Sascha [they/he/she]

Im all in for ccs moderating their OWN spaces, bc they deserve safety and being comfortable on them, but censorship of an entire community out of those spaces is detrimental to itself. The whole if you cut a magnet you get a smaller magnet analogy is important to know.

Im much of a platonic girlie in the pow fandoms, but I'm ngl so mad that I would go to war for my shipper siblings, they shouldnt be forced of accepting a dynamic like Ive seen people doing, and I hate people guilt triping them with the narrative of "you can only see romance, you obsessed romance freaks"

By this I mean changing their appearances and not just "similar hairstyle in a different colour" but a full look. The default skin has short brown hair? Why not make that into a long braid? Or buzzed on the side and a colour that isn't brown.

Names are also important too. Some have been adding last names to their characters which helps show that it's a different guy between series. May I also recommend giving the first name a change too? Even if it's something small like it being a shorten version of their name or a title. (Eg Aimsey -> AJ, Legs -> Doc/the doctor, Sniff -> Juniper) There is less of a bleed when you can say a different same that isn't yours.

The last suggestion only has a few creators doing it but switching up on pronouns is great! Owen will be making another he/she character, same with Martyn having two any/all characters.

It's slowly happening more and more as these creators try out more roleplay smps, and I fully believe that's a positive.

im honestly such a huge advocate for this as well, and i will point out as an example to all the existing liveplay TTRPG media that exists (things like TAZ, Critical Role, Dimension 20), where players are able to have their characters that they are clearly invested in, and put their soul and heart into, and still having the layer of divide from them enough to be able to play dolls with them and also giving them to the audience to do with freely —i say this, but can you imagine how current mcyt fans would have reacted to justin mcelroy's character pursuing a relationship with an npc aka a character polayed by the GM who happened to be his little brother? cancellations ABOUND

like, it's clear that it's somewhat what scott has tried to do with changing some of his recent characters' last names, but even then he had to ask people to clarify when they were talking about his character and not him as a creator back in vsmp days. but it's clear that at least some creators are having to think about the fact that whenever they play characters in a story, that's what they are supposed to be in the end: characters

Like we have a content creator who is asking their fans to report individuals in the fandom who are doing things he doesn't like, so he can "deal with repeat offenders."

And when people are (rightfully) going "hey, what the fuck?" And pointing out that that's overstepping and an abuse of power, we get framed as the weirdos who are gonna die if we can't make the Minecraft blocks kiss.

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DISCLAIMERS: English is not my native language. Health issues mentions, stalking/doxxing/death threats mentions, please be careful.

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TLDR: imo boundaries are good when you are imposing them to yourself (and speaking loud about them) and very bad and harmful (for everyone involved) when you try to impose them on other people through policing means, because trying to police something could work if only you have power to police. And creators don't really have this power. Almost no one at the Internet have this power (except some authoritarian/totalitarian regimes).

What creators often forgot is that they have great influence on other people. Great influence means great responsibility for how you use this influence. (For example sending people to witchhunt). 

But what creators also forgot often, is that they are not inherently different people than me. What could I do to impose my boundary? Well if I don't like the content of dedicated creator I could not watch it. It's that simple. I would be considered very weird if I would come to creator and say "Hey. It's my boundaries. Please don't make this content." (They would block me and would be completely right).

So for example few about a year ago (is end of June-beginning of July cursed in mcyt, like fr?) I had my boundaries fucking insanely broken with some stuff on the The Realm SMP. Like broken up to serious health issues, not exclusively mental. I wrote a post about the situation here on Tumblr, properly (I hope, at least no one commented on tagging) tagged it and I stop watching creators that crossed or could cross my boundaries. Also I found in community some blogs whose authors have similar thoughts as I did on this theme and after few weeks of big health problems I finally found my solace. I have no other means to do anything about my boundaries.

But what is important is that power dynamic. I as fan have no other options except "don't like don't watch". And I'm not sure creators should have more options than me. I thinked about it for a long time, and I came to conclusion that I knew too little to make distinct conclusion on power imbalance between creators and their fans and what it means in terms of their rights and responsibilities. So, if you read that wall of incoherent text up to this point and you have thoughts about this -> please speak them, it's very interesting theme for me and I also gladly take some references to scientific papers/books on power imbalance theme.

