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Be a Positive Force in Fandom, Not an Asshole

Filed Under: Speculative Fiction, creativity

If there was one thing that drew me in particular to genre fandom as a whole, it was the boundless and unashamed enthusiasm that genre fans had.  Fans loved things, and their passion was worn on their sleeves.  They weren’t ashamed to like science fiction in general, or, say, Star Trek in particular, despite there considerable societal disaproval of such things.  My nerdy ways got me made fun of as much as my big ears, growing up.

Today, with Generation X and Y in full force, there’s been a bit of a shift, I think.  Sarcasm is something our generations prize, as well as a well-cultured sense of irony.  But what’s worse, when combined with those things, is a certain odd form of self-awareness that leads to what I’d like to talk about:

It’s cooler to dislike something than it is to like something today.  It’s more culturally acceptable in my peer groups, particularly online, to express disapproval of something than it is to express enthusiasm.

I’m not against criticism.  It’s only by being critical of art forms that we understand them and learn to improve them.  Thoughtful criticism is a great thing.  So let’s take that off the table of what I’m talking about.  I’m going to talk about how we express our dislike of things, why, and when we do it.

First of all, I think it’s an undeniable trend that being enthusiastic for something is much less of a draw of attention than being highly critical of something, particularly online.  If I write a blog post that is critical of a popular movie, it receives at least twice as many views as if I wrote a glowing recommendation.  It’ll receive twice as many comments too, and often, what comments the glowing recommendation receives are arguments against the opinion.  There are a lot of reasons for this, but in general, I’d like to see us change it in our corner of the web.

I used to be a regular on the blog Metafilter.  We called a certain phenomenon  “your favorite band sucks.”  Whenever anyone expressed an appreciation or an author or a band, five people came along to criticize the author or band.  Here’s where we come to my first rule of the positive fan.

Every expression of appreciation online is not an opportunity for you to voice your disapproval.

It’s fine for you not to like something.  But every time someone else says they like something that you don’t is not the best time for you to piss in the cornflakes of internet commenting.  Every discussion is not a debate on the merits and demerits of something.  In fact, let’s put this out there in plain terms: every discussion online does not have to be and should not be “fair and balanced.”  Know your audience, and know the scene you’re in–will they appreciate your perspective, or will they think you’re just being an asshole?

Which brings me to my next point:

Don’t be an asshole. Remember: everything you criticize is the hard work of a human being with feelings.

Don’t assume that the creator of what you are trashing won’t read it.  It’s the internet.  We’re all supernatural beings that can be summoned by the use of our name thanks to Google.  Don’t be an asshole, and don’t resort to ad hominem attacks.  Be critical of the work, and not the creator.  Every creative act should be encouraged, even if you consider it a failure.  All art is a learning process.

If you must be critical, be specific.

So you have a burning desire to share your disapproval of something and you just can’t be stopped.  Fine.  Leave your critical remark, but here are critcial remarks that do nothing but hurt people:

‘It sucked.”

“Don’t quit your day job”

“I want my [PERIOD OF TIME SPENT] back.”

“Who likes this shit?”

Do you see the trend here?  We’ve all seen these comments.  Most of us have probably left them at some point.    What’s missing here is substance.

You owe your fellow humans to be specific in your criticism. It’s in everyone’s best interests for a creator to improve, and they can’t use your feedback to do that if it doesn’t have any substance.

I assume part of the point of the urge to share our strong dislike of something online, besides the weird Gen-Y/X need to feel cool via disparaging things, is that we can’t stand the idea that someone does like it, and we want to explain to them why their enthusiasm is misplaced.  We’re not going to do that with vague generalities. Be specific, and be polite. Consider sharing our enthusiasm for something else as a counterpoint so others know we’re not just being an asshole for the sake of it.  Is it something we would say to the creator’s face, in person, while they ball their fists and start to turn red?  No?  Dial down the venom, and remember:

All opinions are not equal.  But if you think yours really matters most, you’re probably wrong.

Most people just aren’t going to really care what your opinion of something is, unless they know you.  If you’re a random stranger leaving feedback on a blog, don’t expect your comment to hold any special weight with the other readers or the commenters.  Don’t get increasingly angry when people aren’t swayed to your antagonistic point of view.  Silently mark these people off as morons like you do to every human being you disapprove of, and move on.

Moving on to the Positive Part

Thus far, I’ve really focused on the negative, because I know that’s what is going to get the most attention.  Now that I have it, let’s talk about how we can reverse the trend a little.  As a group, working together with a common goal, I think we can lighten the tone a bit.

If you like something, say so.

Positive, supportive comments are always far outnumbered by the negative ones.  We need to change this, or at least tips the scales back the other way a bit.  If you take nothing else away from this sanctimonious blog post, just listen to  this part.  When you like something, whether that something be a story, a book, a website, a blog post, a podcast, a painting, whatever–when you like something, tell someone.  You can broadcast it on your blog or your twitter. That is awesome.  Or you can go narrowband and leave a comment for the creator or write an email.  Hell, you want to really make someone’s day, send them a snail mail letter.

We as an internet populace have a tendency to be quiet when we’re approving, and save our keystrokes for when we’re angry.  This is wrong, and I think we can change this.  Let’s put the enthusiastic fan back into the mix.  We can’t all hate everything.  Let’s see if we can aim for bringing the positive/negative comment ratio up to 1:1.  And hey–the only thing worse than a bunch of nasty comments and feedback is no feedback at all.  Don’t assume someone else will say something.  Take the initiative and say something yourself.

For a little over a year now, I’ve been making a point of writing authors and letting them know when I’ve really liked something they’ve written.  I write people I know and writers I have never met.  I’m going to start expanding this to other forms.  There’s no reason I have to save my fannish enthusiasm for the printed word.

Now, you may be a major consumer of media, and you might be wondering, how can I possibly send notes to the creators of everything I consume? When it’s something you’ve paid for, I think your money is often appreciation enough.  However, if it’s something you’ve read online for free, and you enjoyed it, I think we should feel obligated to share our positive feedback.  If you want people to keep doing what they’re doing, you need to say so.  Again–don’t assume someone else will do it for you.  We should be as energized to share our enthusiasm as our outrage.

I hope you’ll join me in this-I don’t want to say “movement,” but let’s call it a pseudo-philosophy.   I probably won’t convince the die-hard assholes to stop being assholes, but hopefully I can convince we quiet approvers to speak up more often. I know I’m not perfect, that I’ve been the asshole, but I’m making a concerted effort not to be in the future.

I’m sure there are a lot of criticisms of this post you can make, and you’re welcome to do so in the comments.  Please follow the rules above.  Consider this my new comment moderation policy on my blog.  I hope I don’t have to enforce it.

TAGS: comments, criticism, fandom, moderation

POSTED: 9:46 am Wed August 19 2009 |