On March 6, 2011, this nonny started a thread titled “Blazes of Glory” and said,
I'm about to go out in one, nonnies. The catalyst in my fandom I've been waiting on for over a year has just occurred. I figure, if I'm going to do it, I should go big. No halfies. I have so much dirt saved up on this fandom, even I'm amazed.
Have any gentlefail gone out in a blaze of glory before? Any advice?
It's disturbing how excited I am.
In the same post, different new thread, she asks for advice:
Someone on this closed comm figured out by IP tracking that I made an anon meme. I didn't really mind that much, I wasn't keeping it super secret. But then they decided to prove it (really, I'd already fessed up so it was pointless), they pasted my IP address, my RL name, my address, even my former employers.
Can I do anything about that to LJ? It seems pretty extreme to accuse someone of insulting half the fandom and then posting their location?
She quotes the creeper's post here.
As it turns out, the same nonny had revealed the preceding December that:
Someone romanced a man online in my name and sent him to my home. At first, I was terrified (called the police, my husband got the guns out), but then this guy (young and very attractive) was just absolutely devastated, and I felt awful for him. My husband still, to this day, wonders if I'm lying, and I really had a romance with this guy.
On March 10, she created an LJ account, GentleBlaze, in which she detailed her fiery exodus from Twilight fandom. She was once AngstGoddess003, and she once wrote a Twilight fic, “Wide Awake,” in which unicorns were euphemisms for orgasms.
In February 2010, SnowqueensIcedragon (SQID), author of "Master of the Universe" (MOTU) — the mother of all Twilight fics — expressed her interest in publishing it, and asked GentleBlaze (GB) to design her fanfiction blog. GB tried to advise her that the size of the fic (110+ chapters) presented both logistical and potential legal issues.
SQID also made various classist and mercenary comments to GB while contracting her to create the new site. GB gave SQID a deep discount on her services, but SQID threw more money at her while continuing to make insensitive comments about her economic status versus GB's. SQID was also whining about having to write fics for charity. “At this point, I've had SQID's wealthy lifestyle shoved in my impoverished face so much that receiving her 'bonus' makes me basically want to vomit all over my keyboard.”
GB was much more enthused about setting up the TwankHard blog, but hesitated to do so non-anonymously, due to her BNF status and her wanky past. She compromised by helping with technical work, answering emails, and doing a small amount of writing.
Needless to say, this blog caused a lot of controversy. Just like any anon/hate meme, it’s blamed for all of fandom’s problems. Personally, I finally had an outlet for all my SQID and publishing-related frustration, whereas stating an opinion under my penname would have caused a circus bigger than the fairgrounds.
After a few months, GB and the other mods got too busy to keep TwankHard up, so it “sort of faded away.” Contrary to rumor, they never received a C&D notice; nor did they have anything to do with the Twank Harder, which arose to pick up the slack.
In March 2011, it was announced that SQID would be publishing MOTU through “a fanfiction-archive-turned-vanity-press.”
I had been gearing up for this. I've been in fandom long enough that I've learned to pick my wanks, and this was the one I wanted.
The morning I found out about MotU being published, I tweeted to my 6,500+ followers, “I’m possibly about to commit fandom social suicide, but I just want you all to know, it’s totally worth it.”
Having saved her chatlogs with SQID, GB tweeted SQID's comments that were among most derogatory toward Twilight fandom, the most self-aggrandizing, the most mercenary, and the most backstabbing. However, she didn't tweet the absolute worst ones. SQID herself posted the chat logs in their entirety, believing the context would exonerate her. They didn't. GB: “I’d been sort of generous in my choices of quotes on Twitter.”
GB then left fandom, never planning to return. “That was pretty much it for me, and I knew it.” And she didn't much care that "my thinly-veiled involvement with Twankhard [was] somewhat revealed" within the first 24 hours.
THEN, however, Jennday, former mod of The Gazebo yet loather of Twilight and its fandom, announced in that comm that "In my spare time, I like to trace IPs,“ and cheerfully revealed GB's personal information in screencaps. LJ Abuse took their sweet time (a few days) to delete it.
GB deleted her Twitter account as she had planned. “Before deleting, I made a tweet thanking Jennday and The_Gazebo for being spectacularly guano and spreading my RL deets, because that’s not creepy at all.” The next day, she received three harassing phone calls at her place of employment. Fortunately, the cops took these calls seriously. TwankHarder, by contrast, didn't at all take the violation of AG's privacy seriously.
Meanwhile, an ex-friend of Jennday's tweeted to ask Jennday how she might like it if someone happened to share her personal information. Which elicited a C&D letter from Jennday. OH, THE HYPOCRISY!
GB concludes her LJ post with reflections on herself and her fandom, and adds that she's disabling comments “because that will drive them batshit.”
In December 2011, GB popped up in an f_fa post asking people how they would handle finding themselves at the center of a wankstorm. These days, she says, “Mostly I'm just left alone now, and really happy! :D”
SQID is E. L. James. Masters of the Universe is 50 Shades of Grey. In a stunning display of the fact that life isn't fair, the book topped bestseller lists around the world, James is an award-winning author, and there will be a big-budget film adaptation by a big-name director.