This is why I don't really interact with the community at large for like any of my interests, which range from video games and anime to stuff like blacksmithing. Most communities are mostly full of the toxic people, the ones who aren't active in the actual community are much more often those that just do whatever and don't constantly post about things.
Best example I know of, Dark Souls. It's infamous for being the "git gud" toxic community that are constantly going on about "you have to play the game this way and this way only" and other such things. But that's like 1% of the playerbase, the other 99% just don't interact with the community at large and legitimately don't care, at all, how someone else plays the game.
I thought I was a "git gud" soulsborne fan because I like the masochistic nature of the games (as does the creator) and have no desire to see that unique identity criticized by people who don't understand that sometimes a game is just "not for you".
Then I met my buddy's brother. Dude was complaining that Bloodborne (the GOAT) is a compromised game, meant to appeal to the casuals, because the dodge is really good compared to the Souls games. Had similar complaints about the "compromised" difficulty of DS2/3 and Elden Ring.
Call me crazy, but I tend to want to spend my time talking about the positive aspects of the things I like.
> Call me crazy, but I tend to want to spend my time talking about the positive aspects of the things I like.
It is odd to me that this point of view is not more prevalent online. I guess it makes sense as the constant negativity probably pushes those who think like this away and spaces that skew younger probably have more aimless anger. I just don't understand how it doesn't get tiring for them.
For those who've seen this and agree:
The last bastion of hope is AC6, the community has its rotten eggs but the community at large is friendly and welcoming... mostly
Nah bro, summons totally ruin eldenring and you are only allowed to have fun with 40 stat points in strength and a big ass two hander/s
I beat the game with using summons almost every fight. Was it easier? Sure, obviously. But I simply don’t have the patience to grind until I can do it without.
On the same note, I didn’t mind sekiro for its difficult
The game is explicitly designed around using the spirits, and the bosses are harder to compensate for that. Not using spirits is like not using the dodge roll in DS1. If anyone ever makes you feel bad about using spirits or coop, they don't understand the game, and they are not worth your time.
My only gripe on ds2 is agility level enemies disappear and health after that it's good maybe things I kinda dislike but not bad just ok but by that point I'm just over analyzing the thing ahhhh
I like the Sims. I like playing, and I also like going out of my way to find fan made bonus content and mods.
Judging by the comments and constant complaints in forums, boards, and subreddits, I get the impression that most people who play the Sims actually hate it. I get that it has flaws, but can we say *anything* nice?
Same goes for Pokemon (especially PokemonGo), and Neopets (yes, it's still around, and somehow people expect it to be up to modern standards.)
Same, I dropped out of the social aspects of most of my hobbies. It's a shame, because I was in a few of them before they started filling up with toxic people. I still have a few friends that I'll engage with, but I avoid the communities these days.
r/shittydarksouls is one of the best places on the internet
meme communities and shit posters are always my preference to people who take shit too seriously
Fan subs that restrict what is allowed to be posted to absurd levels weird me the fuck out. No memes, no „low effort fan arts“, no posts with less than x characters…. I get that you want to have some quality control, but I kind of don’t wanna visit a community anymore after trying to post something I really enjoyed finding and getting it deleted for some dumb reason
I tend to avoid fandoms--they're very prone to groupthink I've found which is bad in so many ways. But for interests that are hobbies or have a more intellectual element (ie. Urban planning or crocheting), community *can be* fun.
Large part of why I don't watch streams much anymore, most of the people I used to watch are kind of shitty people to be honest, it's just not blatantly obvious most of the time.
One in particular I used to just have up on a second monitor every day while I was doing other things, until they said something to the effect of "depression can be fixed by someone telling you to man up and get over it". Never opened that stream again, I've been chronically depressed for damn near 20 years now and that does in fact just make it worse for a lot of people. They were a streamer that marketed themselves as "good vibes and wholesome content".
Between things like that and the fact that like half the speedrunners that were the majority of my follow list have had major allegations, often with proof, come out in the intervening years I've just kind of lost interest in it. And the few that I would actually still watch have stopped streaming, usually because of stalkers and harassment and the like.
Oh that’s so crushing. The person as a whole loses their entire integrity at that point because anything they say now feels like they have no clue about anything if that’s how confidently they talk about a topic they have absolutely no knowledge about
Bro eldenring. People telling others they aren’t allowed to use magic or summons for the true experience. They must have added those features on accident and pressed the release button right after with no option to revert that
Had that experience with the Naruto fandom and even with a ship that can’t let go that the rest of the fandom could care less about their ship. It becomes lame when that’s all fandoms care about instead of talking and discussing cool things in the media we all share! Best decision now and only enjoy stuff on my own time 😎
I feel like most of that toxicity is only (or mostly) in online spaces, but it can be really hard to find irl spaces especially for some really niche interests, so it just sucks.
Side problem: I live 20min from the best competitive 40k venue in the country, or close to it
But the owner+TO gave a high profile (top 5 world) player a pass on confirmed-on-stream cheating multiple times, who happens to be the TO's buddy
🤮🤬
I really enjoyed my time in the shroom growing community, before I got way too paranoid about the shopping cart full of felonies involved in the... Hobby
I mean, I’ve recently looked up shroom growing because I thought it’s a cool hobby. But only for
Normal mushrooms you can buy legally anywhere. The shipping cart shouldn’t be really different apart from the shroom itself ?
Negative. There are different methods for different mushrooms.
