TW: Mentions of NSFW, non-con, incest, etc. but nothing graphic.
Since the Cinderella boy fandom is growing bigger, I need everyone to, once again, remember the basic fandom etiquettes :
→ If a fanfiction or fanart depicts something problematic, taboo, distasteful or even something very disgusting, such as incest, rape, pedophilia, etc. it does not mean that the author or artist endorses their work. A person's work cannot define their personality, not even if said problematic work is romanticised/sexualized or not.
→ Do not leave unsolicited criticism about the writing or art style of fanfiction or fanart. If the person has not asked for constructive criticism, then criticizing their work will come off as rude or unwelcome. Yes, there are people who are okay receiving constructive criticism, but that doesn't mean that everyone is okay with it. Fandom is a place to enjoy, and if you do not like their work, then you are free to leave.
→ Do not harass, or dox a person because they have different opinions on a character/ship. If someone likes something that you don't, then you can block or mute them. It does not matter if the character or ship can be considered "problematic" or not, nobody deserves to be harassed because of fictional characters. This also goes for NSFW writers and fan artists. Even if the fictional characters are minors, there will always be NSFW of them, whether you like it or not.
→ If you think that a fanfic author, or artist, has mischaracterized a character, keep it to yourself. You cannot just go into someone's inbox and start complaining about how they messed up the personality of a fictional character. Yes, of course you're allowed to be a bit annoyed at the person, but do not criticize their characterizations unless they have asked for it. At the end of the day, these fanfictions and fanarts are about fictional people, but the ones who are engaging in fandom work are real people.
→ Even if you think a person has used AI, unless it is mentioned, you cannot accuse someone of such a thing. There are many people in the fandom whose first language is not English (I'm one of them, in fact) and telling someone that their work sounds "robotic" or "unnatural" will not help build their confidence or "improve" their language skills. If anything, it will only make the person feel attacked.
→ Yes, fanfics can be better than professional writing. No, that does not mean that fanfics are always supposed to be better than professional writing. Fanfictions and fanarts are done for fun, but that doesn't mean that the person has to be "good" at it. You don't like the writing style of an author? Then just don't read it. This also goes for fanarts, just because you don't like someone's art style doesn't mean you're allowed to criticize it.
→ It is completely okay to not like a theory or headcanon. What isn't okay is saying that people who like the theory or headcanon do not "understand the character", "are only doing it for fetish reasons", etc. If you're in a fandom, then you will come across things you do not like. It's best you do not interact with it.
As an Autist, I know unwritten rules are not obvious to everyone. Particularly if things work a little differently in that space than they do in others. It can be hard to realize I'm misstepping in new territory, if no one tells me the rules directly. Here's a few things I've learned about fan fic etiquette.
1. Yelling for more of something you're already getting for free is rude.
2. Downloading someone else's fic and reposting it to another site is stealing.
3. Downloading and feeding someone's fic to AI is STEALING.
4. Comments on the fic are for the author, not other readers.
5. Unlike social media, commenting on other people's comments is generally not done.
6. Demanding updates or sequels is not a compliment, it's considered harassment and it spoils the author's sense of play and joy about the fic. That they are giving us for free. Out of love.
7. Rating or critiquing fanfic in the comment section is not okay. Not unless the author explicitly says they are open to it.
8. Same goes for telling the author what you want them to write next or what you think should happen in the next chapter. (That's a sign you're inspired and need to write your own fic.) Don't do it unless the writer specifically asks for prompts.
9. Don't like? Don't read it. Don't comment on it.
10. Writers live on kind comments. It's their only payment. If you bookmark a story, it's customary to pop in to say thank you and tell them what you love enough about the story to save.
I'm sure I've missed many "rules" myself, and I am grateful for the fandom monarchs who've directly explained these things to me. Can you think of any other unwritten etiquette guidelines I should've included?
Look. Pushing authors for new chapters and to update quickly is obviously wrong. But saying harmless stuff like "So excited for the next chapter!", "Hello author, I noticed that you haven’t been updating in 2 years, are you doing alright :( ?" are such non-issues?
I'm sorry but where on earth can anyone see anything pushy and demanding about these phrases? They're just expressing their eagerness?? It's so obviously a compliment? You could even ask them to specify if it is or not, if you're confused.
