A Solution to Problems in the Relationships Forum

[risanf]

Hello, I'm RisanF. and I am aware that many people are disgrunted by ship wars in Avatar. I think I might have a potential solution for everyone taken from the Harry Potten fandom, which is also known for its volitile shipping situation.

On the forum FictionAlley Park, there are special threads created for ships and anti-ships, much like the War Rooms of Distant Horizon. But what makes FictionAlley's relationship threads different is that people are discourage from visiting these threads if they have contrary opinions and, moreover, are strickly forbidden from posting anti-ship comments. (or pro-ship comments if it's an anti-ship thread) In this way, they function like special members-only clubs created within FictionAlley, where everyone can bash or gush without worrying about ticking their rivals off. It's a safe avenue to express yourself amongst slike minds.

It's true this system may encourage bashing, but it is bashing done in a way that is less harmful. (and, or course, bashing shippers themselves is forbidden) Though FictionAlley Park can be a warzone, these threads can be "safe areas" for those who are not neutral in the great battle, and because of this, I've been able to enjoy my time there without mixing it up with everybody.

Go check out FictionAlley Park, and see if this is an option worth persuing.

forums.fictionalley.org/park/

[gigirl942]

That's a pretty good idea. But I think bashing is bad whether it's harmful or not. That's why I made my forum, to make a place that is BASH FREE. Fights can still start with a system like that. People jump ship all the time. And it keeps a forum nice and clean with a good reputation.

Check out my forum and find the forum rules.

gigirl942.proboards107.com/index.cgi

Now please don't take this the wrong way. I don't have anything against you. And I'm absolutely amazed at how your forum is so popular.

Please.....tell me how you got the way you are now.....if you own the forum of course.

[risanf]

Thanks for thinks that I'm the proprietor of FictionAlley Park, but I'm just one of their less-outspoken members. I'm afraid I can't agree with your statement that bashing is all bad. The anti-thread A.R.G.H. can give much comfort to those that agree with it, and often interesting discussion occur because of it. Just because an opinion is negative doesn't mean it should not be heard, and I feel we should have the right to free speech within this forum, so long as we're not insulting individual members.

Even if people jump ship a lot, if there is an anti-thread, people should have the sense to stay away from it; I stay away from anti-theads against my ship, and I escape much harm that way. And just because I'm refering to contrary opinions against ships as "bashing" doesn't mean it nessesarily has to be unintelligent, poorly-written tripe that insults people on a personal level. (actually, bashing can bring up several interesting points)

I think we may need to respect those that say they don't like a ship and why. We all should have a right to our opinion.

[gigirl942]

Yeah. But trust me, one statement in the Kataang war room could start a big fight. Even if it is a well written statement. The Avatar and HP fandoms do both have bad ship tension. But I really think Avatar is worse because the Creators didn't come out and say that one pairing definently wouldn't happen. I think JK Rowling said something about the ships in the fandom........ I don't want to say anything that will start a HP fight on and ATLA board.....lol.

We actually had the Shippings board shut down once because of n00bs and bashing.

[Paraiba Ocean]

Darn n00bs!!

[writer]

*goes into Mod mod*

Interesting idea. I'll run it by the other mods.

[gambitia]

This is similar to an idea I had a while ago, based on a music forum I used to go to. They had a "Hate Sticky" which was a stickied thread in which you could rant on forever on whatever bands/singers/artists you couldn't stand, with no need for justification, and no one could contradict you or try to start something--but that was the only place you could say you hated them without backing up your reasons (and it had to be something more substantial than "I just don't like the way they sound").

But the main problems I see with shipping on this forum right now are people being far too sensitive to bashing (I have seen bashing called when it was totally uncalled for several times in the past few days), people being far too overzealous about antibashing (which was a major factor in the recent RB lockdown, the way I understand it), and people simply not being able to handle someone raising legitimate concerns with their ship.

All in all, there has been very little bashing--if any--in the past few weeks, at least that I've noticed. Tensions seem to rise when there is a wait for new episodes, and the leaked spoilers greatly benefit several ships at the expense of others. I think the rising tensions are understandable, and will dissipate after SotFN airs provided everyone behaves themselves in the SotFN aftermath.

[gigirl942]

gambitia said:

But the main problems I see with shipping on this forum right now are people being far too sensitive to bashing (I have seen bashing called when it was totally uncalled for several times in the past few days), people being far too overzealous about antibashing (which was a major factor in the recent RB lockdown, the way I understand it), and people simply not being able to handle someone raising legitimate concerns with their ship.

