Last Horse on the Left: When uncomfortable questions are needed but it's difficult to ask them

Some of you who know me beyond My Little Pony will know that last year, to my enormous surprise, I found myself immersed in what I discovered were the deeply abusive production conditions of a fifty-year-old horror film. I'd never watched The Last House on the Left (1972) until then, never even wanted to watch it – but I saw a thread, pulled it, and ended up down a rabbit hole. Mixed metaphor I know, but there is a link with MLP here, so bear with me.

I won't go into great detail, but the bare facts are these: Last House was a low-budget horror feature, the first such film made by Wes Craven. It's often talked about by horror fans in terms of Craven's career or its influence on the rape-revenge genre or whatever. It's much less commonly discussed that one of its stars, Sandra Peabody,¹ was severely psychologically abused by certain co-stars during production. I get the feeling many people who watch the film don't even know about this.
¹ Credited as Sandra Cassel.

And a big reason for this is that people haven't asked questions, at least not enough. The late David Hess kept being invited to conventions even after he'd admitted in Vanity Fair – not some ultra-obscure fanzine – that he'd used coercion and threats to Peabody on a level that today we'd consider horrifying. As far as I can tell, the horror and cinema media didn't really talk about it beyond trivia spots. Craven – then still alive and active – didn't speak out and wasn't publicly challenged about his set management.

This is where My Little Pony fandom comes into the picture. I think we all know by now that back in the earlier days of our community, the phrase "love and tolerate" was too often seen as an absolute – meaning that a small but ethically significant number of the people who were welcomed in should not have been. In fact, should have been told, "No. Get out and stay out." We also know that this took far, far too long to be acknowledged, and that people were hurt as a result. That is to our shame.

But where can people raise these questions in the mid-2020s? They can do it on a small scale by talking to friends and contacts on Discord servers or whatever, but only a few people see that. The days of mass-usage forums and message boards are over. Social media has been degraded and politicised to the point where it's often useless except for chatting to people who already agree with you. Many websites have either instituted heavy moderation for comments or dropped the ability altogether. And so on.

That leaves large in-person gatherings, which in the MLP world essentially means conventions. But questions at cons are moderated. If someone had attended a horror con's Q&A session in 2008, when the Vanity Fair piece was published, and said they wanted to say, "David Hess, by your own admission you're an abusive shit" then it would likely have been shut down. Similarly, if someone had stood up in a large Pony panel and said, "Look, this guy on the stage has admitted inappropriate contact with minors; why the hell's he here?" the same would likely have applied.

Conventions and similar events are essentially celebratory spaces, and the feeling of "getting away from it all" is important to a large number of attendees, absolutely including me. It's only honest to say that I wouldn't pay to go to a Pony convention where serious/political issues dominated. But asking the questions I mentioned in those specific cases would have been not only reasonable, but at least arguably morally necessary and better respecting of survivors than leaving everything to "lore'n'listicles".

Connoisseurs of fright the big horror media outlets may be, but rocking the boat that contains Wes Craven's beautifully preserved legacy seems to be too scary a prospect. In Pony we don't have such things. Equestria Daily was perhaps that place for a few years, but even EQD has declined very noticeably in reach since the halcyon days of a decade ago. So for more than half a dozen people to see what you ask, you need a mass, in-person space: a convention. We're back where we started.

In a fragmented online culture, almost everywhere has evolved rules against, essentially, making too much of a fuss. We seem to have created – even if with good intentions – an environment where, #MeToo notwithstanding, speaking out about abusers within has become more difficult. That's really not good, especially for a fandom like ours in Pony where we know predators have got in and harmed people because of insufficient scrutiny.

Knowing where to draw the boundary is extremely difficult. I can't say I'd be confident of getting it right, especially as there's an undeniable risk of false or even malicious accusations. But the principle remains: just occasionally we really do need public uncomfortable questions to be, if not loved, then at least tolerated.

