Lyon

Once more remember that COMMAND is a group of blogs associated in the study of fandom and fanworks. Every so often, it seems audiences forget that the research I attempt to do in my spare time is genuine and informational. This does not mean I am an expert, far from so as I am still learning every day; But, it should not discredit the academic integrity I wish to pursue.

Fandom has played a major role in my life, and I'm proud to say it's definitely become cultural. I believe fanworkers like me and even unlike me, deserve to be safe and comfortable in their craft (fanart, fanfic, cosplay...), especially in smaller fandoms and subfandoms. We also, here at COMMAND, believe the tools used to make and publish fanwork should stay safe and maintained for fanworkers. Know that the website you post on, wether it be Wattpad, Ao3, or Fanfic.net, does not determine the quality of you and your work as you have decided to post in those places. There is much context to the places we post fanwork that I believe requires more critical thinking. Fanwork posted on a particular website is not inherently bad over it's postage on another, that is our choice as fanworkers; and unless it destroys your creative integrity in your craft, I don't think the fanwork itself is inherently bad. Your fanwork is not "degenerate", it is not a "cesspool", it is a unique part of your fandom culture; what matters is it is yours and made by you.

One theme during the incident that had happened last year, that I fear as a whole fandom (MCYT) that we are avoiding greatly, is the topic of fandom privacy... While the creators we are inspired by deserve their own privacy to their own extent, I believe that that privacy and choice should not infringe on a fans personal privacy as well. Reading fanwork on stream or in a video for money and views (without the fanworkers consent) are not ok, wether it is about you or not. The fanworker did not deserve that invasion: THEIR WORK IS PURELY FICTION! In the new wave of anti-RPF sentiment specifically so prevalent in modern MCYT culture, we are being pitted to attack our own siblings in fandom, a tool to allow big CCs to promote fandom censorship and garner a sense of control over their audience; but it has gone way too far. That may be controversial to some, but as a person who has seen it firsthand, there should be no situation where I should be saying that I am afraid of and for my own fandom: that there are potentials of I and others to be at risk of being harmed physically and mentally by other fans due to the words of people with more power than me. If this makes sense to you, I thank you greatly for thinking about the idea.

For now, I hope all fans across many hardworking subfandoms recieve my gratitude for their role in my fandom culture. And to have a happy wee of TC Bomb festivities!

Thanks!