An attempt to make a fandom a nicer place to be
Ethics: a set of moral principles that govern a person’s or group’s behavior.
I feel I need to summarize what I have learned being part of a fandom for the future, if anyone bothers to read it. When a fandom grows, there are more personality clashes and things get out of hand. It will never be perfect but I believe that if you follow these 12 principles you can help make the fandom a better place and make friends, not enemies. Especially useful for newbies and because you just cannot assume everyone knows about.
1. Never repost original fanart, fanfic, photos, videos, audio recordings and summaries/translations without (edit: asking the owner for permission) crediting the source and original artist. It does not matter if you are not explicitly taking ownership of it. The lack of any information will automatically make people assume you are the owner. And if you took the time to write “I took it from ….” It should not be hard to type the artist name. Be courteous and contact the owner for permission to repost. It is also respectful and boosts the artist morale. Also there is a reason why there is a reblog button in tumblr and to other social medias. (edit: copyright infringement is a crime)
2. If you see your friends work being plagiarized, inform the original artist and ask the offender to take the post down before reporting to the social media.
3. To all artists and writers, video makers, recording artists. The internet is a jungle, protect yourself from the beginning and put your mark on your work by making pdf/jpgs with watermarks, saying your name on the middle of the recording and adding credits to the video.
4. Do not reblog posts from other people to put your negative comments. You have freedom of speech in your blog. If you want to rant about something, go ahead but make your own post and be courteous by not tagging the character/game name or making the name searchable by tumblr engine in the body of your post.
5. Do not give false information. Being a fan is serious business. When someone asks a question, do your research and do not give the wrong information to your fellow fan.
6. If you don’t like a bloggers post or their personal point of view, do not send hate mail. It’s okay to ask questions politely but more often than not, ignoring or unfollowing and blocking is the safest way out. Also bloggers who want to post personal point of views be mentally prepare to receive backlash and don’t act like a victim. People are people and we will never agree on everything. Be respectful of everyone’s opinion do not push your beliefs on to people.
7. If you see art and writing (especially headcanons) that inspire you, be a good friend and credit your muse that helped birth your art/writing. This will boost creativity all around and you will end up making friends, not enemies talking behind your back.
8. This happens more with fanart but can also affect fanfics. If you trace or copy part of your art, you should not take full credit for it. People are smarter than you think and can tell if anything was traced or copied from another source. It is ethical to provide a link to the image used and explicitly tell your audience that it was traced/copied.
9. To veterans/senpais, be inclusive, welcome newcomers, if they reach out to you, do not ignore them. Let them join in and feel involved. Sometimes just a one liner means a lot to people.
10. To newbies/kohais, be patient. It takes time to be part of the fandom. You need to expose yourself, do not be afraid to talk to people, write your fics, post your art. You never know who you will meet that have the same likes and dislikes as you. But for those who expect to the famous, be aware it takes a lot of time and work to achieve a certain status, so don’t be complacent and assume you will be liked right away.
11. Friendship is a two-way road. We want to be liked by everyone but that is not going to happen. Making friendships online take the same amount of effort as offline. Some people are more independent than others, some people need more attention than others. So be respectful of everyone’s personality and don’t turn your dissatisfaction into hate. You will find good friends that match you better in no time.
12. Respect’s people’s personal lives. Do not expect responses right away to your ask, email, requests. Do not assume the blogger is being rude. We are in a fandom to have fun, not to be slaves, and we have obligations in real life so be patient.
Last but not least, be kind and use common sense. If you think about the person behind the blog, there is a human being with a heart and feelings. They will have their good day and bad day just like you, so be sympathetic. Treat them the same way you want to be treated.
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