(no subject)

[rodneyscat]

I don't know why I feel the way I do about this, and I'm probably oversimplifying things or something, but personally I think the public lynching of christalgamgee has lasted long enough now.

Those who found her out were perfectly right in bringing it out in the open and showing evidence too. She's a fraud and people should know about that, so they won't pay her money for something that isn't what she claims it to be. So she won't be able to use other people's work and show it of as if it's her own.

The wank has spread far and wide, so I think she won't have much chance anymore of cheating people, and the people she can cheat now can't be convinced no matter how much people come up with proof: some people will just never get it. Nothing that can be done about that.

But there's a difference between doing what's right by exposing a cheater for what she really is, and using self-righteousness to justify ripping a person apart.

Maybe she doesn't behave like she's broken yet. Do we have to go on until she is? She brought it on herself, but in our society people have the right to be trailed according to certain rules. Those rules don't seem to apply on the inter net.

Personally I got the message: She was wrong, she's been found out, I don't think many people will fall for her tricks anymore and those who do can't be helped, maybe keep an eye on her in case she tries something again (I'm sure there are enough people out there who will be more than happy to do that) and can't we just leave it at that?

It's so easy to be decent to those we like. Let's try and be decent to those we don't like, that's what makes us human. I strongly believe in that.

Comments

[ex-grievous-115.livejournal.com]

I agree. Enough is enough. She did wrong, she can deny it as much as she like, but she's been found out. That should be the end of it.

[alysscarlet.livejournal.com]

Well said. It's all too easy for a lynch-mob mentality to be generated in these situations, if people aren't careful.

[charlietudor.livejournal.com]

I have no idea what this chick did, but I do wish she'd chosen another hobbit surname. ;D

[oliviaramirez]

Hear hear.

Word.

[uluviel.livejournal.com]

I completely agree.

[samena.livejournal.com]

Amen, D-E! I haven't read all of your entry yet, but just reading the first line prompted me to say this. Going to read the rest now. BRB.


Right. You know, I was seriously considering posting an entry which said: 'am I the only one who actually feels sorry for chrystalgamgee??' Because the first thing I thought when I read about her fraud, and saw the pictures she made, was: this is a girl with some really big issues. Obviously she feels the need to get attention by lying and cheating, and that's very, very sad. Sure, what she did wasn't very nice, but isn't there anyone who sees she's actually crying out for attention?? Even if she really thinks she's a wonderful person, and she deserves credit for what she's done, deep down she's still a sad girl crying out to be noticed. At least, that's my impression...

[green-ghost.livejournal.com]

Nope, I posted in strawberryelfsp's thread last night that I felt sorry for her when I heard about this. She's not the only one doing it, I've seen others, but WOW, when I read her lies and delusions, I felt really bad for her. That's some seriously deluded shit going on in her head. It's gone beyond wank when people are obviously mentally ill, and others can see this, but continue to pour gas on the fire.

[samena.livejournal.com]

I totally agree, but I'm afraid there are lots of people who don't even see she's actually got mental problems. I think many people think she's just lying like that to deceive others, but I think it goes much deeper than that. People who want to trick others, for their own benefit or pleasure, will usually try their best not to be found out, right? But her trickery was laid on so thick... it was only a matter of time before she was found out. I can't begin to know what goes on inside her head... maybe she really does believe she did those drawings. Who knows. She should really get help, but maybe she's not even aware of what's wrong with her. It makes me feel really sad for her.

[amenaspointyhat.livejournal.com]

deep down she's still a sad girl crying out to be noticed. At least, that's my impression...

I did feel a bit sorry for her after reading f_w, but I heard she was selling photos ? and that I think goes beyond just personal denial. But I am hearing all this stuff third, fourth, and fifth hand so...*shrug*
It started days ago and I agree it should be done with by now.
This thing is gonna end up like Janet Jackson at the superbowl! *howls*

[nefer-tari.livejournal.com]

And that's exactly the reason why communities like fandom_wank make me sad. Actually, no, it's just fandom_wank that makes me sad. Half of the comments there aren't even about exposing her, they're personal attacks by people who don't even know her. People are just using that comm as an excuse to bully. Urgh, disgusting.

[elliebethany.livejournal.com]

Well said. I haven't said anything about this or even read any of the threads, but twenty pages of wank over it just has to be exaggerated.

[iolanthe-rosa.livejournal.com]

I had my suspicions about her and was glad to see her unmasked, but when I saw not only that she had become chum for the wank community but that that community was getting props for it, I felt bad. I don't believe in wank for any reason.

I just heard a thing on the radio about the Mormons doing a competition to see who could come up with the best candidate for an 11th commandment. I didn't think much of it at the time. (We Jews have 613, after all!) But I have a new one:

THOU SHALT NOT WANK!