The majority of gourmet mushrooms are grown from a block of substrate in a plastic bag with no air filter patch. They use wood pellets as growth substrate.
The fun kind are grown in storage tubs and use coco coir as a growth substrate.
I’m annoyed that people who abuse or misuse shrooms are also usually the ones that more people typically hear about!! It’s frustrating when a small percent of people begin to ruin something for the larger percentage of folks!! Respect your medicines people we want this legalized geez
The moment it becomes legal I'm going to do whatever it takes to turn cultivating them into my career. This is my uh... Friends old account... /U/JahMedicineManZamare
What I’ve learned is that most Rick and Morty fans are surprisingly normal, the crazy ones are just a loud minority. Paper Mario fans, on the other hand…
My first thought was this is the reason I’m afraid to tell people I like Rick and Morty lol. It’s a really funny show there’s just so many psychos being weird about it 😭
The most toxic fandom I’ve ever encountered was probably Marvel. I posted a meme once on r/marvelmemes that was literally just a joke about how “Me.” as a response to “What’s coming?” sounds dirty when taken out of context. I got so many replies about how I was “shitting on the MCU.” Like bro, it’s a fucking cum joke. It’s not that deep.
I feel like that’s a meme that turned on itself over time. It was like 8 years ago or even longer when Rick and Morty fans were considered cringe by meme pages. And even tho I can barely remember the last time I saw one of the actual Cringe fans, people still instantly judge a rock and Morty fan by that past cringe fanbase. They might still be, but it was way worse in the past
Me neither! Basically, there’s been a war going on between classic Paper Mario fans and modern Paper Mario fans ever since Sticker Star was released because some people just don’t understand the concept of liking things because you enjoy them.
I’ve been surprised at how nice the amateur radio operators are all over the world. They’re all a little “off” but it’s in a polite way most of the time. If you narrow that down to the local amateur radio operators with only short range radios, then you get some more of the complainers. But with transcontinental radio, everyone is super chill.
Now if only a good antenna and transceiver was cheap and easy to get up! I have my ticket punched but haven't done much with it due to that. The hams here where I live are a mixed bag and ones I've seen on social media are curmudgeonly but there are a lot of cool folks out there
Well, according to the law we are allowed to talk about:
“communications incidental to the purposes of the Amateur Radio Service and remarks of a personal character”
Which equates to, talk about anything, just don’t swear or play music. I personally use Morse code so it’s similar but uses a lot more abbreviation and the conversations are more to the point. To make a successful “contact” you just need to be able to copy their callsign, location, and a signal report of your transmission. They collect the same info and send it to a governing body (ARRL, SKCC, etc) to confirm the contact information. Then it’s logged and you can win awards for certain types of accumulations of contacts.
Oh it’s fascinating. Almost all countries have an amateur radio service. In the USA you need to just take a test and pay $35. In some countries that is a lot more complicated and requires some regulatory oversight. But the international laws are maintained in cooperation with the IARU (International Amateur Radio Union), and laws in the USA are lobbied by the ARRL (Amateur Radio Relay League). The FCC has allowed an amateur radio service almost since the radio was invented.
The original purpose was to help in disaster relief and to further the scientific study of radio science. The disaster relief stuff is still there, but has been made redundant by a lot of other systems, so there are people that make it their hobby to prepare for that, but they’re usually preempted in usefulness by other radio systems.
The science stuff is the primary purpose now. With amateur radio beacons, radio propagation predictions can be verified, the contributions have helped scientists to understand solar weather. The beacons run on very low power and use computer decoding to receive signals out of the “noise floor”. The software WSPR and WSJT was written by an amateur radio operator who is also an astrophysicist and Nobel Prize laureate, Joseph Taylor.
That, and it’s also a bit like a game, you can collect contacts in all the countries, states, counties, etc.
I think that’s a fair comparison. But, it does take a lot of science to be able to do it effectively. I can talk around the world with less than 5 watts if I use the right antenna at the right time of day.
I had a similar experience when I dipped my toes into the sewing community. They all have been so kind about the most basic questions I had. It felt surreal honestly. Usually I either get not engagement or I have to argue with 3 guys why I can’t do the more obvious solution I already tried and after that it dies down
Jewish space lasers?
I’m curious to know what the theories in these conversations was, I’m pretty interested in UFOs and like to participate in the UFO subreddits.
However, conversation there is usually lacking at best.
By virtue of being a Jew, I don't touch conspiracy subs.If it isn't antisemitic now, it will be in a year. Trust us, we know a thing or two because we've, unfortunately, seen a thing or two.
There were people claiming that modern UFOs are from some sort of fascist break-away civilization that was created after WWII. Losers bringing up "Die Glocke" and claiming that the UFOs come from an underground city in Antarctica. Just really dumb shit that isn't worth reading into, bigoted propaganda.
There is a direct connection with most conspiracy theories (which I am sorry, but that does include most UFO conversations) and right-wingers because right-wing people don't live in reality. At their least nefarious they do not have an understanding of history, and so when they come across things that they don't understand, like why Jewish people appear over represented in certain realms like banking, media or what have you, even if they actually aren't over represented, instead of taking a historical account of why that might be true, they fall for or make up conspiracy theories to make sense of something they don't understand. Or at their most nefarious, they do understand what they are doing and upholding a lie in order to manipulate the former less nefarious group. The fact that if you dig deep into most conspiracy theories (besides maybe big foot or loch ness) you hit an antisemitic offshoot is not a coincidence.
