[ϟ] Regarding the spread of unconfirmed information!
Dear NCTzens. This is somewhat of a hard topic to address for us, and it isn’t the first time we are making a post about a similar issue as well. Considering that not everyone is aware of the current turmoil that’s been a constant within the fandom for the past days, we don’t want to draw even more attention to these issues, but seeing as how much reach they’ve garnered already we felt the need to speak up. So we would appreciate if you could hear us out.
For everyone, being a fan may mean something different, however, it usually boils down to the same overall agenda. We want to support our favorite artists. When our favorite artists encounter situations that may inflict harm upon them or their career, we get the desire to take action to remove those obstacles from their path. That’s good. That’s natural. However, what often gets disregarded, subconsciously so, is that there’s a fine line between helpful action and harmful action that we, as fans, can take. Let’s go into specifics.
At this point there are several rumors floating around regarding NCT Dream, as well as NCT 127 being harassed by their managers. We did some digging, and all of those claims are either unconfirmed, lack any sort of proof, or have been debunked and turned out to be entirely untrue. Some of them came out of nowhere. Some of them originate from a single witness’ written account. Some of them were actually confirmed to be entirely made up. The internet is a wild place where everyone’s voice has equal volume, indeed. As to not add any more fuel to the fire, instead of going into specifics about each case we’d like to encourage you to do what we’d generally hope for the fandom to eventually increasingly do: Do your research. Search for answers. Do not take everything you see at fact level, and don’t spread things that don’t come from a trusted, knowledgable, unbiased source. Now, we’re not asking you to ignore when someone claims for something bad to have happened to any of the members. That would speak against our code as fans. But once again, all we ask, sincerely, from fan to fan, is to not spread un-researched and unconfirmed information as it not only harms the people around NCT, but also the boys themselves.
Which brings us to our next topic. We are indeed aware of the vast amount of people within the fandom that up to this day question the legitimacy of WayV being part of NCT. Going around have been screenshots of a comment conversation on the Chinese wiki page “Baidu” where a certified moderator claimed (upon fans asking why NCT isn’t listed on WayV’s wiki page) that WayV is not part of NCT. This rose a lot of questions amongst fans, when yet we’d like to once again remind that this is not to be considered confirmation in the slightest. We kindly ask you to reassess the definition of the word confirmation. All previous statements that have been made regarding WayV’s situation, SM statements, clearly refer to WayV as NCT’s Chinese sub-unit. Our assumption here is that for reasons unknown to us, SM in particular is undergoing close scrutiny in terms of their relation to the Chinese entertainment industry and therefore may remain rather cryptic about these matters on Chinese ground, but as always, be aware – this is only speculation. Fact is and will remain that we, fans, do not know what goes on behind the scenes and this lack of knowledge, although frustrating, should never trick us into giving more validity to baseless claims or elevating conspiracy to truth. The uncertainty within the fandom is strong, and it’s evidently the prime reason why such rumors manage to flourish, but now more than ever, we ask you to be cautious. Once again, this spread of misinformation can cause more harm than good. Although it may not seem that way, your words and actions matter, so please be alert of what you preach. Whether SM has valid reasons for keeping us in the dark about a lot of these matters is a question up for debate, surely, but while we know it’s easy to target a massive entertainment industry, we’d also suggest open-mindedness and a minimum amount of faith that there is a ground to this cautious behavior on SM’s end. The claim that the whole entertainment is acting out of sheer spite is a tad bold, considering that SM created an entire label to ensure that they can efficiently promote WayV without complications, and as a result WayV have become the most endorsed NCT unit within their first year of founding. But that’s just one of many things to think about.
To conclude, we’d like to say this. It’s comeback period. NCT Dream came back after 10 months of inactivity, and thus far it looks like it’s going to be their last comeback with the 2000-line. We hope it’s not too much to ask to redirect this vigor that goes into distributing unconfirmed information into making this a promotion period that both Dreamies and fans can look back on fondly. We’d like to ask you to vote, stream, or even just mentally support the boys in their endeavors. It’s been a long time coming, and after all, we’ve already gotten a taste of how much we are capable of if we work together to help them accomplish their goals. Please also note that we do not intend to reproach fans for their concerns or frustrations! We, too, are fans who care deeply about the boys’ safety and comfort and our actions will never originate from an ill-spirited place. We hope you understand that and know we speak in the best interest of both fans and members.
With all that said, we hope for this to be an enjoyable comeback period, regardless of the priorly mentioned. Let’s help our boys reach their goals, together.