JK Rowling was bullied off a Harry Potter forum where fans didn't know who she was
JK Rowling was bullied off a Harry Potter forum after she joined one under a fake name and ended up getting told she 'doesn't know anything' about the wizarding world she created.
You would think that nobody in the world would know more about Harry Potter than the person who wrote the books, but according to JK Rowling an internet forum she joined didn't like what she had to say.
By the sounds of it the author didn't even last very long in the forum before deciding to leave and not return.
Speaking on The Witch Trials of JK Rowling, the author explained that around about the time she was writing Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire she joined a chatroom to see what people were saying.
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Rowling said she picked 'a random name that was not a Potter-related name' so as not to give her identity away and decided to test the waters with a 'very bland' opinion about Harry Potter.
Apparently it didn't go down very well, as she was told she was 'clearly an idiot who doesn't know anything' and decided that the forum wasn't the place for her.
She said: "I left. And I was thinking, I've written three and a half books where bullying is such a theme from the very first page, where bullying - and authoritarian behaviour - is held to be one of the worst of human ills, and look what just happened, from these people who call themselves such fans of this franchise.
"I didn't care. I'm a pretty robust person. But what if I'd been some 12-year-old who was excited to go into this room, and was immediately, caustically chastised for not belonging? They just kicked someone out because they were new.
"I thought that was so interesting, that you're passionate about these books and yet, in the course of living, you are behaving in a way that I depict as one of the worst and most stupid human behaviours."
Other episodes of the podcast have focused on Rowling's experiences with domestic abuse and the anti-trans remarks which have brought criticism her way.
In the first episode of the podcast she said she didn't care whether her comments about the transgender community had tarnished her legacy as she doesn't really think about it.
Her comments have been a controversial issue for other famous Harry Potter-related figures, including the actors who appeared in the hugely popular film adaptations of her books.
Topics: JK Rowling, Harry Potter
Joe Harker