Lakes Geek

The ones that make people cringe: the cloppers (which I actually have nothing against - I'd just rather that material was kept behind age walls), the ones who shove it down throats (I don't mean using a pony avatar but shoehorning it into threads/conversations), the ones who take it too seriously and rage (or worse, send death threats) over silly things, the ones who somehow manage to be misogynistic about it (how they manage this when it's a show about girl ponies in a matriarchy created by a feminist I have no idea), the ones who never shower (though this goes for a lot of geeks) etc etc. Are unfortunately quite loud. Also, just like the newspapers sell much better when they're all bad news, so does bad/ugly/cringey news about Bronies get all the clicks on the internet. It's just a human nature thing. I use a pony avatar most places but only mention it on unrelated forums only if it's somehow actually relevant for that exact reason (both because I don't really enjoy getting torrents of abuse, and because wittering on about it in unrelated places is one of the things that bothers people ) The other issue was more in 2012 when it was a HUGE bandwagon - we kind of took over places like deviantArt (when I visited dA a few times back then, it was hard to find an image that was NOT about ponies, so I can see why people were frustrated). We didn't mean to, it was just a side effect of its popularity. But still, people did and still do hold us responsible for that.

Got to admit, the alcohol limit is 18 here and it bugs me a bit that I didn't think to say "here's my email, but contact me when you're 18 so we can go for some beers" - I've gone drinking with Bronies when I went to the BUCK con but that's a rare event - and it was awesome. I'd love to add some Bronies to my circle of local regular drinking buddies (But yeah I'm still not sure it wouldn't have crossed the creepy line giving a direct email. Just that it's one of those issues that resolves itself over time)

Been there, I guess. In my late teens and early 20s I guess I was similar, trying to distance myself from geeky/"different" interests (hiding the heck out of the "guilty" love I had for anime - including eeeeek Pokemon - I had at the time) and blend into society. Accepting that there's such thing as a "normal person" (i.e. an average person who complies with societal, age and gender related norms) and trying my best to assimilate. It pretty much worked, and there are also times when you need to have the practice (like getting a job) or when it's simply the appropriate thing to do (weddings, funerals, dinners..) However when I started approaching and getting into my 30s, I came full circle. I had a good think about what I view as the meaning of life, and came around to "there isn't one" and the more you watch people die as you get towards this age, the more it sinks in that life is short. So I figured "why not enjoy it while you're here?" - pretending to be someone else isn't enjoying. Being yourself and living for yourself (so long as you're not a drain or danger on society - and I do have a full-time job so I do my part and hope to leave the world better than I found it) is what I've decided is more important. And you know what? Outside of our obvious haters on the internet (*hastily touch wood*) no one has indicated to me IRL that they care about the pony stuff in any particularly negative way.

They sure as sugar do. Even though I'm dipping into the 30s now I actually still live with them (my other nerdy friends of the same age live with theirs too, which makes me feel slightly less of a social taboo - housing prices in Northern England and all that) so it was inevitable. Eventually as my collection grew it became kind of obvious They're cool though, we treat each other as equals and they know I have the right to enjoy whatever as a grown man (so long as it's safe and legal) and they'll readily admit to being a bit nerdy and different themselves. I think it sometimes worries them in case parents of young girls think there's something dodgy going on, which to be fair I worry about too - but no one has implied that so far and I'm quite careful about all that (as mentioned in the older bronies thread). So far so fine.

As an older Brony myself (well, 32... not that old older than average in the fandom) I'm relieved to see the results so far I try to avoid being creepy around younger fans or anything like that. I'm quite paranoid about it - I wear pony stuff out and about but get really embarrassed if the target audience is around and try to steer clear. Case in point I went to see Rainbow Rocks at the cinema at the weekend, I was petrified it'd just be me sat there with a bunch of 7 year old girls. I was very relieved to hear "hey, get over here!" from another group of Bronies, and very glad to finally meet some local ones too! Only, when I was sat with them and we were making conversation in then got to "so which school do you go to?" and I got to say "actually, I work.." and it became apparent that they're teenagers (I'd guess around 15-17.. I'm not great at judging age). I know I look young as I get ID checked constantly, so maybe they didn't realise... or were being polite So whilst it was lovely to meet some other local Bronies, when it came to them wanting to exchange contact details and potentially do some local meets I was a bit cagey. I gave them a username to look out for online (this one in fact!) but didn't take any details myself as I'd just feel too creepy accepting direct contact details from under-18s (potentially under-16s too) at my age. It's not even about "that", I want to make friends, the more the merrier but yeah. I think that is maybe crossing the line... I wouldn't judge someone else for it though, just myself. Sad though. It'd have been nice to get to know some potential local Brony friends. But those are the lengths I go to to avoid being creepy ^^;;

Became a fan when I needed something sweet to watch. I'd just been to a notorious imageboard out of "b"oredom (I'd never really been there before) and saw the most horrible photo of something that had been done to a cat. Kitten videos were naturally not going to cheer me up this time, but I'd remembered seeing some kind of rebooted MLP in tech forum avatars and thought "I bet it's actually really cool if they've rebooted it and a bunch of mostly male nerds are using it as avatars" Tried it, was right, loved it. Became a Brony when I stopped avoiding the label and embraced it. It was basically when I went to the BUCK 2013 convention (when I stopped avoiding conventions and embraced them ), stopped being afraid of "going too far" and put all four hooves down the rabbit hole. Being at BUCK surrounded by such awesome, fun, friendly people made me finally "proud to be a Brony" and that's when I adopted the label... 2 years after becoming a fan. Edit: to be more specific, May 2011

I finished EQG1 thinking "that was awesome! But there's no way they can pull off that kind of awesomeness on this premise twice." I finished EQG2 thinking "that was brilliant! Well, I guess they can make anything great - roll on EQG3 if they do it?" I finished the EQG2 credits thinking "there NEEDS to be an EQG3. STAT!" Great movie, but this moment just totally sealed the deal in terms of "me wanting to see an EQG3".

I'd love for her to come to Equestria (though I think they're avoiding mixing the two worlds to avoid fan rage?) Quite honestly I loved her character in Rainbow Rocks - I came away from that movie thinking of her as "one of them". FiM is of course already getting little shake-ups like what happened at the end of S4, but another nice shake-up would be if it became a mane 7. I can see by the related threads that I'm not the first to like this idea