Things we need to work on as a fandom before BTS returns

      Chapter 2 has been a complete whirlwind of emotions and most of it has been positive. We got so much more content than I ever expected and BTS showed us how much they love ARMY by giving us gifts every step of the way. We made it. Congratulations to all ARMY who stayed and stood ten toes down for the apobangpo spirit, supported them, and never even thought about leaving. To new ARMYs joining during the "break," we welcome you and we welcome the opportunity to help you become strong ARMYs for BTS. 

     That being said the fandom has changed a lot during this chapter and it is sad for those of us that have been here for a while. Someone on Bluesky said it best when they said that the fandom has split between three (major) apps and that's part of the reason we seem divided. We have Twitter ARMY, Threads ARMY, and Bluesky ARMY. Not that we're leaving out Weverse ARMY it's just that as far as ARMY that shares info goes, those three apps are known as the top three now and Weverse ARMY is more known for being a bit immature and unhinged at times. Weverse isn't known as a place to get info unless it is in an official capacity from the company or the guys. It hasn't really been much of a space for fans to talk and share info in a while with all the spam and political propaganda you have to fight through just to get your post seen.

     When BTS reunites as a full group after military service I hope they leave Twitter and go to Bluesky. Twitter continues to be toxic and a place known for engagement bait that breeds misinformation. There are more features built into Bluesky that help you keep your feed clean and because of that I think the fandom would be better organized over there. Threads doesn't have good moderation at all and is becoming Twitter 2.0 in terms of toxicity. There's no way to block a bunch of people at once and there aren't third party nuke apps that go along with it like there used to be for Twitter. With those third party apps, if someone made an offensive post you could block everyone who liked it with one click . Bluesky has blocklists for blocking a bunch of people all at once and they are easily shareable lists. They also have add lists that make it easier to add a bunch of ARMY all at once for those new to the app. I agree with the person who posted on Bluesky that we are all spread out across three platforms and that's why we seem disorganized now. I thank the ARMY who share important information with us on Threads and Bluesky that comes from BTS official Twitter and from the voting and streaming bases on Twitter because I left Twitter and won't be going back till that man is gone (Elon).

     Here are some things we need to work on as a fandom now and when the members return as a group. We have been discussing a lot of different topics and anything that is not here will probably be in another post coming up soon. Some topics mentioned in the post where I was asking for ideas have already been covered in this blog so be sure to check out my other posts as well.

     Voting and Streaming

     Chapter 2 brought out some attitudes that I don't like. I probably cleaned my timeline enough by blocking or muting, but the arguments against voting and streaming have been covered here before on my blog. I also got into the debate between casual and core ARMY and that ruffled feathers. That has been covered in another post here. BTS didn't have a single award just handed to them without hard work and we as ARMY continue to work to give them those awards. Don't want to vote or stream? Then don't come to our comment sections and complain about it. I literally watched someone complain about not having time to vote or stream then proceed to comment on like ten different posts thirsting over guys from other groups. Not a single post about voting for Jin on Mnet. Meanwhile the rest of my moots were posting their votes for Jin, thirsting, and dropping streaming screenshots. We all have busy lives and time is often not about how much you have but about how you choose to use it. Spread voting out throughout the day if possible. You don't have to put in all your votes at the same time depending on the vote window. If a voting app is set to where you can vote 50 times a day like AMAs do 25 or so early and do the rest later. If you want to do it you will.  If you don't want to do it then don't. No one is forcing you but don't you dare come into our comments bitching about not having time or not wanting to because we don't care. Just be quiet about it and stay out of our way. If you want tips on how to manage the time it takes to get it all in then ask. We can let you know how we balance it. You don't get to complain about us losing if you didn't vote and you shouldn't be celebrating if you didn't help contribute either. Just saying. 

     Original 2013 and early days ARMY (OG ARMY) worked hard for them to put them on the map and for that we thank them. It's our job to keep it going and give them the career longevity they deserve. We often say we wish we had been there at debut (ARMY that joined after) but, we're here now so we can do the work now to keep them going into the future. Voting and streaming are important. Voting is how awards are won and streaming helps with charts and Mnet awards (which we also vote for). Mnet voting that we do on weekends and Thursdays (live vote) whenever there is a new release nominated is tied to the MAMA awards and popularity or wins on the show lead to end of the year nominations for daesangs and bonsangs (Korean grand prize awards). 

     If you don't know how to get started there is a resources post in this blog with info on platforms we use for voting and streaming. You can also ask ARMY who usually post about it. There are always ARMY that are willing to answer questions and help with teaching newer ARMY how to do things. We're all constantly learning. I was on Stationhead sometime last year and I was streaming with MoAs (TXT's fandom) and I went to the chat section. They were helping each other learn proper streaming and how to vote on Mnet. That was so cool and inspirational. Meanwhile we had a really popular BTS station that I stopped listening to because they said comments promoting voting and streaming caused stress and anxiety and they don't want that in the chat. They made a whole announcement about it on their station over the air and require you to post on the thread side of Stationhead where info gets buried. Not productive at all but the MoAs were so cute and they made me miss the way ARMY used to be.

   Stop complaining on the timeline about voting. It deters others from wanting to participate and other fandoms and multis are now using it against us to try to convince the newer ARMY not to participate. I realize I have a lot of ARMY that follow me and are moots (we follow each other) that just came into the fandom during enlistment, some just over the past year or the past 6 months even. If we're trying to get them to vote, stop complaining about the most mundane things like ads in the app. Who cares? Yes they are annoying but the main Mnet countdown doesn't charge money or coins to vote. Some do and I don't participate in those because it's not a fair shake. I watched a group that hadn't put out any music in a year or two beat BTS last minute in one of those paid votings because they were buying stars or whatever on some other app and dropping them all during the last hour. When you complain about trivial things, people who never voted see that and figure if you aren't doing it or you don't want to because of ads or because you say you don't have time then it must be too much trouble and they won't vote either. Some of you complain and think because you only have 50 followers it doesn't matter. On Threads your posts may have way more reach than you think. If someone like me with way more followers responds to you then your post is going to get even more reach because that's how the algorithm works. Be aware of the negativity of your complaining affecting the way voting is seen by newer ARMY. 

     Use positive motivation when you encourage others. I saw posts being shared by ARMY that came from solos saying ARMY wasn't being there for Jin. Any posts putting down ARMY after voting usually come from solos. Stop sharing them!! They are miserable and despicable and they always have something negative to say about ARMY. Don't fall into that trap. I've been blocking the solos on sight but I'm going to start blocking people sharing their posts because it's ignorant for them to say ARMYs aren't voting when my timeline is full of ARMY dropping screenshots of their proof they voted. It does nothing but piss off those working hard and diminishes our hard work. 

     We also need to diversify our streaming platforms. I know that Spotify is the favorite of the streaming apps among ARMY because of the numbers BTS have there and the records. I left Spotify Premium a while ago and I only stream on a free account on occasion. I prefer Apple Music which has better sound quality and is cheaper than Spotify for me. Since all streams on Apple are premium there is no confusion as to if your streams count as much as say someone on a free account. Apple has daily charts that are updated in the app though they don't post the number of streams. It makes me sad to see that we don't make a dent in the charts there in most areas but shout out to LATAM ARMY on Apple Music who always bring it in some way when it comes to making sure there is a member of BTS somewhere on the charts in your countries on Apple Music. Focusing on streaming on different platforms like Apple will help with charts as well. Seems like we had gotten into that for a while then moved away from it. I appreciate all the ARMY making Apple playlists and I re-share them when I see them.

