Well, after this most recent temp ban, it's time for me to part ways with MLP Forums and Poniverse. Maybe some of you saw my tweet. I'm sure Feld0 saw it, but like much of what I'm about to write about, he likely didn't care. But I have a lot to say before I go, and it won't fit in a 140-character tweet.

I'm apparently not welcome here. I can't say that's on behalf of the members, though; a comfortable brohoof count and an inbox loaded with messages praising me for the posts I got infracted for are proof enough of that. No, I'm not welcome because I, unlike people who have gotten away with much, much worse than anything I've ever done here, just don't seem to be on the same wavelength as the people that pull the strings. I've learned a lot, and some people don't like that.

I won't detail everything that added up to me leaving MLP Forums. The "powers that be" don't like it when people post about them here. If anyone's curious, though, go ahead and ask me anywhere else on the 'net; I have a LOT to tell, and now, unlike before, I'm willing to be very open about it. Hell, I may throw a post up on Tumblr detailing my experiences here in full in the near future, because I may decide that it needs to get out there.

Yes, this means I'm also leaving Pony.fm. Over the next few days, I will be removing all of my tracks from the site and switching hosting for my music back to my site. It sucks to say that, it really does, but it has to be done, and really, that's the biggest reason I'm making this post here before I go.

Really, my departure from Pony.fm's development, or what little involvement I've had in it recently, isn't out of anger, but disappointment. I was passionate about seeing Pony.fm separate itself from all the other terrible "music featuring" sites out there by becoming the first and only site to feature brony music with a consistent quality standard and lack of bias. I practically sang praises about it on my blog, My Little Remix, all of my social media outlets, and of course here on the forums. "The brony music site to end all brony music sites." Now, with the "golden age" of brony music well past its end, and the departure of what was apparently the only person interested in seeing talent get its due in this fandom's music scene, such a site may never come to exist.

Talk of a judge-based featuring system started not long after I joined the Pony.fm alpha QA team, but really never got touched outside of "ideas" and a small mention in a PowerPoint slide. It obviously wasn't much of a priority for anyone but me on the QA team, whether during the alpha, or today's beta. And really, why should it be? There's no interest. Anywhere. Hell, I'm using a blog originally intended to be a precursor to that system to post this, because there was zero interest in the very idea I was trying to bring to the brony community. Like I posted a couple of days ago, bronies on the whole are a tasteless bunch. The community at large has shown, time and time again, that they don't want quality and equal recognition of talent. They actually want the perpetuation of EQD-inspired mediocrity and bias to continue. For whatever reason that may be is anyone's guess, and I have my suspicions, but that's a played-out topic that you can get banned for, apparently.

Even if bronies did want such a thing to exist, I realize now that it couldn't have worked anyway. At this point, not enough people of the caliber necessary to make such a system work are active in the brony community. When I think of people that could possibly buckle down and objectively evaluate a track, I come short of names. Most, even among the "brony-famous" big names, either have never shown that they possess the ability for thoughtful, objective critique, or they've shown that they definitely don't have it. Off the top of my head, I could name maybe three people, myself included, who could maybe be competent music judges. That's not enough to make the system I've been proposing for the past nine months work as well as it would need to in order to make a difference. So even if my ideas were eventually implemented in Pony.fm, it would be built largely on those unfit to judge music; people who can't judge objectively, people who lack the knowledge necessary for it, people who wouldn't be able to foster growth in the fellow musicians that the brony community has desperately needed for the past two years. I guess it would still be better than anything out there now, though; at least the bias and inexperience of said judges would be made public in every vote. That's much more than can be said for any other site that "spotlights" brony music.

Even Feld0 obviously didn't want such a system for Pony.fm, or at least, had no interest in me being a part of it, despite laying the groundwork of ideas for it. Feld0 has long kept his distance from me since Pony.fm's public launch, while keeping a very close eye on others that have only remotely (as far as I know) been involved in Pony.fm's development. I don't doubt for a second that if a music featuring system were to have gone live by now, he would have populated it solely with people who haven't contributed nearly as much as I have, in addition to not being as qualified as I am.

My efforts feel wasted, really. All of it. I put a lot of heart into contributing to Pony.fm. I laid out idea after solid idea, to steer the site in the direction of creative development of the community at large and recognition of talent, and away from the stifling of creative output and overwhelming genre and big-name biases that have pervaded brony music ever since its inception. And now, it's really for nothing, because as long as I'm here and not as... acquiescent... as some people with more power than they really should have would like me to be, I run the risk of any little action resulting in harsh punishment, regardless if it was even punishable in the first place, while others that do far worse aren't even touched.

And really, they were efforts. Hours of thought and meticulously checking my ideas for flaws, inconsistencies, working to make sure that the kind of dedication you often only see me bringing to the DAW was brought to the Pony.fm suggestions subforum each and every time. And I would have done more. I would have reviewed every single track to the best of my abilities. I would have made every effort to run that panel like clockwork. I would have answered every single question that anyone could possibly have. Make no mistake, I would have been the most fucking dedicated person on the Poniverse staff to my position had I been placed as Head Submissions Evaluator or even on just on the panel if the system I've been pushing for over the course of this year had made it into Pony.fm. Feld0, you lost that two days ago. Be sure to thank the incompetence I made you aware of three months ago for that, and have fun with all of my ideas if you decide to use them.

I'd like to inject a bit of positivity in this lengthy goodbye, though. I did meet a few new friends here, learned about a few awesome musicians, and gained some more fans of my music. That's always cool, and I would have definitely liked to keep that going. But as the "powers that be" have decided I've "outlived my usefulness" and proceed to show it through every encounter with me, it's unfortunate that I have to say the same about this forum. Reluctantly, to be honest, but after so many months, there's apparently no other way.

I took the hint, bullies. You win. For the rest, I guess this is goodbye without really knowing why.