The fandom and me in 2023

Which kinda sorta rhymes woo. Anyway, I've been idly musing on how I relate to the MLP fandom these days. I think it would be silly to pretend that I have the intensely excited relationship with it that I did a decade ago. The fact that there are no longer any new episodes of Friendship is Magic has a fair bit to do with that, plus of course it's inevitably no longer fresh and new.

That said, my interest in Pony hasn't faded as much as it clearly has for some people. I'm still maintaining Louder Yay, after all! I'm still reading a ton of fanfic. I'm even (dun dun dun) writing ponyfic again, though so far at least nothing more than a couple of silly small one-shots that aren't likely to blow anyone away. And I'd still call MLP my number one fandom, even now.

What I think I may be starting to cool on, just very slightly, is going to conventions like UKPC. They're getting more and more expensive (and maybe just a little samey¹) and I'm starting to reflect on what else I could be spending with the same money. Set against that, I get to see friends I don't meet any other time. But that's above it being because these are Pony events specifically.
¹ Apparently a Briticism. I had no idea!

However, that does not mean that the MLP angle is no longer a big deal for me in the social fandom. For meets, even though they're vastly less expensive, it still really matters to me that they're Pony-centric. I'd still go to some if they'd turned into just a bunch of friends talking generally, but I seriously doubt I'd attend as many as I do at the moment. So yeah, Pony still matters a lot there.

So... yeah, I wouldn't deny that I've cooled on My Little Pony since 2013 or so. But I was starting from such a high temperature, so to speak, that I'm still a long way above lukewarm. I think I'll consider myself an MLP fan, and quite a serious one, for a very long time yet – quite possibly forever. It just doesn't entirely dominate my online life the way it did a decade ago, that's all.

Fame, misfortune and the fandom

It's been interesting to me to see how the reputation of "Fame & Misfortune" has evolved over the five and a half years since it debuted. These days, probably partly because of M. A. Larson's explanation of his unhappiness about it, the episode as aired is quite widely felt to have been a poor one. But that wasn't by any means the clear fandom consensus in 2017: in fact reception was pretty mixed, and the balance of opinion on Fimfiction specifically was actually fairly positive.

One exception here was Bad Horse, who absolutely hated the episode. The comments to that post make interesting reading, although some of it is fairly hard going and you should probably skip over the thankfully short blathering from some silly bespectacled orange-maned unicorn. Trick Question, for example, really enjoyed "Fame and Misfortune" while near the end of the thread horizon (while not displaying unbridled love for the ep) takes serious issue with some of Bad Horse's logic.

It's on record here that I had a pretty good time when I watched the episode in 2017. I currently don't know whether that will be the case when I rewatch it in (I hope!) 2023. My point isn't to say, "'Fame and Misfortune' was an almighty episode and I shall defend its honour to the death, egad!" It is just to say that, at the time of broadcast, it was not an especially unusual viewpoint among fans to really enjoy it. That's why it caused controversy in the first place: because we didn't all agree about it.

Hello from Group C

That probably doesn't make a lot of sense. Look, if you've known me any length of time then that won't surprise you! But what I mean is that the ponyfic part of the fandom, at least, nowadays sometimes seems to me to consist substantially of: A) people who just take everything lightly and take the view of: whatever, because hay, colourful talking ponies; and B) people who are really, really invested and will post highly researched deep dives about Rarity's character evolution or whatever, sometimes running to thousands of words. There is of course nothing wrong with either of these positions. But neither of them are mine.

I mean, obviously the very fact that I've had a blog going for almost a decade and written over 400 Ponyfic Roundups excludes me from Group A above. Clearly all that, not to mention my episode reviews (next FiM rewatch coming this weekend, honest!) means I couldn't really fit into that box. But I'm clearly not in Group B either. Every so often I'll read a blog that goes to enormous lengths to list every single continuity error in the show or something, and I have to admit that my immediate reaction will be: "You know what? I'm not sure I honestly care enough to worry about every tiny note there."

