My theory: Tumblr. Tumblr is why the fandom has a bad reputation. Tumblr is why many fandoms have bad reputations. There's something uniquely inflammatory about it.
BUT I would also say the other reason is that fans of Homestuck tend to be very into Homestuck, and have a habit of making every single thing about Homestuck even if everyone else isn't interested in talking about it. That weird way Hussie has of linking disconnected phrases, concepts and frameworks into his big weird story means that any one of those things coming up in an unrelated discussion can turn that discussion into one about Homestuck. Nick Cage. Spiders. Magic eight balls. Dogs versus postal workers. Mayoral sash. Capslock. Uranium. Hard reset. Scratch. Page, knight, lord. Pawn to queen. Spirographs. Astrology. The classical elements.
I've also heard stories about Homestucks behaving badly at conventions - throwing metal buckets of paint at strangers, for example - but from what I gather that was just the product of a disproportionately large fandom having a proportionate number of assholes, and they've since learned to behave or get kicked out. This is, however, purely hearsay.
Anyway, I wanted to say that I find one way to make it a little easier to organise the plot in my head is to think of it as a video game. Each time you place a game disk into your given platform and turn it on, you create a universe, in a way - the game world. You have your player character, who can sometimes have extra lives (dreamselves?). There are NPCs who are the same each time you play the game, existing in the same role, but they can have different fates depending on what the player does (carapaces). Each time you create a new player character in, say, an RPG, you're manipulating one set of values while others remain fixed (so, the post-Scratch kids). Games often reuse animations, poses, textures, objects and models. Character-specific coloured speech text? Point-and-click adventure has those! Dave is a very, very long-running examination of the idea of save games and check-points - imagine if, each time you died and reloaded a save, the body of the "dead" self remained. The "server" and "client" terminology is really familiar if you've ever had a LAN party or played online multiplayer. And what's the worst thing for a fun game? Some overpowered, overbearing jerk who thinks the only way to win the game is if he wins the game and everything is always his forever - or nobody can play at all.
no subject
BUT I would also say the other reason is that fans of Homestuck tend to be very into Homestuck, and have a habit of making every single thing about Homestuck even if everyone else isn't interested in talking about it. That weird way Hussie has of linking disconnected phrases, concepts and frameworks into his big weird story means that any one of those things coming up in an unrelated discussion can turn that discussion into one about Homestuck. Nick Cage. Spiders. Magic eight balls. Dogs versus postal workers. Mayoral sash. Capslock. Uranium. Hard reset. Scratch. Page, knight, lord. Pawn to queen. Spirographs. Astrology. The classical elements.
I've also heard stories about Homestucks behaving badly at conventions - throwing metal buckets of paint at strangers, for example - but from what I gather that was just the product of a disproportionately large fandom having a proportionate number of assholes, and they've since learned to behave or get kicked out. This is, however, purely hearsay.
Anyway, I wanted to say that I find one way to make it a little easier to organise the plot in my head is to think of it as a video game. Each time you place a game disk into your given platform and turn it on, you create a universe, in a way - the game world. You have your player character, who can sometimes have extra lives (dreamselves?). There are NPCs who are the same each time you play the game, existing in the same role, but they can have different fates depending on what the player does (carapaces). Each time you create a new player character in, say, an RPG, you're manipulating one set of values while others remain fixed (so, the post-Scratch kids). Games often reuse animations, poses, textures, objects and models. Character-specific coloured speech text? Point-and-click adventure has those! Dave is a very, very long-running examination of the idea of save games and check-points - imagine if, each time you died and reloaded a save, the body of the "dead" self remained. The "server" and "client" terminology is really familiar if you've ever had a LAN party or played online multiplayer. And what's the worst thing for a fun game? Some overpowered, overbearing jerk who thinks the only way to win the game is if he wins the game and everything is always his forever - or nobody can play at all.