Musings.

[arabwel]

You know, I had a plan of writing a great and profound post about fandom and wankery and meta and people's rights to say whatever they want in their own journals; that was when I came into the realization that would, in fact, be rather pointless. Because it would be flogging a dead horse, and because frankly, who cares?

I am not a "BNF". I don't get featured in various "OMg! Look what s/he wrote now!" communities. I don't do fandom_wank, I am more inclined to just shut up and follow the "if you can't say anything nice then don't say anything at all" policy when reading/commenting. My journal is filled with personal rants and randm crap.

Right now, I am quite glad for this. because it means that random strangers won't trample all over it, won't qyustion my opinions and insult me in various ways, and then draw attention into completely falsified, misses-the-point-by-several-fucking-PARSECS "summaries" of what I have said.

I am glad to be a nobody.

Comments

[furiosity.livejournal.com]

I agree with you that having someone come into your LJ and vocally disagree with you can be annoying, especially if these people are rude as all fuck. Being rude is never justified.

On the other hand, there were some times that rants I wrote got linked from newsletters and people came in and disagreed. I didn't think that they were "trampling" all over my LJ - I had a choice to ask the newsletter to please remove my link. I had a choice to lock my posts if I didn't want strangers commenting.

As it is, LJ is very public and anyone could stumble across your public posts at any time -- through friendsfriends, through "random" function, just clicking around from other communities/other people's LJs.

It's basically the same argument that goes for fan fiction - if you post publicly, you have to be prepared to face criticism. If you post an opinion publicly, whether you intend it to be read by the general public or not, you have to realise that the Internet is a huge place and strangers may find it. And they may disagree with you, because the Internet makes it so easy to disagree (and often be rude to each other :\).

It's why I so rarely post anything that can be construed as wanky not behind a friendslock; I stay away from even mentioning "hot button" topics when posting in public, because "hot button" topics are inevitably very polarised, and the last thing I want is wank in my LJ.

[arabwel.livejournal.com]

I have nothing against random people commenting in my journal; hell, I welcome strangers with open arms. When I say "trample", I mean just that; acting like a bull in a china shop. If they have an opinion on the matter I would like to hear why they think so; I have no desire to hear random people tell me "U sux" or something similar without at least telling me why. Especially since I tend to lump together a lot of stuff in some entries.

I wouldn't actually mind if someone found me interesting enough to link - but it is not something I crave, either. I am happy with my niche :)

[furiosity.livejournal.com]

True, random people coming in and saying "u sux" is pretty silly, but I didn't see that happening in the OP we're talking about; the one comment that your friend found very rude I thought was just ... terse, and the commenter *did* say that she had ranted about it in her *own* LJ (because I noticed in the HP fandom that some people get upset if you post long rambly comments that disagree and explain your disagreement too).

So she did provide a reason for not liking, but your friend said she didn't want to hear it - which is her right, obviously, she doesn't have to put up with dissenting opinions as it's her LJ. But it wasn't just "you suck" is what I'm trying to say. And the other comment that I know of that dissented was also of the "here's why I disagree" variety - so I don't understand the beef, to be honest. I only skimmed the other comments but didn't see anyone simply saying "you suck" and not explaining anything.

So, while I agree that random flames are pointless and should all die a painful death, I remain firmly on the side of "if it's public it's fair game for debate".

[hippediva.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid that using four letter words in a comment on a stranger's journal constitutes extraordinary rudeness, as well as entirely miscontstruing the post itself on her own journal in an attempt to get a rise out of me. I must respectfully decline. I have no objections to anyone disagreeing or questioning me, but I will not tolerate rudeness of that sort.

My response to the individual in question was that I was not inclined to response to such a comment. There were several others, more polite that I did respond to. I did not ask to be linked at metafandom---I post in my journal for myself and I certainly would never go onto any strangers' journal and use foul language or call them names.

In the end, I have locked down the post and requested that it be removed from metafandom.

[furiosity.livejournal.com]

I guess four-letter words can be rude, yes, if you're not accustomed to that kind of thing.

To be fair, your original post seemed to be geared at your f-list as a group of people who understand how you think; as someone who read both posts, I'm rather lost as to how she misconstrued your original post because I saw the same things she did, and I made sure to read your post via metafandom before I read hers. Or perhaps both my friend and I are just not able to understand how "these actresses suck" translates to "het is bad".

It was a good idea to lock the post down, at any rate. I'm sorry you had to go through a stressful experience because of what happened.

[hippediva.livejournal.com]

Oh I use enough 4-letter words myself, but I surely would never go onto any stranger's journal and use them. My original post was simply me rambling. Granted it was more specifically about Mary Sue's. And I wandered onto other subjects, something that happens when I break from a long bout of writing. I did have other people disagree and had no problem keeping the discussion congenial.

