Is there a "toxicity" in this fandom?

[Coola Yagami]

Originally Posted by Bry

Godwin was specifically referring to those who attended/marched at the white supremacy rally in Charlottesville as Nazis. So that raises a good point. What do we call those who didn't march at the rally or actively engage in similar actions, but still support an openly white-supremacist political movement? Nazi sympathizers?

Nope. You call em Neo-Nazis. Really, why would you be at a Nazi rally if you weren't one?

[plastroncafe]

Originally Posted by Bry

Godwin was specifically referring to those who attended/marched at the white supremacy rally in Charlottesville as Nazis. So that raises a good point. What do we call those who didn't march at the rally or actively engage in similar actions, but still support an openly white-supremacist political movement? Nazi sympathizers?

Quisling F*cks.

[Bry]

Originally Posted by Coola Yagami

Nope. You call em Neo-Nazis. Really, why would you be at a Nazi rally if you weren't one?

Good answer.

[Candy Kappa]

Originally Posted by plastroncafe

Quisling F*cks.

It's nice to see that Quisling are being used outside of Norway as well.

[Bry]

To answer the question... Yeah, there kinda is. And the source of toxicity is the same as many other fandoms: cliquishness and gatekeeping.

It tends to happen naturally whenever you have a group of hardcore regulars who'll dominate the community. Their opinions, attitudes, etc, are considered "right" by the clique, and anything diverting from that is treated with condescension or scorn. Any topic outside of their comfort zone is shouted down or snuffed out. It makes the whole place feel hostile to everyone but the hardcore regulars (and even to some of them, to be honest).

I truly believe no topic, unless it's something truly obscene or illegal, is necessarily "toxic". It's the behaviour of the posters that causes that. If people are discussing something you dislike or disagree with, it's very simple to ignore it or talk about something else. Trying to dictate what others can or can't talk about immediately makes the place hostile and adds to any toxicity.

But I feel like this is bound to happen every time you've got enough people who believe the fandom or community "belongs to" them, even though of course neither does. It's for everyone who enjoys it and wants to be a part of it. Or it should be, at least.

[plastroncafe]

Originally Posted by Candy Kappa

It's nice to see that Quisling are being used outside of Norway as well.

I have to own up to the fact that I wasn't aware of the term until I read "World War Z," which prompted me to look it up.
I had no idea how useful that particular Google would be until recently.

Originally Posted by Bry

To answer the question... Yeah, there kinda is. And the source of toxicity is the same as many other fandoms: cliquishness and gatekeeping.

It tends to happen naturally whenever you have a group of hardcore regulars who'll dominate the community. Their opinions, attitudes, etc, are considered "right" by the clique, and anything diverting from that is treated with condescension or scorn. Any topic outside of their comfort zone is shouted down or snuffed out. It makes the whole place feel hostile to everyone but the hardcore regulars (and even to some of them, to be honest).

I truly believe no topic, unless it's something truly obscene or illegal, is necessarily "toxic". It's the behaviour of the posters that causes that. If people are discussing something you dislike or disagree with, it's very simple to ignore it or talk about something else. Trying to dictate what others can or can't talk about immediately makes the place hostile and adds to any toxicity.

But I feel like this is bound to happen every time you've got enough people who believe the fandom or community "belongs to" them, even though of course neither does. It's for everyone who enjoys it and wants to be a part of it. Or it should be, at least.

This.
Just this.

[Prowler]

Ofc, the words "Nazi" and "Godwin" had to eventually come up ITT. Godwin's Law never fails

[pferreira]

Originally Posted by Vegita-San

would be possible if the spray painted area's didn't constantly re appear after you paint over or cover them .

sometimes you have to nip the spray painters in the bud to keep the town nice .

Very true. Good similarity!

Originally Posted by Bry

To answer the question... Yeah, there kinda is. And the source of toxicity is the same as many other fandoms: cliquishness and gatekeeping.

It tends to happen naturally whenever you have a group of hardcore regulars who'll dominate the community. Their opinions, attitudes, etc, are considered "right" by the clique, and anything diverting from that is treated with condescension or scorn. Any topic outside of their comfort zone is shouted down or snuffed out. It makes the whole place feel hostile to everyone but the hardcore regulars (and even to some of them, to be honest).

