Fandom Rivalry / Web Original

• Archive of Our Own vs FanFiction.Net. The former site was created specifically with the idea of hosting fanfics that the latter would have forbidden (partly due to FFN being dependent on advertisement revenue wheras AO3 is a nonprofit organization), which ranges from parodies to very explicit sex and gore. The fans of the former site criticizes the latter one for its stuck-up policies, while the fans of the latter site disregard the former one as a den of perverts.
  • By extension, Tumblr, which shares many traits with AO3 has also started a rivalry with FFN.
• 4chan and Reddit. In all fairness, the rivalry is a bit one-sided, Reddit seems to have some respect for 4chan, despite what comes out of there on a regular basis, whereas 4chan dismisses Reddit as a hipster and ultra-liberal circlejerk that ruined memes such as rage comics.
  • This is due to the view of Reddit's detractors that Reddit's content is primarily gags and memes stolen from 4chan and driven into the ground (not to mention missing the point of said memes, robbing them of context necessary to the joke in the first place).
    • It's gotten to the point where 4chan, or at least certain boards, have essentially renounced memes, and are vehemently opposed to them as a concept, just because Reddit likes them. The creation of new humorous content is discouraged, just so that Reddit doesn't get anything new to steal.
  • It has since evolved into 4chan vs. Reddit vs. 9gag. Where Reddit takes memes from 4chan and runs them into the ground, 9gag takes those and then slaps their watermark on it. Combine this with 9gag being connected to social media sites like Facebook has lead to the mainstream media to believe that 9gag created these memes. It has lead to both 4chan and reddit working together to attack 9gag as well as 4chan conducting solo raids on the site. Just mentioning 9gag on any board will result in the thread being saged into oblivion.
  • It isn't Reddit vs. 4chan vs. 9gag anymore. It's Everyone vs. 9gag now. 4chan and Reddit (when they aren't taking pot shots at each other) are not above putting aside their differences to enact a joint raid on 9gag. Case in point, the 4chan—Reddit—FunnyJunk—Tumblr coalition enacting Operation Deepthroat.
• There's a significant amount of vitriol between Something Awful and 4chan, despite or perhaps because of the latter being a spinoff of the former, despite the fact that there are many users on both sites.
• 4chan and Tumblr. Tensions were cooled somewhat when the anthropomorphisms of the latter and Anonymous were shipped together. It's still one-sided to this day, however, with Tumblr holding respect for 4chan and 4chan dismissing Tumblr as an ultra-feminist hipster circlejerk filled with social justice warriors and very vocal fandoms that ruin everything.
• Apart from its infamous rivalry with 4chan as detailed above, Reddit has several rivalries with other social media networks:
  • Reddit and Tumblr go at it frequently. Reddit users prefer their site's text focused interface whilst Tumblr users prefer their image sharing one. The two user bases clash over whose site layout is better, though there's usually disagreement among the users as to whether or not their own site's interface is even good. Most infamous are the clashing political ideas with Reddit viewing Tumblr as oversensitive and PC-orientated, and Tumblr viewing Reddit as having too many creeps and misogynists. The two sites' propensity for echo chambers only adds fuel to the fire.
  • They and fellow aggregator Voat tend to butt heads quite a bit,, especially after several controversial subreddits were deleted due the hate speech content, resulting in some Reddit users going to Voat for more freedom. Reddit users say Voat is a "Reddit clone for racists" while Voat users say Reddit is ruled by pro-censorship people and has no freedom of speech.
  • Beginning in late 2018, Reddit developed a rivalry with Instagram, though most of the hate comes from the former. The rivalry began when several prominent Instagram meme accounts reposted images from /r/dankmemes, claiming them as their own. In response, Redditors tried several tactics to deter them, such as making snarky memes poking fun at Instagram or putting watermarks on their memes. Even as this "meme war" died down, many Redditors still have a distaste for Instagram, likely because of clashing cultures.
