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Damon Lindelof's Birthday - FB comments give fanbase a black eye

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Devon

Fleet Captain
Fleet Captain
Just wanted to post a commentary regarding the latest film and how scary it seems some people have gotten.

Allow me to preface this by saying that I don't do these types of posts normally. But I feel strongly about this and wanted to share some of my thoughts, and also hope this thread isn't taken the wrong way (when it's intent is to be positive for some people here.)

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...10249296.24356.122908054392375&type=1&theater

Yesterday, the official Star Trek Facebook page gave people an opportunity to wish Damon Lindelof a Happy Birthday which most people have done. But also a few of the extreme critics of the new film took that thread and used it as an opportunity to rear some very ugly sides of themselves, and it is quite frankly scary and very sad.

To illustrate, a couple of people have called for the deaths of J.J. and his crew. A few people, without realizing why they are even saying this, implied that Damon is somehow single handedly responsible for the death of Star Trek and said that Star Trek should have carried on with the Enterprise (like that makes one lick of sense.) Some even implied that he shouldn't have been born to begin with and thus we wouldn't have a reason to celebrate his birthday. Why? What did Damon do? Do these people even know what they are talking about? And how are these comments even humanly acceptable? These comments come off as hate rhetoric that you might see in cases of racism, etc. They are not reasonable comments at all. According to the admin on StarTrek.com this was going to be taken care of soon, possibly with deletings and bannings from the page. It is just very out of control there right now.

As I had posted in the discussion forum on Facebook, Damon has done no one any wrong to deserve some of the unhealthy anger being displayed over there. Damon has not inflicted any pain on anyone, caused emotional or financial suffering, wished ill on any of the fans. Damon, nor anyone associated with this film "ruined," "undermined," or "destroyed" anything. All Damon did was serve as Executive Producer on a film that took no more than two hours of our lives to view. Who knows what his role was, what his opinions were (hey, if some of those people actually knew Damon they may have the chance to see or not if they share some of their concerns!) Luckily, most fans are capable of understanding this. Some aren't, as illustrated on that Facebook page and in some comments elsewhere in the past.

Life is too short to dwell on what one feels is a negative aspect, especially something as trivial as a film. There is too much negativity in this world as it is. A film is certainly not something to be negative about and especially after two years. The film did bring a lot of happiness to those who viewed it. If one didn't like it, that's fine. It was an escape from reality for two hours. Heck, I've never seen a film getting a standing ovation at the end!

I really wanted to bring this up for a reason to do with some posters here. Obviously, not all people who have issues with the film are as unreasonable as I've seen today. Unfortunately, because of the unfortunate comments that a few extreme fans have spewed out for the last three years (and is essentially summed up on the Facebook wall as of this posting,) there is going to be a little bit of a knee jerk reaction by fans of the film sometimes. When someone says "Wow, all the guy did was share his opinions and he got jumped on," well take a look at the Facebook page and you'll see why. I'm not saying it's right, and I've seen a few people get jumped on a little too harshly now and then, but I really want you to see why and to please understand.

This film has brought out probably some of the best in the franchise, but also brought out the worst side of some of the fanbase and often times for no good reason, and unfortunately because of these few individuals it seems to paint a bigger black eye for the fanbase.

So all I say is if I've ever come across a little jumpy to someone a few times where it may not have been deserved, I really do apologize, and some others may be in the same boat. I have no issues with the concept of criticizing the new film, and have found a few of them interesting. To those who have served as great examples here of how to share criticisms fairly and have been reasonable, please keep doing what you're doing. May you serve as an example to those who share in your concerns.

To those who those same people that we are seeing on Facebook, please take the time to take a deep breath. It's just one movie out of several hundred hours of a franchise. It did nothing any harm, it did you no harm. There are brighter things ahead in life.

That is all.
 
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This isn't a reflection on Star Trek fans. This is a reflection on rabid fans in general and the nature of the internet.
 
More accurately put:

This isn't a reflection on Star Trek fans alone. This is a reflection on rabid fans in general and the nature of the Internet.

