Am I a Brony or Something Else? Help needed.

[Snapdragon]

Call yourself whatever you like if you feel the need to have a designation. Brony, collector, Fred, awesome-pony-person. You don't need a community to justify, understand or even accept who you are and what you do. And you ' don't need to conform to all the other similarly named people in order to use the word to describe yourself. You can be a brony and love all generations, you can be a collector and only collect one particular pony - its your call. But most of all just have fun collecting ponies and watching the shows you are interested in.

I have never and will never understand the need for designated "fandom" orientated names - they just seem a way to separate a group out rather than make it all inclusive. The most pony collectors ever called themselves in the past was "pony collector" or "collector" - really imaginative right? And not even a formal name just more a description of a hobby. We survived 20+ years without having to brand ourselves something. So just enjoy ponies and try not to worry about it.

This!! ^_^

If you like the name Brony, then use it! If you prefer something simpler, then go for 'fan of MLP,' or MLP fan, or whatever you like! Really, whatever makes you happiest. If you get flak for being a 'Brony' and it sours your experience using the title, then use a different title! It won't make you any less or more of a fan to change your nickname.

[sd_dreamcrystal]

You can make up your own name for yourself, hehe. Ignore the negative people.

Ponian... that sounds funny to me but that was the first thing that came to mind when you said 'make up a name'

[LuckyTwirlerina]

You are whatever you choose to identify as.

[ponycake]

I refer to myself as a collector too. If you feel uncomfortable with brony, I'm not sure. Another male here on the Arena goes with the Big Brother theme for a name (can't remember the exact wording), you could go with that. But if you want to use brony, just go ahead and use it!

[NovelNerd]

You're a person that likes ponies. I'm not sure why in all aspects of our life people feel we need some sort of label. I just think of myself as a collector of things.

[Loa]

You can make up your own name for yourself, hehe. Ignore the negative people.

I could never be a brony or pegasister because I don't relate well to them. I'm much older and I'm a collector more than a rabid fan, (tongue in cheek people- don't take offense). I talk with the local bronies and find them to be a generally friendly group of teens and early 20-somethings. I think they are kind of adorable. hehe. Plus it's fun to have an insane amount of MLP knowledge when I'm an older lady who has no outward signs of being "pony-ish." The shocked looks are fun.

THIS!
(Older lady my arse Slug!)

[Tulips]

I love the word Brony (never Pegasister) but since I'm not really part of the culture, and collect all Gens, I went with Collector. I also collect Iron Man figures etc, so I'd say pick whatever you are most comfortable with. It's just a label after all, your identity is your own and you don't have to put a word to it for other people to understand if you don't want to.

[SALTY5621]

a Big Brother Pony XP hehe. i refer to myself as a Veteran Brony because i was way into the previous gens as well as the new so feel free to use it. but hey, if you like the term brony just screw the hate! do you actually have a reason to be hurt by a bunch of childish name calling? tell the losers to grow up, or better yet educate them :3

on a side note, do your children like your ponies?

[FarDreamer]

I think Brony pretty much refers to younger male fans of G4.  I know people claim that's not what it means, but when the folks outside the G4 fandom hear the term, that's what they tend to think of.

There are guy collectors who don't consider themselves Bronies.  I'm good friends with one of them, he doesn't like being called a Brony, collects mostly G1's and was around long before G4.  He just calls himself a MLP collector like a lot of us.

[BowtieG1]

I can't really stand the word Brony, to me it just sounds like a group of men who were so scared of having their self imbued sense of masculinity ruined that they had to shoehorn their silly misogynistic 'bro' culture into Ponies, I don't get why they couldn't just call themselves the FiM fandom or something. Every other fandom just sticks the word 'fandom' onto the end of what its about.

Call yourself whatever you want to, but do just know the word Brony comes with a huge bag of negative connotations because the Brony fandom isn't very well thought of by most of the Internet.

[Violet CLM]

Every other fandom just sticks the word 'fandom' onto the end of what its about.

"Trekkies"
"Homestucks"
"Whovians"
"Twihards"
"Beliebers"
"Cheeseheads"
"Little Monsters"
"Colbert Nation"
"Whedonites"

[LordBlumiere]

Friend, you are what you want to be! You don't have to use the Brony label if it's uncomfortable for you, likewise you don't have to call yourself a collector if you don't want. Whatever you feel comfortable with, use! In the end, it's not our labels that define us, anyway.

[Firehooves]

I refer to myself as a collector too. If you feel uncomfortable with brony, I'm not sure. Another male here on the Arena goes with the Big Brother theme for a name (can't remember the exact wording), you could go with that. But if you want to use brony, just go ahead and use it!

Ponycake's right on this one, I go with 'Big brother pony'. But really; collector, pegasister, memeber of the herd... call yourself whatever you want! ^^

[MikeysGrrrl]

I really don't understand the need to have label. You are who you are, you like the things you like, you collect the things you like, plain and simple. Why be pigeonholed with a label?

I know some people feel the need to have a label, but to me it's not important. I love other things too, but I'm not someone that's so obsessed and interested in only 1 thing that I could even put a label to it, or to myself for that matter.

[Zapper]

Just "a fan" seems so simple and doesn't convey my passion

You realize that "fan" is short for "fanatic"? It doesn't get more passionate than this
And you sound kind of arrogant here. There are so many passionate, utterly-nuts-for-MLP people on this board, but somehow they don't need special "we love MLP more than you" sub-groups or clubhouses (allthough I'm sure the mods on here have a secret handshake, hehe).