Food for thought: Are Fandoms bad?

Wolf Hagen

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Jul 28, 2010
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Hello Fellow Users.

Due to the time reading in here a lot and beeing on the internet for by now about a decade some thought ocurred to me.

Fandoms are some of the most toxic locations one can hang around on the Net itself.

Let me say just right here, beeing a fan, is nothing bad, cause seriously: Who on here isn't a fan of anything honestly? At least there are some games, books or movies / ongoing series, sport, ect. you always come back to, because you like it and it is just good.

The thing that creeps me (and I think damn many people out there)out are the folks obsessed with a thing, or trying to influence their likings by beeing loudmouthy, demanding and sometimes outright threatening, to the writers, producers, designers, ect. as well.

Or in case of total obsession are starting to evolve most of their personality around it (and yet, I count adault fanfic / fanart clearly into that *shivers*) and or start to get pushy towards non fans like: "It's the greatest thing EVAR!!!111!1! You gotto join in man!".
Wherever it may be that fandoms sweetest online game gem, or a series you otherwise had so far no intrest in.

I don't wanna give examples here, but think about it: from games, to ongoing series and novels to Movies, you have those fanboys and if you think about it, they creep you out.
Unless you are a fanboy yourself, but then you still think, that the fanboys of someone elses thing, are creepy, weird fanboys.

Next to the thing, that those fandoms (powered by the fanboys), are getting somewhat smug about their precious thing, mostly in sentences like "Oh, you just don't get it! Check blahblahblah and then do this and you'll TOATALLY get behind it!" or other things among the line, that require more investment, that many people mostly won't have, after getting handet the enceclopedia of "how to like the thing".
It really ain't so much helpfull, as it makes those folks seem like smug and elitist.

The Shitstorms that sometime happen, are just the cherrytopping on the toxic cake, that gets flung around, powered by the need for drama and leaving messes, that puts everyone who witnesses it, after all those things previously stated, pretty much off the entire thing, daring to not come back for a second look, regardless of quality of the thing, those toxic weird people make a fuss about.


Well, thats pretty much all I could state without pointing fingers.


Now your thoughts: How can one improve a fandom or trying to ignore the Fanboys (Which I might add, in the current decade of social media getting spammed with that stuff, is pretty hard), to maybe just enjoy a thing?

Or is a fandom something that may inspire or enrich us, despite the fanboys?
 

Pinkamena

Stuck in a vortex of sexy horses
Jun 27, 2011
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In my opinion, fandoms are a double sided sword. On the positive side, they are spontaneously created communities where people can discuss something they all enjoy to some extent. It generates a sense of belonging to a group, which is a primal desire in most people, the feeling of belonging to something bigger.

But the problems that often are associated with fandoms arise from exactly the fact that it is a group of people with the same positive feelings toward whatever the fandom is about. When the people in this group discuss the show/comic/whatever, there are no-one to offer negative views to level the discussion. It basically becomes a huge circlejerk, with everyone enforcing each others positive views to the point where it becomes fanaticism.

From what I have gathered, the people who become the biggest fanboys (and then usually also the most obnoxious ones) are persons who strongly feel that they need the fandom to belong to something. Unfortunately they don't realise that they're also partly responsible for polarizing their fandom, splitting it into multiple factions based on different levels of "oh my god this thing we all like is the best thing ever".

Source: I have seen some shit in the pony fandom, let me tell you
 

seris

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Source: I have seen some shit in the pony fandom, let me tell you
you havent seen anything until you go on a ponyrp server in gmod and come acrossed 2 people RPing and literally fucking in the game.
 

CrazyGirl17

I am a banana!
Sep 11, 2009
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As a whole? No, of course not.

However, there are some individuals who make me wish the internet came with a "taser" button.

Fucking nutters, ruining it for everyone else...
 

