The TCB Coup D'Etat · 9:39am Mar 1st, 2013
Some long time ago, the Conversion Bureau began enjoying success, and it was decided there needed to be a Group here on Fimfiction for it. I acted first, and began a Conversion Bureau Group. Windchaser, however, wanted it more, and informed me that he had begun a group as well, and he wanted me to bow out. I felt miffed, but because I wanted to be a good friend, and I was not as hungry for control - I simply wanted a group to exist - I deferred.
For all that time until now, I have been an Administrator on the Conversion Bureau Group, along with Midnight Shadow.
Today, Silvertie, Krass McWriter, and Fangwarden have arbitrarily taken total control of the group and have kicked out of Administration only two people. Myself and Midnight Shadow.
This is the letter I wrote in response to the announcement of the seizure of power.
So, it is a coup d'etat in order to remove exactly two previous founders of this group: myself and Midnight Shadow.
While I cannot speak for Midnight Shadow, it should be clear that not once have I - despite my protests and complaints about the unilateral decisions of others in this group - not once have I ever used my administrative position to enforce my own will in any regard. I have stood by and watched this group opened to it's enemies without any consultation to me as a co-founder.
True story - when I began this group, Windchaser wanted it more so I deferred to him. I did this just to be nice and to not cause trouble. He wanted it more. But while I never took action, I considered my status of administrator as something I valued however little I used it. Deliberately - I felt unilateral action wrong, of course, which it is.
Yet now, Midnight and I are tossed out, as you take over total and absolute control, simply because you could. We were once equals here, just yesterday.
Today you have made me a peasant, simply because you managed to click a button first - a button I would never, ever, ever have considered clicking against you. The nuclear option.
Are your lives really so empty, so petty, so wretched that suddenly and without warning or discussion, the locking out two of the co-founders of this very group is something that you think decent, or kind, or in any way friendly?
I once considered you honorable authors of the Conversion Bureau, friends and colleagues in writing.
What I have shared innocently and had an equal stake in, you have taken away by force.
When I first began writing fanfiction in the Pony world, I felt hope and my cynicism falling away. Then came the Anti-TCB bullies, and soon Fangwarden selling out our group to those same bullies in a misguided effort to 'make friends' with those who would see us ended. And now this.
Thank you. I mean that.
I have been delusional. I thought the magic of Ponies could elevate people from brutish power plays to friendship, sincerity, and honor. I was a fool. Stupid cartoons have no such power, and I let my foolish, innocent optimism, which I normally keep buried, out to be hurt again.
You have educated me. Education is always useful.
I now have lost the very last scrap of hope for humankind, for I have been betrayed by those I considered my equals and my comrades.
I now know, beyond any future idiocy on my part, that understanding humanity as William Golding did is not misanthropy at all.
It is simple awareness, which for a time, the love of ponies blinded me to.
Hail thee, king shits of turd island all.
May your domination be as fruitful as my belief in the value of My Little Pony.
- Chatoyance,
Original founder of The Conversion Bureau Group (deferred to Windchaser for the sake of friendship)
I have decided to create a new and official Conversion Bureau Group: one dedicated to only the Conversion Bureau, and those who love it.
Anti-TCB, trolls, those who would bully and threaten and abuse will not be allowed. This TCB group will exist ONLY to support, encourage and promote positive Conversion Bureau stories of any kind. Harassment will not be tolerated at all, and those who seek to stop the free writing of Bureau fiction will not ever be tolerated within it.
If you should want such a place, a truly safe haven for Bureau talk and discussion and interaction, then you are welcome. It is just beginning.
Thats why I made a new TCB group, it's got hookers and blackjack.
"I now have lost the very last scrap of hope for humankind"
Welcome to the club,Chat.
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I feel in better company already, Duality. Thank you.
I doubt it will help, but *hug*. I hope you feel better soon
I lost my faith in humanity somewhere in/or just before 1st year high school, realizing on my own terms how bs life and society is and no matter how much society and it's people try to change you, society and the greater powers will still hate you no matter what for being different, that and no matter how good a cause or its intentions, humanity and all it's rotten refuse known as human nature will seep in and corrupt parts of it, if not all of it at one point or another. Then I stopped giving a fuck before I knew what giving a fuck was, and lived life that way I wanted, easily one of the best decisions I have ever had.
I follow you for these blogposts. Haven't read any TCB story, though I keep planning to (and postponing). Just thought I'd say a couple of words and hope I make you feel better. If not, then please don't hate me for that. First of all, the world IS a better place already. You said it yourself-you deferred the group, you tried to help and give chances. It's a small thing, but that what makes bigger pictures. I think the same may be true for many bronies. We may not have changed our lives drastically, but we try to be better. Second-while the world is a better place, there will always be a******s. No matter the world, no matter the time or mindsets-it's our nature. We just have to deal.
