The way i see it, we've had plenty of introduction videos to who and what is bts. But somehow we dont have Thorough introduction and understanding to who and what army really is. And what it means to be ARMY. And now more than ever I think we should think about +
Making videos and an actual handbook and packet that guides the fandom, old and new members alike. This is very necessary in my opinion because the eyes of the world are on u.s and this was needed way back in 2016-2017 when we gained all these new fans.+
See. People don't like to be told what to do and we shouldnt tell people what to do but this is not about telling people what to do. This is about establishing rules to protect both ourselves, and BTS because whether we like it or not we represent bts, and we +
As a community are a force to be reckoned with and that scares a lot of people and us knowing how to police ourselves and conduct ourselves can save a lot of damage and a lot of mess from happening. And it can give us leverage and an advantage against the kpoppies+
The antis and also help us better organize and define ourselves as a fandom. Bts gave us the name army, and they defined what it was from the beginning and i feel like a lot of us either did not understand the definition of it or catch the layers and as a result+
People end up confusing being an army to simply being a fan of bts which couldn't be further from the truth. The first part of this handbook/guide should be to define who and what A.R.M.Y is and means. And establish very clearly what we are and stand for because +
Whether you like it or not we are a community and whether you like it or not its time for us to seperate ourselves from the standard kpop fans and the other western fandoms out here. If we want to be taken seriously and we want to be respected and gain respect for BTS+
We have to be the first ones to take ourselves seriously and we have to take our respect from people and not wait for them to hand it to us like we've been doing recently. This division that we've been experiencing comes from the fact that we are having a crisis identity +
As a fandom and as a fandom we are in need of maturing. So again knowing and defining who we are and who we are not as army should be the very first part of this guideline and handbook that we need to create and put out there. Secondly, we have to establish a set+
Of behavioral rules and responsibilities that come with being army based on the definition of who we are as a fandom and what we stand for. I've seen some shit these past few weeks and a lot of the people doing that shit kept saying they were army or doing it in the name of army+
This shit needs to stop. And the best way to make it happen is to have guidelines, first on how we interact with each other because again we are a community and a social group, and the fact that we are a global one makes it all the more necessary to have those guidelines+
Because it will help us know how to interact with people from other countries, how to speak with people from different ethnic groups, how to approach different cultures, and different social groups within the fandom, including but not limited to our beloved lgbtqa members+
Our autistic members, our people who have any type of disabilities and the people with different religious beliefs and cultural traditions from what we know. That is super important. This guideline should also expand on how we interact with the media, the press,+
Who we support and click. And how we approach new writers that seek to write about bts and army. And how we approach verified accounts regardless of their apparent intentions, these are things that we need. In my opinion we should have a whole team of people in army+
With the sole purpose of researching and assessing these accounts and articles in order to help minimize the risk of falling into a trap and clicking and spreading and retweetig something that can potentially harm bts and armys image later on. This is in my opinion a necessity +
Feel free to disagree. These guidelines should also expand in how we interact with antis, and other kpop fandoms as well as with multis because lets face it as much as we would like to believe it not all kpoppies and multis are evil. So knowing how to approach them+
May help us identify who the good ones are and who the not so good ones are and will save us from a lot of petty fan wars. Regardless of that, I know not everyone will follow advice and I know how prone to mistakes we all are so I also think there should be a provision+
Or a part in the guidelines that explains what needs to be done when we accidentally fuck up and escalate a situation due to a mistake. How to diffuse the situation and the fights, either between fans or between us and other fandoms, and we should use our army history+
As a guide and an example to build these rules and guidelines from. Sort of like learning from our past mistakes so we don't repeat them. As of right now we are very ill equipped to deal with our status as a fandom and we often resort to very childish and shortsighted solutions+
Such as cancel culture, and harassing and doxxing, and that is not a good look on us or bts. We are better than that. We know better than that. Therefore knowing what to do in each situation can help us navigate better, and will be a big help for both old and new army.+
These guidelines need to cover what we do during voting season, comeback season, solo projects, festa time, award season and it should include the dangers and attacks that happen during each of those times because this is when we are most vulnerable as a fandom +
And those times are when bts and us are most under attack. It should also cover how we proceed when we see a rumor circulating about our boys and about our fellow army members. Researching and educating ourselves should be at the base of every move we make because+
Again this can help us avoid a lot of bullshit. Another thing the guidelines should cover would be how we behave at concerts, rallies, and any public gathering associated with army and bts, including radio interviews and airport greetings. It should cover how to deal with+
Paparazzi, how we deal with bts on vacation, how we deal and react to the boys when and if they do decide to date or share their love life with us regardless of who that person is or isn't. Thats also important because I don't want what happened to Chen from exo+
To happen to any of our boys. It should account for situations such as November 2018, and the 2014-2015 and 2016 death threat situations. Most importantly this should establish boundaries, and let us know when we are crossing the line as army and need to think twice+
And even more importantly, this should all be base on love, respect, fairness and compassion for everyone involved, fans, bts and even antis and outsiders because at the end of the day we are all human. And this guideline should be updated regularly as our fandom and bts grows+
And changes. As we all know nothing stays the same so as things change and evolve so should the rules and the guidelines. This could be on a yearly basis. Anyhow these are my thoughts on what we can do right now especially with everything happening in those times+
This could be the biggest statement that we could make as a fandom. Letting everyone know what we stand for and who we are and how we act and behave as a group and as individuals can really help us get rid of some of the misconceptions and behavioral faux pas+
That we have been dealing with for a long time and especially lately. It can help make stan twitter a better place for a lot of us. Anyone that agrees with this thread can spread it and pitch it to bigger accounts and we can also all brainstorm and perhaps even figure out a +
Team to put this all together and make it happen.
P.S: im not naive enough to believe that everyone will follow the rules and everyone will comply but having these rules be made official will give us ammunition and a leverage to tell those people to fuck off and where+
P.S: im not naive enough to believe that everyone will follow the rules and everyone will comply but having these rules be made official will give us ammunition and a leverage to tell those people to fuck off and where+
They can stick their stubbornness and stupidity. Having rules can help us be better and move better and in a more organized way. It can even make it better to get some of the greater accounts, accounts like @OneInAnARMY and @allforarmy and more accounts and it can +
Establish balance and a certain level of security in the fandom overall and help insure we can focus on bts even better instead of worrying about handling petty things. Also if we can have this guidelines translated in as many language as possible and if we could have+
Official websites by armys from all the different countries where they exist and have this posted circulated and brought back whenever we have an event or a new wave of fans it would be beautiful and so much better. Those are my personal thoughts, feel free to contribute. END
