#WoTme

Some days when I describe what The Wheel of Time has meant to my life it’s difficult to portray the depth to those who aren’t invested in the series, or who haven't experienced a fandom community share itself and its love.

My first experience of OMG-these-people-are-awesome-and-they-get-me-and-are-oh-so-generous-with-their-thoughts-and-time was back when I stumbled upon Leigh Butler’s WoT Reread on Tor.com.

My second experience of the same was my first JordanCon, where I discovered the extended family I didn’t know I had.

My third experience of the overwhelming connectedness and all around fuzzy goodness this fandom brings happened today.

I logged onto Facebook this morning to see a Wheel of Time fan group was in the midst of playing what at first appeared to be a generic casting game. Fans were posting selfies for other group members to decide which WoT character that selfie resembled.

It came with the hashtag #WoTme.

And a backstory.

Apparently, while I slept some drama had rumbled through this group. It's a sizeable group (over 5000 members), and one that ranges in age, geography, cultural background, and any other variant you can think of—including stages of (re)reading the book series.

Usually drama unfolding in this group involves someone slipping a spoiler onto the main page without a warning as to that spoiler’s presence.

Friday morning (Thursday evening?), the drama began from a selfie...

Yes, an innocent selfie.

Someone posted a selfie and asked the group to identify a corresponding character.

Someone else decided to bully that original poster.

I didn't see the offending exchange, because admins came to the rescue and rid the group of the offender—they’re particularly awesome admins who act fast and have a zero-bullying-tolerance (as they should!).

Usually that’d be the end of an issue and we'd all move on. Right?

Not today. No, this particular day magic happened...

Someone else posted a selfie, and asked the group at large to pick a corresponding character, in solidarity of the bullied selfie-poster and as a stand against bullying everywhere.

And then there was another selfie posted.

And another.

It kept going.

People were commenting on others’ pictures. Responding kindly, sillily, remarkably, and en force. It would appear I woke up right when the group was getting into the swing of the fun, and as the day rolled on, it only gained speed. Hundreds—possibly upward of a thousand—selfies have been posted.

(And it's still going on as I write this.)

It's astounding.

My newsfeed was flooded with selfies and the hashtag #WoTme, and The Wheel of Time community reminded me yet again why it is so incredible...

It is kind.

It is welcoming. (It's damn attractive, too.)

And best yet: it’s a community in every sense of the word, regardless of the majority of it existing in cyberspace.

It’s heartening.

When you’re a fan of The Wheel of Time you’re part of a giant family, and you many not have met them all, and you may never will, but like a family we’ve got each others’ backs.

So I’m posting here in solidarity against bullying.

#WoTme