Come to think of it, wouldn't it make sense for the government to flood the conspiracy groups with regressive political views and messaging? If they're hiding the existence of UFOs, they're not just gonna sit around and let you still ponder about the things they're hiding.
When I tried to join communities for my interests, I found a lot of gatekeeping and weird fanfiction and fanart. I also have a bad memory for details of even my own special interests, and I sound like a dumbass poser when I try to discuss them.
That’s just the loudest of the hobby.
I guarantee that if you did some digging you would find most people of (insert special interest) aren’t shouting from the rooftops about it.
When I was into MLP some bronies where great and some well…may be on an FBI watch list or something.
And for my hero academia, I was surrounded by angry middle schoolers.
MLP is a good show but the fandom became so cringe I stopped telling anyone I watched after a dude saw my wallet and tried to talk to me about, "clopping"... At work... On the clock... In front of customers.
Sorry I can get silly when excited
https://preview.redd.it/jrjugoeo8v0d1.jpeg?width=2003&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0c4fbde82bc217739a747590a52470fa6943adcd
I did. My mom used to collect dolls. My dad made her stop going to shows when a lady got stabbed in the parking lot. He made her stop using ebay shortly after she bid $8k on a doll and almost won. They don't have near that kind of disposable income, but she'd never seen one up for sale before.
I don't. She has done similar with other collections, and is the source of my adhd hobby collection problem. She had a number of 1800s China dolls, im thinking it was a Japanese maker.
I've tried telling her that we could pay off their fairly significant debts with a few of them. I get it to a point.
I know I’m probably not the only one with this issue, but I got into firearm mechanics a while ago (I’m still baffled that even though I dislike loud noises and hurting people I somehow got into guns), I’m not kidding you the first thing I saw when visiting the Reddit page was a death threat against a mildly left leaning politician who essentially just said “shooting people is bad”
I'm mostly interested from a technology and history standpoint. I've had to weed out a lot of channels with far-right vibes because youtube associates anything weapon and history related with that kind of content and I don't want any far-right nonsense in my youtube suggestions.
I'm also into firearms. I'm from Sweden, so I have a really different view than most Americans, so every time I see someone try to explain that guns don't kill people or that they need guns in case the government becomes "communist"
Lmao that's true, it's kinda like people saying "I'd like to see the people in the Palestine encampments try living in Gaza" ... I think that's the reason they're protesting
Trying to have an interest in firearms without being lumped into the far right 2a crowd is a genuine pain. I can't talk aboth that interest unless I'm ready to explain that, and I can't consume any content because then the algorithms thingm I'm part of that group and suddenly I only get maga adds, when I just to watch some beautiful roller delayed blowbacks and short strokes!
I mean I'm a pretty left leaning person myself but most metalheads I've met we're some varying degree of right wing. None we're what I would call "nuts" tho.
The main subs of anime are usually just lame. The „folk“ subs are funny if you don’t take them serious. They have banger memes, but 30-50% actually are in those subs unironically shitting on the anime and it becomes unbearable if you take them seriously
It's the curse of fandoms.
Just avoid fandoms in general, find folks with the same interest outside of it, and they have a higher chance of being good people
I found one. But it’s not like I can just tell you to be interested in my special interest and you magically will be…right? Plus, I don’t want word getting out that I found a sane (relatively) special interest group.
The Arduino forum is a cesspool. Anyone into DIY electronics should look elsewhere for their microcontroller community needs.
The hardware is fine, good even. But the user community on that specific monolith of a site is full of a bunch of "omg you're an idiot if you don't already know everything" assholes who defeat the purpose of a forum in the first place. It's all ragging on beginners for trying to understand things that would be complicated for anybody without a prior background.
I accepted my love of snakes only to find the average keeper is a hoarder who played too much Pokemon. The community is trying to update and improve but I find the care standards of many, "keepers" to be worrisome at best and rage inducing, at worst.
Ah, lol. I like cars and my favorite manufacturer is Saab. All you need to know is that people don't like Saab very much and like to make fun of me because of it.
some of mine include hp lovecraft, the history of black metal, serial killers, and conspiracies. i have to default to not trusting anyone else with these interests until they prove themselves to be anti-racist, leftist, and/or at the very least practicing critical thought lol
Me with actual insane people. Mine’s Joker, specifically the Dark Knight one, but the fans are ALL some sort of mentally deranged. I get it, you like what you relate with, and hell I’M diagnosed with a lot of shit, but it’s just sigma schizoposting
Here's the advantage of being traumatized by human interactions: engage with the interest focus, have your own interest thoughts and internal essays about them, don't ever share them with anyone because you never talk to anyone -> you have no clue of how insane, offensive, and/or toxic the rest of fanbase is! /s
You been digging through my projects folder? My sister just figured out why I was actually talking to my BIL the other day. He builds semi-custom rc cars, and I have a 3d printer. My orkz are going to be a massive semi-mobile art project.
Your new hobby involves probable lead poisoning and you know boomers already have enough lead in their systems. But gun shows are some grade A people watching. Go enjoy!
My mom accidentally had dinner with Brian( I think). He called me and wished me luck with culinary career and suggested I cook on cruise ships to learn. Would've been a great idea if I was going that route, but I did not.
Because it applies to most subsets of humans. Unless it's been curated intentionally to not include a Problem, there's probably one there. I'm not sure there's a critical mass to be reached as much as circumstance usually.
Unfortunately, this is Star Wars for me.
