the current state of the MLP fandom?

[PepperPie 21]

why is it so hard to find a safe space in the My Little pony fandom? I feel like everywhere you look even if it says it's safe or it has precautions to be safe it's just not and people either don't moderate it correctly or people just can't follow basic rules. My little pony is literally a kids show about horses and other animals/creatures. And it seems despite that it's so common to find bad stuff. So its just normalized for everything to be nsfw or gore? If you look on YouTube, even normal sounding stuff is just bad, FIM fic is another issue I have, it has a view mature option so you think it would be good right? No, no one marks anything correctly and you can constantly see nsfw stories suggested, And if you join a group with rules specifically against that out think that would help because that's by others users who read the group rules? No actually there's more, except now it's sending you notifications in the site about the dirty pony content (😕). I've looked everywhere to just find a nice place with no creeps but it seems extremely hard. And even when I went into the fim fic discord, despite their rules literally being against c* and I'm being told that it's okay because it's a cartoon, while a site mod is literally watching and does nothing. why is it so normalized and can I find a safe space?

[DebonedAngel 196]

The internet is a terrible place, and it's really not safe overall for people with sensitivities to NSFW content. I think the safest place would be to make your own, make a discord server, moderate it, and keep it a safe place.

The second safest place is right here. This forum is very safe and cozy, while it's not as busy as it was, you can help change that by being an active member, and making friends with people here will help you as well, because you'll be invited into your friend's safe spaces. The key to a true safe space is unfortunately gatekeeping, because if you leave the doors open, people will come in and make it a non-safe space, so the safest of spaces are kept somewhat secret and hidden from public eye.

[Snow 7,015]

3 hours ago, DebonedAngel said:

The second safest place is right here

Spot on, I love this place for being devoid of all of the nasty stuff, people posting mature content here seems very very rare and the staff is always on top of it quickly which is great, MLPF being as big and as accessible as it is.

I think finding wholesome places is difficult mostly because a lot would be tight knit in order to keep out the no good sorts, you'd likely have to know a member to get in, there is the safe server on Pony Town where one might be able to do some networking, no doubt there are a handful of safe MLP themed Discord servers and the like but as far as major internet sites go I don't know any but here, there are a number of SFW MLP artists on DeviantArt that post lots of beautiful work and the safe mode setting is pretty good though sadly not infallible.

[Blizzard Wizard 4,915]

5 hours ago, DebonedAngel said:

The second safest place is right here.

100% true. The forum is the best "public" place can be found in the internet.

[MidnightFire1222 2,150]

The internet is a very diverse place and unfortunately there will always be...unsavory places on it no matter the fandom. This forum is a very safe place. If something does happen - which is very rare to begin with - the staff are quick to put a stop to it and enforce the rules set forth on the site. They are very good at moderation, unlike some other sites I've been on. Yeah, the mlp forum isn't not as busy as maybe 8-10 years ago, but it's still a great place for fans.

[Finding_Marty 821]

I remember it has always been the case in the fandom. I am not surprised that some people created bad stuff concerning MLP. But why it has become so popular is unclear to me, but it is certainly a curse. But fandom is an open community and everybody can join it. Unfortunatelly, it is what it is...

[Octavian 5,420]

I know it can be tough to accept, but it is a teen/adult fandom so the gross stuff is gonna be there - and the people that make it are often pretty young themselves (there's nothing edgier than a 13-15 year boy in my experience). And even places like here where moderation is fabulous (maybe overly fabulous ) will slip up on occasion. So, I suggest not getting too het up about it - just like other material that is not to your tastes. Another tip for the gore and such is that a lot of the provocative content is there to provoke so never give these content creators a shocked or upset reaction, because they love to think they're edgy like that.

Report the stuff that breaks the rules by all means but keep a stiff upper lip.

(flehmen's response is freakin adorable)

[Iforgotmybrain 5,618]

MLP does seem to attract an unusual amount of gore and horror fans. I've always attributed that to the shows cutesy and more lighthearted nature. You get this big contrast between the wholesome source material and the more horror oriented fandom created content, and people seem to really like that contrast. Happy Tree Friends (Heavy gore warning, I don't recommend looking it up) is another example of this, except it was specifically made to look like a normal cartoon and be full of gore.

As for the NSFW stuff, yeah, I find any sort of media that gets big enough tends to inevitably have that kind of scene.

Like others said, just be careful about the communities and sites you interact with. There's a surprisingly amount of MLP related places that have little to no policing on what's posted or said unless it's something blatantly illegal. It's a major issue the fandom has always had that's just never really gone away.

Edited November 7 by Iforgotmybrain
clarify

[Nitobit 1,814]

@PepperPie Your thread has been moved to Sugarcube Corner.