So I'm in Group C. That's made up of people for whom yes, reasonable levels of consistency in writing and characterisation and continuity and so on are important, and so for example suddenly having the internet or something in a canon-universe fic will in all probability make the ride bumpy, as will that bloody bunyip in "P.P.O.V." But on the other hoof, I can let sometimes things slide if they're entertaining. And here's the thing: I know I'm doing it, but I'm not inclined to care so much about it that it undermines the enjoyment I'm already getting.

Post-reformation Starlight Glimmer is a good example. Sure, she unbalances the, er, balance of the Mane Six¹ (as indeed did Twilight's ascension years before). Sure, she was arguably more interesting as a villain. But although I don't always like Reformed!Starlight, I am very firmly in the camp that enjoys her appearances more often than not. Right up to late Season 9, yes. And that's Group C in a nutshell: we're not blind to problems and inconsistencies and sometimes they annoy us, but we quite often feel that Pony being fun is actually more important. I'm quite comfortable with where I sit on this.
¹ Though in one way she rebalances it, as the seven central ponies again include two of each main tribe (plus one alicorn)

What future for MLP's social fandom?

As the months of the pandemic drag on and on, many of us are missing our in-person social interactions with other fans more and more. In my case, the last time I met any other ponyfan in person was when I attended our final Worcester ponymeet, five months ago today. I suspect that at the time many of us quietly hoped it would only be a few months before the meets could restart. Sadly, it now looks like being a good deal longer than that. I don't think there's any realistic chance at all of restarting in September, a hope some of us perhaps entertained in early summer.

It's a lonely time for many of us. So how long will it be before we can all meet up again in something like the old way? Well, who knows? That depends on all kinds of things, and since discussion of those can stray into the realms of politics I'll try to avoid some aspects here. But the fact remains that for a lot of people – by no means all, but a lot – being with friends who share our love for and enjoyment of MLP has been a highlight of our time in the fandom, and something we're missing very badly. What happens next?

Lots of musing on this after the page break.

In which Logan rambles a lot

Have you ever read Jetfire2012's ponyfic It's a Dangerous Business, Going Out Your Door? Quite possibly you have, as it's long been considered one of the early classics. Indeed, I gave it a positive review years ago. If you go to the page I linked to now, though, you'll see that comments have been disabled. His profile has done the same thing. Why am I mentioning Jetfire2012 now? Because I'm semi-detached from the fandom as usual and didn't quite grasp that I should have talked about this earlier. Read on:

Here's a blog by Cynewulf, one of the fandom's outstanding authors. In it, she mentions that an image showing a person "chasing unarmed protestors with a bladed weapon before being forcibly disarmed" featured Jetfire2012. As the heroic disarmer? No. As the person with the weapon. Cynewulf's post is long and I don't want to do it injustice by summarising it glibly, but suffice to say here that she pinpoints 4chan's /pol/ board as a major root cause, especially the April Fool's Day joke where it was briefly merged with the /mlp/ board. Some in the comments and elsewhere consider this an oversimplification, I should note.

And here's a blog by MrNumbers, in which he talks about the Jetfire2012 incident, placing it in a wider context in the MLP fandom. In his words: "It's the hate and racism I saw emerge in support of him that's disgusted me." MrNumbers also mentions an incident where he contacted the Fimfiction staff over a PM and was told that he was trying to "shut down free speech". (For clarity, I'm not sure from context whether or not that was a direct quote from the staff member[s] in question.)

As an aside here, I have long had a problem with Fimfiction's tolerance of intolerable content. I've always tended to assume that my feelings at least in part have to do with the fact that I'm not from the US and so don't see free speech as the absolute good that many Americans do, some of those in a frankly creepy quasi-religious manner. Regular readers of this blog will know that foalcon is the thing I tend to get exercised about – I think it should be not only prohibited but a straight-up bannable offence – but that's not for this blog post.

So instead I'll move on to something relevant: here's FanOfMostEverything being absolutely furious. You don't see that every day, and when it happens you sit up and take notice of it. I'll hop back to MrNumbers now and note that he did make a follow-up post the following day in which he said (I paraphrase) that he felt heartened by how many people weren't ignoring that these problems existed, but rather that they did understand and so made active efforts to keep such things and such people out of their own personal communities.

