I feel like this needs to be said again with fandom and media.

[andromedaxyz]

Community is beautiful, rewarding, but not required. It is not necessarily needed to enjoy things with other people.


It's enjoyable, it can be. It's nice to know that you're not alone, and I agree with that. We are, at the end of the day, social creatures.


But ultimately, it is not required. Sometimes, there is a lot of value enjoying things in solitude. It's definitely not required to endure fan(on)s you disagree with, or drama you most likely didn't start. Just for the sake of community. This isn't necessarily what we mean when we say if you want to a village, be a villager, that if you desire community, you have to be inconvenienced. Some inconveniences aren't worth it. Communities don't have to feel like high school all over again. The internet shouldn't be treated like some safety blanket, nor should it only be your social circle or source of enjoyment.

Mute the chat. Leave the server if you want. Turn off push notifications. Block them. Or interact on your own terms. Touch grass. Tell them to get off your lawn.

I really don't mind being labelled a grinch for this.

Comments

[lunafleurette]

did something happen in the rookanis/datv community lately?

[andromedaxyz]

A lot of things actually!

I think it's not really Rookanis, I heard more if it in Veilguard people but it's less a Veilguard problem but more of a discourse regarding fandom interactions? I honestly haven't even bothered to look for the posts, but there is a surge lately of people clarifying their use of taglists and asking whether or not people wanna be a part of it.

What I've heard is that someone vented about how taglists are bothersome and how other tags are about "un-taglist-worthy things". It's caused some other people to worry if people are bothered about being in a taglist. Kind of a nothingburger problem, whoever complained actually should have DM-ed the people tagging them lmfao. I've gotten several mentions about refreshing taglists and I've been wondering if there's a reason for it, so I asked moots and that's that. It's weird overall.

Also, I've been seeing multiple instances of people talking about ignoring or leaving certain Lucanis servers due to the cliquish dynamic/parasociality/other issues I don't know of regarding certain people. I personally mute my fan servers and only interact with some of them if I felt like socializing lol. Partially because, I've been noticing this dynamic from the very start especially with big servers hahaha. I'm surprised people are talking about it just now after 1 year of Veilguard existing. Contrary to what it looks like, I'm not particularly active with fandom interaction spare replying on Bluesky + occasionally interacting in small groups hahaha

[lunafleurette]

As far as I'm aware, taglists (on Tumblr?) are completely voluntary. You have to volunteer yourself up to be part of them, so... I think the onus is on you if you don't like the posts you're being pinged for? It's a very leopards ate my face situation. You can always ask to be removed from the taglist if it no longer brings joy.

Yeah, can't do much about cliquish dynamics, that's a part of every fandom. RIP. I think a lot of fandoms also get more and more gatekeep-y after a certain point, so maybe being a fan of Rookanis/Veilguard has become onerous enough after a year of people settling into their respective cliques.

[andromedaxyz]

These are just stories I hear more than my own experiences (I've experienced more weirdos harassing/making weird comments than friend dynamics) but even looking at it feels tiring and frustrating lol. I'm kinda grateful I'm not on the receiving end of this kind of thing haha.

It's really why I do fandom with friends, not fandom with the people at large.