What has happened to us?

[Queen Cassie 3,057]

Our "Love and Tolerate" is a myth, It was never there to begin with.

 

All we did was to demand others to "Love and Tolerate" us, but we never "Love and Tolerate" others, even between ourselves.

 

Are you so sure about that? I've seen plenty in this community show far more tolerance than one would expect of people in other communities. For example, how often do you hear about homophobia amongst pony fans? Then there's all the works for charity, the various ways in which the more depressed fans in the community are often comforted and welcomed to an extraordinary degree compared to your average fandom...

 

The motto may not be lived up to as often as it should, but if you think it has no influence.you are sorely mistaken.

[Discordian 6,013]

I still wanna know where Love and Tolerance became a "law" of the fandom. It's been a part of the lessons in the show and all but it's definitely never been the overall theme of the show either. Just seems weird that people believe it's all the show is supposed to be.

[Starshine 16,330]

Are you so sure about that? <cut>

 

Sure as muffin

 

As far as I can see, "Love and Tolerate" will only apply if two sides had a common interest. Match a common brony with a brutish one, as long as they agree in one stuff, nothing happened. But if one side ever said that he likes something (Fluttershy is my favorite pony, R34, Dash as lesbian, humanification, fursuits, or TCB) and the other hates it, our "Love and Tolerate" will vanish to the thin air, just like that

[Krall 263]

Sure as muffin

 

As far as I can see, "Love and Tolerate" will only apply if two sides had a common interest. Match a common brony with a brutish one, as long as they agree in one stuff, nothing happened. But if one side ever said that he likes something (Fluttershy is my favorite pony, R34, Dash as lesbian, humanification, fursuits, or TCB) and the other hates it, our "Love and Tolerate" will vanish to the thin air, just like that

 

I have never seen arguments about any of those things.

 

Well, apart from "Fluttershy is my favourite pony", but I'm pretty sure the entire fandom is aware any sort of argument over who is "best pony" is entirely in jest.

[Starshine 16,330]

I have never seen arguments about any of those things.

 

Try visit ponychan or /mlp/, especially just before the show airs, and brace yourself

[Marcato 2,143]

Seems to be a lot of threads contraversing (if thats a word) over things like this.

 

I never once thought of MLP FiM as a "nothing but love" show. I always knew it was focused on teaching morals while including humor, and content appropriate for all ages. A minor effect of chaotic behaviour isnt going to transform the show. They still keep to the main plot of the show.

 

Intro: "Lets see here something happens of great interest."

Problem: "a problem is started and they can't figure out how to fix it."

Problem solved: "they discover something they were overlooking and this holds a grest contruibution to their friendship."

Conclusion: "they all learned a valuable lesson in friendship, and in the process taught the viewers as well."

 

This is a basic typical plotline for MLP. May not fit with all episodes, but makes up for the bulk of it. They always have a good solution that teaches everyone an important life lesson.

[Discordian 6,013]

Seems to be a lot of threads contraversing (if thats a word) over things like this.

 

I never once thought of MLP FiM as a "nothing but love" show. I always knew it was focused on teaching morals while including humor, and content appropriate for all ages. A minor effect of chaotic behaviour isnt going to transform the show. They still keep to the main plot of the show.

 

Intro: "Lets see here something happens of great interest."

Problem: "a problem is started and they can't figure out how to fix it."

Problem solved: "they discover something they were overlooking and this holds a grest contruibution to their friendship."

Conclusion: "they all learned a valuable lesson in friendship, and in the process taught the viewers as well."

 

This is a basic typical plotline for MLP. May not fit with all episodes, but makes up for the bulk of it. They always have a good solution that teaches everyone an important life lesson.

 

Essentially what I was trying to say...but this is put WAY better.

[Queen Cassie 3,057]

Sure as muffin

 

As far as I can see, "Love and Tolerate" will only apply if two sides had a common interest. Match a common brony with a brutish one, as long as they agree in one stuff, nothing happened. But if one side ever said that he likes something (Fluttershy is my favorite pony, R34, Dash as lesbian, humanification, fursuits, or TCB) and the other hates it, our "Love and Tolerate" will vanish to the thin air, just like that

 

As I said, the motto isn't quite as applied as often as it should be. I've certainly seen the occasional argument along these lines--that is, dealing with issues such as furries, not so much favorite ponies--erupt as well.

