I could set aside my responsibilities to others and live my life as I pleased only when I also severed my ties to them. … To be a part of a family, or any community, is to have duties and responsibilities …
— the musing of FitzChivalry Farseer, Fool’s Errand, Robin Hobb
this seems to me to peculiarly apply to sub-communities of fandom, particularly roleplayers, who insist that because they roleplay for fun, they must not be held to any social standards that may be part and parcel of group activities. For example, it is believed that a roleplayer does not need to give any reason for refusal to thread with someone, and may in fact completely ignore that person without repercussion, and that person is permitted no socially acceptable response. Yet if the same circumstances were to obtain over a board game or other equally social activity, such behaviour would be considered exceptionally rude by all parties.