I am still really not sure where the explosion came from! The only thing I can figure out is that my argument got condensed, turned inside out, and ended up on Twitter. Then I got accused of bullying because I was rude once (to a passive aggressive reply). Then it exploded a little more as people got folded in because of that. As it moved, people were reading outrage responses and the whole "SHE TOLD AUTHORS TO GTFO!!! SHE THINKS AUTHORS AREN'T FANS!" thing first. Then my article got kicked around a lot by industry people who, maybe, just maybe, need to examine why it made them feel so badly before getting all shouty?? The most unbelievable response has been from the editor of Tor, who has jumped like, at least SEVENTEEN sharks. He loves defending fannishness! As long as it's his type of fannishness. I feel so horrible for the people in that discussion that I admire, but he (and the author he's defending, and the people agreeing) have exploded this so much they're like cartoon villains cackling and twirling their mustaches while they bask in superiority and derision over my argument. I've lost to ability to take them seriously.

So basically I think what happened was The Internet, and it exploded because Reasons. #science