My Thoughts On Fandoms · 9:33pm Aug 27th, 2016
Fandoms are usually a good thing because they allow people to come together and find common ground in things they mutually like. But on the other hand are pretty bloody toxic sometimes.
I myself happen to be a member of many different fandoms. I am a hardcore fan of steampunk, cyberpunk, fantasy, science fiction, Asian live action shows, Asian music, Godzilla, Ultraman, comics, manga, anime, cartoons, tabletop games, card games, videogames, technology, science, anything to do with furries, mlp, cosplay, costuming, as well as other nerdy subcultures.
So I have seen my share of both the good side and bad side of all of these fandoms.
Today I want to address some of the negative stuff I've seen in an attempt to bring awareness to what people are doing in hopes that they will hopefully stop doing it.
One of the most annoying things I've seen fandoms do is argue about what makes a certain aspect of it good, whether it is an argument about characters, episodes, or certain aspect of the show in general that appeal to them. Now don't get me wrong. There is nothing wrong about having a healthy debate about what you like and don't like. But this is never what seems to happen.
What ends up happening is that two (or more) people end up arguing about what they think is right for what seems like an eternity until both (or everyone) rage quits and never wants to talk to the people involved again.
I've seen these arguments get to the point where site administrators had to get involved, if it took place on a forum or group of some kind. I've even seen people get kicked out of fan gatherings or conventions because the debates turned violent and people actually started to beat each other up, over essentially a fictional world, fictional characters, and shit that in the grand scheme of things really doesn't matter.
There is a better way to handle things then rage quitting an argument, causing trouble for site admins who probably don't feel like they are getting paid enough to deal with that shit (if they are getting paid at all), and causing trouble for convention staff members who already have enough stuff to deal with without having to break up a fight or kick people out of a convention.
The simple solution is to just agree to disagree. Accept the fact that someone has a different opinion than you, respect their point of view, and move on. It doesn't have to be the end of the world. And maybe you can even gain a better appreciation for the things they have brought up by listening to their perspective, even if you don't fully agree with it, it might broaden your horizons and make you think about something in a new way.
Another thing that bothers me is what I like to call the fandom snobs or know-it-alls. These are basically the people who know everything about a franchise of some kind and enjoy rubbing their knowledge in other people's faces. This term can also apply anyone who acts like they are better than others of a fandom because they are a popular artist, musician, or other type of content creator in the community.
Listen; I'm not saying that you can't be passionate about the fandom you are in and want to learn everything about it. I'm not saying that you can't express yourself creatively and have kind of a mini following of your own because of it. I think it is great to be able to be passionate about something and maybe even use that as a stepping stone to go on to do awesome things because of the connections you make and notoriety you gain.
I am just saying that no level of popularity in a fandom ever gives you the right to act like a jerk to other people just because you are popular. I've seen this time after time in so many different fandoms. I've seen it so much that I can actually start to catch the personality quirks or signs of someone who is going to end up being one of these fandoms snobs.
I always try to give people the benefit of the doubt. But when I see those personality quirks surface I always let out a heavy sigh and think to myself, "here we go again." Then try to find the nearest exit to run out of when they aren't paying attention to me.
There is an easy solution for this though. No matter what kind of fan you are or how many fans you might have yourself, remain humble, be kind to others, and express gratitude for being where you are. If you can are one of those fact snobs, allow yourself to learn from other people. Sharing knowledge and respecting other people's point of view is always better than shoving things in people's faces and expecting them to only see your view on the matter.
The last point I will bring up kind of goes along with the snob thing. But it also kind of stands out on its own. So I made it it's own topic for that reason.
This topic has to do with the supposed 'rules' people in fandoms have come up with for conventions. And when I say rules, I am not talking about the official convention rules which, yes, everyone should follow. These are more like social etiquette rules.
And by social etiquette I mean some crappy Tumblr vs some 15 year old and her friends probably put together because they can deal with people they deem as socially awkward.
For an example, I went to one convention where these two girls (and also a guy who probably got roped into it, that poor s.o.b) were handing out bars of soap to the people standing in line as a 'friendly reminder to take a shower.' some people thought this was amusing. I just thought it was rude.
