Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Willie the Duck" data-source="post: 9588079" data-attributes="member: 6799660">I tend to agree that (like it or lump it) a whole lot of internet discussion over fandom ends up being a competition for the hearts, minds, opinions, or team identity decisions of the rest of the community. Whether that's &quot;controlling&quot; hearts and minds (and whether it is okay) depends probably on what you mean by control (having successful influence, or having uncontestable decision-making authority). It's not unlike non-fandom internet discussions. Just the same way that (the proverbial) you know winning* the political argument with FacelessName42069 over on ReddiTwitBook won't actually change their position, but you do it anyways. Mostly it communicates to those others out there that already agree with your position that you too are there and that therefore your faction is meaningful. I always used to think it was wasting one's time at best and peeing into the wind at worst, but real world politics bending to online narratives has left me unsure. *or 'winning'I'd like to think that the discussions here serve more purpose than that (especially the ones about how best to conduct one's games, handle personal conflict in the gaming group, etc.). However, the 537,000th edition war or martials-v-casters or orc alignment thread? Yeah, it probably is just a running battle of 'hurray for our side.'</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Willie the Duck, post: 9588079, member: 6799660"] I tend to agree that (like it or lump it) a whole lot of internet discussion over fandom ends up being a [U][I]competition[/I][/U][I] [/I]for the hearts, minds, opinions, or team identity decisions of the rest of the community. Whether that's "controlling" hearts and minds (and whether it is okay) depends probably on what you mean by control (having successful influence, or having uncontestable decision-making authority). It's not unlike non-fandom internet discussions. Just the same way that (the proverbial) you know winning* the political argument with FacelessName42069 over on ReddiTwitBook won't actually change their position, but you do it anyways. Mostly it communicates to those others out there that already agree with your position that you too are there and that therefore your faction is meaningful. I always used to think it was wasting one's time at best and peeing into the wind at worst, but real world politics bending to online narratives has left me unsure. [SIZE=2][I]*or 'winning'[/I][/SIZE] I'd like to think that the discussions here serve more purpose than that (especially the ones about how best to conduct one's games, handle personal conflict in the gaming group, etc.). However, the 537,000th edition war or martials-v-casters or orc alignment thread? Yeah, it probably is just a running battle of 'hurray for our side.' [/QUOTE]

Verification