Yellow Diamond

On 6/9/2017 at 10:45 AM, Fhaolan said:

I had an odd thought, give me a second to work it out:
 

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We know (from Rebecca Sugar) that the various Diamonds and their minions are divided by function. Yellow is military and Blue is 'diplomacy'. Rose was part of Pink's crew, and we know Rose had healing abilities and a nurturing nature, while we also know Pink kept zoos and was in charge of creating new kindergartens. So Pink might be the gem equivalent to a Medical branch.

We know Pink's no longer around, and that everyone thinks she's shattered. We know Pink didn't have her normal entourage at the time. We also know that gem corruption showed up soon afterwards. The theories I've seen revolve around Yellow using the corruption as a weapon as revenge for Pink's shattering, or Yellow being the shatterer as she would be able to meet Pink without the entourage and creating the corruption (and the Cluster) as ways to cover it up.

But if Pink was 'Medical', then possibly it would make more sense for Pink to create corruption as the gem version of a bioweapon. And there is someone else who could send her entourage away without it being remarkable, Pink herself.

What if Pink was the source of the corruption? That Pink accidentally infected herself with it, and in an attempt to contain it asked Rose to shatter her. And the war started then rather than some years earlier as everyone tries to give the impression of, because Pink didn't tell anyone what was going on. The war didn't end with the shattering of Pink, it *started* with the shattering of Pink. The containment didn't work, and corruption got out, because they didn't clean up the shards well enough afterwards.

Or perhaps Pink didn't get shattered, just poofed, and is bubbled somewhere only Rose knows about in the same way Bismuth was. Rose has shown a remarkable ability to *not tell people* things.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So much of Steven Universe's story is driven by emotional baggage. It wouldn't surprise me if Pink Diamond and Rose had some sort of prior relationship -- perhaps one which was one-sided -- that prompted either Yellow or White Diamond to expedite her shattering. Really, we're bound to have the pieces fall into place if and when White Diamond is first mentioned/appears on-screen. I do hope Rose is the one responsible for shattering Pink Diamond: it would be a shame to amend the moral ambiguities of her character by having her framed.

An interesting question, and one which I came across recently. The simplest distinction is that a religion begins with the presumption of the supernatural; ideologies, on the other hand, emerge from a secular, materialist premise. Religions may adopt ideological components (e.g., Christendom; Islamic Government) -- just as some ideologies become religious in the nontheistic sense (e.g., cults of personality; state worship). An ideology, however, won't typically invoke a deity (beyond an abstraction, anyway); instead, ideologies appeal to natural rights grounded in social norms and articulated by philosophy.

Due to the tremendous generosity of donors and our artists' input, the GoG is being extended throughout the summer! If you haven't already checked out the gallery, I encourage you to do so. Check it out here: https://mlpforums.com/topic/163807-gallery-of-goodwill/

Keep an eye out for special announcements coming down the road. We have more than a few surprises in store.

2 hours ago, Connie said:

Why are you such a perfect human being?

Kiri is a real human bean and a real hero.

7 minutes ago, Batbrony said:

Anyways, real question time, like, super, duper, legit serious... DC or Marvel? 

 

Spoiler alert! You're going to be disappointed, I fear.

Who or what is your spirit animal and why?

I'll ask the obvious question:

Did you ever hear the tragedy of Dark Plagueis "the Wise"?

1 hour ago, Blue Diamond said:

I have long wanted to do a series of topics along these lines about college (particularly graduate studies), crafting resumes, how to network, portfolio creation, personal finance, etc ...

 

And building a frickin' CV, which is a huge pain in the ass if you haven't done it before.

Life Advice would probably be the section for discussing career preparations and decisions. There is the caveat of the minimum 40 posts required to post in LA; however, given the importance of these topics, that's a fair demand, I think.

On 5/9/2017 at 9:39 AM, Rikifive said:

Better be careful with warm welcomes.  

 

Congratulations!  

Oh no! If deer puns weren't bad enough, now we've got ice puns. This is Batman&Robin all over again!

Anyway, welcome aboard, Frozen! I'm sure you'll be a cool customer.

14 minutes ago, Sparklefan1234 said:

I was wondering what the moderators stance was on double posting in topics on the forums?

