On Followers And Frauds · 7:44pm Nov 9th, 2014
Few things get on my nerves more than seeing users on this site get follows when they don't deserve it; even more so when it always seems to be through the most lowbrow and unorthodox methods, too. While there are honest authors out there that earn every follower they gain by actually writing stories (and for fairness' sake, I won't debate the "quality" of the stories), there are also plenty of people who do pretty much jack shit. Maybe some (like myself) write blogs, or comment a lot, but that's another matter entirely. Sometimes people can be so inclined to follow someone because they like and/or agree with what they say, usually. Maybe some people are their friends, or are people they respect enough to grace with a follow. That's all well and good. But what really bothers me? When some people not only do nothing, but actively seek out followers in the following ways:
· Asking for promotions from well-established users.
· Inquiring about receiving support in group forums, which usually constitutes a follow.
· Evoking pity from users across the site for a myriad of (often false) reasons.
· Offering a follow if you follow them in return. (Fuck this shit. Fuck this shit HARD.)
· Up and outright begging users via PM if they could follow them.
Does any of that sound familiar? I probably won't even need to name names, really-- and I sort of can't, since I don't want the mods breathing down my neck about any possible "attacks" on people. But, I think at least some of these should sound familiar. One person I probably can mention (since he's technically not a member of this site anymore) is that TgTf Productions fellow, who, as most people already know, lied about succumbing to cancer, and then got pissy and threatened to DDoS the site when he was found out. Yeah, not a smart move on his part, since he got permabanned right after that. But the point is, he lied about his condition to draw pity from users, and through third-party promotions by other users and authors alike, his follower count had increased up until that point. Even now, the account still rests at 203 followers, when I checked. Up until his ban, his "story" had touched people's hearts. Are people really so "easy" with following random users, and buying into their sob stories? Is this site really so blind and gullible to the countless fraudsters out there that exploit their followers? This idea just escapes me.
Personally, I treat a follow as a pretty damn valuable thing. I only follow people I trust to provide content I can at least reasonably enjoy, be it stories or blogs. And yet, some of these people I see following hundreds if not thousands of users. Yeah, you heard me right. There are people that will follow just about anyone, for no reason. It's the same thing when people treated their Favorites as an impromptu read-later function, before the whole bookshelves thing got implemented; hell, I'm willing the bet there are still some people that do that. (We have story-tracking shelves now, you guys. Hell, you can even make your own. Use them.) Since I look upon the worth of a follow so highly, that does mean I do carry respect and gratitude for my followers, but... well, let's face it. If I don't like you as a person, then I'd rather not have your follow. The only people I'd want following me are people who would actually give two shits about what I do, and not just blaze over it in the feed among the countless others. I mean, really, what's the point? That'd be like joining a few hundred groups and turning off notifications, except, well, the notifications are still there, and they merely clog up the feed. Personally, I'd rather not have to sift through several-hundred blogs or whatever just to see a single new story from one author I like. If you're going to follow me (or anyone else), wonderful, but the least I'd ask is that you make good on your follow, even if there are things I do (or others do) that you don't like. (If you don't like what people do, or simply don't care, then don't follow them. Simple as that.)
Before I tangent off too far (though knowing me, I'll more than likely do it again before long), let's get back to the core of the problem. Let's assume that, by default, most users can easily be swayed into following someone. There are, by extension, a lot of users that desire a need for attention. What do they do? Well, I think the better question is, what WON'T they do? They'll do whatever they can. They'll comment on profiles, asking to be friends. They'll send out PMs. They'll get involved in groups, almost obsessively. They'll take advantage of the oft-giving nature of users here by goading them into giving them follows. And what's worse? They'll have their "victims" put in a good word for others and/or promote them in blogs. They'll do whatever they can so that the spotlight rests on them. And when they have your attention? Usually, when they're not soaking in it, they're posting either pointless drivel in blogs or writing subpar stories, just to earn more of your comments and praise. And scarily enough, they usually do get it. Why do they? Well, obviously because they are your friends, of course. You'd do anything to support your friends, right? I thought you'd might. After all, even when these people end up posting their own personal sob stories or whatever, people will ALWAYS be quick to stroke their e-cock and tell them "it's okay", completely overlooking any suspicious behavior in the slightest. Even the ones that house suspicions will never say anything, out of fear or doubt, or be swiftly silenced by the fraudulent beggar and his/her supporters in a flash.
One other thing that really bugs me? Apart from that? Lemme just show you something, really quick...
FiMFiction: Who needs Facebook, anyway?
They just don't stop. I swear, it just goes on and on...
