Final Update/Notice
Thank you everyone for your support up until now & I’m glad this account has been fun for many people. I know the last update I said I’d try to revive this account, but in the end I can’t bring myself to continue this any longer. I accept responsibility for posting many things here that, while were meant as jokes, were inappropriate, incorrect (beyond just the name of the account. Like possibly spreading incorrect information unintentionally.), and overall disrespectful to the people I claim to respect & look up to. Incorrect quotes might be fun between friends, but I feel an account of this size is largely disrespectful and contributing to the continuation of bad manners I’ve been seeing lately. Out of respect for my favorite people who have indirectly helped me to an extent I don’t wish to discuss here, I’m officially announcing the end of this account. As of posting this I’m not sure if I want to delete the whole account or just let it sit inactive, but I will no longer be posting any new quotes. The other mod and I have discussed it before, and I’m fairly certain they won’t be returning to this account either.
My reasoning for this isn’t a disinterest in utaite, in fact it’s far from it. Yes, I tried making it clear none of this was real. That doesn’t change the effects it may have caused. It’s very important to me to treat these people I look up to with the respect they deserve, and to post things here, even with my best judgement, feels like treating them more like characters than people. They aren’t like the characters from your favorite manga or show or whatever, these are real people with real lives, and trying to judge what types of things they would say to make jokes isn’t right. No amount of support will make this feel right. Even trying to make them as in person type as possible isn’t right when I only know them from tweets & live streams. It’s simply not my place to do so. In the end the risk of hurting them isn’t worth continuing this. And for any harmful posts here, I sincerely apologize. It may take sometime but I do plan on removing the worst of them. I’m not doing this because anyone told me to or threatened me, in fact any response I’ve gotten here has been positive which I never expected (so thank you all). Whether utaite themselves see any of this or not doesn’t matter, disrespect is still disrespect.
And as a last note, since this account would reach the most people I can, I’d like to speak out about a few things as a concerned fan. Please remember this is not a call out or cancel post. I don’t wish any bad on anyone, I just want to make people aware their behaviors have consequences & together we can work towards better environments for everyone. We as an overseas fandom seem to have largely forgotten our manners, and while this may be fun for you and your friends, you are not the only ones here; you aren’t the only ones affected by your words & actions. It’s been a while since I’ve seen manners reminders (they used to be common when I was getting into utaite in like 2015), & I’ve seen people get death threats for trying to remind people. Regardless of what side you are on there is absolutely no reason to send death threats or in any way cyber bully anyone.
Please remember
1. Please do not reupload content. Many utaite have directly stated not to reupload covers, images (both selfies and in some cases official art as well), past broadcasts especially if they’ve been deleted, and related things. If your account is public please actually respect these people you claim to look up to & value their choices. Please listen to them and don’t put their selfies or live photos, etc on your blog or twitter or insta, etc. Also realize that making “memes” out of these pictures can come across as disrespectful or even hateful. Internet memes & humor do not always translate well, and even if you mean to have fun, it could end up hurting someone accidentally. Your actions affect many more people than just you and your close friends. It’s also been warned that using similar names & icons/profiles can cause confusion of who’s the real one and whether it’s intentional or not it can be seen as an impersonation attempt, so it’s best to avoid doing this, too.
2. I’m not saying this to gatekeep or exclude anyone or be elitist, this has always been part of international fan manners. Keep other language comments to a minimum. Obviously we all want to get noticed by our fave people, it’s a thrilling experience, but language barriers are real. Many times I’ve been at casts and the utaite has said they’re uncomfortable speaking a language, yet people continue to speak that language to them. Yes they will enjoy knowing they have fans, but please please consider their feelings. Making them uncomfortable by continuously trying to get them to speak your language isn’t fair to them. Yes, they put themselves out on the internet where anyone can see, but especially at live broadcasts you’ve entered their spaces. They do not owe it to you to speak your language. I’m not asking you to learn Japanese for you to interact with who you like, that isn’t fair to anyone considering the work that takes, however it isn’t fair for you to ask or make the people you claim to look up to uncomfortable for your own benefit. It’s nice to get noticed yes!! But it’s so much better to get noticed for simple things (say maybe having a good morning liked or replied to) than to be the person who makes the whole situation uncomfortable. Adding on to this, if you do decide to comment, please keep your comments on topic & simple. If they are in the middle of talking about games or dreams, it’s a bit odd to interject with something about a picture or video if they aren’t connected at all.
3. Also about comments it’s often considered rude to mention other utaite at someones stream or video (example: its a USSS video & you ask where Mafu is). There are times it is seen as okay but for the most part it’s looked down on.
4. Kind of goes in with basic respect, but please try not to make nsfw or shipping comments directly to them or really on public accounts. private accounts no one can see what you’re doing so I guess that’s better if you really feel the need to say such things. Really it’s just inappropriate and if you disagree please take a second to think about how you would feel if a stranger suddenly started saying such things to you. They may be popular but they are still human people with emotions. Also I’ve only seen it happen once but if you are going to keysmash do not use hshs that is not a keysmash it’s used for heavy breathing mostly in nsfw contexts so you can imagine how off putting it is to see someone type that seemingly at random. (i don’t really expect everyone to have known that but i’m saying it now so you DO know & can maybe,, not do that)
5. Popularity does not equal skill level; Your faves are not better than anyone else’s because they are more popular. You are also not less of a fan for only like popular or not so popular utaite. This is such a weird thing I see people attack each other for. It’s not nice to put down other’s faves just because your’s are more popular. It’s not nice to be mean to someone because they only listen to, say Mafumafu. Of course no one’s saying you can’t have your opinions. You’re free to like and dislike whoever you chose, but your preferences do not make you any better or worse fan than anyone else. (I really don’t think “fake” fans exist, if you like them at all you’re a fan. “Bad” fans really just depends on your behavior & that’s something you can improve upon.)
There is no such thing as a perfect fan & it’s pointless to try to be a perfect or “pure” fan. All of us have things we could work to improve on & I’m not trying to condemn or attack anyone by saying these things. There’s no “rule book” to follow to take away your fun. But there’s plenty of ways to enjoy this besides making your faves uncomfy or causing a bad name for everyone. Everyone likes to agree with “treat your faves like people” posts so all I’m asking is that you live up to what you’re saying, to remember you can’t just do whatever you want like you do with fictional characters, because in this case there IS a real live person on the other side of the screen. Please just take the time to consider the consequences your words, art, actions, etc have, not just on you but on everyone else, too. Like it or not we’re in this together.
Thank you all for your time, support, & consideration.
