It's Not Easy Being Me

[barkinmad]

Okay, so....I know that I'm not the most wanky person out there, and this is NOT what I intend to start when I'm posting this, it's just that I think people should have the right to post their opinions on things, and this is just mine.


A couple of days ago, capslock_spn (a community which I recently joined and am now in love with) posted a set of rules and/or guidelines that made a lot of people, including me, upset. I can't link you to the post, because of course the community is flocked in order to save their own ass. But basically it was along the lines of:

a) You're not allowed to have fun.
b) If you disagree with any of us, you'll be b7 (their very clever way of saying "b&" or "banned").
and c) No more manips.

Which I really don't see the point of because a lot of work is put in to manips to make them funny and amusing, and to just disallow a core principle of the comm (the phrase "MOAR MANIPS" is used amazingly often) is simply bitchy. Like, what am I going to do now? It takes me years to write fanfiction and make videos, and it only takes a couple of minutes to make a decent manip. Now I have nothing to contribute to the comm, and feel absolutely useless. I'm sure others feel this way too.

And I'm under the impression that this change had almost nothing to do with the mods' decision.

Listen, I really hate doing and saying things like this, because I believe in trust in friendship over everything, but I think that people have the right to know the full story of what's going on. So on CLSPN, I made a bunch of friends really quickly, including lilithhecate (for those of you who are slow like me, that's "Lilith Hecate" not a really weird way of spelling "Lilith the cat")and we added each other to our friends list. Now, lilithhecate has the habit of making filters and narrowing down her audience to a few select people, and I was always pleased that I seemed to always make the cut. However, eventually I realized that I might be the only person on a certain filter, and she started to address some of her posts specifically to me. I don't know why she gave me such an honor, but I gladly and graciously accepted it. It didn't really bother me that much, because whatever you want to do, you want to do, until she started saying things in her posts that didn't really quite sit well with me. For example:

OMG Maddy, I'm so sick of this comm. There's nothing that I wouldn't change about it, but I know that if I try then it'll all go to hell. Like, where are all these posts coming from? Even the mods don't know how to do anything about it. Nothing is original anymore Why are people posting their own chats? Like, I don't know who you're talking to and I don't really care so STFU. I'm not being harsh, I'm just being honest.

Now I know that before I was having a little bit of fun with what the rules actually stated, but I think if we look back through the four new rules that were posted, then we can see how lilithhecate might be driving this whole thing. The first rule that was posted was really the only one about manips:

1) NO POSTING YOUR CRAPPY MANIP YOU MADE UNLESS THE POST HAS SOME OTHER CONTEXT TO GO WITH IT. SUCH AS A STORY BEHIND FINDING THE MANIP ON SOMEONE'S JOURNAL WHERE THEY TALKED ABOUT SPENDING OVER 9000 HOURS SHADING SAM'S UPPER LIP, OR YOU MADE A SPECIAL MANIP TO GO ALONG WITH A CAPSLOCK FIC YOU WROTE, OR SOMEONE TOLD YOU TO MAKE THE MANIP FOR PEENDANCE.

Obviously, this is the one that upset me the most, as it affected me personally. Does there really need to be a reason to post a manip? The point is to make people laugh, not to have actual artistic merit. I feel like this is the worst rule of them all, because it limits the artistic creativity of the comm members. There have been almost NO posts since these rules have been posted, and I think it's because most people are scared that they'll get banned. A new community has even been created. cl_spnspam, but the fact that no one has joined the community makes me kinda laugh, and I just don't agree with the idea that there should be separate comms. CLSPN IS spam, why do we need to divide ourselves? Can't we all just get along? I'm worried that creating this new comm is going to up the ante in tension just like creating petjp did with spn_petja (and guess who created the former?!??!) Obviously, she's just trying to stir up trouble.

2) DON'T POST TRANSCRIPTS OF YOUR AIM CONVOS/REAL LIFE CONVOS/WEIRD DREAMS HERE. NO ONE CARES EXCEPT YOU.

Okay, this is one that lilithhecate specifically mentioned in her (probably soon to be deleted) post, which is why I had it here. She obviously felt like she was the only one who had a problem with people posting about their personal SPN-related lives (and I think she was). We can help it if we have smarter friends who are funnier than you and we want to share it with the world. GET OVER IT. I really don't see why she feels like this is a detriment to the community. If anything, it just gives us a sense of just how many people think Jensen in a twink.

3) IF YOU ARE GOING TO WRITE CAPSLOCK PORN, TRY TO MAKE IT LONGER THAN JUST A FEW SENTENCES AND TRY TO MAKE IT BE SOMETHING ORIGINAL. WE HAVE ALREADY HAD FIFTY TWO-SENTENCE CAPSLOCK FICS WHERE SAM YELLS SURPRISE MOTHERFUCKER AND THEN STICKS HIS COCK IN DEAN'S BUTT. IF YOU WANNA POST PORN, SHOW US YOU PUT SOME EFFORT INTO IT. UNLESS IT IS PORN FOR PEENDANCE, THEN DO WHATEVER.

Now this the one where the alarm really went off in my head, because I had had an inkling that something was fishy before, but this just really confirmed in. The same word (original) is used in both posts! That's waaaaaay more than a coincidence. This is what finally made me realize that the mods probably had nothing to do with the post. They were using lilithhecate's words and outlining the same exact things she was complaining about. I'm thinking bribery here, no? May I also add that lilithhecate has REPEATEDLY bashed Shia LaBeouf, so is obviously made of pure evil? I know that personal boy preferences shouldn't matter that much in a friendship, but...c'mon. WHO DOESN'T LIKE LABEOUF? WHO?

4) DON'T MAKE SPECIAL POSTS JUST TO INTRODUCE YOURSELF. THERE ARE A LOT OF MEMBERS HERE AND WE NEED TO CUT DOWN ON THE SPAMMAGE.

This is the most understandable, because really, we aren't Facebook. But a lot of comms DO require newbies to post about themselves first, so I can see why people would think otherwise. I think this might have been cheshirepuss's idea (she's the "mod" who posted the rules) in order to assert whatever little authority she has left.

I'm angry, guys. What's the point of making a community if only a few select people can post safely in it? The mods have absolutely no power, so in order to gain some control, they make it so they're the only ones who can say anything. That sounds pretty hypocritical to me. There may not even be a reason for CLSPN anymore.

Anyway, those were just my thoughts on the manner, and I maintain the right to voice them.

P.S. Jensen Ross Ackles just e-mailed me and told me that he was NOT functionally illiterate, so I suggest that we take down spn_petja as well, because now it's just offensive.