I have a new fannish obsession, so naturally I want to look at pictures. I go to the solitary, and rather inactive, LJ community--hardly any pics there. I go to the forum which is apparently the online headquarters for the fandom; there are galleries, but to see the galleries you have to join. And more than that, you have to make FIVE POSTS to the forum before you can have access to attachments (which I presume includes images). Fucking hell. I'm not writing fic yet in this fandom, don't know if I ever will, and I certainly don't want to have to think up bullshit excuses for five posts just so I can look at some damn publicity photos and screencaps.

So I try the other website I can find, only to learn that its gallery was taken down months ago because the mod got pissed off that some of her screencaps had been used (to make icons?) without her permission OMG. Perhaps not coincidentally, this site mod is the same person who runs the forum with the "five posts" rule.

Is this some kind of old school fandom thing, this "we will hide our content and make sure only special insiders with permission can get access to it" attitude?

I'm tempted to start up a community for the fandom on DW that would actually encourage, you know, sharing. *is grumpy*