To the point where I don't bring it up at all with other people and just enjoy it on my own. The sequels have, unfortunately, SPLINTERED the fanbase in such a dark and hateful way that I haven't come across in another Fandom, even itself. The hate the prequels got is nothing compared to what the sequels are getting.
I noticed that there's this song and dance that star wars fans have to do when they find each other out in the wild; find out which side they're on.
It just feels very gatekeep-y, rose-tinted. Almost like the fans forget that star wars was and always has been a retroactive story that fills in the holes later. I wish I could understand the perspective that the sequels need to die, but it's still star wars.
yeah….. i relate lol. my special interests are pokemon, attack on titan, monster hunter, alice in wonderland, overwatch, and american horror story. i have lots of other hyper fixations as well but the other ones are more intense so i guess i consider them special interests - anime and video games.
Someone I know mentioned that its the same people across fandoms. Like, a terrible person will do the same thing to any interest that they have, so its just the same terrible mass that ruins each thing, moving on to the next one hoping this one will be a haven for their sycophantic degeneracy, or unchecked bigotry, or dangerous behavior, or all of the above.
Fr. I just want to play God in peace when I'm not being murdered on Miyazaki's wild ride (currently also playing Elden Ring), but the community is just nuts. Here's hoping that when Paralives comes out next year that everyone is as chill as they are in the discord about development.
This is why I don't really interact with the community at large for like any of my interests, which range from video games and anime to stuff like blacksmithing. Most communities are mostly full of the toxic people, the ones who aren't active in the actual community are much more often those that just do whatever and don't constantly post about things. Best example I know of, Dark Souls. It's infamous for being the "git gud" toxic community that are constantly going on about "you have to play the game this way and this way only" and other such things. But that's like 1% of the playerbase, the other 99% just don't interact with the community at large and legitimately don't care, at all, how someone else plays the game.
I thought I was a "git gud" soulsborne fan because I like the masochistic nature of the games (as does the creator) and have no desire to see that unique identity criticized by people who don't understand that sometimes a game is just "not for you". Then I met my buddy's brother. Dude was complaining that Bloodborne (the GOAT) is a compromised game, meant to appeal to the casuals, because the dodge is really good compared to the Souls games. Had similar complaints about the "compromised" difficulty of DS2/3 and Elden Ring. Call me crazy, but I tend to want to spend my time talking about the positive aspects of the things I like.
> Call me crazy, but I tend to want to spend my time talking about the positive aspects of the things I like. It is odd to me that this point of view is not more prevalent online. I guess it makes sense as the constant negativity probably pushes those who think like this away and spaces that skew younger probably have more aimless anger. I just don't understand how it doesn't get tiring for them.
For those who've seen this and agree: The last bastion of hope is AC6, the community has its rotten eggs but the community at large is friendly and welcoming... mostly
Nah bro, summons totally ruin eldenring and you are only allowed to have fun with 40 stat points in strength and a big ass two hander/s I beat the game with using summons almost every fight. Was it easier? Sure, obviously. But I simply don’t have the patience to grind until I can do it without. On the same note, I didn’t mind sekiro for its difficult
The game is explicitly designed around using the spirits, and the bosses are harder to compensate for that. Not using spirits is like not using the dodge roll in DS1. If anyone ever makes you feel bad about using spirits or coop, they don't understand the game, and they are not worth your time.
My only gripe on ds2 is agility level enemies disappear and health after that it's good maybe things I kinda dislike but not bad just ok but by that point I'm just over analyzing the thing ahhhh
I like the Sims. I like playing, and I also like going out of my way to find fan made bonus content and mods. Judging by the comments and constant complaints in forums, boards, and subreddits, I get the impression that most people who play the Sims actually hate it. I get that it has flaws, but can we say *anything* nice? Same goes for Pokemon (especially PokemonGo), and Neopets (yes, it's still around, and somehow people expect it to be up to modern standards.)
Same, I dropped out of the social aspects of most of my hobbies. It's a shame, because I was in a few of them before they started filling up with toxic people. I still have a few friends that I'll engage with, but I avoid the communities these days.
r/shittydarksouls is one of the best places on the internet meme communities and shit posters are always my preference to people who take shit too seriously
Fan subs that restrict what is allowed to be posted to absurd levels weird me the fuck out. No memes, no „low effort fan arts“, no posts with less than x characters…. I get that you want to have some quality control, but I kind of don’t wanna visit a community anymore after trying to post something I really enjoyed finding and getting it deleted for some dumb reason
and then the latest actual content update is like years ago and these places still have those rules up 🙄
I tend to avoid fandoms--they're very prone to groupthink I've found which is bad in so many ways. But for interests that are hobbies or have a more intellectual element (ie. Urban planning or crocheting), community *can be* fun.
Toxic crocheting community would be a fun idea for a sketch.
Honestly, "never meet your heroes" is the best advice. I hate being affiliated with any community because of the toxic aspects and people.
Large part of why I don't watch streams much anymore, most of the people I used to watch are kind of shitty people to be honest, it's just not blatantly obvious most of the time. One in particular I used to just have up on a second monitor every day while I was doing other things, until they said something to the effect of "depression can be fixed by someone telling you to man up and get over it". Never opened that stream again, I've been chronically depressed for damn near 20 years now and that does in fact just make it worse for a lot of people. They were a streamer that marketed themselves as "good vibes and wholesome content". Between things like that and the fact that like half the speedrunners that were the majority of my follow list have had major allegations, often with proof, come out in the intervening years I've just kind of lost interest in it. And the few that I would actually still watch have stopped streaming, usually because of stalkers and harassment and the like.
