Post Ponies > Meet Bronies

This is the latest in a few observations  on my entry into this site. That first summer was a highly active one for me. A large amount of the people I call friends came from this area. A larger number of people who I never found the time to grow close too are still instrumental to my history here, and have earned my respect. Going back and reminiscing about the first time you noticed someone, or interacted with them, is a healthy way of trying to learn how friendships started. It also allows you to consider how they evolve specifically with that person. I've interacted with more individuals here than I can count, and an almost countless amount of them have been influential in my time here. What I mean my influential is this -- at some point or another they defined what I loved about this site. MLPF is a platform for engagement. It is first and foremost a community comprised of a diverse group of people, all of whom seemingly cover a massive spectrum of ages, values, and experiences. It is also a microcosm of what some call reality. What I mean by that is that friends come and go here for the same reasons they would if you knew each other in a different social setting. Interests change, people move on, and yes those damn things we call emotions get in the way -- sometimes while judgement takes a vacation.

Here are just a few of the first interactions between me and others who positively impacted my time here. Without them, this place would never have felt like a digital home, and for that I have a great amount of gratitude. At this point I need to issue a strong reminder of what I said two blogs ago -- this is a retrospective with no agenda and no desire to go into or address forum drama. This is no elephant. I also need to do this -- there is no way in Hades I can screen capture every first interaction with everyone who I am or have been close to. This blog would be insane if I did. Some first interactions are also personal moments that I'm not posting here. Some are unfortunately lost to Skype forever so after spending hours trying to find some important ones, I had to give up. I found a few though. So, with that out of the way ... 

I thought that was more amusing than a bolded paragraph header. This is my actual reaction to something that happened on my wall in June of 2014.

So I was just another user posting and talking about ponies, switching seamlessly between being a goofball, insightful, and helpful. I made a post or two in Feedback and Site Questions to help other members since I was familiar with that version of the software and was able to answer a few questions. Once such post caught someone's eye apparently. Two people (one not shown here) actually had a reaction because this guy post on my wall. Obviously I needed to find out what a Feld0 was so I delved into this sites history. That expedition was part of why I stuck  around. It probably influenced my decision to want to help in the Site Questions forum. Funny how fate is. A casual question like that wound up taking me down a road to an adventure of sorts. I ended up working for him not long after. Met the guy at a con even. I got the guy back though by sucking him in to lesser appreciated IP. <evil grin>  

I decided to snoop around and saw this. 

If I could go back in time I would have done this. Huge missed opportunity.

No Title 

It would be disingenuous to talk about first encounters without this moment. It's exclusion would smack of historical revisionism, and I am not allowing that. There are few certainties in life. There is a line in the Broadway musical Hamilton that goes, You have no control in who lives, who dies, who tells your story. That quote talks about legacy, and how we are at the mercy of circumstance and the narrative of others. I like to apply that quote to a different type of legacy --  the one we build with each other. Simon's legacy, at least for me, will forever be tied to the best moments I have had here on this site or in this fandom. I can say without question, if I had not known him, or if I had not met him at this moment, I wouldn't have have had anywhere near as much fun on staff as I did. He helped make MLPF feel like a home. 

She had 99 Troblems and Jeric was occasionally one of them!

I got her permission to use this PM. I talk to her often and damn if I didn't smile at seeing that hint of a Troblemsesque nature jump out on reading that PM for the first time in a few years. This is actually my first official staff invite. I technically got access to the old hidden PonyRolePlay dev site before SCS caught up with me and made me MLPF staff, even though I have never RP'ed once, I was actually an RP staffer before anything else.

I'm not going to embarrass her, or talk her up in this entry. I'll save that for another day. Suffice to say, I've met many people on MLPF that I like. Many I consider friends, and am really close to. Some I would hop on a plane to see. Troblems and her husband  I would take a fucking bullet for. 

There .. are ... four ... Spoons!

So I am cheating here, because my first contact with Spoon was actually due to an off-topic post I made, and I didn't want to have to display a staff PM that may have other users names in it. Also, he may be Yellow Diamond now, but he will always be Spoon!

It's actually sad when I look at this because I recall Spoon's old avatar was why I ended up actually mentioning him in this topic. It was a thing I did to bring topics to other people's attention. You see, there was a time when Spoon wasn't under the influence of the Diamonds and was bathed in the pure innocence of Disney, parading the visual magnificence of Rapunzel or Elsa. Anyway, at this point we had no real interaction, and I actually was curious about this well spoken Admin others had sung songs about. Ok, I'm obviously kidding about the singing of songs, but I had heard one or two people say he was pretty damn smart. So I set up what I call a 'mention trap'. See a new topic that a person can't ignore but may not see? Mention them in it. Boom! 

I found that the rumors were not exaggerated -- perhaps even downplayed. I am also amused by the fact that almost three years elapsed before we had another conversation about Disney animation. Marvel and SU always seemed to monopolize the conversations. 

I searched for others. I almost wish I wasn't as freaking busy on here because just finding these was a little bit of a pain. Dawn Rider/King's PM conversation (that I actually reference in the Fresh Nonsense PM), my interactions with Path and Undecided/Shimmering/Coby, Lightwing, Jonas, DQ, Arty, Miles, Fhao, Crecious, Mesme, Frostgage, and many others I looked for to no avail. My Skype intro with SCS and Aquila are toast. I'm satisfied I was able to locate a few at least. One thing I have to say is that little expedition proves you never know what will come from a casual and unsuspecting interaction online. It isn't all memes and bullshit politics after-all.

Also, I brohoofed Hugs for trolling me years ago. So this was a great experiment just for that. 

Comment made in Dec 2014 on Status posted in April 2014 .... >_<

Broohoof nearly two and a half years later. Thanks IPB4!