Before I begin, I would just like to state that I did not attend Vidcon this year, but I would like to share my opinion and express how mad I am with the convention and the sheer audacity of some of the attendees.
Vidcon this year was just a mess in general and management wise.
From the organization of panels to the companies they decided to give booths to and the security provided at the event, it was messy, upsetting and something I HOPE they can improve on for next year. There were a ton of AI booths there, and it was disheartening to see, especially at an event revolving around the creation of videos, which is something that revolves around creativity. The stages for certain panels we're great, and a couple panels weren't even recorded despite the fact they were expected to be. Security wasn't the greatest, etc.
I watched Vidcon from an outside perspective, more specifically, I was watching Derapchu's streams for the entirety of the convention and I am appalled at some of the interactions I witnessed during the streams. For a majority of the streams, Derapchu was working with other members of Lifesteal at the merch booth. And throughout the streams, there were certain people asking him inappropriate/unrelated questions and you could clearly see that he didn't enjoy it. In fact, there was a group that kept repeatedly coming up (like 4-5 times in one stream alone) and asking if he was gay and when he denied it, they would comment and say things like "Oh but you love Parrot and Wifies."
That is not the same thing. What that group was doing was incredibly infuriating. You could tell that he wasn't enjoying the interaction with those fans and the way they were treating him was super upsetting. He was clearly getting annoyed at their antics, yet they kept doing it. Derapchu is a human with feelings, and you need to treat him with respect.
Additionally, Derapchu had to talk to chat at the end of the stream on the last day about how some of his friends had their boundaries broken IN PERSON at Vidcon. He spoke about how a few of his friends were SCARED to attend Vidcon the rest of the days because of certain people who had come up to them. That is fucking disgusting and I am super disappointed in those attendees who decided to make the creators uncomfortable and not treat them like human beings. Derapchu shouldn't have had to say anything at all, but the fact that he did shows that it was a MAJOR issue.
The lack of respect and human decency at Vidcon this year makes me so upset, not only as an aspiring creator, but as a fan as well. The lack of respect for peoples boundaries (shipping and other) has been completely disregarded as of late in so many spaces and it's rarely addressed. People are more openly breaking boundaries and even PRIDING THEMSELVES in the fact that they do it. It's absolutely disgusting to purposefully break someone's boundaries. They are there for a reason. Not only is this an issue in the Lifesteal community and their fandom, but also in the UU community, Roblox creators community, etc. But the fact that multiple people broke boundaries IN PERSON? Is genuinely horrific. You do not do that to someone. Its not okay, and NEVER WILL BE. You wouldn't do it to some random stranger on the street walking past you, so don't do it to creators.
Creators shouldn't have to be scared of in person events. They shouldn't have to avoid the more open and public areas of conventions because of their "fans". There were multiple Lifestealers who didn't attend more than one day at Vidcon because of the interactions that they had. There is a high possibility that most of them will not be returning to Vidcon because of the interactions that they had. The lack of basic respect from some of the people interacting with them has ruined it for everyone, the creator included.
More and more creators are no longer interacting with their communities online because of certain fans have broken their boundaries and ruined that experience for them. Its incredibly hard to find the motivation to interact with your community when all they see is people disrespecting them and their boundaries.
If you openly break a creators boundaries, you are not a fan.
If you disrespect a creator, you are not a fan.
If you treat a creator as nothing more than that, a creator for your entertainment, you are not a fan.
If you treat creators like they are your friends, you are not a fan.
Creators are humans too. They have feelings and they deserve respect. If you cannot handle respecting their boundaries, you need to get off of the internet and take some classes on basic respect.
If you are a boundary breaker, you are not and will never be welcome on my page. You are not and will never be welcome in my community.
