Is the fandom dying/dead?

[Sphinx-Ara 3,517]

Just as the title says, is the fandom dying or dead? For me, I noticed a huge drop of activity on forums since about 2017, and when seasons 8 and 9 came out, an even bigger drop. And now that the show is finished, well... I dunno

[Tom Gallagher 33,521]

Well, most of the people I know are still here.  I joined after the show ended so it's probably harder for me to say but the amount of notifications I get hasn't changed at all. 

[Misty Shadow 7,088]

There is still some outstanding fan content being made (don't be fooled by my current avatar/signature, that totally does not include EoJ ), so I wouldn't say that. MLP's just in a weird spot right now with mixed opinions on Pony Life, the Season 10 comic, and speculations on G5. Don't be fooled by internet forums being in decline, forums everywhere are dying because the internet as a whole is simply not what it once was.  

[Sphinx-Ara 3,517]

11 minutes ago, Caotic said:

I hope not!

But either way I plan to have a project, that still needs people. This project is called "My Little Pony:Friendship is Abridged" which will be a Animated remake of FIM but with our hooves open for the community! The plan is to have any that can, send help in any way they can. Main idea of the project is to take the "Friendship is Magic"[Focus on Friendship, and  Harmony], and make a world more "real"[Focus is on more real topics, ones that are difficult to talk about; ie: Mental Health, etc...]. 

We do need Animators, Voice Actors, and OC's!  Mainly Animators who are fine with keeping in the project for years (The project will take lots of time to do, especially at it's start)

With that in mind, any of those intrested please look at my post about it on my Page.
https://mlpforums.com/profile/47066-caotic/?status=1014377&type=status (I believe it should take you to the original post)

I could contribute a OC or two

[Deadsorry 23]

Moments ago, Evelyn Nocturne said:

I could contribute a OC or two

I would love that! Can you send me a PM with a picture/description(although picture is preferable), and essentially a Character Sheet of (Who the OC is basically, so we know how we can you your OC's)

[Harmonic Revelations 8,833]

It's as dead as it's probably going to get. From the looks of things, user loss has evened out and my guess is everyone who was going to leave en masse due to the show's end already has.

Much like most entertainment it will always retain it's niche, even if it never reaches the peak of the "glory days" again. I remember when posts were being made quite literally every second on this forum.

It's not all bad though, there's certain advantages to the way things are now. For one, it allows a more "quality over quantity" type approach to users on the forums. We may not have as MANY people as we once did but from the looks of things those left are sure dedicated.

It also means that since the fandom is less in the public eye, the amount of hatred it receives is considerably less.

[Justin_Case001 4,857]

You can't expect participation in any place such as this to stay as high as when new seasons are airing, but it still seems alive and well, and I expect it will keep on truckin' for some time.  And remember this--even if the forums became quiet as a tomb, or was even taken down, that wouldn't mean the fandom is dead.  The world will always been full of people who love MLP, even if they're not making posts online.

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,809]

The fandom is still quite alive. Lots of fan stuff are still being made. 

[marithewitch99 5]

I drifted away around 2017 but after the series ended I began revisiting it. 

[Jeric 46,835]

Still alive, but it has contracted since its height back in 2014. 

Test

[Splashee 28,537]

On 1/6/2021 at 8:45 AM, Evelyn Nocturne said:

Just as the title says, is the fandom dying or dead? For me, I noticed a huge drop of activity on forums since about 2017, and when seasons 8 and 9 came out, an even bigger drop. And now that the show is finished, well... I dunno

It is dead, I am afraid.

Just a handful of rebels still fighting for freedom. And of course, this forum is still going strong.

[Splashee 28,537]

4 minutes ago, Jeric said:

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[Jesse Terrence 2,963]

Pretty much dead, yeah. 

[Splashee 28,537]

3 minutes ago, Jesse Terrence said:

Pretty much dead, yeah. 

Absolutely. *Agrees 99.6%* 

[Props Valroa 26,051]

Has contracted but far from being dead. In my time here activity has declined, but maybe that

[Kadae 655]

I haven't been as invested in the fandom as I was back in 2011~2013. As soon as Twilight became an Alicorn, my personal investment in the show began to decline. I can't believe the outcry over that event was so long ago now!

That said, I still love the ponies and the show as a whole as well as this fun community that surrounds it! I wouldn't say the fandom is dead at all, since there's still a number of us creating content, posting about ponies, attending online conventions and the like. It's very much alive! It's just a lot more niche, and a lot smaller than it once was.

Many have moved on, but I tend to stick around for the things I love, and I'm sure if you've been here on these forums for a number of years at this point, it's safe to say we'll probably continue to stick around and chill for a heck of a while longer.

[Jeric 46,835]

I mean, I just got an autograph from Tabitha at a virtual con today (plus panels), so some semblance of it exists. Plus the art feeds are still strong. I mean, we live in a statistical data driven world where anyone here can verify strength of something fairly easily. 