I truly believe no topic, unless it's something truly obscene or illegal, is necessarily "toxic". It's the behaviour of the posters that causes that. If people are discussing something you dislike or disagree with, it's very simple to ignore it or talk about something else. Trying to dictate what others can or can't talk about immediately makes the place hostile and adds to any toxicity.

But I feel like this is bound to happen every time you've got enough people who believe the fandom or community "belongs to" them, even though of course neither does. It's for everyone who enjoys it and wants to be a part of it. Or it should be, at least.

Yep, the mods are partly responsible for that. The users who bully others are the other half of the problem. It becomes a question of: do you want to stick around but force yourself to have the same view as the prominent users so to avoid getting into trouble or do you leave that forum while still a user there until enough people complain for the people in charge to actually do something about it? I wish I had that opportunity with a couple of forums.

[Vegita-San]

The RPF was like that a bit. but again, that was mostly due to one factor. if you had stock in a hollywood company, or where actually a part of hollywood, you tended to have carte blank range of the place and could be a jerk to whoever you wanted. and for some reasons the mods will stick up for them like a bunch of groupies.

sadly, there is no fixing that place unless it gets sold and the whole thing gets cleaned out. you'd also have to convince alot of people that it was cleaned out for the better, as over the last year they've been going on a random banning frenzy. even going so far as to lie about why people got banned. that's messed up a bit right there.

[d_osborn]

Originally Posted by Vegita-San

The RPF was like that a bit. but again, that was mostly due to one factor. if you had stock in a hollywood company, or where actually a part of hollywood, you tended to have carte blank range of the place and could be a jerk to whoever you wanted. and for some reasons the mods will stick up for them like a bunch of groupies.

Toxic people are all over fandoms. They're pretty much all over society. Throwing out the victim card seems to be a pretty common thing, too.

There are a lot of really cool people at GBFans, here, the RPF. I've been posting on all three since their respective early days and have somehow avoided being banned on any of them. Follow the rules, don't be an asshole... that about covers it. It's not difficult. This stuff is supposed to be fun.

[Shellington]

Originally Posted by Panda_Kahn_fan

In truth? This board is as toxic as cyanide. But you can survive here. If you lay low, keep your mouth shut, block the people who you just can't get along with, only post in threads you want to have a discussion in, and bail on a discussion when a thread turns into a toxic argument, and you'll be just fine.

Great rules to survive on any forum.

Anyway, I don't come here too often, but I do my best to get on with people and try not to cause any trouble or pain when I state my views/opinions. That's all one can really do.

[pferreira]

Originally Posted by Vegita-San

The RPF was like that a bit. but again, that was mostly due to one factor. if you had stock in a hollywood company, or where actually a part of hollywood, you tended to have carte blank range of the place and could be a jerk to whoever you wanted. and for some reasons the mods will stick up for them like a bunch of groupies.

Apologies if this is a stupid question but what does RPF stand for?

Originally Posted by d_osborn

There are a lot of really cool people at GBFans, here, the RPF. I've been posting on all three since their respective early days and have somehow avoided being banned on any of them. Follow the rules, don't be an asshole... that about covers it. It's not difficult. This stuff is supposed to be fun.

Bottomline is Kingpin is a liberal control freak who everybody has to agree with. It's his way or the highway. It's not about being an 'asshole', it's about having an opinion that he doesn't hate. Best thing to do from my experience is to back down when he tells you what he thinks is right in a discussion. As plastroncafe says at the end of the day you're a guest and standing up to a mod does you no favours. It's not right but them the rules.

[Vegita-San]

Originally Posted by pferreira

Apologies if this is a stupid question but what does RPF stand for?

Replica Prop Forum or = Strictly policed Fandom as it's known in some places.
Either play ball or get banned. sometimes you even get banned when you play ball.

better off without both those toxic places around.

Originally Posted by Shellington

Great rules to survive on any forum.

Anyway, I don't come here too often, but I do my best to get on with people and try not to cause any trouble or pain when I state my views/opinions. That's all one can really do.

