

I'm active on tumblr (Was active on twitter, but I abandoned twitter bc of how bad it is for artists now), and I still post/reblog etc. Because of tumblr, I found a closed server that is a community for folks that get hate for liking Billy Hargrove.

It's nice to have a closed server because the loud minority that fill his tags with hate aren't in it. We can talk, share writing, art, headcanons etc without having assholes sending us death threats.

Fandom exists everywhere, it's just that discord is becoming a safer place to talk with like-minded folks.

+100

This is the exact circumstance that I saw driving people away from public social media more and more to becoming active only on private discords.

"It's nice to have a closed server because the loud minority that fill his tags with hate aren't in it. We can talk, share writing, art, headcanons etc without having assholes sending us death threats.

Fandom exists everywhere, it's just that discord is becoming a safer place to talk with like-minded folks."

Yup. This is the reason. I don't think the majority of people in these discords necessarily wanted to gatekeep fandom activity behind a wall where mods vet newcomers, but they're vetted in order to screen for behavior such as sending death threats, doxxing, blackmail and harassment attempts, ect... That's simply the unpleasant and toxic reality of public fandom right now. This environment has organically driven large sections and sometimes the lion's share of fandoms activity into these kinds of private community spaces.

DA

This also happens to a smaller extent on reddit fandom communities. Although with competent subreddit mods they get cleaned up quick if it gets too out of hand. Otherwise the voting system does its job pretty well in those instances, as much as it has its own problems.

Reddit is such a weird mix of random vibes when it comes to fandom. Sometimes it can be really fun and then sometimes... yeah.

Folks only participate in fandom subreddits if they like the main protagonists or the main white boy Joker type antagonist.

You don't go to reddit if you like secondary antagonists or the queer secondary characters, or BIPOC characters. You get downvoted into oblivion.

Depressing but accurate.

+1
Reddit's voting system is an echo chamber enabler.

RIP Reddit. I spent a lot of time in specific small subreddits, but exclusively used 3rd-party apps, so corporate changes locked me out. The site has had its cesspool issues before, but this was the one that put the nail in the coffin for me. So sad to know that the best content & knowledge is now likely to be contained in private servers, largely unfindable without social connection. Previously, looking at the content WAS the social interaction. But this is the opinion of a lonely person, so maybe others have a better experience.

no i think it's unfortunately like this in any fandom that gets more than a few crumbs of attention. it's why i never interact with anyone beyond small conversation and have entirely different alts for each of my interests, if the choice to just remain completely anonymous (like here) isn't available. not that i really engage in anything unusual or generally considered problematic, i just wouldn't touch most of the other people in the fandoms i'm in with a ten foot pole

and especially not on twitter

Twitter is an absolute pit.