When I say a story hurts it's a compliment

Favorite quote of the day:

"Isn't fandom economy a weird thing? I can rub my hands with glee and say yesssss, I have caused these people pain, it was so mutually satisfying."

hansbekhart, in the comments to their excellent fic The Dead Forest, which is about Steve waking up in the future.

Sums it up pretty well. Similar things happen with books and movies, but in fandom you have much more immediate feedback. You have authors being called terrible monsters in comments and being proud of it, lately there's a lot of fans calling themselves trash for whatever reason, and if you're not familiar with the culture it may seem a bit weird. Fandom's the best.