About ten years ago I first stumbled upon Den of Angels, a forum and resource for all things BJD. It was a great place to look around, gather information, see owner photos and get in touch with other dolly people.
I thought.
Quickly I learned that I was not a "doll person." "Doll people" were weird. They were obsessed with yaoi and constantly positioning their boy dolls to butthump other boy dolls at meetups. They talked about that BS of a concept, "bonding" (a.k.a. buyer's remorse with a cutesy name), they proudly displayed pictures of their sad Sharpie faceups and talked nonstop about how their dolls were their "OCs." Because apparently they had no imagination without a doll to foist a character upon.
It was odd. I stayed around for a bit, but I would disappear for months or years at a time. I generally make an appearance every now and again when I want information about a doll or company, or when I'm looking for owners pics. And sometimes to read the train wrecky threads.
At some point I also joined Den of Demons, the supposed "anti" DoA site. They would link to the worst of the worst with regards to mods or faceups (and DoA rules prevented you from being anything but supportive when someone showed off their lack of artistic skills) and made fun of the weirdest or scammiest members. But they too got annoying, as the newbies would come in and try too hard, posting pictures of dolls that weren't that bad-looking or just had unusual mods (and not poorly executed ones). The old-timers would respond by being all "I'm a total badass because this is the internet" and lay down the law on the newbies, and I realized that this was basically the same shit in a different color. It was not a site I was interested in participating in, and just as people on DoA seemed to be on some immature power trip, the folks on DoD were on the same trip with a "I'm a badass" sticker on their bumper.
I realize that the internet has given birth to 8 gazillion little snowflakes who now realize that they're not that special and have to try harder and harder to seem like they are unique and interesting. They bought a doll and realized everyone else had a doll, so they made their doll gay. Then all the dolls were gay, and their doll had to be a gay rockstar prince demon from Mars. SO THERE. Factory faceup? My Sharpie is all I need because my OC has a Sharpie faceup! And now I'm going to take it out in public and FREAK OUT the normals. Lol.
(I thought that needed a Lol at the end.)
I've taken my doll (two dolls but only one at a time) in public exactly twice. Once while shopping for doll things and ... another different time while shopping for doll things.
Anyway.
I'm back on DoA again, and I see that a lot of things have changed. As they do. But some things stay the same, including the DoA mods' insistence that they are the arbiters of what counts as an on-topic doll. This is one of those things that has always boggled my mind, because they make a big circus out of whether a doll is or isn't on-topic. Just being produced by a certain company does NOT mean that you can talk about or share photos of a particular doll. If the doll is a very realistic anthro, if it doesn't have ball joints in its arms and legs (particularly knees and elbows), if it isn't resin (with a few exceptions) and if it doesn't look a certain way, it can be off-topic. So if you want to share about your new doll, the Dolly Gestapo will swoop in and close your thread. OFF TOPIC. SRY.
I get that you don't want people talking about Madame Alexander or Barbie or American Girl dolls. But just as Dollfie Dreams are grandfathered in as BJDs, I would say that if a company primarily makes BJDs that any of their sculpts "counts." Nit-picking because the face isn't stylized enough and always jumping into new doll threads to announce, "HEY GAIZ WE HAVEN'T DECIDED IF THIS IS ON-TOPIC LOL" (also needed a lol in there) just seems like some kind of odd dolly micro-managing. Even if--and this is pretty common--the doll looks like the dolls produced by 8 other companies, it will still have to be "discussed."
I guess they changed their criteria lately for some things, and it seems they've added a lot more non-Asian BJDs to the mix (although they've segregated them into their own area of the forum), but I'm still seeing things like, "Oh well, the hands aren't detailed enough so it doesn't count and you're not allowed to talk about it."
Remember when you were in like, kindergarten? And there was that one girl who wanted to play house, and she always wanted to be the mommy and tell everyone what to do to the point that it wasn't fun anymore?
Welcome to Den of Angels! That's where alllllll those girls went. And then the cattier ones went to Den of Demons. The end.
Disclaimer: No, I'm not butthurt because someone at DoA said something to me (or DoD, for that matter). As I said, I barely go to these sites and I mostly lurk 99% of the time. I just wish there were a popular and good resource for BJD stuff that wasn't full of so many weirdos and micro-managers. Holy shit, guys. Fun stuff is supposed to be fun. /disclaimer
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