I mean who made them the convention police? Now I am not saying that people shouldn't take care of their personal hygiene both during the convention and afterwards. But take into consideration that a lot of these people are socially awkward as it is. Some of them might know they have a problem but are very shy and don't have the tools to fix it. Going around making them feel worse about themselves by handing out bars of soap isn't going to fix the problem.
Another thing I have seen on the same train of thought are people who make the 'rule' that people who are too fat or too skinny or whatever other bs excuse can't cosplay as certain characters because they don't fit the role. Excuse me for being blunt but a convention ain't Hollywood. People can look however the heck they want in my opinion. You want to be a female who dresses up as Goku from DBZ, go for it. You want to be a skinny chick who wants to dress up as friggin Jabba the hutt? Go right ahead.
Because at the end of the day, going to a convention is about having fun. It is about getting the most out of your time expressing yourself creatively with cosplay and connecting with other people who are passionate about the same things you are.
And while some people do make a living from running the cosplay circuit, and profiting from fandoms in other ways, a lot of people are just part of fandoms to have fun, get to know other like minded individuals, and perhaps be inspired to create things of their own.
So in short, if you can take away anything from this post, take away this one thing; in everything you do in your fandoms and beyond, treat other people with kindness and respect.
The mark of maturity is someone who can try to find a peaceful resolution to an argument, walk away from destructive people and influences, respect and appreciate people's differences of opinion, try to picture what things might be like from other people's perspectives, show kindness to others, even those who might not deserve it, and have humility and true appreciation for whatever fortune comes their way.
These are all personality traits we should strive to perfect, and something that will help to get rid of a lot of the negative things you often find in fandoms.
4175693 I think some of us do have that one or two fandoms that consist of six people and shoelace. Mine is Earth: Final Conflict and House of Night. If you want to take a break, then just try to skip over anything MLP.
Yep. I don't see anything to add or debate about this.
4175693 I happen to be a fan of many different fandoms myself, so I know how that is. I have found that if you take the time to talk to Bronies, and even members of other fandoms, you will find a great number of people who are in other fandoms as well. It's just a matter of talking to people and questioning them about their interests. You may be surprised at how many people who are fans of multiple fandoms, that you find.
4175713 Many people tend to be fans of multple fandoms. In fact the more you question people, the more you realize it is pretty common. :)
4175753 Yeah, I know. I was talking about small fandoms, that people don't really know.
4175768 We should get all the smaller fandoms together and lead a campaign to convert the world to them. Seriously. That would be awesome. XD
4175783 Start the petition!
4175800
4175693
It can be our mission to convert all of the people in the world to the smaller fandoms. Weeeee!
4175816 I support this shipping idea. XD I support the ship of Tom The Rock and Madame Le Flour. Don't ruin my dreammmssss.
4175805
Maybe we should start a website.
4175816 Nice shipping.
4175822
4175826
We are the right 'track' guys. And yes, we should jump on the 'hype train' and make a website that converts people to the smaller fandoms.
We can really 'jump track' the movement. We can really keep this idea in full 'locomotion'.
You agree with this 'train of thought' yes?
4175843 Lol Dat meme.
4175826 Heh, I think you might be.
Shore thing. (A tsunami in Alaska buried train tracks in water once) We should.
One of my major fandoms that is a small one... I mention it to basically every one I PM at one point or another.
4175834
4175845 Punz. Punz everywhere. :P
4175855
I'm in the Undertale fandom so... yeah, I'm used to puns and often enjoy them anyways
4175873 I enjoy the fan stuff that comes out of the Undertale fandom. There's lots of creativity there, similar to the mlp fandom.
4175878 Yeah, I enjoy a lot of it too. I mean, my hype for Undertale has toned down some since I first got in, but I still like it quite a bit.
See, Undertale has... gotten me to tear up sometimes, the fanmade stuff, which is unusual for me with fandoms. Unless I'm really sensitive to the fandom
4175883 There are definitely some very beautiful fan made things that have come out of the Undertale fandom for sure. :)
I agree mate.
4175954 Yeah
4175969 You should
4175969 It's a great game. You could always just watch the gameplay too. But the fan stuff is really great to look at as well. Especially the fan animations, music, and artwork.
4175979 I am glad that you agree my friend. :)
4175996 I'm the same way. I can definitely relate. XD
Fandoms, what a concept!
