If you read my latest status update and its replies here, you were expecting this.

After reading Calpain's sorry "reason" for quitting the brony fandom in last night's Nightly Roundup on Equestria Daily (the main reason why I posted my status earlier this afternoon), it's time to call this excuse out and explain what is my biggest fandom pet peeve: letting the fandom ruin your enjoyment of anything, particularly the product itself.

Why? Simple.

The fandom doesn't determine the quality of the product in any way, shape, or form.

Sonic fans don't determine the overall quality of the series.

Fans of sports teams don't determine the quality of the sports teams.

Likewise, bronies don't determine the overall quality of the franchise, characters, episodes, or whatever.

If you left the fandom (in other words, quit following the franchise) because the quality of the franchise from the ground up was getting bad, I fully support that. Occasionally, I stopped supporting products because they went so bad with no effort to fix it. (I stopped supporting products like McDonald's because the food quality and employee treatment are factually terrible and unethical, and I don't support retailers like Wal-Mart for their notorious, unethical employee practices.)

But to let the fandom ruin your enjoyment of anything is extremely stupid and misguided.

1. It tells me you were never genuinely interested in the product in the first place.
   
2. You're scapegoating the fandom. You're shoving problems onto something else and creating a newer, even more unnecessary problem. Scapegoating the fandom is low. Instead of the drama becoming the problem, you're becoming the problem.
   
3. It means you're easily influenced and makes me wonder how the hell can you enjoy anything in life, period.
   

All of us get tired of fandom drama every now and then. But the main core of the fandom is a bonus. I've been in drama, and I'm still involved in the Sonic and brony fandoms. I keep fandom drama separated from my life and enjoyment of the products themselves. Even if I so-called "quit the fandom," as long as I support the franchise, I'm still passively involved. Scapegoating the fandom for your ruined enjoyment of a product is absolutely weak, and you lose all sympathy for using that sorry excuse.

Letting continuous poor quality of the product ruin your enjoyment is a good reason to stop supporting it.

But the fandom doesn't influence the product's quality, and fandom drama is NOT a good reason to stop supporting the product. Never was a good reason and never will, period.