2nd September, 2016
Hello.
This is admin VIVI. I have been a fan of MASC for a very long time, I got my co founder to love them too, and after their debut was certain we decided to set up MASCIntl because there were no other international fanbases at the time, and we wanted to support the boys and help other fans get to know them and each other.
We haven't been around for long, and it was a very difficult desicion, but we have decided to put MASCintl onto an indefinite hiatus.
When we set it up, to our knowledge there was no other fanbase calling themselves 'international'. However, shortly after we created the fanbase, a member of a certain group of fanbases messaged us. We already knew of issues with these groups of fanbases and bullying one of our friends, but until that point we hadn't witnessed it. They wanted us to not call ourselves international, simply because they didn't want us to use it, because their 'mother' fanbase @MASC_SG was 'upset' that we were calling ourselves international and translating into English. She never asked us herself, and to this day none of them have ever clarified what their issue was. To us, it sounded like they wanted us to cease translation into English. When we said we wouldn't, because they couldn't stop other fanbases and also if masc_sg was so upset she could have messaged us herself, and plus we were unaware she thought she was the international fanbase-- excuse me for thinking SG stood for singapore--, they got rude with us. Shortly after that a few of the fanbases softblocked us.
We got on with it-- because it didn't really matter. We just wanted to support the boys. It upset us that one girl really wanted to be head of what she calls her 'fambam' which is only for fans who get in line behind of her and follows her rules, but she wanted it so much she was forgetting the point wasn't who translated what or who had more followers-- it was to support the boys and to provide fans with updates and translations.
A few of our friends who run other fanbases also had issues with her and her group of followers, or bullies as we should call them. She even indirected us on our choice to translate fancafe letters, despite there being no rule against doing it on the fancafe. The way we see it, everyone should be entitled to see what the boys write whether they level up or not; this type of elitism is what seperates fandoms, and plus it's not like their level up took so much time, or cost any money that she should have been so upset about people translating it. She herself translates it onto the fancafe to which I have three things to say. 1. Personally, I feel that the fancafe is no place for translations. 2. If she posts it in the free talk then anyone who isn't leveled up can see it anyway. 3. If she posts it as a comment it's a) to me like spam and b) will eventually be hard to find, so defies the point. However, it was something we didn't bother responding to because we didn't see the point.
After this things got slowly worse, to the point where they are now. We had issues with her on our personal accounts with how she treats her fanbase like a personal account when she could save a lot of those tweets for her personal, but we never went @ her about them. We ranted to our tlists only, of course she is free to treat her account as she likes regardless of the vast amount of people I have seen who have issues with how she acts. And, of course, a lot of the bullying also came from other fanbases she is connected with; they blocked us and soft blocked us left right and centre even if we had never interacted. They did the same, and were cruel to our friends. It was difficult to watch.
Nikki and I spent the best part of the day talking about this. We brought it up at the same time, and neither of us really wanted to let them 'win', but that's not the point, is it? To me, a fanbase or a group is not more important than the happiness of one of the most important people to me. They made her feel so small, and this whole thing pushed her to the point she couldn't go onto twitter without feeling bad. It started pushing her to the point where she was starting to feel like it was difficult to support the boys too. All because of a small group of girls for what was, no apparent reason. We made the desicion together, and it was difficult; but her happiness is more important to me than anything else.
We are really sorry, we wanted to support them for a very long time as MASCintl and work on projects which we had planned, but we are just unable to continue. That being said we will still support them on our personal accounts, and I will still be translating their fancafe posts onto my personal twitter and possibly tumblr. We really want everyone to get along and we want everyone to love and support MASC together, so it's really unfourtunate that some people don't seem to share this wish. Don't forget #MASCStanSelcaDay is on the 4th of every month and please continue to support the boys for a long time.
Thank you for everything until now ♡