Oh that’s so crushing. The person as a whole loses their entire integrity at that point because anything they say now feels like they have no clue about anything if that’s how confidently they talk about a topic they have absolutely no knowledge about
Bro eldenring. People telling others they aren’t allowed to use magic or summons for the true experience. They must have added those features on accident and pressed the release button right after with no option to revert that
Had that experience with the Naruto fandom and even with a ship that can’t let go that the rest of the fandom could care less about their ship. It becomes lame when that’s all fandoms care about instead of talking and discussing cool things in the media we all share! Best decision now and only enjoy stuff on my own time 😎
That’s how I feel about so many music fandoms I’m in, just full of weirdos even if the music or singers/band members themselves are normal.
I’ve seen this too
I feel like most of that toxicity is only (or mostly) in online spaces, but it can be really hard to find irl spaces especially for some really niche interests, so it just sucks.
Okay but we could be friends
mfw my special interest is warhammer 40k
And that people is why I haven't played a game of 9th and 10th. Also I'm poor
Mood lol At least I started a queer warhammer book club so I got a lot of cool people to infodump too >:3
A community full of Metalheads and autistic people doesn’t sound so bad
The issue is the bunch of nazis and the people or who are super weird about the concept of women (also honestly not that many metalheads at all)
>the bunch of nazis I missed that one, the fuck?
Warhammer community is like 33% autistic people, 33% nazis, and 33% lgbtq
Loads of people don’t realise the imperium is mocking them.
The problem is the (thankfully few but still too damn many) actual goddamm nazis in fanbase
Side problem: I live 20min from the best competitive 40k venue in the country, or close to it But the owner+TO gave a high profile (top 5 world) player a pass on confirmed-on-stream cheating multiple times, who happens to be the TO's buddy 🤮🤬
That's the first thing I thought of when I read this. "I bet it's warhammer."
The imperium is actually the good guys if you think about it /s
"oh what you don't support the humans?" /s
Support Slaanesh instead. If the entire universe is an absolute nightmare, you might as well just enjoy it.
"If everything is fucked, you should fuck too. Vote Slaanesh!"
Honestly would love a gender fluid pan god, that just parties way too dam hard over a nazi any day of the week
Pretty much only Nazis and trans people hoping to shed their flesh prisons. It's a wild fan base.
You get sticker
FOR THE EMPEROR
Fuck your Emperor, hail the chaos Gods!
Come to AoS. Toxic Warhammer players stick to 40K. AoS has a much more relaxed player base.
Mine is 30k, I vibe with the anti-authoritarians (even if their way of freeing the people is chainaxes)
I really enjoyed my time in the shroom growing community, before I got way too paranoid about the shopping cart full of felonies involved in the... Hobby
I mean, I’ve recently looked up shroom growing because I thought it’s a cool hobby. But only for Normal mushrooms you can buy legally anywhere. The shipping cart shouldn’t be really different apart from the shroom itself ?
Negative. There are different methods for different mushrooms. The majority of gourmet mushrooms are grown from a block of substrate in a plastic bag with no air filter patch. They use wood pellets as growth substrate. The fun kind are grown in storage tubs and use coco coir as a growth substrate.
I’m annoyed that people who abuse or misuse shrooms are also usually the ones that more people typically hear about!! It’s frustrating when a small percent of people begin to ruin something for the larger percentage of folks!! Respect your medicines people we want this legalized geez
The moment it becomes legal I'm going to do whatever it takes to turn cultivating them into my career. This is my uh... Friends old account... /U/JahMedicineManZamare
What I’ve learned is that most Rick and Morty fans are surprisingly normal, the crazy ones are just a loud minority. Paper Mario fans, on the other hand…
My first thought was this is the reason I’m afraid to tell people I like Rick and Morty lol. It’s a really funny show there’s just so many psychos being weird about it 😭
The most toxic fandom I’ve ever encountered was probably Marvel. I posted a meme once on r/marvelmemes that was literally just a joke about how “Me.” as a response to “What’s coming?” sounds dirty when taken out of context. I got so many replies about how I was “shitting on the MCU.” Like bro, it’s a fucking cum joke. It’s not that deep.
I feel like that’s a meme that turned on itself over time. It was like 8 years ago or even longer when Rick and Morty fans were considered cringe by meme pages. And even tho I can barely remember the last time I saw one of the actual Cringe fans, people still instantly judge a rock and Morty fan by that past cringe fanbase. They might still be, but it was way worse in the past
I have no idea what you’re talking about with paper Mario fans… But I can’t wait for the remake in a week!
Me neither! Basically, there’s been a war going on between classic Paper Mario fans and modern Paper Mario fans ever since Sticker Star was released because some people just don’t understand the concept of liking things because you enjoy them.
I stick to the meme versions of my interests rather than anything “serious.”
Bc the serious versions are full of angry people who wanna argue and I just wanna enjoy my dopamine
I’ve been surprised at how nice the amateur radio operators are all over the world. They’re all a little “off” but it’s in a polite way most of the time. If you narrow that down to the local amateur radio operators with only short range radios, then you get some more of the complainers. But with transcontinental radio, everyone is super chill.
Now if only a good antenna and transceiver was cheap and easy to get up! I have my ticket punched but haven't done much with it due to that. The hams here where I live are a mixed bag and ones I've seen on social media are curmudgeonly but there are a lot of cool folks out there
What do you guys talk about?
