I'M LEEVIN TEH FANDUMB

[Symphon]

wut evr happned 2 teh luv & tolr8ion? the fandum is fallin part!!!!!!!!!!!!

No, but seriously. I've seen a lot of people do this whole act. The exaggerated, playing the victim thing. I think everyone knows what I'm talking about. (Before you ask, no, this isn't about the thread from earlier, I actually got this idea even earlier today from someone else.)

So, when it comes to the whole "THE FANDUMB IS FALLIN PART" thing, how do -you- guys think the fandom is faring in your opinion?

[itroitnyah]

The fandom is definitely not like it used to be, so whatever. The huge burst of fans began to whittle and wear away at everything from within the show, so now everything is used and reused. I'm probably not going to do many pony songs anymore since you can't really find originality to use in mlp songs anymore. More of less, all fanfiction ideas ever seem to be worn away, and any new ones are either shipfics with used storylines or something that's just wildly written and there's no storyline to it, it's just garbled up words put together to try and make the next big thing in the fandom. As for the show itself, I still like the show, and that will probably never change. It hasn't lost much of its glory since season two (it's high point) and it's fairing almost as well. I can see that it's going to start to decline in S4 though, and it'll begin a slow and steady descent until about season 10 where it's a lot of reused stuff before and fans are mostly lurking behind season 5 and up to 7's doors, watching the episodes but never really giving them much attention. But I could be wrong.

And the cons will still be worth going to, not exactly for the fandom but just to meet the VAs, storyboard artists, etc. Maybe a few of the big people from the beginning of the fandom, but otherwise just a place to hang out and meet other people with similar interests.

Sigh... You know what, just fuckin...

christ people, what is it with all this drama suddenly? First it was the flaming over genre wars with 3 separate threads, then flaming over Pewter with two separate threads, and now this...

[soultensionbenjamin]

horses are still cool in my opinion

[Symphon]

i think its stupid...
i honestly think your just an attention whore if you have to go and make a thread about you leaving the fandom! if you're gonna leave just leave don't be an asshole about it

I meant the fandom in general, not the "I'M LEEVING" people, but this is cool too.

[ghelded_kultz]

horses are still cool in my opinion

I personally prefer ponies to horses.

-Soft D. String DeHooves

[Thyrai]

It could be just the inflation of fans from all walks of life, but I've noticed the community has gotten steadily more obnoxious and melodramatic since when I joined in early-mid 2011. Stuff like Tumblr is an absolute nightmare, I can't even scroll past 10 posts without seeing some ridiculous drama or anti-bronysubgroup. I can honestly see why many people don't want to be associated with bronies anymore - and that's where I think a lot of this 'fandom collapse' panic is coming from.

</endrant>
But seriously, I still love the show - and I'll always consider myself a brony. By large, the community is great. It's just the vocal minorities that cause so many problems.

I just think everyone needs to chill out

[Magnitude Zero]

Arguably not totally on-topic, but I've been thinking about "love and tolerance" a bit lately. iirc it was coined as a counter-troll in the early days of the fandom and then evolved into an actual ideal that bronies followed, and then when the fandom started spreading more bronies would respond to trolls with "WELL I CAN WATCH WHATEVER THE FUCK I WANT YOU FUCKING SHITHEAD GO FUCK YOURSELF but love and tolerance bro, I respect your opinion and hope you have a really nice day!" So now when we hear "love and tolerate" we totally discredit it, and I say "we" because I'm including myself. And I think that's kind of a shame.

Yeah, it's overused, and yeah, it's not exactly what the show teaches, and yes, I understand that we don't need to be absolute best friends with everyone and tolerate everything that everyone says and does ever. But there's still some truth to it, right? Even if we ditch the phrase, or at least not take it as seriously as we used to, does that mean we can't stick to its message of not being a total dick to everyone?

Maybe it's just me, and I was blinded, so to speak, to the assholes in the community by how much I loved the show when I first discovered it. Maybe nothing's changed and I'm just experiencing some kind of disillusionment that comes with being around for a little while and seeing what's really going on in the not-immediately-visible parts of the fandom. But I swear people were at least a little nicer and, going off what Thyrai said, less melodramatic and uptight.

