Alright guys, I got stuff I need to get off of my chest. I want to talk about this now because its becoming a trend. And the more staff and friends I loose, the harder it is for me to stay on. I've got to do something and here's what I'm choosing to do. Bronies, what do you stand for? Just a year ago, the most uncanny phenomenon of recent report occurred on the internet. A cartoon designed for children, made by adults and created from the fertile mind of Lauren Faust arrived on the internet in a time where Cartoons are so unpopular, that even Cartoon Network won't feature very many of them on their flagship channel. These are things swept aside in this day and age. Relics of a time no longer upon us. In fact, when My Little Pony hit, there was no explanation for it's success. People scratched their heads, wondering, what had gotten into us. How dare we, adults many of us and young adults too; find joy and fulfillment in a cartoon dealing with friendship. It was so alien to them, so wrong in their minds, that the only conclusion was, "We're freaks!" We retaliated against this, fought it and shoved it back at our detractors. We threw down with them in the most powerful show of genuine "like" seen on the internet since the days before Google came to own Youtube. We tolerated their behavior, loved them for their flaws and understood that they were only reacting to the self hate and disappointment that lay within them. We raised ourselves up and stood tall, daring the whole world to knock us down. We were such a paragon of positive power, that even Fox so-called News took a shot at us. And really, when you're doing that good, you've got something worth keeping. So what happened? Where did we go astray? How is it that we came to laugh at Princess Molestia and follow their twitter, hungry for the next post? How did we repeatedly post from and provoke the horrible people responsible for the "Cupcakes" fiasco to continuously provide content? Why are we constantly loosing staff that have been here since the inception of this wonderful forum to ineptitude and behavioral violations? What are we? What have we become?
Generally, I stand whenever I have to leave my desk. Jokes aside, we mostly started by watching Season 1 en masse, since most of us missed it during it's airtime, and now we get Season 2 once a week, ponies are looking for other, related content to fill that week long void. Astray? I'm not quite sure about that, certainly some reasonable boundaries have been blurred with the likes of Princess Molestia, or my personal favourite "LMR" But the friendships forged here were completely worthwhile, they give value to my life, and as such that is what I stand for, you'd have to get everypony else's response however as it will most certainly differ.
We are all but men, and we shall do what men do. From what I can gather, you're trying to stop us breaking up. However, we are at complete liberty to do as we see fit. Simple as that. Alongside that, it seems you're trying to control our desire to look at Cupcakes, Molestia, etc. Why should you? Some like Molestia. I know I do. Some like Cupcakes, too. Some even like rule 34. Trying to stop them would be a breach of what they like to do. Would you hit someone for hating Football? I didn't think so.
Two quick issues: Nopony stops you from enjoying these things off site. I'm not suggesting that some manner of mind police take control of your actions or prosecute you for them. What I must ask is, what does it say about us when we permit you or others to post Rule 34 material here, discuss it or post the gory aftermath of a cupcakes post? What does letting you bring that material to Everypony.com say about all of us?
Ideas and content are discussed sparing the details. All of this stuff exists in every fandom. I welcome our diversity so long as it remains bound by the correct rules.
First of all, we do not allow Rule 34 to be posted here. The rule is very strict on that: This rule is strictly enforced. Second of all, discussing Rule 34 is a bit different, depending on the context. One is not supposed to discuss the explicit details of it, but merely mentioning it is fine, if we can have a mature discussion about it, such as one recent thread has demonstrated. Same goes for Cupcakes or any grimdark/gore content. Discussing it without going into extreme detail is fine, provided a mature discussion can become of it. Lastly, as for what bringing that material to Everypony.com says about all of us? Well, no matter what we do, people are going to judge all of us based on the actions of the few they see. You even cited some examples of that in your original post. If someone that isn't familiar with the brony fandom comes along and sees a discussion about gore or Rule 34, sure they may make faulty assumptions, but are we supposed to censor the members here because they want to have a mature conversation about it? I, personally, don't think so.
