I’ve been thinking about what it means to actually build a community and how far from that the book community has fallen, and it makes me so upset

The way we handle call outs is important, what we call people out for is important and it’s not a funny fun thing to do, or a pass to forever torment someone who messed up. It’s supposed to be an action that hopefully leads to change but it’s the circus instead

I have messed up, everyone on here has messed up, not everyone gets every mistake dissected & torn apart tho. I’ve had the good fortune of having authors around longer than me guide me when I’ve done something stupid so I can do better. When someone hurts me I try to do the same

The one and only time I’ve named a person was bc they called the literal police on me, called my agent and threatened me for years. But when someone messes up especially a poc I try to have a call in. I want them to do better not to ruin their lives.

I’m not saying that people don’t need to be called out sometimes. But a mess up is also not a free pass to forever harass a person either. To tell them they should die every time they tweet. People on here are being vicious bullies & using the language of call outs to justify it

I’m so disappointed in how everyone is acting, we’re being the thing all those stupid articles accuse us of being. We’re not trying to help one another be better and asking for accountability we are driving ppl to literal self harm and isolation. Is that what you want to be ??

Most of us are also adults. When you have an issue with someone talking to them directly is an option. Not everything needs to be a twitter event. It’s embarrassing, it’s shameful, and it’s dangerous. A personal fight or even a professional doesn’t have to be for all of twitter

I’m sure you have hurt ppl in your life before. Think about how you would’ve like it to be handled. If you would want your entire neighborhood to find out on a bulletin board. There are things we need to discuss together but we have to stop being gleeful about taking ppl down

There are ppl who treat call outs like a game and like tmz. Who wait for the next time with excitement or worse try to provoke them bc they want to laugh. It’s so deeply cruel and unnecessary and it will only end up happening to you one day too

We need to change the way we act on here. Stop ostracizing ppl bc of hearsay, stop treating a community issue that has hurt others like fun gossip, stop making hurtful comments for likes and RTs with no regard to the very real human beings whose lives you’re messing up. Period.