I don't usually make these posts because I tend to have trouble organizing my thoughts (even now I'm not totally sure what I was on about), but hopefully you get the gist of it.

[ph00tbag]

Relevant.

In other news, I can't wait for the results of this year's brony survey to come out and show that the fandom is even bigger than it was before, just with more enclaves and less osmosis between them.

[ghelded_kultz]

Relevant.

In other news, I can't wait for the results of this year's brony survey to come out and show that the fandom is even bigger than it was before, just with more enclaves and less osmosis between them.

That was amazing.

And you're probably right about the survey

[Fimbulin]

wut evr happned 2 teh luv & tolr8ion? the fandum is fallin part!!!!!!!!!

GUD LUCK TOO YEW GUD SER! I HOEP YEOR TROO FOLLEWERS AR LOYEL :LIKE RAENDBOWDASH.

[Stu Beef]

We're all pretty loosely connected anyway, I mean, how hard is it to like a show? I hate to be all " B) I'm cool and give no shits guys", but really, who cares?

[Stars In Autumn]

So according to Alexa, this is the percentage of net traffic EqD has experienced in its lifetime.


It looks fairly static, with a drop occurring in the summer months of 2012. While this obviously isn't the most perfect way of seeing how the fandom is doing, it's should at least show that it isn't shrinking in any drastic way.

In terms of the actual "quality" of the community, I think it comes down more to personal perception than a true objective view of the fandom. People find the show and the community exciting and thus view the fandom as a great thing. Then when the euphoria wears off after a few months, people will start seeing flaws and issues with some things. A community euphoria wearing off will probably make this effect more dramatic. But honestly, I've seen this fandom "falling apart" since the summer of 2011. It's just personal experience.

[the4thImpulse]

The fandom is fine, and honestly even if it wasn't I wouldn't care. It's about enjoying a show and having fun. For the music community it's about making fun music and getting experience making rather non-serious music and making some in your free time without any serious commitment.

When did "the fandom" become so serious?

I was going to say something but why bother.

I'll agree with the above statement, I like the show, the fandom can do whatever it wants and if I don't like I just won't consider myself apart of it. The shows still here, that's all that matters to me.

[Ed Viper]

I sure miss the days when I could endlessly surf youtube and tumblr and the like and actually be interested in the pony stuff I'd find. I miss the days when I was excited about this new "brony" thing that I was a part of. It was the first time I'd ever really been a part of something as big as this. But, as with everything, the honeymoon period ended, and I fell back into whatever I was normally doing before. I still watch the show, but I don't participate in much of anything pony-related outside of that anymore (I only even come here maybe once a week at most, whereas I used to log on daily).

Yeah, I moved on, everyone does eventually. I don't think the fandom is "falling apart" per se, or even that it's changing. I've just gotten over the initial hype that everyone feels when you find something like this.

I feel the drama that's going on on tumblr and stuff is a result of this happening to other people. You know how when you first meet a person, and if they're nothing about them that offends you right off the bat, they seem like they're just fine people? Well, once you get to know them and have been talking with them for some months, you're able to pick out all their flaws, and find things about them that you didn't before, but tick you off now.

tl;dr - what everyone else said.

P.S. The "love and tolerance" thing has been whack from the start, in my opinion. It never really struck me as genuine, but as something that was just said to trolls to get them to back off (which is already the wrong move, but whatever). It's a good message, don't get me wrong, but I don't think that a truly good-hearted person should need the mantra of a group or something from a children's show (or any TV show, for that matter) to remain a good-hearted person.

I dunno. Maybe I'm just talking out my ass here. I need sleep.

[Circuitfry]

I understand that I'm not the most active member of the community here

but I'm cool to hang out with y'all anytime.

[Stu Beef]

As long as Circuitfry doesn't fall apart, I think we're ok.

[bartekko]

I was going to say something but why bother.

I'll agree with the above statement, I like the show, the fandom can do whatever it wants and if I don't like I just won't consider myself apart of it. The shows still here, that's all that matters to me.