See that? That is unacceptable. FiMFiction is not a fucking Twitter account. It's not your personal goddamned MySpace profile. This is a FANFICTION site; it revolves around WRITING, and pretty much anything relevant to do with fanfiction and writing in general. We do not give a shit about what you did with your life at every waking moment of the day. We do not want to get spammed with images and GIFs galore when we open your userpage. Show a little goddamn restraint, will you? Just because you CAN do these things, technically, it doesn't mean you SHOULD. In fact, I'd very much like to not see this sort of thing happening at all. It's a waste of space, my bandwidth, and your time. Blogging nothing but pointless updates and crap and plastering junk all over your profile is worthless on a site like this. They just scream "look at me!" and "pay attention to me!" Some people are worse than others, and going around the site, I'm sure you've seen plenty of them; some being better designed or more deliberate than others. Me, I don't really bother with it, apart from trying to keep things mostly tidy.
Let me just cut the bullshit, and be straight-up and flat-out in saying this: You are being played for a fool. By following these kind of people AND encouraging them, you only grant them to drive to continue on. Their ego will get bigger, and their desire to be noticed and loved will only continue to ratchet upwards. It's a bit odd, but this phenomenon seems to mostly apply to early-to-late teenagers, while their hormones are raging; I like to think of such desire for attention as a phase, and it usually is, if you are quick to nip it in the bud. They often grow out of it, and hell, plenty of people still remember "those" years as a teen. But, through constant encouragement, you are likely only serving to worsen the problem. If they are not writing, properly blogging, or otherwise actively contributing to the site or fanbase, then they are not worth your follow. Let them be to their own business. I don't give a shit if they're your "friend" or not; if you really want to support them, then fine, go ahead. But don't try to goad others into doing the same. "You should follow my friend"? Fuck that. If they want a follow from me, then they had damn well better earn it. And I sure as hell don't need people telling me who to follow, either. If they don't have anything to offer me, or if I don't know them well enough as a person, then I'm not going to bother.
And then it only gets worse. When they get the attention they've been craving, more often than not, they get bolder. They start to branch out more. Maybe they'll even blog or write stories more. It's a bit of a tipping point, I suppose you could say; the potential to actually smarten up and do something worthwhile, or continue down the current course to oblivion. So far, all I've seen is the latter; they do more stunts to gain attention and sympathy, even risky ones, because they are just that desperate for attention, and continuing to do smaller things just isn't cutting it for them anymore. In another case I could probably refer to, xNightflashx (who also hid away using the alt account "Sunset cloud", which I was partially involved in helping to uncover and bust), she took her "sob stories" to another level entirely. Where TgTf lied about succumbing to disease? Nightflash lied about being raped. AND impregnated. But despite the fishiness of her account, people still bought into it. Even though her claims was not only scientifically impossible (impregnation does not happen until up to around 48 hours after intercourse, and pregnancy tests are generally only able to confirm it anywhere from a few days to a week after that), but also completely contradicted several facts, suspicion and arguments exploded pretty quickly before long. Several white knights tried and failed to vouch for her, while she abandoned the account and hid on her alt, already trying to start anew-- which didn't last long, since we were easily able to pick out and confirm it, thanks to Obsy. Oh, and did I mention all of that was already on top of the fact that she stole artwork AND a story from other people? Yeah. It was the plagiarism thing that finally got her and the alt permabanned. (Pretty sure it was Proper Noun that helped us figure that detail out, so, credit to her, then.)
Something else that some people might try, and I can certainly name the imposter Fluffle Puff as guilty of potentially attempting this; money-grabbing. Fluffle Puff was an account that tried to pretend to actually be FluffyMixer, despite the real one's already saying so that he isn't even on FiMFiction to begin with. So, it's not that we didn't know it was a fake, but the problem was that it made an attempt to do "commissions". Now, it wasn't really made clear on what that would entail, but seeing as how they were already claiming to be FluffyMixer and had a wealth of Fluffy's art on the profile page and nothing else... well, there's really no need to speculate what they meant, right? It's madness, really; people are bold enough to think that they are "famous" because they have a lot of followers, and then think that their crowd of loyal followers are a goldmine waiting to be harvested. (If you, say, have 500 followers, and every one of them gave you two bucks, which is about how much a mug of coffee would cost, then you'd already have a whole grand to your name. Why wouldn't that thought appeal to people?)
