Everyone actively involved in a fandom – any fandom – should read the story of Msscribe, a woman who allegedly went to extraordinary lengths to get in with a certain group of well-known Harry Potter fans and be popular in the fandom.
There are ten chapters in total at the Bad Penny community, mounting evidence, a Fandom Wank report and a whole lot of dropped jaws.
We’ve had drama in Club Jade, from time to time. But my goodness, this is a whole new level of insanity. I’m rather dizzy from trying to follow the soap opera outlined by this.
Y’know, people. There are so many more important things in life than wrapping yourself up so tightly in your fandom. I am pretty wrapped up in Star Wars, but this level? The mind boggles!
Writing up ten entire chapters about this situation is an absurd use of time.
This saga is partly why I stand as my own fandom clique.
Absurd use of time? Maybe. But I think it’s a good thing – think of it as a cautionary tale, if nothing else.
I just finally finished the whole thing. It is truly fascinating.
Like Paula, I remember some similar (though obviously greatly-scaled down) “kerfluffles” in the early days of CJ. I’m really pleased how we’ve managed to weather them and haven’t had any drama pretty much at all in the last few years.
It boggles the mind lengths people will go to for attention. And I say that as an admitted attention-whore. But I just can’t conceive of all the lying and manipulation–not that clever, I guess. I mostly just shout “Hey look at me” in various different ways. ;)
I think those ten chapters are a far cry from an absurd use ot time.
The thing is, a percentage of the people who’ve read the series — maybe only a small percentage — will twig that much faster when they encounter these sorts of behaviors in the future.
Even for those of us who were never burned by these activities, it’s not just gossippy, smirky, finger-pointing fun; it’s a cautionary tale, and some people will indeed take caution.