#6 - Shea Weber and Erik Johnson feel the Lovejoy

[dekedangle_rpf_mod]

This is the sixth post of Deke Dangle RPF Anon, a community for all your ice hockey anon meme needs.

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Comments

Re: Fic Discussion! - Seafoam

[(Anonymous)]

So we have to watch every comment we make on the off-chance some asshole is going to use that as ammunition? No. I am not meme's babysitter.

Re: Fic Discussion! - Seafoam

[(Anonymous)]

And authors aren't here to keep providing you with fic to critique.

If biting things back and trying to think ahead isn't worth the "babysitting" to you then you'll shoot yourself in the foot because they'll be far less fic for you to to discuss anyway.

Re: Fic Discussion! - Seafoam

[(Anonymous)]

I live in daily fear of all the fic going away, like that island in that Ayn Rand book.

Re: Fic Discussion! - Seafoam

[(Anonymous)]

NA and into that gap will step other authors, as has happened every other time some authors are driven away/leave because they get disgusted with fandom.

Re: Fic Discussion! - Seafoam

[(Anonymous)]

nayrt

That's true, but I'd rather not start talking about writers like they're disposable or not unique.

Re: Fic Discussion! - Seafoam

[(Anonymous)]

+ 100000

Not saying fic is this serious, but that's basically like replying to "People commit suicide!" with "Well whatever it's not like more baby's won't be born."

I hope the AYRT rethinks what they're saying or didn't mean it in the way it came out because that's a YIKES thing to say. Besides if you really think that none of the authors are worth wanting to keep around, then why do you care enough to comment on their fics anyway?

Re: Fic Discussion! - Seafoam

[(Anonymous)]

DA

If this was a megafandom maybe? Small fandoms die all the time. And there's no guarantee they'll write what you like as the current crop do.

There was a lot of Jeff/Eric fic "crit" years back and now there is basically no Jeff/Eric. That sucks balls for people who used to, currently, or ever hopped to write the pairing. The people who wrote it are AFAIK still in fandom and still ship it, but they obviously aren't into writing the pairing anymore.

Re: Fic Discussion! - Seafoam

[(Anonymous)]

NA

just for (anec)data, I have a lot of things I would have posted for Sid/Mario that I will never put up, because I'm basically guaranteed to get harassed if I do. Nobody writes that pairing. If they did, I'm sure they'd get the same.

Re: Fic Discussion! - Seafoam

[(Anonymous)]

da

That sucks, nonnie. There's always the anonymous collection on AO3 or a sock? Lots of people in this fandom have socks for their weirder things. If you turn off anon comments on AO3, then people can only harass you logged-in, and then you can report them.

And if people complain on meme about someone writing Sid/Mario, I will argue with them. I won't read it, but I will for sure defend your right to write it.

Re: Fic Discussion! - Seafoam

[(Anonymous)]

Can you post it as anonymous? I understand your anxiety about it. It's an unfortunate situation, a few assholes ruining it for everyone that might enjoy it.

Re: Fic Discussion! - Seafoam

[(Anonymous)]

da

Sid/Geno and Kane/Toews aren't going to die because one person pulled their fic. Hockey RPF is not a megafandom, but it's big enough that many or most people will never notice that this person deleted.

I get wanting to encourage stuff as much as possible, and especially for rarepairs (I could justifiably rip fic for my OTP to shreds but I lavish it with praise and kudos instead) but this is not going to kill this fandom.

Re: Fic Discussion! - Seafoam

[(Anonymous)]

da

BNFs have already left and fic production is down. All the old fic may stay up but that doesn't do anything for us who have already read the old fic.

Baseball RPF fandom used to be super huge and active and now it's lucky to get a fic a week and it's all mostly written by the same five people. If you're new to fandom you have a lot of shit to backlog read but, like I said, that does nothing for people who have read it all or have been in fandom a long time.

Hockey RPF is known for having wanky bnfs and wank fans and wanky anon spaces. Our last been influx of fans came from TW. We're already at a disadvantage because this isn't something that you really stumble into or can marathon in a weekend. People are leaving more than they're being supplanted, and unless they really love the sport and love to write -- there are always more readers than there are writers -- then the warnings on their twitters, tumblr, and FFA will make them think twice about joining, let alone writing fic.

