Overall I definitely would not say the Transformers fandom is toxic. There will always be toxic people in ANY fandom. But really, that goes for any walk of life. Work in a major office, or in government, or at a university like I did, and you'll encounter plenty of toxic people hiding underneath those business suits too. I don't really buy the toxic fandom narrative in general, and feel that far too often it's been used as an intellectually lazy excuse for why ill-advised reboots of media franchises have failed. Do people act like jerks on the internet? Sure. But is that limited to fans of Star Wars, Marvel comics, Transformers, or Ghostbusters? Hell no. Just try posting a video of yourself playing with your cat or dog on social media, and if it gets more than 50 replies from people you don't know, a flame war is likely to start somewhere along the line once all the self-proclaimed dog and cat experts show up and patronizingly lecture others on how to play with/take care of their pets. Ever notice how everyone on social media is an expert on geopolitics, medicine, veterinary medicine, history, etc.?
In the age of social media, bad behavior on the internet has simply become amplified across the board - partially because so many people suffer from a tribal mindset, even when it concerns matters that are entirely non-political. This results in bad behavior towards the other tribe (i.e. those who have a different opinion or mindset) being rewarded by those of your own tribe. This mindset can be found just about anywhere you will find radically differing opinions: whether it's the economy, COVID-19, history, global warming, sports, pro-wrestling, music, video games, Dungeons & Dragons, and just about any media franchise out there. Even individual bands have divisions that split their fans into tribal factions. We live in an era where, unfortunately, far too many folks are only able to identify two kinds of people: those they agree with, and those who are moronic, subhuman scum. And somehow, the internet seems to amplify this behavior even in otherwise fairly tolerable people: at our university I've known faculty members who acted like completely normal, intelligent, and seemingly rational human beings if you had a face to face conversation with them, but on Twitter they would become extremely patronizing, abrasive jerks to anyone who dared disagree with them.
But having been part of this fandom since the mid-90s, and this particular website since the early 2000s, I'd say that compared to a lot of other fandoms (particularly the pro-wrestling fandom), Transformers fans are relatively welcoming and laid back. Will you run into the occasional jerk? Sure. But just take a walk down the block and you might run into him too. And check out any YouTube comments section, and you'll almost certainly find him.
Starscream is lord wrote: I never seen anyone on here or other TF site that insult (starting a flamewar) a person for having a different opinion.
Oh sweet summer child.
You should've been here before the advent of Facebook, when every time you refreshed there would be new posts and replies. LOTS of people, and many of them (myself included) still pretty young. This forum certainly had its share of unnecessary flame wars. But it won't be easy to find a forum of this size that hasn't.
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Not judging, just... something I won't agree with.
