Harassment and abuse in fandom

I've started a couple of posts on the discussions and revelations of abuse and harassment that consumed my Twitter feed for most of last week (and composed even more of them in my head), but now that things are slowing down it feels less crucial to say anything, if it ever even was necessary for me to wade in. I guess more and more now I'm thinking about fandom history, and how it gets slowly lost over time. For just one example, I have many friends, now, who either weren't yet in fandom during Racefail or were in different corners of it, and so they don't remember watching it unfold in real time and didn't live through the active fallout from it. This thread by clairewillett, in particular, served as a wake-up call to me. And it's a pattern not just with large-scale events like Racefail, but these waves of abuse accusations that come out every so often, and how often it seems like we see a name multiple times with no consequences. How do does a community impose lasting consequences when that community's memory is in a constant state of flux? And how do we provide space for people to get better and change, while prioritizing the safety and comfort of the people who they hurt? (Because if that's the choice we have to make, I'm definitely picking the latter.)

I want to say right now that I'm not interested in litigating the veracity of any of the charges, past or current. I don't know most of these folks and, in most cases, I don't have a vested interest in whether any specific creator's career is preserved. That's not what I care about, here. What I want is a climate where survivors feel supported in coming forward, and a culture where we understand why someone might choose not to do so. And I want a world where abuse and harassment have consequences. And I want a world where marginalized people feel welcome in fandom communities. Sometimes I feel like we're taking steps to create that world, and sometimes I despair of it being a world we'll ever see. But I have to believe that we're getting there, that every painful bandage we rip off will allow the wound beneath to heal a little more.