Some things have been bothering me lately about stuff going on in the Audio Drama/Audio Fiction community. It started with the Parsec awards, which I had a problem with. I was correctly advised by a trusted mentor and friend to keep my head down, and I did.

But what has come up recently I can not help myself but to comment on. So instead of doing a really long twitter thread I am going to use my blog to post my thoughts.

First, I love AD/AF. Over the last two and a half years or so you might say I have become a junkie, and that would be a fair assessment. These thoughts come from me as a fan of AD/AF. Nothing more, nothing less.

But something has come up recently that really upsets me. There has been a “bashing” of the LGBTQ podcast community that is completely unfair. People have been leaving negative reviews and down right nasty comments on shows simply based on the characters in the show, or even worse, the actors in the shows. And mostly theses “reviewers” have no stake in the shows other than plugging their earbuds in and listening. But more and more recently, it seems, “reviewers” are coming out just to bash shows with LGBTQ themes, characters or actors, instead of the quality of the show.

A lot of the shows I have discovered recently are driven by LGBTQ characters, writers and actors. And I have become a big fan of many of them. But, I can honestly say that not one of those shows I have become a fan of is for that reason. The reason I become a fan of shows is because of the quality of the storytelling.

Something most listeners don’t realize is that it takes ~20 hours and ~2000$ to write, produce, edit and publish a 30 minute episode. You take that over the span of a 10-12 episode season and it gets labour intensive and extremely costly in a hurry. A vast majority of AD/AF writers and producers do that out of their own time and pocket, with little reward other than the praise us fans give them.

It only takes 15 seconds to make a negative review and completely destroy someones writing dreams. All of that just because you got your ‘feelings’ hurt over a character or writer? My thoughts, if you don’t like a show then move on. It’s not that difficult to find another show.

But, if your reasoning for finding another show is simply based on a show having LGBTQ themes. Then my advice is simply move on from me. I’ll continue supporting quality shows without you.

And, lastly, as an AD/AF fan, when you find a show you like say hi to the writers and actors. It means more to them than you realize.