Kids on this site · 10:38am Dec 16th, 2013
Sometimes I feel bad for the early teen (or younger) crowd that inevitably find themselves on this site. Pretty much everyone I know and/or interact with in this fandom is a male between the ages of 18-30, with some exceptions here and there. I find it funny that in a culture surrounding a cartoon about magical ponies who sing spontaneously and save the world using the power of friendship, women and children are in the minority (and by that I mean as far as the fandom is concerned. I'm pretty sure if you looked at the composition of all viewers of the show, things are different).
Anyway, my point is that as far as this site goes, most people here seem to be men in their early adulthood, and they act like nerdy young guys on the internet are wont to do, i.e. being a bunch of autistic, pseudo-intellectual, fedora-wearing douchebags, waving their dicks at each other as if their lives depended on it. I'm not trying to put myself above anyone; when I see an autistic dick-waving contest, I grab my cock in one hand and my headcanon in the other, jump right in, and start swinging with the best of 'em. Every once in a while though, I see something that makes me go oh...shit, that's kinda sad. And it's usually the following scenario:
Johnny Newbrony-Earlyteen (whose impending problems are only compounded by the fact that he has the kind of shitty, upper-middle-class liberal parents that use hyphenated last names and treat him like a special snowflake who is too unique for criticism) finds himself on fimfiction, reads some stories, and decides to try his hand at writing. We all know what first-time writers write, especially young ones. So, The Amorous Adventures of Shin-Annihilator-Anime-Blade XVII, Robot Alicorn gets slapped on the front page after the mods have a giggle amongst themselves, and poor Johnny gets told in no uncertain terms by the usual crowd of chucklefucks that his story is the worst thing ever. Maybe the lucky ones will get a nice, polite deconstruction of why it's the worst thing ever by one of the more in-depth rogue reviewers on the site, but the effect usually seems to be the same. I don't know about you guys, but I'm 27 and am still, still struggling to learn how to take criticism gracefully. When I was 10-13, anything less than full approval generated blind rage, complete despair, or both, and I even had the benefit of hyper-critical, perpetually-disappointed parents to prepare me at least somewhat for the harshness of the world at large.
So, anyway, poor Johnny sees that his fic is being poorly received and people are leaving comments to the effect of "it's shit", and so he responds in a way that is completely natural for a young person who can't handle criticism and doesn't consider the long term repercussions of his actions: he starts deleting comments. Little does he know, there is a huge fucking taboo on this site regarding that type of thing, and so he then becomes the target of an amount of flak that he never would've had to contend with if he had just left things alone. The story always ends in one of three ways: the author deletes the story, the author just flat out bails, or the author lashes out repeatedly until he is banned.
Now, I'm one of those people -- actually I'm pretty sure most of us are -- that gets a huge kick out of other people's misery. I could work the word schadenfreude in here somewhere, but I'm not a faggot. Still, I want you to know I know that word and could use it. Shit, now I'm a faggot. Anyway, there's a part of me that delights in watching this drama unfold time and time again. Still, I've spent the last two years of my life trying to grow a conscience, mostly due to my affections toward a certain white unicorn, and a desire to become a person that, if I ever met her, she might not be completely repulsed by (yeah, I'm one of those waifufags). So there's a growing part of me that sees this shit happen, and goes "wow, that's kind of sad." Some kid came on here with what he thought was a stupendous idea, got reamed for it, and then ejected from the community in one fashion or another. Now granted some of these faggots fucking deserve it. Some of them, though, are just kids. They're immature, they can't handle themselves, and their writing and behavior is judged by adult standards (or what passes for adult standards on the internet).
I'm not saying any of this to change anyone's opinon on anything. This is the internet, there are no consequences, and I like it that way. The second you try telling people that we should self-regulate and consider other people's feelings, you might as well don your "Love and Tolerate" t-shirt, tip your fedora, and stuff a pound of spaghetti in your pockets. This was more just a reflection/observation that I decided to share with my huge audience because I'm too drunk to know better. I guess what I learned to day is that I'm developing the ability to empathize.
tl;dr: booze and sperg
1614465
B-but I wasn't even mad.
I am now though, because I hate that maymay.
i know many people in ages 14-17 in this fandom that are way more fucked up than me.
1614742I just think they want to fit in sometimes.
I'm fourteen, which might or might not tickle your fancy, and I really dislike that kind of attitude you described. I remember when I first started writing though, oh boy, a Fallout:Equestria spin off! Now however, I have my own story, own universe and sit happily atop six features. (Woo, pissing contest material.) I like critics, however, because in reality a critic is your biggest fan: so passionately against your work and/or abilities because they want to see it reach full potential, as shit as that mark might be.
Also, you see men acting younger, I'm a guy acting older. Woo, pretending to be nineteen is the best!
"Schadenfreude" is a loanword now; using it in an English sentence doesn't warrant any special attention, negative or positive.
Not that I don't love self-deprecation.