i feel you super hard on your post about fandom gatekeeping. those posts and the people mocking omgcp turned irl hockey fans are making me furious, it keeps reminding me of dudes who insist we pass some shitty made up litmus test to prove we really belong. it's bullshit.
I really appreciate the support <3
The thing is, I feel hurt by people who say things like that. I started getting interested in hockey because of the fic, which is not the traditional way to begin with, and I was really lucky to have supportive friends who were already fans and they explained all the rules and the teams to me. And after two years, there are still things that blindside me, because American sports has so many different rules in how it’s important culturally and economically that it’s really hard to keep up sometimes.
I know people are upset with certain fans for what they perceive to be disinterest in the actual sport, but that’s more likely to be fixed with educational posts and dialogue than making petty posts and gloating about how many people agree with you.
A lot of OMGCP fans are teenagers, and shit, who wasn’t embarrassing and group minded when they were a teenager? Though, then again, the people making those posts about fake fans are teenagers too, so maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on them.