The point of my message is that we still love you. Group admin, or not. For TCB stories, or your blogposts. For your writing skill, opinions or stories-we still value you. Don't forget that even in our shithole of a world.
Ya know Chat,I originally had no faith in humanity,then I discovered mlp,the show actually gave me some hope,some faith in humanity as a whole.Magical Mystery Cure ruined all of that in One.Fell.Swoop.I have little faith left,and that little is because of my friends and people like you,people who help me continue to believe in humanity,to believe humanity has hope for a brighter future.Because,the night is darkest before the dawn.
I got told about this, this morning, but I am a little bit more pre-occupied with real life issues than I am with this bullshit at what was an altogether unhelpful time to be talking to me. My fault for being an internet junkie.
I have to say now, looking at it between more important things to do, I have no fucking clue what Fangwarden thinks he is doing or why it is supposed to be useful.
Whatever implicit or tacit agreement I had with his actions - and the associated actions of whoever the fuck else was dickwaving this morning - is removed.
I'm not going to go row row fight da powah because I am all fresh out of fucks to give. My interest in whatever community we had here has dropped to junk-bond status because I don't have the time or energy to devote to fighting what I am rapidly seeing as a tidal wave of self-important bullshit and to actually managing either people or fiction.
All TCB fics of mine are heretofore cancelled and y'all can get off my lawn.
I hate petty back-room politics and avoid it as best I can. And for what little it's worth, I'm sorry that this has hurt you.
I don't understand the Anti-TCB position and personally feel that it's an overcompensation for personal insecurities. Sure, I personally think that some of what's presented in the TCB stories is overblown but certainly nothing that should make anyone act like some of the Anti-TCB crowd does. (It's also as if no one has ever heard of exaggeration for emphasis/contrast
)
Faith in humanity is difficult because we take far greater notice of our failures than our achievements. I prefer to focus on individuals as any group of sufficient size is going to have outliers. In the end all any of can do is try our personal best. You can't control the actions of others. (At least not ethically!
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Wow. Did they forget that pretty much everyone who likes TCB stories is probably amongst your watchers? Morons
(I hope you checked all your TCB stories on this blog to let all people who have 'em faved get notifications of this. Seriously.)
I had avoided joining a group here because of issues like that Ive had in the past on other sites. I hope only the best for you and this new group and the message, that hopefully, all will aspire to take to heart.
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Whoa, wait, calling them trolls is a little too much, don't you think?
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Sorry, it just took this for me to realize how uninvolved and how uninterested in being involved I am. Most people aren't probably interested, but to save more copy-paste, this is what I have done:
1) left the fimfic tcb group
2) left chatoyance's tcb group
3) deleted my own tcb group
4) sunset all of my tcb fics - they are all either now completed or cancelled
I will no longer be involved in anything tcb related and will not be producing anything new in any tcb universe. This decision of mine is final.
No hard feelings, no worries, and you can always chat to me about anything.
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I'm real sorry to hear that man. Did you have a plan for any of the cancelled ones that you can share to spoil the endings, or was it a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of thing?
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Nothing I can really think of. I had ideas - a lot of ideas, some new ideas - but they won't be happening. Or if they do, it'll be in another (shared) universe.
Make your own minds up what happens with Edge and whoever. I won't be writing them.
Oh boy... so there's theres trouble in conversion bureau land again. Sorry to hear things haven't been going well for you Chatoyance.
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If you mean to ask if the anti-tcb are trolls, then I will ask you a question: how would you write an "anti conversion bureau story"? Would you write about the failure and destruction of TCB? No, even that is a conversion bureau story, because it acknowledges the existence of conversion bureaus. At best, you could say that every story that is not TCB could be called anti-tcb, but then the anti-tcb group could only exist if TCB didn't...
If an association has the word "anti" in front of it, it exists to destroy, and unless that group is the "Antibacterial Soap Enthusiasts Organization" then their goal as a group is to destroy something (or somebody) else. I, for one, do not see an anti-anything group writing a very convincing letter about the lessons of friendship.
I'm less surprised at this than perhaps I should be. Krass has most likely wanted to do this for some time. The first time I ever talked to anybody in the (ugh) "brony" fan community was the old TCB threads. Krass was one of the first people to talk back. That first contact was so weirdly hostile, unsettling, and sour that I nearly cut all ties to the community there and then.
The only reason I stuck around was this guy:
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He was one of the other people that I talked with, and he made putting up with Krass's pseudo-sociopathic bullshit worth it.
I don't really know how I feel about what's happened with the group. I don't follow it, I'm not a member, and I never really cared for the collective tone of the place, even way back when. Really, you can't own a genre, so let Fangwarden and Krass have their stupid little kingdom. May it continue to rot in mediocrity.
For the record, as of this comment, only around 5 hours after the founding of the new group, the populations stand:
Windchaser's TCB group: 431
Chatoyance's TCB group: 58
Let's see how this evolves...
