Why do I feel like this forum is getting progressively more negative and critical on MLP? It's fantastic... whether or not it will stay that way is anyone's guess, but come on my fellow bronies and pegasisters, the more I read through the threads here the more of a bad mood I'm put into. It shouldn't be like this... Maybe a pointless topic, but whatever...
I'm happy as long as Fluttershy keeps being relatable to. Its got a good storyline and a good set of characters too. Why all the hate? Probably people throwing tantrums. Sent from my MID using Tapatalk 2
Your saying the forum is getting progressively more negative...as compared to when? You've only been here a month. If you are referring to the Twilicorn thing, that happens every time something controversial happens, it comes and goes in cycles. Indeed, it happens before many episodes. People speculate, they gossip, they rage, then the episode comes out and it's not so bad after all, things calm down. But the Twilicorn thing is poised to be as big a deal as the derpy fiasco, so people are responding to it more strongly. This is not limited to EP either, it's pretty much a hallmark of this and (I assume) other active fandoms.
Every time I make a point, Frost always beats me too it. xD Take your entire Original Post and extrapolate that to EVERY FANDOM EVER. You get those people, those you know "Doomsayers" who preach the end of the fandom because something happens. Or better yet, you get the people who think that THEY as a group think they have the power to destroy the fandom. Seriously, I'll bet there are honestly people who identify themselves as "true fans" who believe that if other butthurt people stop watching, than the fandom dies. Its just petty arrogance people who think their influence will destroy a fandom. And you know what. I have no PROBLEM with people who stop watching things they no longer enjoy. Because that's common sense, not watching something you enjoy. But let me give you an example: I played World of Warcraft for 7 years. From Day 1 of launch, you would get those people saying in Trade Chat in the major cities, or people on the official forums, people on unofficial forums, people on fb pages, etc. How they were going to leave because "WoW has become too casual" or its "Alienating its hardcore players etc." I saw those people almost immediately from the beginning, and they would talk like its a big deal that they stopped playing a game, or expected people to care that they were no longer interested, or try to make other people feel the same. Hell, sometimes they do find people who sympathize with them, pretty big groups. And you know what? After 7 years, those people are wrong, WoW is still there, and its as popular as it always was. I stopped playing WoW in the most recent expansion, because the game went in a direction I didn't enjoy. And that's fine... But me leaving didn't mean anything. I'm not some example of WoW's death. The game is still just as popular as when I left. Its the same with those "Doomsayer" Bronies. They may leave the fandom, and three more will replace them. Yes, if anybody no longer likes MLP, I would encourage them to stop watching because watching something you hate seems annoying. But know this: The fandom doesn't die with you. It will go on without you. xD So yeah. There's negativity, but take it with a pound of salt.
You both make very good points, however I guess I expected a little better from a community based on love and tolerance.:derpe:
Hmm yeah. I think the "Love and Tolerance" thing died out as MLP evolved from a cult following, into a more mainstream fandom. You know "The more apples you have in the barrel, the more bad ones your likely to get" Or in simple terms. [video=youtube;OV-OF9wZWDs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OV-OF9wZWDs[/video] Basically when it went from just being "Hipsters" and the "Moderates" started rolling in, you would've seen more people abandoning the Love and Tolerance thing. I'm a new Brony as well! But logic suggests to me, that's how it plays out.
Well, that part of "Let's Meet the Bronies" always confused me, I'm not sure hipsters had much of anything to do with it. Basically, MLP got popular because of 4chan. I don't know that many of the details because 1) I'm not big on 4chan and 2) I've never bothered to look into it. But from what I've gathered is basically it started when someone on 4chan started spreading the word about MLP, not sure if they genuinely liked it or they were trolling. That created a rage response which in turn caused a bunch of people to start posting ponies to annoy everyone else. Then, funnily enough, people actually started watching the show and decided they liked it. From there it grew into a "cult following" of people who were so wholeheartedly enthusiastic about the show that they began to adopt the ideals of "love and tolerance" in their rabid obsession. Back then, it was almost taboo to be anything less than uber polite and courteous, and you accepted everyone no matter what. It was a brave new world where everyone loved everyone. But, just like the first version of the matrix, it was *too* perfect. Being so obnoxiously polite felt forced, like being at a high society party where you have to mingle and make nice with people you don't get along with. At some point someone was bound to disagree with someone in a way they couldn't be polite about. Right about the time where people were starting to talk about making the ideals of the show into something of a pseudo-religion, other people were saying, "wait a sec, aren't you guys getting just a tad carried away with this?" Once the novelty of the show wore off and the more obsessed of us chilled out, reason and realism started to set in. Thus the big brony group hug ended and it has settled into more of a normal fandom. We still have rabid fans, but people don't feel quite so tied to the paragon ideal of "love and tolerance" anymore, so people feel more free to express their opinions, even if they aren't positive ones. So yes, the forum has gotten more negative, as compared to what it was 2 years ago. But I wouldn't say it is all a bad thing. Back then we had a lot of seriously depressed people popping up like daisies, people on the brink of suicide. It is my theory that with everybody feeling forced to be so stiflingly polite and positive, that it made some people even sadder because they didn't feel as happy as everyone was pretending to be, and possibly wondered why their lives were so much more miserable in comparison. (This is just my theory, I'm not saying it is a fact.) So now people's behavior is much more normal, with more of a typical bell curve of personalities and opinions, most being neutral with less being either very positive or negative aligned. Either way, at least now people don't feel the need to fake who they are. So, as I said it isn't necessarily a bad thing. Still, we prolly have one of the kindest and most accepting communities you'll find on the web. **All opinions listed in the above ramblings are my own, and all events therein are how I remember them, with my own introspective thrown in. So it may not be 100% factual, and experiences over the past two years may vary between people. Also, I'm really bad at getting my point across, and I tend to ramble in an unorganized fashion. So if you feel the need to call me a bumbling idiot, you may not be wrong. Man, you know you took too long to type something when the forum logs you out before you can post it :derpe:
Pretty much what Frost said. I wouldn't say it's gotten more negative so much as less positive. Sent from my DROID3 using Tapatalk 2
Fans like to overanalyze stuff, whether it's intentional or not. I'm rarely critical of anything of the series because it's not exactly meant to be taken as some kind of serious, but epic fantasy tale. While some do take it that seriously and critique and break down everything, I usually do it as fun for a positive light or to see if it ties into a certain idea. Good example: Is there any form of basis for Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy to be more than friends? ---Yes. Rainbow looks out for her, and they have a bit of history as friends even before Twilight coming to Ponyville. Bad example: TwiLuna can't work. It's wrong. ---One reason: Luna is thousands of years old. Stuff like that. In the imaginative artwork, people tend to be critical when an idea seems to come out of nowhere, but using negative analysis tends to dampen the imagination. No one ever said your imagination has to be taken seriously or make perfect sense.