Live Stream Behavior

     One major thing we need to clean up is the behavior of users in the chat on live streams. I feel like this is one that we have screamed and screamed about for a while and nothing ever seems to get better. Before the guys enlisted, certain member's live streams were noticeably worse than others and it was annoying. Jin's and Yoongi's always tend to be tamer. Maybe it's because they're older. I also don't remember Jimin's being bad either so the age thing may not be it. I feel like it also depends on the time of day or night. When school is in it seems like the immature ones aren't on as much. When Jungkook did his epic long livestreams and they would fall in the afternoon for me on the East Coast of the US and the chat wasn't so bad meaning he was on really late at night or early in the morning Korea time. 

     We can't control when they go live so that's not an option. A few of us have written Weverse and asked for moderation on streams and haven't gotten anything back but they do make posts every now and then that they put on Weverse with rules that don't seem to be enforced. I posted on their IG before and they had my comments removed for some reason. I have mentioned it in the Weverse surveys that they send when they ask for feedback. Bad comments should be able to be filtered out as should spam and with them charging for digital memberships they should be able to afford to hire moderators to sift through all the comments. Right now ARMY goes into the chat and reports inappropriate comments and spam so we do their work for free to make sure the guys don't see the bad stuff. We shouldn't have to do that, but if we can get people to act with respect to BTS in live streams we won't have to be the moderators of the chat. 

    Here's what needs to go:

• STOP asking them to speak other languages. Frankly no one cares if you can't understand. That's a you problem. Asking a Korean person to speak English or French or Arabic or whatever else when you know their first language is Korean and they are communicating in their native language is rude. Stop it. Learn Korean or pay for the digital membership that gives you subtitles live. You could also watch later when subtitles are added for everyone for free which is usually 2 to 3 days later. 
• STOP spamming country flags. It's not the World Cup or the Olympics. You can just say once "my name is xxx and I'm from xxxx "and post 1 flag. The flag spam clogs the chat and good questions and comments go unnoticed because of the useless spam.
• Repetitive old jokes get annoying and clog the chat as well and need to stop. Spamming "Yoongi Marry Me" will get your comment reported as will asking for other members on someone else's live. That's just rude and that's in the guidelines on Weverse for the chat. Other comments about being this one or that one's wife are spam too. Telling them there's someone behind them is also old and a tacky worn out joke at this point. All the useless stuff is just boring.
• Sexual comments made to them or asking them personal questions about their private lives, dating lives, shipping (taekook forever crap) needs to stop too. Posting thirst comments on Threads is one thing but we DO NOT say those things to the guys in chat and we DO NOT ship them in the chat. 
• Telling them to stop ignoring you will get you reported because no one is ignoring you. They can't comment back to every single comment and you sound like an entitled brat when you post that stuff. Stop spamming junk and trying to center yourself and make yourself look like some poor fan that's being ignored. Ninety-nine percent of those comments won't be addressed. If they don't respond to you, get over it. They won't respond to most of us. Make appropriate comments with respect and you may be seen and answered if you don't act selfish. 
• STOP telling them what to do. You don't control what they eat, drink, or their religion. Those are just 3 things that I can think of right now that I've seen people comment on that are controlling and rude. If Hobi wants to eat meat and that bothers you because you don't eat meat then go be a fan of some vegetarian artist because their lives aren't yours. That's a you issue not one for him or any of the others. If JK is drinking and you don't, no one cares. Go stan a dry artist. His drinking is not your business and you don't get to play amateur psychologist and fake psychoanalyze him and start rumors. You will be reported to Hybe for libel if I see those comments again. You don't get to try to change their religion and you shouldn't be asking them their religion either. Your beliefs are just that, yours. Don't want to stan a group that doesn't follow your religion then don't--go find someone who does and leave BTS alone. You aren't going to marry them so asking them to convert makes you look stupid. Stop it. 

     None of these things is befitting of ARMY behavior. You joined a fandom when you became ARMY and participating in ARMY related activities requires some decorum. Tell them what songs of theirs you like. Tell them how their music helps or heals you. Ask about current or upcoming projects. Ask about food recipes and what they like to eat these days or what clothes or accessories they like. Stop telling them they look sick or tired because that's rude too to someone who is neither sick nor tired but may be feeling low on self-esteem for whatever reason. You just make them feel worse. Our rapport with them should be friendly but respectful.

     Disrespecting ARMY When You Are Corrected 

     We all make mistakes and we are all constantly learning. I would never ever claim to know everything about BTS because every single day I learn something new and I welcome the knowledge. I approach my whole life like that. Never stop learning has been a motto of mine forever. That being said I'm always against misinformation and disinformation. I am seeing ARMY, some newer ARMY, get offended when they post misinformation or AI pics. When ARMY corrects you don't get mad and block people. You could learn something and if you're spreading something because you don't know better, then fact check and delete. We need to stop allowing speculation from K-media, clout chasing accounts posting AI fakes, and people posting incorrect statements to have us sharing things that are wrong. There was discussion about the 1 Verse song by JHope and people were posting that as the new song of the 3 that JHope was releasing. The new song is "Killing it Girl" feat Glorilla out June 13th. One Verse song is on SoundCloud with a ton of other unreleased BTS songs and is old. Someone was corrected about that and blocked the ARMY that corrected them. I've corrected ARMY who pull pics from Pinterest of the guys that are labeled wrong and indexed wrong by the internet. If you are corrected please delete or correct your post. Threads are now indexed and show up when you Google a subject meaning your Threads are used by search engines and AI to compile info. If you are sharing a pic of Namjoon as a kid and it's some guy from another kpop group and you're told that's not Joon and you leave your post up without correcting it, other ARMY who don't know any better are getting wrong information and search engines are using your incorrect data and marking it as correct in their systems. That's how you're pulling mislabeled photos from Pinterest. 

     I was told I should "gently correct" people. I'm not harsh when I correct people. I don't do it to shame. I do it because I don't like misinformation and if I posted something wrong I would want to know and correct it. When you post about voting after voting has closed it confuses people who think there's something wrong with their app when they can't get in to vote. It also tells me you probably aren't really voting yourself if you make a post an hour after voting ends telling people to go vote. 

     If you find that you shared misinformation, the best thing to do is delete it and make a post explaining that what you posted before was wrong and if there is a correction, list it in that post. If you post pictures that are fake delete and add real ones. There are plenty of authentic photos of BTS on Weverse going back through almost all promotions. You can download them straight from there in batches for free. Whenever a member releases concept photos I click on download and "download all" so I get all the ones for that promo. This way I know I'm getting a bunch of official photos. Unfortunately on Pinterest people play with AI and take original photos and run them through Rimini (an AI app) or other AI and they ruin them by adding makeup and eyelashes and double lids on Joon and Tae (Tae has 1 double eyelid 1 mono lid and Namjoon has mono lids on both eyes) and then there's the far fetched ones where Namjoon is covered in tattoos or smoking but it looks cartoon-y or Tae is a big as a wrestler. If you post and you think they're real and you are told they are fake just delete and replace. No problem. 

     We need to be very careful of influencers and big accounts as the guys come back from enlistment. Not everyone is really ARMY and not everyone has our best interests in mind.  My last post was about reactors and a particular "influencer" who has a book out now about ARMY and merch to go along with it, go figure. We need to stop giving everyone who says they like BTS our attention. BTS has been around for 12 years and has been a force around the globe and people know there's money in being associated with that. Even other celebrities are using them to help promote their projects. Some of it is subtle in a way but other things are blatantly attention grabs and engagement farming. There will be people who will pretend to be into BTS for clout (especially on TikTok, YouTube and IG the sites that pay you for the attention you get no matter if it is negative or positive) and there will be people who try to exploit ARMY by making us look like villains as they use negativity to make us mad and draw negative comments to their content. Things have always been like this but as BTS and ARMY grow and other fandoms get jealous and as people who are content creators look for more material we become targets. Let's not be easy targets anymore. 

