On Reddit I just read without logging in. It was nice. I'm trying to help build communities on Lemmy, so I'm posting and commenting.
Since doing that, I've been told I'm enjoying my hobby wrong, that my friends enjoy their hobby wrong, the links I researched for a comment thread are wrong (without references to correct info), and that I'm probably wrong about how I want to live.
I know I should have thicker skin, but the slow drip of unfriendliness is alienating.
I have a motorcycle. It's a Harley-Davidson. Immediately, everyone is picturing a large and unpleasant looking bearded man riding a huge, noisy, vibrating, chrome bedazzled air cooled motorcycle without a helmet from one bar to the next.
My harley makes about as much noise as a Toyota Camry. I wear full protective gear when riding it, including a bright and attention-getting helmet. It doesn't get ridden to bars, because drinking interferes with my motorcycle addiction.
The large and unpleasant looking bearded man part is accurate, though.
Easiest way to start hating your new hobby is visiting it's subreddit.
It's obvious for video games because you can assume anyone that wants to be active on a specific game sub is probably a try hard that talks about the meta, or max DPS builds, or other annoying stuff. But then you visit something like the carbon steel pan subreddit, or grilled cheese, and you're continually assaulted with this idea that there are only specific pans and oils that are correct, or that your grilled cheese isn't actually a grilled cheese because it was cooked too close to an open pack of salami.
Fandom is like a coin. A coin that has a shiny surface on one side and a dirty, rusty, smelly layer on the other. Some fans can have the passion and diligence to elevate the media while being respectful, while a lot of fans can be just down right hateful because it's easier to do so while contributing to nothing
Oh man, I really like One Punch Man, and I've always been a fan of the whole "poking fun at anime tropes thing", but if you spend 30 mins on the subreddit for that subject you find a lot of people that don't really see that the "child that's actually much older than they look" thing isn't a justifiable excuse for filling your sub with subjective images of a child.
At a certain point, it basically became trolling to raise that these people needed their hard drives checked by law enforcement professionals, and less to do with the thing that I actually enjoyed.
Oh yeah. I did not hang out in Star Trek groups for many years despite being a fan - I didn't near to hear a million times why Enterprise sucked or Discovery sucks or whatever. I enjoyed both and don't need to listen to someone screeching about continuity errors or whatever in a fictional TV show.
And they can't help themselves, more than once I've made a comment like this only to have someone reply, "Well, Discovery sucks because blah blah blah!", and it's like, "THANKS FOR DEMONSTRATING THE POINT I WAS MAKING. YOU'RE THE PROBLEM. YOU."
No one hates Star Trek more than Star Trek fans.
I joined a group on facebook that is called "Wholesomeposting" and that kind of shit is not allowed. It's much nicer that way. The noise level on Lemmy hasn't been too bad, fortunately...so far.
For many “fans,” it seems like it’s trendy to be cynical and negative.
They can’t just enjoy a new Trek, or Star Wars, or Marvel movie, without picking it apart and finding everything to complain about - and then criticizing not only the show/movie, but the more positive fans who are willing to overlook such trivial issues and just have fun.Not to mention the really awful subgroups of fans who will hate any genre where a woman hero or a minority hero gets time in the spotlight. They tank viewer ratings, harass the stars on social media, just go out of their way to ruin it for everyone. Totally toxic.
Me and the Apex Legends community
Me: This seems like a cool game, and it's free, and it's made by the Titanfall people.
Apex Legends community: Autistic screeching
I’ve had the opposite experience. But then again I don’t really watch media without interacting and falling in love with the fandom first.
I wouldn’t have watched Star Trek without Trekkies being awesome.
I love comedy podcasts, The Jeselnek and Rosenthal Vanity Project, a favourite. His style is dark humour and it seems that a significant proportion of the audience actually believe some of the things he jokes about. I think it's one of the reasons they rarely field audience questions and never phone calls.
Hmm, what's something I really like that gets shit on all the time? Open-world games with question marks all over the map is a big one. I like checking off points of interest, but it's reviled by many, and I can understand why. I also hate Soulslike games even though they seem to be super popular.
Aren't you afraid you enjoy it for the wrong reasons?
Oh ffs. For me it was the 40K fans. The grand majority is completely fine. But there are still these mouth breathing, bitter, gatekeeping neckbeards who loose their mind the moment something goes against…well they loose their mind all the time. No real reason to it. At least the mods tried to contain the worst offenders. Who would have thought a setting filled with hate and xenophobia attracts hate filled racists?
Firefly. Only because I've never met anyone that wasn't someone I had to introduce to it. Let alone the comics, novels, board/card games, etc.
But for real, if I ever got anyone enough of a base around me becoming such fans as I; I would also happen to have enough of the old school Mage:tAs books to equate Technocracy with the Alliance and equate the Trads to Pirates.
I used to be active on /r/mma which was actually a decent sub with good moderation, but there was also /r/ufc which was just awful.
A place for teenagers to post dogshit takes and say shit like “I can’t wait to see X fighter get knocked out”. They treat it like WWE, wanting it to be a dramatic story and not the competitive sport that it is.
Me enjoying Rick and Morty, before realizing most of the fanbase thinks Rick is someone to idolize rather than a sickly amusing trainwreck.
Same is true for Bojack to a lesser extent.
You don't know the shit I've seen.
I'm still a fan of Kingdom Hearts because of this.