And I'm not talking about the people using Patreon or tip jars, or whatever; that's a rant for another day, but at least they're actually producing their own content, for a change-- and producing content at all, for that matter. I don't even have a problem when people ask their followers to donate to charities. Hell, that sounds like something I'd do, if I ever found one that I care enough about. But it does become a problem when they start asking for money for supposed "personal dilemmas" of the sort. Could be medical bills, or rent, or whatever; just monetary support for them in general. Now, in this case I can't name names, since they aren't banned, but... well, let's just say I noticed certain cases where a person would post a blog going on with a (fairly vague) blog, detailing a ton of personal problems (and in some cases, there are plenty that seem almost fantastically unreasonable). A blog or two later? They set up a paypal or donation link or whatever, almost casually. Maybe Patreon too, I dunno. To drive the nail in even deeper, afterwards? They carry on writing and acting like there's no big issue. I don't know about you, but if I ever had the troubles that guy had, the LAST thing I'd do is hang out on a site for cartoon horses and post words all day. (I'm sure there are better things one can do with their own personal time.) And second, does that kind of behavior just scream "suspicious" to anyone else? Yeah. If someone did this to you out of the blue, then... well, just be careful and think before you open up your wallets. For all you know, it could very well be a scam.
What I'm saying is... be smart with your follow. Follow people that DESERVE your attention. Follow the people that produce content your can enjoy, or at least respect. Don't follow someone just because you were told to. Ask yourself: "Do I really want to follow this person? What could they offer me, if I did? Is it worth keeping up with what they do?" If the answers were in the negative, then you probably shouldn't follow them. Learn to recognize an attention whore from a good writer/blogger who deserves your follow. And if any of them try to pull the "follow for a follow" bullshit? Ignore them. They're trying to appeal to your own desire for attention, and using it to satisfy their own. It's a trick. Fraud, scam, whatever you want to call it. They won't care about what you write, or produce (they might say otherwise, but if they really like what you produce, they would follow you without asking for one in return to begin with). And it's just bad practice, too. If someone tries to do that, just ignore and/or block them. They are not worth your time. And I've already dealt with a number of users that have used tricks like this, where it often came to bite them in the ass, too; hell, I've seen a user here and there get reported and chewed out by moderators for doing this sort of thing. So, yeah, don't do that.
And for anyone else you follow, it would be a good idea to take things they say with a few grains of salt-- they are, after all, not much more than opinions, and I myself am more than willing to realize, acknowledge, and embrace that. But please, for god's sake, don't be another one of those mindless mooks, hanging on every word they (or I) might say. Challenge others opinions, exercise your own, engage in meaningful discussion; even if you don't actually say anything, don't let yourself accept everything people say as fact. If an author or other user tries to pull something fishy on their followers (which might include you), don't let yourself being taken in by their deception. But try not to be a simple bystander, either.
Long and extremely tangential rant made short? For prospective writers: Play the game fair. If you cheat, you'd better believe there are people who will flip the board on you. For bloggers: Don't prattle on about your personal bullshit; nobody cares about it. It's fine if something bad comes up once in a while, since it's good practice to keep people informed of any happenings, but for the love of god, don't make your personal life and activities all that you write about. For readers: Think before you follow. Don't give it out willy-nilly. I mean, just look at it logically; if this one person you've never met is apparently deserving of a follow, then why not that other author you've skimmed over? His story could have been great. And I'm sure if he asked you for a follow, you'd give it as well. Why not follow ALL of the users, for that matter? (Don't do that, though. That's stupid.) For every other user: Be smart. That's probably asking a lot out of you, but realize that this is a fanfiction site about cartoon ponies. If you were looking for Twitter or Facebook, this ain't it.
Maybe I'm preaching to the choir here, and maybe my pleads will fall on deaf ears, but I don't care. I'm sick and tired of seeing all this bullshit happening, and it sorely needed to be said. I don't even know if I had the chance to properly touch on everything I wanted to say, but hey, there's always next blog for that.
>inb4 people unfollow me because of the points I've made
~Blinkie
derpicdn.net/img/view/2014/8/30/710810__safe_animated_screencap_smile_equestria+girls_cute_upvotes+galore_sunset+shimmer_adorable_rainbow+rocks.gif
This...just this. Believe me when I say this but all of the drama that happens here also happens on Deviantart. The amount of frauds on Deviantart are similar to the ones on this site. Still, I'll be sure to beware of the ones that I follow. Thank you for making this blog.
I'm still following you though.
I heard from somewhere that overloading your account page with...stuff. Is what causes the website to break. When enough people do it, I mean.
If anyone does this they shouldn't have followed you in the first place.
2584294
My point exactly.
And don't look now, but it already seems like I've lost one. Thanks for proving my point, whoever he was.
2584308 (Fuck this shit. Fuck this shit HARD.) I said this once... Against an awful author... Oh well...
