Well no, anon, I don’t think. I don’t think blocking rude people is even remotely comparable to “declaring war on your audience,” for one thing. For another, as I said in my previous post, I have never once seen a Grimm fan get blocked for respectful criticism, questions, and/or discussion.

Now assuming any of the claims of blocking being made are true–seeing as no one has bothered to provide any source for these accusations–showing up on someone’s personal instagram and saying they’re no good is not a “review.” It’s basically like knocking on someone’s front door and being like “you suck.” And the kind of comment you reference here is way at the lower end of the kind of bullshit Bitsie Tulloch gets daily on her instagram account, so it’s not even that relevant an example.

There’s no good reason for that kind of comment. It’s plain and simple meanness with no other purpose. People who post that kind of thing aren’t improving the show, they’re definitely not making the cast, crew, and writers want to interact with fans or listen to them more, and they’re not improving anyone’s performance. It’s useless, unnecessary rudeness, and exactly the kind of comment that should get people blocked.

Now, this is the last thing I’m going to say about this topic, although if other admins want to chime in they’re welcome to:

I’ve had a few fan experiences–in different fandoms, and one as recently as last night–over the years, and there are always fans in every fandom who have weird ideas about what they’re owed for watching, or listening, or reading, or buying. Frankly, it’s embarrassing and I’m tired of it. It’s a large part of the reason I typically opt NOT to meet or interact with the people who create the things I love even when the opportunity presents itself: I don’t want to be grouped in their minds with the kind of bratty, petty people who assume they’re owed more just for liking something.

So I feel pretty strongly that audience members who get all up in arms about what the creators owe their fans need to remember two things:

1. The people who make our entertainment don’t owe us a goddamn thing, interaction-wise. They make a thing, we support it, they keep making the thing…and that’s it. That’s all they owe. The fact that they interact with us beyond the product they make is not an obligation, but a gift. It’s something they choose to do. And if they choose to stop interacting with certain people who take advantage of that to be needlessly rude, they have every right to do so.
2. These are actual living, breathing people and those people have just as much right to their feelings as anyone else. If they don’t want to deal with negativity in their online spaces, especially the kind that’s pure vitriol and serves no actual purpose, then they don’t have to. And that doesn’t make them bad at their jobs or interfere with the “purpose” of their show.