Before I joined Belle, I was on Wattpad. But I left for two reasons: a huge data leak that Wattpad didn't even bother to tell users about until two weeks later and a user I followed that used their message board to rant about pretty much every move Disney made that "ruined" Star Wars as it happened or as they noticed it. The user in question was also a LOTR and Narnia fan, but seeing notifications about this user ranting about Disney's latest "bad move" regarding Star Wars quickly became tiresome. I politely responded to one of the posts and suggested that they start a fan journal so they could rant and express their opinions about what they thought Disney was doing wrong with Star Wars, but I didn't have to see their rants every time I went to my notifications page.

For me, a user's message board on Wattpad was meant for two things: announcing updates to books (or new books) and thanking users for votes and adding your books to their reading list. But this user didn't take my advice and so while I shared my opinions and rants about things in the fandoms I'm involved in in this diary, this user continued to use their message board to rant about the latest things Disney did that "ruined" Star Wars. I didn't want to unfollow this user and so Wattpad's lack of response about the data leak (my account info was compromised) gave me the perfect opportunity to start fresh on another platform.

This leads me to talk about fandom gatekeeping. If you've read my "Diary of An Author," you know certain things are a no-no in my writings due to my religious beliefs. My faith is at the heart of who I am, and I want my writings to reflect that.

But I am against gatekeeping in any fandom. The only exception to this is my entry on the Reylo Sin Anthology in this diary.

Being a respectful fan means respecting the people who created the source material and your fellow fans.