[gabbyhope.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately for those who believe as you do, and Crystal herself, I guess, is that she won't shut the hell up. As long as she continues to toot her horn and attempt to deceive people (as she did with Andraste's screencaps just yesterday, even AFTER the f_w ordeal had pretty much beaten itself inside out), she will continue to be wank fodder. Personally, I think it's insanely amusing that she just won't take the clue and move on, though it is sad to some degree for the same reason, I suppose. Them over at f_w are not beating a dead horse; the damned horse keeps coming back to life as different entities, and, as a result, it gets flogged. It's still going and, really, I believe that there is no one to blame but Crystal and her ignorance/extreme desire to be loved and accepted in fandom. Sorry, but I don't agree.

[iolanthe-rosa.livejournal.com]

Personally, I think it's insanely amusing that she just won't take the clue and move on, though it is sad to some degree for the same reason, I suppose.

But you see, that's the thing: people like that feed on the attention. She doesn't care if it's positive or negative reinforcement. To her it's all reinforcement. That's why it becomes such an endless cycle of negativity: the wankers feed on the victim and the victim feeds on the wank.

[gabbyhope.livejournal.com]

It's easy for an outsider to be aware of this and make such judgements, isn't it? It is an endless cycle of negativity, I agree. But people involved most probably cannot, and will not, make this association. The wankers are in it for the funny, and Crystal's in it for the attention. Everyone wins. (Which is a stupid thing to say, I realize, but I still fail to see how this hurts anyone but Crystal who, frankly, deserves it -- present tense. Usually people who are wanked back off. She hasn't. She's going to stay on her spit for a while, I think. The whole "any negativity wounds fandom!" argument doesn't wash because, hey, we're still here. Aren't we?)

[iolanthe-rosa.livejournal.com]

I didn't say "any" negativity wounds fandom. For instance being honest is a generally good thing, but sometimes honesty and negativity necessarily go hand-in-hand, even in the fandom.

Everyone in the wank community is now aware of Crystal's game. Everyone outside the wank community is as well. Therefore, the only purpose served by the wank is to feed her need for attention. She's manipulating the wankers to serve her own purposes. To my mind, she's the one who "wins," and the wankers are simply her stooges.

Anyway, I don't want turn the lovely dutch_eowyn's LJ into a referendum on wank. I agree with her thesis. I feel sorry for Crystal; she's obviously in a lot of pain. I don't expect others to feel the same way.

[anatsuno.livejournal.com]

the only purpose served by the wank is to feed her need for attention.

nope, it's cracking a hell of a lot of us a HELL OF A LOT. and that's the entire reason for FW's existence in the first place, so it doens't strike me as very surprising, or out of line of the usual. the only 'wow' here is coming from her amazing brand of stubborness and the amazing number of comments.

but as FW's userinfo stated clearly:

We reserve the right to wander off topic as much as we like. If you got wanked and there's 250 comments on your thread, then guess what! Most likely very few of them will mention you at all. The only way you'll know what we're talking about is to read all the comments. Yeah that sucks, so sorry.

there's a lot of off-topic, a lot of photoshop fun, a lot of funny to be found in those threads. it's not all bashing, not that many comments are ad hominem, and Crystal herself came to post a self-congratulory graphic! which yes, means her need for attention is still being fed, but it's *not* the only 'result' of the wank, faaaaaar from it.

i'm still laughing, for one. and i've learned new photoshop skills. does that comment make me a bitch? well then.

i'm not being manipulated by Crsytal. maybe she gets her rocks off from the attention (looks like it!) but this ain't a war. i'm not out to win anything, only have fun. as long as i'm having fun, sorry, I win *also*. it's ridiculous to see it any other way, imo.

/rant. sorry, dutch_eowyn, for the spammage. i totally agree to disagree on this but i had to pipe up, this once. :)

[anatsuno.livejournal.com]

ooh, precision:
when i say 'it's ridiculous to see it any other way' i'm not commenting on the angle of, like, what your original post is about, the fact that it's sad too and maybe Crystal is suffering-- that's a valid angle and everything, no problem.

i meant in regards to the 'omg the wankers 'lose', they're totally playing Crystal's game she's the winner there'.

because looking at any wank as a war is a mistake, imo. we mock to please ourselves, and our pleasure is all that we're out to get-- not a victory *over* anyone else, even the one we wank. i was just stating that. if we have fun, then we 'win'-- as in, we've only gained from a wank, not lost anything.

