Intentional Misinformation is Not Promo

      There have been several rumors this past week that have gone around social media surrounding Jin's new album and single release. I've seen these things shared on Threads as if they were fact and the things shared on Threads were probably a lot tamer than what was on Twitter. I don't even want to know what went on over there. The clout chasing attention seeking annoys me. By this I mean people who post things to get attention. Some people seem to have this need to be first to share information and to seem like they are the ones with all the tea or info and they make things up or share fake pictures or leaks to get this attention. This is negative behavior to me and is to be avoided.

     The first rumor I saw was a post copied from Twitter saying that Anne Hathaway is going to be in Jin's video for the single, "I'll Be There." Well we know now that that wasn't true. I believed it at first but I don't think I shared it. It was presented as truth and not a joke. A lie isn't a joke to me. I did see well meaning people share it who just didn't know that it wasn't true. Don't spread lies. 

     The next rumor that went around was that Jin will be hosting the MAMA Awards in Nov. This one they actually made a fake clip from a fake article to support. Many people shared this one and I had to stop myself from commenting on every single one that came across my feed as fake news. I reverse searched the text in the fake article being shared and there was not a single hit that came back in search that went back to an actual article. Red flag #1. There should have been a news article that it went back to and there wasn't even a tabloid or K-media link to this. 

     Red flag #2 - not a single post included a link. As ARMY when sharing information we should never be posting news or clips without a link. We all do it from time to time but when there is major announcement information you should be sharing the original link so we can all see the source and read the full article or watch the full video. With video there is a lot that is taken out of context and even edited by some and shared to be made to look the way they want it to look. Context is important. If you post news please add a link from a valid source. Tabloids do not count as a valid source and neither do X/Twitter posts unless there's a link there in that post but it's better to post the actual link than the Twitter post link because those without X/Twitter have very limited access to see what is in Twitter post links. 

     Red flag #3 - The MAMA Awards posts daily on Instagram and they are promoting the tickets for the awards. They have posted the lists and clips of performers at both locations it is being held at this year, Japan and Los Angeles. They started posting presenters last night in 3 separate posts on IG. I don't know if hosts were included in the presenters lists but Jin is not mentioned at all. 

     This rumor is particularly annoying because they went as far as to fake a news report (not the first time someone has done this to lie about something BTS related and ARMY related and called it promo). News blogs in Asia picked it up and are writing articles about it but saying that it isn't confirmed. The fact that they are doing this spreads it. Like fake pictures, it gets put into the search system and pulls up when you search it. Google's AI was pulling it up as a fact on 10/23/24 when I searched it and saying that Jin has been selected as a host of the awards show. I submitted an AI feedback report and I no longer get the same message when I search. I guess they corrected Gemini after the correction in my report. I don't need to explain how bad this is that AI is taking rumors created by ARMY on Twitter and posting them as fact. I know some people shared it because they thought it was real but people may see it and think it's real and plan travel around it and buy tickets expecting him to be there and that's unfortunate. They should definitely fact check before spending money but they wouldn't even have to consider it if ARMY wasn't making up lies in the name of promo. Once again, I don't find lies for promo funny or cute.

**updated: MAMA announced the hosts on 10/29 and Kim Tae Ri will be hosting for the Japan site of the awards and Park Bo-Gum will be hosting on the US site. Jin is not a host of the MAMA awards for this year. **

     The third rumor I saw was just plain stupid. It may sound harsh but I tell it like it is. It was just a stupid post. The account posting it is trying to be a BTS update account on Threads and should have shown more maturity and should have used their platform with more responsibility. This post basically started saying that Jin had been hospitalized. All I needed to see was that and my anxiety kicked in. I was scared for him. Then the post goes on to say it was because he overheated or something cheesy and dumb related to him being hot in a physical attraction kind of way not a fever, temperature, medical emergency kind of way. It's not funny to scare people and even less so to put out there that someone we care about has been put in the hospital. This is putting negativity out there that could come back and actually hurt the person in my opinion. The less that's said that's negative about the guys, the better. This earned an immediate block for the account posting it. It's not ever going to be funny to joke about someone's health in a negative way.