*raises hand*
question. did you mean "apart" or "a part" because that's two opposite meanings

[Gray Ham]

k

[CommandSpry]

It's just people not willing to admit they grew out of something and are thus willing to justify their actions by explaining how it's not them that's changed, it's everyone else.

[vladnuke]

You know, with 50% of Tumblr being what it is ,a sobbing whinefest (triggered...), it makes perfect sense that bronies became jaded when the musicians flocked to it (I say musicians because the artists and writers have dA(another whinefest, mostly about OCs and r34) and ponychan(haHAha) respectively. Being exposed to the tumblr mindset changed a lot of things with people, most notably their awareness of self. And awareness of self is not something you want, because that is inherently whiny. Bronies analyzed themselves as a whole, rather than addressing themselves as a group of individual human beings. The term "brony" became a bad word with some people. Some people grew spiteful (see:whoo-is-writing) and cursed the fandom while never leaving it because they believed that they had a rightful place in staying, and that there were other people that needed to leave for their sake.

A splintering happened during this time. Musicians ended up talking to other musicians only, with that being split into strata defined by sub count. Similar things happened in all other subgroups of brony-ism. They developed different cultures of their own, with different ideals.

And then there was /mlp/, but we never talk about that dark, musty, sweat-caked den of shitposting. They kept to themselves, quietly documenting the "spaghetti", releasing it time and time again to make the fandom self-aware on a personal level (who the fuck records that kinda shit?)

But you know what? Social norms only exist in our mind, yo, and by God's will we decided we would be breaking that shit when we all decided to start watching a show about ponies. There isn't any reason to not talk to artists and writers, we just don't end up talking with them. The real connection we share is the show, and it's message. Not the message that the show displays, but the message that we created when we decided to watch it. That we would be fighting the system, helping people do shit, not contributing to the natural entropy of our daily lives which is brought upon by a series of systemic oppressions. Ponies didn't start this trend, but it brought together the people who started the trend together.

Some might point at a shitload of recent drama as evidence to the former, but that's only because we've gained this level of self-awareness. We're beating ourselves up over a couple bad seeds. Or, to be more specific, the social justice-minded bronies on tumblr are beating themselves up. Every other brony seems to either be taking in information through osmosis or completely oblivious to that situation.

I think as content producers, we are representatives of this fandom. And as the official crew on the SS Spaghetti, it is our solemn duty to make sure that ALL the content that we produce is a good representation of the fandom. This includes outing rowdy guests. This does not include shitposting for no reason.

*fancy transition*

At one time, I put up a buncha con vids from EQLA. One got a ton of views.


Lots of people got mad, but they didn't know why they were mad, so they found an excuse to be mad. Most of them were just people looking for something to hate, because we're drawn to things we hate. "So sad that there are so many grown men watching my little pony", the sad neckbeards warbled, their spittle coating the screen. And as he clicked "post", a little message popped in my inbox. And I read it, as I do. And I really didn't fuckng care.

I want each of you to go through the comments on that youtube video.

Just soak it in, it's kinda relaxing.

Have you got it yet?

If you haven't, here you go: most arguments on the internet are really, really stupid.

Most issues seem great, but in fact are merely nebulous and unimportant. Did anyone really care that they took Derpy out? Did anyone really care about all the Balloon Party drama, the con bullshit?

No, fuck no.

Throwing a fit is a national American past-time.

This is merely a systematic way of doing it.

I don't regulate that comment section at all, but it eventually equalizes itself back towards the video.

The next time you find yourself in an argument, I want you to ask yourself "How does this fighting for this particular cause benefit me/other people?"

If you can't find a good answer to that, then you should just stop posting.

Period.

[Makkon]

Throwing a fit is a national American past-time.

This is quote of the month.

I'm rather unaware of what's been going on in the fandom outside of MLR (and I'm really proud of you guys, you've been great) and the few people I follow on tumbr. I still watch the show and hang out with friends I've made.

I dunno why it matters whether it dies or not. It happened, and it brought it to where we are now. That's what's important. And I'm grateful it happened.