I generally try to be positive, to bring positive things to the few fandoms I'm part of but sometimes it's difficult.
Tbh, seeing threads from members complaining about depression or no gf/bf or how much their life sucks gets tedious after a while and takes so much of the fun out of it.
Then, there are those who feel strongly about competition; they just have to be the very best member (either truly or simply self perceived) of that fandom. I've seen that get to the point where those "best" members would openly and sometimes brutally attack anyone who dared to disagree with them.
Okay, I could go on about that but I won't. I think the few complaints I've posted should suffice as hopefully good examples.
A scenario, if you will:
Imagine, say, a baseball game: it's a beautiful, clear, sunny summer day, the stands are filled with happy, excited fans enthusiastically expectant of a well good game played by two well-matched teams.
Obviously, that's a real fandom there doing what they love to do; watch a baseball game.
Now, what sense would it make if a number of those fans (say a hundred or so) started loudly complaining about how horrible their lives were, how badly their BFs/GFs treat them, how poor they are, how depressed they are, and etc., etc.,
How inappropriate! There's no place for that kind of thing at a baseball game, is there?
It's my very strong opinion that this is the basic attitude all members of any fandom should take. The point of a fandom is to share and enjoy the very thing(s) which made those members fans in the first place. Right? I think so.
Yeah, I know I have strong opinions about many things but it's a tough job! Somebody's gotta do it!
4176203 It sounds like we both have some similar ideas about what brings down fandoms from within.
I think the biggest thing is to just show respect for other people in any fandom you may be a part of. Respect for what they are creating and respect for their ideas.
It seems like a simple concept, but it is something a lot of people have trouble doing for whatever reason. But hopefully bringing awareness to the way people are acting will help to get rid of this negative aspect I've seen time and again in so many fandoms.
Bringing things to people's attention is a powerful tool. And if enough people echo these sentiments I think it will get through to everyone, one reader, viewer, or listener at a time.
4176269
True, I think we've both been around long enough and been part of enough fandoms that we've managed to gain similar experience and perspective.
But, now, about bringing awareness of negative behaviors to individuals behaving badly...
Unfortunately and all to frequently these days too many young people, particularly those who're in their early to mid teens, seem to think it's cool to be edgy, salty and generally an all-around pain in the butt. They think it's funny to simply insult others, calling them stupid or faggot or what have you.
As I've seen over the years this has been greatly inspired by 4chan and other sites like it.
Anonymous image boards tend to promote attitudes of irresponsibility and encourage behavior in people that they otherwise may not do in real life.
Even on boards where a certain amount of accountability is enforced by moderation a certain arrogant attitude still persists in the form of insulting behavior from some members.
It doesn't happen just here. It's happened to me on PYH as well. When I posted my CGI pony models one person responded with a comment that I needed to "re-evaulate my life".
Yep! There's always at least one. 
Best response/revenge to use in such events? None. response only encourages further bad behavior.
As I've seen more and more frequently, the best way to deal with trolls and the obnoxious is to simply starve them of the air of attention and let them suffocate in their own lack of response. That, more often than not, causes them to rip their own hair out in rage and frustration far more than anything anyone could say.
4176848 There are also the YouTube channels and such that encourage that type of behavior. I can kind of see both sides of the argument.
On one hand, I think the troll videos or troll posts on sites like 4chan can be genuinely funny.
But on the other hand, I don't think people many times are mature enough to realize that these posts are just supposed to be funny.
So they carry this behavior over to other sites where, out of context, it really doesn't work and comes off as more of an attack against a user.
4176909
I think Pyrocynical summed up Youtube best when he called it "Clickbait hell." That's about all it is, now. It's gotten so overrun with scams and BS that it's hardly worth going to, anymore and don't get me started on the tremendous commercialization of that site!
Yeah, that's a great point about those who take that 4chan troll attitude to other sites without realizing that it doesn't work on other sites.
And I have to say that, yes, there was a time when 4chan was funny, original, unique but these days it's just the same threads over and over. I think the following image sums up present day 4chan best:
s5.postimg.io/pwhqdi5rr/Same_Same_Same_Same.png
4176943 I love Procynical! He has great content and he makes a lot of valid points.
The unfortunate thing about YouTube these days is it really has become another kind of 'television outlet'.
