Fans should not feel entitled to a creator's attention or vindication.
They created something you really like and you got the opportunity to say hi once; this does not make you best friends or mean that your specific interpretation of canon IS the show and MUST BE or ELSE! Don't ''demand'' anything other than fair treatment in unfair conditions (your OTP being endgame or NOTP being nuked is NOT fair treatment). Fans shouldn't attack creators.
Creators should not feel entitled to fan's adoration or personal loyalty.
Fans are your audience which you really are lucky enough to have at all; if you created something with unforeseen consequences (to you) and your audience is being critical and talking about it, you shouldn't be seeing it as an attack and calling upon your 'real' fans to defend you from criticism. Creators should never weaponize the fan bases.
Boundaries are a thing I think all fanbases could really use to have between creators and fans.
Sending love to all content creators on this Stupid Tumblr Decisions monday. You all are being put through the torture wheel by Tumblr, I am so sorry ♥️♥️♥️
thank you this really means a lot <3
it just feels so disrespectful to everyone who puts their time, skills, and sometimes even money into creating fanart, fanfics, gifs, gfx, etc. the only way to get any feedback is from people reblogging your post (from their dashes!) and leaving something in the tags but now we won't even get that anymore because tumblr thought it was a great idea to steal those notes and give them to rebloggers instead of the op :)
sensing a weird thought process from non-creators where part of the pushback against supporting artists/editors/etc is because "producing content" is so "easy" and "if one person stops, another will start," no big deal.
i would have hoped this didn't need spelling out, but what an awful perspective on artists, editors, writers, and everybody who puts in free labour for creative expression. to equate all of us into one big group labelled "CONTENT CREATORS," to think that all we do is click a few buttons on photoshop or open microsoft word and call it a day, to say, you're all the same to me and your individual efforts don't matter. or, to treat us like news media and police us to fit a watered-down, commercialized vision of what creativity should be.
you may think us snobby and entitled, and sure, there's a certain ego that comes with being able to create cool things. but i invite you to consider this:
behind a single "pretty" gifset or edit is not only the time it took to create it, but the time that went into learning photoshop/illustrator/whatever's interface, years of cultivating a creative eye, thousands of hours put into developing one's unique artistic style, and more. behind a single fic is the time spent learning to write, to plot, to pace. i could go on! but behind any creative talent, there is hard work.
so to have the attitude that we're disposable is. incomprehensible to me? you don't need to be an expert in art to see clear stylistic differences between people riffing on the same thing. you want to lose this diversity? you want to see the same unedited photo ripped from getty images a hundred times on the dash? really??
bottom line is: if you want to see cool things, then you have to let the people making cool things know that you like what they're doing, whether that be in the form of a reblog, a comment, a message, or an ask. it is literally not that hard let people know they're appreciated. cheers x
Hi! I was wondering what was going on Twitter? I normally don't follow Dream or anybody in the dsmp. I just kind of started watching him like a minute ago.
Someone else already asked, so I'll copy that.
Ranboo being accused of lesbophobia, not gonna fully get into it since this is a safe space but you can look it up. I do not believe he is lesbophobic but its also not my apology to accept. However I am very pissed off and the people not tagging it properly and the fact that this obviously did impact Ranboo’s mental state.
i usually talk about this kind of thing on twitter and instagram because there’s less people directly connected to me by way of what i’m talking about vs. on here (or even discord tbh?) so i can get a variation in feedback and opinions, but i don’t want to seem like i’m censoring what i say on here because regardless of platform, my opinion is the same, so i’m going to say as bluntly here as i have everywhere else.
the only thing i ask is that you keep in mind that this is all just my opinion coming from the place of an artist and a writer who’s been in several different fanbases over the years and has had many varied experiences in each, and this particular thing i’ll be talking about is definitely a more targeted Hot Take:
fandom, to a certain extent, is a kind of popularity contest, and it’s harmful to ignore that fact and say that it’s not, that we’re all loved and appreciated equally, especially when it’s very clear in some situations, that that is not the case.
it can be so damaging to your self worth and how you view your work when you constantly feel like nothing you do is good enough for the group you’re involved in, because you’re not in the select group of golden creators that are, by the luck of the draw more than anything else, able to be bountifully supported for the most part, regardless of what they’re posting, and how often they’re posting.
and in my experience, it’s particularly noticeable when it comes to fanbases where there’s a definitive imbalance in creator/content types, i.e. more art than fic, more fic than art, more gif edits than anything else, etc.
that being said, those who are more involved with or make one medium - or maybe aren’t creative in that kind of way - may have a different kind of aesthetic appeal to a different medium they don’t have a more direct tie to ,which can definitely be a deciding factor when it comes to what hits the mark in group focused in one medium more than another, too; different creatives can be wired differently and personal taste is a factor too!
and i’m not saying it’s always like that, or a matter of quantity over quality, a niche style, whatever; luck can still be a key proponent here.
with all this in mind, the thing that bothers me about this particular situation as well as the fandom mentality with creators is: pretending that the support is spread out evenly between people, especially in fanbases/groups with this specific creator imbalance. you’d think that would make less sense because, well, if there’s less people making something, surely it’d be easier to support them all, right?
at least in this case, and i mean the case of fandoms similar to that of harringrove, when it comes to there being a kind of imbalance i guess, between different types of creative content (in this case, the art community, to a degree, being smaller than writing), there’s sometimes a deft difference in support amongst creators.
and i’m bringing this up now because over the past few months, i’ve been talking to different people who’ve told me they feel the way i do when it comes to this issue: what’s the point in me continuing to make my content when no one cares about or likes the stuff i do?
we all know that, no matter how big or small the group, you’re not going to be into everything being made and put out there, not everyone’s going to be into what you do, and that’s totally fine, but you also usually don’t want people in your peer group feeling that way.
