This article is from WeChat official account:Entertainment hard candy (ID: yuleyingtang), author: Liu earth, from head Figure: vision China
This year is the third time for the rectification of the rice circle.
In response to related special actions, Douban teams, such as Douban Pulling Team, Qingqing Grassland, and Melon Eater Team, were suspended for 30 days. Sina Weibo, Douban, Douyin, Interest Tribes, Superstar Rice Ball, and Idol APP platforms were named and notified by the Cyberspace Administration of China for their undesirable information and behaviors such as inducing minors to chase stars without a bottom line and tearing each other’s “fan circles”.
In the Douban group mentioned above, there is a new tearing theme almost every day. The “Xiao Zhan 227 Holy War” incident that broke out at the beginning of the year even tore a wound in idol culture, and the aftermath has not yet been resolved. Accompanying the prosperous fan economy is a mess of reporting, fraud, and cyber violence.
The flow rate of the rice circle has increasingly shown its “water energy overturning” side. The upstream and downstream of the star-chasing industry are trying to make adjustments to avoid becoming the city that is undermined by the pond.
Idol declined to move on Weibo, my sister called to stop the fundraising, the brokerage company guided the operation of the support club, and the fans chose to give up control reviews and list rankings… In the face of the new round of rectification, many fans in the circle shouted: ” Turn off “Super Talk”, “Clear Data” and “Prohibit Krypton Gold”.
The masses are tired of seeing it a long time ago, and the meal circle is even more tired. In fact, all parties want to chase stars and lighten the burden. But how to avoid circle conflicts? How to ensure that the enclosure is spontaneous? How can we respond reasonably? And when fans truly return to rationality, how should those star-chasing products that rely on rankings and krypton gold to adjust themselves and regain their value?
These issues have existed for a long time, but they have never been of discussion value as they are now-when they have to change, they can indeed change.
Star chasing products, structural “disease”
Whenever the chaos in the rice circle is mentioned, there must be three typical problems: cheating on rankings, over-spending and inciting fan groups to verbally abuse each other.
Playing the rankings is extremely common in Asian countries where the rice circle culture is developed. Initially, the Japanese and Korean idol industry planned a series of authoritative lists for collective interaction in order to increase fans’ sense of participation when chasing stars.
With the rise of Chinese local idols, the traditional influence of the Hallyu star-chasing model and the development needs of the local Internet industry, fans are quickly involved in a data battle dominated by the list.
Sina Weibo is the first batch of products developed on the list in China. At the beginning of the launch, the station established a popular list of stars. At that time, Yao Chen and Zhang Ziyi were firmly in the forefront, and Yang Mi and Tang Yan were also called “new people.” The value of the list has not yet been activated, and it is simply used to show the number of fans and popularity.
When the WeChat public account and Moments began to lead mobile Internet social media, Weibo was dismal. Until Weibo was keenly aware of the powerful productivity of following stars, it designed new features such as super topics and star power lists to activate fan traffic and allow the public to return to Weibo under the agglomeration effect.
Nowadays, the star power list is divided into nine dimensions, including the mainland list, the new star list, and the Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan lists. There are divided into daily, weekly, and monthly lists. The scoring rules of the major lists are different, and the resources supported by the champions are also different. Since Weibo is still the most important channel for embracing the nation, celebrities and fans can only actively participate in the chasing of the rankings, and strive for opportunities such as changing regions and rankings and exclusive recommendations.
In addition to reposting comments, sending flowers can quickly increase the score of the list. A virtual flower contributes two admiration points, and users can obtain it by purchasing it separately or registering a membership. Last year, several fans jointly reported and boycotted the celebrity list, and Weibo changed the flowers to members only.
In today’s star chasing software, the list is standard. Idol, Hobby Tribe, and Super Star Rice Ball will be online at the same time (around 2014), featuring the “List+” product model, with benefits and resources Attract fans to participate, and then use the characteristic ecology to achieve differentiation as much as possible.
There are community and square sections in the idol and superstar rice ball stations, but user activity is extremely low. Once the list culture dies, the ecology of the two major products will completely collapse. As a comprehensive community, interest tribes focus on content layout and connect with QQ groups. They can rely on fans to socialize closely to achieve traffic precipitation, and the infrastructure is relatively stable.
The main interface of idol, superstar rice ball, hobby tribe (from left to right)
The issue of Douyin and Douban is not on the list, but is guided by public opinion. The former’s love DOU list has weak influence and is not a battleground for fans. However, there are so many “entertainment breaking news accounts” on the platform, often angering fans due to malicious editing and false breaking news, causing large-scale conflicts of views.
