Wooo! Great relief to hear that this is normal. I didnt really know what to think. You guys put some sense in my brain. I would be sad if the community ended. Its a fantastic community!
Well, this past month or so has been rough, what with: - People losing their ever-loving minds of alicorn Twilight - People losing their ever-loving minds AGAIN over the spin-off - All the controversy over the documenary - The take-down of Fighting is Magic And there's been a flare-up of general drama, too (though I'm going by Tumblr, which may not be wise). Much has been said of the "rabid" bronies, with their obnoxious behavior and tendency toward panic and hyperbole. But on the other hand, you also have the self-proclaimed "sane" bronies, who, more often than not, just kill the fun, stifle enthusiasm, put down the fandom, and volley an endless stream of negativity and cynicism. At the end of the day, every fandom has its ups and downs, and this one is no exception. As for whether or not the fandom is "falling", I'd say not. For over a year now, it seems, people have been looking for signs of the fandom's demise, and yet it's chugged on as strong as ever. It's as big now as its ever been, and there are no signs to say that'll change. The fandom is what the fans make of it, for better or worse. If we want this thing to keep going, we'll just have to keep going ourselves, try to set a good example, and stop fretting so much. Heck, just speaking for myself, I still really enjoy the whole pony thing. I love the show, I love the fan content (fiction, music, videos, art, etc.), I enjoy hanging out with other bronies, and so on. That's what it's all about for me: having a good time, and not taking myself so seriously. As long as I enjoy it, I'll be here, and I know many other bronies will be, too. And if/when the fandom does sink, I'm fully prepared to play "Nearer My God to Thee" as it does, at this point.
Now I think the community is actually great and I still love the show it's just that Hasbro seems to be getting a little jerkish lately. Now I don't care about Twilight Alicorn, at first I was like "what?" but now I'm ok with it, then Fighting Is Magic got the C&D. That is what made me angry. I wouldn't have been as mad if they had done it a lot sooner like when the games was just being started, but the fact that mane6 were so far into development b4 Hasbro did the C&D really gridded my gears. Now say what you want to about this Equestria Girls thing, but seriously why should anyone care. It's a spin-off, it isn't going to effect the main series. And hey, might turn out okay?!
Meh, I'm very new to the brony community and very soon realized that I made a big mistake by ignoring the brony fan base all together when I first heard about it last year. It's quite amazing I have to say, of course every community has it's ups and downs, but that's not stopping me from staying active and being a part of it. Like mentioned before, a community never really dies out. As for this one, it does not look like a community going down hill to me, even though threads like these keep coming up questioning if it is the case. From what I've seen the fan base is as big and active as ever. I just wish that people would stop hating us as much as they do. I can understand why in some cases as some of the brony exremists or better said ''brony nazi's'' can be quite annoying at times by posting completely off topic in some forums or pushing people into joining the fan base even though they clearly don't want to (e.g. There's a forum about cars and in it is a thread about engines and some random brony comes in and starts talking about ponies or My little pony rather, I can understand people getting a bit upset about it), but luckily that's just a minority of us bronies and people should learn not to judge an entire fan base on a few extremists. (Sorry, bit off topic here.) Anyway, as I said, I do not think the brony community is falling, I think we might even be growing. New threads in the introduction section pop up regularly.
Don't worry, we aren't falling apart at all as long as everyone does their part in the community and interracts with each other we can't possibly fall apart!
Well to me the thing that validates that fear is simple: Without the community, our outlet to appreciate and discuss the show vanishes. But 95% of the people who "Doomsay" the end of the Fandom/Community, are usually just having trouble bouncing back from a plot aspect they didn't like. But, jumping the shark does happen. But honestly, people only ever recognize it in hindsight. For example: The place where the term "Jumping the Shark" comes from was the episode of Happy Days were Fonzy jumped over a shark on water skis. That was Happy Day's "Shark jumping" moment. But the fanbase around it didn't die until much much later, and it was only after it was killed for good that people were able to pinpoint when it had happened.
This reminds me of something I wrote in my Fallout Equestria review, edited to protect the innocence of the younger viewers on this site. "Opinions in the brony community tend to be revolved around one brony party cannoning his pants over some particular fanfiction, and then the next brony party cannons his pants, not because he likes the story himself, but because the last guy party cannoned his pants, so he probably should, too. A lot of bronies tend to get caught up in the whole idea that this fandom is something of a utopia, where everybody agrees on everything, never fights, and chats about weather, over a plate of peanut butter and celery with a nice glass of vitamin water."
The way I see it the community/ fandom is only failing/ dying if you think it is, you know it's kind of like the Brony community/ fandom is failing if that's the way you see it through your eyes but personally I don't think it is failing or dying.
People have a short attention span. Much of the 'hipster' fanbase has gotten bored and moved on to something else. The shows many 'controversies' have also caused some fans to rage-quit.
It's failing? Really? I guess I really need to get out more... Even so, that just means more for me! Right? ... Right?
I'll say it again I don't think it's failing or dying but if anybody/ pony here wants to think this way then think what you want.
