On the accessibility of fandom fests

[noracharles]

This is a post about the accessibility of fandom fests for people with social anxieties.

October 24th, 2009: kaz on access_fandom: Challenges, challenges, challenges
It's a great post, go read :-)

I would like in particular to quote this:

If you have written anything of the "we will be kind of unhappy if you drop out without a good reason >(" variety, in fact if you haven't explicitly made it clear that dropping out is acceptable, I have probably worked myself up into such a state about this that I cannot, actually, think about the challenge without starting to cry. - kaz

because it is relevant to what I have to say.

Yuletide is moving to a new archive, because the old archive is kaput. Some members for a variety of personal reasons want to withdraw their fics. The move of old fics hasn't even started yet, but speculation and rumors about how it would be handled started as soon as the move was announced.

January 4th 2010: astolat mod of yuletide: About the AO3 and the yuletide move

If you want more details about the move, there will be a detailed explanation including optional tech geekery on the yuletide_admin livejournal at least a week before we actually run the import (the move was delayed until after Yuletide so we could do this in a more sane way), and all authors will be notified at all of the email addresses on their yuletide story or stories, and will have the option to claim, orphan, or delete your work. (I'll field questions on that post, but please hold 'em until then!) - astolat

I like how she makes her position clear, that the move is necessary, but does not lay on the guilt. I have not followed the communications from yuletide regarding the move very closely, because I am not a member, but I have no objections to any of the official communications I have seen. On the contrary, I am pleasantly surprised.

The problem is that supporters of yuletide have taken it upon themselves to wage a campaign of social pressure on members not to remove any fics from the archive.

Please note: This is my, possibly inaccurate, summary. I do not speak for anyone but myself. Please go to the source to form your own impression of what people are really saying.

January 2nd, 2010: merricatk: Ravings of an emotionally unstable fan. Warning, ableist content in comments, may be triggering.

merricatk provides us with some background for context: She is a member of yuletide, and wishes to withdraw her fic or at least be better informed about her privacy options. She has a history of not functioning well in fandom social circles, and has accepted that certain things she just can't take part in. For her own health and well-being, she has decided to withdraw her fic from public archives and repost it in her own journal.

Having heard the rumor of yuletide moving, she went looking for information, and supporters of yuletide were calling members wishing to withdraw names. (merricatk seems to think they are official representatives of yuletide, but from what I have seen that is not the case.)

I wish they weren't using the word orphan. It's too poetic, it puts to sharp a point on the abandonment, it makes me feel terrible. I have abandonment issues. Call me a thief for taking my story back and I can deal with it. Say I'm making my story an orphan, I'll cry.

[...]

I'm perfectly aware that my feelings--and all this is nothing but my feelings--are indefensible. But I don't like it when the powerful people come and tell me how unreasonable I am not to want to do things their way. Not ask, just tell.

I can live with being disliked, considered a screwball, or an angry, shitty, classless, selfish jerkass, and I can live with people believing the lie that I'm doing this because I hate OTW and/or A3O. I can live with the whole rest of the world considering me irrational.

January 3rd, 2010: fandom_wank: Beat your breasts, maidens, and rend your tunics. Warning, ableist content in post and comments, may be triggering.
fandom_wank users discuss the yuletide archive move debate, including merricatk's post.

There are many very funny snarky comments, but there are also a few opinions I find objectionable:

• That merricatk does not have the right to talk about her anxiety, because the pain she feels is lesser than the pain other people could have potentially felt had other authors agreed with merricatk in the warnings debate some months ago that writing warnings on all their fic was an insurmountable task and a barrier to future writing inspiration and motivation and had they furthermore disagreed with merricatk that it was appropriate to take other measures, such as removing their fic from public archives. Or as they say: merricatk does not feel empathy, so deserves no empathy.



• That merricatk does not have the right to talk about her anxiety, because her feelings are stupid and inconvenient.

Dear reader, should merricatk's opinions on anything influence your opinion on whether supporters of a fest can create an atmosphere which excludes people with social anxieties from taking part in fests?

And, dear reader, if accessibility is only for the good people with disabilities, and merricatk is a bad person with a disability, does the fact that she used herself as an example of a fan with social anxiety crying over a fest mean that you should not care about the other fans with social anxiety

• possibly being triggered by the atmosphere of social pressure surrounding the yuletide move
• possibly being scared away from seeking information from the actual official representatives of the fest
• and possibly being scared away from ever participating in a fandom fest in the future?

How can we do better?

I think the mods could not have anticipated the way the discussion flared up. I knew from casually looking through the yuletide comm that information about the move was forthcoming, and that the mods were very busy with yuletide 2009 which has only just finished. And I think astolat reacted very quickly, pouring oil on the troubled waters and making it clear that it would be possible to withdraw. I do not blame the yuletide mods in any way.

Future mods of fests could consider having an official policy of asking supporters not to answer member questions, except to refer confused members to the rules or FAQ. This might cut down on supporters going against a fest's policy of non-confrontation and low guilt and anxiety. Enforcing rules without causing anxiety attacks is a very tricky matter, and random supporters should not be encouraged to enforce rules through social pressure.

Supporters of fests, who are understandably eager to have everyone follow the rules, could consider whether referring the confused to the rules or FAQ, or letting them know that an official announcement will be forthcoming wouldn't be the most constructive thing to do.

I can't blame anyone for snarking in a comm like fandom_wank, because it is not a safe space, and it has rules against confronting the people under discussion. But I think that people who think that an appropriate response to "You are frightening me" is more confrontation, or pointing and laughing, need to examine their ableist privilege.

---

This is a post about the accessibility of fandom fests for people with social anxieties.

It is not a post about whether there are rules about withdrawing fic from yuletide, whether the rules were made clear when people signed up, and whether the archive move releases users from their promise to leave the fic in the archive.

It is not a post about whether social anxiety is real, and whether social pressure including guilt and name calling can trigger anxiety attacks.

It is not a post about the warnings debate, and merricatk or noracharles' role in the debate.

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Comments

[noracharles]

Thank you for reading it :-)