Mirabile Dictu

Rally ’round, children.  Aunt Mirabella is going to tell you a story, and I’m only going to say it once.

Once upon a time, when fandom was shiny and new and bright rivers of porn ran sparkling through the kingdom, all of Fandomland was… well, pretty much the same wind tunnel of wank and pissiness that it is now, actually; but there was one great Law, my children, written in the stars above Fandomland for everyone to see and take heed of, and that Law was this:

What goes on in fandom stays in fandom.

That meant that if you got pissed off at someone for flaming you, you didn’t track down their employer and rat them out for writing NC-17 Thundercats porn.  If you met a fellow fan’s family, you didn’t blurt out “You know, she writes the hottest buttsex I have ever been privileged to witness” to her 90-year-old grandmother.  And you never, ever, ever pointed the mainstream media in a fellow fan’s direction unless you knew with cast-iron certainty that she was okay with it.

You see, back in the day, people understood that the non-fannish world, which in fact is most of the world, is a cold and uptight place, especially if you happen to be American.  They understood that fanfiction was something people lost their jobs over, and that an awful lot of people in fandom need those jobs for silly things like feeding their kids.  They understood, simply as a matter of courtesy, that not everyone wants media attention, that sometimes people just want to hang out in that by-fans-for-fans space and it will be just peachy with them if Steven Colbert never discovers their existence.

I don’t know where that understanding went.  All I know is that fandom seems to be increasingly full of people who literally cannot conceive of there being anyone in the world who does not want media attention of any sort.  Maybe you can blame reality TV.  I don’t know.  All I know is that I’m about fucking tired of having to pull down parts of my site because the “What goes on in fandom stays in fandom” rule has gone the way of men’s fedoras.

So let me make this clear: you do not ever, ever have my permission to link to my site or my fic in any non-fandom venue.  When I find out you have, and I will because it will show up in my site stats, I will pull down whatever you linked to, and everyone you linked and everyone else who wanted to read that fic will be shit out of luck.   If this means pulling down my entire site until the hits from your link go away, I’ll do that too.

Look.  Don’t be an asshole, even unwittingly.  I understand that people exist who can’t comprehend not wanting to be on The Real World.  I’m asking you to understand that people exist who can’t comprehend wanting to.

What goes on in fandom stays in fandom.  Live it.  We’ll all be happier and I can leave my goddamned pages up.