The reason I'm asking is, 

ever since the update to the forums I've been accidently making double posts constantly in topics when before the update occured my post

would just be overwritten if I had accidently double posted somewhere. Like, the fan clubs section for instance.

I have been reporting my posts when I make those mistakes but, I don't want to waste the mods time if it's really no big deal.

Thank you for taking the time to read my question.

If you accidentally made a double post, you can report the second post so that a moderator or sectional can remove it.

LAVO, HELP -- oh wait

Yep, this was pretty straightforward fix. I've gone and taken care of it.

On 4/5/2017 at 8:27 AM, Artimis Whooves said:

I'm not sure if I'm supposed to post it here or in the other thread, but I donated $100 at 7:58 EST.

Anything related to the GoG should be posted here.

Of course, thank you for the donation. Here's hoping it can go to good use soon!

This thread appears to be related to the My Little Pony franchise and/or the Bronydom in general. Thus, it has been sentenced to Sugarcube Corner.

This is what you're looking for: https://mlpforums.com/faq/moderation/who-does-what-here-r46/

For future reference, questions about the staff should be posted in Site Questions & Tech Support section.

22 minutes ago, cuteycindyhoney said:

I am very angry that my profile now tells the world that I never donated to the site. That should be private. Is it an attempt to shame users into donating? If so, guess what? It won't work.

Only you and staff members can see your donation figures. They're invisible to everyone else.

22 minutes ago, Deae Rising Shine~ said:

3.BANNED USERS ARE UNBANNED!

Would you elaborate, please?

The changes will take a little getting used to, but I'm sure familiarity will come with time -- and constant notification beeps!

Seriously, excellent work!

This is a reminder for everyone that differing opinions do not entitle you to attack or insult members. The most recent argument came dangerously close to breaking our "Love & Tolerate" policy. You can be civil and still passionately disagree with each other.

Feel free to send me PM if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you.

Hard to say. The '94 strike had the long-term benefit of scaring both the owners and the players' union into working more closely with each other. It's easy to forget that strikes were becoming more pervasive into the 80s and the early 90s. What it finally took for labor peace was killing the World Series and each side becoming so mega-rich that fans were turned off altogether.

No '94 strike might have saved the Montreal Expos. That's the biggest difference I can think of. I suspect a strike would've eventually erupted down the line, however, unless the owners and players were savvy enough to understand it was better to bargain. I have my doubts about their collective wisdom in lieu of the strike's trauma. I think steroid testing would've been practically impossible to implement, given how notoriously conservative baseball tends to be in comparison to the other major sports. The strike's aftermath prompted improved CBAs (collective bargaining agreements) which eventually addressed PEDs in the mid-2000s. Provided the owners and players were still sniping at each other as they did prior to '94, I doubt the players would've budged.

The NHL had a devastating strike in around 2005 which hurt its popularity in the US. I remember how hockey was comparable to baseball, football, and basketball in popularity prior to losing an entire season to labor disputes; after that, it became much more regional. If baseball had fallen into a similar rut, football would likely end up ruling the roost for a longer period. Of course, now football is suffering from overexposure and backlash related to its handling of players' health and domestic violence. But that's another thread altogether.

Understood. So what about the fact the topic still appears in the recent topics list even after being removed? Is there a technical reason for that, or is it just an undersight? 

To the best of my knowledge, that's a technical issue. There's a similar problem with removed status updates which appear in content searches. Bear in mind that we don't delete topics but instead hide them. Deleting topics wholesale leaves us without a record and can create gaps in our database.

Basically, it's yet another limitation of IP Board.

@Ganondox, since I was the one who removed your topic, I'll explain my reasoning.

The topic you made was essentially a low-quality troll post There's an adage known as Poe's law which stipulates that a parody of an extreme viewpoint may become indistinguishable from the real thing. At no point did you bother to qualify the thread as a commentary on whatever it was you sought to critique; as such, members were bound to be confused and assume you were being serious. Ultimately, that means mods have to come around to actively monitor the topic or close it outright. In short, it's a waste of everyone's time and demonstrates little meaningful commentary.