This means that YouTube has its celebrities and with that, it has its gossip channels and other forms of low brow entertainment.
Many YouTubers are willing to do just about anything for views, even if it means dragging the names and channels of other YouTubers through the mud.
And the whole click bait thing is an internet problem in general. I can't go two seconds without finding an article with that annoying red circle with an arrow pointed to it with some lame title like, 'You'll Never Guess What She Did Next!'
I can guess what I am going to do next. Ignore every click bait video or article or whatever else I just happen upon on the internet whenever it pops up on the screen.
4177000
I've been meaning to get back to you about this, sorry for the delay. (real life is what happens when we're making other plans.)
Good choice on being a pyro fan. Kudos.
He's the only Youtuber I watch, anymore. (Keemstar and the Fine brothers can bite themselves on the ass until they bleed!)
Still, and unfortunately, it's not only trolls but the monetization of Youtube that's led to the uploading of mountains of pure crap that's designed for no other purpose than to attract viewers, gain subs and make the channel owners a few dollars.
On the upside of that (for me, anyway): it has led to the sight of many a lovely boob.
Still, when you've seen one, you've seen 'em both.
Then, when you get to be my age, it gets to a point where all a guy can do is look and think, "oh... boobs..." and move on to the next thing.
Monetization of documentaries.
I used to love to to Youtube and watch all kinds of documentaries like Modern Marvels and stuff put out by National Geographic and History Channel stuff.
These days such videos have been hijacked by greedy idiots who plaster the lead-in with some kind of incredibly loud, obnoxious channel intro before what is otherwise an old or poorly edited copy of a copy of a copy of a video that was uploaded at least five years ago.
As if that wasn't bad enough at some point half way through the video there's a truly obnoxious interruption in the form of a channel commercial. This is usually comprised of ten seconds of numbers counting down accompanied by a count beeper that's loud enough to shatter glass a block away.
Now, I like to catnap while watching videos and that sudden, startling, ear-shattering interruption usually causes me to react by practically flying out of my bed while giving a shocked, startled shout that's loud enough that you'd think my ex-wife suddenly materialized in the middle of the room!
The worst offender I've found so far? A channel that actually charges a pay-per-view fee of 1.99 for old Penn & Teller BS episodes!
I always downvote/report those videos and encourage everyone else to do so. More than that, I'll find the exact, same video on another channel and post a link to it in the offending channel owner's comments section which results in drastically lowered traffic to that offending video and loss of revenue for the offender.
I've been doing that for about a year, now, and I'm happy to say that others have caught on to the idea that it works and have begun to follow suit.
On the upside, I've noticed that Youtube has become more aggressive and proactive in taking down monetized commercial broadcast content that the channel owner has no right whatsoever to be profiting from such as Modern Marvels videos.
What's any of this have to do with fandoms? Well, I'm sure if we put our heads together we could find some kind of connection, albeit very remote. Other than that? I can't think of a damn thing!
4180409 Booby steamers/ YouTubers are a staple of the internet that won't be going away any time soon. As long as there are people who want to see the boobs, the boobs will remain.
The same can be said for hot guys too. As long as girls want to see hot guys , content with man whores will exist. I personally don't care that this content exists. It satisfies the needs of some. I personally don't watch it (unless I am poking fun at it) so I just ignore it for the most part.
The funniest comments I've seen in the cancerous YouTube section as of late on a similar note, are the 'spot the virgin' comments. Usually there is ultimately that comment of some dude or chick who freely admit to the world that they have masterbated to a video either in the form of 'not my proudest fap' or 'I found this easy (or hard) to fap to.'
Then along will come the cheeky people who say, 'I found the virgin!' As a reply. I know I shouldn't find this funny but...I do. I find it to be hilarious. I've started posting my own variation of this where right under 'I found the virgin' I'll put, 'I found Waldo!' You know, like the Where's Waldo books.
My favorite comments are the people who are obviously so mad and offended at one off-handed joke or something in a video. And they leave this multiple paragraph narrative about how they can't believe a particular joke was made, so on, so fourth.
My favorite response for these types of comments is to simply put, 'somewhere in the world a goldfish is being deprived of food. Support the goldfish fund today.' Because it is kind of my way of saying that they are baiting people into replying to their comments by bringing up controversial topics.
