Introduction

I want to say right off the bat that this isn't personal for me. I'm not really in the Torchwood fandom anymore, I'm not much of a target, I don't post at torchwood_house (TWH) anymore, and I'm not even reading Torchwood fanfiction. My perspective through all of this has been one of emotional detachment and practical "oh, not this again". But my friends online have been targeted, and are now being played in a way intended to divide (no matter what the truth is), and I'm worried that somebody else will be as naive as we were and get hurt.

That's why I'm posting this. Not to slander somebody's virtual name, not because I've been hurt and feel the need to tell everyone, but because trolling sucks and it's easier to prevent if people talk openly about it. I've given people the benefit of the doubt before, I've erred on the side of secrecy, and though I don't regret that choice then, it's not the right one now. I know some people - inside and out of TWH - might think I'm writing this out of some sense of paranoia, or to gain attention, but neither of those are true: rather, I think gossip, filtered posts, and behind-the-scenes emails are only going to contribute to a loss of trust and real paranoia.

For the record, I don't have the approval or even the knowledge of most of the members of TWH before posting this. They are part of the story, but the story isn't really about them: it's about a troll and not a rec comm. My only claim in telling it is that I helped gather most of the information herein, so my perspective is perhaps a little broader and more complete than most. In the end, I'm writing this myself because I feel it's necessary, and I can't ask anybody else to do it for me.

This is an account of the facts as I know them. I'll try to present them without excessive commentary, but I will sum up why I draw the conclusions I do from all this, because to me, the worst part of all of this is that it can't be solved either way, except by the suspected party. Every piece of evidence on its own is unremarkable; together, the truth is pretty obvious. To see that whole picture, though, I'll have to go back to March. Oh, and my apologies up-front for gendered pronoun confusion!

( Part One: Athaari and TWH )

( Part Two: Godofstrife and TWH )

( Part Three: Going Forward )

About comments: they are currently screened. HOWEVER, I will be un-screening them as I see fit, so if you don't wish to make a comment public, send me a PM. I am happy to elaborate on any of this, but this post is not intended to be the beginning of a debate, simply a PSA.

If you can't format your fic properly, I assume you can't write for shit and I will back-button out of your fic so fast my trackpad will get dented.

That's all.

Thanks, rm. Now I'm stuck readingwho_secrets.

This is me. Damnit, but now I really want that. Anyone else have time? I'd love to get a newsletter that wasn't half WIPs I'm not interested in reading. I have nothing against WIPs, obviously - I read them and have written them - but I'm of the opinion that there should be a newsletter where only the first and last parts are in it, as anyone following the story can do so in their manner - friending, tracking tags, obsessive clicking.

Alright, I started writing this post many hours ago, and then I wanted to know what the actual percentage of WIPs on the newsletter was. So I added up the last 10 days worth of information. And then, I went to a year ago, and added up ten days worth of information. Of course, last March, series 2 was airing, so thought part of this is examining fandom over time, the other part is comparing posting during airing vs. posting during downtime. To get a better idea, I also looked at January 2008 as well - before the airing of series two, but not too far back.

I ended up taking ten day periods and counting up the (a) number of middle parts of WIPs, (b) number of complete fics, including last parts of WIPs, and (c) the number of first parts of WIPs. Plus, of course, the total. I also calculated the percentage of A vs. the total, and the average for all categories in the three different data sets. This was what I got:

(Edit to note: the %WIP in Mar-09 got switched to a decimal when I was working something else out. Just, uh, multiply by 100 to compare? :D)

( cut for total geekdom of numbers and rudimentary analysis )

I'm sure a lot of you have seen this vid, but I just stumbled across it last week and upon finally finding a place to download it, I've rewatched it a few times and the sheer emotion it calls up in me is astounding.

Us, by lim, is a multifandom vid - but it's more than that. It's a vid about fandom. It's a vid about how we, as fans, interact with the source material, change it, mold it, and create something new - maybe unrecognizable in some people's eyes, but something that is ours, regardless of copyright. With so much discussion as of late of taste and character and propriety in fandom this vid seems even more poignant - why infight? We might not all be here doing the same thing, but we're all here because of the same thing. How we choose to use the source text, the canon, is only incidental.

I love fandom, truly. We are energetic, creative, resourceful, imaginative, intelligent, emotional, open-minded... we are so many things. We aren't content to be passive, we have a drive to contribute, to expand, to create.

We're living in a den of thieves
Rummaging for answers in the pages
We're living in a den of thieves
And it's contagious
And it's contagious
And it's contagious
And it's contagious

Lyrics from the song used in the vid, Us, by Regina Spektor. It couldn't be more perfect. There's some further discussion of the vid that I found interesting at in medias res.

But mostly? This vid reminds me why I'm here.

Why I have to pick up my pen and get back to writing.