Returning to Cynewulf's post, she makes the case that the "new normal" that seemed to be genuinely there to build in the early years of our fandom (perhaps up until about 2012) was not the normal that would reassert itself if we relaxed and did nothing, and that we as a fandom misunderstood that. To quote her again: "The 'normies' aren’t the SJWs you think are coming for your show and your fan art and your memes. The normies are the LARPers with Wehrmacht profile pics in your threads." And too many of us tolerated (if not loved) it. Too much and for too long. I am not innocent of this.

Is this fandom a good place? Well, of course there are plenty of places which are still true to the original, positive spirit of the fandom – stemming from the spirit of the show itself. Nobody is trying to say that there is not plenty of good to be found here. There certainly is. I wouldn't still be a part of it otherwise, and I don't intend to be leaving any time soon. But that's a different thing, and in any case "Is the fandom a good place?" is really not the correct question to be asking. The correct question is whether it's good enough. And the blunt answer to that question is no.

It doesn't take much in the way of guts to make a post on a small blog that few people read, but it's still been too much for me, apparently. Not good enough, Logan. Not good enough. So, long overdue though it is, let me say this very clearly: if you're a Nazi or a fascist or a sexist or a racist or a homophobe or a transphobe then get out of here. I want those people to be in no doubt: you are not welcome here. I do believe people can change. So go away and change. Change properly. Then we'll welcome you back with open arms. Then.

That is on you.

Cleaning up our fandom is on us.

Let's do this.

Whither Pony conventions in 2020?

Note: This post deals with physical conventions. The future for online cons such as PonyFest is very interesting, but it's one I'll perhaps deal with another time.

I thought about writing this a few days ago, but stepped back because I wasn't personally involved in any cons and so wasn't sure I had enough knowledge to make the post worthwhile. But then I thought, no, I should write it because I'm not involved in running cons. That means I don't have any of the NDAs and contractual restrictions they do, and I don't have to negotiate with venues and insurance companies. That being so, I can talk freely about what I'm expecting to happen, not merely about what's been announced for certain. Less specialist knowledge, but also fewer restrictions. So here we go.

First up, we already know that 2020 is not going to be a normal year. Several major conventions have already been postponed until later in the year or cancelled entirely, BABSCon and GalaCon being among the most prominent. There will most assuredly be more. I think we should always bear in mind the immense difficulties facing con organisers at the moment, and not complain that they haven't all announced exact plans this very minute. Any well run con – and thankfully in this fandom that means most of them – will be talking a lot behind the scenes and not doing its negotiations over Twitter.

Lots more waffling to come!

We just don't learn, do we?

The episode 17 review is being delayed by a day, since I'm in a poor frame of mind right now. As many of you will have guessed, that's because I'm angry and ashamed about the way Big Jim Miller has been treated recently. He shared a horribly abusive message he'd received (via his portfolio page, so he can't just shut down the email) and said that he felt driven to make his Twitter account private for a while, simply for the good of his mental health.

I believe that some of this abuse came his way from people who had seen the S9 finale (already released in the Netherlands!) and didn't like it. Yes, that's right: people didn't like the ending of a cartoon and decided that justified screaming abuse at a guy involved in making it.* A guy who, I'd be willing to bet, has done about a million times more with his creativity and vision to make people happy than any of the people sending the abuse ever have.

* I don't know what the ending is! Please do not mention it if you do!

We've been here before. After "Filli Vanilli" went out in 2014, certain people who disliked the way Pinkie Pie had been portrayed in that episode hurled abuse at Amy Keating Rogers, that ep's writer. Some of it went a thousand miles beyond any norms of civilised criticism – AKR mentioned that she had even received death threats. This was followed by the #ThankYouDHX Twitter campaign, which was seen by those who mattered, but of course that didn't change what had happened.

