#btrblr

Hey y'all! Remember when @cant-get-enough-btr-forever did a poll this week about the BTR subreddit and most of the results have never even seen/heard of it? Well... you're most likely better off. This is not my typical post & you guys didn't ask but here's my story of my experience within the BTR subreddit (and the website in general).

I was u/YogurtClosetevery669 and this was my avatar. Side note: look how cute it looks? Don't ask about my username though. As much as I do like yogurt, it's a strange username.

I was active on a few subs, and one of them was the BTR subreddit. I started doing appreciation posts, to spread a little positivity and find my stride within the community. One of those posts that really caught on and blew up was about the appreciation of the male BTR fanbase, and that got A LOT of warm comments and upvotes. I loved hearing the many stories from the guys' perspective and it somehow motivated me to keep going with it. I would also converse here and there with the other users in the comment sections and DMs. It was good for a while, or so I thought.

The last post I've done on the @YogurtClosetevery669 account was how vocally bummed I was not being able to go to a BTR show last year at the IRL Tour, despite my best efforts to get tickets. The comment section was pretty supportive. Then, soon after 24 hours, my account got banned. Permanently. I did try to get it back, used different accounts, etc, to no avail. Personally, I think Reddit thought I was a spam bot account since I post regularly. I will say, I did miss making friends that I had on the platform. In fact, that's how I virtually met @cant-get-enough-btr-forever, she can vouch that. There's a few gems of amazing, pleasant people in the BTR subreddit. However, there's a few people that just LOVES to spread negativity/drama or rumors. One user has especially made her mark I think to make the BTR subreddit miserable whenever she posts about the guys personal lives (iykyk). (THIS IS NOT FOR EVERYBODY IN THE SUB WHO ACTS LIKE THIS, BTW.) Nowadays, since I left the platform, it kinda died down since the tour wrapped, but it persists somehow through these kinds of unhinged posts through some users. Not like I can't actively comment on there anyways, I barely interact with the sub due to my circumstances.

I've learned some few things about Reddit with my experience:

The site is like a very hive-minded, biased mindset full of echo chambers. When you voice your own opinion on any topic, and goes against the general consensus, you'll be downvoted at best, banned at worst. Sometimes, for no reason. During my time on Reddit, there's certain popular subs (popculture subs, fauxmoi, Millenials) that feel like that one singular voice represents the whole sub and it's the ONLY voice that matters. It's very high school lunch table mentality. It gives more space for negativity & people obsessed with having the last word in arguments. Especially the snark communities for certain celebrities. Those people I find more dangerously obsessive than the fans are, it's insane.

Because of the anonymity, the users really get to say anything in the comment section, and repeat it in many forms to the point where it gets annoying. Basically the spamers and trolls. I won't say no names (obviously b/c IDK who that person is in real life) but there's a person I befriend few years back and he seemed harmless at first. However, as time went on, his posts has gotten absurd. For instance, this user is obsessed with the rapper Pitbull and every time he posts, it's some form of invasive asking of a BTR and Pitbull collab, or a list of unreleased songs from the ELEVATE album he got on YT years ago, he swears to the bible that it's real. Another user claims that every childhood show he watched is good for a show that's mostly disliked. Another user claims how good a show is just by using ratings, which sometimes doesn't always equate and justify said show being good or not. Mainly that happened in the Nickelodeon subreddit. Luckily, the other users really don't pay them no mind.

The reason why I made the move to Tumblr was bc it was always a site that I “used” but never that deeply, if you know what I'm saying. I had accounts over the years, but it was always to scroll and like a post, much like Twitter. When I started doing this BTR project two years ago, I've thought about what other platform would be perfect to display what I came up with, other than physically with a book. Can't really use Reddit anymore for obvious reasons. Same reasons for Twitter. I barely use Facebook as it is. I've thought about Substack, but let's be real, that site is full of intellectual essays and insight, it's no place for me to chronicle my personal nostalgic story of a childhood show/band. Tumblr, so far, just allows me the space and canvas to say whatever I want to say, and like minded people would follow and resonate. No judgment, no fears. Also, since I'm smart like that, some of my BTR Reddit appreciation posts have become the journal entries I've curated. If you wanted to know how I come up with these journal entries, here's why. Well, that and I have them stored on my notes app on my phone for almost two years now. And the fact that I'd always chronicled my BTR journey back in the day, but never to a “bigger scale” to do so.

Since @btr-project made it's social media debut during the holidays, the posts that I've been making genuinely find their way to the people who are meant to see them and I made friends along the way. I've been regaining my stride on Tumblr thanks to this side project blog, and so far so good imo. It's now been one of my favorite things to do. Thanks to those who been there along for the ride. More content coming soon!

If you have read through this entire thing, thank you for listening to my TED talk and I'll give you a cookie if you do (🍪)