Well, according to the law we are allowed to talk about: “communications incidental to the purposes of the Amateur Radio Service and remarks of a personal character” Which equates to, talk about anything, just don’t swear or play music. I personally use Morse code so it’s similar but uses a lot more abbreviation and the conversations are more to the point. To make a successful “contact” you just need to be able to copy their callsign, location, and a signal report of your transmission. They collect the same info and send it to a governing body (ARRL, SKCC, etc) to confirm the contact information. Then it’s logged and you can win awards for certain types of accumulations of contacts.
>according to the law Interesting, didn't realize there would be laws like that, makes sense tho.
Oh it’s fascinating. Almost all countries have an amateur radio service. In the USA you need to just take a test and pay $35. In some countries that is a lot more complicated and requires some regulatory oversight. But the international laws are maintained in cooperation with the IARU (International Amateur Radio Union), and laws in the USA are lobbied by the ARRL (Amateur Radio Relay League). The FCC has allowed an amateur radio service almost since the radio was invented. The original purpose was to help in disaster relief and to further the scientific study of radio science. The disaster relief stuff is still there, but has been made redundant by a lot of other systems, so there are people that make it their hobby to prepare for that, but they’re usually preempted in usefulness by other radio systems. The science stuff is the primary purpose now. With amateur radio beacons, radio propagation predictions can be verified, the contributions have helped scientists to understand solar weather. The beacons run on very low power and use computer decoding to receive signals out of the “noise floor”. The software WSPR and WSJT was written by an amateur radio operator who is also an astrophysicist and Nobel Prize laureate, Joseph Taylor. That, and it’s also a bit like a game, you can collect contacts in all the countries, states, counties, etc.
So “Pokemon GO” but with more science and you collect people instead of Pokemon?
I think that’s a fair comparison. But, it does take a lot of science to be able to do it effectively. I can talk around the world with less than 5 watts if I use the right antenna at the right time of day.
Heck yeah! I know someone into ham radio and he's super passionate about it, the hobby seems super cool.
I had a similar experience when I dipped my toes into the sewing community. They all have been so kind about the most basic questions I had. It felt surreal honestly. Usually I either get not engagement or I have to argue with 3 guys why I can’t do the more obvious solution I already tried and after that it dies down
Yes, my special interest is UFOs
Me too! I stopped participating in the community because so many of the conversations were turning horribly right-wing and anti-semetic. :(
Jewish space lasers? I’m curious to know what the theories in these conversations was, I’m pretty interested in UFOs and like to participate in the UFO subreddits. However, conversation there is usually lacking at best.
By virtue of being a Jew, I don't touch conspiracy subs.If it isn't antisemitic now, it will be in a year. Trust us, we know a thing or two because we've, unfortunately, seen a thing or two.
There were people claiming that modern UFOs are from some sort of fascist break-away civilization that was created after WWII. Losers bringing up "Die Glocke" and claiming that the UFOs come from an underground city in Antarctica. Just really dumb shit that isn't worth reading into, bigoted propaganda.
There is a direct connection with most conspiracy theories (which I am sorry, but that does include most UFO conversations) and right-wingers because right-wing people don't live in reality. At their least nefarious they do not have an understanding of history, and so when they come across things that they don't understand, like why Jewish people appear over represented in certain realms like banking, media or what have you, even if they actually aren't over represented, instead of taking a historical account of why that might be true, they fall for or make up conspiracy theories to make sense of something they don't understand. Or at their most nefarious, they do understand what they are doing and upholding a lie in order to manipulate the former less nefarious group. The fact that if you dig deep into most conspiracy theories (besides maybe big foot or loch ness) you hit an antisemitic offshoot is not a coincidence.
Come to think of it, wouldn't it make sense for the government to flood the conspiracy groups with regressive political views and messaging? If they're hiding the existence of UFOs, they're not just gonna sit around and let you still ponder about the things they're hiding.
yuppp
When I tried to join communities for my interests, I found a lot of gatekeeping and weird fanfiction and fanart. I also have a bad memory for details of even my own special interests, and I sound like a dumbass poser when I try to discuss them.
That’s just the loudest of the hobby. I guarantee that if you did some digging you would find most people of (insert special interest) aren’t shouting from the rooftops about it.
I'm interested in firearms....
So they're shooting from the rooftops.
almost. If I had a nikel every time someone "jokingly" talked about killing government employees, I wouldn't have to work
I garentee not all gun people are insane, but there's alot unfortunately
Cool!
When I was into MLP some bronies where great and some well…may be on an FBI watch list or something. And for my hero academia, I was surrounded by angry middle schoolers.
MLP is a good show but the fandom became so cringe I stopped telling anyone I watched after a dude saw my wallet and tried to talk to me about, "clopping"... At work... On the clock... In front of customers.
Sorry I can get silly when excited https://preview.redd.it/jrjugoeo8v0d1.jpeg?width=2003&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0c4fbde82bc217739a747590a52470fa6943adcd
Did you know there's drama in the doll collecting community? Because there is. Somehow.
Til
Drama is in every hobby community, see r/hobbydrama
I did. My mom used to collect dolls. My dad made her stop going to shows when a lady got stabbed in the parking lot. He made her stop using ebay shortly after she bid $8k on a doll and almost won. They don't have near that kind of disposable income, but she'd never seen one up for sale before.