     This also goes for misinformation in the form of leaks. There are those on Twitter/X especially who are clout chaser "army" and they will make up rumors or pull rumors from K-pop tabloids to run with and people post them to Threads and act like it's real or give it attention it doesn't need. Don't share these things just block and report. If we start starving the toxic influencers and anyone else looking for clout (the ones posting videos and pics of the guys on private time) then we can get them to stop posting that kind of thing and potentially get them to leave our spaces. If they realize they won't get likes and follows then they won't keep using us. We have control of this if we work together.

     There are only a few days left till the process of the remaining 5 members returning from enlistment begins and we are all hyped and beyond excited. We have the opportunity to become stronger and show BTS that while they were away we've matured and gotten stronger but the focus needs to be on how we can help them and not so much on big accounts and individuals seeking attention. We need to show them we can ask good questions in the chat when they're live. We need to be the shield, the Kevlar vest that they used as their first logo and prove that we are indeed bulletproof and we are there to protect them so they get that career longevity they deserve. Apobangpo.

Extra links:

Bluesky tips for ARMY. The site is definitely one worth checking out.

My blog post on misinformation

Voting fan base linktree 

Beware of Fake ARMY Influencers

      There has been a lot of drama on the Threads timeline lately with regard to a certain ARMY "influencer."  As BTS gets closer to their military discharge dates we will see more and more people try to use them for financial gain. In order to keep our space more peaceful and be able to keep it a safe space to fangirl and fanboy in, we need to make sure ARMY is aware of the kinds of people who bait post and try to leech off of our attention for their benefit, which more often than not, is financial gain. We need to push these people out of our spaces and let them know that they can't get away with using us or BTS to grift or make money through shady means off of us and our fandom. 

     BTS ARMY is the biggest fandom worldwide with over approximately 90 million members. BTS is the biggest global group in the world. Concert tickets sell out in minutes as does their merch. They are known as the "Sold Out Kings" because if they endorse an item or product or simply mention using it, it will more than likely sell out quickly. Jungkook mentioned he uses Downy fabric softener once and it sold out across all of South Korea. Downy had to let consumers know it would be a while before it returned to store shelves. The entire brand had a nationwide shortage. Then there was the time Jungkook showed us his kombucha he liked drinking during a livestream and he came back on live stream later on and said it sold out and he couldn't find it anymore because ARMYs bought it out. His little frown was so cute and it was funny but that's evidence of ARMY power. There are so many many other instances of this happening. Companies watch this happen and study the marketability of BTS and the members and how ARMY responds and spends as consumers. Influencers and content creators watch this too and it's not always a good thing.

     I don't watch YouTube or TikTok reactors who show their reactions to BTS videos (with the exception of Jose Ochoa because he's been ARMY for a while so he's real). There are patterns to how some of them operate and it's all to clout chase off of ARMY attention. First they post that they are going to check out BTS for whatever reason. It may start with, "I'm watching BTS videos for the first time because my girlfriend told me to." Then they pretend to get into BTS and "react" to videos giving commentary throughout. It never fails but there will be other fandoms in the comment section saying things like, "if you like BTS you should check out (insert kpop group here) because they're actually better," and the reactor usually likes the comment and takes note. Well meaning ARMY passes the word and shares the reactor's video and recommends other songs and videos from BTS for them to check out. Lots of ARMY will then follow them and they become monetized (able to make money from their videos) and they collect followers that are ARMY from doing BTS related content. These ARMY follow them because they posted BTS and they seem positive, harmless. This is where it gets sketchy. 

     Once these reactors (not all but some do this) get a ton of ARMY following them and they get likes and comments recommending other songs for them to check out they will usually make other videos reacting to BTS songs. Then they move on and they will take recommendations from the comment section. They suddenly need to go through all of the popular groups in kpop and they will start saying negative things about BTS in the process. They make their money off of the engagement whether negative or positive and they move on. There was a guy back when I was on Twitter that everyone hyped up as this amazing reactor who was so cool and he was really enjoying getting into BTS (newsflash they all are) and come to find out he was a raging misogynist who was following incels on his Facebook account. An ARMY called him out on it and he was rude to her and others when they explained that this doesn't align with ARMY or BTS values and all. He didn't care. He just wanted the paycheck he got from his BTS reaction videos. He used that attention to monetize and grow his account and continued to argue when called out on why he would have a fandom of mostly women follow him when he had incel material on his Facebook. This is the kind of grifter we definitely don't need in our space and whose content we don't need to be consuming and making him money.

     There are other influencer types who use ARMY and BTS attention to make money off of us who aren't as easy to spot and ARMY needs to be aware of them too. One is Stefne Miller from Army529project or  Stefap529 on Threads and TikTok. I followed her a while ago but I just didn't really watch her videos much. I think I followed her because she made a video talking about the anniversary of an 80's group that we both grew up listening to and I related to that as an older ARMY and the nostalgia. I paid attention to some of the trivia posted on the Army529project side but mostly ignored her when she talked directly to the camera. Then she made the video that got everyone's attention recently where she made negative comments about RM. 

     ARMYs know that we don't say anything bad to put the guys down. We know the struggles that they have gone through in the past and when you know the history, you come to understand they are human beings like us who work hard for their dreams and goals. Insulting them is unacceptable unless one of them does something terrible and luckily for us that hasn't been the way our guys operate. They are genuinely good people. Not liking songs is OK but why broadcast that? Not everyone wants nor cares for your opinion. The song you hate could have literally saved someone's life. Not liking the leader of the group, a group that would not exist if Bang Shi-hyuk didn't get inspired to start a rap group from seeing RM, is just anti behavior. I don't know why it seems like some people in this new wave of ARMY don't understand that you don't get to call yourself ARMY if you don't like or show proper respect to all 7 members. You can call yourself a casual fan and be done with it. I'm a casual fan of a few other Kpop groups. There's nothing wrong with being a casual fan. 

      Stef made a video where she said that she has never gotten to know RM and she said in the beginning before she even got into the story of the video that she knows that she will attract "haters" from the comments that are coming yet she chose to continue with the video. I won't link it because I don't want to give her more engagement which means money for her so I will summarize. She mentioned that she is enlistment ARMY and that fact alone surprised me because I thought she had been ARMY as long as or longer than I was (I'm 2018 ARMY). She then said, "Here's where the controversial part comes in. No judgement." Now that was giving, "not to be rude but..." energy and I hate it when people do that because you know something rude is coming. She already knew she was going to say something that a lot of people were not going to like so she was rage baiting at that point and she was also asking not to be judged. We knew at that point that whatever she was going to say was going to be negative and we knew it's was going to be about RM because the big title on the top of the video in bold lettering was "MY TRUTH ABOUT RM." 

     After she set the stage by asking not to be judged and saying that ARMY was going to come for her, she proceeded to tell the story she wanted to tell. She said that she never got into RM out of all of the members of BTS (the leader of the whole group whom we know faces the most scrutiny). RM is the one she never bothered to get to know till now. She didn't bother to pay attention to him because his tears and general vibe during the Festa dinner in 2022 made her feel "unsafe." For a writer she's not that articulate in this video at expressing herself. What do you mean you felt "unsafe" because the leader of BTS was crying in a video where they all were all expressing to their massive fandom of dedicated ARMY that they were taking a break? Some of these fans had followed them for nearly a decade and the members were concerned if ARMY would be there when BTS returned. This break ended up being because they were required to join the South Korean military as all able bodied men in SK are required to do. They didn't know if their fans would stay and a two year break in an industry like Kpop that moves like a revolving door with often fickle fans would be a terrifying thing for them. But she didn't bother to do an ounce of research and had just become ARMY or so called "ARMY" so she wouldn't have known how terrifying that would be for them. There is no excuse for that but let's move on. 

