Let me know how you work this all out, Allyson 'cause my anger at the krazies knows no bounds at this moment.
Spike? It's you. It's really you! My therapist thought I was holding on to false hope, but…I knew you'd come back. You're like…you're like Gandalf the White, resurrected from the pit of the Balrog, more beautiful than ever. Oh…he's alive Frodo. He's alive.
Andrew ,'Damage'
The Minearverse 3: The Network Is a Harsh Mistress
[NAFDA] "There will be an occasional happy, so that it might be crushed under the boot of the writer." From Zorro to Angel (including Wonderfalls and The Inside), this is where Buffistas come to anoint themselves in the bloodbath.
Tamara - May 22, 2005 5:05:33 pm PDT #7116 of 10001
You know, we could experiment and cancel football.
DavidS - May 22, 2005 5:11:44 pm PDT #7117 of 10001
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
Are you going to be writing about the Kitten board in this section, Allyson?
Because I thought their reaction was overboard, but I could understand it too.
Gus - May 22, 2005 5:14:46 pm PDT #7118 of 10001
Bag the crypto. Say what is on your mind.
Tamara, love of my electronic life, I implore you ... Point out these krazies. I shall thump them, in ways that make their mothers rue their birth.
Topic!Cindy - May 22, 2005 5:38:59 pm PDT #7119 of 10001
What is even happening?
Because I thought their reaction was overboard, but I could understand it too.I was a poster there briefly, because they hunted down all the best spoils around that season, because of all the big scooby death rumors. I think Sail might have been too, or there was a similarly named poster, with a similar background. I've always meant to ask. Anyhow...
...Anyhow, I could understand some of it the whole time (there's a real dearth of loving gay relationships that exist outside of the hot chick-on-chick realm, in TV and film, and Tara and Willow were just so darn sweet), and much of it at first. By the end though, the evil there outweighed the grief.
They wrote manifestos about Whedon as homophobe. They kept their board open, but had a double-super seekrit forum for posting about S7.
They started scheduling themselves to post on other boards (primarily the Beta, because of the VIP attention), with the expressed intent of harassing the posters on those other boards.
They allowed no dissent, but did allow posts saying that Joss (or DeKnight, or both, I disremember) had better stay away from windows at personal appearances.
The kitten board crazy became far too crazy to call craxy. Not all of the people who posted there, even at the height of the craziness were crazy, and maybe not even all who stayed through it were crazy. But from the moment Tara said, "Willow...your shirt," the group dynamic type of crazy got bigger than anything else around. I was long gone by then, because it was clear just from the reaction to the spoilers that the crazy was too big to fight, and they started requiring registration to post, and I knew they were too crazy to join. Posts were getting deleted and people were getting bounced if they even questioned the party line.
It's not good to cloister (in fandom at least) to the degree where certain topics or characters are tabboo, and dissent is seen as grounds for expulsion, because sooner or later, the words "the emperor has no clothes" are outlawed, and nobody can admit to the crazy without being seen as killing the group.
DCJensen - May 22, 2005 6:02:11 pm PDT #7120 of 10001
All is well that ends in pizza.
Kitten board "Dead Lesbian Cliche" FAQ: [link]
AnthonyDe - May 22, 2005 6:20:25 pm PDT #7121 of 10001
A One that isn't cold, is scarcely A One at all.
Just caught an Inside promo during the network premiere of AOTC. I'd say that's a pretty big deal.
Gris - May 22, 2005 6:22:21 pm PDT #7122 of 10001
Hey. New board.
That link makes me angry. I'm the biggest fan of the Willow/Tara relationship I know. I don't think I've ever cried as hard as when she died. I'm (very very slowly) working on an extremely ambitious AU Tara/Willow fic where Tara is brought back to life days after she dies.
But that link makes me angry.
Gus - May 22, 2005 6:27:52 pm PDT #7123 of 10001
Bag the crypto. Say what is on your mind.
Fuck. Are we still discussing the kitten board?
Betsy HP - May 22, 2005 6:30:11 pm PDT #7124 of 10001
If I only had a brain...
In the past, didn't doing so tend to summon them?
Strega - May 22, 2005 6:30:50 pm PDT #7125 of 10001
I think it's partly the grief-for-a-friend angle, only, it more aware than that, which is what increases the crazy. Because if something randomly horrible happens to a friend, you know that sometimes life sucks that way; there's no one to blame. Something terrible happens to a fictional character and you know exactly who to blame. The same people who made you care about the character originally did this terrible thing to him/her -- they intentionally did something that hurt you. They wanted it to hurt you.
And what Cindy said: the net-fandom dynamic amplifies everything. People start talking to each other because they share the emotional reaction, and then they start feeding each other reasons why it's not just something that made them sad, it's Wrong and It Shouldn't Have Happened and The Writers Are Evil. The half-life on the anger is extended because they're getting rewarded for it socially. If you let go, you've got nothing to talk about. So you get people who have formed a whole online identity based on being angry about a fictional miscarriage of justice.
I do think it's somewhat tied to the growing cultural attitude that if something hurts/offends/upsets me, then it's got to be someone's fault, and they should be punished for it, because I'm entitled to an angst-free existence.