"Rabid" and "Sane" Bronies

[Harmonic Revelations 8,835]

I prefer the term "rabid". I enjoy gore fics and the darker side of the fandom and all that and if you don't that's fine. But I'd consider myself a pretty nice person over all and it doesn't make me any less of a brony.

[Twilight Circuits 603]

If you do most of the following things, then your life revolves around MLP.

 

Ponies have taken over your life if you:

 

- Put ponies into unrelated video games.

Nope. but then again, i don't have the skills to do that.

- Wear a brony shirt every day out in public.

Almost. It's on my jeans and leather jacket and then of course there's my tail.

- Spend 5 hours or more each day on brony sites.

Nope. don't do that.

- Only watch pony related videos on YouTube.

Nope, there's other things to see and watch.

- Have pony merchandise in every corner of your place o your room, apartment, or house

i don't have a lot of money so nope to that one.

- Post ponies in unrelated forums.

Nope, never done that nor do I feel the need. Then again, I'm not a big participant on other forums anyways. This forum would actually be the most participated one i've ever been a part of though. And that says something.

- Make sure everything that you do online involves MLP in some way.

Nah.

- Do ponifications

Hmmm... I might be guilty of that at some point. But to what degree that is might be a matter of opinion but also money. I'd ponify a lot of things if i had the money.

Those were just the ones I could think of. I'm sure there are more ways to tell.

That's an interesting analasys and I'd say you're pretty hardcore if one does all of those things although chances are the people at Hasbro probably come the closest. LOL

[duidamasterXD 9,627]

Are there some fans who take their interest in the show way too far? Sure. But trying to create hierarchies and divisions in the fandom isn't productive, and probably ultimately unhealthy. Going around proclaiming yourself a "sane" brony comes off as pretty smug and elitist in my opinion. It's as if they're saying that the majority of the rest of the fanbase isn't sane, and they need some kind of reason to elevate themselves above everybody and ridicule anyone who doesn't fit into their vision of what a real fan is. I don't like it.

[Derpius 138]

I'm sure many people here fall under most of those. You're posting this on MLP Forums, my friend. We've got some of the most obsessed fans here, and we're proud of it. 

Well, I suppose I can't argue with that. There are some pretty diehard fans on this site, and I'm okay with that.

 

I still find it disturbing how much some people are obsessed with My Little Pony, but as long as they aren't shoving it in peoples faces or being vocal and obnoxious about it, I'm perfectly fine with that. I don't consider them to be rabid bronies.

[Mzukiller 233]

 

 

We've got some of the most obsessed fans here, and we're proud of it

Not exactly something to be proud of.

 

 

I still find it disturbing how much some people are obsessed with My Little Pony, but as long as they aren't shoving it in peoples faces or being vocal and obnoxious about it, I'm perfectly fine with that.

You know what's funny? You can replace My Little Pony with pretty any medium in the world and get the same result. Being obsessed with anything isn't healthy, it's not just bronies. Rabid fans, period.

[Shanks 10,816]

@@Derpius @@fimdash

 

It sounds like you both have different definitions of what a "rabid" brony actually is which brings up another problem of focusing so much on them is that it creates misunderstandings which leads to some unneeded conflict and division. Shoving ponies in peoples faces and calling all non fans haters I believe does fall under the category of "rabid" because it is quite simply the act of being a prick. Putting the fandom on a pedestal and expecting everything and everyone to be perfect is also in my opinion "rabid" even though it is being "rabid" for different reasons.

 

And you have people that are obsessed with it to the point where it is negatively impacting their lives though that is a very very small percentage of bronies and is a problem with every fandom, and no I do not count bronies whose lives are being negatively impacted because they are being bullied by trolls or that enjoy ponifying things, though you can call those people "rabid" and perhaps they are I don't think it helps us or them by demonizing them. And nobody except the occasional trouble maker here has seriously defended using death threats so there is no point on really focusing on that at all.

 

Cloppers are demonized but whether it is right or wrong I really don't see the point in endlessly obsessing over what people do behind closed doors, if you don't like it the best approach seems to be to make sure your search settings are on "safe" avoid sites where that material is allowed and if you see that kind of material on sites where it is not allowed than report it. And also note that there are some sites which do allow it that have filter settings where people can choose to block out that material. Even most cloppers don't like seeing that stuff where it dosen't belong, there are quite a few admitted cloppers here yet the times someone has tried to post it here it has been deleted and the user has been suspended almost as quickly as the offending post was made.

