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@Deadparrot

That's actually a pretty clever random selection method, let see what I…

Lyra…

….

LYRA IS BEST HUMAN!

@Commodore

Sounds like you got Ticket; the golden ticket OC unicorn

@Fun Police

A best pony discussion? That’s actually civil?

Your face is civil! You tree hugging Flutterfag! Dainbow Rash is teh bestestest!

(Seriously, best pony discussions are all jokes right? Do they actually get uncivil?)

@X

Damn guys. I think 4chan just schooled us in the art of best ponying. We should all be taking notes here.

Either that or /mlp/ has a bad changeling infestation

Seriously, guys…
Even other cartoons are worshiping the awesomeness that is Scootaloo!

How can you deny it, now?!

On a more serious note, I stumbled upon a little treat completely accidentally today.
If anyone wanted to get their hands on the COMIC-CON GLOW-IN-THE-DARK ZECORA (you know, the one that sold out in seconds last time), it looks like she's available right now on Toys R Us's website for just $17, which is way better than you'll get anywhere else.

Linky-doodle-do: ZECORA
She seems to be hiding under the radar for now, but jump on this if you want her.
I doubt she'll last long.

Holy shit it's not sold out?

Lemme check my bank account… Oh, boy, online banking isn't available right now. What do you guys think, should I risk it before it makes it onto EQD? I should be able to afford it, I just don't know how much more I'll have. I get payed on Friday though.

EDIT: Buck it, I'm going for it. I don't spend much anyways.

Y'all gon be jelly by the third of October.

While I'm still editable, shamelessly copy and pasted from the EQD comic post.

Breaking news from the DawnSomewhere.com Facebook page!

…DawnSomewhere being the website run by the Rainbow Dash Presents and Mentally Advanced Series guys.

Judging by the screenshot and what the Baylor Bronies fan page and a prompt search of Wikipedia have to say, Rainbow Dash Presents: My Little Dashie is to be set in…..

Waco, Texas!

Edit, this just in – Petirep goes to Baylor and runs the Baylor Bronies fan page! I knew something was suspicious… Well, that's that.

Oh my god, these are great.

There's a few more in the image gallery.

The gallery was been temporally closed for "maintenance"

That's today?

Have fun, image mods.

there will be like 40 people working on it.

i mean….mods and entry editors,right?

On the image gallery being closed and cleaned: I am perfectly fine with this, and this was expected to happen. However, there is one thing I am kinda curious about. Moderator opspe said in his post about the gallery maintenance: "KYM is not an image-hosting site – the galleries are meant to contain relevant examples, not every single image in existence."

I know that there are a large amount of images that are duplicates and/ or too suggestive to be in the image gallery. Also, most of the images with a negative rating of more than 10 will likely not be missed much if they are taken out. However, I am kinda worried about the ambiguity of “relevant examples”. Are other uploaded images (such as fan works) that are SFW and are not duplicates going to be taken out as well if they are not really meme related?

There's only been one person working on it that I know of, but an image moderator will have to go and delete them as well. So there will likely be two.

I may join in myself, but not for duplicates (likely for any recent explicit images.)

I've got a lot of free time at the moment so I wonder if there is any way I could help.

As stated before: 100,000 images is a lot for one guy to sift through. You are at serious risk of Diabeetus looking at all that Ponu in one sitting

Left a comment on that already on the entry, it's unlocked for now.

Long story short, Katie's already at around 65-70% with cleaning (over the course of the last couple of weeks). I'll lock and remove when she's done. Verbose and other mods with image powers are free to help me when I start cleaning, gets the job done quicker and the gallery locked shorter.

When done, anyone who feels like sweeping again is free to help, or help Katie right now (risk is that you can be uncertain on images she has spotted already but you have not).

Opspe and Katie thought it would be locked with 100k, but were misinformed. My mistake on that.

Well, the reason only one person could do it, is because otherwise, you might get a person who posts a duplicate image that someone else has already posted a link to.

Take a look at this thread.

It is nearly exclusively Katie C for the past few pages. And there are a few image links per post. There are 50 pages per page. It's probably been going on for about 12 pages. Katie started from the very first image and is working from back to the front/most recent.

