American House Fans vs. the World!
Ah, house_md. Usually you keep your wanks limited to the shipping wars, but today is not the case, as one plucky American fan manages to single-handedly alienate everyone non-American House fan in the community, and may eventually lead to the founding of a new House comm. Let us watch and learn where baby communities come from:

It all started when simmysim made a post regarding spoiler rules in the comm, which, while raising many good points in the process (you have to click outside of the post and look at it on the community to get the full amusement factor of this post, as she intentionally overuses the LJ-cut feature), managed to stir up trouble with one line:



Going by the house_md rules, I am preaching to the choir, as they say:

"‘Spoiling’ is divulging a piece of information about an episode that would have ordinarily been a surprise. Do not make posts containing open spoilers for any House episode for one full day after the episode in question has aired. After a day, the events of the episode are fair game for open discussion.

But then they've also told a poster to cut a question about a major plot point that had been aired everywhere but most parts of Asia. SO.


Oh no.

Sure enough, it didn't take long for fans from abroad (namely the UK) to comment on this. And demand their actor back if we're not willing to share our LJ comms. Arguements over what was really meant by that comment (which failed to clarify anything) ensued:


bopeepsheep: "If you think that people who live in countries where season 3 isn't starting soon, and the trailers aren't being shown, should not read this community (because that's what it boils down to, however weaselly you word it), can we have our actor back please?"

simmysim: "They can read this community, but they have to be aware that people are going to talk about episodes that the MAJORITY of them have seen. It sucks, but life is a bunch of kittens and puppies.

I think I messed that last part up. :\"

bopeepsheep: "Well, silly me for thinking that the majority of North Americans were polite decent people who could cope with the idea of an LJ-cut."

simmysim: "I never said that cutting for spoilers is lame or bad. I, personally, would never post anything with blatant spoilers for anything past 2x10 or so, but to make it a rule is ridiculous. You can't FORCE politeness or it ends up spitting back in your face."

bopeepsheep: "Similarly, you can't force a majority by actively driving out all the non-Americans - which is what you're suggesting, effectively.

Years on Usenet tv groups showed me that actually the non-Americans are in the majority in most places* if they can be sure that there aren't going to be asshats going around spoiling everything deliberately. An LJ-cut is extremely low-effort to make, and a pretty easy rule to enforce in a community that has moderators; much easier than leaving spoiler space ever was.

*Statistically, this isn't surprising. "The rest of the world" *is* bigger than "North America". Given the nationality of two of this show's four main actors, it's unsurprising that this community would attract non-Americans, some of whom have been fans of Jesse and Hugh longer than certain American House fans have been alive."

And this goes on between those two pretty much like this, with simmysim getting increasingly defensive, stating that this is not what she meant, and yet pretty much saying the same thing.

So let us wander down a bit, where, if we are lucky, a new baby comm may soon be born. It starts when okelay, who clearly isn't from around these parts (her profile says she's from Chile, for those of you who were just dying to know), jumps in to say not only should major late-episode spoilers be cut, but every single plot detail, including exposition details from the Pilot, should be cut. Needless to say, there was much WTF on both sides of the previous arguement there. As an added bonus, that thread includes accusations that Americans are forcing their "imperialist ideals" on people from other countries by suggesting that Americans be free to spoil to their heart's content, and having the accusations returned, saying that forcing people to cut everything is just as "imperialist".

Meanwhile, in this same thread (so far ignored, but we'll see if comm conception takes place and a baby comm is born) alibi_factory suggests the founding of house_uk, a place where the UK fans of House can flee from the spoilers of the American fans.

All of this over whether spoilers should be a rule or a courtesy.

There's much more wank ensuing elsewhere in that post (as well as a lot of silly fangirling), but I think I hit the gist of it.

ETA: Well, that was fast. Behold, the announcement of the founding of house_uk, which may end up being a new wank in itself. But at any rate, aren't you all glad to have witnessed the miracle of birth, LJ style?

ETA2: And I was right!

"Don't you think it's a bit selfish to expect an American audience with new episodes to only discuss older ones?"

This is in the new post, mind you. The wank, it is spreading...