If you wish to take part in any fandom, you need to accept and respect these three laws.
If you aren’t able to do that, then you need to realise that your actions are making fandom unsafe for creators. That you are stifling creativity.
Like vaccination, fandom only works if everyone respects these rules. Creators need to be free to make their fanart, fanfics and all other content without fear of being harassed or concern-trolled for their creative choices, no matter whether you happen to like that content or not.
The First Law of Fandom
Don’t Like; Don’t Read (DL;DR)
It is up to you what you see online. It is not anyone else’s place to tell you what you should or should not consume in terms of content; it is not up to anyone else to police the internet so that you do not see things you do not like. At the same time, it is not up to YOU to police fandom to protect yourself or anyone else, real or hypothetical.
There are tools out there to help protect you if you have triggers or squicks. Learn to use them, and to take care of your own mental health. If you are consuming fan-made content and you find that you are disliking it – STOP.
The Second Law of Fandom
Your Kink Is Not My Kink (YKINMK)
Simply put, this means that everyone likes different things. It’s not up to you to determine what creators are allowed to create. It’s not up to you to police fandom.
If you don’t like something, you can post meta about it or create contrarian content yourself, seek to convert other fans to your way of thinking.
But you have no right to say to any creator “I do not like this, therefore you should not create it. Nobody should like this. It should not exist.”
It’s not up to you to decide what other people are allowed to like or not like, to create or not to create. That’s censorship. Don’t do it.
The Third Law of Fandom
Ship And Let Ship (SALS)
Much (though not all) fandom is about shipping. There are as many possible ships as there are fans, maybe more. You may have an OTP (One True Pairing), you may have a NOTP, that pairing that makes you want to barf at the very thought of its existence.
It’s not up to you to police ships or to determine what other people are allowed to ship. Just because you find that one particular ship problematic or disgusting, does not mean that other people are not allowed to explore its possibilities in their fanworks.
You are free to create contrarian content, to write meta about why a particular ship is repulsive, to discuss it endlessly on your private blog with like-minded persons.
It is not appropriate to harass creators about their ships, it is not appropriate to demand they do not create any more fanworks about those ships, or that they create fanwork only in a manner that you deem appropriate.
These three laws add up to the following:
You are not paying for fanworks content, and you have no rights to it other than to choose to consume it, or not consume it. If you do choose to consume it, do not then attack the creator if it wasn’t to your taste. That’s the height of bad manners.
Be courteous in fandom. It makes the whole experience better for all of us.
when you’ve been in a fandom so long you no longer care about the dramas
When you’ve been through enough enough fandoms to ignore the same drama over and over again.
OMG a million times this! Especially the second one. The same bullshit starts up in every fandom given enough time. I just let it pass me by.
When you’re just doing your own thing and trying to have a good time but unexpectedly wander into the drama and now you’re just trying to avoid and survive it.
If you’re ever like “but what do fic writers even WANT.”
a book report
They want a book report.
They want you to get 9th grade English up in their shit.
Remember having to write ad nauseam about the symbolism of that stupid conch in Lord of the Flies? They want you to do that about Steve Roger’s shield and Emma Swan’s jacket.
WHoa seriously?? People WANT this? Holy crap, I always thought I’d be really rude to leave an overly long comment on something, or it’d just be super creepy for me to babble a load of emotional attatchment I had to their product, or all my wild fan theories which are probably wrong… I mean.. I know if I ever created something I’d wanna see comments like that, but I’m a weirdo and I haven’t even created anything anyway so what do I know? Umm.. yeah.. so… at my followers and friends and stuff: does anyone agree with this? Do I have permission to really ramble embarrassingly and honestly when I like your stuff, or would you prefer short and semi-rational comments?
I agree! I really like to read people toughts on my stuff, no matter the writing style.
I always LOVE knowing that readers understand why I chose certain ways of getting things across! I also love seeing which bits OTHER PEOPLE liked best! Since I’m the author, I’m biased. I either think my work is brilliant or I have crushing doubts.
So – whichever you want, or feel comfortable with!
Every review or comment is a wonderful thing to receive and will probably make a fic writer’s day, but yes. All of the above. Tell us your favorite line. Tell us what worked (or didn’t! criticism is okay too!) a verbosely as you want. We definitely want to know.
I get stupidly excited over every single comment because I still can’t believe anyone reads the crap that I write.
Yes
I’ve made some amazing friends through comments left on fan fiction. I love to hear people’s thoughts on chapters and what they loved or hated or what made them think. Just whatever comes to mind. I can be slow with it, but I try to get back to people that leave reviews from their accounts and I’ve had times where we’ve ended up great friends because of it.
Yes! Always feel free to leave reviews and never be afraid that I’ll judge you on it. Each and ever one of them makes me smile like crazy.
Yes! A book report! That’s a dream come true!
All comments are lovely… but knowing someone actually took the time to consider the words or the pacing – all the effort that writing takes – is fabulous!
THIIIIIIIIIS TIMES A MIILLLIOOOOONNNN
TELL me you noticed the foreshadowing. And the symbols and the allusions and the dumb pop culture refs. Make wild expansive meta of that one line in that one scene which I didn’t actually think much about at the time I wrote it but HOLY SHIT THAT’S SUCH A CLEVER IDEA OMG. Make me sweat because you noticed that one other thing I added and oh yes my god, they’re onto me! Book reports. Live comments as you’re reading. Seriously. I enjoy them so much.
Fandom: *bored*
New thing: *is released without warning*
Fandom: omgomgomgomgoHMYGAWD I’M SCREAMING I CAN’T HANDLE THIS SLAY MY ENTIRE ASS I’M DYINGGGG
Fandom: *gifs thing in lightning speed and reblogs 221 times*
Fandom: Hey, did you notice this (prop/costume), it’s the same as in (setlock date/episode) *adds 1k worth of research*
Fandom: … is that a dick joke?
Fandom: Also, this is definitely (ACD canon reference).
Fandom from different time zone: WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING
Fandom: … that’s definitely a dick joke.
Fandom: This is so gay. I love it.
Fandom: What can we predict for the plot from this 0.1 seconds of footage? *adds 57 theories*
Fandom: MOFTISS *shakes fist*
Fandom: This is so gay. I hate them.
Fandom: *starts to make (nsfw) crack posts using the new footage*
Fandom: *has analysed every single frame of the new footage in less than [footage time x 1895]*
Fandom: …
Fandom: *bored*
I can’t wait for the days where scholarship has to muddle through ff.net and ao3 pseudonyms like “guys, I have evidence to believe that starfucker69 was a pseudonym for one of our landmark literary figures of the 21st century and that they in fact first began their writing career with filthy sinful Steggy smut.”
As an academic and a fan I both want and fucking dread this day because academics trying to tackle things like A/B/O, magic!cock, g!p, mpreg, rule 63, sex pollen like… the language academia is going to have to invent my god
#this makes me happy#in a deep deep place in my blackened soul
i love our little corner of this fandom so much. i really do. i love our sense of humor and our positivity and how much fun we have despite the fact that we’re all in hell and burning and everything hurts. i love our passion. i love tjlc. i love our art, meta and fic. i love the friends i’ve made and i love that i spent entire nights blogging and writing headcanons and crying with laughter. i’m so happy to be a part of this, and in the very unlikely event that we’re wrong about canon johnlock, i won’t really care because the actual show isn’t even that important at this point. the belief in canon johnlock is just a small part of everything this fandom has given me and nobody can take those memories away from me