Yep, but sadly these days, that is getting tougher and tougher.

you have people who look to troll and cause problems.
you have people the mods will always back and you can't defend yourself against.
you have people who will get upset at just about anything and d rive you crazy doing it.

all these reasons are why message boards are becoming a dying breed. people don't want to put up with the crazy explosion anymore.

[pferreira]

Originally Posted by Vegita-San

Replica Prop Forum or = Strictly policed Fandom as it's known in some places.
Either play ball or get banned. sometimes you even get banned when you play ball.

better off without both those toxic places around.

Those places were good at providing info on what I like but the forums ruined it for me. I don't even feel like going there to read the news. A lot of people trash IMDB but it had as many nice people as nasty people. I made some friends over at the Doctor Who forums and someone helped answer a question on one of the movie boards. See the difference here is that IMDB caters to everybody therefore of course you're going to get every walk of life commenting on the forums. Forums such as this and GB Fans of course are specific so it limits the amount of people you get. No doubt if every casual or non-TMNT commented here it would end up like IMDB.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by pferreira

Those places were good at providing info on what I like but the forums ruined it for me. I don't even feel like going there to read the news. A lot of people trash IMDB but it had as many nice people as nasty people. I made some friends over at the Doctor Who forums and someone helped answer a question on one of the movie boards. See the difference here is that IMDB caters to everybody therefore of course you're going to get every walk of life commenting on the forums. Forums such as this and GB Fans of course are specific so it limits the amount of people you get. No doubt if every casual or non-TMNT commented here it would end up like IMDB.

Different people have different degrees of sensitivity/thin-skin-ness. Or just like to cry. I've never had anything but great experiences on the IMDB boards. Whether it's random questions about random movies or "Someone help me remember what movie this is!" I'd never seen any problems in the 15+ years I was going there. I did see a lot of crap, to be fair, on individual actors' pages... like if an actor was in the news about anything, their page would be lit up with a bunch of "What a sh**head!!" kind of stuff.

You do realize the IMDB forums have been shut down for like 2 years already though, yeah?

[plastroncafe]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

Different people have different degrees of sensitivity/thin-skin-ness. Or just like to cry. I've never had anything but great experiences on the IMDB boards.

Wasn't that the place where dudes would deliberately go and give poor ratings to movies/tv shows not targeted towards their demographic?

Men Are Sabotaging The Online Reviews Of TV Shows Aimed At Women (538.com)

[ProphetofGanja]

Originally Posted by Vegita-San

banned

Originally Posted by pferreira

banned

Originally Posted by Vegita-San

banned

Originally Posted by plastroncafe

banned

Originally Posted by shuriken

banned

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by plastroncafe

Wasn't that the place where dudes would deliberately go and give poor ratings to movies/tv shows not targeted towards their demographic?

Men Are Sabotaging The Online Reviews Of TV Shows Aimed At Women (538.com)

I don't know many dudes that do that. I know if I really, really hate a movie, I'll give it a 1 for sure because I want to inflict maximum "damage." And if a dude is devoted to disparaging something like "Sex and the City" then he's probably going to do it all over the place, not just IMDB.

[plastroncafe]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

I don't know many dudes that do that. I know if I really, really hate a movie, I'll give it a 1 for sure because I want to inflict maximum "damage." And if a dude is devoted to disparaging something like "Sex and the City" then he's probably going to do it all over the place, not just IMDB.

But you do know some that do?

My point in bringing this up was to illustrate that the reason those forums were removed wasn't because people had thinner-skin than you do, but because it's likely you weren't the target.

In short: The fanbros did it to themselves.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

I don't know many dudes that do that. I know if I really, really hate a movie, I'll give it a 1 for sure because I want to inflict maximum "damage." And if a dude is devoted to disparaging something like "Sex and the City" then he's probably going to do it all over the place, not just IMDB.

Tbh, a lot of dudes eventually have to sit through something they hate as in chick flicks or something like Sex in the City just so they can get in their girlfriend's pants that night. I can see why that would frustrate them and make them hate certain shows and movies.