I always considered follows a pretty valuable thing. I really only follow people if they make interesting blogs every once in a while (like you). I even recently pruned my following list of a few users I realized had never produced something worth my time. A few impulse follows on my part when I was a fresh-faced twit, compared to the not-so-fresh-faced twit I am now. The number of followers I have is sometimes intimidating when the little part of my mind that expects people to play by my logic comes out to play. If everyone did what I do, I would certainly have a lot less, which makes those I do have all the more baffling.
As for my behavior, I'm always wondering if my single monthly blog is too much considering how little I have to say. I just do it to keep a regular tab on my writing progress, because otherwise I'd do maybe a single blog per year if I was feeling very talkative.
I think I know who you're talking about...
This is, ironically, exactly what I do.
There are two reasons why I follow someone: Because I want to read the words that they write or because I think they're funny and I want to laugh at them. Ironic as it sounds, I read and write surprisingly little stories despite being on this site so much.
What usually consists of a legit follow from me is me clicking on a person's page, seeing a funny quote and not an overload of shit to assault my eyes with, maybe a funny comment or two, or really just an avatar that I really like. It's that easy. I just get this... feeling, that the person will be worth following. There have been two instances in which I chose wrong and had to unfollow someone using this method, but generally speaking, I enjoy most of those that I follow.
What usually consists of an ironic follow from me is when I hear about some shitstorm of drama, so I go to the author's page and hit that follow button so I can keep better tabs on what they're doing. Sometimes I'm honest and sometimes I'm not (it's complicated, okay?), but either I smell blood and am anticipating a ban, or I just want to point and laugh at their attempts to be anything more than a joke to me.
The people I follow are a blend of circus freaks and really cool types. I don't assign a special meaning to what it means to be a follower, instead using the function that having followers provides me to produce a better means to track author/user activity. I do my absolute best to comment on every blog post I see (which I can't always do, because I have three-day weekends and can't be arsed to do anything on this site for more than an hour or so when I have other shit I can do), and if I find myself not wanting to comment on their blog posts or interact with them in any manner, I unfollow them.
It's pretty aggravating. If someone follows me, I want it to be because I've done something they've enjoyed, not because they just felt like it, or thought I'd follow them back.
But what can you do, really? People do as people will, unfortunately
2584294 .
This.
I couldn't agree more.
HORSE FANFICTION IS SERIOUS BUSINESS OKAY????
I have pretty much given up on this website and the majority of it's userbase so I just follow people if I feel like it, they seem like cool people, I want to see them do and say more stupid shit, or they can actually make some decent stories (which is usually pretty rare these days (^: )
also sub 4 sub is absolutely terrible, and anyone whom seriously participates in it is a cancer that must be purged.
I have been muttering about this since the beginning. I see it all the time and I'm not sure whether to be saddened or angry.
Tons people on the site who don't even care about writing. They use it like facebook.
I use FimFiction to read, and to write on occasion. That's what its meant for.
2584406
Oh, I see how it is...
2584744
I thought my laughter was endearing.
2584760
You're still in trouble, you'll be sleeping on the sofa for the rest of the week >:(
2584776
You can't put a price on honesty.
2584788
But I can put a price on your head
2584797
I thought the head was your favorite part~
(oh man why are we doing this in Blinky's comments section)
2584837
You know what I like
(we do this everywhere)
2585703
I know you like what I have to offer.
(I know but it makes me feel so dirty~)
2586079
I know you feel the same
(You know you like dirty~
)
2586193
2586203
All night long bb
Aside from advertising my own art (as I have been requested to do cover arts in the past) on my userpage (via that little section reserved for past avatars, cover arts, and that slide-show doodad), I think I've got the workings of the page good. I blog and write too.
All in all, this is a really good blog post. Some may not agree, of course, but hey, 'tis the internet. Of course, I try to keep my page tidy too, but it's still a bit of a wreck. (As of this comment, I removed two pointless modules (both embedded with bandwith-taking images) off my page and redid my featured stories boxes to include my more recent works.)
Thanks for that. And keeping up with the name change, while we're at it. (I admit I didn't make it hard.)
Can fix.
2604514
It wasn't hard, no. I saw your blog explaining the name change, and all the subsequent blogs past that. Just never got around to posting a comment acknowledging it, I guess. You're welcome, by the way. And thanks.
2584357
Late reply, but, yeah, I'm pretty sure it was made more than clear on who I was talking about. After my current Feature Box reviews are posted, and the next rant on my queue out and over with, I may need to focus my crosshairs a bit...
Namely, there's gonna be a very special review in store.