Board Thread:Off-Topic Discussion/@comment-6433273-20171231161124/@comment-5051846-20180121170609

CCyclone wrote: Dizzyzebra wrote: Can you guys link to the original sources/screenshots for the bullying? I'd appreciate it, things do get buried fast. *edit* Nevermind, found it. :'D

I remember, we've had even bigger bullying scandals than this. And few years later, those involved have only grown in popularity. Most didn't apologise, we just forget. Wait, seriously? What on earth could've been worse than that? Doing the sorts of things Akuo did is just awful; I sincerely hope the fandom didn't just forget about it.

The only ones I can really think of is when Sangnoksu was bullied by racists when he first released the 1000 Year Tale (which has almost hit 1M), and the covers of Scissorhands and Freely Tomorrow for SeeU being taken down for the exact same reasons. Well, I think Freely managed to stay on for a while but the comments/like bar was disabled.

What other serious issues like that have there been? Alrighty, prepare for a Vocaloid Community Drama History Lesson! This happened a few years ago, so I won't bother naming names.

The Set-Up:

The year is 2014. The Western UTAU fandom contains a popular clique consisting of about 3 people, let's call them the Cool Kids. The Cool Kids are very well-known and have a big influence over English UTAU. In our little corner of the internet, they are the in-crowd. The members could be a bit sassy, and would confessionary call out other users for copying USTs, etc. However, for the most part they are appeared to be nice, normal people.

The Drama:

Then one day, all hell breaks loose. An unknown user has set up a Tumblr blog and leaked a magna carta of screenshots from the Cool Kids' private Twitters. The blog has since been deleted; however, let me give you an idea of what sort of things these users were saying behind the rest of the fandom's backs. I've seen a lot of people talk rudely about each other in private, but their cruelty was on another level. I've never seen anyone that embittered over UTAU before. Their private Twitters contained some of the most disturbing, narcissistic things I've ever read from this community. To this day I have never seen private vents as vicious as theirs. The Cool Kids were insulting users with disabilities, laughing at other people's art, how bad other people's UTAUs were, how little they'd improved, wishing violence on the people that had annoyed them. I recall 'I hope we made that bitch cry' as one of the notable quotes.

An amusing aside: At the same time, another group of salty users had set up a forum, also intended to talk smack about other Vocaloid fans behind their backs. Or 'vent', shall we say. Even these users were shocked by what the Cool Kids were saying. I remember reading 'Not even we said anything that bad!'. You know your private Twitter is messed up when even forum members are shocked.

Anyway, that Tumblr post gained thousands of notes. Famous Western producers called them 'animals', I remember CircusP expressing his shock at their behaviour, amongst others.

The Aftermath:

1 member of the Cool Kids apologised, and promised to be more mature in future.

1 member claimed that the people they were talking about deserved it, said that this was a scheme to make the Cool Kids look bad.

And 1 member said 'Congratulations, now you know how I really feel'.

-

I remember it well, because it was disturbing to see how people can be nice in public, yet so twisted behind closed doors. It's been a while, so I hope everyone involved has become a better person since.

So remember kids, if synths are making you so angry that you need a private space to tear people apart, it may be time to take break from the community. No fandom should be that stressful!