Browncoat Responsibility
POSTED BY: nxojkt
UPDATED: Monday, August 29, 2005 16:28
VIEWED: 20794
PAGE 1 of 6
I'm sure I'll take some heat for this, but I feel compelled to do so anyway.
We, as a community, have a responsibility to represent the Browncoat community. Many of the things that I'm going to say have been posted by other people in the last few days, but I think they bear repeating.
At one time, "Browncoats" were looked at as model fans. We were the patient bunch that was so passionate about our little tv show that when the DVD came out, we bought it. And we bought so much of it that we're getting a movie out of it. We love our Firefly so much that Universal was rewarding us with screenings of the movie months in advance, with so much anticipation that tickets were scalping on e-bay for $200-300.
Now... not so much.
First it started with the idiots who threatened theatre employees when they wouldn't create extra tickets to sold-out screenings. Joss chimed in on that one, and people seemed to comply, as we didn't hear about any more threats.
Then Nathan Fillion tells us of his comic book store fiasco, thinking it'll make for a cute joke for a few nasty letters to show up and for the guy to lose business. Instead, it got so bad that Nathan had to come back on a plead for us to stop the harassment.
Now there's the IESB.net thing. In case you don't know, the story there is that this website, which had been supportive of Serenity - having a lot of video and print content about the movie - did a contest in which they gave away signed copies of the movie poster. They took too long to get the posters out, and after ignoring e-mails from the winners, were bombarded with nasty e-mails from "friends" of the winners; some that were threatening. In response to this, the folks at IESB.net pulled down all of their supportive, positive content, and put up a scathing review. They've since "apologized" and pulled that article down.
It doesn't matter who is right and who is wrong in each of these situations. The bottom line is that we, as a community, end up looking bad. Recently, on one large site, we were compared to Scientologists. Why? Because they hunt down every negative thing said about them, and attack it ferociously.
We've got to tone that side of things down. When we go after people negatively, we lose. Instead of positive artciles being written about the money raised at Comic-Con for charity, we get articles written about the "Legion of Whedon" that comes down upon anything negative. Pretty soon we'll have people scared to mention Serenity, in fear that they might mis-state something and feel our wrath.
This stuff is just plain silly, folks.
We have passion for Firefly/Serenity, and that passion is a good thing when it results in positive things. When money is raised for charity, when we help Universal realize that there is a fan base out there, when we spread positive word of this thing that we love. These things are positive. Banding together to try to convince Fox to put out a soundtrack for the show is a good thing. Threatening a web site's moderators because they were negligant is a bad thing.
We have a responsibility to ourselves as individulas to act in a classy way. We have a responsibility to ourselves as a community to represent our community well. We also have a responsiblity to the cast and crew of Serenity to not have them answering questions about our bad behaviour. We have a responsibility to them to not piss off people who can help. No, IESB.net is not the largest movie site on the web... but they were a supportive one. I'm sure that the people who sent e-mails did so with the best of intentions, thinking that they were only helping the situation. But we need to do a better job of picking our battles.
We need to be aware that not everyone who watches Serenity is going to love it. Hell, not every Browncoat who saw a screening loved it. People have a right to dislike what we love. If Roger Ebert gives Serenity a thumbs down, so be it. We're not going to change his mind by writing him scathing e-mails. What we'll do is piss him off and that anger will be directed at Joss for W
NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
All I can say is, *bump*
_______________________________________________
I wish I had a magical wish-granting plank.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Well said, nxojkt! You've put into words (quite eloquently I might add) something that's been gelling in the back of my mind as more and more of these stories come out.
I'd urge everyone to sit on any e-mail or phone call for at least one night. Things said in the heat of the moment are often more than what we intend. Once you've calmed down ask yourself, "How does what I'm doing affect the Big Damn Goal of putting as many people as possible into theater seats?"
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
well said nxojkt. When I first joined the boards, it seemed to me that browncoats were the nicest bunch of people around, always helping each other and other people. Now... notsomuch. We've got all sorts of factions that target each other within our browncoat ranks as well as attacking newcomers and outsiders. I think this is a good wake up call for people to take a look at what they're doing.
Have you posted this on the universal boards?
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by Gophermuncher:
Have you posted this on the universal boards?
Yeah, I jumped over there and did that as soon as you suggested it. Thanks for the idea.
NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Beautifully said, perfection! Exactly what needed to be said. Wouldn't hurt to get it up on Whedonesque to make sure everyone reads it.
NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I couldn't agree more
When I read about this recent IESB incident I was appalled and thought about writing a post about it, but you've done so and you've done it well
I just hope those ones that are in that crowd of trouble-makers are listening
It only takes one or two with a loud enough voice to bring the rest of us Browncoats down
Needy. Male Companion a.k.a. First Boy Whore of Destiny
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I agree completely. Well said. This needs to be heard by as many browncoats as possible. Last thing we need is to get a reputation as an angry mob.
I agree, Whedonesque would be a good idea.
"My days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle."
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
yeah...this looks like what i wrote...with better vocabulary and sentence structure...man you folks are a loquacious bunch!
I guess that means I agree....
I agree!
I know none of us wants to 'grow up' but that doesn’t mean we can't be mature.
www.thatweirdgirl.com
---
"...turn right at the corner then skip two blocks...no, SKIP, the hopping-like thing kids do...Why? Why not?"
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