I'm afraid that her paraphrase was entirely off-base. I did not say all OFC's are bad. In fact, I made a point of that. Nor did I connect the actress business to fanfiction; it was simply another wandering on a tangent. Quite frankly, I was more than a little unhappy with her lack of manners and her rudeness. If she had a problem with anything I said, she should have requested clarification or read the comments. Whatever the case, I refuse to self-censor to please anyone. As I said, I did not request that link and will make sure from now on that it does not happen. I do not need such things.

[imadra-blue.livejournal.com]

I hope you don't mind me dropping a line here, I read some comments in f's journal and noticed a reference to this fiasco by arabwel and was curious to find out what was being said, since I was sort of involved.

I agree with you on this matter. People being rude, using foul language, and insulting each other is not cool. I don't ever support that. I did disagree with you emphatically, but I tried to be civil about it. (I tend to be opinionated, and my inner Anakin tends to make me, ah, how did you say it? Pugnacious?) I did appreciate your response, btw.

My biggest problem was not the rant per se, but how it sounded to my own subjective perception. That, and as I resent the lines drawn between slash and het, I felt the need to be vocal. I had recently had an argument with someone insulting slash, so I tend to be very forceful about my opinion on how the quality of a story has nothing to do with who is having sex with who. But at the end of the day, it is all opinions we have, and they are quite subjective.

[hippediva.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I probably should have indicated that it was more a rant about Mary Sue's than het in general, but such is life. I really did appreciate the fact that you were civil about it. (Love the 'inner Anakin" LOL Did you know that my first fandom was TPM?) And I tend to ramble from one tangent to another esp. when I break from a long bout of writing, sometimes without being entirely coherent or making sense to anyone but myself and my SO. Blame my computer-dazzled eyes.

I agree entirely that it is the quality of the writing. In fanfic, I happen to prefer slash. That's just me. There are a few writers whose het work I really enjoy. I read fanfic for fun and as such, I tend towards slash heavily. I'm just as selective in my fandoms (POTC and OUATIM currently). That by no means indicates that I am ill-read. Dear God, I've read damned near every classic in the English language from Beowulf to CP Snow and back again and more than a few in at least two other languages.

What bothered me the most was the one individual's completely skewed paraphrase of the post, after commenting on my own journal with four-letter words. I will not respond to it or the variety of personal attacks and other rudeness accompanying it. It's not worth the time or effort. I did not request to be linked at metafandom and have asked that the link be removed as well as locking down the post itself, not because I fear or dislike dissent (there was some of that when I first posted it that was discussed in a most congenial fashion) but because I don't need the wank.

Again, thank you for being civil and understanding that something that is subjective was never meant to be open to scrutiny and commentary from people who cannot or will not have the decency to do what you did: ask for clarification and disagree without resorting to name-calling.

[smtfhw.livejournal.com]

I am glad to be a nobody.

I'm with you there! Though you're not a nobody to me.

[arabwel.livejournal.com]

*huggles*

Thanks... maybe I should edit it to "fandom nobody"... but with my luck, that would just have people starting to use "FNB" as a term ans start spreading great confusion or something :P

[zelly-21.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I know who you are, therefore you must be of great importance. >D

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::molests::

[arabwel.livejournal.com]

*is molested*

thank you :)

[hippediva.livejournal.com]

:::hugs:::: love you muchly. Thank you for understand what I really meant and for being a friend. :::Sigh::

[arabwel.livejournal.com]

And I love you too *huggles*

No one messes with my friends. No one.

[kho.livejournal.com]

WORD.

I hate, loathe, cant STAND the very fucking CONCEPT of fandom_wank. Wank your fucking self, you self agrandizing fuckers. God. And I've never actually been involved in one, thank God.

Jeez. Nothing will piss me off more than seeing someone pointing to someone elses post in some thing and saying "look at what an idiot." It's like pointing at the midget and laughing. There's no point to it other htan to make yourself feel somehow superior.

Just fucking WAIT for somebody to start shit in my journal. I just can't wait. LOL. I dont know what I'm gonna do, but I"m gonna put the freakin' smack down on it but hard.

[arabwel.livejournal.com]

Oooh, can I help? **rubs hands gleefully*

No ne messes with MY people.

[lingering-sigh.livejournal.com]

Indeed.

Even though I'm not really on the fandom scene, people shouldn't just bash others for the glee of bashage. Nonetheless, I'd like to point out that putting your boot to their smelly asses is only give them more smug satisfaction. In any case, play nice is the idea, right? So screw the wankers anally with a bound edition of LotR ^^

[arabwel.livejournal.com]

Yuck, that ewould disgrace LotR... other than that, right on *hugggles*

[lingering-sigh.livejournal.com]

I'd be for the higher cause... plus, it was the biggest single book I could think of.
A bound LotR would undoubtedly cause massive trauma no matter how it is wielded. I shudder to think what it could do to one's rectum.
Maybe we should wrap it in sandpaper first. :-D

[arabwel.livejournal.com]

Sandpaper indeed. I know for a fact that even FotR itself is an effextive nbludgeoning tool :D