 

But they don't erupt that often, and when they do, it's generally with less...overall malice than one might see elsewhere. This very forum is a good example of that. A forum of this size for just about any other fandom would have spats, the occasional flamewar, some sort of massive terrible fight or three at some point in its history. And yet, looking through, both in my admittedly brief time here and reading through the history of many of its threads, I can't barely see any sign of real strife at all. On the contrary, even when you do have strife, you almost invariably have a whole lot of other people intervening to end the debacle, when on most other forums you'd have the crowd cheering the flamers on instead.

 

Are we perfect? No. Do we fight at times? Sure. But the motto definitely affects us more than you realize. Far more.

[Krall 263]

As I said, the motto isn't quite as applied as often as it should be. I've certainly seen the occasional argument along these lines--that is, dealing with issues such as furries, not so much favorite ponies--erupt as well.

 

But they don't erupt that often, and when they do, it's generally with less...overall malice than one might see elsewhere. This very forum is a good example of that. A forum of this size for just about any other fandom would have spats, the occasional flamewar, some sort of massive terrible fight or three at some point in its history. And yet, looking through, both in my admittedly brief time here and reading through the history of many of its threads, I can't barely see any sign of real strife at all. On the contrary, even when you do have strife, you almost invariably have a whole lot of other people intervening to end the debacle, when on most other forums you'd have the crowd cheering the flamers on instead.

 

Are we perfect? No. Do we fight at times? Sure. But the motto definitely affects us more than you realize. Far more.

 

I basically want to "Like" every post I see you make, but I'm worried that it'll look like I'm stalking you.

[Queen Cassie 3,057]

I basically want to "Like" every post I see you make, but I'm worried that it'll look like I'm stalking you.

 

Love ya too, Krall. (Seriously, no worries. It's a real ego boost to hear that. I'm flattered.)

[Envoy-in-exile 101]

More critical, however, is the increased absence of the Mane Six as a whole in a single episode. Though I understand individually developing their characters, now we are witnessing an increase in episodes where only one or two of the ponies show up. The Mane Six have almost always developed together, so I don't quite understand why the emphasis on their relationship has been neglected recently.

 

I believe that this will be temporary, until they've gone through all of the Mane 6.

 

 

Anyways, you might have a point. Very few people follow the love and tolerate rule, on the internet or in real life (I try my best, and I'd say that I do a pretty good in tolerating (specially in real life), but I'm not so sure about the loving part). If that rule was one followed like it should, it must have been in a period where the brony community was really really small, and the people in it saw it as a nice change of phylosofy. Now there's too much people and even though those people share love for the show, they disagree in everything else. Small groups forever!

 

Yup, happens whenever a group gets bigger and more mature. Growing pains, as Kyronea typed.

[Inkfeather 597]

Love and tolerance is in my opinion meant as a lesson of the show, It's meant that if you try hard enough you CAN tolerate most things, but that doesn't mean that you have to. They didn't tolerate Trixie's bragging, they didn't tolerate that Dicsord tried to destroy their world and they didn't tolerate that Nightmare Moon wanted to make the night eternal.

 

Though they do love eachother, they do love their friends. They tolerate eachothers differences. Rarity and Applejack would be the best example. At the sleepover they were stuck together, but in the end they managed to see past the differences and actually enjoy eachothers company.

 

About the thing about RD being into girls. I would say that the show does create some kind of idea about her not being interested in male companionship. She is very much of a tomboy, but that doesn't mean that she is gay.

 

But, so what if she were? What is wrong with being gay? It's a natural thing in life to love, who you chose to love is your own business, not for everypony else to judge. If she was gay, would that make any difference at all compared to if she got a boyfriend? This show isn't about who the ponies prefer to accompany themselves with on the roads of love, but it's about the magic of friendship and their adventures together.

 

This question doesn't really matter, whatever the answer may be.

[Warbalist 133]

Being relatively new to the community, I seem to have come in at an interesting time (right before Derpygate). Here is my perspective:

 

If the fandom has been wild and crazy as of late, then, wow! I'd say love and tolerate is still going strong. This community is still head and shoulders above any other online community of which I've been a part (especially other guitarists; you wanna see flame wars...). Nearly every brony I've talked to is really into the whole "treating people with dignity" thing. You even have fairly open and non-judgemental conversations about religion and the like, ON THIS VERY FORUM!

