Brutkey

Dan Fixes Coin-Ops
@ifixcoinops@retro.social

🦝 ...who the hell is johnnythimbles84

🦝 oh shit wait no don't tell me DON'T TELL ME

Dan Fixes Coin-Ops
@ifixcoinops@retro.social

🦝 Anything plus internet equals controversy so thick and gnarly it requires an hour-long conversation to explain to a normal person

🦝 Name literally any object no matter how innocuous and there's internet drama about it

🦝 Hell I bet I could come up here and say "Anybody heard about the thimble collectors' forum drama" and a couple folk would get the thousand-yard seen-too-much stare

🐹 Dude. The community has gone through a DECADE of harassment, abuse, gaslighting and manipulation, and you call that "drama" like it's some petty trivial thing, and not dozens of lives ruined? Fuck you. I never figured you were a johnnythimbles84 minimizer but it just shows you never can tell, you've more than earned your place on my shitlist

Dan Fixes Coin-Ops
@ifixcoinops@retro.social

(like we're not also in the zoo. The fact that we even recognize the word "Homestuck" puts in in the top percentage of Extremely Online Middle Aged People. We're the penguins in the next enclosure over)

Dan Fixes Coin-Ops
@ifixcoinops@retro.social

The hyenas are asking me to get in the enclosure with them and I'm like no, that's not how zoos work, I'm happy just watching from over here thanks

Dan Fixes Coin-Ops
@ifixcoinops@retro.social

Already had to block one Homestuck Guy With A Shitlist Who Demanded I Take A Side and the day's still young

Just so it's 100% clear, my Official Stance On Recent Events In The Community is "Holy shit look at this mess, aren't you glad you're not involved"

Dan Fixes Coin-Ops
@ifixcoinops@retro.social

Like, you know when your mate says "Oh we were talking about you at whatever-gathering-you-missed the other night, folk missed you and were wondering how whatever-recent-thing-that-was-probably-why-you-weren't-there was going," now if these are people you've know for years you might get that warm little glow of reassurance that Your Friends Care but if they're acquaintances or strangers you might get that uneasy little twinge of "Y'all were talking about me? But I do not necessarily wish to be Observed,"

Right, take that uneasy little twinge, and multiply it by a thousand Incredibly Online Strangers Who Think They Know You, discussing you at midnight on a Saturday

That would Fuck You Up

Dan Fixes Coin-Ops
@ifixcoinops@retro.social

Like imagine having people write 20k word blog posts about you

Imagine having people make multi hour YouTube videos about you

Dan Fixes Coin-Ops
@ifixcoinops@retro.social

There's a point at which the Meta About The Thing becomes bigger and juicier than the Actual Thing and this intersects with Milkshake Duck and two-hour Youtube Explainers in just this, horrible, horrible way

I understand completely why I don't know what Toby Fox looks like

Dan Fixes Coin-Ops
@ifixcoinops@retro.social

This is my confession, back in 2008 I was introduced to an informal group of exhausted small-time webcomic/fiction/game producers who all had 999 normal fans and one scary fan. We shared stories about our scaryfans and consoled and comforted one another long into the night. We hatched a plan together, and on April 1st 2009 we all went into our respective fan forums and asked if they'd ever heard of MS Paint Adventures, hey scaryfan you'd probably dig this,

Dan Fixes Coin-Ops
@ifixcoinops@retro.social

Conventional thing-having-fans-type-business wisdom is to Engage With The Fans but this is wrong and encourages obsession and parasocial relationships, to ensure the longevity of your business and your own mental health you should instead identify your biggest fans and ask them hey have you ever played Undertale, you should try it, it's brilliant