“Unbelievable Acts of Kindness: 50 Heartwarming Moments When Strangers Became Heroes Online”

Have you ever felt a pang of sadness watching your favorite underground band suddenly explode into mainstream success? It’s like witnessing your secret garden being trampled by a parade! On one hand, you wanna shout from the rooftops and celebrate their triumph. On the other, it feels like the magic of exclusivity just… poof! disappears. This sentiment—kind of like the grown-up version of “You can’t sit with us” in the cafeteria—leads us to a phenomenon called gatekeeping. But don’t worry, there’s a shining beacon of hope in this wild world of fandoms, and it goes by the name of the “Gates Open, Come In” subreddit! This delightful online community is all about embracing what you love, regardless of the naysayers. They’re champions of inviting everyone to enjoy what others might dismiss as “uncool.” Intrigued? I thought so! I had the chance to chat with one of the moderators, u/Merari01, to dive deeper into this inclusive corner of the internet. Wanna know what they had to say? Well, you’ll just have to read on to satisfy that curiosity! LEARN MORE.

It can be satisfying to see a niche thing you love – a book, a band, an artist – become popular in the mainstream. Yet it can also be upsetting. You root for their success for so long, but once everybody knows about them, it doesn’t feel as special. That’s gatekeeping, the grown-up cousin of “You can’t sit with us.”

But there is a community that doesn’t gatekeep: the Gates Open, Come In subreddit. It’s where people invite each other to like and enjoy stuff others might tell them is inappropriate or uncool, and generally have each other’s backs. Like the kids say these days, “In the clurb, we all fam.”

Bored Panda got in touch with one of the community’s moderators, u/Merari01, and they kindly agreed to tell us more about the subreddit. Read our short chat with them below!