A simple question concerning MLPF's history

[aoEAF2FBvC0MIo2Q 3,673]

First off I'd like to apologize for my participation in the drama in the Clop Survey thread. It's becoming clear to me that trying to talk people into stepping away in the heat of the conflict is just ineffective if not counter-productive. But now for the meat of the topic.

 

Alright so MLP Forums started off small like any other forum community, grew progressively and has possibly seen size fluctuations over the past two years. What I'd like to know are the things that happened when this community had been large or small and possibly compare. The validity of the data may be questionable but it might raise some interesting questions.

 

So, when MLP Forums had a smaller active user base, can any recall what the occurrence and frequency of drama or flame wars were? The question that's being posed is does having a larger active user base make us easier to troll? Better yet, was it harder for flame wars to lite up back when MLP Forums used to be smaller or have flame wars become more frequent as it grew, in other words?

[Nohbdy 4,108]

First off I'd like to apologize for my participation in the drama in the Clop Survey thread. It's becoming clear to me that trying to talk people into stepping away in the heat of the conflict is just ineffective if not counter-productive. But now for the meat of the topic.

 

Alright so MLP Forums started off small like any other forum community, grew progressively and has possibly seen size fluctuations over the past two years. What I'd like to know are the things that happened when this community had been large or small and possibly compare. The validity of the data may be questionable but it might raise some interesting questions.

 

So, when MLP Forums had a smaller active user base, can any recall what the occurrence and frequency of drama or flame wars were? The question that's being posed is does having a larger active user base make us easier to troll? Better yet, was it harder for flame wars to lite up back when MLP Forums used to be smaller or have flame wars become more frequent as it grew, in other words?

Hey, SunBurn. Just so you know, I've moved your thread to Feedback & Suggestions. Topics that have to do with the site's history are better suited for this section.

 

I wasn't around in the earliest days of MLP Forums, but conflict is a part of any community, regardless of size. Smaller communities would naturally have fewer conflicts in general, but they exist, nevertheless. Indeed, a glance at some of the older threads and reports do reveal that MLPF is no stranger to drama and flamewars. In fact, the existence of flamewars is the very reason for the Debate Pit's addition last year. There have also been plenty of trolls and troublemakers in the past. 

 

It's reasonable to believe that a larger community has more frequent conflicts, of course. When you put many people, many of whom have different beliefs, into one area, you can expect disagreements to occur. I'd also imagine that a smaller community, in which people are held more personally accountable for their actions, would be more likely to settle disputes amicably. 

[Jokuc 8,173]

@, @, I didn't join as early as some others did, however I have been here for more than two years now so I think I can answer this.

 

As Aquila said, when a community grows, there will be more things happening on the site and thus, there will be more conflicts.

 

To compare MLP Forums back when I joined to how it is now, 2 years later, I have noticed a big change actually. Of course it has to do with the amount of members, but I also think that it is because of what state the fandom was in. ...Or how I should explain it. Back then, the whole MLP thing was not as known as it is now and a lot of bronies flooded in. As far as I can remember, most people actually went by the "love and tolerate" thing, and everyone was all pony-crazy. You used your ponified words such as nopony and everypony and you always put in references in the text you wrote. This also included to treat your fellow bronies as a loved family. Of course it was not like this everywhere, but many people followed this. So, here on MLP Forums things used to be pretty relaxed. If a touchy subject was brought up, jokes were usually made. Yes we did have a few heated moments, but it really did not happen much at all.

 

Now when the fandom has become a bit older, people do not really care about these brony "rules" about tolerance and kindness anymore. Yes, most people in the fandom and on our forum are very nice, however a lot of people has said to themselves that they should just see the pony thing as an interest and not a life-style. In other words, people got tired of the love and tolerate thing. Later on, many people joined the fandom because the fandom was already so big and because their friends were in it or stuff like that. We have gotten a lot of mixed people on both the forums and in the fandom, therefore people will have a lot of different opinions and flame wars will start.

 

Another reason why people are more "aggressive" now than before is because back then, we were not as many users as now (obviously) and the number of active users was not very high. Therefore, people knew each other quite well. Now, there is so many users that you will stumble upon persons you barely know all the time. It is easier to get annoyed by a stranger than a person you have known for a while if it is a question about opinions or similar.

[Twilight Sparkle ✨ 8,525]

Group dynamics and mob psychology are interesting. You can observe their effects at work in all kinds of settings, from group-based school projects ("hey, why am I the only one doing all the work?!"), to massive organizations where every employee is one of many ("this grocery chain won't care if they lose one cashier"), to large-scale public gatherings ("if I leave my garbage on this seat, *someone* will throw it out later"). Your observations, SunBurn, are not inaccurate, but they are also not unique to MLP Forums - or any group of people in particular.

 

The larger any particular group gets, the less responsibility individuals seem to perceive themselves as having for ensuring the well-being of themselves and their peers. Feelings of entitlement grow with oft-misplaced assumptions about whatever setting they're in (ie. "with so many people here, I'm just a number; I don't matter"). Not gonna single anyone out, but my own experience meeting MLPF's community members as well as plenty of other people in real life suggests that people tend to be more considerate of their immediate peers (think people physically hanging out together in a small group) than "the mob" (everyone else at a convention - think people complaining about lineups to get into this and that, especially popular events).

 

The crux of the issue is, no matter how insignificant any one individual thinks they are in whatever group they're participating in, any shortsighted assumptions they base their interactions with the group on are likely - no, virtually certain - to be shared by "the mob". One of the most common such assumptions you can observe when comparing small and large communities (backwater towns vs. big cities, local meetups vs. international conferences/conventions, tiny forums with 20 members vs. large forums with 20 000) is how "in touch" people feel with the community. Large communities are often described as "cold", "impersonal", and even "anonymous", but small communities are seen as "tight-knit", "conservative", and "closed".

 

So what happens when everyone thinks they're anonymous nobodies shouting their voices into an empty void where no one cares what they have to say? Everyone feels their actions are untraceable, inconsequential, and to varying degrees, a "rightful" form of either self-expression ("I'm entitled to my opinion!") or self-gratification ("I can save six seconds by not throwing out my own trash! My time is important!").

 

As individuals "forget" to flush in public restrooms, rushing off (late) to catch an event with limited capacity that they totally deserve to see more than any other hardworking citizen of their country, they wonder why large communities feel like an every-man-for-himself battle royale of mediocrity. In their hurry, knowing that they're guaranteed personal janitor service wherever they go, they toss that awkward dim-sum container down an empty alley. It's not "right" to ignore those eco-hippies' advice to "save" the environment by responsibly composting, reusing, and recycling whatever you can, but the environment's so much bigger than you - surely nothing will happen if a single nobody does something "bad", right?

 

 

Right?

[Doctor XFizzle 8,669]

Less users = more likely to know, understand, and see everyone or mostly everyone, not as susceptible to drama/arguments

more users = less likely to know, understand, and see everyone, less attachment to people, more susceptible to drama/arguments