So What is a Cheerleader?
When I did my little rant about Negativity, I expected some backlash however in an odd twist what I got was questions. The most common question was asking if I could more clearly define the term "Cheerleader" or "Positive Polly."
OK I will give it a shot, first off I think this type of fan in in every community but I have only spotted them in the GI Joe, Star Wars, and Transformers communities thus far. I am positive however that this type of fan permeates every type of fandom under the sun though.
The first sign of a cheerleader is the fact they have a positive attitude about everything, and I mean everything. This isn't to say everyone who is positive is a cheerleader though, in fact plenty of fans are positive without being cheerleaders at all. But obviously this is kind of like the elephant in the room, you have to mention it or you miss the point.
In being positive however, they tend to "preach" (for lack of a better term) about the manufacturer of said toyline. They "Preach" tot he point that the toy company can do no wrong. They excuse any actions or remarks made by the company and are often unofficial apologists for them. If they are not apologists they are often attempting explaining away those "WTF" moments when the fans start getting irate (with varied results).
Another tell tale sign of a cheerleader is flip-flopping. This is a tactic that is kind of misleading to a casual onlooker. Basically they will say that something in the line is awesome and when the community doesn't agree they will later say they weren't really into it at all, even though they were talking about it like it was gold less than one year ago. Usually these guys tend to space this out in the hopes you will not notice what they are doing (which is a rhetorical tactic to make the speaker seem just like the listener to "relate to them" and as such the listener or reader thinks they have common ground). Kind of an underhanded tactic you ask me, but that is beside the point.
When new toys are revealed and people start looking at play features or designs that are kind of "off." these are the guys who explain it away. Sometimes I wonder if they are trying to convince us or themselves really. Of course keep in mind a year from now they won't like it ;-). If the new toy is an "update" to a classic and falls very short of the mark, these are the fellows who will tell you that the classic isn't as cool as you originally thought.
Primarily the cheerleaders patrol the message boards but some of them go so far as to have blogs in which they will go and tell you how wrong you are without worry of a reprisal. Actually they won't direct it at any specific person but will just talk about the general feelings being portrayed around the message boards (kind of like what I am doing now, Yeah I am a hypocrite LOL).
What is also tough is when these guys get in tight with administrators on message boards. If you disagree with them you get a warning or worse banned. Talk about suppressing opinions.
But one of the major tell tale signs of a cheerleader is when you have someone deathly focused on one line. Now I don't mean people who are fans of one line only are in this category. But these are the guys talking about how bad negativity is in relation to this specific toy line (be it Transformers, He-Man, DCU, ect) and take every opportunity to put down, shoot down or ridicule any other toyline out there. They use terms like "This [insert toy line name] is superior to anything out there including [insert other toy line name(s)]." It's kind of flabbergasting to see a person scream about positivity and be so negative in the same breath.
Now to avoid confusion I am not meaning people who look at another toyline from their center and go "No, that ain't for me" or "I really don't like the designs." I mean those people who lamblast it right out of the gate and then continue to do so long after the toyline has run its course (Again saying "This new product is so far superior to that old product"). Again this falls into that category of "You never look good putting others down." Oh and if they are putting down a toyline made by the same company as the one they worship its usually only after that toyline has been cancelled and never say anything publicly about the company while the toyline is on the shelf (hence they don't put down the "parent company" to their favored toyline).
They also go so far as to put other fan communities down. These are the guys who say "GI Joe fans are bullies" or "Star Wars fans only want repaints of the same characters" or "Transformers fans are the most argumentative group in existence." Of course these are not true, but get said all over the various web communities around the internet.
So hopefully at this point you are asking "What the hell is up with these guys?" Well I have a few Hypothesis to this (NOTE: I don't say Theories cause a theory is a proven hypotheses, sorry for the brief tangent there). First is the idea that the cheerleaders believe their opinions are "more right" than anyone else's and they must prove that. Now to be fair we all do this to a degree, we all think we are right when we speak on a subject or otherwise we would never speak. However most sensible people realize that we are all different with different backgrounds, goals, and experiences. The same apples to toy collecting, what makes one person happy will not satisfy another, and that is just fine as long as we remember it.
However the cheerleaders (for whatever reason) want to convince everyone otherwise. They are right and they will use any underhanded tactic to make sure you know it. They will put down anything that does not fit their narrow scope of things and will make sure no one knows their real feelings besides the ones they want to give to you. They will claim secret contacts and even go so far as to say they have the toy companies ear and will convey to them the viewpoints of the community (NOTE: This isn't a dig at such things as Rebelscum's Fan choice polls, which do appear legitimate. This is referring to that one lone poster who claims he/she spoke to representives at said toy company)
But there is another motive behind this as well. Recently the Federal Trade Commission announced they are looking into bloggers and reviewers receiving free items to endorse certain products. Now regardless of if you agree with government regulation of such things, the fact that people receive free products or money for favorable views is a bit sickening to me. First and foremost I wouldn't mind some free crap now and again (LOL). But seriously, I do think some of the people preaching this "positivity" want the free stuff as well. They just haven't gained the notoriety yet.
Oh and if you don't believe free toys are a huge part of this issue, look around the review sites (especially the most positive ones) and you might notice toys not on the market yet getting into the review pictures. While some might say they are getting early releases from China via ebay, it's kind of funny that if they are doing that they tend to ask for money for other things (Site upkeep, cameras, ect, HMMMMM).
So I just mentioned the money issue, which is my last point here. But some of these guys reach a certain level of notoriety in the various communities and then ask for money. Sometimes they claim they are strapped due to the economy or just toy buying in general. They have advertisers, and yet they can't string together enough funds to keep the site going or for whatever they have in mind. To me this is an outrage. Toy collecting is a hobby and if you can't put up your own money then why bother. Guess what, adult life is tough and you have to balance out the real world with your hobby world.
Oh and you have to love the excuse "But I have a family and I want to give to the community." PTTTTST :-P. So to "give" to the community you have to take from it, not cool. Of course in all of this is another problem, the people who give the money. What often shocks me is the lack of outrage to such an action. Generally any comments are reserved to dark corners of the internet (Kind of like this one) and often never heard (see above). But I often think its the "buddies with admins' thing I mentioned earlier. In other words fear of reprisals keep many people from speaking up, after all you only have one reputation on the internet and if it is one of a troublemaker it follows you right? Maybe, maybe not.
Oh and how do they avoid bannings themselves? Well generally its with "flamebait" sometimes very blatant and sometimes not. But they will launch something the "dissenters" way and wait (sometimes with their buddy the admin) for the inevitable angry retort. Then the admin (or a mod in some cases) will swoop down with a ban (occasionally they will give a warning to the cheerleader about the flamebait to look good, but not often). Sometimes this is worked out behind the scenes (in PM's or in hidden sections for "staff"). Of course not all message boards are like this, but I tend to avoid those that I believe have or do use these types of tactics, its annoying.
So in summation, I hate cheerleaders. I hate them as much as I hate "Negative Nancy's" (those who put down everything). Both just create bad atmospheres in communities. You would think the two would cancel each other out, no unfortunately this hasn't happened and both are alive and well in the toy internet world.
Oh well, at least we toy collectors are not as bad as movie fans ;-).