#what needs changing

[artichow]

Might delete this later but I won't post a whole lot for a little bit... probably just gonna be over on my sideblog being either very sad or silly (or both)

[drdiss]

3 Reasons Why I Don't Like The Brony Community (Despite Being A Part Of It)

I bet that title made you want to read this eh?

There's been a recent shenanigan involving Derpy and I feel like I need to say this, because I feel that this fandom is eating itself from the inside.

Which I obviously don't want...

So, here are 3 things to have a think about that need changing, in the date that they occurred in the fandom:

Also, this is bloody long, so brace yourselves!

1) Love and Tolerance

Now, do I mean the phrase, or the implications behind it?

A bit of both...

You see, the phrase itself seems harmless: love and tolerate. The very idea of love sends warm fuzzies through your body and tolerate is somewhat of a 'thing' in this day and age with most countries finally realising that people are people, regardless of their characteristics.

Which is fantastic of course!

That's not what it means here. In terms of the Brony community, I have observed that it basically means treat assholes nicely. That is actually a good idea! Whenever I come face to face (screen to screen?) with a troll, I treat it as a joke and just mess about...no hate to be found!

But...

There is a limit. I've seen this practice put to use so much with some people, that the words on the screen actually look painful. Bottling up what you truly feel and going for the 'default' emotion isn't healthy. Hilariously enough, this is exactly one of the symptoms of the whole "man stereotype" that people and, more importantly, Bronies are trying to shed.

The 'man' must not show his emotions, according to stereotype. Instead they replace it with a 'neutral' emotion.

The 'brony' must not show his/her emotions, according to this saying. Instead, they replace it with 'love and tolerance'.

See a similarity? Yeah, me too...

How Do We Fix It?

Well, simple really...actually express how you feel. It saves a lot of friendships (which will be discussed in the next section) and it is a much healthier way of dealing with things.

And I don't mean go all crazy on people, try and still be civilised.

TL:DR

Get off this whole man vibe, you're watching a show for 12 year old girls!

2) The Community Is Losing Itself

When I joined the Brony Community, back when I was a wee lad and we used sticks and stones for entertainment (read: April 2011), the Brony Community was awesome! So many nice people just talking, creating and enjoying the fandom on which MLP was the foundations.

And that cumulative awesome was within the Brony Music Community.

I've met so many awesome people in that community. It was nice to talk to folk who had a similar output to you. And sometimes, a complete opposite output. I probably learnt more from them than the classical writers.

I enjoyed putting links to cool contemporary classical pieces and having the likes of Senator Myth and Overkillius go Wooowaaaweeewaaah!

I enjoyed conversations about electronic music and having no idea what anyone was saying.

And, I even liked Ipie's trolling...

(And Triangle's)

Things changed in the latter quarter of 2011 though. Drama unfolded literally everyday. People were upsetting others either without even realising, or using those infamous words 'love and tolerance' as their excuse to be a dick...people were at each other's throats.

And this wasn't just the Brony Music Community, this was in the community in general.

I tended to lurk a lot of MLP forums. I'm not much of a commentor (except on MLR) so I took solace in reading how other people were doing in the fandom. Now, I check MLR...and that's pretty much it...the main reason is due to the amount of arguing that occurs these days.

Now that sounds very contradictial to my first point. Shouldn't we just 'love and tolerate' them? But that's not what I said in my first point!

Bear in mind a word or two I used at the end of that point:

be civilised

I hate seeing any "who is best pony?" threads anywhere, because if you read the comments, it boils down to "X is best pony, you suck!" "No, Y is best pony, you suck!"

Someone at the BroNYcon Musician's Panel asked who their favourite pony is. That was considered a troll question, because it would have started a fight...

WHY???

Why do we insist on attacking each other over something like that? It just frazzles my mind that people argue, in an uncivilised way, like this!

But why is this happening now? Well, could be a number of reasons. Could be the influx of people joining the fandom because it's 'cool' now, without the ideals we originally had...

Could be because we expect too much from the show these days...

Could be because this fandom has created something unique and we don't know how to properly respond to that...

How Do We Fix It?

I'd like to say that whenever a faulty part in a machine is discovered, it's removed and another one takes its place. I'd like to say that the Brony Community should be like that. But I know that won't happen.

Instead, if you're new to the fandom, stop and have a look at how we behaved back in the first half of 2011. Decide whether you're going to cause trouble, or be productive. To be a faulty part, or a working part. The machine fails if the parts are faulty...think about that...

TL:DR

I miss the good old days...

3) The Minorities are really Vocal

This is a problem with EVERYTHING IN EXISTENCE, but the small minority of people who are the reason we can't have nice things, completely overshadow the majority of us.

This brings me back to the whole Derpy thing going on at the moment.

I, personally thought that Derpy was really nicely done in The Last Roundup. Rather than being 'mentally challenged' as some people's vision of her was, she was just clumsy and very unlucky.

But to some people clumsy = mental problems

I'm not sure I understand that idea, but ah well...the real problem is, they were very vocal about their opinion on the whole matter...this has resulted in the episode being taken off itunes, WLF changing Derpy's name and Hasbro freaking out about the situation...

All because of a handful of (brace yourself, my opinion incoming!) idiots!

But the thing is, in retrospect, it's not that big a deal.

I mean, we survived with Derpy being fanon only, her going back into the fanon really shouldn't be too hard right?

Not at all! But Derpy is a prime example of my previous point.

Derpy was born in the fandom, without them, she wouldn't exist...as time has gone on, her popularity has grown stronger and stronger. Until, one day, she breaks into the canon world. When we get to this peak of gloriousness, the fandom brings her back down.

Destroying her from the inside

That sounds vaguely familiar to one of my opening sentences! We've come full circle!

How Do We Fix It?

Stop and Think

Think about what you're going to do and how it'll affect the community. Are you doing this for the greater good, or for your own personal reasons?

Fun fact: in the political world, personal reasons are read as 'corruption'

TL:DR

Stop talking and leave Derpy alone!!!

If you read all this, nice job!

Obligatory "I just wanna be popular, reblog if you agree with me so we can giggle and gossip about how X has a crush on Y"