5 X 12 X 50 = ~3,000 duplicates/otherwise unsuitable uploads

If you found a duplicate, then there's a good chance that Katie has already found it and posted it. Now if you were to post from front to back, then you might find some immediate duplicates, but there's a glitch that shows the same image twice or three times in the gallery, even though it's got the same URL. So by deleting one, you delete all of that image.

Furthermore, if you started from the front to the back, then you'd see images that are duplicates, but you wouldn't know until you got to a later image. As such, you'd have to find the most recent image again and delete it. With 100,000 images, that would be nearly impossible.

Apparently, the gallery is open again, so…

EDIT: …I honestly wouldn't know where to start. If more than two moderators are deleting images (one from the beginning and one from the end), then the mods will just be getting images that have already been removed.

I like I said with BSoD, if you post to the image cleaning thread, Katie's probably already posted a link to that image. Redundancy in posting would be almost assured.

This:

>MFW:

I wonder what kind of bullshit they will/will not talk about bronies.

@Deleting images: As Sonata Artica said, We should start with he highly downvoted images.

Just a quick suggestion for when you guys do close the gallery for its official cleaning.
Upload a big, text-only image that says something like "Gallery Closed For Maintenance" just before and put more details in the comments on the image page.
That will probably get the casual browser's attention more so than a comment on the main article's page (thus mitigating uninformed freak-outs and giving people a single place to talk about the lock if they want to) and you can just delete the message when the cleaning is finished.
Might be something to consider.

@Bruno
Well, see for yourself: CBS 5

Also,

Good news, everypony!
(Or at least anypony going to Equestria L.A. like I will be)
The first voice actors have been confirmed for attendance with Andrea Libman (Pinkie/Fluttershy) and Brenda Crichlow (Zecora – Her first con appearance!).
Yay!

>Le first day of semester
>Goes to a fairly sports oriented school (ie full of jocks)
>Sees a guy wearing a Doctor Whooves shirt
>"Maybe he's just a minority"
>Sees a girl talk to him about Doctor Who and she knows about ponies.
>"Maybe she's just one of those rare pegasisters"
>Le present day
>Le walking back to room
>Sees a guy wearing a blue hoodie that has yellow lightning bolts on it
>"Maybe he's just likes the Blue Angels"
>Sees pony ears and cartoon googles
>Remembers seeing three classmates having pony PC backgrounds
>Finds a brony group on school social site
>mfw

MY SCHOOL HAS BEEN INVADED BY BRONIES AND I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW
>spaghetti everywhere

@Verbose

Fair enough. I just thought I would ask.

Looks like Katie has this operation covered, that's a surprisingly large amount dedication right there. I don't think I can top that so I'll leave her to take care of it.

Although perhaps the lock could be applied for a bit longer. Crimson already pointed out there there suddenly seems to be more reposts and yes, they already seem to be coming in (how many times have we seen this one?)

Lastly:

If you must take pride in uploading, then I’d take pride in having a legitimate image gallery with properly tagged images with sources that credit the original site or artist. I’d take pride in uploading to the proper sub-entries.

So much damn truth.

@Badsitrep:

>Le second day at University
>Go to students-only Target event
>See 20 percent cooler shirt
>Le first week of semester
>Wear DJ PON-3 shirt
>Get three brohoofs
>Le second Thursday
>Be scanning cards at dining hall for lunch
>Get ten-ish compliments/brony recognitions
>Have scanned 200 cards
>dat percentage

@CBS Brony report.

It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. But it definitely could have been much worse. I can't decided if I liked it or not. (Also, so many fedoras and newsie hats rofl)

Sometimes hard to make up mind.

I have a new question for y'all. How do you think the fandom and community has changed since when you became part of it? On this site in particular, or as a whole?

