There's a bit in this... IDK if it's even in this particular blogpost but it's somewhere in the General Rabbithole, where this person talks about when the forums shut down and Andrew did this big sigh of relief because if ppl were obsessing over the minutia of offhand throwaway lines he wrote years and years ago then at least they weren't doing it somewhere he was expected to pay attention to and I'm like "Yyyyyuppppppp"
There's this thing the internet does where it takes people who like a thing in a normal way and Processes them into Fans and then into Scary Fans, and then with the internet being the way it is, people who post more are more visible y'know, it's entirely invisible that 99.999% of fans are normal about it
Like, the people who roam the forum dedicated to the Thing are already the 1% who are Most Into The Thing, which is why creators should never look at their own forums
Much as I disdain Discord, I will admit that the number one most perfect use case for it is enabling a fan forum for $thing that's completely invisible, unsearchable, unindexable and isolated from whoever's responsible for making $thing
Which is very important and useful because if a creator looks at their own fan forum they might be tempted to do the stuff that the most vociferous and obsessive 1% of their fanbase is interested in, which is very rarely what the other 99% cares about
@ifixcoinops@retro.social dan I’m gonna need you to post more about the bollocks mashing bar and the dick mousetrap, as your scaryfan this is 100% the content I need in my day.
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
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,
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,
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
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
Like imagine having people write 20k word blog posts about you
Imagine having people make multi hour YouTube videos about you
@ifixcoinops@retro.social reminds me of how mangakas often hide their appearances, names and even gender and yeah. I would as well
@ifixcoinops@retro.social I would say "who is Toby Fox", but since this morning, I have actually heard the name before xD
@ifixcoinops@retro.social
I've got it.
Modern internet culture treats famous people and the things they make like a public utility.
This hurts everyone involved.
@ifixcoinops@retro.social I knew I had made it when some guy with a bad haircut and Aviators sat in his basement and made a video just to tell me how much of a loser I was.
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
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"
@ifixcoinops@retro.social I think I'm not yet famous enough to be talked about in this manner. Or if I am, it has never come to my attention. Regardless, I am blessed
@ifixcoinops@retro.social Can confirm, from experience.
(I am famous for VERY LIMITED values of fame—it's died down a little but circa 2005-2015 if I walked into an American SF convention I would not be left alone—and yes, folks who think they know you from your work approach you constantly and you're always guessing, "do I know you (and I've forgotten your name) or are you a complete stranger?")
@ifixcoinops@retro.social I have absolutely no idea what is going on but thank you for whatever service you're doing or not doing.
@ifixcoinops@retro.social Oh dear. I clicked the link on the top, spent 10 seconds scanning the first few sentences, and started backing away while mumbling "no no nope not at all no no NOPE"
@ifixcoinops@retro.social as someone who is still mildly into homestuck, I'm looking at all this and going "jesus christ what happened here"
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
@slothrop@chaos.social I read the WHOOOOLE DAMN THING PLUS SEVERAL LINKED POSTS because I run an online community myself so I need to be aware of the dangers and it's medicinal and I can stop any time I like
(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)
@ifixcoinops@retro.social
I've seen this before.
This is a Transformation Setup.
They want you to join them.
No, not just, "join them in the enclosure"
They want you to join them.
.
.
.
( ...say yes for a fun time. )
🦝
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
@ifixcoinops@retro.social ah yes, the haberdashers’ hellthread. a dark time.
🦝 ...who the hell is johnnythimbles84
🦝 oh shit wait no don't tell me DON'T TELL ME
Most folk don't know about homestuck :)
@ifixcoinops@retro.social Have you considered seeking professional help?
In a faraway country?
With no internet connectivity?
*googles “resort rehab North Korea”
@ifixcoinops@retro.social
@asonix@masto.asonix.dog knows what I'm talking about.
@ifixcoinops@retro.social
I have never read Homestuck and quite frankly every time I see the name I think of Homestar Runner which I have been meaning to look at for a while but the whole Flash thing put me off and now it's Complicated.
@ifixcoinops@retro.social My continued ignorance of what homestuck actually is has reached the level of finely-crafted bit.
No really, it's been called the greatest work of fiction of the 21st century, but it's a webcomic so hardly anybody knows about it
But of those that do, none of them will ever believe that hardly anybody knows about it
@ifixcoinops@retro.social it's an undertale, right?
@ifixcoinops@retro.social [hipsteur trying to start an argument voice] eh, it did some interesting things with form and metanarrative but the actual storytelling is only average, too many plot elements fail to hold up under close examination, and the ending did not live up to the hype
People don't understand how niche their hobbies are
@ifixcoinops@retro.social [hipsteur trying to start an argument voice] eh, it did some interesting things with form and metanarrative but the actual storytelling is only average, too many plot elements fail to hold up under close examination, and the ending did not live up to the hype
People don't understand how niche their hobbies are
@ifixcoinops@retro.social That's why I make sure my niche hobby is nested inside another niche hobby (sometimes inside a third niche hobby), so I'm sure it's so obscure that no one I meet will know what the hell I'm on about.
@ifixcoinops@retro.social there was a online knitters culture war about green socks (or maybe green yarn) a while back. I missed that one but I’m still kind of mad at ravelry for doing one on the migraneurs.
@ifixcoinops@retro.social
Nicheness is how we can be interesting
@ifixcoinops@retro.social
Heh, #wrestling fans understand. Maybe not folks who are exclusively fans of WWE; they might be shocked to know.
The rest of us are often shocked to learn there are independent promotions running our towns. When you go and see a venue set to hold maybe 75, 100 people only two-thirds full, you quickly get the idea. You recognize that any show legitimately selling out is a blessing, even at fifty people in fifty paid seats.
@ifixcoinops@retro.social me looking up from collecting only mewtwo pokemon cards
what do u mean
@ifixcoinops@retro.social That's why I make sure my niche hobby is nested inside another niche hobby (sometimes inside a third niche hobby), so I'm sure it's so obscure that no one I meet will know what the hell I'm on about.
@ifixcoinops@retro.social there was a online knitters culture war about green socks (or maybe green yarn) a while back. I missed that one but I’m still kind of mad at ravelry for doing one on the migraneurs.
@ifixcoinops@retro.social
Nicheness is how we can be interesting
@ifixcoinops@retro.social
Heh, #wrestling fans understand. Maybe not folks who are exclusively fans of WWE; they might be shocked to know.
The rest of us are often shocked to learn there are independent promotions running our towns. When you go and see a venue set to hold maybe 75, 100 people only two-thirds full, you quickly get the idea. You recognize that any show legitimately selling out is a blessing, even at fifty people in fifty paid seats.
@ifixcoinops@retro.social me looking up from collecting only mewtwo pokemon cards
what do u mean
@nickwedig@dice.camp @ifixcoinops@retro.social cascading niches! staircases!
Dan Fixes Coin-Ops
