Fandoms within Bronydom

[Batbrony 16,055]

Hello everypony! So an interesting thought occurred to me yesterday; while I was just thinking about bronydom in general, I started considering the numerous parts of our fandom that make it up, which one's are the largest, the smallest, the most vocal, the most influential, etc. By the time I'd fully laid out my thoughts, I'd formulated a pretty extensive and complex network of subgroups that comprise our fandom, and it was so interesting that I figured, hey, why not post about it. So below under the spoilers tab are my thoughts on what different subgroups comprise bronydom, including descriptions, and my own personal opinion, on each group. Please, feel free to share your thoughts, especially if anypony feels that I have missed a subgroup, or misrepresented a subgroup.

 

 

Subgroup #1: The Viewers

 

This group of bronies consists of those who watch the show alone, along with perhaps fandmade content, and do not partake in any other part of the fandom (aside from perhaps occasionally purchasing merchandise, but I don't exactly consider purchasing merchandise to be a distinguishing characteristic of any subgroup, so that doesn't count). This is the simplest group of bronies, the one we all once solely belonged to at some point. It may very well be the largest subgroup within bronydom, but I can only make an estimated guess about this, since, being a very quiet, isolated, and not very vocal group within bronydom, it's very hard to measure the exact numbers of the viewers. I'd wager as well that a majority of closet bronies belong to this group, and may even comprise the majority of the subgroup itself, but again, I can only make a reasonable guess about this. Overall, while this may be the largest subgroup within the fandom, or at the least one of the larger groups, it is also one of the least, if not the least, influential group, since the viewers do not partake in any other part of bronydom outside of watching the show. Nevertheless, it is still the foundation upon which the rest of bronydom has been built up.

 

Subgroup #2: The Forumers

 

This group of bronies consists of those who, in addition to watching the show, belong to some kind of online MLP community, the simplest and easiest way to partake in the fandom itself aside from watching the show. I myself belong to this subgroup, and I believe that the majority of bronies who partake in the community's activities itself belong to this subgroup. It is the only group of bronies who may outnumber the viewers in numbers (again, this is hard to determine), but it is most definitely, as I said, the largest subgroup of bronies who actively participate in the community itself to some extent. It is a very vocal subgroup, probably the most vocal, simply on account of its large numbers, and quite influential as well; the thoughts and opinions generated by this subgroup can influence both MLP's creators themselves (since they probably get most of their information regarding bronies and bronies' opinions on the show from online communities, including brony communities) as well as fanmade content and the producers of said content, who will often even take commissions from bronies on these sites, or come to bronies for their opinions and critique of their own work.

 

Subgroup #3: The Producers

 

This group of bronies consists of those who are not only active online within the community, but also produce fanmade content. It is, in many ways, a subgroup within a subgroup, as many of these remaining subgroups are, as most producers most likely belong to online brony communities as well. Since the qualifications of this subgroup are much more demanding than the former, in both time and talent, it is a much smaller subgroup than the viewers and forumers, comprised of artists, writers, musicians, video makers and editors, VA's, and even meme producers. Despite its smaller size, however, this is one of the most, if not the most, influential group to date within bronydom. While MLP's creators may now largely look to forumers for opinions and critique of the show among bronies, it was the producers who first caught the attention of both MLP's creators, as well as the Internet community in general, and made the public aware of the existence of bronies. The content they generate is, I'd wager, in 90% at least of all cases, the first introduction to the show that those eventually converted into bronies become acquainted with, and is probably more responsible for increasing bronies numbers than initial exposure to the show itself. And despite the fact that it is certainly a smaller subgroup, it is still a fairly large subgroup within the fandom, and growing by the day, as more and more talented content producers join its ranks. Overall, this subgroup has probably done, and continues to do, more than any other subgroup of the fandom to both increase the numbers of the community and strengthen the ties of those who already belong to the community, especially between seasons.