what i’m strictly talking about in this case is that there are a lot creators out here, there, everywhere, some new and some here since day one, trying their hardest to keep making content for this ever growing group of people, and getting little to nothing in return, while some can really post anything and receive mountains of support almost instantly.
popularity is probably always going to be a thing that’ll exist in these communities regardless of size and regardless of the balance between creative types/content, i know that! and those who get the luck of the draw when it comes to their work blowing up, they don’t pick or choose that, that’s really up to the surrounding audience, and it’s never intentional! the thing that bothers me in this particular case is, while it also can’t really be helped as it is just (maybe unfortunately) circumstantial, in a fanbase that’s not particularly that big and that’s a little more dominated by one medium while still hosting growing amount of creators, why are we still seemingly picking and choosing who gets more support instead of exploring all our options?
and remember what i said earlier, that different types of creators might have different niche aesthetics or perspectives towards things they’re not directly involved in compared to those who directly are involved in those things, that quantity over quality is sometimes really the only key factor to growth because social media craves constant posting to maintain any kind of standing, and people are going to kind of stick with what they know and like rather than explore.
sometimes it comes down to luck, too, like what comes across your feed, and it can be kinda hard to just hope you get to see something different or know where to go when you want to explore!
my question still stands, because i don’t really think those things should be totally used as excuses, particularly in this situation, but these are things to take into consideration, because really, as frustrating as it can be from any perspective: the patterns we fall into that may inadvertently affect other people usually aren’t intentional.
(also i’m not going to fully drag my whole ‘bold of you to demand free content from creators when you can’t even reblog their fucking posts or you wanna pick and choose who you give actual support to vs. do it because everyone else is’ convo in here, although it definitely plays a role in this too, when there’s intentional ignorance or blindsiding going on, but i’d like to give everyone the benefit of the doubt for the most part.)
like i said before too, i know not everyone’s work is going to be everyone’s cup of tea! i know you’re probably not even going to like everything a creator you really enjoy, makes! that’s just an unattainable goal and that’s not how we as people work. but strictly following or only supporting popular creators just because their content is more readily accessible or because stylistically they’re more what you’re used to isn’t... i dunno, the best thing to do? the most productive?
(overall, we know a creator that’s smaller doesn’t mean their content is worse and a creator being more well known doesn’t dictate they’ve got better content, and vise versa.)
this was also mentioned to me on discord and i almost forgot to bring it up here/again, but to add on: you shouldn’t shy away from something that’s more out of the realm of what’s popular or what you’re used to, particularly if the account is newer or their aesthetics are a little different than what you tend to favor. spread your wings!
my core point here, at the end of the day, is: regardless of creator type imbalance, the type of content being made, who is and who isn’t getting recognition, whatever the case, we should all start to be more aware of the content that’s out there that we’re not seeing and we shouldn’t let waves of strictly popular content or old patterns dictate all the media we intake and the people we support.
let’s reblog more creative content - and retweet more of it if you have twitter and do that thing on instagram where you share someone’s post to your story so the OP still gets due credit if you use that and whatever other social media sites do - check tags to find some more hidden gems instead of just reblogging the posts that have hefty handfuls of notes - explore blogs and peoples’ tags if you see something new! - support patreon pages and ko-fi accounts if you can, leave encouraging comments, join discord servers or group chats and meet more people, just -- expand our awareness to everyone that’s trying their best to make content they’re brave and proud enough to put out into the world, whether or not you’re seeing them pop up on your feed every day.
because as much as we don’t want it to matter, whether we’re hobbyists or doing something as a career or combining business and pleasure (idk i really don’t like that phase but you get it lmao), validation, even just a little bit of it, it really does keep you motivated, makes you feel like all the rewrites and redraws and trashed projects are worth it to keep trying and going.
and to put all this more bluntly, if that’s more up your alley than a long, drawn out and carefully worded persuasive essay: you can’t expect to see or even really have the right to demand more content if you plan on being stingy with picking and choosing who you support.
a last message, too, because this is already far too long: if a creator is actively voicing that they feel no one likes their work and they want to give up on it, or that you should tell them what’s so wrong with their work that no one cares about it, don’t fucking send tell them what it is about their content you don’t like or what you think is wrong?? it’s not concrit, it’s not fucking helpful -- you’re just validating their fears and you’re making things worse, possible evening hinting they should just quit while they’re ahead; either be helpful and supportive or don’t fucking say anything. and if catch anyone pulling this shit i will come to your house and cut your hands off fucking Watch Me
SO: thanks for reading this fucking monster of an essay on why popularity contests in creative media can be unhealthy to all creators as well as hinder your exposure to great things! let’s all be better about supporting each other!
why is everyone complaining about the like to reblog ratio? because if it was different then otherwise it would mean that people reblogged the post without liking it and why would someone reblog something if they didn't like it in the first place? lol
.... what? i don't think people would complain if the situation was reversed. I personally would be delighted! when you reblog an edit from a creator, it will help others to see it it as well, otherwise your dashboard would be empty, AND THAT'S BASICALLY THE MAIN FUNCTION OF THIS HELLSITE LMAO. yeah, sure likes are nice, i appreciate it and it's nice to know that you liked what I made, even better when you leave a comment. but what the fuck am i gonna do with it? you liked it, that's great! but not enough that you would share it with others who would perhaps like it as well? who would perhaps engage with it?
also, why would you reblog something that you don't like? it's YOUR blog, fill it with stuff you actually LIKE and enjoy omg if you don't like something, keep scrolling, that's what I do 💖 but when I see something that i like? I'm smashing that reblog (or queue) button like my life depended on it, believe me