As Jeric has said, good political and social satire are hard to master. Someone like Stephen Colbert makes it look easy -- but he and other masters of the craft have years of training, experience, reputation, and a visual medium to cue the audience to the joke. A text post without context and that mishandles even basic information comes across as an attempt to get everyone's hackles up. MLP Forums isn't the place for that sort of discourse.

The inability for a topic's creator to access their topic when it's removed is in part a technical limitation. However, the denial of access also serves a practical purpose in preventing that person from monkeying around with the topic while moderators discuss how best to handle it. In this respect, then, the limitation is intentional and helpful for our purposes. More strictly speaking, what you post here isn't solely yours. Your content is subject to forum rules. You normally have a lot of latitude, but what gets posted/removed ultimately rests with the staff's discretion.

As usual, great work! I'm really digging the line work and shading.

Yellow Diamond ... question for ya. Will you or another Admin be updating the fund pool amount regularly so people know if it is running low (and can perhaps donate to top it up)?

Right. So this is an interesting quirk: unlike most charity drives, the hope is actually to drain the fund gradually rather than reach a target amount. Given the way IP Board works, a "goal" has to be set on the donation tracker for it to appear publicly -- hence why $1,500 is the "goal" for the moment. The plan is to eventually alter the "goal" so that it accurately matches the total amount left in the fund. For example, if we had $655 in total donations, the "goal" would match that amount. Just don't mistaken it for the fund having reached an upward limit, because there is none.

I'm the one in charge of managing the technical end of things, including the donation totals. I'll be vigilant in updating the tracker and occasionally posting reminders/updates about the drive. Skysweep is the driving force behind this project, though, so people shouldn't wait for updates exclusively from me before deciding whether or not to participate.

A true, true friend helps a friend in need
A friend will be there to help them see
A true, true friend helps a friend in need
To see the light that shines from a true, true friend
 
There’s a pretty good chance that you know someone who is going through a difficult time in their life. Perhaps they’ve lost their job, had a family member pass away, or are generally feeling blue. You’d like to help, but it isn’t always easy to gauge what exactly you can do for them.

That’s why I’m happy to announce the opening of the Gallery of Goodwill. This project, devised and managed by skysweep, provides an opportunity to put the spirit of generosity into action. The concept is simple: donations are submitted into a fund created by skysweep which allows people to request artwork to be made for someone they know who could use a pick-me-up. Those making the requests don’t need to spend a dime of their own money. This means you can spread some much needed cheer simply by putting in a request.

Thanks to skysweep’s efforts and the abundance of talent in our community, several of our own artists who sell commissions here on MLP Forums have agreed to help out. They’ll be compensated for their work through the fund. We’re eager to have more artists come aboard; so drop skysweep and I a PM if you’re interested.

If you’re interested in participating in the Gallery of Goodwill, you’re welcome to poke your head into the official event thread found here. You can submit donations, requests, and post any questions you may have. I should add that those who donate may receive handmade goodies from skysweep. Keep your eyes peeled!

The Gallery of Goodwill, like all good things, won’t last forever, though. The project is slated to end on June 14 or when the fund is depleted -- whichever comes first. If you want to brighten someone’s day with a piece of excellent fan art, you should get in on this as soon as you can.

In the end, this community has proven to be incredibly charitable and loving. Whether it’s through Making Christmas Merrier or simply posting about ponies, your big-heartedness knows no boundaries or (quite literally) borders. I know that desire to give to others continues to burn strong within each of you. By joining the Gallery of Goodwill, you’ll help make an enormous difference in someone’s life -- no reality-bending magic required.
 

Season Premiere: "The Cutie Map" (Season 5). I think it's one of the cleverest episodes in the entire series. I remember comparing it fondly to Star Trek when it came out because of the exploration of a new land, the social allegories, and the ambiguous ending. My only regret is that the conflict with Starlight Glimmer didn't carry across the entire season but only manifested in the finale.

Season Finale: "A Canterlot Wedding" (Season 2). The plot certainly has plenty of holes in it -- but man was it a lot of fun! The finale felt like a perfect crescendo to an immensely entertaining season that introduced two memorable villains (Discord and Chrysalis). There was also "This Day Aria", one of my favorite songs in the show.

I've moved this topic to Site Questions and changed the title for the sake of clarity. PM me if you have any questions or concerns about this.

Carry on!