As a veteran of multiple healthy, thriving fandoms (with a good production-to-wank ratio, because the latter was a natural hazard), I'd like to mention the sheer volume of lurkers I convinced to start making fanwork, and posting fanwork, who surpassed me in production. The *normalcy* of it. Now they would all be mocked off their accounts for "cringe". Y'all need to stop wondering why those healthy fandoms are now all curated backwater alcoves.
Oh, absolutely--there's nastiness in all directions--demand to produce exactly what someone wants and more and more, and critique (usually from behind anon) when it isn't exactly what's wanted, and also (and isn't this related), roasting when beginners and newcomers are committing the cardinal sins of 'cringe' and 'bad' writing, which is honestly, just another way of saying, no write it the way I want it, or I'll punish you. I think all of this has a lot to do with the shift from thinking of fandom as community to content and consumption.
