All the drama in Twitter (long story short: people harassed Siege’s new UI designer until he left and then locked his account) had me thinking about online communities and fandom. And the short of it is that ALL communities I’ve seen or been part of are awful. 

Siege? The community at large is just a black hole of negativity if you take Twitter and Reddit seriously. The Sims? They have been complaining about everything and crying “Dead Game” for years. Dragon Age? Discourse up to your eyeballs no matter where you looked. Phasmophobia? Arguments left and right about whether the game is/was too easy or too difficult already. That to only mention a few. And let’s not forget communities I’ve never dabbled in but knew from reputation only that they were The Worst, like Overwatch or League. 

What about other non-gaming fandoms tho? For book series, films and TV series fandoms? Ship wars, discourse up to eleven: racism, queerbating, hate watching episodes just to complain about it, hating people who like certain characters, people harassing actors and/or writers, etc. It’s no different tbh. If you think a certain fandom is nice, I’m willing to bet a kidney you’re either new, sheltered/doesn’t engage in the community, or the fandom is just really small. Because the bigger a community is, they worst it gets usually. 

The only way to enjoy your time online is to carve your little corner, have a group of people you like and enjoying seeing their content and opinions. And that’s it. You can’t try to care for what the community at large thinks, because it will invariably take a toll on you and your enjoyement of that thing. That’s the bad part of social media being the ground for fandom/fan communities.

I’ve also always been a hard believer that having devs/writers/actors/etc interacting directly with the community on a daily basis was a mistake and terrible decision, both for these people’s well being and for the health of fan spaces, because parasocial relationships breed entitlement.

TL;DR: online communities at large are terrible places cause any sufficiently big group of people is a terrible thing. Get yourself a small corner you enjoy and make that your online space. There are no good fandoms/commuinities, only good groups of friends and/or curated spaces.

Mad scientists are great and I adore the lab aesthetic but where is the love for unhinged field work scientists. You drive down a backroad in the middle of the night and your headlights illuminate someone crouched down in the woods completely covered in mud holding five toads in a net. You’re hiking in the remote mountains and there’s some guy perched on a cliff that should be impossible to get to ranting about rocks, they’re gone when you glance back. You’re hanging out by the river one day and see a fully clothed person walk out of the water like Godzilla and they immediately start recording something on a clipboard while muttering to themselves about salamander populations. Feral Science. Degree in being a cryptid

hate to say that i’m lost right now

theres a knight in my backyard stabbing the ground with his sword trying to render my soil barren by killing the worms but luckily ive trained them all in classical ballet and they keep pirouetting away from the blade

I'm seeing people use the term "chronic fatigue" incorrectly all of a sudden lately. Granted, I've only seen it on Twitter, but I still want to talk about it here. If you're using the term improperly, I'd like it if you'd stop and inform yourself on the subject.

Chronic fatigue is not just being very tired, in case you're not aware. It disables you and comes with cognitive dysfunction (persistent state of confusion, inability to focus, inability to process new information or articulate your thoughts, poor memory, and more).

Chronic fatigue especially ISN'T being tired due to punctual external reasons that'd tire any person without a preexisting condition and it DOESN'T go away with proper rest. Proper rest simply avoids worsening it, and even that can fail, seeing as obtaining proper rest when you have chronic fatigue ranges from very difficult to Not Happening.

Not everyone's chronic fatigue is equally disabling, some people can lead a "normal" life at a great cost (and risk of permanently making it worse) while others are bedridden, but it's not a tiredness caused by a factor that if you remove it, will fix it, unless of course you find effective MEDICAL TREATMENT that makes it go away AS LONG AS YOU KEEP TO YOUR MEDICAL TREATMENT, or get a specific SURGERY in case yours comes from tethered (spinal) cord and/or CCI. This surgery consists on fusing some of the vertebrae of your neck permanently, by the way.

Some conditions that cause chronic fatigue; your brain being deprived of enough oxygenated blood (orthostatic intolerance, anemia, hypotension), your immune system attacking your own body (autoimmunity), metabolic issues on a CELLULAR level (ME/CFS), gastrointestinal issues, chronic pain, and a long, long etcetera. Mine comes from a combination of a genetic mutation that makes ALL my organs function poorly, orthostatic intolerance and autoimmunity.

It's a disabling condition nearly impossible to combat and even more impossible to push through. I've been trying to treat mine for 3 years, researching and trying new things non-stop for 3 years, and I'm still housebound and unable to work.

Please, I beg you, don't trivialize the term "chronic fatigue". The medical establishment and society at large already don't take it seriously, believe it can be cured by positive thinking/CBT or exercise, or believe it's a myth to justify laziness.

Please, don't turn "chronic fatigue" into the next "gaslighting" or "emotional labor". The harm that'd cause to the disabled/chronically ill community would be unmeassurable. We deal with enough disbelief and lack of care as is.

Finally I can be protected having to remember who John Lennon is.