Yeah, this question's probably be asked before… feel free to ignore it then.
Whatever.
¬_¬

@Connor

I might be the only person thinking this, but it seems to me as if the fandom at large has been stagnating creatively since I joined. They're producing way more content than they were back then, but I haven't seen anything new in a while. Music, art and fanfiction don't seem to have changed much at all – there's just more of it. I kinda wish there were more fresh ideas now, since I'm getting bored of hearing about how much Lyra wishes she was a human, and how Derpy apparently loves muffins. There were plenty of ideas like that back during Season 1, so why can't the fandom do the same with new background characters of season 2?

The only major differences I'm aware of since the release of season 2 is that there are a lot more animators (a very welcome change), and there are a few major developments going on within the fandom that wouldn't have been possible with our smaller population (e.g. Brony Thankyou ad, a few attempts at full fan-made episodes, huge conventions).

On this site, I think the community has matured significantly. There was a phase of sudden maturity at around December, back when that Late Night Debate Club started up, but for a while before and after that there was just a ridiculous amount of image spam and a complete lack of real conversation. There also used to be a lot more infighting in the community, and I haven't seen much of that in quite a while (at least as long as we don't count the response to the recent banning of a few users). I can only speak for the people who use this thread though, since I stopped following the community around the image gallery a long time ago (maybe about a year or so). From what I've heard, they've probably gotten worse, but I can't be sure of that without taking the time to read through months of old comments.

@Connor
The thing about the fandom now is that it seems a bit more mainstream (manestream?) to me. It just seems like an accepted part of internet culture now, whereas before it was resisted at all ends. Which is kind of cool, I guess.

As for the lack of anything "new…" Well, that may change once season 3 rolls around.

Oh, and this has nothing to do with anything, but in Canada today is National Tree Day! So, here's an obligatory picture of Fluttershy as a tree.

Enjoy!

Algernon wrote:

since I’m getting bored of hearing about how much Lyra wishes she was a human, and how Derpy apparently loves muffins. There were plenty of ideas like that back during Season 1, so why can’t the fandom do the same with new background characters of season 2?

I wonder how much brony minions Chrysalis has? Let's check:

What else we got here from Season 2…..

And of course…

THE MOTHER OF ALL SEASON 2 CHARACTERS' POPULARITY

It's there. You just need to find it. Lyra and Derpy are always gonna be popular simply because they've been around longer and have even gotten shoutouts in many episodes and let's face it…many of the background ponies in Season 1 are still the same in season 2, it's just the cruel nature of flash animation.

Also …new mediums? What kind of medium hasn't been ponified yet?

Fan Art
Fanfiction
Role Playing Games
Trading Card Games
Pony Mods
Full Pony videogames
Pillows
Plushes
Etched glasses
Music videos
parody videos
Original Music
Podcasts
Interviews
Custom Toys

It's just a simple fact….we're running out of things to ponify. It makes simply logical sense that the amount of new mediums being ponified will slow down, it's just that according to Einstein's Theory of Mass–energy equivalence Burning_Phoneix's Theory of Pony-Medium Equivalence (P=mc^2) where P is Ponu, M is the medium factor and C is Content. As you can see, if the amount of Ponu increases we must increase the other side of the equation and the only thing we can increase is C (Content) as M is a factor outside of our control and can not be changed. As you can see, Content is raised to the power of 2 which means there is more of it than there is Ponu but since M is a factor (similar to the lorentz factor), it would take an infinite amount of content and and infinite amount of Ponu to accelerate Mediums to light speed Infinity, which is simply impossible to replicate.

Gentlemen Scholars. I rest my case.

HAVE AT YOU!

I can’t access any of my Profile pages. When I click, for example, in the ACTIVITY button, it goes back to my wall. Is this happening to anyone else?

Yes.

I've notified amandab who notified James

Also: Cant access tabs [site related]

@Omni
The fact that you didn't have a significant opinion is a positive as I see it.
The reporting was pretty neutral overall.
They just talked about who bronies are and why they exist, while refusing to condemn them.
Of course they are going to point out that we are a bit 'unusual' for liking what we like (It wouldn't be news-worthy otherwise), but they were respectful, fair, and let the bronies tell their own story for the most part.
Not a hack-job and not a puff piece.
Just like it should be.