[Mundius]

The Internet is fucking retarded, but at least this place is only half-retarded occasionally has it's moments of retard. I use this place for all my news, and whatever I can get out of a repost or two from Tumblr (which I've managed to have without the spam and drama).

To be honest, I don't care anymore what happens to the fandom. I just know I'll always sit here with popcorn waiting for something to happen, but until then, I'm going to keep writing my music as Mundius. And after that, I'll keep writing music as Mundius, but I'll also have a fun story to tell.

EDIT: No, it's not really half-retarded, that's too harsh.

[LoreRD]

Alright, a TON has been said already, but I'm going to quickly leave a few more thoughts.

Whenever popularity is involved, egos WILL be involved, and can in some cases balloon to sizes that are obnoxious to other people. This is usually the cause of a lot of drama, and was basically unavoidable the second people started getting "popular" and receive fans through the fandom.

Every fandom has its bad apples, egomaniacs and drama queens, and I don't understand why people are getting so surprised at the drama. It was inevitable and is a natural part of any fandom that gets big.

How is the brony community so different from every other fandom that we don't have issues of our own? People who were expecting a perfect community were proven wrong pretty early on (with R34, Cupcakes and the popularity of EqD).

The only reason I'd leave is if I stopped enjoying the show itself, and even then I'd still keep contact with some of the people I've met. And as long as I keep getting inspired by the show, I'll keep on making music. This fandom is not worth leaving because of a vocal minority.

Also, about hating the term "brony" because of that minority?
http://fimprov.tumblr.com/post/40817366 ... brony-name

[Nine Volt]

Oh, drama!

I truthfully don't care about the fandom. Really, I don't. I care much more about MLR and other online communities I'm part of (SCP mostly), because MLR is the reason I kept making music. SCP is the reason I started writing.

I just so happen to enjoy the show, that's why I consider myself a brony. I'm not going to make pony music or write pony fanfiction (except for trollfics or ridiculous shipfics that are also trollfics).

I get all my news about the fandom from this site. The fandom can go fuck a tree upside down and I probably wouldn't know without this site. And I still wouldn't care.

[Freewave]

On one-hand I think people who quit the fandom or mlr publically in an effort to get attention or to give a parting shot are different then those that do so for a real reason (NACP, Matthew Mosier, Peak-Freak) who I'd WANT to know about. But we've been talking about inner strife and the scene dying a whole YEAR ago and yet we've grown and survived since then. Seriously give that link it a read if you wanna see how far we've come and yet had the same problems and concerns there. Some have have left but many more people have joined in since then. MLR i still consider the heart of our music community and the ones who really do care the most about it.

What it really comes down to is how people individually feel. If the sky is falling to you, the community sucks, and you don't feel the inspiration anymore than by all means quit. If you love what you're doing, you still find inspiration in songs aboout ponies, and you like the community then by all means stay. In the end this is as good as it gets. You take the good with the bad. Hell the show itself might not even be as good as it was last year (i feel s2>s1>s3) but if you can still enjoy the art, music, and imagination from people in this community then it will thrive. If we all collectively moan and wail and ragequit then it won't. But there's always been stupid stuff on tumblr and youtube and rage there as well, it's really nothing new, it's just...tiring.

As for love & tolerate, maybe something new?

"Love and toleration", has failed across the nation
parasprites they used it, for all the wrong intentions
so i'm introducing a mantra, i take it from the past
it's name is called PLUR, and I'll teach it to you fast

P is for Peace, because hostility serves no purpose
L is for Love, goodwill towards others
U is for unity, We are united together.
R is for Respect, you should care about each other

Now this mantra ain't new, it comes from the past
known as the Rave credo, a foundation to last
Ravers they dealt, with these growing pains too
so they developed this concept, for us ..to hold onto

From pony to human, and human to pony
we learn from these lessons, so please don't be a phony brony
cause we have expectations, of how we should act
and if you join the herd, man i hope you don't slack.

A community that learns nothing from the past will just experience the same failures again and again until they do.