[Rainblow H. Ash 5,091]

I'll just never understand some of the hatred some people get if they're obsessing over something. There are folks obsessed with everything to point of being bad for them, why should overly-obsessed Bronies be the exception? I personally see nothing wrong with it, and they're not picking your pocket nor harming your liberties. I don't see the big deal. If you want to reach out and try to help people, fine, but don't sit around criticizing them and their lifestyle if that's all you can do. If they were fans of a lot of different things and obsessed over all of them, would that be better, since their obsession is not one single thing?
 

I dunno, I just don't understand all the flak these supposed "rabid" Bronies catch. I've run into aggressive fans of a lot of things, especially Anime, and it simply doesn't bother me because I can deal with someone being obsessed with something I'm not into. Other folks seem to be of the type where the mere sight of a pony in a place they don't want it is enough to cause them great emotional and physical pain, and to me that's more of a problem than a pony being someplace it shouldn't.

[Derpius 138]

Not exactly something to be proud of.

 

You know what's funny? You can replace My Little Pony with pretty any medium in the world and get the same result. Being obsessed with anything isn't healthy, it's not just bronies. Rabid fans, period.

There are 2 kinds of obsessions, though : a healthy obsession and an unhealthy obsession.

 

Even though someone may have ponies everywhere in their home, wear a brony shirt in public every day, or spend a few more hours a day on pony sites than most normal bronies, i wouldnt consider that an unhealthy obsession, just as long as it isn't having a negative impact on that person's life.

 

However, when ponies start to take priority over friends, family, work, and school, then that's when an obsession becomes a problem.

[Dzastur 1,719]

There's an extremely creative undercurrent which drives this fandom, and I think it provides a framework for the individual to stick out. You can belong and not belong simultaneously. And you can acknowledge both the "sane" and "rabid" aspects of the fandom without claiming that one or the other define the entire collective.

[Mzukiller 233]

There's an extremely creative undercurrent which drives this fandom, and I think it provides a framework for the individual to stick out. You can belong and not belong simultaneously. And you can acknowledge both the "sane" and "rabid" aspects of the fandom without claiming that one or the other define the entire collective.

In my view, that's what causes these Rabid Bronies to sprout up in the first place. That creative undercurrent causes people with no talent to try and create mountains of (mostly poor) content in an attempt to be on the level of those that belong. And ultimately it ends up making them stand out in the worst ways.

[aoEAF2FBvC0MIo2Q 3,673]

Hm, looks like there's a whole discussion going on but I can't muster the patience to go through it all right now.

 

Right off the bat, I'll say that this has been a subject me and my friends talked about and it sorta reminds me of my alienation from the other pony forums I used to be a regular at. From personal experience I would say that placing your attachment and investment in the entire fandom is pretty risky because you're pretty much guaranteed to get hurt from the bad things that happen. Apparently such people react by polarizing the fandom. "It's not really us, it's them".

 

If there's anything I could offer, although not all that certain about it, would be to put more focus on attaching and investing to individuals instead of groups.

[Shanks 10,816]

In my view, that's what causes these Rabid Bronies to sprout up in the first place. 

There are people who do that but I think a more appropriate term for them would be attention whore as opposed to "rabid" brony there is a good chance some of those individuals might be rabid though I think it is because rabid people often share similar personality traits to attention whores. Also bear in mind that much of the content boils down to personal taste, I read this one MLP/Sonic crossover fanfic once that had quite a few down votes and though I could understand why people didn't like it I thought it was hilarious. It was one of the most random things I have ever read and made no sense whatsoever but even though it made no sense it still in its bizarre way worked as a story.

[Limey 524]

I don't really like people who call themselves 'sane' bronies at all. They just seem to be snobbish people who think they are a cut above everyone else.

 

For example, if I see a brony spamming MLP in other people's faces, say on YouTube, I'll ask them to kindly shut up and stop annoying people, because shoving MLP:FiM down other people's throats isn't going to make them like it more. What I don't do however, is make a massive deal out of doing this and parade it around. You aren't special if you do this, you don't deserve a gold star or an A+ for effort. It's just common decency, for crying out loud.

 

At the end of the day, we watch a little girls show about magical cartoon horses. According to social norms, none of us are sane, and I don't think that's something we should necessarily be ashamed of. I don't really see what the big deal is.

 

I feel my signature is appropriate for this.

Edited June 16, 2013 by Spess

[Psych Ward 377]

There needs to be better names for it.  I'm sure as hell not sane but I'm far from rabid.  It seems like kind of an unfair way to judge our community.  If you're a Brony, you're a Brony.  There's really no difference.  Do I like seeing the clopping and the bashing of non-Bronies?  No.  Is it going to be out there in any fandom?  Yes.  There's really no way around it.  We can't separate ourselves from it.  There's really no point.  Anti-Bronies are going to target pretty much anyone who has a pony avatar, pony stuff on their page, or has a pony username.  The title we're given isn't going to change to them based on our actions.  The bad things just stand out a bit more.

