Reflection Blog #3 Assignment

Into the virtual world of information pools, where user-generated content thrives amid strong social group identification (Flanagin et al., 2013), My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fans are like partygoers. Many dive right into the vast tangle of networks afforded to the fan base, commenting or interacting with others on sites such as Equestria Daily or Bronibooru.

Most of these fans, and many more, also contribute anything from fan art to music—using numerous social media platforms from Tumblr to Twitter to spread the word about their creations. YouTube, alone, is overflowing with original (and often of professional-quality) animations, some of which now fall under the categorical heading of “PMVs.” If you want to see a good example of this, try watching the PMV “Children of the Night”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jW5n3k2VgZE

Others are largely lurkers, venturing into these hospitable communities in the purest spirit of what Reijo Savolainen termed “everyday life information seeking” (2009). They enjoy the creative wealth afforded by fellow fans, and delight in relaxing with or admiring the artistic projects related to MLP: FIM as a whole—but they may not choose to contribute more than the occasional comment, or they might shoot other people links to resources they have enjoyed.

With this said, I have found creative individuals sit at the very core of the MLP: FIM fan base. And this drive towards user-generated content, combined with easy access to social media platforms, make it a formidable information community that actually extends far beyond Equestria Daily to a huge group of sites dedicated to the show—and which often make reference to one another or work in close conjunction.

To get another perspective on the MLP: FIM (and for this particular blog post), I chose to interview someone dear to my heart*, who first introduced me to the show and was nice enough to answer my emailed questions in his usual thoughtful way.  

Here is how our interview went:

Me: If I remember correctly, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic premiered on the Hub Network back around 2011. How did you first find out about the show, and do you happen to know how soon after it aired that fan sites like Equestria Daily or Bronibooru appeared?

Anon: I found out about the show in this way: I was browsing the Something Awful forums in the very early morning (insomnia), looking for something to read, when I found a strange thread in the TV subforum. It was called something like "My Little Pony - No, Seriously" or possibly "My Little Pony - Why is this Good?!?!" It was something along those lines, anyway. I would go and check the Something Awful archives to see the actual name, but they changed it to (I think) "My Little Pony: Rainbow Dash has been a bitch for the last three episodes."

Equestria Daily was probably around within the first five or six episodes of the first season, but I could be wrong. I'm going to ballpark it at January or February 2011.

Bronibooru is a little later, I think around March 2011 judging by what I can find on the site itself. See, there's something called Ponibooru that actually came first, and Bronibooru is a kind of reaction to it. The people who made Bronibooru wanted a version of Ponibooru that had better moderation and a rule about keeping things PG-13. As for Ponibooru, I don't know much about it. I avoid it because, well, it sort of weirds me out.

 

Me:  When or where did you first hear the term “Brony” connected to the show? Was it through an on-line community?

Anon: February or March 2011, and yeah, an online community -- either Something Awful or the new board that came out of it, the one I still go to, "MLPonies.com."

Me: Do you think the ability to interact in on-line communities is one major reason the MLP: FIM fan base got so huge, aside from Lauren Faust’s deft handling of the fourth incarnation’s storyline and characters? Do you think it would have been as popular, or reached as many people, if it hadn’t?

Anon: For your first question, naturally, and for your second question, naturally not.

 

Me: What do you think distinguishes the MLP: FIM fan base from those of other fandoms?

Anon: Honestly? Nothing, or nothing truly unique. IPs for girl's things have gotten popular among men before. The internet has taken things and then run away with them before. Even the massive amount of professional-quality fanworks (remixes, stories, original music, paintings, drawings, sculpture, etc) is also in other fandoms, like Sonic the Hedgehog.

Well, there might be the social activism elements. MLP:FiM was conceived and designed by a feminist who wanted to convey a couple of ideas, the biggest ones being that little girls are worth making a TV show for (most people in the cartoon industry seem to disagree with her on that on the grounds that "little girls don't buy toys"), and that there are many perfectly valid ways to be a girl (brash and brassy, girly-girl, intellectual, hyper and cheerful, artist, athlete...). Combined with the culture of tolerance that has developed among bronies, you get a group of people who have strong opinions on the marginalization of gender and sexual minorities along with, from what I can tell, mentally ill people.

 

Me: What do you like the most about being part of the MLP: FIM community, especially when it comes to accessing materials or interacting with people on-line? Do you think you would have been comfortable, at least at first, with discussing your involvement in MLP: FIM on sites beyond those devoted to that fan group?