     One of the main ARMY rules about how we respect BTS is that we don't compare them to each other in negative ways or pit them against each other because they are seven individuals with different styles and vibes and real ARMY OT7s stick to that. We love them all for their differences as well as their similarities. We don't use their emotional moments and post them on the internet to make fun of them or to keep plastering them crying or showing their sadness to use it against them. I feel like a lot of those values have been lost over this enlistment break as new people have come into the fandom. We acknowledge their humanness and don't act like they aren't able to show vulnerabilities so when they do, we don't go after them for it like it's cringe or negative. In a world where men are told "boys don't cry" and " man up" we as ARMY love that BTS expresses their emotions and cries if they feel like crying. Men in general should be able to cry if they feel like it. That's for a whole other post though, I digress. Every member was upset at that dinner at some point or another. Why you would use that as a gauge of how one of the members is all the time is beyond me. It was one emotional moment in time. Anything you want to know about BTS's history is on YouTube or their official social media channels on IG or Twitter. Any seasoned ARMY would be able to find links or give newer ARMY info or point you in the direction of someone who would be able to answer questions. We will gladly help out. They put out a book that is in their own words called "Beyond The Story: A 10 Year Record of BTS" by BTS and Myeongseok Kang. Stef could've read that and gotten more insight into RM. 

     She said she emotionally "detached" herself from RM because of that one dinner. She could have gone back and watched any of his ending 'ments (what ending speeches are called) from any concerts and seen how warm and loving he is and how much he loves ARMY and the members. Seeing him cry in a 'ment where he says he loves ARMY hits different and she didn't even bother. She says she "didn't feel safe" and that smacks of just general weirdness because, sure she's going through some stuff with her mother's health but unfortunately so are a lot of us. Our parents are ageing. My father is in late stage kidney failure and has a heart condition and dementia. I would never expect an idol to be my total comfort in that area to the point of blaming them for not being there enough for me. This is what she's doing to RM. Putting the weight of her problems on his shoulders and not wanting to look at someone else hurting because she was. Somehow the other 6 were there for her till Jin left. She's married and has other family members. If RM is singled out as not being there for her it's time for her to disconnect from all 7 and go seek comfort in real life people she knows. 

     She mentioned being intimidated by him because he's smart. Another weird statement of hers that doesn't sit right with me or make any sense. Projecting her insecurities on him yet she is college educated supposedly. Her IMDB credentials show that she has worked on Hollywood movies so why is she so intimidated by RM given her supposed success? Something isn't right there and it's seeming like she is faking this whole vulnerable, pitiful, insecure thing to get attention and use ARMY but I will get back to that. At the end of the video she said that she knows "ARMY will cut a bitch" and "don't come after me" is repeated twice. Now if that isn't setting the stage for what happens next I don't know what is.

     Within 2 days she released a second video that one would think would have been an apology but it was just her doubling down on what she said and painting ARMY as villains. She stood by what she said in the first video. She crapped on the vulnerability of the leader of BTS and came back and the first thing she did was not issue an apology for anyone she offended including an apology to RM for misunderstanding him but she mentioned that the video went viral with over 200k views on TikTok. She talked about how people were age shaming her which I agree is wrong, but then she immediately plugged her book. She mentioned that she should make this backlash from ARMY a whole new chapter because the book is her story and it's about how she loves ARMY. She wants to add this chapter as it has to do with ageism. Give me all the breaks because she orchestrated this whole thing to draw attention to the book. The comments calling her a hag were rude and unnecessary I agree, but now she's using that as another angle and younger ARMY who called her that should be ashamed of themselves because they had plenty of other arguments to use against her but age is not one of them. Age shaming in this case is an ignorant thing to do because ageism is not accepted in this fandom. A lot of us are over 30 or 40 and you will get old too if you're lucky enough to live that long so don't ever do that to people please. It's not as cute as you all think it is when you do it and I see you. It also reduces your argument to shallow things like looks and deflects from the real issue at hand.

     She got condescending and said that people didn't know what she meant when she said that she "detached" from RM. She pulled up a ChatGPT definition of it and that was so cringe to me as a writer. She's a writer too. Why use ChatGPT when AI is often wrong?  She couldn't be bothered to pull a definition from a psychology source or at the very least Merriam-Webster's dictionary? I don't know about you but if I don't know or I want to be sure of the definition of a word the last place I would check is AI. I'm old school so I would go to dictionary.com or Merriam-Webster. People knew what it meant. The psychological aspect of  detachment is covered in Psychology Today magazine and she should have just posted a clip or definition from that.

     None of this adds up for me. Since going through all of this there is a lot to unpack about this woman and how she is using ARMY for attention. She even tags BTS members in her posts. She had the audacity to tag RM in her video saying all of that negative stuff about him. This was certainly something that was calculated and planned for attention albeit negative attention. This all happened during Tablo and RM's release of "Stop the Rain" which caused a lot of buzz due to the serious nature of the song. The lyrics are heavy and are about depression and abuse making it hard for some ARMYs to listen to. Because there was so much discourse on line about the song, she used the negative attention surrounding RM, created more drama, and directed it towards herself making herself a victim and then plugging her book. 

     She is the founder of Army529project which has meetups that charge $300 to register and it's like a travel thing for ARMY. When most people plan meetups for their fandoms, they just decide to get together and meet at a location together and they don't charge hundreds of dollars to be a part of hanging out with people in the fandom. You can just get with a few people, plan to meet in whatever city you choose as long as you can get there, and then pay nothing more than the cost your individual accommodations and food and the usual expenses. I remember seeing a former moot on Twitter going to an epic Coldplay meetup through a major Coldplayer fan base where they met at a restaurant for a few hours and Chris ended up joining them. I don't think anyone there paid any more than what their food cost and the cost of gas to get there. The video is on TikTok if you look up "Chris Martin shows up to fan meetup."

     Stef could have done the video after she had explored RM's discography and backstory. Why didn't she? If I was going to admit that I didn't bother to give the proper respect to the leader of the group I supposedly stan and make a video addressing the fandom I'm a part of, what I would have done is make it after I had done the research. In my opinion, this wouldn't have been an issue at all if she had started the video saying that she had neglected him prior but had gone back and done her research and framed it to explain what she had learned as newer ARMY rather than what she had neglected to take the time to learn in the first place. That actually would have been a positive thing to say that she had a preconceived notion about someone and then she did her research properly and changed her mind. But, come to think of it that might not have gotten her the reaction she wanted. She needed ARMY mad enough to get her those views.

     I know this is getting long but let's talk about monetization for a minute. On Instagram you need to have at least 10,000 followers to be able to monetize and anyone that understands social media knows how hard that can be to achieve and how much of a goal it is for some people to be able to make money from being chronically online. She has 9541 followers on Instagram right now as I'm writing this. I'm not sure if Threads is still doing their bonus program but you only need 1,000 followers on Threads once you have 10,000 on Instagram to be monetized on both. She's almost there and I don't think that's a coincidence. Over on TikTok she has over 20,000 followers and that first video hating on RM has over 342,000 views. With 20,000 plus followers on TikTok she's monetized over there too because you also need 10,000 there to get paid and every click on that video and every comment good or bad earned her money and that's sick. She made money off of that one and the one where she is laughing in the comment section about RM losing on Mnet. Now she's looking to target IG and Threads for the same thing along with selling her book and travel meetups all in the name of being ARMY and using BTS. 

