Sorry about that, guys

[princesshannah4.livejournal.com]

I had no idea that my seme/uke musing would create such a big stir, so I deleted the entry and would like to make a formal apology for arousing everyone's ire. :(

Comments

[araminya.livejournal.com]

*twists the knife in the wound and proceeds to stand over it with a salt shaker at the ready**

I'm more pipped about your deleting the entry than posting it. There was interesting discussion going on! People were possibly getting food for thought and evolving their thinking (I hope)! I wanted to see how it would have evolved since I last read!

Ack, I do not like it when fandom folks think turmoil is bad - it may not be nice, but it doesn't mean everybody hates each other, or the person who originated it. People are bound to clash on the Internet just as well as IRL, it's 100% unavoidable, and there's nothing wrong with it - and usually it blows over pretty fast, and nobody is left with hard feelings. At its best, it can clear the atmosphere and even improve the comm.

Don't think I have anything specifically against *you* though. Or anyone else, actually, for that matter. That's not the case. And hey, I do have an inkling as to how you're feeling - it wasn't that long ago when I unwittingly caused turmoil in another fandom. I thought the use of (excessive) violence as a comedy tool was a good idea for discussion - not so, apparently! Hey, at least no-one called you a troll! XD (Or said "GTFO" and other nasty things. I'm glad I'm not an emotional type of person.)

*I accidentally knocked my salt shaker to the floor IRL right after writing this. Rather amused me.

[sunsetsinthewes.livejournal.com]

This. My thoughts exactly.

It was a nice, pleasant discussion about D/s, the fandom, terms, fics... personally, there wasn't really any negativity. Everyone seems calm to me. It was just another fandom discussion, thankfully lacking wank.

I'd personally rather the discussion could have continued.

[princesshannah4.livejournal.com]

I have to admit that one of the reasons I freaked out was because my accidentally stirring up fandom turmoil has only happened once before, ever. I know that people are bound to clash, so I don't really venture out into forums and such because I like to stay where I figure it's least likely to happen (I know you said that no one called me a troll, but people saying that the topic was irrelevant had about the same effect). I look at our lovely fandom here and I think "oh! Here's a nice group of sophisticated well-read people" so when a post started getting some negativity, it registered in my brain as "not normal. Do something."

Also, I realized after I'd deleted the post that it hadn't even been up for 24 hours. But I'm glad you found it interesting!

[araminya.livejournal.com]

Well, if you don't like that sort of thing and rarely see it, I guess it can freak you out. Edited because I belatedly realized I was possibly a bit condescending, and definitely made an assumption there wasn't any reason to make. I try.

But but but, it IS normal that sometimes negativity happens. Damn, it'd be unnormal if it didn't happen. I'd go as far as to say that, in a group of sophisticated well-read people, as you say, people are more used to using their brain and so are generally more critical than the ignorant masses. And while the ignorant masses, I think, tend to get more defensive, personal, and insulting (which to me explains why you thought of a more sophisticated people getting a bit negative as "not normal"), more sophisticated people can actually discuss.

(As a sidenote, on my - relatively small - fandom experience, in TV fandoms defensiveness/getting personal/insults is more common than in book fandoms. I find it interesting, and rather telling.)

I know you said that no one called me a troll, but people saying that the topic was irrelevant had about the same effect

Really? I was mostly amused when they called me a troll. Anyway, I think there have been way more irrelevant posts. (Why House and ABOFAL have tags is beyond me. And the tag "off-topic" is rather telling, methinks. :)) If you'd used different words (i.e. dom/sub instead of foreign seme/uke) and hadn't imposed the idea that top = dom and bottom = sub, people would've discussed what you intended them to discuss.* You weren't too far off.

*Which I think was "which one of them is more dominant and which more submissive?", though because of the aforementioned top/dom, bottom/sub fallacy, it could've also been "which one of them does the buggering?" Although I must confess your exact words are fading from my memory. (And it's 4am, which doesn't much improve my thinking, lol.)

[princesshannah4.livejournal.com]

You do have a point about the terminology. I honestly wasn't thinking about an English equivalent, as my current Britspasm is fairly recent and is temporarily ousting my usual Japanophilia.

And I noticed your point about TV/movie/video-game fandoms being a bit touchier than book fandoms. As much as I love the show, there's a reason I'm not part of any House groups ^^;

[hephaistia.livejournal.com]

True. I hang around the House fandom a lot (I just love House), and the 'disagreements' there, are so much more worse and caustic than this. TV fans are kinda more touchy about their show. The comments(insults) get very personal at times.

I like the easygoing 'Bertie-shness' of this place.

[theficklepickle.livejournal.com]

If you'd used different words (i.e. dom/sub instead of foreign seme/uke) and hadn't imposed the idea that top = dom and bottom = sub, people would've discussed what you intended them to discuss. [...] Which I think was "which one of them is more dominant and which more submissive?", though because of the aforementioned top/dom, bottom/sub fallacy, it could've also been "which one of them does the buggering?"

Must say that as one of those involved in the original comments this is precisely what I felt about it. I still might have challenged the premise of the question - i.e. that notion that it is clear-cut and there are specific roles involved, either in this or in any other relationship - but it would have been a lot easier to engage with the subject without the Japanese references. In fact, if you wanted to start again and phrase the question in a different way I think you'd find people very willing to discuss it.

But like a lot of others I'm sorry you felt deletion was your only option. I know many of us made our points fairly strongly but I wasn't aware that it had become particularly unpleasant. I think you should definitely give it another try.