  • Around the same time, Reddit began butting heads with TikTok due to differences in site culture, as well as the latter's rapid growth and aggressive advertising campaign. Reddit's CEO calling TikTok "parasitic" only fanned the flames, and at one point Reddit review-bombed the app to give it the lowest possible rating. It's really telling of their rivalry when Reddit collectively cheered when it was announced that the United States was considering banning TikTok over privacy concerns.
• The SCP Foundation and RPC Authority have a bit of a rivalry, which was inevitable as the latter is a splinter organization of the former due to political and creative differences. SCP calls its splinter hateful and unoriginal, while RPC complains that the SCP Foundation has seen a decline in quality after the first 999 entries.
• RedLetterMedia and Channel Awesome. As for the creators themselves, Mike and Jay really don't care about the whole thing.
  • Their fans, especially fans of Mr. Plinkett, have a rivalry with fans of the Star Wars prequels. This is because Mr. Plinkett gave the prequels very in-depth negative reviews which attracted Star Wars prequel anti-fans to his videos. In fact, his reviews of the prequels are his most well-known due to being shown on Roger Ebert's website (who gave Revenge of the Sith a positive review) and tweeted by Simon Pegg.
• Both The Angry Video Game Nerd and The Nostalgia Critic got very tired of the Fandom Rivalry that sprouted among people too stupid not to realize that their satirical feud wasn't Serious Business, and soon new videos on the subject started to become more and more blatant about how they enjoyed each other's work and co-produced the competition just for laughs, in advance of angry commentors.
• There was a notorious rivalry between fans of The Angry Video Game Nerd and The Irate Gamer, with both sides hating on the other and calling him a rip-off. It spilled over into real life as well. Several of Rolfe's friends tore into Irate Gamer pretty bad in the AVGN comedy roast, so much so they spent almost as much time calling him a ripoff as they did staying on topic.
• Parodied by the Critic and The Nostalgia Chick in her review of The Chipmunk Adventure, as they smugly argue over who has the creepiest, privacy-invading fans. It ends in a tie.
• In Germany, it's Coldmirror fans vs. Die Außenseiter fans, both comedians on YouTube.
• In Italy, there's the whole Yotobi debate. YouTube users SereINC and 2blugori have provided well-done Fan Subs for the aforementioned Nostalgia Critic; however, many videos get often thrashed by Yotobi fans, as if the Nostalgia Critic stole Yotobi's source material. Italian NC fans usually snark at them by shrugging every insult off, while calling them nothing more than "Yotobi fanboys". Hell, some of them even say "Yotobi fanboy alert" whenever one of them pops up. Never mind the two Video Review Shows are next-to-nothing alike.
• Played for Laughs by the Song of the Sorcelator and Epic Legends Of The Hierarchs "fandoms," who roleplay some really hysterical flame wars.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series versus, well, every other Abridged Series. Since Yu-Gi-Oh! was the original abridged series every following one got accused of being a copy cat. The ironic thing being that LittleKuriboh frequently lent his voice to other series, and even became a full time collaborator with Team Four Star.
• Ben T. Looney vs Rowdy C.
  • Ben Rants/Benthelooney fans hate The Rowdy Reviewer because of the way his voice sounds on camera, and the fact that he mostly reviews things he grew up with and the way he voices his opinions, and The Rowdy Reviewer fans hate Ben Rants because of the way Ben voices his opinions, his retcons (Making his avatar into a cartoon character, contradicting previous opinions: Ala in the original and first run, he stated he was a 90s kid but in the revival, states he's a 2000s kid) and having at least more than one joke in every video since the revival.
• Ultra Fast Pony:
  • Referenced in-universe. Discord breaks the mind of The Lord of the Rings fangirl Pinkie Pie by shouting "Harry Potter was better!"
  • In real life, a vocal portion of UFP's fans hate Friendship is Witchcraft and feel the need to post youtube comments to that effect on the UFP videos. Not a large portion, mind you, just an annoyingly loud one. UFP actually has a few Take Thats towards FIW, but UFP creator Wacarb clarified (probably to discourage the haters among his fans) that he actually likes FIW and only pokes fun at them out of professional rivalry. Either way, the Friendship Is Witchcraft fandom doesn't seem to have noticed.