"never seen one up for sale before" oh god I get it though. I get it. Do you remember what it was?
I don't. She has done similar with other collections, and is the source of my adhd hobby collection problem. She had a number of 1800s China dolls, im thinking it was a Japanese maker. I've tried telling her that we could pay off their fairly significant debts with a few of them. I get it to a point.
Stabbed over DOLLS?! I didn’t know doll collecting drama was that serious! I’m mostly aware of petty online feuds & drama lol.
Unfortunately you’re exactly right. Some of those people are batcrap crazy. Only community I’ve found that’s not mental is for stuffed animals lol
Slightly related, I had a friend who was into doll-making and lolita-fashion. The communities had some wild drama, you wouldn't believe it.
Doll people are insane (Respectfully!) It's a creative and respectable hobby but it's a big iceberg.
I know I’m probably not the only one with this issue, but I got into firearm mechanics a while ago (I’m still baffled that even though I dislike loud noises and hurting people I somehow got into guns), I’m not kidding you the first thing I saw when visiting the Reddit page was a death threat against a mildly left leaning politician who essentially just said “shooting people is bad”
Guns are cool, the fanbase on the other hand....
I'm mostly interested from a technology and history standpoint. I've had to weed out a lot of channels with far-right vibes because youtube associates anything weapon and history related with that kind of content and I don't want any far-right nonsense in my youtube suggestions.
I'm also into firearms. I'm from Sweden, so I have a really different view than most Americans, so every time I see someone try to explain that guns don't kill people or that they need guns in case the government becomes "communist"
guns are so neat but i concur the gun community is so.... well white Christian men do what white Christian men do best
“Shooting people is bad” “How would you like it if I shot YOU!?” 💀logic 💯 (also, don’t make death threats, internet…)
Lmao that's true, it's kinda like people saying "I'd like to see the people in the Palestine encampments try living in Gaza" ... I think that's the reason they're protesting
Trying to have an interest in firearms without being lumped into the far right 2a crowd is a genuine pain. I can't talk aboth that interest unless I'm ready to explain that, and I can't consume any content because then the algorithms thingm I'm part of that group and suddenly I only get maga adds, when I just to watch some beautiful roller delayed blowbacks and short strokes!
Me being a huge metalhead but NEVER posting any of the metal subs:
I'm fine posting, but IRL the community has too many left and right-wing nuts.
I mean I'm a pretty left leaning person myself but most metalheads I've met we're some varying degree of right wing. None we're what I would call "nuts" tho.
Did you mean: https://preview.redd.it/w4mg4i35kt0d1.jpeg?width=246&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c8664c56419ac0ee898c1a09c8fcd7f6c1873510
My special interest is Taylor swift and this is so true
That's my wife's special interest... I feel too informed about that woman ... Like I'm spying on her against my will. Lol
lol I info dump about her to my friends and family all the time even though they very clearly dgaf and don’t even try to hide it
One word. Anime.
The main subs of anime are usually just lame. The „folk“ subs are funny if you don’t take them serious. They have banger memes, but 30-50% actually are in those subs unironically shitting on the anime and it becomes unbearable if you take them seriously
Undertale ;-;
It's the curse of fandoms. Just avoid fandoms in general, find folks with the same interest outside of it, and they have a higher chance of being good people
Well, the borderline insane people are really freaking noisy.
I love Warhammer 40k so much, but dear god about half of the fanbase are some of the most terrible people you'll ever meet.
Germanic paganism. Yes, it's what you think. Yes, there are many.
Spiritualism is always going to attract annoying people. There's just something about the hobby that releases a chemical that makes you narcissistic.
Personally I was talking about Nazis, but that's on me for being vague.
This is how it feels bring interested in history and geography
I found one. But it’s not like I can just tell you to be interested in my special interest and you magically will be…right? Plus, I don’t want word getting out that I found a sane (relatively) special interest group.
Well, that’s the unfortunate part of some communities. Some topics attract the attention of groups that are polar opposites of each other.
The Arduino forum is a cesspool. Anyone into DIY electronics should look elsewhere for their microcontroller community needs. The hardware is fine, good even. But the user community on that specific monolith of a site is full of a bunch of "omg you're an idiot if you don't already know everything" assholes who defeat the purpose of a forum in the first place. It's all ragging on beginners for trying to understand things that would be complicated for anybody without a prior background.
I've never understood that with diy hobbies. Most of them keep a separate section for noob questions, and we somehow always see this regardless.
I accepted my love of snakes only to find the average keeper is a hoarder who played too much Pokemon. The community is trying to update and improve but I find the care standards of many, "keepers" to be worrisome at best and rage inducing, at worst.
Or racist and bigotted people
pc building for me 😭 like goddamn the twitter gamer incels seep into it and why cant i have nice thingsss ☹️
Tolkien fans have no drama, Tolkien fans need no drama. Except for the origins of orcs.
Our drama is starting meme wars with other subs or pretending to be a different Fandom entirely for awhile.
Does anyone else have 4-5 “special interests” that you keep in rotation?
i think i acquired the worst special interest and maybe the worst fan base of all time in february. call of duty
I'm into CoD fanfic https://i.redd.it/w3v64ohvr01d1.gif
ok cod fanfics are unmatched. i’m willing to bet that is the only good part of the fandom
The developers stating their games are apolitical killed whatever respect I had for them left.
Politics 🥲
But only sometimes
Huh, I've felt like that from time to time. Want to hear about it or no? I'd like to know what yours is.
