When True Fans become Worst Enemies

Cody McKibben has “been royally fucked over by a big-name blogger“. He doesn’t name names, but in his post, he explains what has happened:

I have been silenced and banned from a community that I helped to build and that I am extremely passionate about. I invested three months of my blood, sweat and tears into promoting someone else and I feel as though I was forced to walk away with nothing. This isn’t the first time getting involved in someone else’s community has turned out to be a complete waste of my time, and it won’t be the last.

His post contains a comprehensive list of ways that companies and high-profile people end up misusing the goodwill of their fans – from filtering out the competition, to not trusting their fans. The post is an emotional but also well-reasoned plea for people to treat their fans with respect, and the consequences of not doing so.

I can empathise with him – there have been at least a couple of times in my life where I’ve spent a lot of energy and effort promoting something I loved, only to be – as Cody put it – royally fucked over. It’s one thing if they don’t acknowledge you, that’s somewhat normal if you’re dealing with a MAJOR name (like, say, Angelina Jolie – she probably doesn’t even know), but it’s another thing when this group claims to be totally supportive of your work…only to drop you hard at the last minute and leave you in the dust.

It’s moments like these that make you realise that even the best concepts and movements have humans at the core, and humans are inherently flawed.

I hope Cody finds his peace. It’s taking a long time to find mine, and just when one thing’s sorted something else comes up. At least he’s learnt quite a bit from this unfortunate experience, and has passed it on to others – so it’s not a total waste.

Comments

1. Many thanks Tiara! I appreciate your empathy & support, and sorry to hear you’ve been in the same situation a few times yourself. Unfortunately this situation really created a tremendous amount of stress, frustration & regret in my life for about a month, so believe me I wanted to make a ruckus, but I did my best to distill it into a constructive lesson I and others could benefit from. Cheers!

   — Cody McKibben · Aug 7, 03:35 PM · #