Fans vs Haters

Image by Erik J. Gustafson via Flickr

I am so sick of the haters.  Unfortunately they are turning me to the dark side...

I started dropping RSS feeds that "Why I hate..." and "Which do I hate most..." posts.  Now, I feel a little mixed up about a post over at Club Jade.

Obey me or I hate you!

It is a plague, an epidemic.  Like a zombie outbreak where the zombies look like regular people, feeding off the brains of the unaffected- the chattering class of haters posing as fans roam the world chanting, "Obey me or I hate you!"

• Fans are driven to seek out and discuss the things they love.

• Haters are driven to seek out and discuss the things they hate.

Every day, I find so called fan blogs that are trying to profit from the controversy they gain from hating something that is either easy to complain about or that will stir up controversy.  They are easy posts to write and they generate traffic, but the are corrosive to the dialogue and our collective dignity.

I feel bad writing this...

because I risk becoming one of them, but I just couldn't take it anymore.

Life is far too short to spend it in pointless sniping and complaining about every little thing in the universe that doesn't go your way.

I feel like a lone voice in the wilderness.  I know I am not alone.  From your emails and comments, I know that there are more Fans than Haters.  We are just a silent majority.  It is time to rise up!

Fans are not Emos!

It is time we stood up and took fandom back from these people!

• People are not stupid for liking something you don't.

• People are not stupid for hating something you like.

• A Franchise is not ruined because you don't like a parts of it.

• The creator has the right to do whatever they creatively with their work and don't require your approval.

• Homogeneity is not required for a series to be good.

• Objecting to the morality of a work may say more about you than the work.  Examine that first.

• If you don't like a certain type of story, you are not a fan of that genre/subgenre.

• Respect the opinions of others unless they are racist, sexist, homophobic or bigoted in some other way.

The genesis of the problem

I stopped reading io9 a long time ago because there is nothing of value on their site.  I have dropped several blogs from my feed reader because they cited io9 too often and started becoming as full of venom.  I don't believe that Club Jade is their yet, but it is exhibiting some of the early signs of contagion.  I hope they don't contract the disease.