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1
Pony Corral / Re: Did G5 flop?
« Last post by TheBeatlesPkmnFan42 on Yesterday at 10:09:57 PM »
I've personally felt that MLP (strictly the toys themselves, not any attached media) has been on a downward spiral ever since Core 7.
One of the KEY aspects of MLP is the 'collect them all' nature which completely falls apart once you introduce a core group of characters - I think only G2 pulled this off somewhat successfully as it maintained a good blend of old characters with new looks and brand-new ones.
The second aspect is the tactility, which I feel has been lost with the ponies getting increasingly small and less... quality?
The hair doesn't feel nice any more (if it's not outright sculpted) and they're hard plastic. Poses are static and uninspired, gimmicks are obtrusive and get in the way of standard play...
I firmly believe if G4 hadn't had such a successful cartoon attached to it, it would have been dead in the water in a couple of years  -_-

Little late to quoting this here, but I absolutely agree. I did get into MLP via G4's cartoon, and so G4 of course will always hold a place in my heart, but the toys themselves were never as good as the generations prior to it, even if they were the first toys I started collecting.

As I got further into MLP, the collectability with the large amount of different ponies to collect in gens 1 to 3 were a huge part of what drew me to those past generations and ultimately led to me preferring them over G4 (and now G5). And yes the quality has gone down significantly, too. Though the concept of the Core 7 drags late G3/G3.5 down, at least even then the quality of the ponies were still pretty good. Early G4 quality was... alright? But about halfway through that it dipped significantly.

Completely agree that the success of FiM was the only reason G4 lasted as long as it did. I also think the G4 toyline could have done a little better if they'd took advantage of the cartoon's success more? Hasbro going in on releasing so many versions of the Mane 6 constantly when the FiM staff introduced so many characters was always a really strange decision to me. While it wouldn't have helped the issue of decreasing quality, I do think the G4 toyline could have been much more enjoyable to collect if Hasbro would have just made more various FiM characters into standard, widely released pony toys. We did get some toys of other characters, but a lot of them were either part of spin-off lines (like blindbags, Guardians of Harmony, etc), or had limited releases in specific store chains. Really a lot of missed opportunities.
2
Pony Corral / Re: Is this pony a prototype?
« Last post by Ponyfan on Yesterday at 07:26:47 PM »
I agree with everyone else.  I think it's just an international release.


 A while back on Ebay I saw a mock up of a Princess Guinevere/Starla and the Jewel Riders doll.  There was a handwritten note attached to the packaging that listed a few changes that the person checking the doll noted.  I think it also had the wrong clothes or color of clothes for that character.


Ponyfan
3
Pony Corral / Re: ~Out Now and Coming Soon ~
« Last post by Gator on Yesterday at 07:17:53 PM »
I’m surprised no one has posted here yet, but on some of the Facebook pony groups someone has posted a picture of a supposed 2024 Hallmark G1 ornament.  It is… another Cotton Candy🙄 but in holiday garb.  I will buy her, but still wish it was a different pony😆
4
Off Topic / Re: The Trivial Complaints Thread ... #3
« Last post by Ponyfan on Yesterday at 07:14:59 PM »
I'm in the US and on my World Clock, I have a few time zones for some major cities in other countries because I was wanting to know the time in other parts of the world.  I tried telling my mom about it once and she said she didn't care what time it was in Paris or Tokyo because she wasn't going there and didn't know anyone there. 


The muscle right below my knee has been hurting most of the day.  I don't think it was hurting when I got up.  I had to lift a small piece of fence and some lattice to get the dog out earlier.  Maybe that's when it happened?


Ponyfan
5
Off Topic / Re: The Plant Thread
« Last post by Ponyfan on Yesterday at 07:07:47 PM »
Beautiful dragon tree, Taffeta.  :lovey:  I'm glad you saved the primroses. :)  I bought my sage plant because it looked like it was trying to survive among a lot of dead plants at Walmart. 


Does anyone have dill?  There's an indoor tower garden at work and one of the things that grows in it is dill.  It seems to do great.   I love my plants, but I'm a little tired of mostly herbs. 


Ponyfan

6
Off Topic / Re: The Trivial Complaints Thread ... #3
« Last post by Taffeta on Yesterday at 06:56:35 PM »
Oh goodness, the rain -.-

I said to my Dad the other day, literally the only difference between winter and spring here right now is that it's a bit more green out and about.

The rain today (and hail, yesterday)...has been excessive.
7
Off Topic / Re: AI Discussion
« Last post by Taffeta on Yesterday at 06:54:21 PM »
A quick warning at the top of my post that the links to articles relate to things that may be political or may upset some people due to their content.

I watched a documentary a while back about deepfakes being used to create questionable content of prominent figures and then being used as blackmail material. I don't want to get into the details of it because it's not safe for this site, but I'm sure you can imagine.

So long as the internet and society discriminates against any group, groupthink human taught AI will also promote those stereotypes and close those doors.

