Mixed feelings

[BornAgainBrony 2,397]

Well, I hope it isn't wrong to post this here. I'd love nothing more than to buy the uber celebrity package and milk everything I can out of the experience. Bronycon is supposed to be the holy grail of Pony cons and all that. But at the same time... they're taking the "cut and run" strategy. This is a con that once promised to run until 2025. And though yes, the numbers are shrinking. Really they couldn't possibly do anything else. I felt the decision was irresponsible (just for adding to a panic) and sends the wrong message.

It hurts now, even the thought of giving them any money, knowing that NONE of it will go to keeping any of this going.

Has this been bothering anyone else?

[NavelColt 22,879]

@BornAgainBrony

The connections you make via the fandom are more important than the fandom and show, itself. After all the entire message of the show is that friendship is magic. The show may end and the commonness of brony conventions may drop, but the connections you make from the fandom will stick with you long after that. I'd stop looking at the convention for the atmosphere, alone, and consider the grand opportunity you'd have there for meeting people with the same interests. Conventions are all about the people. Go there for yourself, enjoy the convention, make friends, create connections, buy the merch, see the things, and when you do at last leave the con, you'll have created something precious asides from mere memories of a good time.

I had one close friend to speak of when I entered this fandom in 2012, whom moved away a year after I got into the fandom. Spiraling down a hole of depression, and socially inept due to anxiety, I spent 10 months on this website outside work and school, finding the social connections I just couldn't find or create in person in my very stagnant town. I eventually got invited to 2013's BronyCon along with the rest of the at-the-time MLPF staff, and got a chance to meet all the people I had spent so much of my free time working with, joking with and basically spending time with online.

I made another best friend day, we call him @Creamy Arty

2013 BronyCon is and always will be a pivotal moment in my life, I really began to mature as a social creature, and I may have missed out on it if I had made any excuses for myself.

If you don't have the funding available, or cannot step away from family affairs, etc, that's one thing, but I'm of the opinion that you shouldn't miss out on this opportunity just because you don't agree with a decision made by the con's staff. If that's your sole reason or even your biggest reason for hesitating, I promise you will regret it.

I don't know if you've ever been to a fan convention before but it can truly be a magical experience. The drudgery of social expectations, attitudes, stereotypes and whatnot all melts away. Obviously you shouldn't go in trying too hard lest it not feel natural, but making friends, good friends is really not hard. Start with forum goers and work from there.  I think going would be a blessing for you, seeing as you found such love for this show/fandom, but have felt sadness and frustration over joining later on in the show's lifespan. A convention, I believe, is a great remedy to help you - to help anyone - feel more personally included and appreciated in the fandom of which they enjoy.

[Jeric 46,851]

I’m gonna to echo what Mister Chaos said above up there and also steal from something I said in private about this. 

I showed up in the fandom in mid 2014 and actually thought the show had one more season left. So in a way I know how you are feeling. But quite frankly, after getting to know people personally in 2014 here, I would have gone to a group con if this website was a battery lovers forum.

All of us are so flipping different and a bunch of us on staff and off it are fairly close. Just about everyone here is worth spending a few days chilling with and a lot of you I sometimes regret that I’m in a different generation and locale because I suspect I’d have become fast friends with quite a few of you. 

Thats why you should come if obligation and funds aren’t the issue. You come for the people. I don’t know about everyone else but I’m up to kicking back with you and saying “let’s have fun!” 

 

[Denim&Venöm 18,757]

It isn't so much them breaking their word as a combination of the show drawing to a close, the attendance dropping and ultimately, going out on a high note. BronyCon's lease of the convention center has a provision that a certain number of attendees are expected to show up, or else the space they're allotted will be cut. They'll only get half the building to themselves. 

So rather than whither and die out a shell of their former shelves, BronyCon want to end at the apex of their glory. Go out with a bang while the con and fandom are still thriving. I'm not happy about the decision either. I was there when they made the announcement and the mood was incredibly somber. But I understand why they're doing it and I might do the same. 

There will be other conventions. The fandom will go on. But it's time to give BronyCon the farewell party it deserves. And I'll be there on those four glorious days to witness the grandest finale.

You know the saying. The candle that burns the brightest... 

[Darthy Hooves 106]

For me I discovered MLP in 2015 & went to my first Bronycon in 2016. I was so lucky to see all the voices of the Mane Six at once. My first Bronycon was indeed the best. Before Bronycon 2017, I founded the "Not Your Average Brony" Facebook page for Bronies 21+. It's grown to 167 members as of today, some whom I've met at Bronycons 2017 & '18. I can't wait for Bronycon 2019 as not only will there be a meetup for my group, but meeting new people as well. There's a convention separate from the Bronycon Organization called Seaquestria that's planned for May of next year in Ocean City, Maryland. How I'll get there, I don't know as I don't drive. But go I must! My take of the future of MLP is: The show will end, but the story will continue on.

[Guest]

I don't think the decision to end the con after this one was one of "sending a message" but more of that they realize with diminishing returns, the end of the show coming, and more that they know it'll be difficult to even justify doing another convention after this. The reality is, to do these cons they cost money. To get that money, they need to sell tickets. Ticket sales have been going down every year for a solid few years now to where it's getting harder and harder to justify.

While they did promise until 2025, I think that promise was "wishful thinking" at best. Assuming the show was going to go an additional six years and that the fandom would remain as strong was a crapshoot at best. The reality is that all good things must come to an end.

Who knows though, maybe a new breed of con will pop up when Gen 5 kicks off!

[BornAgainBrony 2,397]

Well, it's been a while since I got to peek in here. Lots of, heh, unexpected things having kept me busy (yeah, Luna, probably this is mostly your fault), and I haven't done much time to just poke around and make many serious posts until very recently. Even just from the time I first started this thread, things feel... different. I've resolved with disagreeing with con staff as far as what they're doing, and don't have any remaining 'moral' reservations about going. As for what remains, a couple things. 1, work schedule, obviously. 2... the state of the fandom has already changed a lot since I posted this.

@~C. Discord~ To answer your question, my first con was Ciderfest last year, and it felt even better than a Disney vacation. And I'm going to Whinny City next week, but this is going to be an interesting test for what this Summer ends up being like. I'm hoping once I get there I'll feel fine - just finding all of this less than a year ago, the fear of having it all come to an end already; definitely NOT what I need with how my life has already been. But with 'S9ageddon' starting, I don't know if the feeling will be the same as last year or if it's going to feel akin to trying to party in 1999 with the knowledge that all life as we know it is about to end.

@Jeric Looks like you're just a year behind me on the age thing, so on one level, I get it. On another, not so much. For nearly my whole life I hung out with people younger than me, and only a very tiny handful (who I had all known when I was much younger) of folks my own age did I ever really find myself compatible with. I used to attribute it to just some kind of "Peter Pan Syndrome" thing, but even now I'm discovering that everyone I get along with seems to be one generation behind me. Not just Ponies, but something more general seems to be radically different about the more recent generations. More open, less rigid social rules, and a much more vested interest in harmless innocent forms of fun.

@Denim&Venom My 'hope' mostly rests on the "Charliecon" cluster at this point. They really seem to have their stuff together. 3 cons now, and geographically centralized in the U.S. This year will end up being a downer there (and probably every other con) no doubt though because everyone will probably burn through all their resources on Bronycon, and then we won't really have a gauge of anything until Summer 2020.