It has just been brought to our attention that a Nicola Walker fan has set up a new LiveJournal page titled nicola_walker, sub-titled Bonkers but Brilliant. We do not have a problem with any fan of Nicola’s setting up any number of LiveJournal pages in order to celebrate Nicola’s work in a way which that fan feels necessary or appropriate, but we do object to such a deliberate attempt to pass-off this new LiveJournal page as having anything to do with this fansite.
This fansite has been known as “Bonkers but Brilliant” since it was first set up in 2006 by another fan. At that time, the webmaster also set up a LiveJournal page titled nicolawalker, sub-titled Bonkers but Brilliant. When we took over the administration of the fansite in September 2010 and subsequently its re-design, we made an editorial decision to mothball the LiveJournal page for a number of reasons :
- there has not been a whole lot of activities on the LiveJournal page for some time
- the new format of the fansite allowed us to post more detailed entries regarding Nicola’s work, so that it was no longer necessary to use LiveJournal for this purpose
- the new format of the fansite also allowed fans to log comments, again, duplicating a similar function on LiveJournal
Recently, the fan in question logged an entry on our Nicola LiveJournal page which contained links to her own, personal, LiveJournal page where she had posted a number of entries which set out her comments on various aspects of Nicola’s work. We made a collective decision to delete that post as we felt that it was an unfair way of diverting traffic to this fan’s own, personal LiveJournal page. If you wish to comment on Nicola’s work, why not do it either on this fansite, or on our Nicola LiveJournal page direct? If you have already set up a personal LiveJournal page, why not publicize that page using your own methods, instead of taking advantage of our member list?
Understandably, our deletion of that post has enraged the fan in question. Instead of taking this up with the Editor on this fansite, the fan in question sent a very, very rudely worded private message to one of our contributions via one of the Spooks forums. As far as we were concerned, this was a very childish act and we chose not to respond. Until now.
We are just one group of Nicola Walker fans who wish to celebrate Nicola’s work on the internet. Other fans are absolutely free to undertake similar activities in any form they can think of. Be creative. Be inventive. We do object, however, most strenuously, if people try to pass off their efforts as being in any way associated with this fansite by using “Bonkers but Brilliant” as the title of their LiveJournal or Facebook page. If, as this particular fan has already stressed in her very rude private message, we are such a despicable lot, why does she still want to ride on our coat-tails?
It is not our intention to pick a fight with any Nicola Walker fan (which is why we are disabling Comments for this Post). We have chosen to maintain a dignified silence in all this, till now. We just want other fans to know that we have nothing to do with the new LiveJournal Nicola Walker page. We would also urge that particular fan to change her new LiveJournal page to something other than “Bonkers but Brilliant”.