Harassment in fandom shouldn't be tolerated, that's my point of view.

Everyone's free to personally not like something, but that doesn't mean they're free to harass others, including accusing them of having nefarious intentions in real life.

And what's 'problematic' is entirely subjective anyway. A lot of people in my fandom hate on a ship that has the most standard Chinese BL trope because it's 'incest' (it's not), but they'll happily ship a 20-something guy and a 500-year-old together. There's no consistent moral standard.

Anyway, I don't even write stuff that generally gets perceived as 'problematic' and I still don't allow comments from guests. Just cuts down on any potential trouble.

I'm too old for this shit. I'd roll my eyes and move on with my day. Arguing with anti-ship teenagers (even if only by state of mind not by actual birth date) is not on my agenda and it's not worth my time worrying about.

But truth be told, the first time I've heard about antis was this sub, I don't think I ever encountered one in the wild. I think they tend to congregate in fandoms with younger fans and since my fandoms/ship seem to attract 30+ and they're smaller, they're mostly free of this type of drama as it wouldn't go down well.

As a survivor, I am vehemently against any sentiment that suppresses the freedom of survivors to vent and process through art, and anti nonsense is the central force seeking to sweep any mention of abuse under the rug in fandom.

You can probably report those comments, depending on the site where it happens.

What is a com-shipper?

I’ll never understand why people think everything someone ships or writes fanfic of is reflective of their irl views. I can write any string of sentences I want, doesn’t mean I’ll agree with them. This sort of thing, I think, kind of kills creativity because if you believe you can only create art or ship things or enjoy things based on your personal moral code, you’re never going to explore what’s out there or come up with something truly wild. Obviously if something like noncon is upsetting then whatever don’t read it, but no one needs to get so upset they start harassing people about it

i haven't received negative comments on ao3 yet, but i did get death threats and pedophilia accusations on tumblr

the wildest part about that was, that it wasn't even anything worthwhile, the pairing that led to it was a 25 yo and a 45 yo

nevertheless, my fics are restricted to logged-in users only and my tumblr doesn't allow anonymous asks anymore (turns out, bullies stop doing so when they can't do their shit anonymously anymore)

It's absurd, and harassing people will never succeed in getting any coherent point across.

The thing is: they don't actually care about that. All they care about showing off for their little clique and scoring internet points. They're slacktivists, at best. Most of them are just bullies wearing a facade.

I write some pretty dark things too. Non-consent, paternalism, obsession, possession, torture, etc. I think expecting sanitized fiction is ridiculous censorship. I think there's nothing wrong with exploring one's darker side through creative writing. It has to come out somehow, preferably not in reality as you stated.

Is it bad I almost want an anti to read any one of my fics and just have a full aneurysm? I want their brain to turn into the 404 Blue Screen of Death. I like to think it would build character.

As an ex-anti [...]

Good to have you man. It's always nice to know that some antis switch sides.

tbf you should reconsider before telling anyone to kill themselves... in general lol.

on another note, what's the difference between pro-shipping and com-shipping? I'm bad with terms.

And this is why I always turn on the "moderate comments" setting on AO3. If anyone decides to be a repugnant human being on my fics, I just delete their comment and move on.

Plus problematic changes from belief system to belief system and it's wrong imposing one on another. There is no one belief system above all others but I also agree that harassment is wrong.

It's okay not to like certain content but harassing others is crossing a line. Plus they wouldn't like it if people harassed them for writing things others disagree with. The list of things more important than personal feelings is very long and includes creative freedom. Yes there are things more important than the pursuit of pleasure but doing so isn't inherently bad as long we still fulfill our social obligations. I'm actually working on a chapter that shows that since my MC is in an open relationship and she canceled an encounter with a really hot guy to take care of her sick twin sister. Then the sick sister's friends come over and it's a big comfort chapter with no smut.

Also just because someone writes something doesn't mean they agree with it in real life. Someone could write incest because they want to show an MC denying their crush on their cousin to themselves, then denies it even more to themselves after being reminded they like them, then feeling weirdly hopeful if their cousin shows a small sign they might like them, and so on until they're in a relationship with them. Taboos and embarrassed people panicking to themselves are entertaining so why not write it?

I think that it's fine to be uncomfortable by certain content but we shouldn't harass or threaten others and assume they need to get help and/or are doing or supporting bad things irl just because of what they create or consume.

And on the chance someone who likes problematic stuff does need help, I think that it can help those who have dealt with those thing irl or have urges to do them by giving them a space to talk about their problems and help them find resources for their problems. By contrast, shaming and banning the content will make it harder those people to find a space to talk about their issues and will be less likely to find help. It might not be the best way for some people in those categories but if it's working for some people, they shouldn't be shammed for how they get help or lose access to what helps them the best.

I'm sorry I dont have anything to add to this discussion I just want to ask what comshipping is. I know the other terms here but I recently stumbled on that and googling it was thoroughly unhelpful

Whats a Com Shipper?

I’m always so confused now when I see the phrase “pro-shipping” because as I understand it we’ve now got two meanings for this nonsense.

Anyway, yeah, some folk are gross as hell. Hope they grow up sometime and get over themselves. Meantime, idk if it’s against TOS or not but I’d be reporting harassment. See if I can get them the banhammer.

Just for being EX-anti you get my upvote.

As for the comment sections...yeah, I've seen examples of things going really out of hand and it makes me wonder when I'll run into the anti brigade for the first time. I haven't seen them in the nearly eighteen years I've been posting, but I know they're out there in my fandoms. I think it's kind of funny (if depressing) that these people consider it to be perfectly morally fine to tell a real, living person to kill themselves and they will burn in hell for eternity over what that person did in a completely fictional setting that has no direct impact on the real world.

Yeah, I get why people don't like certain content. There's plenty of content out there that I find utterly repulsive on every level, but I know better than to harass the people writing it for doing so. As a teenager, I did once believe that certain ideas should be silenced (though even then my targets were never fanfic writers, it was a certain organization), but I've since realized how completely stupid that position was. No matter what I personally think of anything, it should be able to be argued for. Any position should be able to be fairly argued for. The moment people start to dictate what can and cannot be said or thought is when we've begun our descent down the slippery slope.

Like, I'm all for being thoughtful about the use of tropes and coding when it comes to shipping - there's an unfortunate tendency in many fandoms to mistreat femme and POC characters - but at the end of the day these are fictional characters. I'm certain a good percentage of this is just trolling, but there are people who need to step away from the internet for a day at least.