Actitivity on that MLPArena

[Snapdragon]

I know this has turned into a discussion about social media, but it still seemed like an appropriate place to pop my head up after years of absence. Sorry if I’m intruding, I’m not sure anyone would remember me…

I’ve definitely noticed forums in general fading as people shift more focus to instant gratification social media. It’s just so hard to have any kind of cohesion there. I miss having drawn out and more insightful conversations about ponies!

Welcome back!

lovesbabysquirmy, that sounds totally miserable, and I don't blame you for being frustrated. Bouncing off of what Beth3346 said too, I feel like it's fighting a losing battle to try and keep scammers out of the Facebook groups. I mean, the obvious ones tend to get caught, but I know of at least one "popular" name who's a mod for multiple groups, allegedly holding people accountable for not scamming, who was very nearly kicked out of the pony community for scamming years ago.

At that point it feels like ... there must be so many more who skate by because they're only scamming amounts less than $50, or they're just too "popular" to be held accountable until they hit grand larceny levels. It's reminding me of the Unicornucopia fiasco (super-popular so she was able to rip off more people without backlash because people were afraid to go against the 'big name member'), but it's even worse because it's easy to change names or just make a new account on Facebook and rejoin the pony groups. And if the pony groups are modded by scammers anyway, we've got the foxes watching the henhouse!

It makes me glad that Paypal has such a long claim window now, because man, it feels so dangerous to be buying and selling ponies on Facebook!

[Artemesia's Garden]

I still have stuff. Doubles. Things I need to get rid of. But I just don't want to deal with the hassle

Same here!

[Beth3346]

I still have stuff. Doubles. Things I need to get rid of. But I just don't want to deal with the hassle

Same here!

yup. me too

[Taffeta]

It's sad that so many of us feel like that. But even though the sale market was so much riskier back in the late 90s/early 2000s, it also felt safer because we could monitor scammers.

That said, I saw a few big names go up in flames because the people who they scammed were not believed and they had too much status.

I don't post at the TP anymore because of an incident like that, with a couple of well known people, one of whom was scamming and threatening people into keeping quiet and the other who was just operating a behind the scenes smear campaign. Thankfully both are gone now, but it wasn't unknown to have big name collectors behaving like the rules didn't apply to them and site moderators taking their side in scam complaints instead of listening to the people they were victimising.

But overall I feel like as a community we did better at policing things when there was some control over policing our trading areas. Now it's just too vast and people don't care.

If I could drive, I'd have taken everything I have spare to a Ponycon, or even a carboot sale by now and got rid of it. But I can't, so that's not an option.

[lovesbabysquirmy]

Yeah I have made slow progress with listing some items on the local sales marketplace. Glad it can go to people who appreciate it, but I am surprised at the lack of collectors in my area compared to what it used to be!

[Stargaze]

I was never very active posting on the forum, but always enjoyed reading many posts. Due to changes in life I got sight tracked from MLP and the forum years ago, even sold most of my G2 and  G3 collection, but I absolutely love seeing "old" members still being active here when I log in. It brings back happy memories as this feels like such a safe and loving place.

[CherryTreats]

I'm still here and have been in the pony community since early '97. I sometimes think about the people I knew back then and wonder if they are still around in the pony community. I probably have had times where I didn't sign in for years and I don't usually post much. I just tend to read more than I post. I had mostly quit collecting ponies, but I love collecting the Basic Fun ponies. I love this forum and would be sad if it ever became completely inactive. I'm really glad to see there are still people posting here, though I agree it's not as active as it once was.

[Nella]

Hi all! I'm a bit late to 'the party', sorry. But I wanted to let you all know I love the Arena. I'm sad to see so many moved their sales to somewhere else (facebook, eBay, Etsy etc) where we could make a nice safe buy-and-sell area over here. Arena members are so much more relaxed and trustworthy. Why not boost the arena by selling through here?

(if the posting pictures is an issue I would gladly help, it is sooooo easy if you know what to do).

[Princess Celestia]

Now I'm even more late in the tread

But why not, I think forums are a nice form for MLP. Other social media only live in the present. An eternal scroll down, and only the latest is visible immediately. I don't like it at all. Refuses to use Facebook, X or anything stupid like that.

Forums provide more proximity between users.

Really hope the forum form survives on the web. Although this form is outdated today. It is difficult to embed and display images. Not phone friendly.
But why play with the phone all the time? Live in the moment! Use quality time for the forum.