Now we going to a part which many will consider weird, evil, I don't know, maybe, some other words I can't think of now. When creators wording their intentions with stuff like "hunt you down" they need to remember this community has a lot of people who are proficient in many different stuff. For example OSINT. Like sure, you could send your people to someone, but think about what this someone could do to your people (which YOU sent for hunt). Would you like YOUR FANS (not hunted people, you don't care about them i get it) to receive death threats? Being doxxed? Being harassed? Having troubles at work (because no company likes receiving weird accusations about their employees)? And, I don't know like, don't imagine that you are so powerful, that your community is so powerful and you could make threats to other people. Other people who could take this threats seriously and response preventively. Yes, probably some ways of it would be illegal in some countries, but for example I don't think anyone could legally get me now. But I wouldn't do anything like this not because of judicial invincibility because I think of myself as of a good person. And a good person, in my opinion, shouldn't waste their time finding strangers on the internet and making their life miserable. At least not first.

So please everyone be respectful and kindful. Respect creators boundaries where you can (or think you should), take measures to prevent creators from knowing about stuff that breaks them. Creators, please avoid saying stuff that could cause witch hunting. Also, everyone, please, remember, creators are the same people as us fans. They don't get any more rights on internet than us just because they are creators, just because they have big fan base.

Heres the thing, I think that vampires smp put a lot of creators in the spotlight that were completely new to fandom culture and what surrounds it for popularity. Creators like Pyro aren't used to a large group of eyes on them in the way that some of the other creators, like Scott or Cleo, are. Thats not anyones fault, but it is something to think about.

When you think about it, Maddy and Pyros shipping discomfort IS fair. Maddy especially is constantly having her relationship with her literal irl partner overlooked in smps in favor of him being shipped with men, and has to see constant content of her partner kissing his friends. Thats so fair of a thing to be uncomfortable with. We can have a whole conversation about how shipping has been pushed so much in fandom, and how mlm specifically seems to be borderline fetishized, to the point of dumbing down complex characters to force them into a role, and especially the aphobia that surrounds that, but that is for another day.

The issue is that Pyro and Maddy are at the assumption that their word is going to actually stop any of that, or that it is any of their business at all. Fandom is usually fully separated from the creators, mcyt as a whole is the exception to that rule. While I understand where Pyro and Maddy are coming from, their posts will not remove shipping content, but it WILL encourage people to harass and harm others in the name of boundaries. Im a veteran of hermitcraft shipping discourse, and this is the pattern that is constant in youtuber spaces.

So, how do we move forward?

We keep the shipping content off the mainstream

Heres the thing, fandom is gonna fandom, ships are gonna ship. No creator can do anything about that, and if they try it will just promote harassment. There is physically no way to say "stop doing this" and it actually leading to people stopping. You aren't word of god on the fandom, you cannot control what people do.

That being said, we can be polite and take into account the cc's discomfort on the matter. So we keep it off the mainstream, have the shipping on the down low. Make it so that Pyro and Maddy will have to go out of their way to see it. That means do not share it directly with or tag the cc's, properly tag and give warnings if you are going to post it somewhere they might see it, and just in general keep it in fandom spaces where the creators aren't. And be kind to everyone involved. Dont harass the ccs or anybody who makes the content. Just keep the shipping to spaces where Pyro won't have to deal with it unwantedly, and properly tag it if its somewhere on twitter or youtube, where he might have to stumble upon it.

I'm so tempted to make a visualization of this but. The line between fandom and cc spaces exists to protect BOTH the cc and the fans. Fans who cross the line into the cc's space by doing things like begging them to canonize a ship, pushing ship art on them, demanding canon follow their own hcs, etc. are a problem, AND ccs who cross the line into fandom spaces and try to dictate how fans behave, control what kind of content fans can create about their characters, and/or endorse (overtly or implicitly) fans going after other fans for what they make, are a problem too. That's the whole reason the line is important.

