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Since when did Being a Member Turn into a Popularity Contest?


Geek0zoid

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Back when I came on here in July of last year, I saw a feeling of equalization among the members of the MLP Forums. People respected each other, and I rarely saw anyone being left out. And, if people were feeling left out, there would always be a person there who would get to know them, and be friends with them.

 

From the way I see it, now, those days are gone. Not for me, because I try my hardest to be there and make new members feel welcome. But, for a majority of the forums, we've been conditioned to favortize popular members at the expense of excluding others, and it makes me sick.

 

Granted, I understand people have their favorite members, and they have their best pals on here. But, frequently, I see threads popping up like "Who's your best friend on the forums?" or "Who's the nicest member?" I'm not just talking about a few members here. We've been conditioned to publicly favoritize.

 

What makes me sick is that I've publicly addressed why I don't like threads like these. These threads hurt peoples' feelings, and most of the time, it's not even intentional. I keep saying "Who cares?" because, in the end, everyone should be treated with an equal amount of respect. Everyone should be the nicest members, because everyone here is nice.

But, I'm tired of reiterating this, so I'm displaying it now for everyone to see.

 

I don't care about popularity and favoritizing members, and you shouldn't either. I'm not directing this to certain members, I'm directing it to everyone. Because, let's face it; we've all favoritized on these threads at least once, and I think it's absolute garbage. This is suppose to be a social network, a place where people talk about topics. I didn't come here to win a popularity contest, and I certainly didn't come here to talk about people. I came here to be the best person I can be, whether people recognize me for it or not.

And I think you should too.

  • Brohoof 29

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I care about letting my friends know that I think they're great. My favourite members are everyone on my friends list, I've said that in a few threads.

 

People are seeing these topics in the wrong light. Some members are going to be popular than others. I've got more profile views than people with 3,000 posts because I say things that are controversial and I post slut-selfies all the time. If you (you meaning everyone who is crying, not you specifically) wanna be more popular, do something controversial or something that breaks the mould instead of just complaining that the members who post better content than you are more popular.

  • Brohoof 1
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You hit the nail on the head Geek0zoid. I am guilty of listing my favorite members but I do know how it feels to be ignored on these forums. I think everyone focuses too much on popular members. And most of the time, they only get popular because of a bandwagon trend they started or overly obsessing over a pony.

  • Brohoof 4
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I care about letting my friends know that I think they're great. My favourite members are everyone on my friends list, I've said that in a few threads.

 

People are seeing these topics in the wrong light. Some members are going to be popular than others. I've got more profile views than people with 3,000 posts because I say things that are controversial and I post slut-selfies all the time. If you (you meaning everyone who is crying, not you specifically) wanna be more popular, do something controversial or something that breaks the mould instead of just complaining that the members who post better content than you are more popular.

I never said popularity was an issue to me, Essy. I don't care about my overall popularity as long as I'm a good person.

  • Brohoof 1
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I couldn't agree more. I was there for that. When everyone was treated kindly and equally. It took me time to realize, but, many members who deserve to be recognized aren't. I do my best all the time to include everyone. I haven't picked any favorite member. I have a best friend, but that doesn't mean I ignore everyone else and only focus on him. It's not favoritism. I do what I can to make this a better place, and I appreciate you suggesting others to do the same.

 

I notice a lot of new members easily disappear overtime. I've also noticed those members never had any real friends...well, nowadays, I don't think it's because no one liked them or they weren't a good person. Quite the contrary actually. But yet they were ignored. And yes I've seen some new members try very hard to be seen. I'm not talking about the members that show up, make a couple posts, then vanish. I'm talking the ones that actually try.

 

I and many other members that do what we can to include everyone are still a very small group. Geek0zoid is correct. We all need to chip in, the way we did before. We can make it a better place again. And hey, to those who are tired of all the drama that goes down here, half of that may be solved if everyone was more included for once.

  • Brohoof 4
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Amen. 