@Algernon
Phoenix said it well.
Season two did spawn tons of new content in art, memes, music, comics, animation, ect.
The only issue right now is the lack of canon.
This has been (and continues to be) the longest drought of official pony content so far, so it makes sense that the well is running a little dry at the moment.
Even so, there are still lots of great things out there to see and look forward to (I'm thinking specifically of the numerous quality fan-games that seem to be just over the horizon.)
I can pretty much guarantee that the premiere of season three will see a significant resurgence of creativity.

Lookie!
Someone made a comic about my drawing abilities!

@burning_phoneix

Ah, so we're doing this again? Sir, I accept your challenge!

Alright, I guess the fandom has picked up a few new things recently. I was trying to criticise the creativity of the fandom though, not the amount of source material they draw from. I used the examples of Lyra wanting to be human and Derpy liking muffins for that reason: they were entirely fan-made 'tropes' that are still prevalent throughout the fandom today. They started as some minor detail in the show that a few people noticed, and they've since become our own creation. We can also add Doctor Whooves to the list of fan inventions from season 1, along with a bunch of widely accepted background pony fanons like Colgate, Octavia and Berry Punch. The things you've listed aren't really like that:

• There really are a ridiculous amount of Chrysalis fans out there, but they mostly idolise her for her canon appearance only. There have been a fair amount of attempts at creating backstories for her, so there is some creativity out there, but otherwise she's portrayed exactly as we've seen her in the show.

• I haven't seen much from Iron Will, and while that Advice Animal spin-off was kinda funny for a while, it didn't last long at all. (Anyways, Advice Animal spin-offs can hardly be considered 'creative' #meme-elitism)

• I'll give you credit for mentioning Daring Do, since I think the fandom has handled her fairly well. She's had a few fan-made adventure novels written, and I've seen a few flash games based around her. I guess most of it is still recycling what was seen in her episode though.

• I haven't seen very much work centred around the Cake twins, so I guess I can't really comment on that.

• I'm yet to see anything especially creative based around that roids pony (I can't even remember what his fanon name is. Did we even settle on one?).

I think at this point I can just say 'et cetera', and you'll get my point. I wasn't trying to say that the fandom isn't doing anything new, but more that we aren't doing as much with the material we're given. We rarely stray from the accepted norms these days. I think we can blame that on the size of the fandom, since ideas could spread much faster while we were still growing.

Also, notice that I said that we're 'stagnating', rather than 'we're stagnant'. There are still new ideas out there, but few are quite as successful as those I mentioned from season 1. I can only think of a few recent examples, like 'Sweetie Bot' or that 'Do You Like Bananas?' thing. This fandom still produces a huge amount of high-quality work, and I would never go as far as to say that we're 'uncreative'. I just think we're slightly less creative now than we were then.

Edit: Drat, ninja'd by DeadParrot in the process of making some final corrections. I guess I can aim this post at you too.

Algernon: I specifically remember Dash calling the roids pony by name in Hurricane Fluttershy. I just can't remember his actual name.

As for the debate, I can't say much about the "stagnation" in fanmade OC, as I'm a recent convert to the fandom. I do agree that there don't seem to be many new ideas, but I wasn't around when season 2 was live, so I'm not familiar with the amount of content then. I'll get back to you on that in November when Season 3 begins (I'm almost positive that's when it will start now).

However, it does make sense that the lack of canon would affect the amount of OC. We have exhausted all of the in-jokes, exploited all of the odd phrasings (as in "I'd like to be a tree" and other such sentences), and seen the episodes so much as a fandom that we've found all of the unique background/secondary ponies and created fanon backstories and quirks for all of them. How are we supposed to make large amounts of new content when we don't have anything left to base it off of?

Because of this dilemma, we have to base fan content off of these existing ideas. The fandom isn't "stagnant", per se, it's just strapped for new ideas and is using the old ideas for inspiration. This prevalence of content based on things we came up with back before April makes it look like stagnation, when it's really just a lot of new content from old stuff. Sure, there's probably a dip in content, but at the same time, EQD still finds enough to post art, music, or animation near-daily, DeviantArt has new Ponu all the time, and our MLP image gallery (unfortunately) still fills up pages a day. In other words, there's still huge amounts of content all the time.

