Snowflake Challenge #5 - Expand Your Circle

[jedibuttercup]

Challenge #5 - Comment to someone you haven't ever interacted with before or introduce yourself to someone you've briefly interacted with and friend/follow them. Afterwards, leave a comment in this post with the equivalent of "I did it!"

One thing I appreciate about this challenge is that it's a low-pressure way to interact with people. I tend to be a lurker more than a commenter, especially in the last few years, and it's been nice to reach out a little more. I've been trying to be more active with my comment replies on other sites as well. And I actually have friended/followed somebody new this month!

[Yes, I even replied politely to the person who commented on a story post on another site with a TLDR version of 'I didn't read this story, but I checked the reviews, and let me tell you why your crossover concept is badly done, and why this character you didn't feature who's actually not the protagonist of either canon would have totally rendered this worldbuilding idea I don't like irrelevant and you should have known that .... oh, but do keep writing, I like your OTHER stories!' .... *sigh*]

We'll see if I can maintain that energy going forward ....

Comments

[perspi]

Hooray, for finding someone new!

(And yay, for replying, but wow, that commenter. UGH.)

[jedibuttercup]

Not the first time I've run into one of these people who've been stewing in their own fanon for years and are shocked, shocked they have to tell me, when one of my stories - or in this case, the bits and pieces they've osmosed about one of my stories - suddenly contradicts those "facts". *amused eyeroll* It upset me a lot more my first few years writing fic, but it mostly just makes me feel like a fandom old now. :)

[grundyscribbling]

a TLDR version of 'I didn't read this story, but I checked the reviews, and let me tell you why your crossover concept is badly done, and why this character you didn't feature who's actually not the protagonist of either canon would have totally rendered this worldbuilding idea I don't like irrelevant and you should have known that .... oh, but do keep writing, I like your OTHER stories!'
*blinks*
*blinks again*
I do not understand some commenters.

[jedibuttercup]

Will it make even a little more sense if I mentioned this was on TtH, and the person seemed to be a rabid Xander fan? :)

The very end of the rant about how Xander would never have allowed the bit they disliked from what they osmosed from the other reviews to have happened - was this: Like I said, you should freaking NEVER dismiss the normal guy in the back of the bar having a quiet drink. He's likely the most deadly s.o.b. in the area.

On a Buffy-pairing crossover, that didn't even feature Xander. *facepalm* That sort of commenter doesn't understand the rest of us, probably! No point even bothering to get angry.

[grundyscribbling]

Minorly more sense, but still...why take the time and energy to leave a comment complaining that the story they didn't read made no sense because their fave who wasn't in it would totally change everything? What even goes on in their head?

[jedibuttercup]

I don't know, but I've certainly run into it often enough. *shrug* My best friend, actually, is married to one of these pedantic male fan types who get really one-track in their fandom opinions and have a hard time even registering that their POV might not be the obvious best POV and that people who don't appreciate it aren't necessarily wrong themselves. At least he's not a Buffy fan? :)

[grundyscribbling]

Thank heaven for small mercies! :)

[sulien]

Yep, I saw that review when I commented on that particular story and I got the impression the commenter wasn't quite all there for whatever reason. I'm just glad you don't let the oddballs out there discourage you from writing.

[jedibuttercup]

Maybe not 'not there', particularly - but certainly obsessive about their POV and used to curating their fan experience to support and echo that POV. I know there's pockets like this in other fandoms - I ran into this type in HP fandom regarding my time travel story - but I encounter it *most* often in male super-Xander fans due to all my B:tVS stories. *shrug* It used to bother me more, but I end up mostly eyerolling at it now.