I just came from reading the huge thread that I started about Dollhouse not airing in November and my goodness there were a lot of snarky-ness going on! If I had known this I wouldn't have posted the bloody thing in the first place!

Fall is always a tough time of the year...and everything seems to be stressed to the gills not matter what it is.

I write Rayne, which I know so many many many people hate. I don't mind that they hate it, I don't try to convert them or anything. But if they hate it SO much, why do they read my stories and then comment how they hate it? I put warnings on the top so they can just not read it if they don't want but they still do. >_< Very annoying.

Thanks everyone. I do have faith in us, and I do know that we're the best fandom around (so says I!), I guess it just caught me at a time when I wanted a safe haven, and it didn't seem to be here. Fortunately, things are much better all around now.

@2x2:

I don't think that you necessarily need to stay away from discussions. More like, just for the time being.


@Aliasse:

Ah, got ya. That really sucks!


@all:

Every once in a while, a community "freaks out." It lasts for a while and then normalises. FF/S is no exception. Us humans tend to be irrational from time to time ;p

Don't worry, this will pass.

I guess I misseed it - glad I did. I still have faith in Browncoats as intelligent, tolerant, funny, and kind. The cycle of disdain is so easy to get into, but maybe the way to break - to paraphrase our BDH - it is to respond with a generous heart.

The recent obscenity on this site has been the reason I haven't even *thought* about visiting FFF in the past few months. Too bad Haken can't afford to hire a full-time moderator. :-/

Fortunately, many of the former regulars have migrated to and found each other on other community sites.

I was really saddened when I saw that you had deleted all your fic back then, Aliasse. Glad you came back!

I guess I must have been living in my happy little ball of ignorant bliss, fortunate enough not to have stumbled onto much... willfully ignorant I guess, since as I said, I have always mostly avoided the discussion threads and whatnot and so, obviously, didn't see it.

So, this is my little dose of reality.

Fair enough. It's not going to chase me away - though I do imagine I'll be steering clear of the discussion posts again. But that's fine. I will still come here for what I've always come here for - to read fic about the characters I love :o)

No, I deleted them myself. Felt so much like 2x2 that I thought 'I don't want to be part of this'. But there's so much that's good that brought me back.

(The evil-hacker-crash happened a while ago, not sure when - I only started posting recently.)

Wasn't there a grand crash in April that took a tonne of posts/etc with it? I seem to remember something like that (one or more months was lost). Though, perhaps that was last year? Can anyone confirm/deny?

I always got the impression that this site was pretty much a reflection of the real world. Though saying that there was the Deletion of All My Fics in April because it seemed to be reflecting it in a particularly unpleasant way. I returned with a more robust attitude and try to focus on the fun and positive aspects now, though as a Brit I reserve the right to mock a certain hate-monger whenever he posts something about the UK.

I'd be really sorry if what you've said in your log here has led you to reconsider becoming more involved on the site again. We need you! (no pressure mate).

It has always been on here. In fact, just after the movie came out there was *lots* of this going on, from fanboys trying to out fanboy each-other, to arguing inconsistencies that the movie brought in, etc, etc, etc. It was tooth and nail for a while.

But, all this ebbs and flows. Such is life. So, I wouldn't get too bent out of shape over it.

(p.s. Yes, I'm aware of my post here being a little ironical.)

Huh. Maybe it's always been here then, and I have been fortunate enough to have avoided it in the past...

Oops - I guess I meant to direct that last bit to 2x2. I was thinking Platonist posted that.

Carry on. :)

I recall this happening many years ago. Sadly. I wasn't at all a part of it (happily), since I was just barely discovering fanfic at the time, but I heard the rumblings of horrible email wars between Simon/Kaylee fans and Jayne/Kaylee fans back in 2005. Which I thought horribly silly. I mean - really? Fighting over fanfic?

I do understand more now, being opinionated myself. But taking opinions into thread fights or private flame emails is just nuts! Sorry to hear it happened again.

Platonist - if there is more antagonism on the site now, (outside RWED, that is, where it's just expected) that's a damned shame. But not really surprising. With no new canon to talk about, there's not much to do but get picky about silly things.

As I said, I wasn't talking about any specific comments or thread in general - to be honest, I didn't see even a quarter of whatever comments you're speaking of, Platonist, I'm not speaking to them specifically, and they're not what started me thinking about this...

I'm speaking to a general feeling of antagonism that I see when I visit here, that I've been seeing increasingly over the last few years.

And I think Katesfriend is right, it is everywhere, and I guess in a way inevitable. It was just nice that it wasn't so prevalent here.

The comments that started all of this have been deleted, rightfully putting it to rest. Let’s move on.

The sad thing is that it's not just here - it is everywhere. It's like we're in a societal period of intolerance for anything different than ourselves. And until it comes into conscious awareness by many people and is rejected as a solution to their problems, I think we are going to see a lot more general intolerance everywhere. Maybe it's a byproduct of economic stress and fear, but until we believe we're all in this together and not on our lonesome, it will reoccur.

And the beauty of Serenity is that was one of Mal's lessons all along. Thank you Joss.

It just seems to me that there is so much antagonism between folks here.

I'll be honest, I've never been one for participating in the comms here, mostly because I don't get off on the discussions that always seem to evolve into some form of argument... Some people really enjoy that, which is fine, but it seems to me, people used to be able to argue their point without things deteriorating to the point of insults and accusations.

Nowadays, if someone so much as cracks a joke, it seems there's someone else there, just waiting to pounce on them for daring to say anything that contradicts how they feel.

I used to be proud of the fact that this fandom was so removed and free from the in-fighting that plagues so many other fandoms. We all have our favourite pairings, but it used to be that, no matter who we personally liked, there was tolerance for other tastes, respect for writers making the attempt, and a live and let live attitude that I just don't get from this board anymore.

What I don't understand is why? I'm a die hard Mal/Inara shipper. It's pretty much all I like to read, and with my schedule, all I have time to read. I'm not a fan of Mal/River, or Mal/Simon, or Jayne/River, or even Simon/Kaylee... none of those pairings do anything for me, nor do I have any real interest in any Mal/OC fics, but lots of other people do. Are they wrong for it? Of course not. Do they hurt me by writing things that I don't enjoy? How could they possibly?

So why is it that we have to draw these immovable lines in the sand and anyone who crosses to the other side is immediately wrong and deserving of hatred? Why is it that someone can't express an opinion - about *anything* - without someone there to call them a douche for daring to say so?

I'm not pointing fingers at anyone. This is not a one individual or one situation kind of thing, I'm seeing it all over. It's a poison that seems to have spread throughout the heart of this fandom, and for me, it's killing it from the inside.

I am just incredibly sad and disappointed.

Just checking in after long away - What the hell happened?

Well, I’ll be the last to plead innocent, but since there has been a lack of any new canon lately (or even an interest in any new canon), the discussions and overall tone of this place has shifted away from Firefly/Serenity love and appreciation to unrelated topics which have created camps of posters that align along shipping and political lines leading to flaming and misunderstandings. A failure to communicate, I say.

For myself, I plan on being very careful how I word things so I don't offend in the future.

I hear that.

The sad thing is, while it has been especially bad just lately, this is not new. In fact, it appears to be a growing trend around here. I used to think Browncoats were the nicest, most accepting and friendly bunch in the 'verse... Somewhere along the way, though, that nice quotient seems to have dropped an awful damn lot...

It's been an interesting twenty four hours. Mostly settled down now. Mostly.

Say, do you have a gun? I'm going to go play Russian Roulette with myself.