 

Also, if a bunch of people in bad states of mind and situations are flooding into the fandom, isn't that a good thing? Didn't some of you come to the show for the same reasons? They closer they are and the more we stand by our values, the more we can gain some influence in their lives. So let's be compassionate, listen to what they have to say and be as helpful as possible.

 

TL,DR: Fandom still good. Treat noobs with respect and care.

[Doctor XFizzle 8,651]

I feel "love and tolerance" has stopped becoming a rallying cry/valiant effort and more of a security blanket for people to hide under and use as a defense when they act stupid. For example:

 

User A violates rules or something of the like

Users B-F berate User A for violating rules

User A comes back and cries "but I thought bronies were supposed to love and tolerate!"

The Doctor says "no, you're being stupid. Stop it."

 

The idea of "love and tolerate" has totally strayed from its original meaning and purpose as the fanbase has grown.

[Marshmallow 1,134]

I joined the brony community in July 2011 and to be honest, RD has always been called a lesbian as far as I can recall!

 

That being said, I understand why you could think that "Love and Tolerance" is "fading away." It's true that the last episode had a somewhat lack of "tolerance" and a significant amount of rudeness, but that's only because it was crucial to the plot. If you think of it, it would make a pretty boring show if there were never any conflicts of any kind. That's the reason why the previous iterations of My Little Pony were so bad!

 

As for the community itself, I haven't really noticed a significant change in how we act. I think that love and tolerance still exists. If you compare us to other communities, you'll notice that there are far less flame wars/trolling/rudeness in the brony community. That's a proof of "love and tolerance", I think. Sure, there are some exceptions, but there always were. As a whole, I don't think that the community has changed so much.

Edited March 9, 2012 by Marshmallow

[83awsm 234]

It's true that the last episode had a somewhat lack of "tolerance" and a significant amount of rudeness, but that's only because it was crucial to the plot. If you think of it, it would make a pretty boring show if there were never any conflicts of any kind. That's the reason why the previous iterations of My Little Pony were so bad!

 

Have to agree with this. Honestly if it was all about love and tolerance, without even the occasional deviation to enhance the story line, I have a feeling we'd be looking at a G3 show all over again. The key difference between FiM and the failures before is that the show actually relates to real life scenarios, where things aren't always perfect and conflict does exist.

 

If you compare us to other communities, you'll notice that there are far less flame wars/trolling/rudeness in the brony community. That's a proof of "love and tolerance", I think. Sure, there are some exceptions, but there always were. As a whole, I don't think that the community has changed so much.

 

I do think we're lightyears ahead of other fandoms, when it comes to acceptability and conduct, but not without the occasional slip ups. Things are bound to happen, and some person’s wrong actions can't hold the whole community accountable.

[Tiina Brown 67]

It does seem like the focus on love and tolerance has faded a bit, but I have something to say.

 

I do NOT think it is insulting to imagine Rainbow Dash is homosexual. I DO think it is insulting to think that such a thing would slander her character. Now, I am straight, but whether Rainbow Dash is or not I am not comfortable when ponies speak of the idea of her liking her own gender as if the very concept was repulsive. If there is any lack of love and tolerance that I've detected, it's on this subject. It seems that some objections might stem from the idea that it's because it would seem too obvious, what with the rainbow colors and tomboy attitude. But that doesn't mean you can't play it straight and honest like everything else in the show. It doesn't have to be a shallow stereotype if the character is written well, which goes without saying for this show. Maybe she is, maybe she isn't - my point is that it doesn't and shouldn't matter.

 

Quoted because this is what i intended to say.

Also:

* I find no reason why FiM should focus on Mane 6 only.

* "Putting your hoof down" being dark, and done for the changed "target group"? Not hardly, at last some sees that young girls do not have to be, and should not be toyed with at all times.

* Discord do recieves love and toleration .... he just get the "tough love" version, for his transgressions.

* And .... this whole "Is RD gay?" reminds me so much about the "Is Derpy having a mental handicap?" Why? Because it shouldn't matter wether they are or not!

[ZomBrony 347]

I'm not even gonna try here, I haven't been a brony for very long and therefore don't really have any strong opinions about any of these things, all I really wanted to say is I've been showing love and tolerance (or at least trying to) since I found out it was a rule

 

and while typing everything else I noticed how much everypony's been arguing about all this, how is THAT showing love and tolerance?

[Daring Do 195]

People and ponies alike can only learn things through suffering. People don't know what is wrong until they have done it and understand its consequences... It isn't what happened to them, but what they are learning! Don't worry about their attitudes though, they recover in time, and love and tolerance is restored.