     Did she deserve the backlash she faced? Yes. I don't agree with age shaming part at all though. I think we're the same age give or take, pretty sure we're both Gen Xers nonetheless. Her take really has nothing to do with age so she didn't deserve any of that and ARMY that I followed asked people to stop with the ageist comments. I saw my moots commenting to her trying to have a respectful conversation and getting blocked or ignored. I saw her laughing in the comment section when it was mentioned that RM lost on Mnet and using terms that tried to call ARMY a cult like "groupthink," a term used in the book "1984" where the government controlled people and expected everyone to think and feel the same way in a cult like dictatorship. That's not what this is and if she thinks ARMY is like that then she should leave. All we ask is that our fandom likes and respects all 7 members. It's not that hard. We express opinions and play "we listen and we don't judge" and don't crucify others over their opinions. The issue becomes when you put the members down and dislike them. Or when you bash ARMY as a whole and don't take notes when corrected. Why are you even in a fandom if you don't like the group you supposedly stan? To me that says you're here for clout and your own financial gain. Why would anyone stan a group of 7 and be OT6? There are very rare reasons but none apply here, ex: if a member engaged in a criminal act but wasn't removed from the group. That's certainly not the case here.

     So what do we do about these people who target ARMY for attention? We have to get them out of our spaces by blocking, reporting if applicable to the situation (reporting only things to Hybe that they could be sued for like slander or libel), and making sure other people know about them and block them as well. There are a lot of new ARMYs and we need to guide them in the right direction so they don't get their ARMY experience ruined by these people. She's made a comment about not voting, either in AMA or Mnet I'm not sure, that was along the lines that RM didn't tell us to vote so she's not going to. Well had she been ARMY long enough before she tried to be some sort of spokesperson for us with her projects she would have noticed that BTS doesn't make statements asking us to vote in these votings. The official pages usually congratulate the members on nominations but they don't come out and say "vote for us."  They don't even come out and say directly to buy their albums or merch but they do say they hope we enjoy them or show them a lot of love. Funny how she'll flaunt merch purchases without being asked directly by the members to purchase that stuff but voting is different. That kind of attitude from a large very visible account can encourage others to ignore things that core ARMY finds important. The best way to deal with these people is to starve them of attention which hits their money supply. Don't engage with the content, block, report to the platform when necessary and to Hybe if there is slander, and if you have to discuss them keep it to the group chats to not spread their content. They'll get the picture when the algorithm stops favoring them and they start to lose followers and money. Maybe they'll try to grift off of another fandom. Hopefully they give up altogether and go touch grass. 

Let's Not Normalize Assault of Idols (or anyone)

      Last June when Jin of BTS returned from his 18 months of military service, he held an event where he hugged one thousand BTS ARMY in an amazing show of gratitude for the support ARMY has shown during his enlistment. He wanted to hug three thousand fans initially but staff told him he wouldn't have time to fit in that many hugs. He also performed and shared time talking with ARMY during the event which coincided with BTS's 11 year anniversary Festa. 

     Anyone who is ARMY knows Jin, the eldest member of BTS at 32, is an introvert. He has expressed nervousness and discomfort in circles where he's surrounded by people including other celebrities. This is quite typical of introverts and as an introvert myself I feel like I can relate to him on that. He's a sweet and thoughtful man who makes a point to make others feel comfortable even when he isn't always as comfortable as he seems. At this event  he even put a cute sign board on his chest in order to make it less awkward for the predominantly female fandom members whom he would be hugging so no one would feel awkward being chest to chest with him. After all, despite feeling like we know the guys they are still strangers to us.

     A woman took it upon herself to take advantage of the situation of having the opportunity to hug Jin and kissed him on the cheek without consent. Jin turned his head and had a shocked and disgusted look on his face afterward. There's video and photo evidence of this. There were at least two others who also attempted to kiss him but I think this one person was the only kiss that connected where there was actually contact. 

     As soon as we saw this happen, BTS ARMY took to social media to discuss it and that's when things got weird. Real ARMY- ARMY who are here for the right reasons, to love, support, and protect BTS, were livid. We saw it for what it was, assault. Jin never consented to kisses. He consented to hugs. Anything more is not cute but abusive. This wasn't some cute "shoot your shot" moment as someone ignorantly posted on one of my comments this week about it. It's considered sexual battery or assault. Some call it sexual harassment as well. 

     The woman who did this is being pursued by Japanese and Korean police for an investigation apparently due to a netizen reporting it to the police. Haters say that this person went too far in reporting it and that ARMY is over reacting. If you want to read some ignorant sexual assault apologist type comments you can check out @lain.eyb2014 on Threads who has the asinine opinion that Jin doesn't care what happened and because he's a soldier and a grown man it's not that big of a deal. Also she says it's not like his private parts were grabbed. After you check out the ignorant comments, block them and have others do the same because people like this don't belong in our spaces. This is behavior that is synonymous with rape culture. 

   It doesn't matter that Jin is a man. Men are assaulted too. Women shouldn't be doing these things to men just as men shouldn't do them to women. I made the comment that if it was a female artist and a man kissed her without consent women would be flipping tables over this. Lain.eyb2014 replied that her opinion would be the same even if Jin was a female artist and this happened to them. Peak ignorance. People think they own celebrities or idols and they seem to have a sick attitude where they wish harm on them and victim blame when something happens. We don't do that in ARMY and anyone who does doesn't belong in the fandom. Anyone who thinks like this needs to be watched carefully around children too because that's abuser behavior or behavior of someone who would excuse an abuser and victim blame. 

     A similar thing happened to Chris Martin of Coldplay too. A woman asked at a concert if she could come up and give Chris a hug. Chris is another very kind, sweet, artist who loves his fans. He often lets fans come up on stage and play piano with Coldplay or sing so her asking for a hug wasn't out of the ordinary. When the woman went for the hug, she grabbed Chris's buttocks assaulting him. Coldplayers on Twitter were outraged as well at the inappropriate behavior. Chris took a moment to address it and ask that fans not grab him. He made a joke out of it but make no mistake about it, it was inappropriate period. He dealt with it by making a joke after expressing that it wasn't welcome. 

     Fans need to have respect for these artists. That's what they are, artists. They are human beings like us who just happen to have better careers. They don't deserve to be treated like fans own them. They didn’t "sign up" for this as is one stupid argument people use. They signed up to entertain, not be abused. These comments sound like jealousy and that comes from idol worship culture and celebrity worship. It's sad that anyone would make comments that anyone deserves to be treated with disrespect and touched in any inappropriate way just because the public knows them and they're famous. No one deserves non-consentual touching or kissing. Keeping your hands and body to yourself is taught in kindergarten. Anyone who is ok with this behavior is problematic. People need to learn to respect boundaries. 

     Hopefully the woman who did this to Jin cooperates with Japanese and Korean police and is punished. 

Links: 

Jose gives the update on the woman who assaulted Jin

https://youtu.be/iczLRS0RG5M?si=ipz1-fsDH5BYNM1e

AP News article on the situation 

https://apnews.com/article/bts-korea-jin-japan-woman-sexual-harassment-84e365169dff67e8758c440bf00bbb61

5.8.2025 update, she went to SK and turned herself in

https://www.fnn.jp/articles/-/868592 

Ways to tell if a picture is AI

      I'm seeing a lot of AI on my feed again. I understand there are a lot of new ARMY who may not have gotten the memo that we don't do AI pics as ARMY so I take that into account before I block but I don't comment as much as I used to so as to not spread it. The guys have mentioned not liking it or AI voice but some attention seekers love their "edits" or photos of BTS run through AI apps to "enhance" them or create photos that don't exist. I have been blocking people I do not follow and muting those I do who insist on sharing them. If you are told you are sharing AI, you should take the hint and delete. There's way too much disinformation going around in multiple areas and it's disappointing to see fake military photos this deep in their enlistment and to keep having thr same discussion over and over again. 

