Allow me to be salty about this for a quick second. I helped start a whole goddamn hashtag to work as a collective uplifting and educational archive in #TabletopChopShop .

I make posts about dissecting design perspectives and assumptions.

I make posts praising stuff I like.

1/ https://twitter.com/BabblegumSam/status/1345981523648946176

Nonetheless, the thing I'm "known for", when ppl with the larger followings in the TTRPG/streamer space get their jaws wagging, is being a hater. For 'not supporting' unconditionally enough. For being too angry too much of the time.

And that DOES piss me off.

2/

For two main reasons:

1) As I've already mentioned, I make plenty of posts talking about stuff I like. But nothing, literally nothing I like or even love, are things I am overly precious about criticizing.

So when I DO ferl something isn't right? Yeah. I go all in.

3/

Notably, the thing that seems to piss off large personalities is that I don't do the thing they do where I pick someone with 12 followers being shitty in the replies each day to QRT and show off dunking on them.

That's not to say they don't deserve the dunking, but real talk? 4/

Those ppl don't matter. They hold exactly zero power in the space. They will never make anything of value. They're just low-risk cannon fodder for you to earn woke XP with your followers. The social justice equivalent of killing 1xp rats in the starting area.

The kicker?

5/

You know this. All of you KNOW this.

And you know that it'd actually move the needle is holding ppl to account who actually hold power here, who run Discord + Twitch communities, who work at large publishers, who ACTUALLY hold sway.

6/

But oh no! They might be the cousin's friend's uncle's roommate of someone who does freelance work for Chris Perkins' poolboy so you might risk the disapproval of someone powerful and lose out on work.

So you pick the 1xp starting area rat instead.

7/

And here's the thing! That ALONE, I get. You can't fight every battle. Everyone has to work with or for problematic ppl occasionally as a matter of putting food on the table. Esp marginalized ppl, for whom those opportunities come even fewer and farther between.

8/

But it's the conjunction of that WITH the constant whining about "negativity" or "toxicity" from ppl who do talk about those more powerful influencers bc what? They're a bit too close to that bag you wanna secure? What?

9/

And then having the temerity to pretend you're some crusader for justice as you slay 1xp tutorial rats and make vague platitudes on the TL at no one in particular, risking and changing exactly fucking nothing?

THAT pisses me off.

Oh, I forgot, that's reason number 1.

2) The dunkings of powerful ppl are the only things that get traction. Sometimes bc I'm saying something that needs to be said, that ppl are afraid of saying so that co-sign instead. Which, hey, is valid. Why I raise my voice is

11/

in part so ppl feel like they'll be less alone when they use their own voices and therefore feel emboldened to speak out.

But I get tired of being an Emotional Beast of Burden that ppl can lash their carts to. Bad news is heavy, and being the bearer of it weighs on you.

12/

I don't do callouts of influential ppl for clicks because I'm not a hack.

But I do notice they go a lot farther and faster than the myriad posts I do about constructive stuff, despite making up a smaller portion of my overall tweets.

Y'all don't show up when I post those.

13/

So if you think "Yeah, Vince, it's bullshit you're known as this big bad cancel monster when you do all this other stuff!"

Then for real? I need all y'all to boost that other stuff a fraction of the amount callouts/dunks get.

14/

Bc right now a good portion of you who praise those confrontational posts don't. I don't do those posts to build a following for myself. I do them bc I think they need to be done.

The ones I make to build something to support myself on are those constructive posts.

15/

And when I hear crickets posting an in-depth, constructive thread I spent a bunch of time and spoons on, I start wondering whether ppl are content just using my emotional labor/risk as a substitute for their own before fucking off somewhere else.

I'm wondering that more and more going into 2021.

/end