Criminal Minds chat is bullshit.
I felt this a while back when I dropped in for a chat with Joe Mantegna’s PA but it was still kind of hilarious and I was still able to have fun and enjoy the chat with Joe. However, this chat with Paget was ridic.
Not Paget, don’t get me wrong. She is all kinds of amazing and I adore her, and I appreciate her showing up. I even have to give some cred to the mods for organizing everything.
I get that people in mod positions tend to take their jobs a little more seriously than everyone else. It’s the Percy Weasley syndrome. And I can accept that. I really can.
I will just mock you for it.
As Jill ever-so-nicely pointed out, she does these chats FOR US. The only thing I can gather from that is that she means the lowly pathetic nobodys who were quick enough on the draw to create the first CM fan site, and therefore do not get to talk to the CM cast “whenever I want,” as Jill claims to be able to do.
Double plus, I kind of think she’s full of shit about that. But I digress.
So Jill, who can speak with the CM cast whenever she wants, figures that she’ll throw the rest of us pathetic lumps a bone and host a chat. From the bottom of her heart. And honestly, from the bottom of my cold, black, heart, I do appreciate the thought. Except for when she throws it back at us that she’s just doing it from the kindness of her heart.
Then come the “rules” of the chat. Which basically consist of Jill and/or the selected few saying…
STOP
STOP TALKING
STOP
STOP
WHEN I SAY STOP, NO ONE SHOULD BE TYPING.
I’m fairly certain that if Jill could come through your computer and cut off your fingers for typing, she would do it.
I got to the chat super early, like an hour early, so I got to hear the rules SEVEN times. SEVEN. And if you count the fact that the rules are also posted below the chat box, that makes EIGHT.
Moving on from the rules, because I could seriously rant forever about the rules, was the obvious fact that the rules only applied to previously-stated-lowlings. The mods and Jill were more than happy to talk amongst themselves (and they would also later be more than happy to pal around with Paget while the rest of us looked on like some fucked up Oliver Twist wanting some more fucking bread).
Let me state that I completely understand not letting everyone talk when Paget is answering questions. Totally understand. I do not have a problem with people being booted for asking questions out of turn, or for IMing Paget. It should be fairly obvious that those things are not allowed.
I guess I just really feel that if the cast themselves were in the chat room when this rule shit and STOP TALKING STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP shit was going on, they’d be mortified. It just seems so opposite of how they handle fans themselves (in person and on twitter), that it is just hard for me to visualize them condoning this behavior.
Though ngl, I just about peed my pants when the mods said Paget had a captive audience. HOW FUCKING TRUE WAS THAT? WE WERE SO CAPTIVE, WE COULDN’T EVEN TYPE IN THE WINDOW!!