I'm so utterly, utterly sick of people saying that because this fandom grew out of 4chan, that somehow makes it okay to behave like this. Or that anyone who can't deal with deliberately insulting personal abuse is "a snowflake" who should get off the internet. This is My Little Pony, for Celestia's sake. It's not made for us in the first place. But quite apart from that, certain people seem unable and/or unwilling to take Friendship is Magic's messages of love and friendship and plain common decency to heart.

Generosity. Honesty. Kindness. Laughter. Loyalty. Magic. Friendship. These are the values the show teaches.

It's on us as a fandom to learn them.

Take them to heart.

And live them.

We'll be fine

I've already posted versions of the below on both Twitter and Fimfiction, but I wanted to put it up on my blog as well.

The MLP fandom in the future won't be like it is now.

But the fandom now isn't like it was in 2013.

And the 2013 fandom wasn't like it was in S1.

And the S1 fandom wasn't like it was in G1.

It's never like it was in the old days.

There'll still be room for all of us.

Honest.

I did take a little licence with that "all of us", since of course some people will move on, as indeed some people have been doing for many years now. But for those who want to stick around, there'll always be a fandom for them to stick around in. As long as they don't expect it to be the same fandom it's always been. Because it hasn't "always been".

On a similar note, there's this piece by UK PonyCon along much the same lines. It's not a surprise that they're planning on returning in 2020, but it's good to see it in print all the same. I hope I'll be there – though there's this year's UKPC to get to first!

RIP MythrilMoth

It's true, I'm afraid. Here's a blog post from his long-time friend Zef:

https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/856403/in-memory-of-my-brother

A sad day indeed.

Words, words, words

This post is not actually about fanfic. It's about why I prefer to do the bulk of my fandom interacting in spaces like forums and blogs. Although I use Twitter a good deal, I don't even have a Facebook account, and I find FB's insistence on covering half the page with a banner even after you click "Not Now" to be intensely, intensely obnoxious. It's the kind of behaviour you might expect from a particularly childish middle-schooler.

But, as so often, I digress. I am a regular attendee at the twice-monthly Worcester meets. It's quite a small group, but we have a nice time. These are planned in this thread on the UK of Equestria forums, and they always have been. I am extremely happy about this state of affairs, and there are reasons for that which go beyond simple convenience. (My usual disclaimer here: I am a long-standing member and moderator on UK of E.)

A really important factor is openness. I have nothing to hide about being an MLP fan, and I find it very pleasing that UK of E has no hidden forums for members only. (There's of necessity a little bit of staff-only discussion, but that's all.) Anyone, whether logged in or not, can browse the forums and see what we all talk about. Anyone, whether a member or not, can read about our planning for the Worcester meets, including the venue.

I would be significantly less comfortable if these meets were planned on a closed Facebook group, even if I had a Facebook account. While I've been around the internet long enough that silly insults of the "you're all insert-slur-here" type rarely bother me, I do think it's a huge plus point that we can invite literally anyone to share in our thoughts and comments about the fandom. This is also one reason I'm glad our meets take place in public.

Blogs and forums are also more permanent than social media, making it easier to refer back to what you or someone else said on a topic. This isn't an entirely unmixed blessing, of course, but I think the pros outweigh the cons. You get time to consider your comments. And of course, you get a lot more words to play with. Even 280 characters isn't very much if you want to expand on why Scootaloo is Best CMC or whatever.

As I said, I use Twitter a lot these days, so I'm certainly not in the "social media is evil" camp. But blogs and forums suit my writing style better; maybe it's also one reason I'm quite happy on Fimfiction, with its excellent forum-style discussion format and 1,000-word minimum. Fimf, too, is a public place, which again I think is a good thing. We all know that our fandom isn't a front for anything sinister, but being open helps us demonstrate that.

