This is my hangup, I don't cast aspersions on any work that uses this, but I do find it hard to delve into a story where the protagonist is called Anonymous.

I realize it is a trope that goes way back, usually for one shot where the Anonymous character is just a placeholder for a generic type of character. At the same time, the story focuses on the known characters. But why do large stories where the character is a character and well-developed do authors not take a few minutes to give him, or her, a name? Surely they could devise one if they can't remember their own name for reasons?

Forgive me for this rant. Like I'm saying it's not to direct criticism to stories that do this, but I honestly have several interesting stories in my Que that I can't get past the first chapter because of this.

7959917
I think the problem here is not the fact he's named Anon, it's the fact that the character you most likely are reading isn't as well characterized as you'd like. That's totally a fine criticism and let the author know (politely, please). As someone who writes Anon, I think I value people who would rather tell me why in either a comment or a private message as to why they dropped off a fic rather than not hearing that criticism at all and wondering why the fic didn't get the traction I thought it would.

As stated in another place where this topic was discussed (and was met with vitriol for some reason), I write Anon to focus more on the scene, and how the characters interact with the scene. Anon works because he doesn't need a specific backstory to set up the scene, hence the reason why I use him. If there is a backstory, it's mostly general and/or more akin to events in Equestria rather than on Earth to allow the reader to insert themselves (if they want).

copypasted from here

The Anon that exists in pony stories is a holdover from when the Bronyhood consisted entirely of a small handful of shitposters on /a/. 4chan Anon is not solely a self-insert. He does function partially as a blank-slate, but he's also an actual character in his own right.

Allow me to introduce you to him:

Anonymous is a cartoon character that was made collectively by users of 4chan. He is not just an empty shell. His character is what you'd get if you took all of the posts of every 4chan anon and turned it into a person.

He's a sarcastic asshole, a massive troll, a memelord, and somewhat of a conspiracy nut; but he also has a good heart buried under all the cynicism. He has no face because he's anonymous. He has green skin because race doesn't exist on the internet. He's male because there are no girls on the internet. He wears a suit because of the Anonymous hacker group.

Aside from those basic, mostly immutable characteristics, precisely what character traits and personality he has is up to the story and its writer; as is whether or not he goes through an actual character arc.

It would be more accurate to call Anon an author-insert than to call him a simple empty vessel, but even that's not totally correct. He's an already-established character, an author-insert, and a half-empty vessel to self-insert with. All at once.

7959917

That's reasonable to ask.

The comments in https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/1036953/anon-and-why-i-hate-it#comment/5776249 had a much better explanations from authors that did it or have done it. Also,
- Reduces amount of backstory that's needed and allows focusing on the story and shortening it - large multi-chapter stories start off as shorter stories.
- "Anon" tag is probably seen as more popular as "OC" tag (or perceived self-insert, or "Crossover") and is easier to search for, especially if you're not already a popular author, and has clearer expectations from readers on what type of story to expect, since from a readers point of view, "OC" could be anything (age, gender, species, etc) and there's nothing more granular as a tag on fimfiction. There's no human characters with similar popularity.

Forgive me for this rant. Like I'm saying it's not to direct criticism to stories that do this, but I honestly have several interesting stories in my Que that I can't get past the first chapter because of this.

There's browser extensions and user scripts for text replacement, but I don't use them, so I don't know which to recommend. Pasting the story into a word processor and replacing Anonymous and/or Anon with your favorite name is another option.

EDIT: See https://developer.chrome.com/docs/devtools/console/javascript

const name='Michael'; // <== Names can be replaced with anything else, such as 'Joseph' and 'Joey'
const nickname='Mike';
/*
A script to replace Anon and nicknames with a proper name in blog posts and chapters.
See https://developer.chrome.com/docs/devtools/console/javascript
Ctrl+Shift+J opens developer tools console in most browsers.
Or Ctrl+Shift+K in firefox.
Name and nickname can be changed above.
 */
document.querySelectorAll('.chapter,.blog_post_content').forEach((chapter)=>{
  // Use Regular Expressions to change every occurrence of the name in the contents of a chapter, case insensitively.
  // https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Guide/Regular_expressions
  chapter.innerHTML = chapter.innerHTML
    .replace(/(Anon|Anon[.\s]*[ay][.\s]*m[aou]+s+e?)\b/ig, name) // Replace Anon, Anon Y Maus, Moose, etc.
    .replace(/\bNon+y\b/ig, nickname);  // Replace Nonny with a nickname, case insensitively.
});