Uriel_Hayabusa

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Apr 7, 2014
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The issue I have with fandom debates is that people will all but inevitably be biased towards the fandoms of the things they like and against fandoms of the stuff they don't. Just to facetiously sketch my point:


''Man, superhero-fans are a great bunch of people! Sure, there's a few nutcases here and there; but they're few and far between! If only other folks didn't look at the bad apples among us and see what an awesome club we are! You want to know what kind of people you should avoid? Anime fans! Weirdos and losers and perverts the whole lot of them!''
 

Scarim Coral

Jumped the ship
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Oct 29, 2010
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Any fandom can be both good (it can bring people togehter) and bad (it can drive people away).

Honestly when it come to ignoring fanboys, I will simply ignore it plain and simple (don't let it bugged you).
 

Mister K

This is our story.
Apr 25, 2011
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Nah, fandoms aren't bad by themselves. It is always nice to have someone to talk/chat about the things you like. It is also somhow nice to know that other people have such luxury too.

However, some people take things way too seriously. For example, right now I am watching A LP of Dark Souls II made by Pat and Woolie from Super Best Friends Play. I enjoy it. It inspired me to start playing Souls games (currently having my first playtrough of Demon's Souls). But under EVERY part of the video there are guys and gals who, pardom me, ***** and moan about how badly they play, about their way of doing things is wrong. You pricks! You've completed the game, good for you. But you know what? They did so too! Woolie once and Pat two times for sure. Let them play the way they want.

But all that was said doesn't mean that ALL Souls fans are bad. Just vocal ones. And every community has such bad seeds. So, ignore them and enjoy your interactions with normal people.
 

Harpalyce

Social Justice Cleric
Mar 1, 2012
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People are awful, fandoms are concentrations of people, there you go.

More seriously though, a certain percent of people will always just be terrible. The bigger the fandom, the more the number of assholes, since it works roughly in percentages.

This also means that in even the most excruciatingly tiny fandom, there will be assholes. ( /stares at the like 10 people in the 999/VLR community on Tumblr, does the I-fuckin-see-you-there gesture at one of them)

It's just that sometimes we lull ourselves into thinking differently. If people like this thing just like you like this thing, then it's very easy to subconsciously say that therefore they must be a good person just like you. Unfortunately, being in a fandom is only a sign of both people liking the same thing, not both people liking the same morals and values. When we have to remind ourselves that, in fact, some people in fandoms are awful, it stings a little because they are then much more not-like-us and we have to stop identifying with them so much. This gets people to become embittered quick.
 

Keoul

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Apr 4, 2010
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It's not fandoms and fans that are bad but being an arrogant loudmouth.
It's not being in a fandom itself that makes people this way.
 

SuperSuperSuperGuy

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Jun 19, 2010
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In theory? No, not at all. In practice, however, they end up attracting and fostering the worst kinds of people. In theory, they can gather a group of people with similar interests who can then connect with each other and proceed to have fun, engaging discussions about the things that they're fans of. But realistically, they can gather a group of people with similar interests who can then alienate newcomers, non-fans and writers/producers/whatever alike by being loudmouthed and arrogant, and metaphorically shit on the things that they're fans of with bad fanfiction and stuff.

In addition to the things outlined in the OP, one thing that I find particularly heinous is the concept of "headcanon". For those of you who don't know, a "headcanon" is basically the literary equivalent of "I reject your reality and substitute my own", where "reality" is the canon of a work, as established by the writer(s). This is different from speculation in that speculation revolves around the concepts of "what if" and "maybe"; "headcanons" are accepted as fact, though only by the individual. The "acceptance" is what pisses me off, frankly.
 

The Wykydtron

"Emotions are very important!"
Sep 23, 2010
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I don't really agree with your third point OP, sure it can be annoying to be prodded into watching or playing something you currently have little interest in but they do it because they want people to have a chance to enjoy the thing the same way they enjoyed it the first time themselves, they do it out of love essentially. It's quite a nice thing honestly if you look at it that way.

