Merry Christmas! · 7:04am Dec 26th, 2016
It's still Christmas for another 10 minutes here.
[... 2 hours later, after writing a long post and deleting it...]
Um. Happy New Year!
I was looking over my old posts, removing some from my index, and I noticed most of the usernames rolled over every year or two. The people commenting on my posts in 2014 were different than the ones commenting in 2016, and the ones commenting in 2012 were different from them, even though most of all those people are still active on fimfiction. So many usernames I knew so well but don't see anymore. I've had the illusion of having one part of a little community here, but actually most people who were part of it have come and gone. I don't know if this is the usual way of things on fimfiction, or if I'm too nerdy / highbrow / libertarian / atheistic / overconfident / condescending / boring and drive people away.
I think it's that a lot of the 'old' crowd still seems around - but busy. I mean, the S1/S2 ponyfans I see still around are the ones who either had careers or were near launching/near finishing schooling. That group would not pretty much all be in career and a bunch of them probably have much less time; that's true for me, absolutely. I had no job in 2012, now I work full time with occasional OT.
Then group 2 - the S3/S4 newcomers - seem to all be finishing either HS or college right around now; again, it's generally a jump in 'new stuff / less time' which can be distracting.
And group 3 - our s5/s6 newcomers - seem to be still in one phase of school or another, and thus have equilibrium and time, for now. Of course that's a generalizaion - Horizon is still decently active - but take Skywriter, who by his own admission is crazy busy in a way he didn't used to be.
4356122
I think that's one advantage to being a greybeard: my work schedule along with everything IRL hasn't changed significantly since I first joined the site, and I don't anticipate any major life changes in the near future, either.
This is just sort of how it happens in any fandom that skews young. I have seen this precise complaint in at least four other fandoms I can name. Four years is a long time when you're young. You make some connections that last awhile but there is a shit-ton of churn.
4356141
Can confirm; am young. Four years ago was practically a different geological epoch from my perspective.
Also, my desire to show up and make it weird is battling it out with a) my desire to not install TeamSpeak on my computer (why not Discord?) and b) my desire to not have to talk to other human beings. I guess we'll see which wins. (Scanning the comments sections of that user's blog posts, I am forced to agree with both your assertion that they are of a completely different demographic from you/us and your presumption that this whole affair is most likely incredibly misguided. It'll probably be funny tho)
4356138
4356122
A lot of the exceptions I can think of to the rule of "They've gone on to do other things" were 25+ to begin with.
I feel like it's the way of things on the net in general, as I've had the same thing happen on diverse sites where I upload a variety of different content.
Such is the busy life.
I really should talk more though...
4356141 Are there any new fandons that don't skew young?
4356122
(buries head n hands)
Oh, laws, I've just been Category Two'd. "Here on the UNfavorable side of the equation we have Skywriter..."
STUPID FRIGGING BROKEN HAND
I say that but I was slow before the injury too. It's just that now I want to fix it but can't.
4356292
But your registration and first written stories date firmly makes you a Cat 1! But you definitely seem life-busier from all I've heard compared to the Halycon days of two zero one two!
Bronies of a certain fannish mass go through the red giant stage before becoming superponae, in an intense reaction that has created all the alicorn clop in the fandom.
4356198 To use an expression that doubtless now marks me out as horribly un-with-it: This. I have no idea what I'd have done if I'd come into this fandom at 14, since I was in my twenties before internet fandoms were even a thing for me.
As far as Morning Sun's groups are concerned, I feel much more like a category 2, in spite of just sneaking into C1 through coming into the fandom as we awaited the S2 finale. :P
Somewhat, yes.
4356367 I appreciate your forthrightness. Does that have to do with this?
This is a bit of a complicated topic, but on the whole I agree with everyone else here in that it is just the way of things. 4 years in internet time is a millennium. Authors change, and readers change. There are YouTube channels I binged on 3 years ago that I haven't touched in over 13 months, and not because I don't like them anymore, or because I would want them to change their style or material. I just started watching other channels. I still like them. But there's only so much time in the day. So you have to be careful about drawing conclusions about yourself from how you see other people interacting over large spans of time on your blog. There are a lot of variables that are at play here.
And Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you too
But yeah, to think I used to consider myself a latecomer after coming into the fandom towards the end of season one! A lot can happen in 4 or 5 years – just speaking for myself, my life is sooo much busier now than in 2012. So, like Axis of Rotation said, I’d be careful about drawing any conclusions about yourself from this. Your blogs are just as cool as they ever were (even if I’m 100% useless at actually commenting on them
)
Absolutely what 4356198 said. We're the old guard.
4356323
… I changed my mind. I like this headcanon better.
4356292
Good healing wishes!
And you think it feels weird for you to be Category 2'ed, think of how it feels for me to be the Category 1 exemplar. I'm pretty sure you had 4-digit followers before I even published my first story. I just barely broke that mark a month ago.
4356566
I have to admit, I always feel like someone who is "newer" for only joining at the end of/after Season 3.
It is now season 6.
I've been in the fandom for over half of the episodes.
Though I suppose I did watch the first ten or so when they came out.
4356122
Yeah, I've been kind of weird in that my life changes have me wrapping a Twilight Sparkle brushable in MLP wrapping paper and listening to "It's a Pony Kind of Christmas" on loop for a half an hour at a time.
I figure I'm in fandom for at least four more years at this point.
I've been reading your stuff for a long time, Bad Horse. But I don't comment much, because I don't really like the cringey part of the FiM community. I try to just read what I like- what makes me happy- and not interact with what doesn't.
This sounds shady. I approve.
Do I count as old guard at this point? I was old before I joined in, so uh... eh. I don't wanna know.
On the importance of structure to answering questions, and analogies to understanding structure...
If your blog were one giant story, what does the plot progression look like? Where (if anywhere) is the story going? Do the latest chapters appeal to the audience that the original chapters captured? How has the main character developed, and does it appeal to the audience? What (if any) Is the theme, and it coherent throughout the story?
I have my own answers to these questions, but my thought aren't the important ones here.
4357282 Interesting questions. Looks like it's always had a lot of content about writing, and some data analysis. It began with writing advice from writers, switched more into reviews and humor around 2014, then got more into big-picture theories of why people write and the history of literary movements and theory around the end of 2014. More difficult and politically-charged content starting around the end of 2014.
The plot is supposed to lead up to me taking over the world, but I seem to have gotten off-track.
4357701
That seems mostly right, but it's all unstructured plot events. What about connections between the plot events? Even if it's not explicit in the blog posts, there's something driving the big changes. Are those changes consequences of story events or are they driven by external events? Your readers seem to prefer stories that are driven primarily by some underlying logic and not by chance. I imagine the degree to which your story is coherent and logically driven would determine the kinds of meaning readers can derive from it, and it would certainly constrain how readers can relate to the story.
Do you have answers to the character questions? It seems that all the changes you mentioned would be driven by changes to the character. That makes the character questions pretty important.
What about theme? Do subplots often come back to it or point out its significance? Is there one theme throughout or does the theme change over time? If it changes, are the changes logically driven or at least justified to the readers?
The point about where the plot is headed is pretty important. If readers don't know where the story is going, what's keeping them around? If it's a steady flow of interesting content, you have to expect that you're not going to naturally align with readers' interests as readers change. What's keeping those readers interested? Characters, theme, revelations from plot resolutions? I don't know what else it can be.
4362417 Hello! I've thought about it, but I just don't want to do the "set aside an entire weekend, from dawn until dusk, then stay up until 2AM revising" thing anymore. The time limit is too tight and most of the stories are a mess as a result.
4356420 Somewhat, yes. :P
However, I should also apologize; I'm normally much better about keeping my emotions under control when I argue with people, even on the internet, and I was also being condescending and rude, which I shouldn't have done.
I hope you had a merry Christmas and have an excellent New Year, Bad Horse.
4356198
I'll admit, if I'd taken up fanfiction in college there's a very good chance I would have stopped when I graduated. Now that I'm older, it's not like I've got anything better to do.
4363005 I was also angry. I knew I should have written that differently at the time, but I didn't listen. Anyway, I presumably still disagree about the particulars, whatever they were, but I respect you as a good and intelligent guy / gal / elephant inside a boa constrictor.