As a cc, having specific tags fans of certain topics can engage in and setting (actual) hard boundaries on what you are okay discussing in YOUR spaces (your streams, videos, blogs, official discords, etc.), encouraging people to mind their own business as long as things are tagged properly, etc. maintains this line. As a fan, tagging your things properly, blocking the cc on accs that engage in topics you do not wish them to see/you know they are not comfortable with, keeping the content they have stated they are uncomfortable with to those tags and out of the official channels and NOT approaching them about it or demanding their thoughts on it also maintains this line. When BOTH parties do this, when BOTH parties recognize and respect each other, their comfort levels, etc., both spaces are able to thrive. The cc can continue to create and the fans can continue to create both in tandem but also separately.

But when the line becomes blurred, the fun erodes. A cc may feel forced to cater to their fans to maintain relevancy, leading to burn out and inability to create more. Fans may feel they have to be hyper aware of whether or not what they're making is "allowed", leading to harassment, spiralling and even potentially issues with moral OCD. Mutual respect doesn't exist in this scenario. One side feels beholden to another in a way that could encourage entitlement and toxic parasocial relationships (something that could ESP be bad in spaces like mcyt, where a lot of audiences are YOUNG). Blurring this line is not healthy for either side, it can even be dangerous.

When we talk about wanting ccs to get out of fandom spaces we aren't just being entitled. We are actually also thinking about them, their comfort, and their safety. We are literally trying to make it easier for them to avoid what makes them uncomfortable.

But if they refuse to understand that and insist on intruding anyway, the consequences that follow are on them.

god THIS THIS THIS

ALL of this

Boundaries are personal and social. They are based on mutual respect. Boundaries are not orders, they are requests, intended to establish a cause and effect: if you do this thing, I will do this other thing. "If you show me ship fic, I will block you" is a boundary. "You are not allowed to make ship fic at all" is not a boundary, that is a rule.

Rules are not boundaries. Rules are based on power and control - they are imposed upon you. This is not necessarily bad, but it must come with understanding of where they can be applied. Rules only apply where the rulemaker has control of what is allowed. And these are how many creators seem to approach what they call "boundaries". Again, this is not necessarily bad - their own twitch chats, discords, and maintags on social media ARE spaces in which they have control (some spaces more than others - maintags are shakier since creators don't have moderation power there, but that can be alleviated by creating a dni tag and asking people to place content there instead), and are therefore places where they can make rules about what they do or do not want to be shown. This is fine. Creators have the right to moderate their own spaces how they wish.

Where the problems emerge is that many creators seem to assume that they have the power to apply their rules (in the guise of "boundaries") in places that are not their own. Non-main tags on social media, archive of our own, private discords - these are locations in which the application (or lack thereof) of boundaries is no longer the choice of a creator. They do not have power; thus, any choices made by individuals in those spaces must necessarily be based only on the social agreement between fan and creator, an inherently parasocial construction. And in this case, the parasocial agreement that actually exists is not "this thing must never be created", it is "this thing should not be created or shared in my spaces".

I would argue that the primary issue in how "boundaries" are approached is a misunderstanding of how all of this works. Boundaries cannot be enforced in private spaces because there is no power relationship there. They can only be requested. As a result, when creators attempt to enforce boundaries in spaces that are not their own, what will actually happen is a series of barely-controlled harassment campaigns aimed towards people who are, by and large, following the social contract of boundaries but not the power-enforced contract of rules. And that harassment is far more of a problem than any person in a private discord writing something against boundaries. One might make someone uncomfortable.

The issue is the calls for harassment. The Minecraft community is known for many things and one of them is that we are not fucking chill if we think someone’s doing something wrong, we’re gonna fucking ruin their life. A creator actively saying they are going to survey and send people after people who break their rules instead of just blocking tags or banning people is wild

That is how people get hurt that is how people have been gotten hurt. It has already happened.

Please, please understand that

creators deserve to feel respected and heard, but they cannot control their community and they should not control their community. If something bothers you block or ban it. Fans deserve to feel safe in their own spaces

and creators should learn how to block things

Can we not do this again please? We’ve learned this before.

I've got a lot to say and there's some fandom history, so please read under the cut.