EDIT: This reminds me of https://xkcd.com/1418/

7959920
The issue I have is with stories that are large enough, and carry enough development, that I want the protagonist to have a name, even if it's John Smith.
Look at it this way. What if every human character that appears in every MLP story had the same name?

It would be nice to be able to reference a character you like in a conversation without having to specify which of hundreds of stories using that name you are discussing.

But, again. My hangup. I have to confess that I have a touch of OCD, and this is one of my triggers, right up there with out of square picture frames, and messy tool benches.

I'm not to the level of Sheldon Cooper. I would not trash a fresh plate of French Toast because it was not French Toast day, but I did spend one entire Summer eating the same thing for lunch every single day.

One of my biggest blocks is that I can't bring myself to read Terry Pratchett's final novel even though it has been on my E-book since the day it was released. My mind tells me that as long as I don't read it the Diskworld is still ongoing.

7959917

I honestly don't get the whole "Anon" thing nor do I get the green skinned freak either. Is it impossible for them to come up with a real name for these characters?

7959925

Look at it this way. What if every human character that appears in every MLP story had the same name?

...

You just gave me an idea and I hate it.

Had to separate that comment with the rest of what I'm going to say.

First off, 100% reasonable take, although I'd argue what the actual development threshold would be before it runs into the issue of 'he needs a name'. I can only point out my view of writing Anon, where I only write certain vignette style stories of a 'slice of life'. I haven't written a longer adventure fic yet, although that might change in the future, so it does give me a lot to think about in how I want to approach that type of story.

Also no worries! I think it's cool to talk about this stuff respectfully. I'm happy you made this thread and I hope you're doing well overall.

7959928
Thanks. I was not trying to be mean or trash anyone's writing style. I was just venting so my OCD would give my mind a break, and maybe allow me to finally dive into "Everyday Life with Guardsmares"? which I've been wanting to read for ages.

7959929
No harm, no foul. Also that story is really good from what I've been told, I need to also read it too.

7959928

You just gave me an idea and I hate it.

Same. (I mean a different idea. Hopefully.)

7959917
I used to have this same hangup, funnily enough. I do think it comes down to what you prefer as a reader, because I'm long past just seeing Anon as a sort of self-insert. Even with that, I still usually prefer for human characters to have names, which is why every human character I've ever written has been given one. But I think you can still have a human character that develops and grows and contributes to a story without them having a proper name.

I see where you're coming from though. I guess you could always mentally fill it in with a name if it really bothers you, but I would say the thing to focus on is how they're written. There are some incredible Anon fics on this site. You just gotta be open to it.

7959926
Gotta love when you join a thread and fail to read any of the replies.

♪ Reeeprise! ♪

7959929
7959930
Read the story and should too its gteat

I’ll never understand why people enjoy anon, and I never will. But it’s a free country, write what you want, read what you want.

This is a really interesting thread. I may be a bit biased in this department, but I don't see any problem with letting your protagonists name remain underermined.

(Cue theme music)

I've always seen Anon as something akin to a character unto their own, with some characteristics that are mutable and some that aren't (like some.of the other peeps I've seen here). I've always seen saying you don't like anon as akin to saying you don't like sweets. Sure, there are people that genuinely just don't like anything about them, but far more people that make that assertion don't even realize how many things they consume share such a baffling amount of commonalities with the thing they claim to dislike that the claim itself becomes almost absurd in how meaningless it is as you watch them mindlessly scarf down sugar laden empty calories simply because the packaging looks different enough to let them fool themselves.

7959925

One of my biggest blocks is that I can't bring myself to read Terry Pratchett's final novel even though it has been on my E-book since the day it was released. My mind tells me that as long as I don't read it the Diskworld is still ongoing.

