I saw a post about fandom that used chess as a metaphor. The gist is: sometimes fandom feels like discovering you like chess, wanting to play it with people, deciding to attend a chess club, and arriving to realize everyone there is playing a game where they smack each other in the face with fish instead of playing chess. They still call it chess, and seem surprised when you want to play a standard game of chess. You stand there and you discover you have no community of chess fans to play with, and it feels very alienating.
The problem is, sometimes people arrive and discover that they, also, really enjoy smacking each other with fish. You don't know why this group started playing this game instead of chess; maybe their chessboard was a broken mess with missing pieces, and they made do with the materials they had.
The problem is not that some people want to play chess and others want to smack each other in the face with fish! The only problem is when you decide only one of those choices is valid or meaningful.
Some people want to play chess, according to established rules, and build skill in the game as it exists.
Other people want to make up a new game with the pieces they like, or out of the ones that make sense to them.
Find your group, figure out how to enjoy yourself, have fun playing whatever game you end up with. But leave the other groups alone. There is plenty of room at the table for all kinds of games.
(originally posted to notepin on 20 jun 2025)