A few people have mentioned the latest fandom drama to me, involving harassments and potential loss of yet another author.
I just want to say, about this situation specifically, that wow. These two people handled this SO WELL. I'm just really proud of the author speaking up, keeping records, and making time to speak to (and listen to) the offending party and their sister. (Especially with respect to the sister, who honestly seems to have some very serious mental issues and/or neurodivergence that did not warrant a public stoning.)
I am dealing with drama in my own life right now that involves a lot of people who are, like, 50 and 70 years old, and no one is handling their issues as well as these two people did, with their willingness to communicate, confront the problem, and work on a resolution.
What I'd really like to emphasize about this entire episode is that harassment is in the eyes of the beholder. It's very educational to read all the comments (go read the gDoc link) and realize how they add up to significant emotional distress and also to see how the commenter might have... perceived many of them very differently.
What this means to you, readers, is tread very lightly when you comment. What you think may be simply informative or slightly chiding can be landing with an impact you'd never fathom. Go read all the examples of the comments to understand how nebulous some of them can be if taken individually, but how they can also turn into a very damaging deluge. (I mean, lots of them are clearly hateful, but some are not.)
Most importantly, I think: EXIT A STORY THAT IS MAKING YOU ANGRY. This seems like advice we all need tattooed on our inner wrists. When it goes somewhere you don't like, don't tell the author. Just exit. If you are angry or hurt or feeling negative: DON’T COMMENT. BACK OUT.
This fandom in particular has lost more authors due to harassing or ‘educational’ comments than any other I’ve ever been involved in. We really need to be more careful.
