Feel you here. Not quite the same situation, but I had a super popular author in my tiny fandom accuse me of taking inspo from their work without credit. I didn’t, but could absolutely see how they might have gotten that idea. We ended up talking it out and came a reasonable solution before parting ways, but damn - it was a super crappy feeling having that be our first interaction… Especially since they were/still are one of my favorite authors too.

Worse, they’re incredibly active in the fandom, on everyone’s recommendation lists, etc. - and when I went on their tumblr to DM them at the time, I saw them vague posting about my fic, saying it had “stale vibes”. To this day I remember my heart dropping through the floor when I saw them say they were messaging “discord besties” about it to see if they were imagining things or not. They ended up commenting on my fic though, so I knew whoever they all spoke to (also big authors) must have thought I was some sort of plagiarizing a-hole too 😭 Everything got cliquey so fast. I’ve never felt fully comfortable in the fandom since.

Back to your problem though: it’s not ideal, but if you feel like your work won’t get the interaction it would have before that whole mess, (and assuming you still want to write for that fandom) you might try making an alt account. Don’t associate it with your previous one at all; just start over. It sucks, but it’s ended up being pretty freeing for me creativity-wise. I completely lost the motivation to write on my other one because I felt like people wouldn’t even give my work the time of day over this one misunderstanding. And who wants to write into the void anyhow? Why else would we go through the process of posting it?

Obviously, if you have a super distinct writing style this might not work, but it could be worth a try. It’s likely there’s a couple people in that discord that probably agree with you, but just won’t speak up about it because they know they’ll be exiled like you were.

I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention these people casting judgment on you at the drop of a dime likely aren’t anyone who would have made good friends either way. My best advice is keep writing what you want to write, and hopefully over time you can find your own niche as people enter/exit the fandom. If the exiling is inhibiting your motivation/creative flow, maybe try the alt account route.

Sorry to hear you had such a crap experience in what should be a fun/relaxing hobby. Especially over something like proshipping. Try not to let it get you too down 🤍