     There are a ton of photos available on Weverse of BTS that you can be sure are official and not AI. Why wouldn't you just use those? Nearly every album campaign is there and free to download. Once you click on a picture you get a download button in the top right corner. It asks if you want just that pic or the whole file of x amount of pictures. I always do the full file and it usually takes less than 3 minutes to download all of them. You can also go to the official Instagram pages for the members to get real photos of them. Pinterest used to be a good source until it got overrun by clout chasers creating fake pics. I understand it's hard to tell what is real and what isn't so here's the tips I use. 

1.  If it looks cartoonish it's probably AI. If the colors are too saturated and it looks like a drawing it's probably AI. Check for blurring, count the fingers (because AI messes up hands so sometimes you end up with extra hands or fingers in a pic), and other distortions (things seemingly coming from nowhere, non sensical words or languages, letters, shadows are wrong).
2. Check the eyes. Namjoon has monolids (small or no crease in the eyelid). Jin and Taehyung have 1 monolid eye 1 dual lid eye (crease visible in eyelid). Any pictures with them having dual lids are AI or have been put into an app and edited. Yoongi also sometimes has eyelids that have deeper creases on one eye than the other and lately I've been seeing A LOT of edited AI photos of him. People seeking attention are putting his pics out to get attention from us due to our feelings of missing him and that's manipulative. Be careful what you give likes and attention to. 
3. Look for watermarks. For some reason unbeknownst to me people seem to think they own the rights to a photo because they run it through an editor app so they ruin a pic and slap their lil name on it in a cutesy logo. No hun. The owner of the IP is still Big Hit and the artist in the photo. Argue with the wall. So people will edit photos (badly) and add their name so they can act all high and mighty if someone uses their photo in a video edit or something. These usually end up being the ones with overdone makeup (especially on Jimin) where the guys have 1 long eyelash, red lips, and a lot of blush. The watermark is often there around the shoulder or across the chest. And before video editors try to come for me as someone did before when I mentioned watermarks in this context, I'm not talking about you so stay in your lane. This is about photos that are run through AI only. If you see a photo that looks official but has a person's screenname or something as a watermark it's probably AI. In the case that it's not then it may be a fansite photo which is still a no because they use unauthorized BTS photos to sell on their sites or put together art shows with the photos and they make money off of the intellectual property that belongs to BTS and Big Hit which is illegal. They are officially against Big Hit/Hybe guidelines. 
4. Put it into Google lens. If you put it in Google Lens and it only shows up on X, Facebook, YouTube, or Pinterest then it's AI. If it's from a photo shoot then the magazine, the news article, Weverse, or whatever the original source material is should pull up. 
5. Ask. If you ask and don't get a link to a GOOD source (Facebook or Pinterest does NOT count- unless it's BTS's official Facebook), 99.99999% it's fake. I noticed when I ask I get a like on my comment and crickets. That proves the person posting is looking for engagement and knows its fake. They're online liking their comments but not answering what the source is for the pictures they post. That's a red flag.

     That being said we all make mistakes. I have posted AI edited pics before I knew about Rimini (the app a lot of people use). I had a fake RM pic on my screensaver for a while till I questioned the source and realized it was fake. If you get a correction (someone lets you know a picture is fake) just delete it. You can always find something proper to replace it. At this stage in the game there's 0 excuse for posting fake Yoongi military photos (or anyone elses really) and leaving them up after you're advised it's fake unless it's about attention. What happens when all 7 are back from the military and fake AI pics are normalized and allowed and the military photos don't get attention anymore. Attention seekers will probably start sharing fake relationship photos with AI generated women as the love interest. Those will go straight to tabloids and we'll be trying to convince the gullible to ignore, report, and block. Stop making fake AI a thing in our fandom. 

Bluesky Tips for ARMY

      With all of the Meta drama Zuckerburg has stirred up this past week or so by licking the boots of Trump and Musk, I thought it would be of help to some to hear my thoughts on Bluesky. I am going to stay on Threads and keep my Instagram for now, but if things get bad like they are on Twitter, I will leave. For those who don't know, Zuck basically came out with a statement saying that certain hate speech will be allowed in the name of free speech. He wants the Meta platforms to have more "masculine energy" whatever that means, they have changed DEI initiatives (they will be hiring less women, veterans, disabled, and non-white people) and they have changed their stance at Meta on political content and will be pushing more of it. Things are going to look a lot worse on Threads, particularly for US users because other countries have stricter protections and regulations for social media apps to protect users. I'm also concerned about what is going to happen when Threads gets ads because that was set to begin this month. I haven't heard anything else about it and with the current climate of the US politically and all of the celebrities and public figures caving to the dark side it could be bad. I know Twitter had right-wing organizations pushing fascist ads from right-wing churches and organizations and they made it so you couldn't block or report ads anymore unless you paid for Twitter Blue and I refused. I think that was the last thing that actually pushed me to delete my account.

     Before I deleted Twitter, I had already been on Threads for almost a year. I'm glad I had already set up an account and had made connections with ARMY on Threads because I had somewhere to go that made it a lot easier to dump Twitter. If you are unsure where to go from Threads if things go bad there I recommend setting up a Bluesky account as a backup. Here's some things to know about Bluesky. I'm not an expert but this is what I have learned since I have been using the app for the past few months.

     Bluesky looks a lot like Twitter because the founder is Jack Dorsey who started Twitter and was CEO before Elon Musk took over and ran it into the ground. The current CEO is Jay Graber. She has already said that she doesn't want to crowd the app with ads and that customization is what they want emphasize on Bluesky. I noticed how familiar the app looked when I joined and I like the butterfly icon more than the ugly X icon. 

     The homepage of Bluesky is where you will find your bio and tabs. Fill out your bio with as much information as you want other ARMY to know about you. I recommend putting no solos and no shippers because you will be blocked from groups where they frequent meaning you won't see as much of their drama if they block you first. It's a good thing. Pedos on the app also have groups where they block kpop fans who don't like shippers because a lot of the shipper fanfics cater to their specific type of kinks. Disgusting I know and I found this out early due to a so-called ARMY who followed me on Bluesky and blocked me right after using that blocklist so it's a good preventative thing to add this to your profile- no solos no shippers and if you don't like fanfic also put that. You may still see it but some will weed you out and you don't have to block them first. It helps keep your feeds cleaner.

    Clicking on your name or swiping right on your name opens up a side menu that has tabs for search, home, chat, notifications, feeds, lists, profile, and settings. Terms of service, feedback, and help are also on the bottom of this tab. Follower and following count are here as well. 