• Whilst it's true that the other side doesn't argue that much about it, there is still a persistent rivalry between youtube ranters and let's players. Youtube ranters and their fans often complain say that let's players are unnecessary and a waste of time (because why would they watch someone playing a video game if they can play the same game at home). Fans of let's players however still watch them despite it because they can learn more about the game and let's players can give some fun commentary. Over time, many fans of Let's Players blame youtube ranters for being hypocritical, since they say that playing a game while talking about something is bad while they are talking in front of their own camera.
  • It's not a surprise that most of the hatred is directed towards PewDiePie. He's the most famous guy to hate on because they can still be sure that their channel gets a lot of views because of it. The typical accusation directed towards him is however a broken argument he once said, which goes like this: "If you don't like it, don't watch it" and which his fandom keeps shouting at the haters, despite the fact that most of them don't even know what they are saying.
• The entire Internet vs. furries.
  • The furry thing can be split even more: those who prefer clean, non-sexual furries and the hentai yiff crowd.
    • People who like humanoid characters vs feral ones.
    • People that consider the fandom to be a hobby and/or fetish and nothing more, versus people that consider the fandom to be a lifestyle. The former often calls the latter 'delusional', while vice versa the latter calls the former 'un-invested'.
• Bronies vs. the internet. Or Furries and Bronies. See the page on the Furry Fandom for some elaboration on the Bronies vs. furries.
• TV Tropes vs. Wikipedia, although there's clearly an overlap in users.
• Social network websites do this quite a bit: Facebook vs. Twitter, Blogger vs. Tumblr, and Facebook vs. Google+ (although the latter died down after Google+ shut down).
• On the topic of search engines: Google vs. Yahoo! vs. Bing vs. Yandex vs. DuckDuckGo (very preferred by those who are protective of their privacy) vs. Ecosia
• Uncyclopedia vs. Encyclopedia Dramatica. The former sees the latter as unfiltered vulgarity that barely even resembles satire compared to Uncyclopedia's more sardonic sense of humor, whereas the latter sees the former as too restrained and unwilling the push the envelope more.
• Urban Dictionary users tend to dislike Encyclopedia Dramatica, if their definitions of it are any indication.
• From the Yogscast:
  • The Yogscast used to get on well with GameChap, collaborating frequently and then accepting the latter as members. The fandoms went from friendly to this trope after the latter rudely responded to some fan criticism on the Yogscast subreddit, which was the last straw and got them kicked out the group. Nowadays, mention either of them on the other's sites or forums and you'll be met with scorn, or in the case of the latter, you'll be banned, rudely insulted and met with scorn. This is particularly the case with Hat Films, who have turned Gamechap into something of a running gag online.
  • Fans of TotalBiscuit and Yognau(gh)ts mostly get along (as do the creators for the most part), but the former has criticised the latter a few times, leading to more minor versions of this trope. These are mostly minor hiccups as far as fans are concerned.
    • And in turn, TotalBiscuit fans and Extra Credits fans don't get along very well due to their being on opposite ends of the political spectrum.
  • While fans of Nerd³ and InTheLittleWood mostly like each other due to their collab series, Yognaughts and Procrastinators have a somewhat uneasy coexistence. As with TB, there is still a large degree of overlap, so it's not an outright rivalry.
  • Due to the somewhat heated disputes between InTheLittleWood and "Keemstar" (of "Drama Alert" infamy) over issues such as Sam Pepper and Bashurverse, as well as Keemstar hitting on Martyn's girlfriend Kaeyi, fans of the two do not get along.
• Fans of GameChap, aside from the aforementioned issue with the Yogscast, are now on bad terms with the Minecraft community at large, whereas before they were still fairly popular. This is partly due to Gamechap's starting a Twitter war with Marc Watson of Mojang over 500,000 accounts initially being hacked (when in reality that was not the case), silencing those speaking in favour of the Pixelmon mod (which had come under fire for controversial coding) and then not crediting an animator for his work on the bunny hopping animation.
