hi! sorry I know I'm opening a Pandora's box again, but I wanted to talk about this with a clearer mind. this is the first and last time i'll talk about this, sorry this got long and you're a real one if you read everything.
#1 | To preface this, this is not a tribalist Carlos fans vs Jannik fans issue. I've always believed trolls do not represent a fandom, and there will always be bad apples everywhere.
#2 | As some anons have pointed out, a lot of the people involved (both the one who posted and the ones accused) are blogs I am friends with and it's honestly why it's been hard for me to speak up. Again, this isn't about me choosing 'sides' but rather my own experiences and conclusions as someone who has also been a target of troll asks.
I've been active in tennisblr since 2024, and personally the hate and trolls only really started amping up around after RG25. I say personally because I do know I have other mutuals who have been targeted long before that. I can't even begin to tell you the different types of troll and hate I've received: some of them are about Carlos specifically (with the racist slurs), some police me about my mutuals (both carlos and jannik fans!) and how I shouldn't be mutuals with them, some are about me not being a good enough Carlos fan (insane I know) etc etc. Below are some screenshots I've collected. There are definitely more of these than I let on and I receive them on a regular basis, but I just delete them ASAP and ignore them and go on with my day. Unlike my other mutuals, I do not have the wit and language to engage with them constantly 😭
Like the OP of that callout post, there was a point that I wanted to find the method in the madness, some kind of theory as to why I received these asks, any way to rationalize this kind of behavior. The worst of this came during my AO trip, I am 100% serious when I say I was receiving those troll asks probably every 30 minutes. The asks are actually similar to the ones in @tieheartbreaker's post here. But that did make me realize they all had something in common!
Ultimately speaking, I don't know if it matters which fandom these trolls come from. Who knows if they're fans acting like haters or actual haters? What I do know is that as a Filipino woman, I've received these asks with racist and inflammatory language in an attempt to make this fandom experience as miserable as possible for me. Weaponizing my race has been a reality I and other POC have faced in every online space we've been in. And I know that's not the intent of the post, but I feel that centering this harassment on fic characterization or fandom war takes away from that aspect.
I know we all want this to end and I know we are all on edge. But I just don't think namedropping other blogs without solid proof is the way to go about it, especially when said proof is so speculative in nature. You're free to take what I say with a grain of salt, I know I appear biased because some of the accused are my mutuals also. I promise, I've read the post over and over again and that's my main takeaway. And I think other people who are not as involved and are receiving the info for the first time feel the same. I don't want to accuse the OP of anything, I have the utmost empathy with what they went through from those trolls. But as it was said in the post: tennisblr is a small fandom, and imo it's all the more reason we should be careful with accusations like this.
It sucks to say that there's really no clear cut way to deal with anon harassment, especially on this website because the anon block feature is genuine straight up shit from the butt. Unfortunately, all we can do is wait for them to slip up off anon and then block whatever new dummy blog they've created. At the end of the day we really only have each other on this website. I think instead of pointing fingers and sowing doubt about each other, the better way to deal with this is to be open about it and seek each other's support when it gets hard. Maybe the OP didn't feel they had anyone to talk to, so let's change that.
Here are some known urls you can block, provided by other mutuals. If there's anything else, lmk!
bhdtl061024
artmsfoxlight
All this to say, I genuinely can't believe that it's reached this point. We are receiving insane asks over people hitting a yellow fuzzy ball, can you believe that! I would be lying if I said I were never affected by these asks. There was a time I'd genuinely feel anxious opening my inbox. But ultimately the enjoyment I get from being on here always outweighs the negative energy from those anons. So that is all, let's be kind to one another !
Also this is my plea to @staff: fix your anon block feature