Conventions and generations

If I manage to get to UK PonyCon this year, something I hope to do but which is far from certain for a number of reasons, it's likely to be somewhere around mid-October. By that time BronyCon will have receded into history, and depending on scheduling Season 9 may have done so too. Which would probably mean that the Friendship is Magic era will have drawn to a close. Depending on what happens with Equestria Girls, we may even have reached the end of the G4 era, at least on screen.

It makes me wonder what the atmosphere might be like. I think things will be cushioned a bit by UKPC's multi-gen nature; you can't really spend much time there and still think G4 is all that counts for anything at all. Nevertheless, the majority of attendees these days are first and foremost fans of this generation, and in many cases they will never have taken any interest in anything My Little Pony before FiM came along. So it may still feel rather strange.

This isn't really leading anywhere. I just wanted to set it down, and here seemed as good a place as any.

"End of the brony golden age?" – interesting press article

A few days ago, this article in Canada's National Post newspaper was published. It's a fairly in-depth look at how our fandom is faring as the FiM era draws to a close. Maura Forrest's piece seems a decently researched article on the whole – for example, she acknowledges 4chan's place at the very beginning of the fandom's story. She also makes the fair point that, eight years in, it's hard for many/most fans to sustain the initial rush of excitement that being a brony brought.

It's nice that Forrest's article doesn't take the easy route of either assuming every brony is the stereotypical unemployed "neckbeard" or overplaying it the other way and making out we're all the CEOs of FTSE 100 companies. There's due regard paid to our tendency to buy custom merch (eg plushies) in preference to Hasbro's, too. There are a few little slips, such as the implication that there was a consensus among fans to hate Twilight's ascension, which wasn't true even in 2013. Not many, though.

Forrest touches on some of the modern grumbles, such as the ever-growing cast meaning less of a focus on the Mane Six, the quality of today's episode writing and those leaks from late 2017. There's also the fair comment that a fandom based around a single TV show, which was always going to end sometime, does have something of an "expiry date" built in. On the positive side, there's a bit about VanHoover being built in the wake of BronyCAN's expiry in 2017.

The subject of conventions is one that could fill articles by itself, and here in the UK the situation is somewhat complicated by the fact that our largest Pony con isn't just about one show but rather about the My Little Pony franchise as a whole. But I think that point I mentioned in my first paragraph plays a large role: it's been eight years and the shine was always going to wear off a bit for many people. Whatever your thoughts, I do recommend the National Post article to every fan with a reasonably open mind.

2018 in Pony: My Highs and Lows

Happy New Year! I thought I'd begin it by looking back at the one just gone. Here is an unashamedly personal view of the ups and downs in the show and the fandom alike over the past 12 months. If you can think of any other categories I could have included, feel free to suggest them in the comments section!

Best show event: "Best Gift Ever". This was the first ever proper FiM special, and the show team did an excellent job. It doesn't quite match "A Hearth's Warming Tail" for me, but it's not far off, with a warm-hearted feel that's entirely appropriate for the time of year it represents.

Biggest show disappointment: "Non-Compete Clause". No further explanation needed.

Biggest show surprise: The Student Six. It's a long time since characters have gone from nothing to firm favourites so quickly. I'd happily watch a spin-off.

Happiest moment: Being there as EileMonty sang "I am Octavia" at UK PonyCon, more than five years after missing her doing the same at BUCK 2013 and long after imagining I'd lost my chance for all time.

Saddest moment: Discovering just a couple of weeks ago that Ceffyl Dwr had nuked his Fimfiction account. I didn't get to read anything like as many of your fics as I'd have liked, but the ones I did read gave me a lot of enjoyment. Wherever you are now, I wish you the best and hope you're doing all right.

"I'll Never Get to Do This Again": Buying a VIP ticket for UK PonyCon. Given they sold out in 26 minutes (!) I don't think I'm going to push myself in future. It was a fun experience, though.

Personal success: Helping to keep the Worcester meetups on the road, and seeing them attract new members and some old friends return after longish absences.

Personal failure: Writing so little ponyfic. In particular, starting The Danger Within specifically as a fic I could write quickly and have fun with, and ending up sticking it on hiatus after many months un-updated.