One major problem with Cupcakes, as a feature of our fandom is that it qualifies as Torture Porn. There is no narrative here. Pinkie Pie abducts another pony and proceeds to exact horrific torture scenes for no reason. This is mania stripped of its context and justifications. We are taken to a horrible place, shown a horrible thing and then...nothing. That is the point. If this were dressed up within the bounds of narrative, there might be a motive, there might be a reason. You could delve into that. How do you get a happy-go-lucky pony like Pinkie Pie to break this way. What undercurrents of rage or jealousy lie within; Stephen King material. This defeats the point, however. The point is to describe, in god-awful detail, the manner and means of the suffering at hand. The reason being is that this functions as a kind of release for people who fantasize about doing this to real people. That's the function of this in cinema and in writing. Ultimately, what this says, like any other foray into storytelling without a narrative, is self gratification. It becomes, "I like what I am doing/seeing/experiencing and I bet there are people out there that like it too!" Since there is no narrative with reasoning to get to this place and a conclusion to take us out of it, we conclude that the murder/torture was the entire point! And by posting this in a prominent place like EQD or anywhere else for that matter, we affirm that we will tolerate such debased and frankly disgusting content along with loving stories about the ponies overcoming the odds or helping friends in need or any other canonical story yet told by a fan. I know that the good stories outnumber the bad. However, this is a market we are in and what appears on the packaging tends to inform the buyer about the contents within.
No one made you read Cupcakes, In fact I refused to read it for the longest time. I wouldn't even mention the name because I hated it so much. Have you heard of S.A.M, that fic is far worse then cupcakes. Every fandom has things like this. The first fan fic I very read was an accident. It had Edd from Ed,edd and eddy killing off all the kids. I thought is was a pretty cool idea, having Edd snap. Something different I never saw before. Things like Molestia, I read it and I thought the story was funny. In the way everything happened. You said yourself we are supposed to love and tolerate. You might not have to love things like cupcakes, but you said they TOLERATE it. Thats the point, many people don't like cupcakes, people even made stories and art depicting it all being pinkie's dream. They all still tolerating it. As for what I stand for as a brony. I'm a more tolerant of things like Gore,R34 and all that stuff because I'm a brony. If I don't like something I simply ignore it.
The question isn't, "Why does Cupcakes exist/Why do people read it," the question is, "Why is Cupcakes available to read, in it's entirety, with most of the subsequent fan adaptations/continuations derived of it available on EQD?" This is the internet, asking why stuff like this exists is ignorant. I just want to know why anypony would defend the notion of adding it to the collection of all other legitimate fan works and adaptations? You mentioned a fic called S.A.M being horrible and much worse. It appears to not be on EQD. If we're so Loving and Tolerant, why aren't -ALL- clop and grimdark stories added to the mix? They have standards and rules aplenty! I'm asking you why the threshold is set -here-
Because if we were to sweep this under the rug, it wouldn't get rid of it. Because if we drew no threshold, then finding what people like would be nigh impossible. Because people are amused by it, and it is probably worse to judge them for that than it is to permit them to say they do. Most importantly, because why not? I see no reason to. This happened once. Constant my shiny red behind. Not that it's red or shiny =/. In conclusion: If you don't like it, either express something constructive, or nothing at all. Dun be mad. Be coolbro.
Of course you'll never get rid of it! It can't go away, this is the internet! What I mean to tell you is, people like the SA Goons want the internet to identify us as being perverts and degenerates. They -NEED- us to be that kind of monster because it's easier to derive the LOLs from us. We're an easier target because we won't run our own quality control. The difference between you and I is that I am showing them they are wrong by demanding we stand up for ourselves and clean up our act. All you're telling me is, "Oh yeah, that's us."
Cupcakes is a meme, that was my original reason to check it out. How it came to be I can't even fathom. But today it is more of a joke than anything else. It is not even plausible or realistic. I can't claim it to be good, but at least it involves characters I care for and therefore has a horror value unlike most modern slasher films. And, well, it makes me appriciate Pinkie Pie in the actual show more. But what to expect from a fan of Sweenie Todd.
