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Old 2007.09.09, 04:00 AM   #7
Glathannus
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I would go to that community and set the record straight, but anything I could say (no matter how journalistic) would get defeated by unspoken prejudice, based on the infant postcount I'd have over there.

I don't think there really is a "majority" of any demographic amongst our fanbase in this community. There's a lot of lovers, dissenters, and moderates, and I think it's all evenly divided (in terms of people - but not in terms of posts)

Outsiders come to their conclusions about this community, (unknowingly) based on the following circumstances:

1.) Even if the dissenters don't make up a majority, they have pretty big fucking mouths, and whether or not what they're saying is actually right, their words are going to get the most noticed, not just because it pierces peoples' comfort level and makes an impression, but mainly because, let's face it - the dissenters have spent more time arguing (or re-arguing) their side, than anybody else. The overwhelming presence of undispelled disapproval from a select few, shapes an atmosphere that gives off the vibes of "Shiina Ringo's foreign fanbase in general has gone batshit crazy".

2.) Perspective of others, is based on your own bias. If your political leanings are far-right, then anyone who is a moderate, is "basically the same" as far-left to you. My correlation to this example is you have these fans outside Electric Mole who think there are no qualities we lost with Hirama, and we'll (for the sake of argument) call these people "far-Uki" (a few of them seem to be moderates - but of course the ones with the biggest mouths over there are "far-Uki" and those are the comments we're talking about here). This bias creates the perception that two-thirds of our memberbase is "far-Hirama", because let's face it, one third really is "far-Hirama", and the other third is moderate. There seem to be "center-Hirama"s here and "center-Uki"s in this other community, but I'm just mentally throwing half of them into "moderate" and the other half into "far-this" or "far-that" so this touchy feeling 'math' doesn't get more complicated than it has to be for the point I'm trying to illustrate.

3.) During the (increasingly) rare occassion when a moderate actually speaks up in the middle of a debate, and tries to talk about how both sides are great, it is all-too-easy for advocates of either side to branch off of what the moderate said, to 'prove' their own side, and then the moderates stop speaking up because they're viewed as either an enemy or ally by someone of a certain side - based on which side was most successful in conjuring up their own context out of that moderate's words, and then it's mostly the lovers versus the haters, with the haters having much larger postcounts in Electric Mole for the same amount of people. The few moderates who never give up on advocacy, continue to be outspoken in this community, and then like some electoral college based on total posts, the haters got the most, and winner takes all, so the 'vote' of the moderates goes to the haters, as far as these outsiders are subconsciously concerned.

4.) These people talking trash about Electric Mole, apparently haven't taken a look at The Principles of this Community, and they probably should. I'm glad that at least some of the folks making those comments, are actually posting here nowadays, even if I think they're just as crazy (but in a different way) as they probably think I am. Electric Mole was started up so all sides could express themselves freely, not so the tables could get turned in favor of the oppressed veteran haters. It's equal opportunity here, so if people aren't taking their opportunity and if there's an imbalance in posts because of that, at least it isn't being caused by staff intervention.

I think it's unproductive to criticize our memberbase from afar. If these people call themselves Shiina Ringo or Tokyo Jihen fans and they like to discuss those topics in messageboard(s), they should be here instead (and as I understand it - a significant portion of them already are here), arguing their case, and/or getting to know other people who share their priorities. What would they have to lose? It's not like if they succeeded in telling off the "majority", that their post(s) would get deleted. Different perspectives, gives this community more to talk about, and that's always been more ideal to me than everyone being a lover or everyone being a hater.

I don't think any other fanbase is as mixed as this one. This needs to be regarded as an intellectual opportunity instead of as a problem.
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