As for people making money off of documentaries and stuff, it is kind of lame, but on the other hand I am greatful that I get to see them online in the first place. I haven't owned a TV in six or seven years which means I watch everything online.
While I don't agree with people profiting off of other people's hard work I would be lying if I said I haven't watched those videos. Because, well, given my situation, it is one of the only resources I have to watch them.
That being said, I always try to support the original uploaders like Travel Channel, History Channel, and so on if they have the documentaries I am looking for on their channels.
And I am also subscribed to channels that put out their own documentaries like Journeyman Pictures and True Stories.
But let's face it. The great majority of YouTube is overrun by people uploading television shows, movies, documentaries, and other illegal content. Heck, I've even seen porn on it which is supposed to be against community guidelines.
And seeing as people friggin upload entire shows and other bs I am still baffled at how channels who are simply doing reviews or making commentaries on certain things can get their videos removed when other channels straight up upload copyrighted shiz. It makes zero sense to me.
Okay, yeah. There'll always be porn and, if it exists there will be porn of it! (R34 is a permanent fact of life, now!)
Wait... Did we just come up with a new expression because I'm thinking Boobytubers!! Huh! Okay, now that I'm thinking of it that sounds weird but I still like it. Then, again, I think this guy said it best (pic related):
s5.postimg.io/8h6ee5h9z/bring_back_the_porn.jpg
Yeah, it could happen!
Ah, the rigors and joys of puberty! Heh. Yeah, true, there are girls who definitely always want to see hot guys so I'm thinking there will always be a demand for mansluts. Remember when there was no Internet and the only thing we could do was go to the local Mall or hangout and ogle whatever we thought was hot? Wait... Is that still a thing? I don't know, anymore! I'm getting too old, I guess.
Funny thing is, most women I've ever met don't like/watch porn. They prefer the romantic and/or what I call Spiced Vanilla Erotica. (You know, the kind of hot romantic stuff they show in mildly R rated movies?)
Still, I'm thinking of people who're at or around our age and maybe a bit younger. Between teenagers sexting and doing bathroom naked selfies I don't know what to think, anymore! Still, this cartoon character had this to say about Sexting:
s5.postimg.io/5bqe1oo1j/Peg_Sexting_Vanilla_Version.jpg
Of course, that's a full-grown adult character so she would know. How would virgins know the dif?
(I had to really clean that pic up just in order to post it here!
)
As for poking fun at that kind of thing? When do I not poke fun at it? As you may have seen in the latest chapter of Anonymous Gets A Cat I went way over the top at poking fun at the weird things people do so, yeah, there's that.
Yeah, I've seen those more times than I care to remember but, for me, the funniest comments are those cancer troll comments where someone has posted a 1: really funny, 2: really gross, 3: really bizarre video relating to such things and they say either: "I can fap to that" or "I can't fap to that!" I don't know why but those always hit me as hilarious!
Ah, yeah... "Spot the virgin" or "virgin detected". Hey, there's nothing wrong with being a virgin! (Other than the lack of a sex life.) Looking back I remember so clearly when I was a virgin. It was one of the most exciting times of my life! Hell, I couldn't wait to get laid for the first time. I had something to live for and look forward to! (Yeah, we won't go into what a tremendous let-down that first time was...)
As for masturbation, well, I think everyone's done that at least once, even the ones who emphatically deny it!
Yes! Awesome! I like that!
Mine is to usually post a pic (where possible) of a fishhook or something like the following:
s14.postimg.io/thriu4j8x/Bait_Seriously_Stop.jpg
You know, it's funny you mention that because I did that same thing for a while, myself, but I kept forgetting I was subscribed to various good documentary channels so I just stopped doing that and went back to surfing Boob... Er... Youtube for documentary videos I wanted.
Boobs! There! Now that that's out of the way...
Yeah, I have to totally agree with you on both of those points. In as much as I really enjoy watching documentaries (My Uncle Don Bryan is in one of them) I really don't appreciate nor do I approve of those who download those same documentaries from the channels of people who're just posting them for others' enjoyment, doctoring them to put their channel names in the opening then having the nerve to stick an obnoxious commercial right in the middle for no other purpose than to monetize the upload and try to make money off of them. (Yeah, I know, we talked about this, before.)
