fanpop Article: The Idea Behind Giving hommages

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posted by Priscilita22

Well, I started using fanpop back in May 2007, and since then I see how the community keeps increasing in numbers which is great. I haven't been the most active user for a while now, but as I a dit somewhere else, I've always loved the site and therefore I come back every once in a while to spend some time fanpopping.

There is something I've noticed lately, that is obviously hard to control as the amount of users grows, but I thought I would point it out. What I noticed is a serious misunderstanding of the idea behind the "props" feature.

~ Let's start with the basics, according to the Online Slang dictionary, hommages are:
- Praise, Compliments...

I understand that all of toi probably know this definition, but I see that some appear to have forgotten. The idea behind hommages is to praise someone for the content added. It's to give out a compliment for the contribution made par the user.

I have seen, sadly, several users give ENTIRE PAGES of hommages with the only purpose of attacking the other user, calling him/her names, bullying, insulting, etc. As I say this I'm actually scared someone will take this the wrong way and respond badly, which I honestly hope doesn't happen, because that's not the purpose of this.

I'm not going to judge anyone based on their "prop activity" because that would be ridiculous, and also I'm not familiar with the story-behind people's hommages ou fights. However I don't think fanpop is a place for verbally abusing anyone, and still, even when toi ignore this "detail", the purpose of hommages is not that.

Going back to Fanpop's faq, the answer to what are props? is the following:
"Fan hommages are a way for fans to publicly express their appreciation for other fans and their contributions on the site."

As I said, I think hommages are donné to someone else as a praise ou compliment for that users' contribution on this site. Giving out entire pages of hommages with the same message that is just verbally insulting the user, I think not only goes against the purpose of the hommage feature, but also against the purpose of Fanpop.

Hope nobody takes this the wrong way, just thought maybe after a few things I saw, a reminder of how hommages are meant to be used shouldn't be bad.
Also, although insulting (I think) is never ok, to resolve a personal issue, it is also possible to use the private message system.

BJsRealm, lildwaynelolz and 41 others like this

huddy_aimee Great article! Good on you!

Cammie This is a very good article,good on you for writing it! I must admit I don't understand the concept of giving insulting props to someone. That's just immature and totally illogical to me. However, I do have my own views on prop giving - as far as how many props you give someone simultaneously. I had an email from a user a few weeks ago because they had seen that someone had given me 20 props. Firstly, how someone chooses to prop is up to them. Secondly,it shouldn't be anyone else's concern how users are being propped. I know there's the theory of ONLY one prop per contribution or whatever. This is not written in stone though - it's not a site rule as such. I recently gave a user about 10 props because she did some screencaps for me. I don't mean she uploaded from a site, she actually capped a whole episode and submitted because I requested a specific episode. As far as I'm concerned if someone is nice enough to do that and take 3 hours to submit over 650 screencaps for ME then 10 props isn't even enough. Btw, thanks Chel! I know many users will not agree with this view either and I'm probably going to get some flak for it BUT if you want to prop someone crazy because you really think it's justified, then I say go for it! Again very good points in this article. 5 stars rated.

Snerkie Nice article! I think there's also the other side people are using props for such as having not very private-private conversations back and forth and also just spamming them with positive comments but to just spam and boost their number count.

misanthrope86 I have never heard of people giving out [i]insulting[/i] props, so thank you so much for writing this article. Relatedly, but a little off-topic, the other day a recieved a prop from someone telling me that it was [i][b]their[/i][/b] birthday... I still can't for the life of me figure out why someone would PROP me for THEIR birthday... LOL!

astroasis I haven't seen people insulting each other in props, but I've seen props where users are gossiping and insulting OTHER users. I also keep seeing people leaving the exact SAME conversational prop 5-10 times in a row. I mean, it's up to every individual how they choose to prop others... but I think that kind of spam is annoying. In my opinion, props are for complimenting someone on something they've done on/for the site or for you personally. And I don't have any problem with holiday/birthday props. But ongoing conversations and prop-spamming is basically just gaming the system and driving up your friends' prop counts. Whenever I see a user with a propwall full of those kinds of props... I just tend to assume that most of their props probably weren't actually earned at all. So at that point, their prop count is useless.

harold Yes, insulting props are awful. But building a bit on what the last three users wrote, I think it's also weird to see people with props for features that the user has never even used. Clearly, there's a widespread belief that "props are the closest thing Fanpop has to a wall, so why don't I use it as a wall?" That explains the negative props, the happy birthday props, the conversational props, and the props for features that the user doesn't deserve...not because they're not good people, but simply because the user has [i]never posted a single instance of that type of content[/i] (I see this the most with answers props, but I've seen it with every feature). Each of those is, to my thinking, an inappropriate use of the feature, since it is, as you say, intended to express one's appreciation of a particular content contribution an user has made. The great thing is that we can delete the inappropriate props that we receive.

prettystar oh god,nice article i agree to you.can you pls.add me too?

Priscilita22 I did write the article mostly about insulting props because I had just seen a number of those in other users' profiles... But I agree with many of the things being said here. I think it's true that lately, the purpose of props is being overshadowed by different things. Insulting props is one, probably the worst one since it not only goes against the purpose of the props feature, but most importantly it goes against the idea of fanpop. But there's many "conversational props" going around... I agree that everyone can choose the way they want to prop, but just as long as the prop or props given are true to the purpose of the feature. There are many props that just say "hi" or "add me", etc. Since the idea behind props is, as I said, showing one's appreciation towards another users' contributions, I think these kind of props take away from the point. In general I don't think it's good for anyone, because once a user gets a really well-deserved prop for something they worked hard to add, many times it gets lost among all the "negative props" "happy birthday props" "conversational props" "add me props" etc. I think it's awesome that people make friends on this site, and want to talk, congratulate each other on birthdays, etc. But for that kind of thing, Fanpop offers the private message system, and even the chat. There's so many options here that there's no actual need to use the prop feature in another way that isn't "to publicly express their appreciation for other fans and their contributions on the site". Thanks for reading!

tushtush Totally agree. :D

nataliespn Agreed

jedigal1990 great article i had no idea this was going on but agree that it is not right and very immature way of dealing with personal issues i wish people could just grow up and not be so immature still agree with your article great job