An Open Letter to Fandom

Dear Fandom,

Please oh Please could you just step away from the keyboard, take a deep breath, and count to 10? I swear everywhere I turn there is another form of fandom having a meltdown like a two year old on a very hot day.

I know you are upset about _____________ but do you need to slag everyone who had anything to do with it or expressed their opinion that is contrary to your own? Whatever happen to the “we are inclusive not exclusive” chant I use to hear all the time in my youth? Whatever happened to the idea that we were better than that since many of us (not all) were excluded from things when we were young for being __________? This especially goes to the “old guard” which seems bent on excluding people who are just discovering _____________.

I know this goes in cycles but right now we have seemed to have taken a downturn onto a path that isn’t very pleasant. Newer fandom, believe it or not the fans that have been doing this for a while do have a few tricks up their sleeve which are quite useful and re-inventing the wheel for the umteenth time is not going to yield anything new. Older fandom (as in longer a fan not age), the new fans have good ideas and need not be dismissed out of hand because they haven't been a fan of _________ since __________ walked the Earth.

There is a happy medium to be found in all this and I am seriously hoping that y’all find it sooner rather than later. Just remember that it is just a ______________ and I think you might feel a little better.

Sincerely,

An older fan in some cases and a new fan in others.

PS: I am grateful for the reasonable fans out there trying to get everyone to calm down and take that breath.

An Open Letter to Fandom

Dear Fandom,

Please oh Please could you just step away from the keyboard, take a deep breath, and count to 10? I swear everywhere I turn there is another form of fandom having a meltdown like a two year old on a very hot day.

I know you are upset about _____________ but do you need to slag everyone who had anything to do with it or expressed their opinion that is contrary to your own? Whatever happen to the “we are inclusive not exclusive” chant I use to hear all the time in my youth? Whatever happened to the idea that we were better than that since many of us (not all) were excluded from things when we were young for being __________? This especially goes to the “old guard” which seems bent on excluding people who are just discovering _____________.

I know this goes in cycles but right now we have seemed to have taken a downturn onto a path that isn’t very pleasant. Newer fandom, believe it or not the fans that have been doing this for a while do have a few tricks up their sleeve which are quite useful and re-inventing the wheel for the umteenth time is not going to yield anything new. Older fandom (as in longer a fan not age), the new fans have good ideas and need not be dismissed out of hand because they haven't been a fan of _________ since __________ walked the Earth.

There is a happy medium to be found in all this and I am seriously hoping that y’all find it sooner rather than later. Just remember that it is just a ______________ and I think you might feel a little better.

Sincerely,

An older fan in some cases and a new fan in others.

PS: I am grateful for the reasonable fans out there trying to get everyone to calm down and take that breath.