Still, to me, it's no different than someone ripping off a good, original product idea, changing it a little and repackaging a cheap, crappy knock-off. Here's some really blatant examples of what I'm talking about:
s5.postimg.io/oyosrasaf/t3_4z36bu.jpg LOLWUT?!
s5.postimg.io/i5ofv11h3/Fj5h2_Bh.png
s5.postimg.io/5fk7hxtiv/gewwf_Ic.jpg
s5.postimg.io/bqpeycurb/9j45l_Ea.jpg
That last one! Can anyone even pronounce that?!
That is a huge bone of contention with me, too. Now, I don't mind people uploading TV shows and whatnot as long as they're doing it just to share with others who might not otherwise get to see such but I hate those who rip off by monetizing those uploads.
There's porn on Youtube?! Where did you see porn?! Tell me now and I'll give you a cookie!
Seriously, Youtube has gotten so huge that it's not surprising that they don't bother even trying to enforce their own rules and guidelines. I imagine it's like a police force of, say, five cops trying to police a city of a couple of million people. How is it even possible?
Money. Pay someone enough money and they'll either do whatever you want or turn a blind eye to whatever you want and Youtube's no exception to that at all. Although I have nothing to substantiate my claims, other than my own perfectly reasonable suspicions, I'm sure Youtube's as corrupt as just about anything else these days so it wouldn't surprise me in the least if they're playing favorites while lining their pockets.
Wow! I can't believe how long this post has become! Would you believe it's taken me a couple of hours to write this? (between going out into the garage and working on some things, taking a bath and cleaning the litter boxes.)
Perhaps it would be a good idea if we started another thread?
Okay, on the topic of fandoms... Did you see the latest Pyrocynical vid where he goes on about the feminazi who kept accusing some guy for "sexually harrasing" her for saying his name was "Hugh Mungus"?
And this after she had spent a good five minutes harrassing him for his name!
This was so outrageous I had to come up with an entirely new word just to describe that kind of feminazi behavior:
Feminipulation
Yes! A new word joins the English lexicon! Pass it on, spread it around. Let's get this word popularized along with other such originals by yours-truly: "Masculophobia", "Masculophobic" and the ever and always wonderful: sociosynkrousiphilia which translates as "A love of social crisis.
Yes, I actually do spend time thinking these things up!
4182268 Naw, I think we've pretty much come up with similar conclusions. YouTube mostly cares about money and doesn't always investigate everything it should, if it feels that leaving something up will be an asset in some way to them. Basically, it is capitalism at its finest.
As for the porn, you usually find it by accident. One day I was looking up cosplay and I got cosplay videos...but a good percentage of those were naughty cosplay videos.
Search anything modeling, cosplay, or beauty related and eventually one of those naughty videos will pop up. And the only reason I don't think they've been flagged is because people want them to be there for, eh, obvious reasons. So they slip through the cracks.
4182748 I kind of have my own conspiracy theories about the whole feminist and black lives matter movements, as well as other 'dumb' internet people who have seemingly popped out of nowhere.
I might make my own YouTube video on this topic at some point. Some people might think I'm nuts, but I have some pretty good evidence that can support a lot of my claims.
4182763
Accidental porn...
Mother walks in on teenage son watching porn vids.
"Anon! What are you doing?!" she gasps as she recoils in horror.
"It's not what it looks like, mom! Honest!" he blurts out completely shocked and embarrassed, "I accidentally porned myself! I swear!"
Hmm... What a concept!
We can talk about the other stuff, later. For now, it's dinner time at my house.
Ta for now!
4182820 Sounds like a plan my friend. XD
4183571
Well, I don't know about a plan... After all the best laid plans of mice and men and all that. (Pun intended and since when do mice make plans, other than spontaneously trying to find ways to chew through the biscuit box in the cupboard?)
So, have we covered everything fandom-wise? I'm sure there's a whole lot more we could cover but I really can't think of anything else at the moment.
4184078 So many topics, so little time.
4184450
Yeah, that's pretty much every minute of every day of my life!
Now, on a serious note: prepare to be deeply moved when you take a look at this blog entry.
4185003 I will take a look. ;)