Like a dandelion up through the pavement, I persist

Yeah, I think some people see a lot of distance between "creators" and audience (and some platforms encourage that more than others), so readers are more likely to see the authors like they do "influencers" or generally treat them as a different breed of fan. It's unfortunate. In my mind, I have a separation between people who see fandom as a community (goal = making friends, sharing squee, etc) and people who see it as a market (goal = patreon subscribers, merch buyers, etc), but I wonder if there's also a third kind... kind of like, I would never think of befriending a youtuber because I would expect any relationship to be parasocial at best 🤔 Maybe that's the sentiment. Just thinking aloud, though 😂