Speaking of prodding, you should all go and play Persona 4 right now because it's the baist thing evar and while you're at it you should watch last season's top rated anime No Game No Life :D
 

DOOM GUY

Welcome to the Fantasy Zone
Jul 3, 2010
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They're not inherently a bad thing, but the kinds of people they may attract can be... pretty crazy...
 

Irony's Acolyte

Back from the Depths
Mar 9, 2010
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While all fandoms have varying levels of "toxicity", one thing I've come to notice is that fandoms tend to degenerate the quickest when there is no new canon content. This is due to the fact that fandoms without new content tend to stagnate or, even worse, develop a fan-following of their own. While there isn't anything wrong with certain fanfics/pics/music/whatever being popular, it can become a problem as a sort of "growth" or "tumor" forms on the fandom, made up of people who have more interest in the content that the fans create than the actual original work that the fandom is centered around. This can then feed back into the rest of the fandom, generally bringing down the overall quality of the whole thing.

Fresh content isn't always a cure for this tendency, but it certainly tends to stave off the worse effects of a "fandom fandoms".
SuperSuperSuperGuy said:
In theory? No, not at all. In practice, however, they end up attracting and fostering the worst kinds of people. In theory, they can gather a group of people with similar interests who can then connect with each other and proceed to have fun, engaging discussions about the things that they're fans of. But realistically, they can gather a group of people with similar interests who can then alienate newcomers, non-fans and writers/producers/whatever alike by being loudmouthed and arrogant, and metaphorically shit on the things that they're fans of with bad fanfiction and stuff.

In addition to the things outlined in the OP, one thing that I find particularly heinous is the concept of "headcanon". For those of you who don't know, a "headcanon" is basically the literary equivalent of "I reject your reality and substitute my own", where "reality" is the canon of a work, as established by the writer(s). This is different from speculation in that speculation revolves around the concepts of "what if" and "maybe"; "headcanons" are accepted as fact, though only by the individual. The "acceptance" is what pisses me off, frankly.
Headcanons aren't really an inherent problem. Often times they are simply there to cover something that wasn't explained thoroughly enough in the original source. Headcanons become a problem when they are widely accepted as fact within the fandom, like you pointed out. When fanon begins to eclipse canon in a fandom, you know something is (probably, there are cases where the OS has a really shit part of it that is done better in fan-interpretations) wrong.
 

The Lunatic

Princess
Jun 3, 2010
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No, they're usually awful.

You only have to stick a toe into the Brony fandom, furry fandom or whatever else, and you'll quickly realise that a lot of the people whom latch on to such things are not "well adjusted" human beings.

Whilst fandoms have the opportunity to be good things, unfortunately, they just become hug-bxes for people who really need to see a psychiatrist.

Not to say there aren't a few good people within it, but, I find most of the people who take it seriously are pretty high on the "Creepy" scale.
 

Pyrian

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I think there are certain individuals - ones who have, shall we say, difficulty keeping friends - that gravitate to groups that can provide a steady supply of new acquaintances.
 
Apr 5, 2008
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Fans and fandom are as far from "bad" as can be. They are essential. Without fans the works we love would dry up. At it's basic level it is simple supply & demand. Demand for the things we enjoy prompts supply. Marvel movies do well, they make more movies. People buy CoD and AssCreed, they make more CoD and AssCreed.

Developers, writers and filmmakers need fans to love their work, to be passionate about it. If things flop, they get discarded in lieu of something else. We as fans enjoy a thing so developers supply us with the thing. Why did Kickstarters like Project Eternity, Star Citizen, Dreamfall Chapters, etc all succeed? Because those of us who backed it did so because we love those things.

Fans are an essential part of geekery. Without them comic books wouldn't be printed, films wouldn't be made, games wouldn't be developed, TV shows would get canned and so on. Demanding, opinionated fans on the other hand, are arseholes :)