Official Bounding Into Comics Fans | GATEKEEPING: | Facebook
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"GATEKEEPING:
Many people don't have it clear enough of how much what a gatekeeper does in a community counts, because they have not seen it with their own eyes what happens when a community itself falls because other people are pushing ideology into it, and end up taking power because they do push that ideology in it.
I've seen people tell me "It doesn't affect you", people that told me "Live and let live", who do you think you are talking with exactly? You think 40K is my first rodeo? it is the first hobby in which I make my presence known, I was into star wars, I was into D&D, I was into Warhammer Fantasy even for a period, I am pretty much in this kind of stuff from when I was 12.
I have seen communities die and be subverted because of people pushing ideologies, I have seen hobbies die and become radicalized for the same reason, and all I saw people say was "Accept people, it's all they want" or "Ignore them, it doesn't affect you" all the while I saw the hobbies I loved die in flames of division and conflict between people pushing ideologies and people that wanted nothing to do with it.
Being accepting didn't work, ignoring didn't work, now it is the time to fight back, gatekeep the hobby with all you have, you either come into the hobby because you love the hobby, or you can stay out of it, ignore those that say gatekeepers have no power in the hobby, if we don't have any power, why are people pushing so hard to silence us?
I say it for personal experience: Don't live and let live, gatekeep always, I have seen people being accepting, it didn't work, the ideology took power and the accepting people either bowed or got banned, I have seen people saying to ignore them, only to suffer the same fate when the same thing happened again.
DO NOT BE WRONGFULLY CONVINCED THO: We as gatekeepers must not care what a person thinks, what is the sexuality of a person, the politics they subscribe with, the colour of their skin or any other characteristic, as long as the person is capable of saying "Let's just agree to disagree" they are people we defend in the hobby, we always defend reasonable people in the hobby, only three kind of people we gatekeep, the overeacting soy, the woke cultist, and the political activist, those that are actively pushing for the change and corruption of the hobby and the communities.
I am sure many people here can recall episodes of just disagreeing with an ideology in some group and getting banned over it, of criticizing the thoughts of anybody and getting banned because they are offended, it is not how it works here, it is not who we are and who we must strive to be, nobody is exempt from mockery, nobody is exempt from criticism, nor here, nor outside.
And if we want for things to stay like this, we must always gatekeep, NEVER assume the newcomers have good intentions when they come in, because remember, the road to hell is PAVED in good intentions, like yours, like the ones of others.
So, yeah, TL;DR, do not live and let live, DEFEND THE HOBBY YOU LOVE, IT IS WORTH DOING SO IF YOU LOVE IT FOR REAL."