I used to love being on Gaia. It was the one place I went to talk with other people who shared my love of anime. I very rarely socialize within fandoms, because it tends to ruin my fun if I do, and it seemed nice that I could find people now and again who enjoyed what I enjoyed, but weren't over zealous about it.
And then I attempted to brave the Naruto fandom.
I started with the SasuSaku guild, which was fun at first. I'll admit it's an attractive pairing, but the fanbrats there chased me out because they couldn't take someone in their guild who didn't follow the crowd and thought for themselves.
What pisses me off the most about this guild is the "army". Why the ******** hell do you need an army to support your pairing? So what if no one likes it, so what if it's bashed all to hell.
SO WHAT? You should be into it for fun, not because it's popular. So you gather a bunch of fans together and invade Naruto pairings threads to defend your pairing; do you realize how pathetically lame this makes you look? GET A LIFE. Some members rant about how ship arguing is stupid, yet you made it worse. You made a place where people who are annoying and obsessive about it can gather and attack everyone else just because they don't want to look at something the same way you do.
And you don't out rightly attack: you're very...intelligent. You're rational about your reasoning -
but it's still your opinion, so it's not fact - claim you're not against other pairings, you just don't support it, and then attempt to make friends. So it's not all bad, except when you meet someone with your same tactics. Then you pull out your sheer numbers and make the person feel stupid and humiliated, just for disagreeing with you. Reasonably, at that.
Perhaps this isn't how you deal with everyone, but this was my experience. And I didn't appreciate it. I was attempting to understand your side, but you blatantly disregarded mine. Someone even warned me to, "be careful, because so'nso will defend SasuSaku to the death."
Great. Awesome. Good for them.
But just because you're overly zealous about your "OTP" doesn't mean it's going to happen.
It was at this point that I quit the guild, deleted the banners I made them, and went on my way to try the NaruSaku guild.
OH.MY.GOD.Do you people even use spell check? Download Firefox. It has a spell check filter installed into the browser.
Not only was the whole guild grammatically-impaired, but I was attempting to chat with people almost ten years younger than me, who just went off about how stupid the SasuSaku pairing was and that it would never work and whoever supported it was stupid and blah blah blah.
The solution? THE NARUSAKU ARMY!!!!!FEAR!11
[********] - why? I was almost proud that at least that guild hadn't submitted, but hah - I thought too soon. I like NaruSaku because it's cute and fun and possible, not because I want an all out war against someone who wants Sakura to be boinked by someone else.
It's frustrating. Very, very frustrating. I'm an older fan (going on ten years here, that I've liked anime) and I've seen this kind of s**t tear a fandom apart and
literally destroy it. The thing I don't understand is why it only seems to affect the het side of the fandom, and not the yaoi side. I don't understand why there has to be this huge deal being made about who's right (which is essentially what it is) and who'll be wrong, when SasuSaku is as possible as NaruSaku. Why argue at all?
I want to be able to go into a discussion thread and not see hurt feelings or three people ganging up on one person. I want to be able to go into
my guild of choice and enjoy browsing, instead of happening upon a stupid debate over the meaning of names or the colors of outfits, and if it means anything significant.
I love Naruto. I love the friends I've made through it, the people who I've talked to about it, and most of the time, the fandom I lurk through. But I don't enjoy watching people argue over something as insignificant as who should be with who, when it really doesn't matter in the end. Everyone needs to realize that in the end this is all for entertainment's sake, and if you're in this because you like arguing, then hey -
get the ******** out of my fandom.
Thank you.