Lockheed

nervous AF. I have to defend my Master's thesis on Wednesday! I wrote 80 pages on the brony fandom so wish me luck you guys.

Yay! I am so looking forward to your thoughts. In this study I was more concerned with fandom from a consumer behaviour and branding perspective, which is kind of atypical in fan studies. I have actually also written a paper on the brony fandom from a psychology/sociology perspective I fell in love with the community back then and had so much more to explore! However this time, I really wanted to emphasize that I consider fans as more "advanced" consumers, who consumes for the emotional rewards that the product gives them. This stands in great contrast to current perception of consumers which is often tend to focus on being symbol-driven e.g. people buying Starbucks just for the symbol value of walking with a Starbucks cup. As such, I believe that marketing and consumer behaviour scholars can learn a lot from fans! Yes, exactly! In my paper I also call the relationship for "symbiotic". Like both Hasbro and the Bronies need each other to survive. The bronies use MLP:FiM to facilitate the community engagement that is beyond canon and where the show perhaps isn't that important, but the community still needs the show to exist in the first place and to further develop. It is though interesting to consider whether the community at one point in future don't even need MLP:FiM, because the community is so strong in itself. I believe that this might be true with the bronies, but with the beliebers I think that the fandom will slowly die if Justin stops making music/being in the spotlight.

Hi guys For the past six months I have been studying the brony community (as well as Justin Bieber's Belieber fandom), which has resulted in a master thesis on online fandom and how media companies should, for a lack of a better word, "manage" them. As, I consider myself as a fan my number 1 priority was to speak for the fans as I believe that many companies just exploit their fanbases without actually showing appreciation of them. As I am a business school scholar, my primary goal was to investigate how value is created in fandoms. Anyways, I just wanted to share my results I found a rather complex relationship between the fandom and the fan object. Here, I argued that the brony fandom is not only about MLP, but it just as much, and even more about connecting with others. Essentially, much of the value comes from participating in the fandom and not necessarily in the act of watching MLP:FiM. What do you think about this? Do you agree with me on this or isn't the fandom that important to you? I would love to hear your thoughts and please feel free to ask questions I have attached the full-length thesis if somebody out there is interested https://www.academia.edu/26626889/Fandom_in_the_Digital_Age Thank you for welcoming me to the community. I have really enjoyed my time here

Hi Everypony I came to the forums as a part of research I did for a paper. It is already a year ago and I just happened to stay here in the forums when my research ended Besides being a Brony, I am currently writing my master thesis where I want to study the relationship between fans and the producers of the media object (My Little Pony/Hasbro). Being a fan of various media myself I couldn't help think that the fans' passion and enthusiasm were sometimes just taken advantage of rather than praised and celebrated. But I want to hear it from you guys. Do you ilke how Hasbro behaves towards the community? How much do you think that Hasbro/the creative team should acknowledge and communicate with the brony community? What would you like to see from Hasbro/the creative team in the future? Should they be more involved in what happens in the forums? GO!

I get what youre saying, but I also think you're a bit contradictory in your argument. I would have thought it to be annoying if she revealed his sexual orientation in the novels just for the sake of doing it, but she waited until the series were finished. She has since revealed a lot of stuff about all the other characters, and I think that Dumbledores sexuality is quite relevant to his character considering his relationship with Grindelwald.

I'm actually liking Starlight so far..

Twilight - Scandinavia Applejack - Australia/New Zealand Rainbow Dash - Northern America Rarity - Europe Pinkie Pie - Japan/South Korea Fluttershy - Japan I always saw Twilight as being kind of Scandinavian. Like she starts out being a bit asocial and reserved, but as she warms up you find that she's (we're) actually really lovely

What does it mean to be a bony to you? Do you think that it is primarily about being a fan of the show or do you have to be more involved with the community?

I like the movie a lot actually. I have small nieces and it was just pleasent to see a "princess-movie" where everything wasn't about getting a prince or something superficial. Yes, Anna used 80 % of the movie talking about boys, but it was done in a meta way that also made a fun of earlier princesses. The characters could have been stronger though.. But as my 6 year old niece's take away from the movie was that family/friendship is the most important thing in the world, I can't do anything but love the movie.

That is so hauntingly beautiful.

I also think that it comes down to the fact that fans are very invested in their fandoms and it is easy to leap to one of the extremes. I think fans often have high personal expectations to e.g. a show or a singer and if the high expectations isn't met, it is easy to criticize. On the other side I think that many fans can get blinded by their love, and nothing can destroy that.

This is my very first post, so I don't know if this is the right place to post this Please correct me if i'm wrong!! But how did you choose your avatar? Does it say anything about you? I had trouble finding the right avatar, but I ended up with Lockheed, which is Kitty Pryde's dragon from the X-men comics. When I was little i always fantasized that I had a pet dragon just as Kitty's

Wow. Thanks everybody Right now I am watching Adventure Time, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones and Daredevil on Netflix! I am obsessed with a game called This Strange Life. What do you watch and play?

My Favourite Mane 6 Pony: Twilight Sparkle How did you find MLP Forums?: Mostly Google I think How you became a fan of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic: My first meeting with My Little Pony was in the documentary from 2012, where I completely fell in the love with the fandom. As a member of various comic book forums, I was amazed by the kindness, collectiveness and passion of the herd, and I therfore wanted to see what being a bony was all about. Hello everypony! It is about time that I step out of the lurking shadows and finally introduce myself! I am 24 years and an overall entertainment geek. I spent most of my spare time on comic books, TV-shows and movies and video games. Many genres grab my attention, but I especially like sci-fi and superheroes. I study Communications and Digital Media, and it was actually also my studies that brought me to this site. I am currently researching online fandoms and Bronies seemed to be the perfect case for me. I must admit that I was a bit skeptical when I was about to watch my first episode of FiM. Then the pilot episode was about Twilight Sparkle and how she went on a quest to do research. Her story was just like mine, I was hooked and now I am 4 seasons in whoops! That's about all I have to say about myself. I am looking forward to joining the herd and feel free to PM me if you have any questions about me or my research, or if you just want to talk. I'm always up for a good chat! Brohoof!