Ursa Major Awards - The 2022 Winners Announced!

On the other hand, if Rakuen is reading this and is offended, sorry, man. I am just goofing, here. I don't agree with your articles on AI, but they're fine. You do you.

If Patch is reading, fuck you, but also, you shouldn't actually be offended; you won fair and square.

Are you doing that Oklahoma thing again and disguising anger with humor?

As Southern as apple pie, that.

No worries, I feel things too, I just feel them quicker. These emotions you're spewing out here are what I felt for like maybe a minute after the thing was announced. Between then and there I came up with the populist 'good sport' schtick I responded to your statement with.

I was able to come up with it so fast because it is that schtick that I used to calm down that 'no one cares about me' inner voice that, by the way, everyone feels.

Obfuscate it with a challenge to one's self to do better, even if it results in nothing. Don't obfuscate it with snide humor directed at those you feel wronged you by doing the thing that is similar to yours and getting rewarded for it.

For if you just embrace the snide of the others being unworthy, then rewards will become toxic instead of helpful to the overall community.

For context, I originally just ended with "Write about things that bring you joy", but then I realized that was way too positive, because occasionally we gripe about things, so that's why I added "or if you didn't enjoy something, write to communicate", because there are so many possible motivations.

But jfc I had no idea a simple request about snark would set you off. I'm genuinely sorry about that! And the bearer of bad news; yes, you've harbored an unhealthy grudge for the last seven years. (Notice I didn't address "for no reason"; you had reasons, and that's not my call, maybe the reasons started way earlier or have other well-earned points.) You have this amazing capacity to remember old posts, while I tend to completely forget them. (I remember random bits of things, without pattern.)

However, I can say with absolute certainty that I wrote my Zootopia review without looking at any of the other four reviews here, or any reviews anywhere. And that's a harsh truth, because if you've harbored a lot of emotional energy into assuming otherwise, that's hard to let go, you want that anger to mean soomething. So I'll say, be at peace. Shit happens. Yes, I'm irritating too. Let's try to move on.

As to why I discussed trailers, I can't remember - but I have done it on at least one other occasion beforehand. Best guess, is either (1) I wanted to give some kind of "what else is out right now" historical context in case Zootopia dominated things like The Lion King did, or (2) I asked myself, writing the fifth review on a well-trod topic by that point, how I might make it a little different. But I don't actually remember why anymore.

But when I discuss Disney, I bring up my Disney bias, because that's being honest, because that's a thing I do when I post. It's a form of self-disclosure. And in the past I've discussed when a Disney production has been a pleasant surprise for me. I have absolutely no idea how my review pressed your buttons, and I don't even remember what was in anyone's reviews. I know I read them later, after I posted mine, but nothing about them sticks in my memory, agreeing, disliking, nothing. If I didn't post a comment in any of them, then I've no idea. And I'm sorry if any of that hurt you; it was not my intention.

I don't consider myself some kind of super moral person; I have my own set of morals, and I've learned that the only person who cares about them is me; other people don't like being moralized to. You're gonna get a bit of that in this reply, regardless. Shouting "Hypocrisy!!" over new posts over old posts... I mean it depends. I'm not feeling like I'm a hypocrite here. Other times, yeah, I probably have fucked up. Or sometimes the rhetoric I thought I'd apply to one subject, just didn't work with another subject, and bam, contradiction. I've called myself out on this in my own reviews. "In this other review, I reacted badly to X. In this film, it had X too, but I didn't react badly for some reason." So many things can change between two places, two times, two evening writing moods.

I don't assume you're gonna be all wuvvy-duvvy towards a large, scattered fandom - but I did assume you at least gave a little bit of a fuck about Flayrah. And yeah, I know that's changed over time, you stopped being an editor. Okay, so if you don't give a fuck about the "overall community" here, which is really small, doesn't mean we're gonna look away if you take a dump and don't bother to flush. Like or hate your roomies as much as you like, it's still a shared space.

I'm not going to kid myself, we're not that important in the large scheme of things. But the interest of people in this place isn't zero. It's small, but not zero. And the purpose of fandom is to try and share some kind of joy and appreciation for stuff. So I care about this space, I'd like it to grow and re-energize. Not with people who would necessarily think like us, but who have a passion for reviewing and discussing stuff intelligently and can offer insights and perspectives.

You've got a great sense of wit and an energetic writing style. You want to dig into a film or a game 'cause it's got issues, that can be a lot of fun to read. I really enjoyed your GotG3 review. But when you dig into people - you stop being a comedian, and I think you're an asshole. I'm saying this not because of anything you've specifically said - this is something my brain does automatically. I've been around enough assholes hiding behind the "comedian" excuse that I'm simply unable to believe them when they claim otherwise.

So when you start acting like a dick in the comments, it just makes me sad. Because like attracts like. I don't want us to attract more trolls who see in you an opportunity for another night's entertainment. I don't want people to think that Flayrah's a lost cause due to crappy comments in general. It's not something I have any control over, so my post, the one that set you off - is basically an appeal to Wheaton's Law. Don't be a dick. If this basic, moral baseline offends you - then nothing I say here is going to make a lick of difference and I'm sorry I assumed we had anything in common that was worth anything.

I occasionally try to mention Flayrah to other people, hoping that of the small, niche number of people who might want to interact here, that they'd be inclined to take part. People being dicks in the comments sabotages that. Honestly, on the greater scale, it's mostly that we're so niche, most folks don't care. I'm still willing to keep trying, even if you aren't and think of us as some place to randomly vent to make yourself feel better. I really, really hope I'm wrong about that. You're creative, you're fun, and I have never personally targeted you. I just don't find some forms of negativity entertaining.

Before I started writing this reply, I went back to look at articles of yours that I've edited. I went as far back as 2021, and there weren't all that many - most edits were tweaking wording, punctuation and breaking up paragraphs. However, your Bad Guys review, ooooh yeah, I really went to town on that one. Because the flow of it was awful. There was no mention of the premise or the main characters until after the break. The first three main paragraphs were all about how you felt about the secondary vixen character. If I have to ask myself at the start, "Why am I reading this, is this building up to some kind of point?" then yeah, I'm gonna move whole paragraphs around.

But if I'm treading on your jokes - fill me in, because I don't remember. Maybe some of them I have personal explanations for, maybe others I've forgotten why. Either way, I don't think you're going to pardon me, I think our individual styles are just enough out of whack that we're not going to agree on certain things. You can always private message me here. If you want, and if Sonious and Green are willing, I can keep my edits to your articles to individual words, punctuation and paragraphing - or to nothing at all. I don't know what I did to piss you off, there's a lot more to this than you're saying and what I'm even aware of.

To those of you out there reading this, I hope our scuffles don't put you off. If we're not hosting the content you want, and if you've got the time and energy to write out a couple of paragraphs, send us your reviews, we can tidy them up, make 'em look good, add images, and share your joys with anyone else who wanders into this oddly-managed restaurant. :-) Thanks for hanging around, it's appreciated!