     Apparently this is more crap that started on Twitter because someone got it into their heads that there wasn't enough promo for Jin's album. This is just solo and manti behavior. Why are people acting like this and having the audacity to call themselves ARMY? ARMY protects and supports BTS both as individual members and as seven together. They have told us time and time again that they control their promotions and set things up the way they want to. Not only do they tell us, they show us their process via Bangtan Bomb videos after things come out. How can anyone call themselves a fan and see the hard work they put into every aspect of creation and promotion of their albums, singles, eps, performances and then complain that it isn't enough or wasn't how they would have done it? Well you know what you're at home watching and no one asked you and most people complaining don't work in the industry or have business or marketing degrees so they have no idea how any of this works. There is absolutely no need for all this idiotic nonsense. Jin's promos have been great and just the way he wants them. We are getting clips, photos, schedules for things, in game promos on In The Seom etc every day almost. Why is ARMY acting like selfish solos? 

     This could backfire when it comes to general population or "locals" as we call them. The average person is not going to get that any of this is to get them to listen to a song or an album and if they watch a video expecting to see a beloved celebrity with Jin from BTS and that person is not there they are likely to see ARMY as liars not that it was a "prank." Locals won't stream an album or buy it all of a sudden because they heard Jin was hosting an awards show and they tuned in and he wasn't there. MAMA awards is also not for the weak (hi it's me, I'm the weak). This is one of the longer shows and the timezone differences can be brutal for international viewers. Buzz will be generated and people will be let down and once again see the fandom as a joke. 

     There are going to be people who say, "it's not that serious" or "it's just a joke" and as I said , I don't see it that way and many others don't either. When you have an account with over 20k followers and would rather post rumors than voting and streaming encouragement then you have a problem. Period. Unfortunately, the internet has changed journalism and fact checking has become a thing of the past. I linked an article written about Jin hosting the MAMA awards but there were several, all from Asian based publications. The media scrapes through Twitter and uses ARMY tweets as quotes (and solo too-maybe I'll cover that another time) and writes whole articles based on what is said. They angle their articles positive or negative depending on how much drama they can stir up. Instead of the kinds of articles where they talk to people personally via phone, email, or in person, they now use Twitter posts. Twitter of all places...used as pull quotes too. This is unprofessional to me and they don't even ask or get permission because the posts are public. Threads is now able to be indexed on Google meaning your Threads show up in search now just like Tweets do so I don't doubt they will be using Threads and Blue Sky posts as well soon so be careful what you share or engage with because you are amplifying it. 

     With all of the lies we fight from K-media and tabloids why would we condone ARMY putting out fake news and allowing our own community to be contaminated with it? People who fight misinformation are already tired of explaining to people that things put out there for attention and clicks are lies. It's exhausting. I will be blocking and muting people who continue to share these things. Jin's promotions are his choice and are great. If you can't trust that then you aren't ARMY to me. Don't like his promo or want to add to it? Make your own graphics- not lies but date/time/ name of album or song etc and put it out there. Share the ones already out that graphic designer / editor ARMY are putting out. Or how about just sharing your streaming or voting screenshots. That's better promo than lies. 

     Knowing how much Jin loves ARMY I couldn't imagine how upset he would be that people took it upon themselves to spread rumors as promo and that they call themselves ARMY but don't trust the marketing decisions made by the members for their individual projects. They are seven different men with distinctive tastes. Everyone's promo is not going to look the same nor should it. This is basic common sense. People need to learn to stay in their lane as fans and stop trying to control things the artists do. This looks like sabotage rather than promo and it makes the fandom look bad. Stop participating in this mess. 

How To Vote When Multiple BTS Members Are Nominated

  There has been some drama this week over voting and we need to address it and get this covered before we roll into end of the year voting. The issue of how we should collectively be voting when there are multiple BTS members nominated is what is causing arguments within ARMY. When you break it down it all comes down to math, basic math, nothing complicated. It’s not rocket science and I feel like constantly having the same conversation gets exhausting for those of us that get it. Name calling of OT7’s being called solos and antis because they disagree and can actually see the big picture will not be tolerated. Trust and believe you will be blocked and we will keep it moving. 