The ponies have a slow and subtle influence on our culture I think, even if it's influence on individuals is sudden and obvious (half obvious anyway). Gotta keep spreading the pony around. The more fan material there is to keep people interested, the more likely people are to stay interested in FIM even after the canon* stops firing. The more time people spend with this fandom, the more time they have to realize why they like it.
Betrayal hurts, but they are just a few. They may even realize with time, what they did, wasn't ... acceptable. One can dream.
Does it help if I say your my favorite author?
Your spiffy too midnight.
* Story canon.
It's a bit sad that it has come to this, but maybe it's better that way. I've only ever liked the pro-pony side of the TCB verses anyway. And who said that misanthropy was a bad thing anyway?
Well, that was... unexpected. Hugs to Chatoyance and midnightshadow, haters can see Figure 1.
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Even the Antibacterial Soap Enthusiasts Organization seeks to destroy microbial life on the hands of humanity.
I am not a member of the Conversion Bureau group and thus don't feel entirely qualified to comment on this. What I can say from my brief curiosity-driven investigations, however, is that the situation seems disgustingly politicized, and the TCB group leadership - whether they were justified or not, because again I can't comment meaningfully on that point - seems to have handled it spectacularly poorly. Makes me glad I never bothered joining, and just look authors' works up individually instead.
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I actually have to agree with you. Much as I feel like the anti-TCB group might have some valid points and good stories to make, they kind of undermine themselves from the get-go with their very name. The Anti-TCB group suggests a community that is about the negation of ideas; a force of destruction rather than creation. I definitely think they could make some valuable contributions to the genre with an opposing viewpoint, but all too often they seem to take the 'Anti' bit to heart and write stories that are more about kicking down someone else's sand castle than building their own. And that's just... poor writing.
I have already left the previous group and joined the new one. I was honestly already ignoring most updates from the old group, since nine times out of ten they were nothing I had any interest in.
I honestly wish I could give you a hug, Chat. It seems like you could really use one.
"I now have lost the very last scrap of hope for humankind."
Really?
I have hope in myself. You should have hope in yourself too, Chatoyance. Hope in others. Not blind faith - Hope!
When you are done hurting, remember to look at the true reasons why (not the attack) people do things and try understand them. Our society having problems and there are reasons behind them. Maybe good reasons or not. But reasons. Then take that information and act on it.
Excuse me while I let the power of ponies educate me. Seriously.
Humanity is diverse. The replies you received so far should be an indication that people care about your happiness, and desire your friendship. I hope you will have good news soon to counteract the unpleasant things.
Sending hugs and appreciation.
I am confused. How exactly does one coup d'etat an internet group? How do 3 jackasses force the founders of said group out of it? And what exactly are the reasons? In any case, this is a big mistake on their part, and I don't think your regulars or anyone with common sense would have anything to do with them anymore. Here's to hoping for better things to come, there is no need to lose faith in humanity yet. Just lose faith in these disgusting people.
I have two potential thoughts on this situation.
The first is a hope, that the situation will resolve like those instances when I am gaming, when the party leader is acting poorly, so the popular guy leaves and starts their own party, and essentially everyone (or at least all the cool people) leaves to join the new party.
Otherwise, I see this as a fragmentation. When everyone creates their own islands of ideal and belief, the exchange of information is lost, and connections in the web of concept atrophy.
[REDACTED: I figured it out. The plus sign means moderator.]
877255
I derped a bit, I meant "but then the anti-tcb group could not exist if TCB didn't..."
I remember the Anti TCB troupe very well. I tried reporting them for almost committing a girl's suicide, then being blatently mean to her sister when she rightfully got upset. However, NTSTS had shown a blind eye towards the events, and threatened me with action if I continued.
I am disgusted by them, and I hope what I have revealed today will shed some light on them.
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Really sad to see you leave it all unfinished, but it is your choice and you have made it. Best of luck to you, I will continue to read your other works.
All this drama//dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Lyra_cry.png
I don't care so much about who started what and why(although I do fall on your side for the actual dispute(opinions are free), it just doesn't matter so much. I pretty much insulate myself from all the drama outside of FiMFiction proper), but what really saddens me about this is that the real victims here are the readers. Authors abandoning stories, making things political, all that jazz.... Yeah.//dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Fluttershy.png
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Sometimes, when people play power games, the creative types, like Middy and me, who just want to make art, well, we get hurt. Getting hurt like that takes all the joy away, and some artists cannot create if their joy is gone.
That is the mechanism, and it is very, very sad.
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And as of this comment, 2.25 days later, the totals are
Windchaser's group: 458 (+27, +6%)
Chatoyance's group: 99 (+41, +71%)
If these exact growth rates were to continue, Chatoyance's group would pass Windchaser's before the end of March, and would pass where Windchaser's started before you could say 'et tu, Brute?'
877137 If MMC is your only problem, I hope this helps.