(no subject)

[out_there]

It's a sad state of affairs when even with my limited online presence these days, even with my small default reading list, I still get to read about the horrible things people do to each other.

I mean the nasty posts centering around WisCon. (If you're curious, seperis has links/explanation here.) After reading in horrified anger, I'm going to go focus on work and try to remember that 99.9% of the time, people in fandom act reasonably well to each other, showing respect and consideration in our shared space. When that 0.1% act terribly, it blows up into something huge, but it's not common, it's not representative, and it's not something that I consider "part" of fandom.

Comments

[seperis.livejournal.com]

It's actually comforting to me that this kind of thing *does* blow up. We're not so jaded or so used to it that it doesn't shock or horrify.

That doesn't help those who have been injured by this, but the community doesn't accept it.

[out-there.livejournal.com]

It's actually comforting to me that this kind of thing *does* blow up. We're not so jaded or so used to it that it doesn't shock or horrify.

That's a very positive way of looking at it. I think I'm going to focus on that.

[dissident.livejournal.com]

Wtf.

I've never heard of the Wiscon but it doesn't even matter. This girl is obviously covering up her own image issues.

And she doesn't seem at all regretful. She claims to feel threatened by angry fen, but yet her 20 userpics all featuring her face, are still there. I think she honestly thinks she has nothing to fear because she thinks the internet can justify anything she can think of doing to other people.

[out-there.livejournal.com]

I think she honestly thinks she has nothing to fear because she thinks the internet can justify anything she can think of doing to other people.

I think you're right. She seems to be one of those peopelt hat thinks that because she *can8 do it online she *should* be allowed to, and, um, not, social interractions don't work that way.

[storydivagirl.livejournal.com]

Wow, some people can be such a-holes and there's just no excuse for it.

[out-there.livejournal.com]

So true.

[phoebesmum.livejournal.com]

In between this and the LJ elections and - oh, whatever the last dozen things were, they come so thick and fast now I can barely keep track - I sometimes think that the internet has ruined fandom for good. Then I remember the rival Blake's 7 fan clubs, back in the 80s, one of whom (allegedly) mailed the other a dead rat, and I remember no, it's just bloody people.

[out-there.livejournal.com]

A dead rat? OMG, that's a ... different low. Not a new one -- because you're right, it's just *people* -- but one I hadn't heard before.

And, yeah, I don't think it's an LJ thing, because I'm old enough to have heard of the flame wars that happened in fandom mailing lists. Every so often, people just have to be huge tools (at least with LJ, they're normally not on my FList).