Credits: Images: Google Song: Running the Show If anyone cares, these are the links to my other TADC rambles: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/1385019655/ (Where I talk about my feelings concerning the show itself) https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/1396397512/ (Where I share my creative ideas related to the show) Okay, I know I’ve posted quite a few Digital Circus-related essay style/rant projects as of late, and I promise this will be the last one for a while. There is just something I NEED to say here, and this time, it’s not about my own feelings or ideas around The Amazing Digital Circus in and of itself. This time, it’s about the drama that has happened with its creator Gooseworx and the fandom, and what we can learn from it. Please be civil and remember to respect others’ opinions, as always! Even before I finally took an interest and sat down to watch TADC for my first time in July of this year, I was aware that there was intense drama about the show and its creator. I started to become aware of this around the time that episode 9 leaked, which would’ve been sometime in May if memory serves me right. Even when I wasn’t much paying attention or didn’t care, I still saw stuff online about the drama quite often. That’s how much notoriety and attention it was getting. But until after I started watching TADC and had seen the whole thing, I wasn’t aware of exactly what the drama was about—or how long and deep it seemed to go. I also wasn’t painfully aware (as I am now) of how the toll it caused for Gooseworx’s mental health could possibly have been prevented and how things cold have ended better for everyone involved. I quickly learned the history of TADC and Gooseworx during my online time, when I was trying to understand and process my complex feelings about the show. From all the things I saw and understood, it seemed like she was on social media CONSTANTLY. Now, yes, I wasn’t a day 1 fan who paid attention to everything about Digital Circus from the start, but I still saw her stuff everywhere and the way people talked about it. It all began appearing in my recommendations/FYP after seeing TADC. I saw screenshots and discussions of how she posted lore online and responded to fan comments SO much, and how the toxic fan comments from the loud minority eventually led her to delete a lot of her social accounts and resent her own show. It was really saddening to see. I am not trying to blame Goose for anything here, and neither am I trying to excuse toxic fan behaviors. She was excited about her own show, and the toxic fans still should not have done what they did and said what they said. However, as I’ve heard stated more than once before: people online tend to treat real people like fictional characters and fictional characters like real people. And even the best shows and media will likely have a loud minority that is toxic and rude to the creators or people who aren’t “true fans.” That’s (unfortunately) part of today’s internet culture. Also, the more a huge creator engages with their fandom, the more the toxic side of the fandom can start to get a sense of entitlement. They may start to feel like they should have a say in the creative processes or be able to talk to the creator anytime they want to, even though they don’t have that right. That’s why it’s important, if you’re a creator posting online, to avoid engaging with your fans the way Goose did. In today’s world, if you’re gonna be a creator online, you need to share your creations and then get offline ASAP. Post your thoughts, share your project, upload your video, then TURN THE DEVICE OFF. Don’t argue with your fans. Don’t look at the comments for at least a few hours, maybe even a day or a week. If you want to, turn them off entirely! Or, if you ever move off of Scratch and onto a different form of social media, have someone else you can trust look at your comments for you and only share the best or most constructive ones with you while reporting/deleting hateful ones. Engaging with loud fans is only going to cause you AND your other fans more stress than anyone needs, and it’s going to inevitably damage your mental health. (Continued in Notes and Credits)
(Rambling continued here) If you post your stuff and then leave, you are NOT being distant or rude. You are protecting your mental health, and that is more important than any like or comment. If you obsessively check for views right away or argue with fans over your creations, you risk stress, creative burnout, and eventually resenting your own creations. Again, not trying to blame her for anything, but I do wonder how the history of TADC would have changed if Goose had not been so social media-happy. Even if we still got the same 9 episodes we ultimately got, I wonder if she would’ve willing to be involved with future projects related to the show and if she would’ve enjoyed expanding her universe. Sadly, we won’t ever know, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to be learned from Gooseworx’s story, and I do plan to apply what I learned. So, this is what I plan to do from now on, and I think this could benefit other creators to try for a little while as well (note, since I use Scratch, this is mainly for my Scratch account and experience, but it can apply to other social media too): —Whenever I post a project (especially one that’s actually somewhat respectable to me and not crappy filler xD), I will wait at least a few hours, perhaps days in certain cases, before I open my mail or look at the project again. —I will reply to any comments I want to reply to, but I will report and delete hate comments if I get any. And I will leave anything I don’t need or want to engage with completely alone. —I will turn off comments on projects I don’t want comments on, whether it’s to protect my own peace or to prevent drama from going on between other users. —I will also unsubscribe from/unfollow accounts that bring negativity as a bonus measure to protect my sanity. (And remember, you can always turn off all comments entirely or only allow comments on certain projects/profiles! It’s up to you, you’re the one who runs the show (pun intended!!!) when it comes to your accounts and creations!) Alright, that’s all, folks! Thanks for actually reading this far! I PROMISE I will be done with these long TADC-related rant projects for now. I’ll try to make sure my future projects involve less reading. :) —@GrapePickle22
