Dark Times for Fimfiction. · 8:43pm Nov 27th, 2012
(Copypasted from Sorren's blog.)
So, many issues face the site today. In fact, more than just the site, the community as a whole. Many are worried, and many are even leaving, such as, I'mjustAnotherBrony.
This is a forward of Art Inspired's blog post.
Now then, the point is, I'm starting to feel like the site is being ruined by stupidity and clop. Key problem #1 is that the site is flawed. It doesn't take hard work or determination to get featured. And getting featured is a powerful thing. Thousands of readers will be exposed to your work, and that shouldn't be taken so lightly. Key problem #2 is that people seem to be reveling in this strange ideal that corrupting the purity of the show makes it mature. I love mature stories, and it's perfectly clear that the majority of fics tagged "mature" are more childish than those tagged "everyone". This is another huge problem for anyone who wants to take the site seriously. The sheer number of idiotic and childish submissions makes it impossible. Issue #3, the final and most important thing I wanted to cover is that the Brony community is failing to keep things under control, and rather than opening their eyes to the blatant embarrassment they're bringing to the community as a whole, then vast majority has embraced it and defends it adamantly. These are the problems that cannot be fixed unless you, the true fans of the show help end this once and for all. Reblog this, post it on your tumblr page. Do whatever it takes to stop this!
I agree with this fullheartedly. It's nice to see someone who can finally make sense of things.
We have an issue, and it needs to be resolved. Let's work together. Because together... we can beat stupidity.
While I generally agree that it is difficult for us, as fans, to stop these things from being posted, many are down-voted to oblivion if they are incredibly bad. I think a lot of the immaturity coming out in the writing is due to the fanbase itself being immature, having mostly late high school to early college age people as its fans. The human brain isn't fully developed until age 25, so you will naturally find people who aren't mature (especially in an internet fandom).
Many of the stories are mindless clop, and many of them are immature, and I'll be the first to say that I enjoy many of them (so long as the writing is comprehensive). This is an incredibly diverse fanbase, with room for all levels of maturity, all tastes, all walks of life.
Unfortunately, this one site has become the repository for ALL of it, so naturally people of opposing viewpoints will often clash.
EDIT: reminds me of all that "the cancer that is killing /b/" talk on 4chan.
I'm sorry, I disagree with this blog post.
I feel that some legitimate points are made but that he discredits himself with the first thing he says; to boil it down to 'stupidity and clop' is only to participate in the immaturity he so seeks to abolish. Clop is, for the most part, well tagged and ordered away into it's own section- and like anything it can be mature, sophisticated, and intellectual, or just downright fuckin' dumb. So, really, what he should have said in order to remain consistent with his actual objection, is to say, 'I'm starting to feel like the site is being ruined by stupidity'.
Key point #1: 'Rework the feature algorithm', that's all he needed to say. If he wants to be on a site where there isn't some board of feature approvers- he should either petition the FimFiction staff or attempt to come up with a fair and balanced algorithm within the community. Bitching about leaving doesn't solve anything.
Key points #2 and #3: *sigh*
This is only contributing to the stupidity, in my opinion. The demographic of people who enjoy the show and potentially sail out on the interwebz to find more ponies is drastic- from ages 8-80, there could be people trying to read or write fanfiction. Obviously, the point of this website is to have a free-access place wherein anypony can read or write what they want to about FiM. No one is stopping anyone from going and throwing together a more sophisticated FanFiction site.
So what it comes down to is that Sorren hates stupids, like everypony else. Enlightening.
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Yeah, I did sense some butthurt in it. (No offense, Sorren.)
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I'm beginning to think that people just get off on creating drama, which I think is tearing apart the fandom itself.
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Am I participating in the creating of drama here? Perhaps I did, since I went to Sorren's page and posted that reply.
Oops....
Oh wow, nicely put. We need to clean this place up!
557307 Us Bronies also have to live up to our "love and tolerance" slogan. Seriously.
Can't wait to see more of your story! Be sure to check out mine, too!
557610 Happy you enjoyed! I'll have to do that! ^_^