(no subject)

[oakenguy]

WHAT I'VE ACCOMPLISHED TODAY

1) Decided that for my clown act, I need either two living statues or a karaoke machine.

2) Hung out on the '100 Best Music Videos' compilation at http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/36588/Staff_List_100_Awesome_Music_Videos .

2a) Played a mental game of 'who'd win: Pat Benatar or the Pipettes?'. The jury's still out.

3) Read, in fascinated horror, the worst story of fandom gone wrong that I've ever seen, all laid out like an NSA brief here: http://www.journalfen.net/users/charlottelennox/ . To sum up the 90,000 words of evidence and IP addresses: for the last six years, a woman has been creating 'sockpuppets', both fake online groupies and fake trolls she can be martyred and even 'stalked' by, ALL TO GET HARRY POTTER FANFIC WRITERS TO THINK SHE'S COOL.

Wow. Once again foresthouse has shown me how strange the world can get.

Comments

[lediva.livejournal.com]

I have a karaoke machine. :)

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

I know! It's actually been the source of much pondering. :)

[lediva.livejournal.com]

Excellent... mwa ha ha.

[spenceraloysius.livejournal.com]

Read, in fascinated horror, the worst story of fandom gone wrong that I've ever seen, all laid out like an NSA brief

I started reading it and I can't decide if I'm more horrified by the woman who created the scokpuppets or that someone took the time to document it all out in 10 chapters.

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

I'm definitely on the side of being more horrified by the woman who created the sockpuppets. Because the investigative reporting? I would so do that if I thought someone had screwed not only me, but my friends and not-friends and people I didn't even know, over. It's a deep-seated, obsessive detail-oriented drive in me, and I have to admire the dedication it took to pull it all together and lay out the evidence coherently.

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

When doing something like this you're always damned if you do/damned if you don't: if you take the time to lay out every bit of evidence you're obsessive, and if you don't then you have no proof and are obviously just a troll.

[keelie.livejournal.com]

I think I'm more horrified I just spent like a full hour and a half doing nothing but reading it.

[callunav.livejournal.com]

I read/skimmed that account. It made me inutterably depressed.

You know, I'm really, really not part of the Fandom Scene, despite my liking many of the same things that people who are Part Of The Fandom Scene like. So I know that there's a whole intricate culture in there that I totally don't get.

Several months ago, someone who is Part Of The Scene (though not HP, thus not, mercifully, part of this mess) was laughing in her journal about her triumph of having "made" Fandom_Wank. Not being part of the scene, I said something about how, basically, to me, people being mean was people being mean, and I didn't like it. She rushed to say that no, it was part of the culture, it was cool, it was kind of funny, there was a kind of cache' (not her word) to having shown up there, it was not meanness, it was part of the game.

And I tried to adapt to this and nodded, a little doubtfully, and took her word for it.

And now, having read this, I've come back to my basic conclusion: people being mean is just people being mean, in fandom or out of it, and I don't like it. Not just of the subject of the documentary, but a lot of the people involved. Just...so much nastiness. It makes me feel sad and tired.

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

I agree that it's depressing. But there's part of me that would love for someone to pick up the documentation and then do a study of the shifting tides of political stuff in the fandom, as revealed by the responses to the various events portrayed in the documentation, and the response to the documentation itself.

[anadandy.livejournal.com]

I have friends who are/were friends with the sock pupeteer - it really makes me glad I never got involved with any of that.

[eroika.livejournal.com]

I'll be a living statue, what a way to perform, just have to stand there and move occasionally ;)

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

Yay! Now to work out logistics...

[eroika.livejournal.com]

So do I have to be a clown statue? ;)

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

Hee! I'd pictured the two living statues as "ordinary" statues, for contrast with the clown.

Of course, there's no saying *I* have to be the clown.... ;)

[eroika.livejournal.com]

Nope, no clown for me! Ordinary works, hee

[khep.livejournal.com]

I would be a living statue for you! I've been wanting to do living statue art for *so long*

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

That would be so cool! I dont suppose you have any trips to Toronto or NYC coming up?

[scixual.livejournal.com]

I can statue...

[maxineofarc.livejournal.com]

Pat Benatar ALWAYS wins, fool.

[telepresence.livejournal.com]

See, the Pipettes can afford to be innocent. That's their achilles heel.

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

It's their greatest trick! If you watch the video closely, you see that by the midpoint of the song the crowd's been totally hypnotized by those polka-dotted dresses and are mimicking the hand gestures *in perfect time*. Like well-oiled machines. Whereas Pat Benatar's backup dancers....well...(insert tasteful yet witty "well-oiled" joke here).

[mythfish.livejournal.com]

Dude...I just wasted 2 hours of my life watching videos thanks to you.

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

Have you made it to the milk carton yet? I think that one's my favorite so far. (Though the Chemical Brothers one wins the FREAKING ME OUT award).

[scixual.livejournal.com]

Tell me more about this ... clown act, as you call it.

[foresthouse.livejournal.com]

Haha, as if you needed more proof that the world is crazy. :)

I want to be a living statue! I would so do it if I lived nearby.

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

Here, verbatim, is how my mind worked as I thought about my response yesterday (because I'm such an LJ geek that I plan out my comments while I drive. It's sad.)

Thought 1: We could do something for Discworld Con.

Thought 2: Not that many statues in Discworld, though. At least, not ones important to a plot.

Thought 3: Lot of trolls, though. LOT of trolls.

Thought 4: ZOMG, Detritus giving the keynote address!!

[foresthouse.livejournal.com]

HEEE! OMG that would be so much fun. Oh, I really wish I could be working on the DiscCon instead of studying for the bar. I cannot WAIT until July 27 is over!!

Can I be Ruby? She's cool.

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

You TOTALLY can!

(Now we just need to figure out how!)

[foresthouse.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Well, I can acquire at least the feather boa I believe she was wearing in Moving Pictures...other than that...I dunno.