[rodneyscat.livejournal.com]

sorry, dutch_eowyn, for the spammage. i totally agree to disagree on this but i had to pipe up, this once. :)

Perfectly ok, both on the spammage as on the disagreeing. But I don't feel like discussing this. I said what I wanted to say about it in the entry, and I'm done with it now. But everybody who wants to comment (whether to give a thumbs-up or to raise an eyebrow) is welcome to comment or reply to other comments :D

[arabia764.livejournal.com]

It's so easy to be decent to those we like. Let's try and be decent to those we don't like, that's what makes us human. I strongly believe in that.

Well expressed. It should be what makes us decent people and you are a good person for saying so.

[chuckjd.livejournal.com]

It was amusing while it lasted. I still think it's funny to read about it, but hopefully it'll die down soon.

[msilverstar]

I agree, and wish she'd just go away. The whole thing makes me sad. The F_W thing is partly just people being silly, it's not all piling on, but it's enough already (IMNSHO).

[theantimodel.livejournal.com]

You know, the thing is, and this gets blown out of proportion for every big wank, is that a good majority of the comments to fandom_wank aren't in any way related to the person being wanked, it's injokes and comment countdown races and references to past wanks and other fandoms and icon posting. It's really easy to accuse f_wers of going too far or beating (beading) a dead horse, but honestly? I don't think that's what happening here. I think that people are having ten million side conversations and yes, there's a lot of snark and a lot of non-complimentary stuff being said aboug crystalgamgee but I've got to agree with what msilverstar said here (http://www.livejournal.com/users/msilverstar/88691.html) and what esorlehcar said here (http://www.livejournal.com/community/bboyd/376080.html?thread=3157008#t3157008) and here (http://www.livejournal.com/community/bboyd/376080.html?thread=3166224#t3166224) in response to similar complaints.

And in the end, f_w makes no excuses for this fact: it exists to mock people. And yes, that can be cruel, or it can just be plain funny, but f_w makes no excuses and doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it is. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm not trying to excuse f_w or it's members for being mean, I just think you're misrepresenting it a bit by saying that people at f_w aren't letting the crystal thing go becuase at this point, no one's talking about her because the injokes are and have always been far funnier than the wankers.

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

right - especially what msilverstar said:

[info]crystalgamgee broke the social contract of fandom. She lied to friends. She took their money and their admiration under false pretenses. She betrayed a society based on trust and sharing. Then she attacked the people who called her on it.

See, I've been involved in internet fandoms since 1992. I've seen it happen before. Even though it usually denigrates into a free-for-all (and yes, I've put in my 25 cents of snark over there!), it is wise to unmask folks like this.

I say this because I've seen people wounded horribly, emotionally, by these kinds of psychos in RL, as it spilled off the net. I've seen people be swindled out of thousands of dollars, in the name of friendship which was held with a psycho.

We are, just by participating in fandoms, a wee bit obsessive. *raises hand* Yup, me too. But there are lines you don't cross, implicit behaviors you don't disregard. There is very little in this virtual world on which we can base and maintain our relationships, and that very little is a trust. You don't screw me over, I won't screw you over.

She tromped all over that, and is STILL doing it.

[lilithlotr.livejournal.com]

It's really weird, isn't it? I noticed it myself.

It's like, all these internal feuds that we can't resolve, because no-one is right or wrong.

So when we DO find someone who is wrong, we beat it to death. It was the same way with the notorious VB/Mr. Frodo. Yeah, she's a wacko and was out to defraud people, but MONTHS of self-pity and self-congratulations and post mortems?

[loreley-se.livejournal.com]

You´re absolutely right. This topic has been beaten do death long ago. She doesn´t deserve so much attention!

Re: last paragraph

[mauvemalady.livejournal.com]

Wow. Nicely done. I've been slipping in my computer attentiveness this week and have only come to see this issue...let's see...10 minutes ago...but, wow. Well said. I don't speak from the context of the fandom_wank issue, of which I still know comparatively little (not sure more is necessary, really), but just as a general statement of good intentions. Maybe it's just because today has been a rather grim day but that last little phrase just kind of stands out. Thankee!

But once you've got one hand nailed up, how do you plan to drive in the OTHER nail?

[(Anonymous)]

*laughter* Oh come on. If you actually LOOK at the threads, 9/10s of it is just F_W goofing off about silly shit trying to see how many comments they can get to. For the billionth time, folks, it's just for fun.

Re: But once you've got one hand nailed up, how do you plan to drive in the OTHER nail?

[frodo-noodles.livejournal.com]

"For the billionth time, folks, it's just for fun."

Amen to that. It's highly amusing to those folks that don't even contribute to the mess. I just read it. I'm all for taking her down. Way down. Down to the depths of snail mail. She's lying. She's selling shit that isn't even hers. That. Is. A. Crime.