u/Any-Corgi-6948

So I've moved fandoms a lot, always for the same reason - I'll join, I'll feel like I'm getting established and making friends, and then the overall tone of discussion and discourse feels like it changes until there are now much higher expectations for morality, literacy, and skill that are required to remain a useful and valuable part of the fandom community. And then eventually I decide to leave, because participating is constantly making me anxious that I'm not living up to these expectations and the other fans deserve their safe space without weird interlopers like me.

And I'm very frustrated that my current fandom seems to be going the same way, and also an awful lot of other people, in this fandom or not, who I thought had fairly reasonable, measured takes that I generally agreed with. It definitely feels like everywhere is getting a bit more aggressive and judgemental nowadays? Or that the good faith is being restricted to narrower groups of people, and that once again, I cannot guarantee that I'm living up to the required expectations.

(It's not anti-dom. Most of the judgement and criticism and demands for media literacy and correct-opinion-holding that I'm seeing are from people who are vocally pro-ship and against censorship.)

And you know what? It probably is just me. It probably just is that I'm too sensitive and I don't have a thick enough skin or strong enough "that's not me they're talking about" instincts. It's not like I'm getting personally bullied or harassed or anything, but when you see enough people talking about what's an abuser's red flag and how the entire fandom is lousy with fascists who have unexamined beliefs, you gotta start wondering if maybe you're statistically an abuser or a fascist. And I genuinely care about other fans and want to treat them with respect, which means taking their complains and concerns seriously. (Even if sometimes - and I know this is petty - it feels like they're using "is a member of the same fandom as me" as evidence of other people's immoral nature.)

And the frustrating part is that I really don't know how to stop feeling this way while still being "in fandom". I obviously could just step back and take a break, read nothing and write nothing and just go touch grass for a while, but that feels... kind of unfair. "You should leave fandom as self-care" is, in practical terms, isomorphic to "you should leave because nobody wants you here". Either way, you don't get to have the fun hobby, while everyone else does.

Does anyone else feel like their fandoms are getting more judgmental recently, even on the pro-shipping and anti-censorship sides of things? Like more of that judgment is placed upon having good media literacy and having properly examined beliefs? Is there any possible way to balance being this kind of anxious and still having an enjoyable hobby, or is this more of a "accept there are some things you cannot do" scenario?

Hi everyone! I’m working on my first project (a collection of short fics), and I’m wondering if there’s an established “best practice“ for formatting and including metadata (tags, summaries, etc.), or if it’s really preference. I know it needs to be in there somewhere, but is there a specific where?

My current plan is to have the anthology title page, table of contents, and then each story with its title, author, and publication year. Then, at the back, to have an appendix with each story’s metadata (specific date, tags, summary, notes, etc.) there for reference. (This way, if I want to add more stories, I’ll need to reprint fewer pages, I think).

Is this a reasonable plan? Or is the metadata generally kept with its own story text? I don’t want to accidentally fail to provide appropriate citation information.

Thank you all!