Tuesday 17 July 2018

"A good fandom"?

This is, of course, a question with no one definitive answer, but it's also a question that interests me. It's not something I feel I could sensibly discuss on Twitter, as there just isn't room for the uncertainties and shades of grey that I feel are essential. I'll make it quite clear, though, that in general, I have a fairly bright outlook about our fandom. Off we go...

An argument I saw someone make not so long ago ran like this: it's unhelpful to simply say things like "This is a generally good fandom, but there are some bad apples" because then everyone mentally places themselves on the good side of the ledger, so any hard truths don't get through to those people who need to hear them. I think my reply would be: "Up to a point, but not entirely."

As an analogy, consider a chief constable who says, "This city has a problem with knife gangs." I wouldn't have a problem with that. I wouldn't expect them to say, "This city has a problem with knife gangs, though of course the vast majority of the population aren't criminals" because that would dilute the message. People who aren't involved won't assume the criticism applies to them anyway.

But. If the police chief only ever mentioned the bad things about their area, then I'd argue that would not be good policing. There's a community cohesion aspect that can't just be ignored in the name of catching the bad guys. So if the police chief were asked directly, "What do you think of the people in this city?" I would expect them to note the community's good points as well as the problems.

In fandom terms, it's absolutely right that people call out racists and misogynists and homophobes and the like. And such messages are stronger when undiluted. However, it's not good for the community if that's all that's stated when someone's asked about the fandom. If there's no special reason not to, then yes, it's perfectly fair that the good points should be stressed as well.

As I said above, I take a moderately optimistic view of this fandom. It's not perfect and never will be, because we're human beings, so working to make it better is a good thing. But on the whole, I think the MLP fandom, right now in 2018, does more good than bad in the sense of making people's lives happier, and I feel comfortable saying it in those terms.

7 comments:

  1. Ah... I wish I could have Your optimism Logan but things look just grim For me now. The fandom took a really terrible direction ever since To Where and Back Again aired (and I'm really really really sorry if I'm bringing it up once Again but this time I'm gonna talk under another point of view). Indipendentely by How I feel about that episode, the treatment the Mane 6 Got in it caused a large fissure in the fanbase in base to How People saw the thing: There are the People who hated that and blamed Starlight Glimmer being the pet of the creator and are doing movements to remove her from the show, then there are the ones who idolatrized Starlight since them and bashed the Mane 6 to the point they are doing movements to remove THEM from the show... And then, there are the normal fans like us who are caught in the middle of this crossfire of idiocy. And eventually the noise from the two faction cause some normal fans to Lose their heads and eventually stopping watching the show. This is why I became so repulsive over the fandom in the last year, and this is why I really hope the show ends with the S9: No more new eps, no more idiotic wars between fans to remove the characters from the show. And eventual new ones coming For the years to come. End of the problems. Hopefully things are not gonna derail even worse by then, the series finale is far about 14-15 months from now and they might be more than enough to cause other messes...


    But speaking in a more personal way, I had a very similar problem in the Gaming community. The war Sony Fanboys Vs Nintendo Fanboys is as bad as the Starlight vs Mane 6 of the brony fandom and even that one is obmonious to me. I'm not gonna hide it: I stopped caring about modern games since a few years by now, and I'm pratically a retrogamer now and I'm collecting all the best games For retro consoles or PC (that are not FPSs, horror, JRPG or sports) but I think I got about the 90% of those at this point but there are still a few games from the past that are being ported on PC or 3ds and I want to get them. And unfortunately until I don't have the release dates I'm still stucked into toxic Gaming sites.

    Fanbases are also the reason I refuse to Watch Star Wars and Frozen (the love and the hate around this products are both so bit that any Will of mine to Watch them is gone).

    But in general, what I'm saying is that eventually fanbases trend to become really nasty as the time passes and unfortunately not everyone can be passive about How loud and annoying they are. The brony fandom and the Gaming community are not exceptions, and as the time passes I'm afraid things gonna get even more out of hand. All I really want is getting what remains For me to get and getting out of all this mess. I just hope to not Lose it by then.

    Ps: Sorry for the wall of text sir, but I had so many things to say on the matter as I passed throught this so many Many Man Times...

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    1. If you don't stop obsessing about the S6 finale, I will stop reading your comments altogether. You have repeatedly been asked to stop, and you have repeatedly apologised and then done it again.

      STOP. IT. NOW.

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  2. I wish this fandom had a problem with knife gangs. <.< That would be awesome.

    #MoreKnifeGangs2018

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    1. I get the joke, but I'll skip that one if you don't mind, as the nearest large city to me (Birmingham) does have a problem with knife gangs.

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    2. Better than having a problem with gun gangs. :)

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  3. Is it weird that, before I had gotten a few paragraphs into your post, I thought, "Oh boy, this is gonna trigger that S6 finale guy SO hard!"

    Aside from the clueless obsessives and a few other types common to all tiny specialized interest groups, I think this fandom is pretty dammed nice, actually.

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    1. I'm saying nothing!

      I do too, but then I don't have a lot of experience with fandoms. There are maybe three I've ever been truly into (Watership Down, furry and this one) plus a couple more I'm on the fringes of (Doctor Who, for example). As such, I don't have many points of comparison. I feel happier here than in furry, but that's about all I can say, really.

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