Meet the vampires, introducing the problematic people
Mark Proksh is one of those character actors you seem to never know by name, but have a lasting impact with at least one character. This particular character in question is Colin Robinson, the energy vampire from What we do in the Shadows. He battles at some point against Evie Russell. An emotional vampire played by Vanessa Bayer. They both terrorize their workplace, but their strategies are different. Evie Russell feeds off of pity and Colin Robinson... Is a bit more complicated.
Energy vampires and emotional vampires in this piece of fiction are a proof that the most powerful writing comes from a place of familiarity. We will begin with the easy one. The emotional vampire.
FUCK MY LIFE
Having adversity and voicing it does not make one an emotional vampire. Being depressed does not make one an emotional vampire. Have you encountered someone who keeps bringing up their trauma in a creative community? How has that helped you toil away in the often unrewarding grind of being a creative? Have you encountered someone who is too timid of taking a crucial step in improving their lives and constantly farm for pity? Even worse. Are they still using THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS ON CANDLES? I remember one server having a vent channel with the same few people hogging pity, even to the point where one of the server moderators had to step in and say. Bro. This is a furry porn server.
As I stated earlier, Colin Robinson, the energy vampire is a bit more complicated. They may get dopamine from drama. They also may consider themselves a sort of activist, of course not the kind who sit in the middle of the road protesting climate change, but the ones who come to a community of somewhat vulnerable people to state that VERY SOON THIS WORLD IS SO FUCKED YOU WILL BE DRINKING PISS FROM CUPS MADE FROM THE SKULLS OF YOUR CHILDREN. To me that's not an activist. That's a doomer. Also. If you need to voice subjective things, like your opinions on visual aesthetics or bands, please word them "I don't like X" instead of "X sucks". You're not the main character. Jennifer Coolidge is.
Another, quite recent type of energy vampire, especially among creatives is the AI enthusiasts. One who bombards the discuttion with how great AI is and how groundbreaking the new SORA model is or whatever. And, of course, it all looks like shit. They are the talking heads of the Sam Altmans and other GenAI grifters. For me it's exhausting to see one after another dead-eyed, oddly centered uncanny valley regurgitation. We know how much GenAI brings pain and fear for artists and especially those whose work is stolen and reprocessed as slop.
They're not breaking the rules, the problematic behaviors
Typically community rules are quite far from arbitrary. Some may have NO NAZI BULLSHIT as a rule and if someone has a nuance issue with that they are very likely a child and should be booted for that reason. NO POLITICS is easy to understand, but is still a bucket under the leaking roof that is people. No negativity and no negative vibes are problematic as well, because all communities need space for legitimate criticism. People must have leeway to call one another out on their bullshit. Although, being confrontational is community poison as well.
Typically confrontational people are the same ones who bombard communities with distressing world news. Perhaps asking for a stance on the Israel-Palestine situation, which is a very strongly propagandized subject. I think it's fair to state one does not want to talk about it. For some this may be 'fascism', but for me it's just fair that going to that rollercoaster of propaganda and display of human cruelty is just not something for everyone. I have now ignored the most obvious, the right leaning male edgelord, who thinks being an asshole is somehow constructive or helpful and take joy in the misery of others. I have ignored them, because everyone in their right minds ban them right away.
The problem is in making singular actions offenses, which are great at keeping edgelords like the ones I just mentioned at bay. It does repel only the most stupid of all bad faith actors. When certain types of doing are problems, certain types of being are fair game. For instance, blocking on Discord is terrible. Discord is of course the place where a vast majority of these communities are. You can make quite substantial damage to not only singular people but a community without breaking a single rule. You may orbit around someone and make them uncomfortable. You may share distressing things that are not dis- or misinformation. There are a lot of terrible things happening around the world. Do we need to be aware of them all the time, though?
I typically know these people from problematic vocabulary. Trauma was mentioned quite early, alt right dogwhistles and edgelord language like calling things 'gay' as a pejorative of some sort, also throwing words like 'fascist' or 'racist' around. Calling any war crime 'based'.
The effect on creative communities, how to know you have a problem
"This is how the world ends. Not with a bang, but with a whimper." Is a line from The Hollow Men by T.S. Eliot (I looked it up on Wikipedia for you). Communities typically slog on for quite a long time, where a lot of active members either mute the community or leave alltogether and the few of the more toxic and confrontational ones remain and become sort of gatekeepers where newcomers must pass their purity tests, or they will be bullied off, while the increasingly inactive and timid moderators look by. A bit like the other deer standing on the roadside.
This is of course very far into the point of a dying community. I know this, because I have both seen communities die and been a participant in killing them in my more immature years, which is why I have seen a community gradually transform over a few years into a toxic group chat. Typically most of the members in a community are quite silent, but some times it may be because of creative drought caused by toxicity. One of the early warning signs is that the most productive members get more quiet and feel like they're getting burned out easily. We should absolutely not ignore the typical causes of burnout, but I have experienced community-caused burnout myself.
What typically kills creativity is the shift of engagement from reacting positively to creative output toward rewarding hot takes and conversation starters. Of course, the more impressive works get positive reactions and also this is used as a signifier of in-group-loyalty. When this happens, we are typically quite cooked. Typically emotional vampires thrive in an environment like this and become sorts of familiars to the gatekeepers. The early signs of community degradation is when creative members become more silent (typically they grow large enough to build communities of their own) and new ones get actively ignored or they find themselves defending things that make them happy. This does not include problematic things that make people happy. It's ok to like Ghost or Sleep Token or whatever. Let people like corny music.
Not only tough love, but also love, the solution
A straight up purge would be difficult. That would increase the sense of walking on eggshells, which is also inevitable with any rule change. The rule change is something you have to do, though. But you also need to introduce something positive, like an art challenge, a new community project something else. We will go through the rules first. We need to address the following behaviors and assume nazi bullshit is already banned:
- Pity farming, needless venting
- Doomer posting
- AI enthusiasts
- Confrontationalism
- Unnecessary jabs on subjective matters
We can solve this with two rules that address the effects of the behaviors.
- TRIGGERING MATERIAL. This is not a support group. You can find low barrier-of-entry resources and support at (links to local mental health helplines or chats) This is not the place for you to report your doomscrolling. This includes posting content that is harmful towards the people in this community and it includes generative AI output trained on stolen art. Repeated posting of triggering material, even when spoilered will be seen as a bannable offense. You will be warned first.
- UNNECESSARY NEGATIVITY. We do not need to know how much you hate ska. We also do not need to know how doing somethingin the "sonic art style" is career suicide. You are very likely not an expert in the subject of art style or music genre marketability. You just watched a Youtube video and are standing on the top of mount stupid of the dunning-kruger chart. Also, if you do not like someone, you ignore them. Small jabs and passive aggressive behaviors are seen as unnecessary negativity, which is a bannable offense. You will be warned first.
You also need the audacity and courage to ban the long time members who are breaking the rules.
Let's get into the positive actions next. This needs work, because you can either salvage your community or just shut it down. The worst option is to let it die and become a toxic group chat you need to spend time and energy on moderating (duct taping). If it's an art community, encourage people to have art raffles. Participate in art challenges and events (like furry friday lol). Start a new community project like a christmas calendar or a themed competition. Spend a little money. Buy some small reward for the winner like stickers. Or candy. Mail them candy. Get new members. Encourage people to share the community link for people to participate in the raffles and events.
I think people should mail other adults more candy. This is the notion I will end this on.