     When we are voting and multiple BTS members are nominated, the first day or so should be the day you vote for whomever you want. Rankings will be evident after the first day. I’m going to use the current September birthday voting on MNet as the example here because that’s what prompted this post though we have been going through this a lot, especially in chapter 2. Right now Jungkook and RM are both nominated as they both have September birthdays (Sept 1 and Sept 12 respectively). So Jungkook has been on top with Plave bouncing back and forth with him vying for the top spot. RM has been in 3rd place. Jungkook and Plave both have about 35% of the vote as of today (9/10) and RM has 7%. This is NOT rocket science. Hell, this isn’t even freshman algebra. Common sense says you vote for Jungkook if you expect BTS to win at all. I said what I said. As an RM bias, yes it does suck but that’s the way it is. Being OT7 means you do not always get to vote for your bias. Voting for RM means giving up votes that could go to JK while Plave will move forward off of those lost votes. RM has too much ground to make up to get from 7% to 35% + of the vote. He would need to have more than 35% to surpass both JK and Plave. To move from 3rd place to 1st takes more effort than moving from 2nd to 1st or maintaining 1st. 

     Properly addressing the elephant in the room would really take a whole other post and I really don’t have the words or time for all of it but, to touch on the issue a bit right now I will just say it. This fandom has too many diet solos who don’t get that having a bias does NOT mean you ignore other members for ANY reason. By diet solos, I mean people who consider themselves ARMY but don’t ride for all 7. I’m a Namjoon /RM bias. Do you have any idea how hard it is to see him constantly at the bottom of all these votings? All the shitty excuses I see people using for not wanting to stream for him but will call themselves ARMY? All the thirsty comments that we giggle and “teehhee” at but at the end of the day more than enough of the people making them are just attention seekers because if all of them streamed and voted he wouldn’t constantly be on the bottom. Have you noticed how we hardly ever struggle when a maknae or vocal line member is up for awards but when it’s hyung line we fight and it’s always the same ARMYs I see kicking ass to stream, vote, and otherwise support hyung line.. Those same ARMYs do the same for vocal line as well, consistently. These are the ones getting called solos for having more than an ounce of common sense. 

     Choeaedol did a September birthday vote at the beginning of the month. The same situation occurred  with RM and JK. RM finished 5th. Fifth! Jungkook lost to Plave, so he was second. Now theoretically since Jungkook’s birthday is gone, we should have been voting on MNet for RM because his birthday is after JK’s. I guess we aren’t as organized a fandom as we used to be or as logical thinking. I don’t know. Just my opinion. So here we are. On MNet for this vote you get 12 votes per day. There’s no reason we shouldn’t be winning this outright. Don’t split the vote.

    Why is this important? Because it goes beyond birthday votes and if we can’t get it together for a simple birthday vote ad on an app then what does that mean for end of the year voting. End of the year voting is important because this is where daesang awards (group of the year, artist of the year, etc) are won and lost. We have so much competition and with fandoms often teaming up against BTS to win, buying votes on Twitter, cheating with VPN’s, and playing manipulative psychological games like guilt tripping (cosplaying as ARMY multis and saying they choose another group to vote for because BTS has enough awards and to let someone else win) we don’t need to be divided over this. 

      Last year there was an end of the year vote on Choeaedool that was for best male artist (I believe that was the category-best male artist or best male vocalist).  V, Jungkook, and Jimin were all nominated. After the first day or 2 of voting, Jimin was in the lead out of BTS, Jungkook and Tae were further down. It was obvious that we needed to put our votes behind Jimin to win. Kang Daniel was the main rival for first place. We kept telling ARMYs to vote for Jimin and not to split the vote because all 3 will lose if the vote is split. Same situation where making up the ground between 4th or 5th place takes more work than going from 2nd to 1st or just maintaining 1st on a daily basis with consistent votes. We lost to Kang Daniel because people didn’t listen and continued to split the vote all the way down to the last day. Being stubborn and not listening to more knowledgeable ARMY does nothing to help BTS and that’s why we are all here. Not for our individual egos (I hope so because I’m here for BTS). It hurt to watch an end of the year award slip away like that.                       

     In conclusion, let’s use these smaller voting opportunities to practice voting and for those newer to voting to get used to it before the end of the year awards come up. Before I joined ARMY online, I didn’t know anything about voting for awards. In the US we only have MTV awards and Billboard that are voted on (besides Nickelodeon -do they still do that?). Everything else is decided by an exclusive panel of judges. You don’t know who they are unless they say they are on a panel. This is why Grammy's are so all over the place because the people who consume the music aren’t the ones making the decisions on who they think should win or and have no say in who is nominated. With K-Pop it’s different and voting to win awards is ARMYs love language with BTS to show them that we are here for them. With BTS enlisted and not returning to us as a full team till the end of June 2025, it’s highly important now that we show our support. Awards help us do that, even smaller ones.