[Kraznor 33]

A little bothered by some of the conflict I've seen amongst Twitter Bronies regarding hatred of Justin Bieber. Yes, you may not be a fan of his music (personally never paid much attention to it, but my sister is a fan), but WE are fans of something that is unpopular amongst a lot of people and we complain about being hated on, so why not extend that same courtesy to fans of other media? Just seems kind of hypocritical, or lacking in self-awareness.

[Rarity-this 6]

it just surprises me that some people have so much time and energy to put into trolling. sad thing is, people dont know when a small lol rib that is not ment in malicious way is supposed to stop and it ends up esculating into full blown harassment and in a few extreme cases cyber stalking and even a couple of teen suicides.

in a community of such mixed ages and even different value systems as they were raised up, how do you regulate and draw a line?

to some people constanly making new accounts to gang up on someone is fine coz "its just on the internet" and to others its enough to scare them into seclusion and depression.

to some a small remark about and apperance can trigger of school yard memories and cause heart break when in others they would laugh and simply ignore or tell the offender to get a life.

it doesnt help that these days you have webstes devoted to causing pain. most of us know to avoid them... ie: 4chan but for soe of the younger ones its a hard thing to ignore knowing that once its on the web it can haunt you.

some companies in the USA do facial recognition and name recognition sweeps of the web of its employees and i know a few people who lost their jobs due to their name or picture being posted on a site like 4chan.

 

when did mlp become a mini breeding ground for bullying?

 

i have been collecting MLP since 1984 when the G1s were coming out and i have found nothing but pleasure from them. first as a beloved toy as a small child, to a collector in my teens and early 20's to now a pony custom collector/maker in my 30s.

then i was introduced to the G4's not as a toy collector coz honestly i hate the lack of variety, the deformed body and head shapes of this lot, but as a fan of the series... damn you raity and dash!

 

i then decided to bring my love of cosplay and ponies together in what should have been a glorious marriage of 2 joys.

while the majority have had nothing but kind words and a love for my interpretation of the ponies, a group rose up and spent WEEKS trolling my account telling me what a landwhale and horrible creature i was... first as a cosplayer then on a personal level (because some 15 year old troll in the other hemisphere really knows me personally *rolls eyes*)

while i am used to it (face it as a cosplayer who isnt a skinny thing you get used to a certain level of people telling you that they are gonna man the harpoons...) it makes me worry that there are alot of people who just want to have fun having a go at expressing their enjoyment of a fandom that are either too scare to give it a go or being attacked.

 

i dont expect love.... i do not seek out approval of others i am secire in myself to know so long as im happy i dont care, but i would have thought there would be atleast tolerance.

 

in ponyville they tolerate. most find pinkie pie a tad too enthusiastic (especially before a morning coffee and we have a frien who is VERY pinkie pie and trust me i have to take a deep breath or two if its before a caffine hit... i do love you bacon stripe i do but dear gods sometimes you overwhelm me)

they tolerate the slight "elitest" attitude that rarity can throw out now andthen ( and i know my friends take that same deep breath or two when i fly into a "dear gods why party satin.. $2 more a meter and.... sorry its my petpeeve....)

(also dont hate on me calling rarity that.. i couldnt think of another word she can be attitudy but we all know she has a heart of gold too)

they tolerate dash's ego ( yes im looking at you panda!)

the tolerate and accept derpy for her clutsyness ( think we all have some depy in us now and then especialy if hot glue guns or curling wands are involved)

 

i would have hoped that that basic tolerance and understanding that we are all different, colours, shapes, sizes, thoughts and feelings would be carried through this fandom.

 

no one can demand respect it must be eraned however there is a BASIC level of respect that is expected to be seen to simply because we are living beings. we should all be able to feel safe. we should all be able to enjoy something in peace so long as we are not harming others.

 

yes we are all allowed to have different opinions different likes and different views and i would hope that "adult descussions" could be had were we can have that difference in opinion, understand it even if we dont agree with it and still share a love for ponies reguardless.

 

ok im gonna stop here.. rather long winded me is long winded this morning .

[JhonHipster 124]

the show did change the show a bit in season 2 thanks to Lauren leaving and the new producers, as for bronies themselves the love and toleration thing is going down the drain, thanks to the evergrowing community where many new bronies have come from other communitys where 'love and toleration' wasn't a huge hit