[Luna the Great of all the Russias 2,706]

I am not sure if this is correct, but the impression I got was that the Bronydom was at its apex from around 2012-2014 and that it was a steady decline from that point. It is possible that I am simply unaware, but that era seemed to be around the time when the most number of ambitious projects were being released related to the fandom such as the Duo Cartoonist animations. But now, I would expect Brony to be seen as something of an antiquated term (at least by internet standards).

[North Star 4,540]

My perspective is that pony became so huge in 2012-14 and touched so many minds that never mind dying, its core is still hissing with heat D: Bear in mind that the Watership Down fandom, a fandom about rabbits from the 80s, is still going with the internet  I mean that is top quality rabbit fiction, but still! Point is - the internet is slow to allow any fandom to outright die. The real question is where in its life cycle is this fandom? This fandom seems to be at a similar place in its cycle as our sun is right now. Coming towards the end of its long life, but that just means it's got more rainbow to give.

 

More specifically: I joined in 2012. Only the last months I found excellent new music content, whole new card series which I love, a new forum which is active and attended a brilliant con. For me, this year has been one of the best years since those early 2012-14 ones.

 

[Astralshy 23,604]

I discovered and became a fan of this show just recently (beginning of December 2020). At this point I cannot make and reliable statement about this fandom.

But I wonder .. if I joined so late .. why not others? Today I started to discover a little bit of the created music within this fandom. And then there are also a lot of amazing artworks and this forum also seems to be quite active. I found already so much great stuff and there seems to be so much more. I really got the impression it will take a long time before it runs out.

And as long as there are people in this fandom who not only consume but also create content .. can this fandom be really dead?

As stated at the beginning I cannot make any reliable statement about this fandom. In other fandoms I witnessed a habit of telling a fandom dead rather quickly and then it was still going on for many years to come. Maybe I’m just to biased here or to naïve but I like to think it will exist for a long time to come.

But yes, everything ends sooner or later and there are no new episodes anymore. This much is definitely true.

[Wingnut 6,733]

I was very active here during the peak of the fandom and the forum itself.  I can vouch that things are much quieter now than they were then.  It was already down substantially by 2017 and Hasbro missed the peak of interest by the time they released the feature movie.  
 

The fandom may be in decline but it will not truly die.  It has touched way too many lives for that to happen.  We’re still seeing a significant number of new fans cropping up even after the end of the G4 series.  And although I’ve followed MLP almost since the beginning, I joined the Powerpuff Girls fan base at the end of their original run. So I can relate to newcomers here in that spirit.  

[Sonic Shimmer 4,116]

People have been asking this seemingly every week since I joined the fandom back in 2014.

The Brony fandom hit its peak nearly a decade ago and has slowly trended downwards ever since. Now that the show is over its obviously shrunk at a faster rate as there's no new episodes to speculate about or discuss.

Not to mention the original Bronies are in or approaching their 30s now and have other responsibilities or interests. I still adore the show, but I turned 30 this year and the last time I went to a convention or a Brony meetup was in 2017.

So is the fandom dead? Short answer, no. It's just naturally evolved into a smaller group of dedicated followers, quietly posting in places like this instead of massing in public in Rainbow Dash hoodies and chanting the smile song like we did in the old days.

[crookedpinkie 14]

9 hours ago, Sonic Shimmer said:

People have been asking this seemingly every week since I joined the fandom back in 2014.

The Brony fandom hit its peak nearly a decade ago and has slowly trended downwards ever since. Now that the show is over its obviously shrunk at a faster rate as there's no new episodes to speculate about or discuss.

Not to mention the original Bronies are in or approaching their 30s now and have other responsibilities or interests. I still adore the show, but I turned 30 this year and the last time I went to a convention or a Brony meetup was in 2017.

So is the fandom dead? Short answer, no. It's just naturally evolved into a smaller group of dedicated followers, quietly posting in places like this instead of massing in public in Rainbow Dash hoodies and chanting the smile song like we did in the old days.

Ouch, yeah I agree with you, as someone who's 31 now. It makes me pretty sad to see how quiet the fandom is nowadays, even though I understand why. Maybe it's just the pandemic blues talking, but I really miss the excitement and happy vibes from a few years ago when the show was still going. The smile song feels a little bittersweet to me now.

[Neoeryn 196]

I used to be super active in 2014, from watching a lot of episodes to even posting religiously on my DA (that has since been lost for good). My school friends actually got me into it.

I drifted from it in 2016/2017, but now that the show's ended, I recently became obsessed with it again.

I don't exactly know how dead the fandom is as I haven't really interacted with it, but I've been working to publish a Webtoon soon for my AU. I don't exactly have all the details yet, but hopefully anything to keep the fandom going.

[Venomous 18,813]

@Silicon Chimera

Moved to Sugarcube Corner, as this is where the brony fandom is discussed.