And the second is just expressing concern? Asking simple questions?? Not a hint of anything offensive nor demanding in sight???
How about everyone just stops taking everything like a personal attack? At this point, if you have little to no comments and you're upset about it, you have no one but yourself to blame. You can't just act so scathingly and controllingly and expect constant politeness, praise and gentleness. Sometimes, people calling the readers entitled are just projecting.
Y'all still missing some fandom rules, apparently.
Yes, we need to bring back KINKTOMATO, Don't Like Don't Read, Squick, etc.
Apparently some of us ALSO forgot "Don't post your hate in the standard tag." If your post is anti something, It does not go in the regular tag for that thing. I don't give a shit how much exposure you want for it. It doesn't belong in the regular tag. Stop being fucking asshats to people who like a thing because you have beef with it. You look like a petty, petulant child.
fuck your hate, keep it in the anti tag like a goddamn respectful person.
Never trust a fandom where there's no salt about the series to be found or where stans bitch about the existence of salt/harass and insult people who are critical of the thing they like and insist that the general tags should only include #positivity.
It is always going to be a fandom rife with bigotry and/or the most shallow interpretations of the source media
struggling to articulate my thoughts on the way i interact w/ phm fandom and fandom as a whole but i accidentally upset someone yesterday b/c our understandings weren't aligned about this so it feels important i try to do so.
i grew up around fandom, but i'm also an english lit major who wants to remain in academia and this is the first time i've been actively involved in a fandom in several years, and i think i tend to approach media largely as a critic first and a fan second. the difference between the two, as far as i can tell, is that as a critic, i like taking apart a work to see how the different elements are furthering its themes and the way those do and don't serve the text. as a fan, i largely treat the characters as autonomous and enjoy extracting as much as i can about their behaviors/desires/etc from the text in order to create further imaginings of them that are grounded in the text. (this is obviously a reductive binary because i can apply death of the author in a critical framework but whatevs let's go with it.)
as a critic, my opinions on phm are... mixed. i'm bad at giving media numerical ratings but if i had to both the book and the movie would be a solid three stars i think. this is not entirely the fault of andy weir—i'm not a science person, and i tend not to like hard sci-fi simply because i'm not all that interested in speculative science. what i am interested in are the political and moral elements. i enjoyed the flashback narrative a lot more than the main story largely because i was most interested in the questions that arose from the character of eva stratt and her relationship to grace—questions about the importance of individual rights vs. the good of humanity, about the difference between willing to lay down your own life for a cause and being willing to lay down someone else's. at its best, i think the book was willing to in the tension of those questions with no easy answer. however, i also don't think the book is... all that well written. i found the dialogue super clunky and indistinguishable between characters. i think the first-person narration was strong when grace was thinking through scientific problems (which again i don't care about so this is partly a me thing) but otherwise a little awkward and stilted. i felt very detached from all the emotional beats. i thought the movie was better in this regard—every character was written to have a distinct voice and beautifully acted, and i cried my eyes out. however, i also thought the movie was less willing to engage with moral complexity than the book and felt frustratingly saccharine at times.
so my involvement in the phm fandom evolved out of my critical opinion of phm. i'm fascinated by eva stratt and everything she represents, and i love seeing the way her character is expanded on in fandom. but the way i interact with with fandom is necessarily colored by the way i view phm as a critic and i don't want that to negatively impact the community i want to be a part of as a fan.
i've learned not to offhandedly mention aspects of phm that i hate on in otherwise fannish posts. i would love any other advice/rules of fandom etiquette people can offer! think i'm gonna pin this if i can figure out how
tldr; i'm trying not to mix my critical opinions of phm with my involvement in fandom but if you never want to see any criticisms of phm i'm probably not someone you should follow :(. oh and while i'm at it, if you're only here for gracerocky i'm also probably not worth the follow, i don't think i'll ever be posting any gracerocky content :(. much love to y'all though, y'all are d1 freaks
I honestly hate how fandoms treat new gens (not dps you guys are lovely) like im sorry for not being born earlier. I don’t give a shit how long you’ve been in the fandom doesn’t mean you can’t treat newer people with respect and enjoy the thing you both love.
