A bit of an issue with public shaming (?) in the Rotomblr community.
Hi! I am writing this because I've noticed a bit of an issue over the past few years (even the ones where I WASN'T apart of this community) that can only be summed up a bit as public shaming, or at the least, minor bullying.
—And before I start writing this more, I just want to start out by saying: I am NOT pointing fingers at specific people. Yes, while multiple people I've noticed have displayed these behaviours, it isn't just them. It's a multitude of events that could all be collectively considered public shaming.
The entire Rotomblr community is, to put it roughly, built around each other. It is a community where you send asks to people to build off of stories or lore, and you interact with others to form bonds with your characters. This is normal! This is what you would expect out of many roleplay communities— to talk and interact with people in-character.
And, in relation, to build the personality and life of your character.
But as of recent, I've noticed ( bigger blogs ) have a tendency to, putting it in simple terms, publicly shame blogs.
It may not be exact with my wording, but it's something that I find concern within.
When people realise that their blog reaches more than 100 followers ( or whatever you find to be a big blog for Rotomblr ), they also may have to take responsibility with that. You will be well-known, and more importantly, looked up to.
When you are looked up to, and you make certain posts such as a PSA or general rant post, people are going to look at you as a trusted source and trust you.
So, when you make a public post about how you are blocking somebody or that a certain group of people are being clique-y ( as in, there are no real issues within the group, just the fact they interact with each other frequently ), you take the responsibility with that.
Smaller blogs will see your posts, know that you are a respected and big blog, and trust these sources.
If your character blocked an account in-character, they may believe that the blog itself is bad.
When you call out a certain group of people, they may believe that they cannot interact with them because they will be purposefully outcasted.
You are responsible for what you put on your blog when you are known.
This doesn't include when you call people out for problematic antics. I mean when people have genuinely done nothing, but yet you find a problem with them and decide to publicly post it.
Vague posts, dash commentary, etcetera? That's fine. Making posts about blocking someone when you haven't interacted with them, or generally warding off interaction from someone from the get-go? Not really.
We were all beginner Rotomblr bloggers. We learned from the community who to trust and who not to. If smaller blogs see these publicly shaming posts, they trust it.
I started as a Rotomblr blog by myself— I really didn't know anybody beforehand. I had to get information off of whatever I saw on my dash, not resourced from friends. If I saw these publicly blocked blogs, I'd be cautious around them.
I hope you realise how much this may discourage smaller blogs when they see that they randomly got blocked with no real OOC reason provided and they haven't even interacted with that blog.
You are responsible for being a big blog. What you post, will be seen by many. Please just think about what you post beforehand.