:face_holding_back_tears:

For me, I enjoy the Anons stories. not because it's a placeholder name for a self insert. but because Anon is a character in and of themselves.

Grump ass introvert forced to live in extrovert pony world. Ball of silly who's weird troll logic and luck sees them rise and prosper. The hyper competent genre savvy villain.

Look at stuff like Rider On The Storm or Played for a Foal.

Now I also get the sometimes a spade is a spade and they just use it as a generic template. Yeah it can be abit weird going through long stories if it's not Anon but they just template the name

All I can say is that its easy to hate tropes, archetypes, and cliches, but ultimately, they wouldn't exist if they didn't work and draw big audiences. I'm not made of stone, I go online and complain about stuff I probably can't change about things I like. But I like to think I can do something constructive too. I can write stories both for myself and others, but all I can offer is what I believe to be the best way to innovate on things I'm passionate about, the kind of innovation only I can do.

My story on here is pretty unique if I do say so myself. It's set in a post-series G4 that treats a population of humans as having always been part of the world of Equus, but displaced until recently. It's also a bit more action-oriented and also gives them a very extensively-executed elemental magic system of my own design and frames them as the greatest warriors the world ever saw.

A few things to note is that there are no obvious self-insert characters, but many original characters. And the story doesn't follow any one in particular, it focuses on different ones at different parts/chapters of the story, and it can shift to the main cast's perspective as well.

It's ongoing and I have two "volumes" at about 50k+ words each published so far, but I plan to make many more and even eventually expand into G5.

7959917
I'm with you there, bud. I cannot stand anonymous stories. It is just a sign of laziness and bad writing.

You know, Anonymous as the name actually fits well for a Pony than a Human, where instead of the face, the question mark is the Cutie Mark.

I heard he is now sleeping with ponies from G5 such as Posey.

7959923
Aayyy! My man!

But yeah,
7959917
7959926
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Anon isn't a placeholder for a character. Anon is a character.

He's not just a blank-slate. He's an original character collectively created by 4chan writefags and drawfags. The brony community uses his character because we originated from 4chan.

Now, he is a very loose and poorly-defined character, but that's by design. This leaves him open to be interpreted differently by readers and writers. But he's still an actual character.

You can think of him as kind of like a background character, in that he has some immutable character traits, but he's mostly an undefined entity.

You wouldn't complain about stories that feature background characters by saying, "Just come up with your own character!" Because each story is supposed to characterize the background character differently.

You don't have to like AiE stories, but the idea that "Anonymous" is just a name that you use when you're too lazy to come up with an actual name is a misconception.

7960224

Here is the thing, I never even heard of 4chan until I got deeper in the fandom and I never even used it. That is why I simply think of anon as a green skinned freak....and I've never heard a good thing about 4chan to start with.

7960224

Now, he is a very loose and poorly-defined character, but that's by design. This leaves him open to be interpreted differently by readers and writers. But he's still an actual character.

You can think of him as kind of like a background character, in that he has some immutable character traits, but he's mostly an undefined entity.

Until I read that, I never thought about it, but Anon could potentially make for a nice way for a writer to try to get used to writing OCs. You don't have to put in the level of work and thought as you would an actual OC, but writing an Anon would generally still need more work and thought than a canon character usually requires, save for background or some one-shot characters that we usually would have a lot less canon material to work with.

7960271

I don't know much about 4chan either, other than hearing that the original, most asshole versions of Anon were meant to represent them more or less.

But I've grown to think of Anon as a "safer" OC since Anon stories don't seem to have as much as an inherent risk of being looked at as a self-insert that a true OC story would (especially a human male OC since they are the most likely to be a self-insert) and thus not risk the self-insert stigma as much, but he still in many ways an OC and can be a self-insert. It could be a reason why HiE Anon stories have some of the best odds of being featured, and he would be my #1 or #2 pick of stories if someone put a gun to my head and told me "If your next story don't get featured, it will be the last story you ever write. Get it?"

I've even noticed how the last few months in particular, almost all HiE stories that got featured used an Anon, though the last couple of weeks had some non-Anon HiE stories in the 'ol feature box.