• Search-- the search tab is where you will find trending topics. You can make trending go away and only have the search tab show up here or keep the trending topics. As of right now it is still in Beta so it disappears from time to time (the trending topics). 
• Home--on the homepage you find your feeds.What I like most about Bluesky feeds is that you can customize them. Discover has everything like a "for you" page. If you don't want to see that then you just unpin it under the feeds tab in the drop down menu. To add feeds you just search them under the search topic and pin them under feeds. I searched BTS and added a few. Not all of them will necessarily be for you but you figure out as you go which ones you like most. I recommend BTS ARMY 101 because that tends to have informative posts under it and BTS Bangtan OT7 Feed as that is a little bit of everything. You automatically a feed that is "following" which is posts from everyone you are following and "popular with friends" or posts your followers or moots liked or responded to. You can pin and unpin and move these around.
• Chat--is the 3rd category on the side menu. Chat is built into Bluesky. You can turn it off so no one can message you. I keep mine open for those I follow only like I have on my IG. You can turn chat on or off using the settings that you can access using settings button on the top right of the chat page where it says "messages." You can start a new chat using the plus sign on the bottom right. Chat is beneficial to ARMY because if there is someone we need to block or a topic that we don't want to amplify we can chat privately about it and not discuss it out in the open where everyone will see it. If there are rumors that someone wants to know what others are talking about or if you see a suspect account and want to know if they should be added to a block list you can DM each other and ask about it instead of asking in the open. Too many rumors get spread on Threads because people post something then others go into the comments asking what's going on and end up spreading negativity by discussing rumors in the open in the feed though they don't mean to. With Threads DM being connected to IG you can't always message to ask or if someone messages you to ask it may not go through depending on their settings. At least on Bluesky it may be easier to connect inside of the one app.
• Notifications- you can access your notifications using this tab. It shows you all notifications and those where you are mentioned or tagged or replies directly to you. 
• Feeds--This is your chance to customize what you want and don't want to see here on Bluesky. With feeds you add what you want to see by searching topics and going to the tab that says feeds to see if there is a feed for it. On the feeds tab is where you find the feeds you subscribe to. You pin these and unpin the ones you don't want to see in your top tabs. Under "discover new feeds" there are suggested feeds. You add a feed to your tabs or skyline (what your feed is called on Bluesky) by clicking the plus sign next to it and you delete it from the skyline by clicking the push pin next to it on your feeds tab under "My Feeds" to unpin it. 
•  Profile-- takes you to your profile. Here you will be able to see your profile and edit it. Clicking the 3 dots next to edit profile brings up a pop up to share your profile or add it to lists. Under edit profile you can update your photos and bio. The tabs across the page show your posts and reshares, replies, media or photos and video you've shared, feeds, starter packs (lists of recommended you should add), and lists (usually blocklists). 
• Settings is where you customize everything else. Under account, you will find your email address, password, handle (screenname), and delete/deactivate options. Privacy and security is where you set up 2 factor authentication or 2FA so you are alerted anytime your account gets signed into and your passwords are there. You can also turn off visibility so accounts that aren't logged into Bluesky can't see your account. Moderation is where you can mute words and phrases. I highly recommend using this to block out any mention of other groups, fandoms, political things you don't want to see or anything else. Unlike Threads the muted words also apply to trending topics. Blocked and muted accounts also are listed under moderation. Moderation lists shows blocklists you use. There are also filters to get rid of adult sexually explicit content or allow it whichever you prefer. Content and media lets you control how you want to mange feeds and browser links.You can turn trending topics on or off here. Appearance lets you change modes to light and dark and change font size and font. Accessibility controls include haptic feedback and alt text you can turn off and on. Using alt text descriptions of photos is encouraged on Bluesky to help vision impaired or blind users. Languages, help, and about are self-explanatory and you log out on the tab at the bottom of the menu. 

         Some of you may remember blockchains on Twitter. This is how blocklists work on Threads. If you want to use a blocklist you just click on the list and go to the top right where you will see a button to subscribe and you will see block or unblock. Blocking will block everyone on that list at once. If you want to check them out before you block you can do so and block manually as you go down the list. I have done both depending on the list. I have seen the same conversations on Bluesky as on Threads when we started the Threads btsarmyblocklist hashtag, that people are concerned about being added to the list by accident and all I can say about that is that it is a chance you take. If people find that they added you by accident they can always unblock you. It's not that big of a deal really. I know that some people making blocklists for ARMY will ask that you email them accounts to add and they check out the accounts before they add them to make sure no one is being added just because someone has a grudge or to bully them. That being said, do your own research into each account you block if you want or make sure you trust who you get your blocklists from. 

     Starter packs let you add entire recommendations lists at the click of a button. I don't use these as much as blocklists but they can help fill your feed when you first join Bluesky. I recommend following someone from Threads who's on Bluesky (if that's where you are first) and then checking who they follow to see if you know anyone or if they seem like someone you want to follow. I did this and most of my Bluesky following/followers are people I know from Threads and their moots. You will also find accounts to follow from feeds you follow. 

     No site is perfect. We don't expect them to be but what I have noticed about Bluesky is the moderation is better. More options to mass block or mute mean you don't see as much offensive stuff. When you report bad behavior it seems to be deleted within 48 hours (from my personal experience at least). MAGA fascist public figures usually get banned on their first day on the app. There's still porn bots but I block them and there's still scammers. I report and block them too. The annoying thing is if someone follows you you can't remove them as a follower but you can block them. They can't see your posts and you can't see them but your followers count will still count them. Hopefully this is fixed soon.

      Bluesky doesn't have ads and according to Jay they won't get ads. She plans to add premium subscriptions eventually so they can make money but IG and Twitter both have this already as well as ads and it's possible to use both without a subscription. I suspect Bluesky will be the same only the free tiers wouldn't have ads on Bluesky. These apps are business after all and they're going to make their money either way. Right now there's no ads and no monetization so less attention seeking bait posts as well. 

      Overall I like Bluesky. It's nice to have a Twitter like site without the drama. It's a good backup alternative to Threads. If things get bad on Threads I'll leave but so far it seems ok to stay. I'll wait to see what happens when ads start on Threads. Bluesky is a good place to go to when Threads is a mess too.

6.29. 2026 update - I'm no longer using Bluesky. Jay Gruber left in March and there's a man acting as temporary CEO. Since then it seems the attitude has changed with their social media management. The current one went on Threads today and called Threads users "guinea pigs" of Meta and Zuckerberg in a snotty way and issued a wack apology that was a not really an apology. The whole thing was unprofessional and rude so I deleted my account. Instead of going to Threads to troll users they should have been marketing the app and running ads elsewhere. 

Casual ARMY vs Core ARMY controversy: Why it's not as serious as some are making it

      Disclaimer: Before I even get into this I'm going to say this is not just my opinion. This is how many other more seasoned/ experienced ARMY feel about voting and streaming. You don't have to agree. Do you and go be you but we're also going to do our thing and be us and you will eventually get over it if you don't like it. Don't come into my comments here or on Threads or any other social media overreacting or getting an attitude because I won't have it. You'll be blocked. This isn't meant to put anyone down or be "toxic" which is being overused now. It's just to clarify what was taken out of hand and twisted by some who don't get it. 

Edited: 11/23/24 Jimin won the daesang Visa Fan's Choice Award at the MAMA Awards which is fan voted and an award BTS has won as a group for the past several years in a row. His thank you letter to ARMY has been added at the end of this post.

     The other day on Threads an ARMY made a post about voting and streaming telling newer ARMY not to stress about it and that they don't have to worry about trying to keep up. I think her intentions initially were to get people to stop worrying about it so much. I don't typically see people stressing about either on my feed because we know it comes with the territory. Beginning intentions aside, she showed her true nature later when she snapped and posted this. 

    Now, no one cares how many concerts you attended or how many albums you have. That's not what makes you an ARMY. There are people who buy albums and get barricade at concerts and don't know a single lyric. I'm reminded of a Coldplayer post where a Coldplayer was at barricade next to a "fan" who didn't know the words to their songs that were 15 or 20 years old. The Coldplayer was just surprised this person had gotten great tickets but didn't know the songs when they were used to being in front with die-hard fans singing songs back to the band. Having merch and going to concerts just means you have money. Not even that really. You choose to spend what you do have on those things is how I'll put it, because what it really comes down to is priorities and opportunity. My priorities lie in making sure there's a roof over my head and my child is fed and clothed. If I have disposable income after that then fine. I'm not in a position where I can fly across the country to see concerts so I vote and stream to support all 7 and the group as a whole. That makes me ARMY.

     So this was probably in response to my comments on the post because I commented that there is nothing wrong with being a casual fan or casual ARMY. The terms casual ARMY and core ARMY were used in a recent Boracity Magazine YouTube video and I liked the way they explained it. 