There are modern forums layouts too, but they cost a lot and are not easy to run yourself without paying a fortune every single month.

Really hope there is a basis of users for continuing the MLPArena. It's so nice to see the years go by, but the forum endures.

Thanks to all of you who work with the forum, you are amazing!
And thanks to all the users too, without you all it would die out.

[Artemesia's Garden]

I'm not sure what the 'phone compatibility issue is, but as a laptop user I like this format a lot and I think the only reason it's harder to display photos than on social media is because you have to host the photo elsewhere online and link to it in your post.

Ramble:

Spoiler

As far as I understand it, memory space costs money so unless running a business with a shady data collection model, it's not in anyone's interests to host thousand of photos and display them for free. I think people are just so used to having their every utterance displayed for free on the internet that they take it totally for granted as though it's normal, like pinning a sign to a telegraph pole for a lost cat. In that instance, everyone would tolerate it because it's a lost cat (aww) but in reality no-one likes to see bits of tatty paper adhering to the utilities equipment in their street. If we wish to support the function of free speech in a democracy etc. then a forum like Twitter should be better organised and run and funded by the state. Instead we let Amewrican AI companies provide this service for us and anyone who opts out is back writing to their local MP or risking being stoned at Speaker's Corner. I think sometimes people may forget that if it wasn't all being hoovered up into the 'beast' for the purposes of AI modelling of a 'new reality', no business would care about most of what what they have to say let alone host it on a website.

[Taffeta]

Anything that is less social-media-y gets my vote.

[Snapdragon]

Anything that is less social-media-y gets my vote.

Hear, hear!

Your comment reminds me of a scary moment I had a few years ago, which further emphasizes why I think Facebook is the absolute worst format for anything regarding fandom. I had some disagreement several years back, and someone not even related to the argument (a friend of a friend situation?) went through my page, found a picture I had taken with a mutual friend from several years before that (probably one of my only 'public' photos since I keep everything else locked down), and tried to tag herself in it. For what purpose? I have no clue. Maybe trying to gain access to my page/personal info, maybe trying to menace me with 'I know what you look like' or something? It was utterly creepy, like one of those stalkers you hear about on Dateline or a documentary about incels - but instead it was some weirdo trying to defend their equally-weird friend over a pony argument of all things.

I'm sure there's arguments to be made for trying to keep scammers out of the fandom, needing to be able to identify them, "if you're not doing anything wrong you have nothing to worry about" etc. But you can do that with IP addresses; the minute you start connecting real names and photos to fandom stuff, you're gonna get all of the freaks coming out of the woodwork. I wish I'd made a pony-only Facebook back when it was easier to do so, but I never expected the "college networking site" to turn out to be a hub of pony fandom! And I never could have anticipated the level of weird. And not even the good kind of weird!

Anyway, this is your semi-annual reminder to keep all personal information online locked down!

[BlackCurtains]

I watched a documentary on YouTube yesterday about a guy who murdered over ponies. There are dangerous people everywhere.

[Beth3346]

yeah Snapdragon that's the main reason i didn't join any pony groups back when i used Facebook. i like to keep my online interests more anonymous. even before doxxing was really a thing.

i generally think stuff online should be more anonymous. there are most definitely issues but it's not like Facebook or other more unsavory social media sites that require people to scan ids have no hate content. also sites can ban with IP addresses. IDK. it seems like smaller, more topical forums can do a better job of moderating even if people are fairly anonymous. i've never been a mod on a forum so i don't know what kind of content mods do end up removing. the mods here do a good job.

i tend to think a lot of the reason why Facebook wants you to have 1 account and give them so much information is for data harvesting anyway. it benefits them, not you. i've been seriously thinking about deleting a lot more of my social media accounts. i never log into Facebook anymore because it generally ends up making my angry. i still can't really understand why it still exists. i guess there aren't any good alternatives and Meta does monopolistic stuff to stifle competition. Instagram is pretty terrible and i still use it. At least there it's easy to make accounts for specific interests.

and the whole "if you're not doing anything wrong you have nothing to worry about" doesn't work if someone mistakes you for someone else online.

Also not 100% related but on another thread Taffeta pointed out that if you're setting up a website with a domain you purchase you should always choose to keep the website owner information private. in the US it's usually called "whois protection". otherwise you can accidentally publish your address if you're using your home or work address when you register the domain.

[lovesbabysquirmy]

I watched a documentary on YouTube yesterday about a guy who murdered over ponies. There are dangerous people everywhere.

WHAT?!  Oh my!