As far as the behavior of people on this board in particular is concerned, a post about John Sullivan a couple of days ago motivated me to go back and read through a moderation topic started in the Enterprise forum back in 2003 to discuss the bad behavior of posters there.

If I've said that the behavior of people in this forum in the last three years is as bad as the old Enterprise forum days I humbly withdraw the assertion and plead the failing memory of age. People on all sides of that one were true assholes. :lol:
 
I read some of those FB comments yesterday. I was suprised at the amount of venom being spewed his way, but I'm sure he knows not to take retarded, thoughtless and insensitive comments from whiny fanboys seriously. I wouldn't.

Heck, if I were him I'd probably reply and brag about all the money I made and awards I won while "ruining" their favourite show:rommie:.
 
Wow. After reading through the whole thing I found it really tame. There were a few people who stepped out of line but nothing like what you present above.

Is there a page of comments that I'm missing? I saw one "faggot" comment (EDIT: and one "FAG" I missed the first time around) and a couple of "wish you'd never been born" comments. But it was downright cordial compared to what I've seen on these boards over the years.
 
This kind of behavior is, of course, not the only reason the Prime Universe will never be seen again, but it is my favorite reason.
 
This kind of behavior is, of course, not the only reason the Prime Universe will never be seen again, but it is my favorite reason.

This kind of behavior has no bearing on why the Prime Universe will never be seen again. The fact that CBS/Paramount wasn't making enough money is why the Prime Universe will never be seen again. :rolleyes:
 
This would be a bit scary if it were the actual Facebook page of Damon Lindelof, but it isn't. It's a Star Trek page. Of course people looking at photos on a Star Trek page will comment about Star Trek.

And obviously you've never witnessed avid Football fans.
 
The excuse-making for these jerks is...okay, it's not that interesting because it's a very old song in fandom. All kinds of fringe behavior, acting out and inadequate personal hygiene has traditionally been tolerated in skiffy fandom in defense of a group self-concept of being inclusive and accepting of the eccentric and socially outcast. Obviously the cleanliness issue is irrelevant to online fandom, but the rest of the nonsense persists.
 
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Wow. After reading through the whole thing I found it really tame. There were a few people who stepped out of line but nothing like what you present above.

Likely because the admin were taking action according to a ST.com moderator as I mentioned early on in my original post.

The "It's not true Star Trek" people are still in mega mega denial though but very amusing. Glad I'm not them. :lol:
 
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Likely because the admin were taking action according to a ST.com moderator as I mentioned early on in my original post.

There obviously not doing a very good job of it as 'Fag' and 'Faggot' have been there for eighteen plus hours without being taken down. Those should've been the first posts taken down.
 
The expressions 'chill out' and 'get a life' spring to mind. Jeez. I love oldTrek but some gripes notwithstanding, I was just grateful Paramount/JJ had kick-started franchise again.
 
'Fag' and 'Faggot' have been there for eighteen plus hours

Yeah, imagine anyone calling that "tame". Middle-schoolers here get a two day suspension for using that word.

Because it's tame doesn't mean it's acceptable. Just turn on the news and you'll see things being done to gay people that are far, far worse than being called a name.

The original poster made it seem like the thread was more offensive than what was actually there. You had a few posters making jackasses out of themselves out of hundreds wishing Mister Lindelof well.

Like I said... tame.
 
Just more proof that the world is full of arseholes who do surprise me though, because I don't know how they have the intelligence to operate a keyboard.
 
There is nothing more classless than going onto FB to insult this man on his birthday. It reminds me of the classless geniuses who thought it was a great idea to post Mary Jo Kopekne's obit on the day Ted Kennedy died. Stay classy, internet.
 
There is nothing more classless than going onto FB to insult this man on his birthday. It reminds me of the classless geniuses who thought it was a great idea to post Mary Jo Kopekne's obit on the day Ted Kennedy died. Stay classy, internet.

Though I don't think Lindelof is ever going to read it. Which seems to be the excuse here on TrekBBS every time someone insults a celebrity (just look at threads about Mel Gibson or Charlie Sheen for example). The Chase Masterson thread was hilarious. And nobody learned the lesson, not even the moderators.
 
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