• Due to the sexual abuse scandal on Youtube, many formerly Friendly Fandoms are now bitter rivals, such as the fandoms of Charlieissocoollike and Alex Day (or at least any fans Alex has left at this point).
• In Russia, +100500 fans vs. This Is Horosho fans. Both of them are viral video reviews similar to Ray William Johnson's Equals Three; however, their approach is different. Ti H fans see Maxim Golopolosov, +100500 host, as a Sir Swears-a-Lot punk who only repeats the phrases from reviewed videos; +100500 fans, on the other hand, see their rival as their ripoff (given that Ti H started month after +100500) and its host, Stas Davydov, as someone cracking unfunny "elitist" jokes. Then there's the fact both shows took jabs at each other a couple of times.
• DEATH BATTLE! vs. ClassicGameGuys's Fatal Fiction. Death Battle is also fairly notorious for causing these due to the nature of the show and the nature of the internet, as several viewers are prone to taking their favorite character's defeat and subsequent death very poorly indeed. Such as Goku losing to Superman being one of the most unabashed examples of this in the whole series.
  • Sometimes Death Battle plays on existing ones. Best example being Tracer vs. Scout.
  • Thrown in the mix is another VS series called Cartoon Fight Club made by Animation Rewind, notable for being newer and having lower budget animations. Doesn't help that the creator's annotations and description for every video has "Not Screwattack or Death Battle teehee/Huehuehue".
• DeviantArt vs. pixiv and this is generally related to which is better, given that the latter allows most things that the former doesn't.
• Shitty Gamer Takes vs. Bad Gaming Takes. The two are comic twitter accounts that post bad takes made around gaming, with the latter being created as an active answer to the former. SGT is an account that is criticized for furthering negative stereotypes of gamers, portraying them as racist and misogynist trolls, and was heavily criticized by its detractors for its creator's poor behavior online, including accusations that she harassed a former high school classmate; the latter is criticized by the fans of the former for not being very funny and most of its posts being pointing out someone who has an unpopular opinion (though some acknowledge it has been getting better about it), not keeping the posters anonymous (unlike SGT, who edits out the name and avatar of the bad take to ensure that the poster isn't harrased) and plugging their film podcast endlessly.
• Members of the two most popular Q&A websites, Yahoo Answers and Quora, don’t get along at all. Fans of the former accuse the latter of being too pretentious and strict (as well as objecting to being forced to use their real names, a rule kiboshed around the same time Yahoo Answers shut down), while fans of the latter view the former as heavily Troll-infested, with poor moderation^note Yahoo Answers moderation is automated, so they kind of have a point here and irritating glitches. The fact that Quora outlasted Yahoo Answers doesn’t help one bit, not in the least because this resulted in most Yahoo trolls flocking over to Quora.
• Jomboy Media vs. Close Call Sports. Both channels analyze MLB ejections whenever an umpire makes a close or questionable call. CCS focuses on the rulebook and explains situations from the perspective of the umpire. JomBoy goes in-depth by reporting the actions of players, coaches, managers and umpires while giving lip-reading accounts. The rivalry has been getting more and more heated since the beginning of the 2021 season with fans of both clashing on how each has affected the enjoyment of baseball.
  • Those who follow CCS claim that JomBoy's lack of knowledge on the rules and his umpire-bashing have rubbed off on his followers. JomBoy's fans express that his analyzing allows them to enjoy a lighter side of baseball, something CCS and its own base has discouraged because he paints umpires in a negative light. Close Call Sports founder Lindsay Imber seems to be aware of this, mentioning JomBoy on one video where acting Cubs manager Andy Green argued with Tom Hallion on a slide interference no-call. On an earlier video where Christian Yelich had choice words resulting in an ejection, Imber commented "You don’t have to have a talent for lip-reading..."
  • Casual baseball fans, even those who don't follow JomBoy, accuse CCS and its commenters of being hypocritical with respect to the game. Detractors point out that CCS goes out of its way to avoid addressing umpire accountability issues while offering too much leeway on judgment calls. The channel's followers, most of whom expect everyone to know even the most obscure rules in the book, usually respond to these concerns with sarcasm, derision and insults. Even those with umpiring experience are on the receiving end. Some MLB umpires, current and former, offer insight on rule discussion. However, the administration looks the other away when Bob Davidson uses the blog to troll contributors and post sexist remarks.