For starters, you're taking Cupcakes seriously when it wasn't meant to be. Secondly, we cannot possibly stop this content from being created. Cupcakes was so outrageous, it's no surprise that it has so much attention. Look at other major pieces of fiction or submemes. Ponies in socks (this is very suggestive, but is never mentioned...why is that?), saucy pics--yet here is Cupcakes. It's there. Every fandom has them. They don't represent us, merely the potential that is within human nature. It spawned from tiny ideas/details in the show, and thus, is merely a fan idea. Luckily, we have the option to ignore such material. People have to be into fanfiction or some depth into the fandom to even know about Cupcakes. I didn't know about it until Sethisto mentioned it to me in an e-mail, that's when I found out about it and read it. I poked around and read it was a response to the massive amount of Pinkie/Dash shipping at the time, written (badly based on the version of the original I read) to counter it. People took it seriously and it unexpectedly blew up into a huge meme. It's a joke, but too many people fall into unforeseen trap of believing it to be serious.
I don't know, ask Setisto, he runs EQD not me. I found Clop fics on EQD before. I will defend the writers choice to put characters in whatever situation they want. It's their story I have no right to tell them it is wrong. Have you seen my project, NO HERO, I already killed AJ. I know people have a problem with that. I warned them and they didn't read it. They tolerate my choice to do so and even support my idea. I will only say that S.A.M is way over the top of what cupcakes did. This just goes back to Sethisto. He runs the blog, so he makes the decisions. If I had something similar to EQD, I'd do the same thing.
remember, the MLP craze has had r34 and gore from the very start. This whole thing started on 4chan (which I rarely frequent and certainly wasn't a part of the pony thing there). People will take good and pure things and turn it into something bad. That isn't what matters. What matters is all the good coming from this. I agree it should be kept away from here and any other MLP fan sites I go to. If I find very much on a site I will stay away. Also some more mature/inappropriate for children fan content is ok. For instance I don't see anything wrong with ponies kissing or sharing a bed, as long as nothing else is going on or implied. Those kinds of things do not always refer to something sexual. There was a time, not very long ago, where that kind of thing was considered innocent and cute. I think it still can be by an untwisted mind. Showing actual sexual acts with ponies though is in my mind very disgusting. Also a friend of mine wrote a very good fanfic called The Last Party. It is a bit dark and very sad but well written. On the other hand I couldn't stand Cupcakes and only read bits and pieces. I just don't have the stomach for such things. Anyway, what I'm getting at is don't let these other things bother you. They are going to exist so just accept them. Don't worry about how they might make the rest of us look. People are looking down on us for watching a girls show anyway and are going to believe what they want, until they open up. Sometimes some of these more adult things actually open that door, just like they did from the very start on 4chan. People are already dark and twisted. Let the ponies bring them out of that shell.
The more innocent something is, the more easy it is to corrupt. Some of the community has taken that little alleyway into R34 street, and yes, linking what they have created to others outside the fandom's perceptions of what we are is evident in what is said by those against us (dem haters). Let me remind you, it's Rule 34: There is porn of it. No exceptions., this fandom was bound to have it from the off, and I couldn't care less what others think, I know that we are not all into that, but I see nothing wrong in being into that anyway. My views on R34 quoted from another thread: Let it be. Tolerance, yo.
Why does rule34 exist? Um... perhaps re-read what the "Rule" actually is. Why does Cupcakes exist? Again, with any fandom, strange and dark material eventually shows up. Personally I dislike Cupcakes and Cupcakes related things, because I find it to be gross and stupid. Why does clop exist? Rule 34 Basically my point is: We are all people. MLP won't change that. Some people truly enjoy r34, Cupcakes, etc. but most is for trolling purposes as it pisses off more fans then it pleases. There's no need to start questioning the integrity of this fandom over such things that apply to such a small percentage of it's fanbase. I'm able to happily browse pony sites without finding r34/clop/grimdark/etc, simply because it's a miniscule amount compared to the massive amount of good content. You have to actually look for said materials to find them as they are (in most cases) only exclusively allowed on explicit sites to begin with.
As much as i don't like the whole Molestia thingy, stuff like that happens in every fandom. I can just avoid it. I win, and the fans win as well. TBH, i think the fandom would be, somehow, incomplete without it.