@Season 3:
I'll be honest here; I've just been waiting for an excuse to do this.

@Best pony:

I'll just be leavin' this here… steppin' back and watching the fireworks.
Figures you'd use dirty tactics, Solaire, brainwashing X. Eh. Just callin' em as I sees em. Also, my sheld has over 9999 points. Nice try.
…Al, you're onto something. Braeburn is also best pony.
X, I don't give a damn if Celestia isn't pleased with me, it isn't as if I'm not going to hell anyway.
Pyro, don't even try to hurt me based on your beliefs or I will murder your ass do NOT test me.
Agreed, Bluescreen. Lyra is, indeed, best human. There are simply no competitors. Not even all of us humans.

@Parrot's GIF: Uh… I got Sweetie Belle.
This could be interesting.

@CBS report: Seemed rather sparse. I actually like it; it doesn't spin sympathy OR negativity towards us, it states the facts and lets the readers decide.

@Connor: The fandom seems to be growing up. It's also gotten way, way less controversial – the hate's still out there and burning just as bright, it's just less common now. Maybe people just don't think it's worth it to get up in a tizzy over a children's show.

I also figure the reason behind the fandom's ideas growing weary with use is because of lack of pones. When Season 3 comes out we're going to see a massive explosion in things crystal pony related and then things will just rev upwards from there on in, like what probably happened during Season 2.

Finally, picture time.

In honor of Borderlands 2, I present to you one of the best ponies (and best Crusader) taking on a new role as…

GO GET YOU SOME WHEELS

@Fandom stagnation

Well, the explanation is rather simple: we humans are creatures of habit. We prefer to stick to what we know rather than experiment with new ideas, unless something shatters the established order of things. This is somethings that pervades every single aspect of our existence. Case in point: have you noticed how the majority of fantasy settings have elves, dwarves, dragons and some dark lord up to no good? Ever noticed how nobody really seems to give two shits about that fact? When even our escapism from the daily grind is filled with routine, well, it certainly speaks volumes of our obsession with regularity and doing things by-the-book.

Of course, this entire phenomenon we represent was born of the order of things shattering. Something with a not-so-proud heritage of being utter tripe, suddenly made good, in a way that garnered a completely unforeseen audience.

The early fandom was composed of the more adventurous sort, folks who've truly grown tired of the established order and seek thrills ever more exotic. This, along with the relatively small group size, meant that information flowed much more efficiently and people were more receptive to alternative interpretations.

Unfortunately, that is a sate that cannot last. The most adventurous eventually tire and move onto new pastures, while others find their niche and settle into it, developing a routine and becoming attached to it. And in this sort of case, the more ordinary folk see all the fun we're having and want a slice of the cake too. And so, what the pioneers (largely) agreed on has become codified into fanon, and most of the newcomers subscribe to these interpretations because they figure "when in rome, do as the romans do". And since people like to fall into routine, they don't really give alternative ideas that much credence, except perhaps for a one-off joke.

That's the way the cookie crumbles, as unfortunate as it may be. Still, like others pointed out, new ideas do still flow, just not as well as before. People are more set in their ways and since there's a lot more of 'em, it's harder to even reach a sizable portion of the fanbase with your ultra-cool new interpretation of Lyra's funny sitting habits. Thus, most won't even bother, since revisiting old ground is far more lucrative anyhow.

@Fandom's change:

I'd agree somewhat with Algy's first statement. It seems that people have stopped coming up with theories on characters and all that or their own personal headcanons because things happened that were so solidified by the fandom that they may as well be canon. It's particularly annoying with Derpy and Lyra, in my opinion, because the human obsession and muffin obsession are so overdone when they originated from traits shared by several other ponies. It's mainly my opinion, of course, but I'd prefer to see more variety in how people see the different ponies and all that, like what we had when the fandom was newer.

