Twifag

Lover of Twilight Sparkle and Writer for Horse News. IWTCITS

[corpulentbrony]

Unfortunately someone’s seen fit to attack my character in a video with baseless accusations.  I felt compelled to make this video to clear some things up and I wanted to especially share it with you guys, my biggest supporters. I have a real analysis video that I’ve been making good progress on for Amending Fences that should be out soon, hopefully by next weekend if I can find the time to finish up the editing. Thanks again to you all for your support.

[twifag]

Fungibility Explained

A popular critic (and troll) of the pony analysis community, who strangely enough now apparently makes pony analysis videos himself, has recently taken to YouTube in an attempt to explain the concept of fungibility.  What he accomplished was merely proving he doesn’t quite understand the term nor how I applied it in my article on FallenWish (which was published in Horse News and on the Pony Tonite YouTube channel).

I’ll attempt to explain this as simply as possibly by outlining a scenario and three ways in which the scenario could play out.

Scenario

Let’s say I am saving up to move somewhere.  This money will be used to pay for the moving expenses and will act as a bridge to keep me alive from when I arrive at my destination to when I can establish a steady income.

Outcome 1

I save enough money and make the move.  I keep a tight budget, only spending money on the necessities to survive, and finally am able to land a job with steady income.  Hooray!

Outcome 2

Let’s go back to before the move.  This time, I coordinate a fundraiser on my behalf.  I tell people I am raising money because I have no other means to get out of my current location.  Really, I do have some money saved up, but it is nowhere near enough to make the move. 

Let’s say my fundraiser is successful and I raise a couple thousand dollars.  I move to my new location and keep a tight budget, only spending money on the necessities to survive, and finally am able to land a job with steady income.  Hooray!

Outcome 3 - Fungibility

Now let’s talk about the f- word.  The fundraiser is successful and I make the move.  But instead of being frugal, I say to myself, “Self, you have all this money you saved before the move.  That’s basically yours to do with as you want.  I mean, I got all these sweet brony bucks sitting in my bank account that I can survive on.  Why not use my saved money and go to a pony convention in another country?”  PARTAY!!!

KA-CHING!!  Enter the concept of fungibility.  Or, more specifically in this case, indirect fungibility.  Because I have those sweet brony bucks, I can take my hard earned money, that otherwise would’ve gone into the necessities of life, and blow it on whatever I see fit.  It’s technically okay, since the money earmarked for keeping me alive is not directly being spent on the convention.  But of course, if it were not for the fundraiser, I never would’ve been able to afford the pony party, since the money I spent on it would’ve been used for my survival.

Conclusion

This isn’t an honest way to run a fundraiser.  If you are requesting money for a need, there’s a presupposition on those donating that you cannot do this on your own, and they want to help you.  If you then take their money and turn around almost immediately afterwards and blow some of it on a luxury, you must anticipate some backlash.  And, in the case of FallenWish, she freely admits to using $100 of the actual GoFundMe money collected for a trip to BronyCon, which in total cost her at least $300.

[twifag]

Why I wrote the FallenWish article

I wrote the below response to a query from ForNoGoodReason, FallenWish’s boyfriend and a former friend of my own, as to why I wrote the recent article on his girlfriend.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmjVPtmEjkA&lc=z120x1cg4orowz1yn04cip2gvynlerp5k50

+ForNoGoodReason Why did I write the article?  I know you watch American Greed.  More specifically: 1) Conspiracy.  Both Keyframe and FallenWish conspired with third parties to run the charities for them and to release videos on their behalf.   FallenWish spoke about this directly in the 6/30 call, how she was going to kick Shark off the project if he didn't shape up.   2) Lies. At the same time as the GFM launches, FallenWish was publicly stating she did not want help but was reluctantly finally accepting it.   However, as stated above, she orchestrated the entire thing (either solo or in collusion with Shark and others, it matters not).  The stated use of the money (to get her out of the "abusive situation" and then donate the rest to other deserving bronies) was not followed.  Once out of the situation, she began spending the money on food, clothing, "rent" (paid directly to her aunt), a trip to BronyCon, time with her friend in Montreal.  In 6 weeks she somehow blew through $2,000, even though she should have been living frugally.  Then you told us about her planned trip to Ponyville CiderFest. 3) Mismanagement.  Obviously FallenWish had mismanaged the money to have blown through it so quickly.  When pressed for details on how the money was spent, her response is thin and full of holes.  There is still nearly $1,200 of missing money.  Much money was given to her Aunt to compensate her for expenditures that remain mysterious to this day. 4) Public good. Most bronies I know who donate to causes such as these have a pretty tight wallet themselves, they work very hard for the little money they have.  To have their money so blatantly misused is sickening.  The article has hopefully opened some eyes to the potential pitfalls of contributing to such an open-ended campaign blindly.  I also hope to bring more transparency to the whole brony GFM thing.  Take Sheldon's recent GFM for Nikkers.  It was specifically to build a computer, and the money will be spent on that.  Sheldon is even willing to provide receipts to prove that is where the money has gone. 5) Integrity.  Even with everything above, I was still unsure I wanted to write such an article.  It was your threats against me if I did write and run an article that convinced me to go ahead and do it.  After that, I began writing earnestly most of the day Saturday and Sunday last weekend. That is why I wrote the article.  Note nowhere do I do state doing this out of malice or to cause harm to either of you.  I simply felt an obligation to let the truth be known.