Why fansites should not be supported

I don’t like Fansites. I was once an avid follower of a lot of fansites and I was really in awe how dedicated some people can be when they like a certain artists but after attending a concert of BTS and seeing sasaengs (and fansites!!) of other artists in Korea I stopped supporting. This is why:

First of all, Fansites and I mean most of them - do weird things in order to attend almost every concert/fan meeting. Most small groups heavily rely on fansites promoting them for free and a lot of times these fansites can have a healthy relationship towards the artist but big acts like BTS or Twice (does BP have a fansite fandom?) have reached a certain point in their career where even the most dedicated non-sasaeng fan can’t keep up with every concert or schedule or cannot get access to every event. So, I am pretty sure that most fansites (especially for BTS) have to use lowkey sasaeng techniques to get to certain informations, entries to events and more. And that’s just the tip of the ice berg ( there are people like Headliner who have been exposed as literal sasaengs!). People often tend to use the “but the idol smiled at them“ excuse. Do you really think that an idol would give their sasaeng fansite the stinky finger? There are a lot of videos that show idols anxiously or without any emotion looking into fansite cameras.

Like this when JK recognized a fansite (who was blacklisted immediately)

Another big problem is how they behave at concerts. A lot of time these fansites have big ass illegal cameras and I know a lot of people who had bad experiences with how the fansites took pictures and blocked people from seeing or pushed people. Heck, some fansites even use stools at concerts. Here are bad experiences by people that attended BTS’ concerts. And sadly this is not unusual. Sometimes, fansites can even pull other people‘s hair or hit them intentionally (not with their camera, I mean with their fists)

My final point: Fansites are encouraged to get obsessive by the nature of the fansite fandom. These people dedicate a lot of time/free time and money into a parasocial relationship. They even get close (phyiscal and sometimes more than that) towards the person that they parasocially like. Encouraging it whether it is by fans or by the idol also gives people who are deluded a sign of hope that the celebrity that they stan will date or love or do whatever with them. This delusion is the reason why a lot of fansites are sasaengs. This futhermore hurts more the artist.

I think a lot of idols or most of them are really grateful for their fansites but hate them at the same time. Taking pictures once in a while of your favourite idol is okay or part of stanning but ruining other people‘s life or experience, stalking the celebrity and thus intruding their privacy should not be supported by anyone. This is why I don’t like most fansites.

By fansite fandom I mean the fandom section that consits out of fansites.

Quote from Slayurfaves

yeah I heard that majority of fansites lowkey behave like ssgs I don't like when they take so many upclose pics of idols it might make them uncomfortable..... Hmm Bp might have some.

I personally suspect of a few but I don't think it isn't as bad as it is with BTS and twice

I hate it when fansites take pictures when an idol is walking through the airport. Like this is really annoying since a lot of times they walk backwards and bump into people without any care for their environment

Quote from ArmyBlink0

I just learned about this in the home page. I remember seeing this thing were people give info to sasaengs and guessed it was the fansites and turns out they were right.

The fansite masters are rude. I saw an article on the home page were fansite masters claimed that they were harrased by armys at the L.A concert.

They say they are Korean but some how figured out the "racial slurs" that were said at them. They were so many inconsistencies in the story.

Turns out army at the concert found them and reported them and the fansite masters got angry.

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There are actually a lot of foreign fansites or fansites who can speak English. I have met one weird non-Korean fansite at a BTS concert and she literally attended every tour concert...

Quote from NEO

From my own observations, the fansite culture seems to be more normalized in South Korea than we think, they are not confronted by the 'normal' fans and I believe that these fansite masters got caught off guard by the hostility towards them at some BTS concerts in the US.

Although they do have a stalkerish behavrior, fansites are first and foremost a business, I don't think they have that parasocial mentality. BTS or any other kpop group are their money-making machine. They profit off of those pictures considering that they become "unofficial" merch (photobooks most of the time) at some point.

It's weird how they are acting like victims on the k-side now, but again it must be because their behavior is normalized in South Korea.

That’s a interesting point of view. I would say it is a business that is build opon a fundamental parasocial relationship whether it turns into a business relationship or stays a fully emotional one. But they all start with a highly emotional intrinsic motivation (stanning an idol/having a parasocial relationship/identifying with the concept etc.) that gets more and more influenced by extrinsic motivators such as money, fame or attention by third-parties.

Quote from ArmyBlink0

well.............that is really weird.

Weirdly enough the ones in the article wrote the whole thing in Korean.

There are still a lot of fansites in Korea lmao but there are some fansites who cosplay that they are Korean but they are from oversea. I have even met one while attending a music show. This person was actually from Swiss and talked with me in German but had a Korean fansite

Quote from selfmate

I think someone I cannot remember who mentioned here on AKP that those fansites make a lot of money from selling pictures and stuff

Yeah. They do sell merch and their pictures but it goes further they also sell information to sasaengs in order to gain information or other things. Also they keep close contact with staff (which I think is borderline stalkerish) and buy information from them and sell them. It’s a whole business and people only see the tip of the ice berg on Twitter. Not all of them are so but those who have been exposed are quite close to sasaengs/are sasaengs and do shit like this

Quote from mashimaroluff0

Just saw the post on pann choa then saw this post. I think this is mostly culture different. I doubt they were target because they were Korean. Most likely because their behavior stuck out as stalkerish, entitled and rude. I was there yesterday there were so many nice and polite Korean fans, couples, even ahjumma fans. Everyone love talking to them, and all bts fans love talking to one another. They probably got confronted for rude entitled behaviors and people have no patience for them, or let them have their way that they used to get.

Fansite master is a business - they make money so why would anyone give them any privileges?

There are a lot of Asians attending BTS concerts in general and even in the Asian concerts of BTS, fansites complain about rude behavior. Koreans fans tend to accept extreme fan behavior since they see it as an integral part of stan culture whereas people speak up in Western countries and don’t accept such a behavior

Quote from selfmate

yeap that's what I've been told...

I think if it gets too extreme and the artist is made aware they can ban them and stuff right?

Yeah, that one video of JK was done by a fansite who was banned by Big Hit immediately but a lot of them use several phone numbers (used for fansigns or concerts), ID‘s by friends and family or use wrong/fake IDs. Imagine: these people are like the “tame“ part of the sasaeng fan culture. There are sasaengs out there who do worse things like trying to kidnap idols... it‘s so scary

Quote from Drew_B

Who remembers Jinabit? The OG Queen of toxic fansite behavior.

Didn‘t she make a comeback recently? Like wasn’t she exposed like last year. She was really toxic.