{"id":119623,"date":"2016-01-06T16:04:43","date_gmt":"2016-01-06T16:04:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2016\/01\/06\/the-three-laws-of-fandom-2\/"},"modified":"2016-01-06T16:04:43","modified_gmt":"2016-01-06T16:04:43","slug":"the-three-laws-of-fandom-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2016\/01\/06\/the-three-laws-of-fandom-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Three Laws of Fandom"},"content":{"rendered":"

darthstitch<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

notreadytosettle<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

ozhawkauthor<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

If you wish to take part in any fandom, you need to accept and respect these three laws.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

If you aren\u2019t able to do that, then you need to realise that your <\/i>actions are making fandom unsafe for creators. That you <\/i>are stifling creativity.<\/p>\n

Like vaccination, fandom only works if everyone <\/i>respects these rules. Creators need to be free to make their fanart, fanfics and all other content without fear of being harassed or concern-trolled for their creative choices, no matter whether you happen to like that content or not<\/i>.<\/p>\n

The First Law of Fandom<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t Like; Don\u2019t Read (DL;DR)<\/b><\/p>\n

It is up to you what you see online. It is not anyone else\u2019s place to tell you what you should or should not consume in terms of content; it is not up to anyone else to police the internet so that you do not see things you do not like. At the same time, it is not up to YOU to police fandom to protect yourself or anyone else, real or hypothetical.<\/p>\n

There are tools<\/i><\/b><\/a>\u00a0out there to help protect you if you have triggers or squicks. Learn to use them, and to take care of your own mental health. If you are consuming fan-made content and you find that you are disliking it – STOP.<\/p>\n

The Second Law of Fandom<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Your Kink Is Not My Kink (YKINMK)<\/b><\/p>\n

Simply put, this means that everyone likes different things. It\u2019s not up to you to determine what creators are allowed to create. It\u2019s not up to you to police fandom<\/i>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t like something, you can post meta about it or create contrarian content yourself, seek to convert other fans to your way of thinking.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

But you have no right to say to any creator \u201cI do not like this, therefore you should not create it. Nobody should like this. It should not exist.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not up to you to decide what other people are allowed to like or not like, to create or not to create. That\u2019s censorship<\/i>. Don\u2019t do it.<\/i><\/p>\n

The Third Law of Fandom<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Ship And Let Ship (SALS)<\/b><\/p>\n

Much (though not all) fandom is about shipping. There are as many possible ships as there are fans, maybe more. You may have an OTP (One True Pairing), you may have a NOTP, that pairing that makes you want to barf at the very thought of its existence.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not up to you to police ships or to determine what other people are allowed to ship. Just because you find that one particular ship problematic or disgusting, does not mean that other people are not allowed to explore its possibilities in their fanworks.<\/p>\n

You are free to create contrarian content, to write meta about why a particular ship is repulsive, to discuss it endlessly on your private blog with like-minded persons.<\/p>\n

It is not appropriate to harass creators about their ships, it is not appropriate to demand they do not create any more fanworks about those ships, or that they create fanwork only in a manner that you deem appropriate.<\/p>\n

These three laws add up to the following:<\/b><\/p>\n

You are not paying for fanworks content, and you have no rights to it other than to choose to consume it, or not consume it. If you do choose to consume it, do not then attack the creator if it wasn\u2019t to your taste. That\u2019s the height of bad manners.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Be courteous in fandom. It makes the whole experience better for all of us.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Yup.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Slaps onto blog.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

darthstitch: notreadytosettle: ozhawkauthor: If you wish to take part in any fandom, you need to accept and respect these three laws. If you aren\u2019t able to do that, then you need to realise that your actions are making fandom unsafe for creators. That you are stifling creativity. Like vaccination, fandom only works if everyone respects … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Three Laws of Fandom”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[146],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119623"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119623\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}