I don’t do this on Tumblr often but I’m about to get serious for a few minutes - if you

I don’t do this on Tumblr often but I’m about to get serious for a few minutes - if you really don’t care about fandom related things like people being dipshits, then scroll on by and keep on keeping on, it’s all good, but this has been been building for some time now and I feel like I need to say something about it. I included a nice picture of Geoffrey to tide you over in the meantime. First off, what is being a fan about? Well, to me it means you like Thing, and you enjoy Thing, and you decide you want to spread some of the joy of that Thing to other people, so you set up an account on $website and you start posting about Thing and then maybe other people join in with you and you all squee and enjoy Thing together and talk about it and swap ideas, and then maybe you start sharing really hard to find stuff about $actor from Thing and you get warm and tingly when people discover Thing and enjoy it because of your $website. I can’t tell you how much I enjoy helping people discover and enjoy the things I like! It’s FUN for me to share, and I like contributing. That’s fandom at its most excellent and how it all should be. HOWEVER.  I really dislike ‘gatekeepers’, and I really detest people who go out of their way to repeatedly harass other fans when they decide they don’t like them. On its own, this is a common problem in fandom, and one I am fine with ignoring for the most part, but the particular thorn in *this* fandom’s side is complicated by the fact that Paul Gross is officially on Twitter these days, and when a celebrity is made party to this negative behaviour, things get really unpleasant and awkward for everyone. There is a person on Twitter that some of you all may know, who is currently making it her business to harass other Paul Gross fans. She tags him into conversations that he has no business being part of, she makes very disturbingly creepy flirty tweets at him, she acts as though she is his personal agent/bodyguard and she has this odd habit of claiming her ‘cousin’ is running her Twitter account so she can repeatedly tell him, via her ‘cousin’, how ‘grateful’ he should be for her Facebook page (because he totally wouldn’t be so well appreciated without it… never mind that he’s been a successful actor for decades on his own merits). Full Disclosure: I had a bit of a run-in with this individual on Tumblr a few years back; they were putting copyright symbols and their username on photos they had no such copyrights to and reposting them. I had the temerity to point this out, and was met with such teenage-level vitriole, verbal abuse and personal attacks, it was simultaneously amusing and annoying. I ended up blocking her on Twitter to get her out of my face, and thought no more of it. I was done with it and felt that was where things ended.Alas, no.A friend alerted me to her ongoing stalkery, harassing behaviour towards others a few months ago. As you might expect, I shook my head at the ridiculousness and just kind of shrugged and moved on, while simultaneously wishing they would find some other thing to obsess over. Then I began seeing disturbing things in my timeline: people tweeting at Paul that they would have to unfollow him because they couldn’t handle his ‘fans’ - or rather, a particular fan, for barraging them with insults and doing the textual equivalent of prodding them repeatedly and demanding they apologise for what I saw were completely innocuous comments - not directed to her, but at Paul. I found myself apologising on fandoms’ behalf in one instance, and assuring them that this was not at all representative of people who genuinely enjoy Paul’s work. I was able to allay their concerns, but it heightened mine. And now it’s coming to my attention via a few other avenues that she is continuing to harass and insult established fans for reasons unknown, while simultaneously crying that she is a victim. She has sent private FB messages to continue laying into them, when they just want to be left the hell alone, even after she claimed to block them. The latest target of this nonsense? A German fan who is, in my personal experience, one of the least offensive people I follow on Twitter. Why? Because Paul actually followed them, when they asked him. She even demanded that this person share any Direct Messages Paul might send them with her. Uh… how about no?What’s to be done? - well, that’s a pretty good question. What can you do, really? Nothing. This person has a right to be an asshole on the internet, just as it’s our right to ignore them. But it reflects poorly on us as a whole and I fear it looks even worse when the celebrity is constantly sucked into it; my fear is that it would make him withdraw from the site completely and how exactly does one tell a stalkery obsessive fan to just stop? You don’t, really, not without a restraining order. Please note: I am not really advocating any sort of action, and there’s not really any action TO take that isn’t likely to be irresponsible and get people into trouble. I don’t advocate dogpiling someone, or targeting someone. It never ends well. I am not a violent person. But perhaps we can just stop validating them. Stop following them, stop replying to them. Unfollow their page. Don’t respond to their insults (I actually did suggest just replying with random nonsense words, since their comments and actions are about as nonsensical in nature). Not everyone has a thick skin, and not everyone can resist engagement, I know. I just felt like this had gone on long enough that I needed to comment on it, because one thing I profoundly do not like is people harshing other fans’ squee because they are so desperate and needy for attention that they will verbally claw out the eyes of anyone else they see getting it. It’s mean, it’s spiteful, and it’s rude and against everything that makes being a fan enjoyable.So why make this post? I felt I should get this off my chest, mostly, because it’s been bothering me that someone is being so mean-spirited and selfish about something that I and many others enjoy, and I wanted those who’ve been picked on to know that they’re not alone in having been picked on, and that it’s not okay, not ever, for someone to do this to you. I really don’t like seeing people feel bullied and harassed, and it’s not in my nature to stand aside and not say anything about it. Fraser wouldn’t, and neither will I. (Oh and if said person sees this page… you’re welcome. I’m glad you realise that this is about you and that you do indeed have a major problem. Maybe time for some self reflection, yes? Or… you can do what you usually do and probably will, which is hurl incomprehensible babbling rage at me and make a lot of vague tweets/facebook posts about how put upon you are and how everyone is bullying you somehow. Your choice. I won’t see them anyway, and don’t care about your opinion, so have at it.)You may now all return to your regular Tumblring. You are all lovely people. -- source link
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