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Um...So I'm not going to comment on the--what are they calling it now--Fandom Apocolypse '07? Or something like that. Whatever. The Livejournal random dumping ("suspending") of journals and comms being misguided and/or poorly handled/outright persecution/dumbfuckery/legitimate effort to keep creepo sick fuck perverts out. Better people than me have brought up all the serious points in the whole mess: that LJ has a responsiblity to all its users, that said users must also take responsibility for their words when they casually use phrases with such powerful meanings, that (as ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cerebel's brother said) the internet just flows around any censorship attempts and I'm sure new comms will grow out of this and live on.
My attitude toward the whole thing hasn't been especially outraged (either for or against), partly because I am a tired, cynical little biznatch who is surprised the comms went as unchecked as long as they did and am totally willing to believe that most of the journals deleted (sorry, "suspended") were axed without any careful examinations and perhaps even with a certain amount of maliciousness.
But mostly, I'm so extremely not surprised, because I've been there before...kicked off a comm, out of a community, for what, even now, to me, amounts to nothing. And no, what I said didn't violate the mailing list's (mailing list, I know, omg, so old)posted rules. And no, it didn't matter if I meant what I said or if I was joking, if what I said was illegal or immoral (it wasn't, and I like to think of it as wishful joking), if it was clearly in the middle of a conversation with someone else. That was it. Boom. Banned. And by a Big Name Fan. Which meant unofficially banned from everywhere else in that fandom, except for the scattered few who would still talk to me.
And you know what? It pissed me the fuck off. And it hurt me. And it made me feel like I was the asshole.
Except that I wasn't, and when I realized that, I got really mad. And took the bitch down. It was nice. It was satisfying in a way you will probably never find in Real Life because such revenges are not often possible in reality. But more importantly, I went on with my fannish existence, living my life, Real and Online. And I'm still here, my perversions and weirdo interests are still here, I'm just more careful with my friends and what I say (in fact, what better way to learn the power of words?) and more aware that the same fucktarded idiots who surround me at work, at school, in my neighborhood, those are the same people who get online every night with me.
So it's a little sad to see fandom in general lose its innocent fantasy bubble the way it did ("You mean giggling gleefully over character rape might offend someone?" --and don't get me wrong there, I am just as guilty of non-con amusement as anyone else). But mostly I kind of feel like a grouchy old lady. BTDT. Fandom is escapism, it is fantasy. And you as Americans (you Americans out there) have Freedom of Speech and the right to say what you want. But your (hopefully) good intentions don't matter much to others. Freedoms come with responsibilites and actions, even innocent ones, come with consequences. That's just as true for fantasies. So you pick yourselves up, you form your comms again, and keep on doing what you're doing. Or you give up. But either way, the whining isn't going to get you anything.
Omg, I am totally that person shaking my head at all the sad, angry hippies after Altamont. Sorry.
cerebel's brother said) the internet just flows around any censorship attempts and I'm sure new comms will grow out of this and live on. My attitude toward the whole thing hasn't been especially outraged (either for or against), partly because I am a tired, cynical little biznatch who is surprised the comms went as unchecked as long as they did and am totally willing to believe that most of the journals deleted (sorry, "suspended") were axed without any careful examinations and perhaps even with a certain amount of maliciousness.
But mostly, I'm so extremely not surprised, because I've been there before...kicked off a comm, out of a community, for what, even now, to me, amounts to nothing. And no, what I said didn't violate the mailing list's (mailing list, I know, omg, so old)posted rules. And no, it didn't matter if I meant what I said or if I was joking, if what I said was illegal or immoral (it wasn't, and I like to think of it as wishful joking), if it was clearly in the middle of a conversation with someone else. That was it. Boom. Banned. And by a Big Name Fan. Which meant unofficially banned from everywhere else in that fandom, except for the scattered few who would still talk to me.
And you know what? It pissed me the fuck off. And it hurt me. And it made me feel like I was the asshole.
Except that I wasn't, and when I realized that, I got really mad. And took the bitch down. It was nice. It was satisfying in a way you will probably never find in Real Life because such revenges are not often possible in reality. But more importantly, I went on with my fannish existence, living my life, Real and Online. And I'm still here, my perversions and weirdo interests are still here, I'm just more careful with my friends and what I say (in fact, what better way to learn the power of words?) and more aware that the same fucktarded idiots who surround me at work, at school, in my neighborhood, those are the same people who get online every night with me.
So it's a little sad to see fandom in general lose its innocent fantasy bubble the way it did ("You mean giggling gleefully over character rape might offend someone?" --and don't get me wrong there, I am just as guilty of non-con amusement as anyone else). But mostly I kind of feel like a grouchy old lady. BTDT. Fandom is escapism, it is fantasy. And you as Americans (you Americans out there) have Freedom of Speech and the right to say what you want. But your (hopefully) good intentions don't matter much to others. Freedoms come with responsibilites and actions, even innocent ones, come with consequences. That's just as true for fantasies. So you pick yourselves up, you form your comms again, and keep on doing what you're doing. Or you give up. But either way, the whining isn't going to get you anything.
Omg, I am totally that person shaking my head at all the sad, angry hippies after Altamont. Sorry.
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