[Shanks 10,816]

There needs to be better names for it. 

It is bad enough that there is already a term for bronies that enjoy the rule 34 side of the fandom as it just feeds into the whole unnecessary demonization of people for what they choose to do in private so we don't really need any more special terms or names for any other aspects of the fandom as it just seems to encourage unnecessary division and stereotyping. If a jackass must be called out than it makes a bit more sense to use the multitude of other terms that can be used to describe douche baggery but in many cases it is just counter productive to do anything other than just ignore it.

Edited June 16, 2013 by EarthbendingProdigy

[Rainblow H. Ash 5,091]

It is bad enough that there is already a term for bronies that enjoy the rule 34 side of the fandom as it just feeds into the whole unnecessary demonization of people for what they choose to do in private so we don't really need any more special terms or names for any other aspects of the fandom as it just seems to encourage unnecessary division and stereotyping. If a jackass must be called out than it makes a bit more sense to use the multitude of other terms that can be used to describe douche baggery but in many cases it is just counter productive to do anything other than just ignore it.

 

...

 

Assertive Brony?

 

Nah, just joshing around. But seriously, people shouldn't make that big of a deal out of it. I've said this a million times, but "rabid" fans are in everything, whether it be Sports or Doctor Who or whatever. I learn to deal with them. If it really hurts you that much that someone, somewhere out there is pushing what they love too much into other people's faces, then I just don't know what to say. It doesn't bother me as they really aren't hurting anyone at all.

[Mzukiller 233]

There are people who do that but I think a more appropriate term for them would be attention whore as opposed to "rabid" brony there is a good chance some of those individuals might be rabid though I think it is because rabid people often share similar personality traits to attention whores. Also bear in mind that much of the content boils down to personal taste, I read this one MLP/Sonic crossover fanfic once that had quite a few down votes and though I could understand why people didn't like it I thought it was hilarious. It was one of the most random things I have ever read and made no sense whatsoever but even though it made no sense it still in its bizarre way worked as a story.

Believe me, I understand the subjectivity of what a person can call good. But sometimes, you can just tell when something's terrible. I agree with the attention whores remark though. Everyone wants to be a special little snowflake, but what they can't accept is that if everyone's special, no one is. Not everyone can be the best artist or a god tier writer, don't force yourself to be something you're not in an attempt to live up to the "best and brightest of the fandom"

[lincolnshirepony 527]

I wouldn't use the words "rabid" or "sane", but like any fandom, there definitely are people who don't always act appropriately. That reflects badly on bronies in general, which probably causes people to want to make the division. I don't think creepy/rude behavior should be considered acceptable within the fandom, but I also don't think categorizing bronies into good and bad is productive either. No one is going to label themselves negatively, and what is a "rabid" brony supposed to be anyway? It's too subjective. I think that unacceptable behavior should be treated accordingly, but bronies shouldn't try to label each other as "rabid" or "sane". 

[Zygen 6,066]

There are so fans who take things kinda far I guess, and I think they get attacked easier for it because they're just easier targets for trolls. Of course were all still bronys and we still will have trolls to deal with at times for liking the show, that's unavoidable.

[Emerald Flame 381]

There are "rabid" and "sane" fans in every fanbase. People will always get too obsessed with things. Unfortunately, it seems like there are more rabid fans in this fandom than others.

[Flutter's lover <3 8,205]

I never heard of this till now,but it doesn't matter if you're a "rabid or "Sane" brony you're gonna be targeted by any troll/hater either way...they don't care.Same with any positive or negative ideas anyone has about the fandom....they're not gonna care. They're just going to see that your'e a brony.

[Szmeszek 29]

So, you're telling me, that 15-80 years old guys watching colorful ponies is 'sane'? Well I don't think so And what is considered 'rabid'? Any ideas?

[Shanks 10,816]

Everyone wants to be a special little snowflake, but what they can't accept is that if everyone's special, no one is.

Everyone is in their own way but though there are people that are insecure and want to become famous simply for self validation there are some people that just posts things and don't really care whether they are any good or not and though there is some overlap it is not the case with all of them. And then you have people who want to create because they feel that they owe the fandom something, that they have to contribute to have some worth in fandom which though dosen't make them rabid is also a view that can be a bit destructive if taken a bit far. There are even some very talented people who feel this way and work themselves to death out of this sense of obligation. I am started to write fanfics myself but not to become famous or out of obligation but because it is fun and a good creative outlet.