I guess I should clarify that I joined the fandom right after Season 1, so I saw the first pony drought from a distance, as I wasn't really immersed in it. It was shorter than this drought, so there was far less stagnation and more focus spread around. Now it seems that there's more focus on the creativity on a few people, like the big musicians and artists, though that may be because there were more macros and stuff like that during and after Season 1 instead of fan art.

I don't frequent big sites like derpibooru, ponychan, or EqD, but I can say with certainty that the fandom is larger and more mainstream. The CBS news report and other reports are evidence that its reaching far, and you guys are saying for yourself that you see a lot of fellow students that are bronies. It's not the same as it was before, as far as size goes, and that's changed a lot. There's more variety, so there's less hate for the things that used to get it, like clopping and all that. I still see bronies claiming to be untrollable but getting trolled unknowingly, like most fandoms, so that'll never change.

In this site itself I'd say the posts are far less frequent than they were when I joined in February, and about as substantial on average. It's gotten worse since the summer drew on and ended, as we only go through maybe a page daily if we're active, when it used to be pages a day. I haven't really noticed a change in maturity, though a lot of people have settled into less 'extreme' roles and all that. That could be attributed to, what seems to me, the community becoming tighter and smaller on this site. This extends beyond the bronies, as does the lack of hate for our fandom in general from people who used to be more vocal about it (cough)ThomasandAdam(cough).

So, tommorows my birthday.

Ya, ya, whoopdi-friggin-do. When you get as old as me, birthdays kind of lose their significance. Just another day and another year lost to the inexorable march of time. Just another sunrise and sunset in the blur of sunrises and sunsets, as the cold hands of winter creep to strangle the world.

I really don't see the big deal in getting worked up…oh hold on, the delivery man is at the door. What's this, a package for me?

NEW PONY TOY BITCHES! FUCK YES!

(Thank you Twilitlord)

"I didn't do this for DeadParrot when he sent me the plushies because fuck 'im."

Happy birthday, Elizabeth!

@Fandom

Did someone say fanon stagnation?

Big fandom, long drought. I feel like a lot of people are too concerned about the upcoming season to generate any new fanon, since heaven forbid the new season should contradict them (which is the only positive aspect I see about Trixie coming back). Previously, I've never been particularly inclined towards alternate universe stuff, but it's definitely growing on me, what with Octavia being a master swordspony fighting giant cobras.

But I think Solaire's right. The fandom is a bit older, and we've had time for a lot more artists and such to develop. It might be like a generational thing: they'll create content around Derpy and muffins and Lyra and humans and what was popular when they first became bronies. As the show goes on and more and more artistic bronies start to find their footing, I think we'll start seeing a lot more content generated around some new fads. That's what they are, fads. I can see Derpy staying around for a while, but I'd imagine with seasons three and four we'll have a lot more fun stuff to do.

Wow, that was fast. I was told it wouldn't get there until tomorrow at least. Literally all they had for normal MLP toys was unicorns, and it was all part of the royal wedding line – Rarity, Twilight and Lyra. Each had what I assume was a gift for Cadance and Shining Armor – which makes Lyra giving them a picture of the mane 6 that she doesn't know even wierder. My Twilight has a little bouquet with their picture (which is also weird, why did she put their own picture in there?) -

What Fifths didn't mention was what I wrapped the toy in.

And that was the first time I ever listened to the card so I can honestly say I didn't know it would call you the "birthday girl", Fifths. That was kinda funny.

(Since you don't really get a good view of it the card is the one I posted on page 62)

I just realized that I got a toy that matches my username. Heh. I would have gotten Rainbow Dash, but like I said, it was only unicorns, and Twilight just barely edges out Rarity for me.

For anyone looking for new stuff, Fifth's gift has gotten me thinking about a new interpretation for Lyra that I haven't really seen explored much before.
Really, why the heck would she just have this picture of six ponies that she's never met?
Well, because she's a stalker of course!
Specifically of Twilight.
Look at how happy she is in the pilot when she thinks Twilight might be looking at her.

And that's the thing.
She was clearly living in Canterlot there, but then she's suddenly in Ponyville right after Twilight moves in?
Mighty suspicious…
Not only that, but Lyra was also the only pony to follow the main six to a place where, by most accounts, she had no business being: Cloudsdale.

