Joe/Nicky Discourse: A Hand-Counted Survey

Joe/Nicky Discourse: A Hand-Counted Survey is a Tumblr post by lazaefair which caused controversy in The Old Guard fandom in late February 2021. 
Lazaefair is a meta writer who had been critical since early August 2020 about the disparity between Top!Joe and Top!Nicky in Old Guard fanfiction because it represented, to them, a disparity in empathy by fanfiction writers for Joe (Yusuf al-Kaysani) (a character of color) versus for Nicky (Nicolo di Genova) (a white character). The Tumblr post outlined the results of a "hand-counted survey" of all E-rated Joe/Nicky fanfiction on AO3 and graphed the instances of Top!Joe versus Top!Nicky. 
Lazaefair also published a spreadsheet on Google Docs containing the raw data collected, which many fan writers took as personally offensive. The spreadsheet included names of and links to specific E-rated fics, along with the characteristics of the sex position in the fic (whether Joe or Nicky was top, bottom, or both). In some TOG Discord servers, this was referred to as the Top!Joe Wank Spreadsheet. 
==Reactions==
As with many other fandom events, reactions to the post itself became rapidly distributed across multiple other blogs, with commentary occurring in several places. The reactions and conversation became very difficult to track as a result. The arguments being made differed in tone and content depending on how long a fan had been participating in the fandom, whether they were previously aware of the discourse (and discussions around it), had avoided the discourse, or had to seek out context.
===Negative or critical===
The reasons for negative or critical reactions varied: 
* Some fans whose works were included felt that the spreadsheet amounted to calling out every Top!Joe fic in the fandom
* Other fans who had been trying to avoid or ignore the discourse felt they were being dragged into it because their works were included in the count 
* Some fans who had intentionally left sex positions untagged on their fics were angered that their fic was now linked to a specific position
* Others were critical of the methods behind the stats, including the data analysis or the focus on penetrative sex acts 
* Some felt that the data wasn’t the best illustration of the issue at hand
* Arguments that there were more important issues in the fandom to address
* Complaints were made on side blogs (not on the post itself) that fics had been miscategorized
===Neutral or positive===
There were also a few fans who spoke about the spreadsheet neutrally or in defense of it. These included: 
* A few fans whose works were included who said they understood why the spreadsheet was created and that they didn’t mind their fics being included
* Arguments that the fics were all public when gathered (ie: not archive-locked) and that data collection and analysis of this sort is relatively common in fandoms
* Feelings that the negative reaction to the post was disproportionate and, over time, increasingly vicious 
* Arguments that even if other content gaps and issues existed in the fandom, this trend was worth discussing, specifically because Joe is a Muslim man of colour
* Positive responses grateful that a general overview existed at all, even if the overview had limitations 
* Willingness to see if/how Laz and Ven would provide updates, explanations, or responses to people's complaints
==Post update==
In response to concerns raised about the analysis, Lazaefair published an update to the original post 4 days after the original was made. Among other points, the update clarified the number of fics examined, discussed inclusion and exclusion criteria, and gave an explanation of how the fics had been categorized and why. 
 
A number of fans from Feb 21 hosted indirect conversations on their blogs around the post and spreadsheet, and several opened their inboxes to anons. Some of these anons complained after the update was made that the survey creators had blocked them, so the anons felt they had no way to contact them to get the link to their fic removed or the categorization updated; other fans said that they were sympathetic as to why anon messaging and dms were turned off, due to the rapid escalation of the situation and frequent instances of personally attacking language directed towards Lazaefair and Ven. Other anons expressed that they felt they had been harassed or silenced when they spoke up about racism in the fandom, so were unconvinced by arguments that the post and spreadsheet were making the fandom toxic or that Laz and Ven were solely responsible for reigniting the discourse. Some fans in their responses differentiated between those they deemed “top!Joe Stans” and fans who enjoyed writing, reading, or otherwise creating content where Joe topped.
In the aftermath of the spreadsheet, a number of fans left the fandom; others flounced. Some fans chose to focus on creating new discord servers or events, including some specific to bottom!Joe as a trope or welcoming dark fic written about Joe/Nicky. 
==Fan Comments==
:[torch-the-throne]
:[lizaliveunenchanted]
:[miss-nixy]
::[giotanner]
:
==Links==
* The Spreadsheet
* Joe/Nicky Discourse: A Hand-Counted Survey (archived link), a Tumblr post by Lazaefair
==References==
Category:The Old Guard
Category:2021 Tumblr