I'm wary of getting into too much political stuff, but one example about how technology failed people is the Horizon scandal over here, where many, many post office workers were accused (and many convicted and jailed) for embezzlement from the Post Office, when in fact there were faulty software algorithms involved.  General overview here for anyone unfamiliar:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56718036

What is the most concerning about that, aside the human cost, is that people did know there were issues and we're finding out now how much of that got swept aside because the tech couldn't possibly be the problem. Far easier to believe lots of very normal post office workers from all over the country were all committing fraud at the same time...right?

Despite issues like this, the government are trying to get a last minute amendment through the online safety bill which will allow the Department for Work and Pensions to monitor bank accounts of benefit claimants, their friends and family to 'prevent fraud'.
https://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/news/dr-uk-says-scrap-dwp-plans-use-ai-scan-benefit-claimants-bank-accounts

In short, they are preparing to spend more money and rely more on tech and AI to do stuff rather than human beings, despite the big red flag of the Horizon scandal.

The DWP is apparently also monitoring social media accounts already using AI (at great public expense) to 'look for fraud'.

Not that I think fraud is ok or should be let go, but...it's like smashing up a whole house because you need new windows. And in the case of disability benefit, there isn't really a case for account monitoring, because the benefits work differently from income support benefits.

Moreover, there's so little fraud from claimants of disability benefit (0.2% of claims I think is the figure). It's a considerable amount lower than the amount of error in the DWP's decision making and benefit awarding process (they quote it at 4% overall).

This one is not an 'in the future' thing. It's literally right down the road, and honestly, it's terrifying.
8
Off Topic / Re: The Trivial Complaints Thread ... #3
« Last post by lovebyrd on Yesterday at 06:37:10 PM »
I had bought a car ex-demo and was going to get it so took a train thinking it was only going to be one way. I get there and there are huge scratches from taking off the dealer stickers!!! Someone did a terrible job taking them off because the scratches weren’t there before. So I had to take a train and bus home in the pouring rain (love england) and they’re telling me my refund will be delayed due to the bank holiday -_-
9
Off Topic / Re: AI Discussion
« Last post by ChocolateStarfire on Yesterday at 06:28:11 PM »
I've seen the Terminator films, 2001-A Space Odyssey (and read the books!) and I, Robot, in addition to the Spielberg film AI. I prefer we stop now while we are ahead, because we will have Skynet take over. D:
10
Off Topic / Re: AI Discussion
« Last post by Beth3346 on Yesterday at 04:41:29 PM »
This probably isn't what you were thinking of when you started talking about AI, but someone on Facebook has trained an AI chatbot to talk like Sailor Moon/Usagi.  This person told the chatbot that Sailor Moon only existed in a parallel universe that wasn't connected to our own.  The chatbot acted surprised to find that out.


Ponyfan

lol i think those are kind of fun

Squirmy, that's awful. what if a someone did that to a regular person and a jealous partner saw it. that kind of thing should be illegal IMO. probably falls under free speech though. ugh.

i'm not at all worried about the robots taking over, Terminator scenarios. i don't think technology is there yet or ever will be. AGI (Artificial general intelligence) is kind of the holy grail for AI people these days. S*m Altm*n, the ChatGPT guy keeps saying it's just around the corner. gives M*sk vibes IMO. we don't have safe self drive cars either. there's some really weird stuff these people are into. eccentric billionaires/millionaires are a trope for a reason i guess. it's a rabbit hole i'm not going down here. we need much better people building this stuff if we want a utopia for everyone. right now it's likely to be utopia for ultra rich people and a whole lot of unemployment.

i'm still fascinated with AI but i worry about it in the hands of government and corporations. drones and facial recognition making decisions without human intervention. those robot dogs with guns also give me nightmares.

i think AI needs to be highly regulated and developed with a lot of input from a diverse group of people. it really bothers me that people get to roll out all of this new stuff that affects us all and we don't really have much of a say. we can decide not to use it but don't have much control over what people with more power do with tech. it seems like we need like a worldwide vote or something :D i know that's impractical and would probably have it's own issues. we all know voting doesn't always produce outcomes that protect underrepresented people. I also think it shouldn't be replacing people's jobs unless there is some kind of universal income and real social safety nets. like guaranteed housing, food, healthcare. with all of the current austerity trends i don't believe we will get that even if a lot of people lose their incomes. we can't have a utopia when governments don't see making sure everyone's basic needs are taken care of as a human right.

scenarios like Taffeta mentioned worry me too. An AI trained on content that contains negative stereotypes is going to output negative stereotypes. we have enough negative stereotypes about neurodivergent people in pop culture already. also more chatbots, more layers before you actually get to talk to a human don't sound great. especially in highly skilled fields like law and medicine. there are already a lot of worries about AI's hallucinating and just making stuff up. like an AI for lawyers could just make up a law if it's trained on bad data.

i think we really could all have better lives now with existing technology. better mass transit. or any mass transit if you live where i live :D less spending on military toys and more money on making people's lives better. it's depressing that we have so much spending on jets that don't work right and kids in the US have lunch debt. solving that would be a drop in the bucket for the US budget. a better social safety net would be good too.
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