As one of the people in this fandom who's been active for the past couple of years, I am absolutely baffled at how bad it's gotten. And as someone who is mostly shoved into the "Jack, Rhys and Tim" side of the fandom (because that's who I create the most works for) I tried my best to avoid being dramatic about some people's opinions on the popularity of these characters. But I deeply feel that after this entire fiasco with the borderlands confession accounts, some things need to be let known.
I am absolutely tired of the constant bullying by some of the people in this fandom, especially the ones who hate Jack, Rhys and Timothy. If you look at the borderlands tag, NONE of the other characters and ships get people complaining about their fans. None. I have not seen a single ask on this and other ask accounts complaining about people shipping other ships (if there are, feel free to correct me.) It's literally all targeted bullying, mostly done by the same people throughout the years. I will not be naming anyone, because it's not my job to go on a witch hunt, but I can confidently tell you that these people have rhack, rhysothy and jackothy creators purposefully blocked, whilst stalking their profiles on incognito mode or alt accounts (creators who also make art about other characters, mind you.) And if these creators just so happen to ask for requests, these bullies hunt them down and demand that art to be catered to them - all the while they have been shit-talking these creators in their own private bubble.
I have been wary of this since the first few asks popped up from the other borderlands confession account, but blogs where people can anonymously post whatever they want, are not good for any fandom. At least not without proper moderation (literally thinking of that one confession that called someone the R slur. There is no absolutely no way that people who post stuff like that should have any say or place in this fandom. Shameful.) One of the earliest asks all the way back from February, which I can confess I posted, says "I have a bad feeling this blog is going to be misused by certain individuals in this fandom to bully fans of certain ships without facing any repercussions..." I called this 2 months before all of this went to shit. TWO MONTHS. Of course a space where no one knows who you are is the perfect spawn point for the shittiest people of this fandom. I have also gotten in an argument with the owner of the @borderlands-confess blog, which I would like to apologize for, because I for one thought that they were purposefully sharing "confessions" which spread hate to fans of rhack, rhysothy and jackothy simply because they were a part of the people I have mentioned before (the ones I called bullies). These bullies are known for posting their ship-bashing in the ship tag, which frankly no one in their right mind who searches for a ship tag wants to see some stranger hating on it and calling people names for liking certain characters.
I have recently made a poll discussing the issue of popularity of borderlands characters, and how would people view a shift in creations that would focus on the less popular characters. Whilst I myself have voted on the option that I will not be creating works based on what other people like, at least 40 people who voted on that poll said that they would be willing to work for a change, and at least 40 more people voted that they would like to see a change but they are not creators themselves. I might sound like a little shit complaining but... where are these people? Because I have been creating renders for the less popular characters, and there's been barely any new interaction with those creations. I only see the people I already recognize in my notes. And even compared to my lesser popular creations, they are barely getting recognized. What I'm trying to say is that the willingness to actually make a change in this fandom is non-existent and it's an absolute shame that so many people would profess that they would work on something or want something, when it's the complete opposite.
Now, for you, the owner of the @borderlands-discourse blog, I get what you wanted to do. I really get it. But whilst this was a strange experiment, in my honest opinion it only made things worse (through no fault of your own). The scale of people who confess their shitty opinions vs. people who would shame them for it, is tipped in favor of the anonymous and that's mostly because of the idea of anonymity. There are literally no downsides to posting something on here on anon. Even if they get shamed for it, chances are they can go about their day without giving it too much thought. But if you're one of the people who has the courage to directly disagree, you are risking sending hateful people to your own blog (if you decide to go this route, which I would imagine from the original description of this blog is encouraged.) The other thing is, and this applies to literally everything in life, it's so easy to be negative about something. And hate spreads like fire, it's why even people on other social medias talk about what happened here. But to acknowledge something positive, especially when you are surrounded with such negative opinions - you have to consciously make that decision. People are so miserable nowadays that they would rather hate on something because it's easier to add on to the pile.
That's why I would like to encourage you, and anyone else who is reading this, to go out there and share something positive at least once a week. It can be about this game series, the people in this fandom, or any transformative work you see.