Best YouTube discovery: The Feral Brony's G1 reactions. They're great. Give them a try! (No, I wasn't paid a vast sum, or indeed any sum, for saying this. Curses!)

Most irritating part of 2018: The interminable arguments about whether S9 of FiM will be the last. Even if (as I assume) it is, I'll be relieved when Hasbro finally makes it public and lays that silly argument to rest.

Funnest new blog feature to write: Now I've got my guidelines sorted out, "Sounds of 2011" has fascinated me and introduced me to people like Chain Algorithm I'd barely heard of before.

Thoughts on "Friendship was magic", Dubs Rewatcher's Polygon article

I read "Friendship was magic: How bronies are preparing for the end of My Little Pony" a few weeks ago, and I remember remarking at the time how favourably impressed I was by the article's approach, especially given it was published in a non-fandom source. (Okay, it was Polygon, a gaming and entertainment site, not a mainstream newspaper, but nevertheless.) We even got an interview with a ponyfic author in Bookplayer, a rare thing even in good articles about our fandom.

Being behind the curve as usual, I've only now discovered the reason for the article's author coming across as so well-informed: because he was. The writer used his real name on Polygon, but it was in fact long-time fandom member and ponyfic person Dubs Rewatcher. (One of whose old fics I'll be reviewing tomorrow, plug plug!) Given he's been on Fimfiction since August 2011, and given I don't think he was new to the fandom then, I think it's fair to say he's been around a bit. Since this is a fandom blog, I'll use his fandom name here.

As for the article itself: it's generally a very good one. It's fair and balanced, for one thing. (Yes, I know that phrase is loaded, but I mean it here.) It doesn't deny reality and pretend that the fandom is as big now as it was in 2013, but nor does it take an apocalyptic view and opine that the moment the show ends the fandom will too. It also has one of the more clear-eyed brief takes on clop I've seen, though understandably Dubs chooses not to mention that term.

There's a very interesting section later in the article in which Dubs points out the vast number of people who've used skills they've picked up in the MLP fandom to help them in later real-world endeavours. There's inevitably a slightly bittersweet tinge here, since most of us know favourite writers, musicians, artists or voice actors who have moved on and are no longer active. Some have severed all contact with the fandom, some still embrace their brony history.

My one disappointment with the article is its insularity: a reader unfamiliar with bronies could get the impression that BronyCon was the fandom and that there were no other MLP conventions worthy of the name, nor even fandom life outside the US. Perhaps the fact that Dubs is American and researched his piece at BronyCon makes this tricky to avoid, but it is something that irritated me as a British brony. The end of the show will be as huge a deal for us over here as it will be for American fans. The end of BronyCon, perhaps a little less so.

Despite that niggle, I would urge anyone who hasn't read "Friendship was Magic" to do so. It's a good read and, while it probably won't tell an active fan much they didn't already know, it's nice to find non-fandom platforms still taking some interest in us in 2018 – even if it is from a "waiting for the end" perspective. Still, I don't intend to mope, and while there's life there's hope. Besides, I have a Pony convention to prepare for!

"A good fandom"?

This is, of course, a question with no one definitive answer, but it's also a question that interests me. It's not something I feel I could sensibly discuss on Twitter, as there just isn't room for the uncertainties and shades of grey that I feel are essential. I'll make it quite clear, though, that in general, I have a fairly bright outlook about our fandom. Off we go...

An argument I saw someone make not so long ago ran like this: it's unhelpful to simply say things like "This is a generally good fandom, but there are some bad apples" because then everyone mentally places themselves on the good side of the ledger, so any hard truths don't get through to those people who need to hear them. I think my reply would be: "Up to a point, but not entirely."

As an analogy, consider a chief constable who says, "This city has a problem with knife gangs." I wouldn't have a problem with that. I wouldn't expect them to say, "This city has a problem with knife gangs, though of course the vast majority of the population aren't criminals" because that would dilute the message. People who aren't involved won't assume the criticism applies to them anyway.

