Maybe this story can finally be told here.
Years ago, a very young person in a small fandom was dogpiled over “repost ethics”.
At that time, she was isolated, very inexperienced, and clumsily started translating and reposting things because she only wanted more people to know this ship existed.
It was not about stealing attention from artists. It was not about hurting anyone. It was more like saying: “Look, this ship exists too”
She thought things might slowly get better!
But people turned it into a group attack.
When the incident happened, the artist’s repost permission was suddenly reframed as if it had only ever applied to one single post. So the story was never as simple as “someone maliciously stole from artists.”
Misunderstandings, mockery, comments about her gender, politically hostile remarks from across the strait, and bystanders joining in without knowing the full story.
Later, someone from that group even apologized. They admitted they had misunderstood the situation for a long time, and that even as a bystander, they had still become part of what hurt her.
And now, when piracy sites repost full doujinshi made to be sold as books, suddenly no one cares.
So was it ever really about protecting artists,
or was it just easier to attack one young person than to fight real piracy?
The funny thing is, that person did not disappear.
She came to Tumblr. She kept loving this ship. She kept creating, translating, collecting, sharing, and building her own little place here.
And eventually, she met people who could actually see her, care about her, and understand what she was trying to do.
That old group is quiet now. Many of those people are gone or scattered.