(Hi there, if you’re seeing this, then I’m talking directly to you. Because, I think we as a role playing community need to have a sit down, a nice little heart-to-heart.
I’ve been lurking around Tumblr since way back when it was mostly people posting pictures of black and white filter-heavy lawn chairs and talking about music no one’s ever heard of. Back before geeks and nerds and socio-political discussions were about.
Before there even was a role playing community on this website. That was a mystical time where you could trim your posts, tags worked as intended 50% of the time, and there was something missing…
Around maybe, 2013, this site became hateful. And I mean passive aggressive tagging, anon hate raids, bullying people off characters/the site whole. Stalkers pretending to be other people, doxxing, death threats. I’ve seen this site produce some of the most wicked and hateful things on the internet.
And for what? We’re hobbyists. Be we nerds of comics, games, anime, movies- we, as role players, are fans of a thing playing to the tune of what we like. Now, I won’t admit we’re all perfect, amazing writers, but we are all one thing. We have one thing in common:
We’re people. We have jobs, schooling, family, friends, hobbies- passions. Every last role player is someone looking at a monitor, a laptop, a phone- adding people to Facebook or Skype or Discord. Attending conventions, forming lasting friendships. Even more than that sometimes.
So why all the hatred? The anxiety and bitterness? Lately, I’ve started doing a specific thing. Every night, I find someone I follow. Maybe not interact with, doesn’t follow me, etc. I find them, go to their page.
And I send them a short little message. Off anon. Telling them how great they are as people and RPers. And I do one thing very specifically that separates it from generic responses:
I mean it. I have now sent out seven. Not everyone has responded or posted, some likely deleted. The point isn’t recognition. It isn’t to gain followers, it’s not to promote myself.
It’s about putting others first.
We’re all people, with our own problems and heartaches. That’s all. Nothing more or less, just people.
I’m not asking for anyone to like or reblog this, that’s not the point. What I will ask is, once a day for a week, sending someone on your list you don’t talk with a message telling them something nice, and mean it.
There is so much honest toxicity within the role playing community, most of us have been involved with it in some form before. You have a chance to do something about it, so do it.
Make it a better place for everyone. Because everyone deserves to smile.)