 

Subgroup #4: The Conventioners

 

This group of bronies consists of those who either attend conventions regularly, or have at least attended conventions once. Both forumers and producers can and do almost certainly belong to this category. Due to the small number of conventions, as well as the difficulty with which so many bronies have trying to get to them or making the time for them, it is necessarily a small subgroup, probably even smaller than the producers. It is also a fun subgroup, and has some very eccentric but dedicated members, especially in the most dedicated of cosplayers, who can come up with some pretty zany and whacky, but also very creative, outfits and costumes. It's influence is largely limited to the conventions themselves, however, in this role, the conventioners do wield quite a bit of influence. Being the most visible subgroup within the fandom, the conventioners have the most intimate contact with both the creators and cast of MLP, as well as the public in general, and leave some of the deepest impressions of the fandom on both the former and the latter, for better or worse, depending on the circumstances (although they seem to have made the former simply come to love bronydom even more, and their single greatest PR accomplishment to date might be their having attracted John de Lancie to coming to love and becoming deeply involved in the brony community). While they are certainly a passionate group, the levels of annoying fanboy/fangirl tendencies that so many other fandoms suffer from seem, at least from the footage I've seen, to generally be kept to a minimum at conventions, and they maintain a sincere but also calm and composed love of the fandom that those unfamiliar with the fandom, or just becoming acquainted with it, generally recognize as genuine. They also play a great role in bringing the overall community closer together, either through their direct interactions with other bronies from across the country, and even the world, or through the impressions they leave on the online community concerning our fandom. Overall, this is a small, but also very fun, subgroup within bronydom, as well as a very important one that I myself could not imagine bronydom existing without, and was one of the final qualifiers of our fandom as a legitimate force among pop culture fandoms.

 

Subgroup #5: The Converters

 

This group consists of those bronies who ardently pursue, especially in online forums and chatrooms not dedicated to MLP, converting those who are not fans of MLP into bronies. It is one of the smallest fringe groups within the entire fandom; however, it is also, most unfortunately, a very, very vocal subgroup, and has done a lot to provide many who do not watch MLP with bad impressions of bronies. Their efforts, unless handled very moderately and carefully, are usually fruitless, and often very annoying, for converters will often label those who refuse to watch the show as haters, even if they have perfectly good reasons for not wanting to watch the show, or are simply indifferent. This in turn angers many of those who do not watch MLP, and has often resulted in turning many from simply being indifferent into actual haters of the show and bronies. As such, it is a very harmful, juvenile, and just plain annoying subgroup, and despite it's very small size and fringe status within the fandom, it unfortunately remains a very vocal subgroup as well. However, it does seem that the number of converters died down quite a bit between Season 2 and Season 3, as I rarely hear their sentiments online anymore, so hopefully they're decreasing in number by the day.

 

Subgroup #6: The Undeclared

 

This group of bronies consists of those who, well, simply refuse to refer to or consider themselves to be bronies. This is a very strange subgroup, smaller and having more of a fringe status than even the converters; however, like the converters, the undeclared are very vocal, especially online, as a number of them belong to brony communities. It can also be divided into two subgroups itself: (1) those who simply do not like the term brony in and of itself, and thus do not like to be called bronies, though they still readily profess to being fans of the show (which I find to be somewhat excusable; if they simply don't want to be called bronies since they don't like the term, I suppose that's fine) and (2) those who bizarrely insist that, while they watch the show, they are not crazy fans of the show, and as such, are not bronies. The latter group, I must confess, confuses the heck out of me; if you watch the show, and even feel the need to talk about the show online of all things, then, well, by extension, you're logically a brony. If one simply doesn't want to be called a brony since he doesn't like the term, he should just say so, and not try to carry on with this charade that he's not a fan of the show and thus not a brony, especially if he both watches it and has written about it online. Frankly, that's simply being in self-denial more than anything. While I think this subgroup can be annoying to some extent, especially when its members get quite vocal, it is still not nearly as annoying as the converters, nor is it harmful to the fandom's reputation as the latter are. It's simply a very strange fringe group is all, and one that's a bit of a pet peeve to myself more than anything.

 

 

Well everypony, these subgroups that I have identified and described for you all are the one's that I have observed within the fandom. Again, please share your thoughts, or, if you think I have either missed a subgroup, or misrepresented a subgroup, by all means, please, do tell! Hope ya'll who were brave enough and dedicated enough to read the whole thing found this to be interesting and informative!!!

Edited November 20, 2012 by Batbrony