this bathysphere is perplexing!

[sab]

Hey, LOTRips people? There's this thread over on the seekrit_pics community talking about smackin' down some troll or mole or whatnot, and I'm perplexed. Is it me? Looks around...

I'm so confused. I totally friended the community; I'm not a part of LOTRips fandom or even LOTR fandom (while being a fangirl in my own right -- and proud of it! -- off in my own other fandoms), but I was certainly enjoying watching the discussion and the fallout over there. I had no idea that my friending the community would create such draaaaamaa.

I didn't, um, I didn't friend the community to see Jason's pictures -- dude, I am IN the pictures, hell, I *took* some of the pictures; I just friended y'all on a lark when y'all started friending *me.*

Essentially, what happened was this: Jason, who is in no way internet-naive, but who does tend to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and has general faith in the goodness of humanity, uploaded the pictures to his gallery (which was alive and kicking long before y'all found it) and left it unlocked, figuring he'd give the URL out to his friends and family and let us enjoy his photography.

A good question might be, how did fandom discover his gallery in the first place? A reasonable answer might be: well, it's the internet, things are bound to get out eventually.

So, badda-bing. Some fan found the pictures, and the horse was out of the barn. Jason, still having general faith in the goodness of humanity, opted to password-protect some of the albums, while keeping others open, fully aware that fans were visiting and enjoying them, and figuring, well, as long as the fans didn't overload his bandwidth or steal and repost his pictures elsewhere, what was the harm? So about half the galleries were open for the past few months as we tested the waters, but folks kept nabbing and reposting the pictures and Jason's bandwidth usage skyrocketed.

Then last week we had the gingerbread party and the pix went up, and didn't get locked down quick enough, but there had always been plans in the works to lock down and password-protect the whole site, and so, a couple days ago, Jason did just that.

If you have any questions about this, I will answer them as honestly as I can, but there's no hypocrisy or eeeevil at work there, just the matter of trying to save Jason's site from being overrun by fans bent on conspiracy-theorizing about the content of these (really rather innocent, rather personal, and rather human) photos. Plus -- as far as I can tell, half the fandom was bucking for Jason to lock down the site all along, saying he was naive about the ways of the internet and shouldn't have put them up for public viewing in the first place. So what's the deal?

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Plus -- as far as I can tell, half the fandom was bucking for Jason to lock down the site all along, saying he was naive about the ways of the internet and shouldn't have put them up for public viewing in the first place. So what's the deal?

Fandom - any fandom - is not a hivemind. Those of us who felt Jason was being a skosh naive about the interest of fans in his famous friends and thought maybe it would be best if he locked things up are not the same people as the ones who demand that everything be laid out like a salad bar for the whole world to pick at.

The people who consider your friends their playthings aren't going to be deterred in their pursuit of grabbing whatever they can of them by simple requests. Some of us knew that, but I suppose it's understandable that Jason didn't, not being in the thick of fandom as we are. Although, one would think that a few billion in box office and 17 million t.v. viewers might be a hint that there's some interest in the people in question. I wish it weren't the case, but Elijah and Dom and the people who know them are going to have to accept that they just aren't percieved as jes' reg'lar folk by many of their fans. Despite the fact that the content of the pictures in question is really no different than the content of any pictures taken within a group of friends, the subjects of them make them far more valuable. Why else would paparazzi exist? If it's interesting and valuable to get a shot of Elijah buying cigs at Circle K, it's valuable to get shots of him drinking a beer with his friends. Only the photographer has changed. The audience hasn't.

I don't mean to be critical, especially since I think Jason's gotten far more than his fair share of shit for how this has happened, but I would suggest that maybe taking the wishful thinking blinders off is a good idea. I could've told anyone that merely asking people to be nice wasn't going to work, because much of this fandom doesn't consider the people in question to be anything more than voodoo dolls. They are not three-dimensional human beings, merely images on a screen. They may as well be fictional characters. In fact, some fans deliberately detach themselves from actors' humanity because it breaches the fourth wall. Once you've seen Elijah smoking and cursing like a dock worker, it can be hard to accept the hairy feet and velvet trousers, or whatever other fictional version of him is canonical to the fan in question.

I think it's a shame that things are like this. I'm sure Elijah and Dom and the rest of the gang would like to simply behave as if they're just normal people with normal lives, but to much of the rest of the world, they're simply not, and probably never will be. Wishing things were different, and acting as if they are doesn't make that so. I think very few fans want to see them hurt or anything, or would deliberately do something they knew to be damaging to them, but enough fans either simply don't realize what they're doing or don't care that it requires a certain level of caution. Deleting those galleries is a small sacrifice, and it's unfortunate that it has to happen, but it really should have been done quite some time ago. I don't like that people can be like this any more than anyone else does, but that's just how things are. Welcome to the fishbowl. The work those two have done is on a massive global scale. They're not exactly doing community theater productions of South Pacific. It shouldn't be surprising that some people want parts of that. Why else would people be friending your journal right and left? Why else would people who haven't even heard their music be posting on the WWS forum? I'm sure you don't kid yourself that people are actually interested in you. Going by interviews, I've never gotten the impression that Elijah and Dom want to be this cynical, but perhaps some cynicism is necessary. I won't speak for fandom and say I'm sorry on their behalf, because I'm sure many of them aren't sorry and never will be, but I am personally sorry that any of you have to go through this, even if it's just a petty annoyance, and I fully understand why the action is being taken, even though I wish circumstances were such that it wouldn't have to be.

[maudelynn.livejournal.com]

Don't kid yourself Em... I am interested in you ! Smooch !

[esorlehcar.livejournal.com]

I'm not. I'm only using her for sex.

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

*pout*

h0r. I thought you were only using ME for sex?!

[iamsab.livejournal.com]

You're quite right, which is why if these were just pictures of *me* we were talking about I wouldn't care a lick. Bottom line is that there is an amount of responsibility when you're dealing with someone like Elijah who is in the public eye, and he deserves private time outside the spotlight just like anyone else.

Anyway, this comment is pretty spot-on as far as how we've been feeling over here abou the whole business; thanks for being so reasonable. Who are you?

[(Anonymous)]

Making an educated guess here, but that comment is the reason why you shouldn't believe some of your most recent 'friends' take on tinhats.