Pony community awareness groups?

[Taffeta]

sorry if this offended, upset, triggered, or ruffled anyone. It was just what I thought was a fun and spontaneous idea. Rest assured, I'll prevent from sharing any further ideas from now on

I don't think it was offensive. I think just this is such a diverse community you're going to get different points of view.

From a personal perspective, the huge challenge in my life at the moment is teaching at my university. I have to spend 2 hours each week taking charge of a group of young academics and getting them involved in discussion so they can pass their course. I have a disability which makes this a whole lot harder for me to do. My doing it is in my view a big deal achievement and I am proud of it. But it's still hard work.

The idea of being the centre of attention in any kind of community project to promote ponies terrifies me. It doesn't offend me, it scares me. I don't feel like ponies in general need to be something we're canvassing the streets over. If you do, that's fine. That's up to you, it's your opinion. My feelings about it doesn't make it wrong. But I can't agree with you because I don't collect ponies to recruit other fans. I collect MLP because I love MLP. I don't need to share that with anyone else to make it precious to me.

We don't have a collective canon, a collective generation, a collective ideology of what MLP means to each of us, anyway.

I know you are a G1 fan, and I sometimes wonder if you had a really rough ride in a brony community before you came here because you get defensive very quickly when people disagree with you. I have never been in a brony community, so I don't want to be unfair to those people, but there seems to be more of a collective need to make a statement among G4 fans than there is among older gen fans.

In any case, we are not attacking you. We are discussing your idea from our perspectives. When you make a new thread, you invite that discussion. So don't abandon your ideas. Keep them. Just remember that we all have our own ideas of what MLP is and how to celebrate it, and we're probably never going to all agree.

If it's any consolation, I've been trying since 1998 to get people to use the UK names more, and not to use terms like NBBE and NSS and not to call ponies Uk ponies when they're not. It's 2018. Clearly I still fail at being persuasive. But that's fine. It doesn't mean I give up.

I think this post is best ended with cookies.

[KarentheUnicorn]

sorry if this offended, upset, triggered, or ruffled anyone. It was just what I thought was a fun and spontaneous idea. Rest assured, I'll prevent from sharing any further ideas from now on

 Maybe a better way to go about what you are suggesting is organize your own event or outing and share it. That kind of thing might inspire people to really understand what you are talking about.

There are plenty of people who know i collect mlp who dont collect mlp, but i dont feel like everything i do has to be mlp or mlp related. I am not comfortable trying to drag people with no interest in mlp into it. I freely talk about ponies when asked, but as much as i love mlp it would be kind of obnoxious to bombard people with it all the time.

I go to things like nascar races, but its not exactly the place for me to organize pony even or bother other nascar fans with pony. I sometimes might take a pony with me and take pictures.

Which tends to be the collector mindset. We might take ponies with us to disney world and take pictures od our ponies, or ponies might acompany us on random adventure.

Ive never been in a mindset to push my love of mlp on everyone else. I dont require the attention. Its much more fun for me to share collecting with other collectors than people who dont know or understand.

[Al-1701]

#1 problem with Cool Adults Being Fans of MLP when out in public...  the parents have heard all about the distasteful behavior of "bronies" and they don't want their kids anywhere near those kinds of Adults.   I don't want to be associated with untangling myself from THOSE allegations! 

Especially since they've reached a whole new low of deplorable behavior recently (well, it was exposed recently).

I do agree with the idea of our cons and meetups doing some community outreach through charity.

[northstar3184]

It's a great idea, but we're such a small community that is spread across the globe. For example, I don't know any other collectors that live in close proximity to me.

Then you add the stigma of being an adult toy collector (the added stigma of being male collectors for us guys) and the negative reputation brought on by those who've taken a child's toy line and turned it into things it should never be.

It'd be a wonderful idea if not for those barriers. But I absolutely love the idea of individual members doing great things and sharing. It'd make a great ongoing thread.

#1 problem with Cool Adults Being Fans of MLP when out in public...  the parents have heard all about the distasteful behavior of "bronies" and they don't want their kids anywhere near those kinds of Adults.   I don't want to be associated with untangling myself from THOSE allegations! 

Especially since they've reached a whole new low of deplorable behavior recently (well, it was exposed recently).

Al-1701, you've piqued my curiosity there. I know some "fans" have been building a bad reputation for us all for some time, but they've found a new way to do it?

[Jocelyn]

I believe AI-1701 is referring to the ToonKriticy2k drama. It's not very arena appropriate, but a search on YouTube or brony sites will show what's up.

I personally don't flaunt the fact that I collect ponies, and I don't see the need to publically...And if it's about making people aware of the pony community, I feel like that's best done on a one-on-one situation where you already know the person, know their interests and know if it'd be something they would have interest in. I see a lot of potential pushback coming from grown adults being told by strangers that it's cool to collect pony toys.

I think it's obvious you mean very well though, and you want what is best for the community. That passion is great! Unfortunately though, getting us all to agree on something is like trying to herd a litter of kittens, lol. We're squirmy, don't stay in place and we go in any random direction. But just because we don't always agree, it doesn't mean your ideas aren't welcome!

[Taffeta]

Unfortunately though, getting us all to agree on something is like trying to herd a litter of kittens, lol. We're squirmy, don't stay in place and we go in any random direction.

Best description of pony community ever.

FTR the thing Jocelyn is mentioning is very not Arena appropriate so google with caution. It's not nice.

Honestly, I think the backlash from it could do most damage to the guys among us who are just in it for the ponies.

Also, reading the comments - that's the brony community people outside see. They don't see this world. They see that. And that is something I would really not want any association with, publically or privately. Not just the horrific thing Jocelyn mentioned, but also the way they talk to each other and other people...

[Al-1701]

FTR the thing Jocelyn is mentioning is very not Arena appropriate so google with caution. It's not nice.

Honestly, I think the backlash from it could do most damage to the guys among us who are just in it for the ponies.

I definitely feel like it.  It makes me even more uncomfortable being an unmarried man who loves this brand.  Even though I became a fan as a child, people can't see that from looking at me.  My skin already crawled when people asked if I was a brony.  With this, I can't help but think there will be a tinge of disgust behind it and any explanations of the nuances will fall on deaf ears.

In a way, this is an argument in favor and against trying to do more community outreach.  In favor is separating My Little Pony and the collector community from the bronies and all the baggage that comes with them.  Against is that fact we're holding those bags in the eyes of the public and trying to fight it isn't worth it for the community at large.  It hurts people like me right now, but there is no reason for the whole community to wrestle this greased pig on behalf of a few.

[Aurora]

Bad bronies aside, it would be awesome to have an all-collector softball team!