outside the glass the whole world is magnified

[lotesse]

Abbey/orangeblossom did an AMA over at her journal about VB/Andy/thanfiction over the weekend. All of her retrospective writing on Bit of Earth is fascinating to me - I was there, but on the outside. I interacted with all these people without knowing what was going down in meatspace. Some of the stuff about LotR being real came through, but it seemed like pastiche play at the time, taking Tolkien's mock-editorial stance very faux-seriously. Spoiler alert, it was not.

Abbey left me some of my first ever fic reviews, back when I was just getting started, and I will always think fondly of her for it. But it's such a strange experience to be poking around in the back of an old fandom and recognize one of Andy's pseuds. I wouldn't engage with his work now, but ngl some of the old VoyagerBabe stuff in Due South gets me there, mashes the buttons nicely. idek.

Comments

[wrabbit]

Interesting. I've always been baffled by the cult of Andy thing and why so many people are still worried about him, considering the amount of public, easily googable data there is about his bad behavior.

[lotesse]

... I got dragged down the hole of Andy!wank, which is I guess quite active again? and it looks like he's actively recruiting, plus apparently soliciting money (!) on tumblr, so clearly there's legit cause for concern.

I think Andy is scary because he's all about screwing with safe spaces. Back in the day, Bit of Earth was pretty much the snuggliest corner of LotR fandom - lots of emphasis on healing and care and getting better, strong body positivity/food positivity vibes, Cult of Nice, ect. And you let down your guard, and Andy was there waiting for you to feel safe enough to be vulnerable. I was ... maybe fifteen? when the Tentmoot crash went down, and I was really upset by it. All the kindness and safety suddenly had to be re-evaluated, and it was hugely alienating and disturbing.

[starlady]

The fact that he keeps doing it is ample proof at how good at it he is. Spreading the word is important, since people won't think to Google after they've fallen in with him.

[lotesse]

I mean, we can link his identities to one another pretty concretely now, but it was just a couple of years back that people connected thanfiction/DAYD with VB/BoE. now THAT was a shocker, god! We'd had no idea, no one had, and he'd amassed a whole new following. Andy's modus operandi is to hide important information, and that always merits careful reporting/datatracking