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Mood: Shocked ]
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Currently: Watching Old Doctor Who ]
Something has been troubling me for awhile and I think I need to get it out.
There is this tendency in genre fans to jump on any perceived error and shout “Gotcha!” It’s as if there is some unwritten geek code that gives bonus points for the first to point out the Emperor’s New Clothes aren’t really there. Extra points are awarded for puns, snarkiness and pwning.
The problem with this behaviour is two-fold. One, it puts off the normals and part-time fans. They are (quiet rightly) intimidated by the forcefulness in which the rebuke is delivered. And, to be honest, they are more than a little creeped out by the behaviour. We can come off as that guy in the suit at your front door on Saturday am wanting to talk to you about God. Two, it leads to flame wars as geek after geek tries to one up the other. People jump down each other’s throats. Feelings get hurt. And once happy groups get blown apart. (Apparently something like this happened to the PSEB.)
Where does this tendency come from?
I have done no scientific studies to determine the origin of the behaviour in geeks. But I have been around fandom for a while now, and I have made some casual observations. (Please note: No fans were harmed in during the course of this research.)
One thing I have noticed about genre fans is that we are a smarter than average bunch. Now, I am not just saying that because I am a geek. As a group we read, a lot, more than the average “community” and there have been many links between increased intelligence and reading.
We also tend to be critical consumers. Despite what people like Lucas and Berman would like, we don’t just blindly consume the genre culture. We look at it from different angles, reimage it and in some cases, as with fanfic, repackage it. Henry Jenkins and his book Textual Poachers does a good job looking into this.
Then we add the last factor. And this one is going to put the Klingon among the Tribbles. The lack of social graces factor. I have noticed in the fan community, a higher than average number of people who struggle with social relationships and graces. Where does this come from? It would be easy to crack a joke about too much time in parents’ basements, but that might lead to a flame war. Maybe it is because we spend too much time in our own heads as children. Maybe it was because our phone time was spent discussing who the “another” Yoda was talking about might be rather than why Billy and Suzy should not be dating. We missed out on the soccer games, cub meetings and other things that taught us about how to interact in appropriate social manners. That pointing out a mistake is best done privately and politely so as not to embarrass the other person.
Maybe it’s just that we are a passionate people and that passion translates into everything we do.
What I do know, is that when I see it sets my teeth on edge, and I feel my inner flamer rising. We can be the most loving and supportive group on the planet. But then every so often we feel the need to eat our young, and that is when we are at our ugliest.
I guess this is not just an observation, but a plea for sanity. There is no need to pants some one when you find a mistake. Take them aside, call them, send them an email. Grant them the courtesy you would hope they would grant you. Follow the Golden Rule. I would suspect that since it appears in every major Earth Religion, it can also be found in the Book of G’Quan and the Paq’batlh.