Anon: The massive amount of fanworks. I don't know why, but this community seems to attract creative people, many of them professionals.

It's not something I bring up in general, online or offline, except around people I already know are interested in the show. I've never gotten into an argument with anyone about whether it's kosher for an adult male to watch a cartoon for girls, and I like it that way; it'd ultimately end up being an argument over competing value systems and that never goes anywhere.

 

Me: On that note, what do you think are the biggest challenges for men or women in the fan base? Do you believe the ability to interact on-line makes it easier for people to get involved without the fear of being judged for their interests (for whatever reason)?

Anon: The biggest challenge among My Little Pony fans? Well, considering their/our typical age range, probably the increasing gap between how much money a person in their 20's can reasonably be expected to make per year on the one hand, and rising college tuitions on the other. If you mean "as it relates to being an MLP fan," I guess the obvious answer is reconciling the enjoyment of a show for little girls with the fact that a brony is by definition not a little girl.

Me: Have you ever discussed or met up with groups interested in MLP: FIM off-line, or participated in similar activities regarding the show?

Anon: Nope, at least not people I met online, since they're all too far away. My own community is mostly on the East Coast or in other countries, and the closest (that I'd want to go out of my way to hang out with) is in Texas.

Me: What type of content do you tend to search for related to MLP: FIM, and how do you go about it?

Anon: Stories and art. For stories I go to FiMFiction.com or my forum, and for art I go to Bronibooru or my forum. I'm not sure how much detail to go into here, but for stories on FiMFiction I usually tell it to filter for non-mature content only, then ask it to go in order of how many favorites it's gotten versus total views, then look for story descriptions that don't have typos and sound interesting. As for art, I usualy just go to Bronibooru and browse straight through what's come out most recently.

Me: Is there anything you would like to find more of in the MLP: FIM on-line community (such as information on the show, particular types of fan creations, etc.), or anything you feel many of the current fan sites lack? Is there anything that frustrates you about the fan base, or the content for certain websites dedicated to the MLP: FIM?

Anon: Better editing in stories; also FiMFiction, the most well-organized MLP fanfic site I know of, isn't all that well-organized. Frustrates me about the fanbase? Well, I'm not sure what all this shipping is for, but I guess that's not a frustration so much as a minor annoyance. Content for websites dedicated to MLP:FiM? Yeah, the "mature" stuff on FiMFiction sounds disturbing from what I've heard about it. I suppose they're not hurting anybody and I do appreciate that I can filter all that out with a toggle that's always on by default, but uh... wow.

Oh, and the stories written in second-person present.

 

Me: Is there anything else you would like to share concerning on-line communities for MLP: FIM, or advice for people interested in getting involved in it?

Anon:  As to the first, nothing comes to mind. For the second... don't let advertising demographics curate what you enjoy. Why should Coca-Cola and the Axe Body Spray marketing department get the casting vote on what you do with your spare time? As for violating gender roles and intended age groups, so what? Cultural norms change every decade. And as any children's literature class can demonstrate, worthwhile children's fiction is exactly as complex and engaging as the audience makes it.

*My interviewee asked to remain anonymous, so I have replaced any instances of his name in the original posting with "Anon."

--

What helped during this interview was the fact that I also consider myself a part of the MLP: FIM fan base, so it was possible to ask questions that reflected other issues that affected the information community as a whole—such as breaking societal norms—aside from how members gather or use its available resources.

That is a fact I plan to continue studying in terms of the MLP: FIM information community, using Equestria Daily as one of the main hubs for that information (amid a wide variety of similar sites). And I plan to keep enjoying this information pool as long as possible.

 

 

References

- Duo Cartoonist. 2014, 9, 26. Children of the Night [Video File]. Retrieved from             

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jW5n3k2VgZE.

 

- Flanagin, A. J., Hocevar, K., & Samahito, S. (2014). Connecting with the

  user-generated web: How group identification impacts online information     

  sharing and evaluation. Information, Communication & Society, 17(6), 683-

  694. Retrieved from

  http://www.comm.ucsb.edu/faculty/flanagin/CV/Flanaginetal2013(ICS).pdf.    

 

-Anonymous (personal communication, September 25, 2014).

- Savolainen, R. (2009) Everyday Life Information Seeking. Encyclopedia of Library and

  Information Sciences, Third Edition. 1780. Retrieved from

  http://libaccess.sjibrary.org/login?url=http://www.tanfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1081/E-

  ELIS3-120043920#.U2FyPVfcfro.