7960271
The rumors of 4chan's evilness have been greatly exaggerated. They don't have any more lunatics than any other website. 4chan just has a highly-dedicated shitposting and trolling culture, so people are more likely to say absolutely unhinged shit for the lulz. The overwhelming majority of them don't actually mean any of it.

Twitter is just as toxic as 4chan, if not more so, yet you don't see anyone talking about how Twitter is "full of Nazis."

Also, Anon has green skin for the same reason he doesn't have a face. IE: Because he's literally anonymous.

In all honesty, I didn't know anything about Anon until I saw him in some of the MLP fanart. Also, until just recently, I didn't know anything about 4chan either. What I really seem to understand is how come there is a tag for him when doing fanfics despite being an OC when we don't even tags for characters that existed before G4 on this website.

7960285

I'm thinking a lot of my views against "Anon" is rather questionable fan art I have ran across, well that and I generally just don't care for the whole idea to start with. To me, it is a way some people use a self-insert without actually using their name or some other real name. It may hit the feature box fairly often but that doesn't mean that I'm going to go writing Anon stories....then again I have moved away from the human male HiE genre to start with, which is probably something everypony has noticed.

7960363
I've never been on 4chan nor do I ever plan on using it. When it comes to what was formally Twitter, I deleted my account the day that Elon Musk bought it. I know how he was suddenly going to allow radical right wing propaganda to be posted there and that ain't my thing.

7960572
I mean, I'm no fan of Musk, but let's not operate under the delusion that Twitter is worse now than it was before. Twitter has been a toxic hellhole since its inception.

That accursed website was an echo chamber of radical left wing propaganda for over a decade before Musk bought it. So it only seems fitting that it finally started allowing the other side to spew its own brand of toxic sludge.

7960780

I never used the platform that much to start with as I prefer Facebook. However, I would not want to be tied in any way, shape or form with a platform that will allow radical right wing propaganda to be posted freely.

7960881
The radical left wing stuff is just as bad sometimes with how some of them literally simp for North Korea unironically.

Politics aside...

7960224
You're awesome man. Just wanted to let you know that.

7960884

Actually, it is the far right hat simps for North Korea and Russia. They love dictators, especially their pile of shit "messiah." That orange mental defect adores Putin.

7960893
Trust me, I doubt that highly. Prior to Elon even buying Twitter, there were so many accounts that were posting how beautiful NK was and there were full blown lefties that were ID-ing as Marxist-Leninists and the like claiming NK was the hope to take down the West. No, I'm not joking.

Both sides aren't perfect for sure. It's better to just not view politics on that place entirely. It's a mess of people just screaming into the void.

7960898

My view is that it is best to avoid the place altogether. Like I said before, I rarely ever used it even when I had an account there.

7960884
Thanks!

7960893
Well, this thread isn't really the place to talk about real world politics, so I'll try to keep it brief. But suffice it to say, that's almost the complete opposite of reality.

There are some historically illiterate right-wingers who bought into Muscovite propaganda, but the overwhelming majority of Russia simps are left-wing. At least, from what I've seen.

Also, I've never seen a right-wing North Korea simp, but I've seen plenty of left-wing North Korea simps.

Also also, authoritarianism isn't something only the right-wing does. It's something the party in charge does; and the left-wing is the party in charge right now.

For some reason Anon has gotten a long line of mares waiting to get head pats from him.

Depending on the story, I can consider “Anon” as just any other name. So long as the character is given depth, it doesn’t bother me much. If you are able to replace the name with another placeholder like “Jeff” without affecting the story in any way, then it really is just down to personal taste. I understand if some people have trouble accepting “Anon” as a valid name, though. Personally I just rationalize it as either, “The name ‘Anon’ is normal for human convention in this universe,” or “Anon means something other than what it means to us.”

There are some really good AiE fics out there and it would be a shame to drop one just because of a name. I’m not one to talk because I shy away from second person stories, although I’ve read some great ones, but if you can tolerate the taste then your palate may change.

Something tells me that Rainbow Dash has something for Anon.