The latter does not have a list, but has gathered many entertainment groups, which is easy to cause controversy in excessive gossip and spreading rumors. It is the “origin of gossip.” Last year, the vigorous “Kunlun War” on Weibo was triggered by the Douban group “Jay Chou Weibo data is so bad, why is it difficult to buy concert tickets” fishing post. According to incomplete statistics, there are hundreds of accounts named “Goose Group” and “Eight Group” on Weibo alone, with millions of fans at every turn, and the visible radiation range is wide.
For example, the disabling of the pull team during rectification is the most criticized by the outside world. The team members post with the ultimate goal of “pulling the world”, with the theme of ridicule the celebrities, and counterattack the behavior of flattery, control and evaluation. Wanton emotional catharsis is cool enough, but the proliferation of online malice also offends the masses, and provokes “smelly mouth” and “no-brain” questions.
Relying on rankings and out of control of public opinion are obviously system problems common in star-chaser products. If not, where does the traffic come from?
As for overconsumption, that is a sweet burden that Weibo only has. The idol and superstar rice balls have been commercialized for many years, but have not yet found a stable monetization model. After all, not every star-chasing product can wait for a huge fan of the business.
Broken rice circle balance
The rice circle has strict levels and clear division of labor. According to the degree of fanaticism and professional attributes, it can be divided into ordinary fans, screen fans, professional fans, and illegitimate fans. But in fact, there are circles in circles.
In the wave of professional star-chasing, Weibo, Douban, Idol, and interest tribes have been favored by fans, benefiting from solving the “employment” needs of different types of work. These common star-chasing products work together to piece together the internal organization of the meal circle.
On each platform, each fan has its own rules. The so-called chaos in the rice circle is essentially that certain groups cross-border law enforcement, breaking the ecological balance due to differences in value. However, no matter how to rectify, the students of the interest tribe and the social animals of Douban are destined to be unable to talk.
Whenever there are scenes of fans criticizing and tearing up, the Douban Goose group will complain about “primary school chicken behavior” and “too little student homework now”. However, the culture of support that has no sense in the eyes of these adults may be just the high praises from the tribe of interest. And the “brain-disabled speech” that has repeatedly exacerbated the turmoil in the rice industry may be the perfect score template in the eyes of young fans.
Among many star-chasing products, interested tribe users are the youngest. Their worldview and values have not yet formed, and the overall portrait is complex, but they have the common characteristics of advocating individuality, keen expression and limited consumption ability. The “true love” that is difficult to prove by spending money can only be expressed with the help of fan papers and fan art.
But after all, they are primary and middle school students, and the essays written are inevitably logically confused and cluttered with rhetoric. It can’t stop people from being full of emotions and can arouse sympathy. Many “encrypted” languages can only be interpreted in a specific context. These materials were transported to Weibo and Douban, in return for adult sneers.
The interest tribe is the spiritual granary for the students, and the Douban group is the gossip holy land for social animals. The original “Gossip Group” (Eight Group for short) has been Douban’s most popular entertainment group for 10 years. Since its inception, the group has adopted strict audit principles and has only absorbed 700,000 group members so far.
In 2018, due to “six ministries and commissions jointly rectifying hype celebrity gossip privacy and entertainment gossip”, the eight groups were suspended for several days and renamed the Douban Goose Group. Weibo netizens came after hearing the news and applied to join the “New Goose” team.
Although this round of recruitment has gathered a new batch of post-95s and post-00s, the eight core members are still post-90s and post-80s working parties. Due to the influx of newcomers, the quality of posts in the group has deteriorated, and a large number of old people have moved to new groups such as Qingqing Meadows and Talents.
Among the Xinxing Douban entertainment group, the step group is the youngest and more active. They have loose standards, sharp opinions, and specialize in “puzzling coffee”. The team members call themselves “donkeys”, which shows the scale of self-deprecation.
Repeated friction between entertainment and social topics has caused a bloody storm on Douban. It is not so much a meal circle, but more like a pan-entertainment crowd. It is also tool-type products such as idols and superstar rice balls, which mainly provide users with celebrity information and gather professional fans. They focus on idol itineraries, album sales, and support activities. They are relatively far away from gossip, and the community atmosphere is more positive.
It can be posted on Weibo, Douyin and other mass media. Career fans who “emphasize actual performance and despise public opinion” are easy to be complained by “word-of-mouth fans”. In the latter’s view, the basis of gorgeous data is word of mouth, and talking about achievements away from the public is just a self-inflict.