Then, of course, she got her big speaking role when she mysteriously became a bridesmaid for Twilight's former foalsitter.
Lyra is always there!
Watching, waiting, planning…

hey again folks
I haven't posted here in blah blah blah because yakkity yak
dunno if there's been a lot of talk about Canterlot Gardens
but if any of you are going and see this sack of shit hobbling around THAT'S ME
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk207/Gareth_Infinity/120926-222734_zps57aee1b0.jpg

Algernon wrote:

They started as some minor detail in the show that a few people noticed, and they’ve since become our own creation. We can also add Doctor Whooves to the list of fan inventions from season 1, along with a bunch of widely accepted background pony fanons like Colgate, Octavia and Berry Punch. The things you’ve listed aren’t really like that:

Who are the background ponies in Season 2?

They're the exact same background ponies in Season 1. Lyra, Doctor Whooves, Carrot Top, Derpy….they're the exact same. We can't do much with characters that we've already done stuff with, like I said Flash animations makes it a lot easier to reuse background assets and that's what happened. Hell, Derpy and Lyra got speaking parts in Season 2.

Another point is that we simply have more choice now. Back when Derpy and Lyra came around…the only canon characters we had were the Mane 6, Spike, Nightmare Moon, Celestia and Luna… and maybe Mayor Mare and a bit of Applebloom as well. We HAD to make up characters…there is simply nothing out there.

Now? There's so many great characters and villains that we don't need to scour every single frame in the vain hope we spot recolour we never saw before.

In addition to that, the multitude of new characters means the fandom's creative output is spread amongst many more characters instead of only a few in the beginning so it would make sense that progress would slow as the front widens.

Solaire wrote:

In this site itself I’d say the posts are far less frequent than they were when I joined in February, and about as substantial on average. It’s gotten worse since the summer drew on and ended, as we only go through maybe a page daily if we’re active, when it used to be pages a day.

Back in Febauary? When I joined in September, Pony General I (Wow…I posted on page 7 of Ponu General 1? I'm an older fag than I though!) didn't really have many massive posts. Then we had the following pony generals consist of nothing but image spam and….and….and…

Sweetie Belle Derells.

I for one, do not miss those dark days.

"Sack of shit?" Looks like a face to me!

@burning_phoneix, well there have been some "new" season two background ponies but they have often been more single use. Blossomforth, that one Pegasus who looks like Doc Brown, and all the other Pegasus that so far showed up only in Hurricane Fluttershy, Junebug, Allie Way, the Earth pony(s) with Mutton Chops, the "valley girl" ponies, most of the Stallions that the CMCs show in their hearts and Hooves day song, the mail Stallion Fluttershy shoves through a mail box, etc. Most of these ponies are rarely "just in the background" but doing something very specific, where as a few fans I know try seeing how many duplicates of a single pony they see on the screen at the same time.
Part of me wishes that some of these ones that are not used frequently would replace a few of the duplicates of others, but it would probably cost too much for this rather small detail. Plus, at least now we can just say the duplicates are just Changelings.

Did some bug bited you in your forehead?

I'll respond to this, even though it does seem a little hostile. Although, before I get downvoted a bunch, I do know that it's only a joke, and I'm not upset. Just saying.

I do like Rainbow Dash, I just prefer Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy. I think that their characters appeal to me more, that's just my opinion and I stand by it. In fact, on the Brony Subculture survey created by Verbose, I actually said that I liked every one of them a lot, but left the favorite pony question blank because I was torn between these two.

Also, Spike? Did you say SPIKE?

And addressing your question about discussions like these getting uncivil, you have no idea. 4chan, reddit, TV Tropes, Something Awful, Newgrounds, Digital Spy, even more video-game enthusiast forums such as Facepunch, Sporum, Neogaf, Steampowered, and RuneScape. Some really awful exchanges happen between users whenever the topic of who the best pony is appears. I usually lurk when I go on these sites, mainly because I don't dare try to get involved and have these same insults directed at myself. This is what I really like about KYM, though--there can be civil discussions about something like this.

