And then I realized just what bothered me the most about this thread. The people that you have issues with will never know what you are taking offence at. This thread serves no practical purpose. It does not help or instruct, only deride. It cannot make a community, only break one.

Like it or not, Mark Does Stuff is growing. It’s covering more popular books and shows, and word of mouth is getting around. And a lot of what Mark covers and talks about in his reviews is controversial, even if you and I think it shouldn’t be. The people attracted to this site will have opinions different than you, with varying abilities to articulate what they want to say. If you would like to persuade them and point out the error of their ways, you can’t talk behind their backs. Tell them to their face, and give them a chance. People may surprise you.

I understand that this community is incredibly insular, with it’s own ways of speaking and thinking and makes inside jokes. But I also know for a fact that it is possible for an insular community to grow without losing it’s identity. If this is your goal, you would discontinue this thread, accept and argue with people who disagree with you, and try to integrate new people instead of alienating them.

As for myself, I will still follow Mark Does Stuff, but I will avoid the comments sections until you actually want new and diverse people. This post wasn’t written in anger, only regret, with the hope that you’ll understand a few problems that you may not have realized before. A few of you might think that this comment itself will belong in the Comments of Stupid and Evil People thread, and so I’ll spare you the hassle and post it here.

Best wishes,

The Lurker formerly known as SweetVerda

First, a brief history lesson. I lurk. A lot. I’ve been following along with Mark Does Stuff back in the Firefly days. I love Mark Does Stuff; it’s introduced me to some great works and really broadened my horizons. Generally, I didn’t read the comments sections simply because I didn’t have the time. Then ATLA came around, and the comments section was one of my favorite parts of the day. All the gifs, glee, and general happiness drew me out somewhat, but not enough to post or make an account.

Then came LOTR, and I thought of something that I wanted to say, a post I wanted to make, and so I signed up. And the post was well received, and compelled me to make more posts. Most of my posts were in response to someone else, often times disagreeing with them on a small point, but I didn’t think that it had gotten malicious. I believed that we were just several friendly people on the Internet, with different opinions and backgrounds, which is necessary to form a healthy community.

As it turns out, one of my posts were misinterpreted, and someone thought that I meant to say a terribly stupid thing. I actually expect that this happens a lot, and is one of the reasons I’m hesitant to post on the web. My communication skills aren’t all that great. But I had no clue that my post had been misinterpreted. Instead of saying something like, “But surely you don’t mean this,” or “You’re an idiot because...” or even, “Behold Isildur’s Bane! GTFO!”, nobody replied to it.

On Sunday the website went down, and I remembered people mentioning this site, the spoils blog, so I went to see if there was something wrong. I had no idea just how wrong things were. I saw last week’s “Awful Comments of the Week” thread, and the subject of the thread struck me as a terrible idea. It creates a sub-class of commenters, and alienates and skews opinions against anyone who gets named in this thread. Hoping that it wouldn’t be quite as bad as my initial fears, I scrolled through it. To my horror, I saw one of my own posts mentioned, taking a few details from it and twisting it to mean something that I hadn’t said.

Yikes! Mostly the Sweet in my name is because I have a ginormous sweet tooth, but also because it takes a lot to make me mad (or even less happy). But I felt my blood boil. (I know people think that it’s just an expression, but I swear, if I had gotten even a paper-cut, my room would have burned down.) I hadn’t been this angry since my best friend’s parents had gotten deported. People that I had once had the utmost respect for were misinterpreting me, face palming, and posting gifs declaring what a terrible fool I am. And I never would have even found out.

(Cont...)

I never said that people were mean to me. I said that I know how mean people can be to each other based off of race. As in, there was a lot of tension going both ways, and I saw racism all around me, and I've come to understand it.

Yikes, are you people quick to judge.

I'm sorry you feel ganged up on. You are certainty not too sensitive, and since when has being sensitive been a bad thing?

Well, you really don't understand the context, but that's because you are a new reader who hasn't read all the books and all the published letters and taken five classes on Tolkien linguistics, not because you're, um, whatever race you are (I know you just posted pictures, but I'm really bad at faces, okay?). And, although I may be white, I do understand racism. I grew up in a predominantly Hispanic area and know how ugly people can be to someone who doesn't speak a language that they do, or has unfamiliar physical characteristics. I have the utmost sympathy and empathy for you.

And now that I understand you, I will defend you like a mama bear, and together we can gang up on everyone else. We will be the strongest couple in the Fire Nation! All shall love us and despair!