Career fans want to spend money, data fans want to make rankings, word-of-mouth fans want to control reviews. Fans are all fighting for the idol career. They choose different ways and different values. From the outside world, they are the same group of people. Undertake joint responsibility for behavior. In this way, it is not difficult to understand why in the “Xiao Zhan 227 Incident,” fans clearly shouted “Don’t fight, don’t fight”, but the situation became chaotic.
Appropriate tolerance for “offensive” by others is a virtue. There is an undercurrent surging inside the rice circle, let alone face the collision of circles and public doubts? Especially the existence of dog fans makes chasing stars comparable to solving crimes.
How long will it take to chase stars and reduce the burden?
Playing rankings, unlocking, rushing sales… are all carrots hanging in front of donkeys in the star chasing system, and the number is increasing.
The outside world often sighs that fans are so enthusiastic, but in fact, the reaction of the fans is getting stronger and stronger. Fans are starting to no longer focus on the “counter-party”, but aim at the platforms and brands that formulate KPIs. Recently, it was Weibo “moving house” that was directly torn to the table due to tasks.
The so-called relocation refers to the top three on the “Rising Stars List” of the monthly Weibo power list, which can be transferred to the more mainstream “Mainland List”. The successful move is a sign of the self-verification and popularity of the new generation of idols. In August of this year, Zhao Xiaotang, Xie Keyin, Zeng Keni and Zhao Yue participated in the competition.
This time “moving house” is a big training for the newly formed women’s draft team, so the competition is far fiercer than ever. Not only fans are aligning, but the idols themselves also end live data, water microblogs, and thousands of comments, which is really magical. In the end, Zhao Yue’s family smashed 4 million, but it failed to make the idol soar.
The disastrous defeat caused dissatisfaction among fans. Many people blamed the supporters for making mistakes in their estimates and not knowing how to stop losses in time. “Please plan your investment activities reasonably” and “face up to the basic common sense that fans are humans and not machines”, expressing the aspirations of the star chaser.
Before this, several fans, such as Cai Xukun and Zhang Yanqi, had also publicly expressed the data dispute over their withdrawal from the Weibo list. Last year, Zhang Yanqi posted on Weibo that he refused to move and not just to be himself, but to hope that fans would not spend their enthusiasm on this matter. He learned that the little monkey (fan said) had already invested a lot of costs and could not be cancelled, so he decided to spend the same money for public welfare, so that he paid more value.
While giving up moving to make Zhang Yanqi a solid fan, he won rave reviews from the outside world. Nowadays, when several fans “move”, they usually negotiate and vote in private to avoid wasting too much resources. Zhao Yue’s failure to “move” even gave many fans the idea of abandoning the list.
Chasing stars and reducing the burden has gradually become the general trend. During the broadcast of “Sister Riding the Wind and Waves”, Huang Ling, A Duo, Lan Yingying and other sisters stopped the fan fundraising and returned the funds. What do you mean by guiding rational star chasing, the talent show should really learn something.
There have been successful cases in the fight for fans to withdraw from the list, give up activity control, and refuse to compete in sales. After many years of weight-bearing, Fanquan began to rethink the meaning of star chasing.
In addition to celebrities and fans, the agency also tried to participate in the operation of the support club and data group. Prior to this, the two fans of Xilinnayi Gao and Chen Zhuoxuan had many frictions, and the disputes continued to escalate on social media, which is very likely to affect the reputation of artists and fan groups.
After mediation failed, hardThe sugar girl official said that before the armistice, the two support clubs were disqualified for voting and offline support, and urged both parties to make rectification as soon as possible.
The changes in mood and wind direction inside and outside the rice circle are demanding the timely adjustment of strategies for the star-chase products. The support activities that are unsightly, over-harvesting, and too oppressive are slowly failing. The platform needs to rebuild a safer and more comfortable ecosystem to cater to the mainstream demands and seek progress while maintaining stability.
But building a good rice circle ecosystem is by no means a matter of time. Fans, celebrities, and platforms all need to conduct self-inspection under supervision. Recall that during the anti-epidemic period, hundreds of support associations initiated fund-raising and assistance to the front line. The scene was spectacular and heart-warming, and won unanimous praise. Obviously, public welfare is still a good direction to increase the added value of star chasing.
Fans gather in hundreds of rivers, supporting generations of traffic idols, supporting brokerage companies and star-chasing platforms. But water can carry and overturn a boat. Riding the wind and waves is technical work. When can we not play rankings, control reviews, or cross-circle law enforcement, and get more positive energy to chase stars instead of consuming enthusiasm in negative incentives.
This article is from WeChat official account:Entertainment hard candy (ID: yuleyingtang), author: Liu soil