That's what I was thinking when I made my reply. The Avatar fandom really needs what happened in the HP fandom.

When the Creator of said something about one ship not happening at all.

[gambitia]

When the Creator of said something about one ship not happening at all.

That really wouldn't solve anything. We already know one ship will happen (at least, the spoiled people know, and they compromise at least half of the RB regulars). And tension has increased since then.

Maybe the actual episode will help.

And I really doubt Mike and Bryan will come out and say "This ship will happen" or "This ship is dead in the water." They're too crafty and they seem to love playing with us--every ship question has been dodged.

[gigirl942]

I know. But the ATLA fandom needed that from the start.......this ship wart wouldn't exist then.

[risanf]

gigirl942 said:

I know. But the ATLA fandom needed that from the start.......this ship wart wouldn't exist then.

Perhaps, but it could also suck away a lot of the fun and suspense that Avatar excels at, which is not something creators always like to do. Should Mike and Bryan be blamed because of the behavior of rambunctious fans that can't handle it?

On what you said about a statement in the Kataang war room starting a fight; there was a similiar thing that happened on FictionAlley, concerning some user who decided to be a doof and flame the ship thread I was viewing. The user was thwapped soundly by the mods, and nobody but me even spared a comment about it. FictionAlley and HP fandom is far from perfect; it remains quite ruthless sometimes. But people there generally don't pick fight in ship threads.

On the matter of JKR sinking ships: she hasn't sunken all of them, and may have just increased the flames between two of them. As far as I know, she has sunk Harry/Ginny and Luna/Neville, and pretty much confirmed Ron/Hermione. However, that leaves Harry/Ginny and Harry/Luna squaring off against each other, and some members of the ships are quite confrontational. Though there are less canon ships now, JKR still has secrets close to her, and the ship wars remain strong, except now it's like the title match in a boxing circuit.

Yes, I've noticed that there are threads that are attacking bashers. Isn't that bashing itself?

[goten0040]

I dunno, I kinda like the idea, being that I've been to FictionAlley and I know how well it's run. Still, maybe if we tweak it a bit, we can get it to where we want it. We'll discuss it in the staff board.

[Infernal Zebra]

risanf said:

Yes, I've noticed that there are threads that are attacking bashers. Isn't that bashing itself?

No. The argument of "your intolerance of my intolerance is still intolerance and therefore just as bad" isn't really a useful one. I'll try to explain:

Let's say there are two major pairings, StanxJanet and JanetxBrad. Because the general tendency of such things to happen, let's also say they're abbreviated Stanet and Jabrad.

Now there is a thread dedicated to Jabrad and all its wonder, and User001 from the Stanet camp comes over and posts something along the lines of "Well you know Jabrad isn't canon."/"Wow I can't believe you would like this stuff."/"It's not fair that canon events transpired to pair Brad and Janet together instead of her and Stan."/"You're all raging idiots who clearly have no grasp of the intricacies of the plot." (or less-articulate variations thereof).

This is a thread dedicated to Jabrad, and is full of people who are variously-enthused fans of that pairing. For User001 to come over and insult that is looking for trouble. And when trouble arrives in the form of User133 saying "Why don't you stop being juvenile and trying to cause trouble" (or less-articulate variations thereof), User001 doesn't suddenly get to cry "Oh no I'm being bashed!", because they knew what they were getting into.

There is a problem with feeding the fires of bashing in that it isn't constructive, but that's not the same thing as giving User001 some kind of moral highground or equivalency. The only fault of Jabrad-loving User133 is for continuing the trouble, not for calling User001 on their crap.

If instead of User133, User215 counters with something like "That's so typical of Stanet fans."/"Yeah, well Stanet is a stupid pairing." (o.l-a.v.t)... then that still doesn't absolve User001 of their fault, it just means that User215 is unfortunately likely to be on the opposite side of this situation in the future.

People can say whatever they like, but that doesn't mean they get to be respected for it. If they decide to be a jerk, they don't get to be astonished that others insult them for it.

How mods decide to police their boards is their own matter--because they're the ones in control. And like I said, it's not constructive to insult bashers and prolong the problem (especially if you know doing so will tick off the mods just as much as the bashers do).

But that doesn't put bashers and anti-bashers on the same level.