  • Then there are those who don't take a side because of the increasingly in-your-face content of both channels. Those who say that JomBoy is overrated to the point of going commercial and he doesn't do his research on the rules most of the time also claim that CCS has devalued into JomBoy for umpires complete with mocking commentaries and sound effects.
• Given the fact that the two are on the opposite sides of the political spectrum, Rational Wiki and Conservapedia absolutely hate each other. In fact, the former was created as a rebuttal to the latter.
• Rational Wiki actually has a category dedicated to the sites that have a Fandom Rivalry with them.
• Jrose11 and Mah-Dry-Bread are two YouTubers who do solo runs in Pokémon, and there's a Vocal Minority of fans of one who will attack the other. Jrose has brought up several times in his videos that he very much dislikes it when his fans bash Mah-Dry-Bread, as they're not rivals, and Mah-Dry-Bread's videos being successful actually helps him because it leads to YouTube recommending other Pokémon content.
• The Nothing, Forever fandom seems to have a rivalry with a Follow the Leader stream called Unlimited Steam. Occasionally, Unlimited Steam fans would show up in the stream chat of Nothing, Forever to diss the stream and boast about how their series is superior. Usually they're ignored or if a mod is present, they quickly get muted.
• Between brewing with the Hellaverse (Hazbin Hotel, Helluva Boss) and Lackadaisy. All three shows are indie animated series that feature anthro characters and dark comedy, and this is an interesting example given how the two fandoms were almost 100% on friendly terms prior to the release of the Lackadaist pilot. Currently, the relationship between the two is...rocky, both for the usual reasons arising when people prefer one thing to another and other more complicated factors involving their studios and creators. This has caused no small amount of headaches for the fans who enjoy both shows equally and want all this drama to stop.
• Fans of The Amazing Digital Circus have a feud with fans of the Hellaverse, specifically Hazbin Hotel, as Digital Circus amassed massive attention in less than a week. Despite the friendship between Gooseworx and VivziePop as well as Goose composing the background music and designing some of the characters for Hazbin, the rivalry between their respective shows' fanbases began when the Digital Circus pilot diverted a lot of attention away from of promotional material of Hazbin's incoming Amazon Prime premiere, meaning a certain subsection of Hazbin viewers see Digital Circus as a threat to their show's success. Not helping is how the Digital Circus pilot also managed to beat the Hazbin Hotel pilot in terms of view count in the span of a few weeks.^note For reference, the Hazbin pilot was only coming close to cracking 100 million views after four years on YouTube. It's likely that TADC's more family-friendly approach was able to gain a bigger audience than Hazbin's older teen/adult audience.
  
  The rivalry proceeded to worsen when a Twitter / X video titled "If TADC was written by VivziePop" featuring Pomni and Caine constantly swearing; mocking the excessive use of profanity in the Hellaverse.^note The original video itself was actually tongue in cheek and was not made out of malice, but TADC fans, Hellaverse haters, Hellaverse fans and Vivzie herself mistook the video as a genuine attack. The video went viral and inspired similar memes replacing Digital Circus with other shows. This barrage of mockery soon reached Vivzie herself and she responded in a manner many considered immature and childish, leading to fans of Helluva/Hazbin defending Vivzie but also more mockery from Digital Circus fans.
• illymation's fanbase has an intense rivalry with the fanbase of commentary channel Think Before You Sleep due to the latter making a video harshly criticizing Illy for her video on fat acceptance. This resulted in Illy accusing TBYS of cyberbullying her and asking her fans to report the video and de-platform him. TBYS responded by clarifying he was giving her criticism, not bullying her. The respective fans of both channels go out of their way to make one seem completely in the wrong and refuse to think that both were wrong. Not helping is Illy's own admission (via Tumblr) to having not watched the video beforehand, and only being given a "run down" by a friend who claimed to have seen it.

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