Oh dear. Please don't leave, arguing with you is the best part of re-watching Buffy!

Part of the problem is that we are sitting on a pretty big spoilery factoid, and most of us wish that when you asked for a description of Orcs, you were told this, which gives Orcs depth, instead of the Mongol thing, extracted out of context from a private letter, which takes away the Orcs' depth. It's not that you aren't entitled to your opinion, or any outrage you might have felt, or your (zvfgnxra, tvira gung Bepf ner gbegherq, qvffbanag Ryirf) belief that this is a racist trope. Personally, I'm relieved that you still like the books, given the information you have received you would have been justified to feel angry towards the books or the Professor.

I guess we are each arguing two different things, and we both inherently agree with each other. Because I do completely agree with you, except about the racist trope thing, but I don't really have non-spoilery things to support that last one, so... I don't even know what I'm saying anymore, do I? Anyways, I love you and your reviews, keep it up, and I'm sorry that all us rabid fan-people disturbed you.

(Edit: Commas are like Orcs, they never get along with each other. :) )

I think that the line that bothers us the most would be this:

I’ll admit to being distracted by the knowledge that Tolkien based the Orcs off of a racist characterization of “Mongol-types.”

We wish you weren't distracted, we are distraught that you are distracted, and we wish to un-distract you. Tolkien never based Orcs off of Mongols. You should not have been spoiled by that letter, and we all deeply regret today that you were. Mostly because the description in that letter gave you the wrong impression.

The Orcs are based off of Farytale Monsters, goblins and such. Tolkien purposely does not describe them in the writing, because he wants the audience to choose what they find most ugly and frightening. They are not based off of a people or race found on Earth. The fact that you thought this, although it's perfectly fine for you to come to whatever conclusions you have with the evidence you were given, distresses us.

THIS IS WHY YOU DO NOT SPOIL MARK!

I figured Avatar was mostly Asians, with Fire Nation being WWII Japan, Earth Kingdom being a mix of WWII and post-WWII China, the Air Nomads being Tibetans, and the Water Tribe being Inuits with maybe some Oceanic cultures thrown in.

Ohg YBGE qrsvavgryl unf n ceboyrz va gung pheeragyl gur uhznaf nyvtarq jvgu Fnheba orybat gb gur Nsevpn/Zvqqyr Rnfgrea ertvbaf. V guvax gung vg urycf gb unir ernq gur Fvzvyynevba naq xabj gung rirel crbcyr ba Zvqqyr Rnegu unf fperjrq hc, naq fb vg srryf yrff yvxr Gbyxvra vf cvpxvat ba n cnegvphyne tebhc. V zrna, gur Ahzrabernaf gung rirelbar vqbyvmrf va guvf gvzr gevrq gb vainqr Rys-urnira, naq gur Ryirf unir gung xva-fynlvat guvat...

So, I had a grin on my face at the beginning, simply because Angel makes a great villain. He's just so perfectly evil and devious in every way, and his posture and attitude are completely different from ensouled!Angel. I could watch an entire show about Angel as a villain, just being terribly awful to everyone. Does this count as a spoiler, because I'm implying that Angel the show isn't about that? Or maybe I'm doing some stealthy foreshadowing... You'll never know! Muahahaha.

And then we get to the scene with Buffy crying on her bed, and I start crying, too, because everything hurts. It's not fair to Buffy, or Angel, or anyone really. And I think the Romani Uncle acknowledged this, that it is not justice, it just is.

Mark is often mentioning how he has trouble visualizing things, and so I think that Mark should at least see the first movie. (ROT13 for possible movie expectation spoilers.) Gurer ner n srj guvatf gung ner va gur zbivr gung nera'g va gur obbxf, gurer ner n srj guvatf va gur obbxf gung nera'g va gur zbivrf, naq gurer ner n srj guvatf rzcunfvmrq va gur zbivrf gung nera'g ernyyl nccnerag va gur obbxf. Gur vzcbegnag guvat vf, V qba'g guvax Znex jvyy or noyr gb gryy juvpu vf juvpu. Nf ybat nf Znex xrrcf va zvaq gung gurl ner gjb qvssrerag fgbevrf va gjb pbzcyrgryl qvssrerag zrqvhzf, whfg jvgu gur fnzr cybg naq punenpgref, V guvax ur'yy or svar.

It's kind of like how people want Mark to look at the maps. They say that it shouldn't spoil Mark because they show things that never really get mentioned, and so there is no way for Mark to know where the Fellowship will end up.