But. If the police chief only ever mentioned the bad things about their area, then I'd argue that would not be good policing. There's a community cohesion aspect that can't just be ignored in the name of catching the bad guys. So if the police chief were asked directly, "What do you think of the people in this city?" I would expect them to note the community's good points as well as the problems.

In fandom terms, it's absolutely right that people call out racists and misogynists and homophobes and the like. And such messages are stronger when undiluted. However, it's not good for the community if that's all that's stated when someone's asked about the fandom. If there's no special reason not to, then yes, it's perfectly fair that the good points should be stressed as well.

As I said above, I take a moderately optimistic view of this fandom. It's not perfect and never will be, because we're human beings, so working to make it better is a good thing. But on the whole, I think the MLP fandom, right now in 2018, does more good than bad in the sense of making people's lives happier, and I feel comfortable saying it in those terms.

Welcome to the herd!

There was a discussion recently on Equestria Daily about what our fandom does especially well (to go with a previous piece about what we could stand to improve on), and one thing that many people mentioned was that bronies are generally very welcoming to newcomers. That's been my experience, too, and I'm very glad: I sometimes hear about fandoms where new people are almost considered second-class citizens if they don't know all there is to know from the off.

Anyway, the discussion reminded me of the GIF posted above. I don't know who made it as my Google-fu has failed me – let me know and I'll add a credit – but I used to see it everywhere when new people joined the fandom. In spite of my usual antipathy to animated avatars and the like, I make an exception for this one. It's always made me smile (smile smile) and I like to think it represents the general mindset of established fans towards newcomers.

I know there are still new bronies joining the herd in 2018 – not as many as in the old days, of course, but they're still around – so if you're one of them, then... well, see the GIF. Welcome to the herd!

Our Fragile Fandom

Introductory note: some of you may wonder whether this post was inspired by a recent event involving a ponyfic author deleting their account – not just removing their stories but making it seem as though said account had never existed. The answer is: not really; I didn't know this author and have never reviewed one of their fics. Plus, I've been thinking about this post for a while. However, it was the aforementioned issue that prompted me to publish it now.

Fandoms are ephemeral, and online fandoms – which is most of them – even more so. In music, for example, MandoPony chose a while back to make some of his MLP tracks inaccessible – not merely unlisted, but privated/deleted entirely. Some are still available on his Bandcamp account, but others – one notable example being the villain!Sunset song "Shimmer On" – now only exist online because of unofficial reuploads by others.

WoodLore has gone :(

I may not have been as big a fan of WoodLore's music as some people, but I certainly liked some of his songs and respected his skill as a musician. So I was surprised and disappointed to find out (from Armosk on EqD, actually) that he deleted his channel a few weeks ago, taking all his Pony music down with it. His Bandcamp is gone, too. I'd been thinking about losses in the fandom recently, and this is another sad one.

Back in 2017, WoodLore did an April Fool video about "leaving the fandom" – but it seems that, a year later, he was serious about it, and so did the deed. The songs themselves have (mostly?) been reuploaded already, and from comments I've seen here and there, WoodLore himself isn't going to be too fussed about that. Yes, he has every right to delete his channel and his songs. I just wish he hadn't felt the need to.

Potential new blog subtitle!

Annoyingly, this wasn't around on 1st April. (Mind you, neither was I.) So I can't just change my blog subtitle to "Not actually a real fan" and see how long it takes anyone to notice. Considering how few people have ever remarked on the name of the blog or the reason why its title bar is that particular shade of yellow, it might have been a while...

Have some context, therefore – this is, of course, from YouTube. Please note that it is a fact that as well as not being a "true fan", I now hate Fluttershy. And Celestia. And Scootaloo. And the whole darn lot of 'em, apparently. I like post-S5 Pony, so I cannot be a real fan. Not sure what I've been doing for the past six years, but hey ho. Sorry about that. Look out on Wednesday for Ponyfic Roundup 198: I Hate The Show And The Characters And Basically Just Everything Edition.