#boundaries discourse

[crisismoth]

how it feels surviving the smplive dsmp twitter boundary warriors panopticon era as a middle schooler and now being an adult watching the same shit continue to happen over and over with the rise of new ccs who don't understand fandom is not for them

[loudn-mcyt]

The core problem with basically every single instance of boundaries discourse I see is that nobody seems to know what the word "boundary" actually means.

Boundaries are personal and social. They are based on mutual respect. Boundaries are not orders, they are requests, intended to establish a cause and effect: if you do this thing, I will do this other thing. "If you show me ship fic, I will block you" is a boundary. "You are not allowed to make ship fic at all" is not a boundary, that is a rule.

Rules are not boundaries. Rules are based on power and control - they are imposed upon you. This is not necessarily bad, but it must come with understanding of where they can be applied. Rules only apply where the rulemaker has control of what is allowed. And these are how many creators seem to approach what they call "boundaries". Again, this is not necessarily bad - their own twitch chats, discords, and maintags on social media ARE spaces in which they have control (some spaces more than others - maintags are shakier since creators don't have moderation power there, but that can be alleviated by creating a dni tag and asking people to place content there instead), and are therefore places where they can make rules about what they do or do not want to be shown. This is fine. Creators have the right to moderate their own spaces how they wish.

Where the problems emerge is that many creators seem to assume that they have the power to apply their rules (in the guise of "boundaries") in places that are not their own. Non-main tags on social media, archive of our own, private discords - these are locations in which the application (or lack thereof) of boundaries is no longer the choice of a creator. They do not have power; thus, any choices made by individuals in those spaces must necessarily be based only on the social agreement between fan and creator, an inherently parasocial construction. And in this case, the parasocial agreement that actually exists is not "this thing must never be created", it is "this thing should not be created or shared in my spaces".

I would argue that the primary issue in how "boundaries" are approached is a misunderstanding of how all of this works. Boundaries cannot be enforced in private spaces because there is no power relationship there. They can only be requested. As a result, when creators attempt to enforce boundaries in spaces that are not their own, what will actually happen is a series of barely-controlled harassment campaigns aimed towards people who are, by and large, following the social contract of boundaries but not the power-enforced contract of rules. And that harassment is far more of a problem than any person in a private discord writing something against boundaries. One might make someone uncomfortable.

The other gets people hurt. And that's where the line is crossed.

[hn-undercover-9503]

You can't just waltz into the House of freaks and perverts and weirdos and go "Hey, I like it here, but can you all stop being freaks and perverts and weirdos, please? It makes me really uncomfortable. And if you don't stop, I'll send my people after you. Cool?" And then expect the freaks and perverts and weirdos to go "yeah sure man whatever you say"

[fandom-belongs-to-the-fans-first]

Regarding the recent discourse, I just wanted to say that I have been in fandom for a long time, been in multiple fandoms, and MCYT has the weirdest relationship to content creators that I have ever seen.

It is strange to me, that fans so easily accept being told what they can and can’t create in fan spaces.

The right to create fanfic was something that fans had to fight hard for. The right to create works that wasn’t Brand Approved. If the creators of any other fandom tried to police what fan works were created, they would either be flat out ignored or there would be riots.

Fandom is our house. We have been living here for much longer than these CCs have been online. Fandom etiquette, the rules of fandom, have existed longer than their fandoms have.

If they want to be here, that’s unusual, but that’s okay. Fandom is welcome to anyone. But they don’t seem to want to be here, just like anyone else. They act like the rules don’t apply to them, or worse, that they make the rules like it’s their house.

And we shouldn’t let them. Please, please, listen to me. This is not just about shipping. This is about not allowing this to become the accepted new normal.

Because if we accept that it’s okay a creator can ban all fanworks of their character being in romantic relationships, what else will we accept? Think about what other kinds of content have been and still are being banned in certain libraries around the world.

Creators can control their own spaces. Their streams, their official discord servers. But not what we do in our own home.

[momoreexcuses]

If you're sober and don't drink, you can ask that people don't drink around you or to not be invited to events where there will be drinking. You can remove yourself from situations where there's drinking because it makes you uncomfortable.

But you don't get to go into your friend's home unannounced, search through their kitchen for alcohol and dump it down the sink because drinking makes you uncomfortable. You can't forbid them from restocking after you leave.

[dragonslayer26806]

That’s not the issue

The issue is the calls for harassment. The Minecraft community is known for many things and one of them is that we are not fucking chill if we think someone’s doing something wrong, we’re gonna fucking ruin their life. A creator actively saying they are going to survey and send people after people who break their rules instead of just blocking tags or banning people is wild

That is how people get hurt that is how people have been gotten hurt. It has already happened.

Please, please understand that

creators deserve to feel respected and heard, but they cannot control their community and they should not control their community. If something bothers you block or ban it. Fans deserve to feel safe in their own spaces

and creators should learn how to block things

Can we not do this again please? We’ve learned this before.

How many death threats do we think I’m gonna get?

[crowquett]

Been thinking about this one for a while (in 2026 no less lol), but i think the reason I'm reluctant to engage in these newer minecraft ccs is because their obsession with "boundaries" is contradictory to the idea of a safe space. In other words: im a firm believer that you cant call your content safe or queer-friendly (for example, for trans folk like myself) if you have a long list of what fans can and cant do. Because these aren't boundaries ccs are enforcing: its preferences and rules. You can't tell your predominantly queer audience theyre welcome in your space and then enforce rules that they cant ship, draw nudity, write about sensitive topics, etcetera.

The trans person writing smut and drawing ship art is not the enemy. Treating them like their self expression is immoral for making content creators "uncomfortable" is the reason why people like me are driven away from engaging in fandom. Please, if you see something thats clearly not made for you, its your responsibility to click off, filter accordingly and move on. I dont understand why this is so difficult for ccs to understand in the big year of 2026 lol.

[mizmatched]

I think 2020 era mcyt fandom spaces have broken content creators brains around fandom.

Coming from a person who generally is not interested in, nor makes content about, mcyt ships: creators do not get to decide what content fans make. They don't get to act as a moral authority over shipping or character design. The only time a creator has any authority to police your creativity is when it's entering into their workspace. (Reasonable boundaries like: do not bring up shipping in my streams, comments, discords etc, drawing me in a certain way makes me uncomfortable so i will not interact with it if i see it, etc) the only repercussion nessciary for breaking these rules is a simple block. Apart from that, they have no control over you, and it's weird of them to try.

Content creators are public figures. Fandom spaces DO NOT exist for them. They exist for YOU the creator and fan. Imagine if an actor or an artist tried to control their fandom space? If a content creator is uncomfortable with any aspect of fandom, I highly encourage them to blog tags, people, or communities that make you feel uncomfortable, like the rest of us.

Boundaries are for the person setting them only. They should only exist to curate what the person setting them is comfortable engaging with, but do NOT have the authority to control what others can do. There is nothing morally wrong with content that makes you uncomfortable.