BBC Sherlock is a huuuge fandom and Cumberbatch wank and fandom wank turned a lot of people off it and made them leave fandom. Those people combined are way bigger than the writing portion of Hockey RPF.

That's not even getting into commenting drama. Lots of people stop writing when they don't get a certain number of comments and kudos. If people leave fandom because it's too negative, then a lot of those people will be commentors/kudos-ers, because genuine lurkers don't know about fandom drama, they aren't into hockey and only read it as original fic, and/or they aren't the type to comment anyway. Comments go down and a lot people stop writing fic, or they'll only write the exact same Sid/Geno or Kane/Toews that's been written before because they know fandom will kudos on that, at least.

I'm sure someone will say it's not their responsibility or anything they can control, which is true, but it is something that will impact them. I don't care a whole lot because I'm in multiple sports fandoms and even more movie/tv/book/etc fandoms. I have *checks* 1,381 fics on my pinboard marked as "to read" and I add like 5-30 every day, and I'm always getting into new fandoms.

It should, however, worry people who are monofandom and only have hockey.

Re: Fic Discussion! - Seafoam

[(Anonymous)]

+ 1

I argue for people to not be assholes on anon spaces but it really is no skin off my hide if hockey fic production keeps slowing down. I have lots of other fandoms that keep me with things to read and the odd hockey fic popping up would be a nice treat. If hockey was my only fandom I would be a million times more livid.

I always think that the people who advocate hardest for this meme to allow troll discussion and for all fic discussion no matter how much it may hurt the author to see have to be monofandomers because they're the most invested in this space because it's their only fannish experience. But then they don't seem to realize that most people are monofandom and have no problem leaving the fandom, and them, behind. So they're hurting themselves but don't seem to notice or care and I'm just ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Re: Fic Discussion! - Seafoam

[(Anonymous)]

sa most people are pan/multifandom*

Re: Fic Discussion! - Seafoam

[(Anonymous)]

Other than CWM, who has stopped writing?

Re: Fic Discussion! - Seafoam

[(Anonymous)]

I went through my old bookmarks from 2012/2013 and found 15 people who wrote more than 5 fics who no longer write for Hockey RPf. This was from random spot checking. I really don't feel comfortable listing their names here because some of them did get wanked on and I know someone will cheerfully recount this wank, and people here are contrary and shameless enough to say "Oh X? I never liked her fic anyway! Good riddance!"

I'm sure if you go through your own bookmarks you will find more than a handful of people who have left.

Re: Fic Discussion! - Seafoam

[(Anonymous)]

nayrt and mods PLEASE screen this if it isn't okay, but off the top of my head:

Java_Genie, pentapus, Imp, svmadelyn has slowed down a lot, troubles, turningterrific, ChibiRHM, iBear (on ao3), Lenore, ellot.

You can argue that some people are 'write their few fics'-and-done!writers but some (I won't say who) are friends or friends of friends of mine and I know that the fandom climate and some anon remarks made them just enjoy hockey as a sport and made their ownly "fannish" production be commenting on /r/hockey.

Re: Fic Discussion! - Seafoam

[(Anonymous)]

turningterrific, ibear (((((((((( i love their work.

Re: Fic Discussion! - Seafoam

[(Anonymous)]

ayrt

Yup. But ~it's even more important for people to be able for people to discuss fic than it is for authors to feel comfortable creating it~ and ~new writers will come replace them~ so ~*~who cares~*~. [ROLLING MY EYES FOREVER] Nobody writes stuff like iBear anymore, is2g.

I did what the anon above me said and looked back at my bookmarks for people from 2010-2013 and I see a lot of people who no longer write hockey fic but are still active in other fandoms and who will reblog hockey stuff. But yeah! We're not collectively responsible -___- Ugh there was so much cool and unique stuff from that period too. I'm trying to imagine the slew animal transformation fic that was so popular a few years back being introduced today and can already see the "what do you want to fuck a squid or something, you freak?" trolling.

Add me as another person in the pile who's been in fandom forever but is glad it's not my only fandom.

Re: Fic Discussion! - Seafoam

[(Anonymous)]

na

Besides the few an anon can think of who specifically divulged leaving because wank, I'm not sure if you can attribute every single person moving on as anything besides most people's fandom having an expiration date. I was in Supernatural fandom for five years and quit when I was done, no looking back. 2010 was a freaking long time ago, especially in fandom years. The entire Inception fandom lived and died between now and then.