@Best Pony discussions
All fandoms must have their opinions tested in the ring of combat!

But really, a lot of people do have preferences among the characters, but almost no one takes those preferences very seriously.
We're all fans of the same show so we all have much more in common than we have in differences.
Any incivility (like BSoD's) is purely internet tomfoolery.

…wait, did someone say that Scootaloo is not best pony?

my response in haiku:

kinda wish one did
even though bugs are scary
they're cooler than zits

If it makes you feel better here's a picture of my face:

I don't go outside very often…

So I was just watching The Dark Knight Returns: Part One with a friend just now (great movie BTW, if you like animated Batman). I decided to leave it up through the credits, because Joker had one line right at the end and I though he sounded familiar; I wanted to see who it was.

I'm watching the credits, just kind of rambling, saying "Oh, that's who that was… Ah, that was a good choic-HOLY SHIT TARA STRONG?"

So my friend (a non-brony who knows I am a brony) just goes "What the heck are you talking about?"

"She voices Twilight! Twilight Sparkle!"

"I still don't have any idea what you're saying."

"Seriously, just by the name it should be pretty obvious."

"No. Honestly, it sounds like a stripper name."

She's credited as Michelle, Carrie Kelly's friend from the first issue (for any Batman fans). However, IMDB points out she's uncredited for young Bruce Wayne in flashbacks (and the two-year-old heir to the Wrigley fortune, but that's pretty much just crying).

So do you know what this means?

TWILIGHT IS BATMAN.

@Fun Police

And addressing your question about discussions like these getting uncivil, you have no idea.

So people actaully DO get their panties in a bunch over someone liking a cartoon horse?

You gotta link me to some of those arguments you found, I almost need to see it in order to believe it.

You could be right because I have only really seen best pony discussions in KYM and EqD. I haven't seen how people roll elsewhere

In both KYM and EqD; the Best Pony arguments I have seen are purely just jokes. Like how I called you a tree hugging flutterfag; that's all just fake satirical hostility made up for fun. We are essentially mocking people who take the fandom too seriously.

But are other places actaully serious? I don't know. I would hope not because it's really sad to get all angry just because someone doesnt like a certain character as much as you do.

I'm hoping that other places where you saw Best Pony arguments were all satirical as well, you just didn't catch their sarcasm

PS:

I do like Rainbow Dash, I just prefer Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy

Love any pony you want, dude. Personally I like all 6 of them equally

About the whole "fandom rehashing old material and inside jokes" thing, check out the new promo (no new content) for the marathon (what opportunity for a pun?) coming on The Hub.

>Fluttershy
>"Misfit"

Yeah, that'll work.

BUT!

It begins…
 
(Actually, it probably won't take off, but who knows?)

Oh what, another birthday? Geez, you guys, stop getting older. I can't get you all presen-I mean, happy birthday Fifths! I drawed you a horsey.

Got bored in class. If you're wondering what that thing in the bottom is, it's supposed to be me. I couldn't get the sitting posture right so I decided to do it separately. And poorly at that.
cue dramatic Muumi-esque exit

(yeah I know this is a horrible gift I wish I had a better mic and some more free time and maybe a few hours of singing lessons)

@Twilitlord
By your excitement, I'm going to guess that you are unaware of Tara's most significant contribution to the Batman franchise.
She played Batgirl for years!

Oh, and Twilight x Eeyore OTP!
(At least according to MadTV)

Ah MadTV. Its complete dearth of humour is atoned for by its affectionate (I think) embracement of bronies.

That was significantly more sad than anything else they've done with the pony concept. And by sad I mean bad. They're trying to cram too many references and parodies into one, not going anywhere with the jokes, and completely failing to capture each character's intricacies and idiosyncracies. Eeyore is way more complex than a sad donkey. Twilight isn't just a unicorn. Mad doesn't seem to get that. Parody=/=automatic lulz.

If you want to see a bunch of parodies done together correctly, look no further than Mario and Luigi in Vice City. Robot Chicken is pretty meh overall, but when they put out a good one, they sure do put out a good one.