     Let's back up a bit. This was all because there were people who responded to the Threads poster saying that they don't have time to stream, see streaming as "cheating the system" (I'm sorry what?!), and someone who said they don't participate in mob mentality type things and no one can make them do anything. No one is making them do anything! Core ARMY put out calls to vote and stream and that's what we've always done. We just had a comeback and we're still in tracking week 1 for that. Why would you make a post encouraging people not to stream or vote two days before a comeback and during end of the year voting season when daesangs and bonsangs are being awarded? 

     I explained my perspective which is similar to Boracity's that there are core ARMY who vote and stream and that's how BTS wins awards. Korean awards shows rely heavily on fan voting and if ARMY wants BTS to win we have to vote for them. When I was first ARMY I didn't know this and it's likely that others don't either. When we post calls to go vote a lot of times those posts are as much to remind each other to vote as they are to recruit new voters. If you don't vote keep scrolling. There's no need to comment or get defensive and angry about something that you've made clear does not concern you.

    There's nothing wrong with being a casual fan if you choose not to vote and stream or one or the other. The poster bragging about concerts... she streams. She puts out posts encouraging people to stream. She just doesn't vote. That's the funny thing. No one ever called her casual ARMY. I commented it in general in response to the rude comments throughout her Thread. She took casual ARMY as an insult. Being that she's gen X as am I, I assume she thinks casual ARMY means poser (fake fan posing as a real one for attention) and it does NOT. Casual ARMYs still contribute in the ways they choose to participate. Had she watched the Boracity video she would have understood that. 

Why We Stream

     The reason streaming is so important is because BTS does not get much airplay if any on US radio. I can only speak for the US because that's where I am but other International ARMY have also said BTS doesn't get much airplay on the radio where they live either.When I say airplay I'm not talking about satellite radio because that's a little different. I'm talking about terrestrial radio, AM and FM frequencies. There are a few messed up reasons for this but the main ones are payola and racism/xenophobia. Major labels pay radio stations to play their artists or make deals for artists to appear at events like I Heart Radio things if the stations play their artists. The same artists get played over and over in a rotation. That rotation is often set by the station and they don't try to deviate from that because they're being paid to stick to it. 

     In the US, Clear Channel, now I Heart Media, owns 860 or more radio stations. Clear Channel was a right-wing owned company. Clear Channel has been around since the 70's buying up stations and has faced financial hardship over the years because of it. They were bought out in 2008 and became I Heart Media in 2014. They are Republican based, headquarters is in TX, and they have censored and blacklisted artists before for speaking out against the Republican Party. I'm not going to go into detail here for the sake of space and time but The Chicks (formerly known as The Dixie Chicks) were blacklisted by Clear Channel when they spoke out against Republican President at the time George W. Bush. These same radio stations will play "Despacito" (the Justin Bieber version) but won't play BTS Korean songs and will barely play their English ones. If you know why you know why. 

    So ARMY streams. For those who don't know what streaming is--because these extreme reactions suggest that some people apparently don't--it is literally just listening to music. That's it! I stream everyday almost as soon as I wake up. I open Apple Music and I find a playlist or I put on an album and hit play. Do we have goals? Yes but that's just a guide so you know where we want to be collectively. I hope no one is looking at these streaming goals and thinking you need to hit those individually on your own. I mean I'm having trouble trying to figure out what the issue is and why people say things in my comment section like Texastish on Threads did this week regarding me writing this blog post, " You actually don't need to explain anything to anyone. People can be fans in the best way they are comfortable. You or nobody else has the right to try to dictate what makes someone "core ARMY." It's stuff like this that makes people view the fandom as toxic. You have time and energy to stream? Great! Not everyone does. It's fine." She went on and said a few more things I found ignorant because if she read for comprehension she would know that the first part of what she is saying is exactly what I am saying as well. ARMY how you ARMY but you don't need to bitch about not streaming. Sorry not sorry. She has time to do unboxing videos on her IG of the same name but not stream. Make it make sense. She also made comments intended to be digs at me about her having a career and not having time. Sweetheart we are all busy, time is what you make it. Streaming is literally putting on background music. You may need to eventually interact with your playlist but that's hitting pause or changing the playlist when it stops. It's not that hard. 

     One thousand five hundred streams is roughly the equivalent of one album sale. ARMY is known as monster streamers so this was an interesting stat for me knowing that BTS has numerous songs in the millions of streams. Streams are part of the criteria for winning Korean music shows which count towards end of the year awards as well. Streams take up some of the slack for us not having airplay needed to get onto Billboard charts too. So don't complain about not wanting to stream and then whine about the guys not making Billboard. You don't get to have it both ways. 

    Why We Vote

     Voting is to help BTS win awards. If you are the type of "ARMY" who says "BTS has enough awards" you're not ARMY to me. Not sorry. ARMY that knows the struggles BTS has been through in the past know that they deserve every single win, period. They give us their whole heart and blood, sweat, and tears, to make sure we are entertained and we love them for it. If you can be that casual about it then you're not one of us. Period. And about me not being able to say if you're ARMY or not, you can call yourself the Queen of England but that doesn't make it true.

     That being said, if you don't vote just because it isn't your thing then that's your business. You don't need to broadcast that on social media because you could be wrongly encouraging other newer ARMY not to vote. Maybe that's your plan anyway and in that case you have other issues.  If they want to vote then we can show them how. If you don't want to then you have the option of scrolling, muting, and blocking accounts that talk about voting and streaming and leaving the conversations up to those of us who want to do the work and those who want to learn how to do the work. Many times when we put out posts about voting it's to remind each other that voting has reset for the day because timeline differences can be tricky. Of course we put calls out for others to join in as well but if you don't want to, keeping quiet is free. Your opinion is not needed. 

     BTS has a long running legacy with the MAMA awards and I have linked this mini documentary done by the MAMA awards on their YouTube in comment sections only to be ignored. I will link all 3 parts in this post. Going back and watching early footage of them winning their first awards and reading about or watching videos about the hardships they went through with the company nearly going bankrupt, the bullying from antis (other groups and companies as well), the death threats they got when some were still minors (I mean death threats are horrible either way but they faced this as teenagers), and watching the clips of practices will let you know why we are so dedicated as core ARMY to helping them win whenever we can. I got more involved with voting as I saw how they were treated in the past and still are treated. Voting and trying to get them more and more wins is our love language with them. We can't go to concerts if they aren't touring. We still have 5 members enlisted till the end of June 2025 and it won't be till 2026 most likely that we get a concert so showing up and showing support in person is mostly out of the question. We don't all live in South Korea so when it comes to special stages international ARMY are left out of that. We show them that we are here through voting and winning awards for them. Given that most of these awards are fan voted we show up for them as a team and vote. 

     In conclusion, no one is saying at all that you aren't ARMY if you don't vote and stream. There are levels to this and I didn't come up with it. I'm just using terminology that was already there. Casual fans usually don't vote or stream. Are they still important? YES!  No one said you weren't, people assumed that. My issue lies with the people who are casual fans and will complain about the ones doing the work and act like we have all the time in the world to vote and stream while they have lives and can't. It's wrong first of all and just rude. Just saying you don't want to is sufficient. Better yet don't come into our comment sections complaining at all just keep scrolling. Better even just block me because you can't ever contribute to a conversation I'm having with anything I would want to hear. I'm here for BTS, to support BTS. I'm not here to amass a ton of followers and be popular so the ones trying to be snarky downers about the work we do as core ARMY can either join and help or shut up. 

 

Links

Streaming and voting info

MAMA mini doc on BTS's history with the MAMA awards

MAMA BTS Doc pt1

MAMA BTS Doc pt2

MAMA BTS doc pt 3

BtS wins AMA and thanks ARMY

BTS most streamed group on Spotify 5th most streamed artist

Jimin posted this letter on Weverse 11.23.24 after winning the daesang for Visa Fan's Choice. Go on Weverse to get the full letter. 

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.