Re: Fic Discussion! - Seafoam

[(Anonymous)]

da I can think of several authors even earlier/older than the ones listed in another post who said they left because of the wank that arrived with some of the authors listed. Their work now is locked, mostly on LJ, but there were also a bunch who left because their interests changed, or their time commitments, or their jobs, etc.

Re: Fic Discussion! - Seafoam

[(Anonymous)]

ayrt

I would agree, but because hockey is already a niche sport, and sports RPF is niche enough in fandom as it is (the people are are in fandom are likely to have bad irl connotations with sports and sports culture. How many people who are in Hockey RPF have you heard say "I always hated sports but then my BFF got into hockey so I gave it a try and now I'm hooked"?), and RPF is a huge DNW for a lot of people, the natural occurrence of people moving on isn't the same for this fandom as it is for a movie of TV show, because the odds of enough people replacing them are slim.

Add on to that that even if RPF + Sports + Hockey doesn't bother you, we have players who are problematic, people who don't understand the forth wall and link primers or fic to players, people who try to break the forth wall against our will (Aja, all those mibble articles), and a history of players discovering fic all on their own and talking about it, we're already having a hard time attracting people.

Then say that the person decides to risk it and joins fandom anyway, they see all the wank and discover that we have trolls that will dedicate their time and effort to writing triggering fic and gifting it to you, constantly bringing up your name and tearing apart your fics, and that even the ~reasonable~ people will comment to tell you that you should have written their OTP instead or that the kink you're into isn't want here?

Forcing people out and casually having people leave isn't a good thing for this fandom. The odds are stacked against us and that's why we're small in the first place. If people come looking for some semblance of support and see a lot of people saying "authors are replaceable" or "I can't control other people; it's not my responsibility" or who will jump in to say that the gross behavior isn't all that bad because "there's worse out there". That keeps people away, and most everyone with a semi-big circle of friends probably has at least one friend who says they don't want to get into Hockey RPF because it doesn't seem to mesh with their narrative tropes or the wank is just too much.

(Inception is a closed fandom so I don't really think it applies.)

Re: Fic Discussion! - Seafoam

[(Anonymous)]

I get what you mean but I think movie fandoms are different. If they don't have sequels they usually die out after two years. Inception, TSN, etc. I'm dreading the day it happens to Kingsmen, which is why I hope that sequel will happen.

As long as Hockey still exists, RPF should still exist, especially if the two biggest pairings are still playing together. Only something drastic will make it end, like the surplus of wank, i.e what happened to Football RPF.

Re: Fic Discussion! - Seafoam

[(Anonymous)]

Speaking of Baseball RPF, I once ended up on the LJ site with all the fic a few years back, when it was a more active fandom. I had no idea who half the characters were and understood nothing about baseball and yet I read a huge, entire series about Andy Petitte and Roger Clemens lol????? And it involved Barry Zito???? And Clemens got a heart attack or was hit by a ball or something and lots of angst/maybe infidelity/ etc. Which is why after all the shitty Clemens things came out and Petitte testified against him I was sad even if, again, I had no idea what was happening. Google was my best friend.

But yeah, I agree. I was active during the heyday of Football RPF. I was also there for all the wank, and when it was happening I never actually thought it would affect the fic, because wank happened all the time. I got wanked on. And then it did. At least Hockey survived the move to Tumblr/Twitter (and got stronger over there), Football didn't, and basically now fans don't interact with each other unless they're on the same team and the fic really has suffered. There are so many fic tropes that are trending now that I wish could be applied to my ship/fandom but like, only 2-5 people write new fic every five months and they're not great. I'd hate for the same to happen to Hockey.

Re: Fic Discussion! - Seafoam

[(Anonymous)]

NA

Ugh this is my life exactly. Left Sherlock after a few months because the fandom was so annoying, hung in there in baseball fandom but it's so small there just isn't enough to keep me going, playing here now but I'm leery not just of the really bad anon trolls but also the general lockstep nature of readers. I like writing all kinds of things, but the sense that if I try anything angsty or unusual that doesn't end in snuggles it will get me flamed really keeps me from bothering to invest too much creatively.