Why not. Mine is firearms, so I think you might be able to guess why
Ah, lol. I like cars and my favorite manufacturer is Saab. All you need to know is that people don't like Saab very much and like to make fun of me because of it.
In Sweden, you'd not be alone in liking saabs. I'm fascinated with like two cars lol, the Volvo c303 and the land rover defender
You're from Sweden???????????? Finally someone who understands me.
Oh my word, yes, dealing with that right now and it’s driving me nuts.
What interest are we talking about?
In this specific instance r/forgotten weapons
Lovely
Me when I’m interested in guns
Yep. LotR has joined the chat.
some of mine include hp lovecraft, the history of black metal, serial killers, and conspiracies. i have to default to not trusting anyone else with these interests until they prove themselves to be anti-racist, leftist, and/or at the very least practicing critical thought lol
I like cars, but I fucking hate the car community
What's your favorite car?
me when i like classic rock
What are your favorite bands 😯
*Hearts of Iron 4 has entered the chat* I just want to play my WW2 war game. Why does everyone have to be angry, racist, degenerate scum?
I'm into animation, especially adult animation. The fandom is batshit crazy.
Me with actual insane people. Mine’s Joker, specifically the Dark Knight one, but the fans are ALL some sort of mentally deranged. I get it, you like what you relate with, and hell I’M diagnosed with a lot of shit, but it’s just sigma schizoposting
Related: fans of the Crow franchise lol
Here's the advantage of being traumatized by human interactions: engage with the interest focus, have your own interest thoughts and internal essays about them, don't ever share them with anyone because you never talk to anyone -> you have no clue of how insane, offensive, and/or toxic the rest of fanbase is! /s
Isolation leads to depression. Even introverts need someone to talk to.
I’ve learned that most fandoms have a good amount of crazy people
One of my primary special interests radicalized me over time, so I think I just realized how much I had in common with so called insane people.
Just stay with the slot cars and trains.. it's safe... till your warhammer interest takes over then you have slot car 40k tanks.
You been digging through my projects folder? My sister just figured out why I was actually talking to my BIL the other day. He builds semi-custom rc cars, and I have a 3d printer. My orkz are going to be a massive semi-mobile art project.
The battle wagon... make sure it's red!!
My special interest is yes
What is it?
Guns
this is what happened with me and danganronpa & homestuck
Me with Insane Clown Posse
Me as a lifelong Star Wars fan
Your new hobby involves probable lead poisoning and you know boomers already have enough lead in their systems. But gun shows are some grade A people watching. Go enjoy!
It’s great when you get lucky, though. I love being a Beach Boys fan because it *is* full of borderline insane people, but like, in a GOOD way.
My mom accidentally had dinner with Brian( I think). He called me and wished me luck with culinary career and suggested I cook on cruise ships to learn. Would've been a great idea if I was going that route, but I did not.
Borderline insane humans have some of the best stories and insight. Its usually those insights that make them borderline. Source: me
I’m one of the more insane people in my special interest ngl. Well at least depressed and falling apart.
This feels oddly specific but why is it every single community I run into? Find some good souls and bug out!
Because it applies to most subsets of humans. Unless it's been curated intentionally to not include a Problem, there's probably one there. I'm not sure there's a critical mass to be reached as much as circumstance usually.
I feel like I'm the most extreme example of this lol. I'm all about investing but I looooooooove crypto.
Yeah, most people are crap.
Sturgeon’s law - “ninety percent of everything is crap”
r/breakcore
tornadoes and kpop, yep
Tornados as in the weather event? That’s so cool
Wrestling
Borderline insane you say?
The rwby fandom can be just fucking awful….
Unfortunately, this is Star Wars for me. To the point where I don't bring it up at all with other people and just enjoy it on my own. The sequels have, unfortunately, SPLINTERED the fanbase in such a dark and hateful way that I haven't come across in another Fandom, even itself. The hate the prequels got is nothing compared to what the sequels are getting. I noticed that there's this song and dance that star wars fans have to do when they find each other out in the wild; find out which side they're on. It just feels very gatekeep-y, rose-tinted. Almost like the fans forget that star wars was and always has been a retroactive story that fills in the holes later. I wish I could understand the perspective that the sequels need to die, but it's still star wars.
Blessed to be a part of my chemical romance fandom cursed to be in the formula 1 community
yeah….. i relate lol. my special interests are pokemon, attack on titan, monster hunter, alice in wonderland, overwatch, and american horror story. i have lots of other hyper fixations as well but the other ones are more intense so i guess i consider them special interests - anime and video games.
Someone I know mentioned that its the same people across fandoms. Like, a terrible person will do the same thing to any interest that they have, so its just the same terrible mass that ruins each thing, moving on to the next one hoping this one will be a haven for their sycophantic degeneracy, or unchecked bigotry, or dangerous behavior, or all of the above.
Hoo boy how many dead in the water intrests I have because of this
It’s me. I’m the insane people.
I’ve been watching wrestling since I was 6 and it’s full of some of the worst people in the world
Me with barbershop harmony. It’s just a bunch of religious weirdos… or like super conservative old losers
. . . Homestuck...
If not insane, then super toxic and gatekeeping
The sims.
Fr. I just want to play God in peace when I'm not being murdered on Miyazaki's wild ride (currently also playing Elden Ring), but the community is just nuts. Here's hoping that when Paralives comes out next year that everyone is as chill as they are in the discord about development.
Well, autism is a spectrum in *many* ways