I'm going to make one (1) post about this and then block a bunch of blogs and move on, because I know Heated Rivalry is a lot of people's first rpf fandom and I think it's important.
rpf has a long, long history (back to the 1920s and probably before) that you can read about here. imagining lives (and loves) for celebrities is a cherished fandom activity.
you know what's not cool? tinhatting. that's the term fandom uses for people who aren't doing this just for fun, but who have convinced themselves that they know a secret truth about people they've never met.
if you've coming across blogs in the hudcon tag that speak with certainty ("they've been together since before new years"), who use dismissive (and usually misogynistic in context) terms like "PR", "Stunt" and "Beard", who definitively describe someone's sexual identity ("we know he's gay"), then you're reading the work of a tinhat.
worse still, many of these posters are claiming an authority ("we've seen this before") based on one of the worst fandom conspiracy theories - Larry. A bunch of tinhats who persist in the face of over a decade of denials and pleas from the people involved and their friends and family to stop. many of them haven't even changed their blog names. and then they hide behind the "i'm just one girlie pop posting my opinions on my blog, i'm not doing anything wrong".
here's the point: enjoy your rpf! do it with fun and whimsy. hudson wants you to knock him up! write your fictional fiction, and craft your unhinged theories in the tags. play with your paper dolls. pair people with any and all of their costars. you do not need it to be real.
don't give tinhats any oxygen. don't try and argue with them, they won't change. block them and move on.
and be a shining example for all the people here because it's baby's first fandom! this is supposed to be a good time. welcome.
back to your regularly scheduled hockey programming.