That is really all that there is left to say.
Somebody had to say this and you have make a really good job explaining it all,and let's face it,you are a popular member so at least a bunch of people will read this.
I salute you. *tips hat* 
  • Brohoof 2
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Amen. 

That is really all that there is left to say.
Somebody had to say this and you have make a really good job explaining it all,and let's face it,you are a popular member so at least a bunch of people will read this.
I salute you. *tips hat* 

 

Oh no, I'm not even close to popular. I'm not nearly as popular as someone like Ghostfacekiller39 is.

But, in hindsight, that's probably a good thing.

  • Brohoof 1
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Risking the fact that i'm grounded just to post that I 100% agree with you. I came on here to have fun and be not bored. Amen to that.

 

I still post in those threads anyway, but I always make sure that I mention nobody but myself. Because frankly, I don't care. a-and i never get mentioned

  • Brohoof 1
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inb4 people come on here and say they're just shout-outs

 

You know, to be completely blunt, I do care about being popular. So do many others, I'm sure, which is why many are upset over these threads. In fact, I used to be in the spotlight around here back in 2012-13. I constantly miss those days, because people made me feel noticed–– something I can't say the same for in real life. MLPforums was my life. I daresay many feel the same way. Following my drop from the ladder, I watched a show that many here also enjoyed, giving me opportunities to make new friends. It's these people that matter to me, not whatever other people have to say about me being nice, best, favorite, or otherwise. Basically:

 

 

4420.gif

 

 

 

I'm probably not even liked around here since I'm an "anime fag" or whatever :3 I definitely have a list of favorite people that I consider much kinder and friendlier than others, but unintentionally excluding or pushing away friends you might've forgotten tends to be... you know, un problema.

 

Let's be honest: popularity does matter in the real world. A lot. Both good and bad come with it, like the fact that you might be assassinated because someone is jealous of you. It depends on how much you guys care about popularity for it to matter to yourself, though. 'Cause seriously, are you going to need the word of some random stranger on the Internet to know you're a nice person? Well, take my word anyway. Whoever's reading this, you're a nice person. :D (At least I hope you are.)

 

To those who think some people are overreacting: hey, it's true. They might be. Topics like this don't intentionally go out their way to make people feel miserable or unwanted, but whether or not it's on purpose, it did. It doesn't matter to me myself whether these topics stay, since I don't look at them at all. But... I implore all those who think people are bitching about those threads–– step into the shoes of an unnoticed member for just a second.

 

(Damn it, Sven. You keep making me write long posts in your blaugs. D:)

  • Brohoof 2
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inb4 people come on here and say they're just shout-outs

 

(Damn it, Sven. You keep making me write long posts in your blaugs. D:)

 

Homura-san, the whole, "Popularity contest sucks," is a popular topic at the moment. That's why people are agreeing with it and keep making posts about it.

 

Yes, being popular is fun. I admit I enjoyed the days when my writing thread was bustling with activity, but what made me hate this place is that people were worshiping people with empty statuses.

 

There was someone who's popular because of his artwork. There was someone who's popular because she knew so many things about music. There was someone who's popular because he was an amazing role player. Then out of sudden, people started worshiping mods, staffs, nice members, cute couples, etc. No matter how invalid their arguments were, they still won the debate. Even though a douchebag was reported with a dozen of legit proofs, the reporter who got irritated because of the douchebag (which is natural) was the one who got banned instead, and people were agreeing with it because the staffs were more popular.

 

Random gif for your enjoyment.

 

img-2442510-1-3326037.gif

  • Brohoof 3
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ive never really seen this problem and ive been here since late 2011, even then around early 2012 there were "whos the best member thread"s and "who is your favorite member" threads, its just simple law that in every forum theres going to be a group of members designated as "the popular members" thats always been a thing, im a little confused as why people are making an issue of this now

  • Brohoof 4
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I know that feel dude. I joined last August and since then... The air around has just... Changed. I don't know if anything gotten worse or I'm just opening my eyes.

  • Brohoof 1
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I love how people are actually offering advice on how to become more popular. If I gave a **** what people thought of me, I wouldn't be here.

  • Brohoof 1
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