EverfreeNW & Brony UK Conventions (this weekend)

[Lhet]

Hmm, quick con report in generic list form.

Friday
Met a bunch of ponygoons in the morning. (Ixnay, Raganti, Strabo, Topshot, Willsun, Bloodwulf, Warp...I'm the worst at remembering names but basically all the ponygoons and more)
Got the Rarisquid.
Went to the Friendship is Witchcraft Panel.
Had some Thai for dinner (Ixnay, Bvids, Haller, Isaak, Scuderia, Bloodwulf, me, and might be missing someone).
Did a bit of of after dinner stuff with Haller/BVids.

Saturday
Missed the pmv contest, then found out later it was apparently cancelled because no panelist showed up. (I fear that was supposed to be me, but nobody told me, even when I asked several staff members)
Got a kickin rad Studio 'B' lanyard for asked a question at the storyboarding panel.
Helped interview Sweetie Belle.
Got a hot tip about the inspirational posters with Willsun and got one of those.
Met William Anderson, and talked with him a bit before I had to go to dinner. He's supercool.
Met Jenny & Griffon from Friendship is Witchcraft, then had Indian food with them + ponygoons.
Had Indian food with FiW/Ponygoons, then 'discovered' the fanfiction in the guide with a group reading ('No Regrets' is terrible in the most amazing way).
Hung out with PMV editing crew before heading home.

Sunday
Did a panel, it wasn't too bad.
Hung out with Isaak, who met my brother.
Went to the VA panel, awesome stuff.
Had at especially fancy meal with FiW&Willsun&Topshot&friends.
Everybody who went to dinner had to catch planes, so I was just chilling with Jenny/Tim, accompanied them to Red Robin.
It just so happened that everybody else in the group was EqD staff, but everybody was happy and everything was cool, actually had some constructive conversation.

sorry, Vets.

On a side note, I believe they had a single event on Sunday and several in the following days, so I don't think they were affected too severely.

[DarkMatter]

Tabitha St. Germain had an open letter about Everfree, which has been posted on EqD.

Thank you to the peeps of Everfree Con.

I just wanted to express my thanks to everyone who set up and welcomed and embraced me (in many cases literally) at Everfree Con. I truly had a wonderful time meeting so many sweet, genuine and wildly variegated leaves of my family tree. Steve cracked his kilt and Austin, Gummy, Jasmine, Dwight, Brian, Misha, Benjamin and the board practically blew a their collective bridle to make us all comfy and happy, and their expenditure of personal time and energy was epic. Gargantuan. Titanic. They went so many extra miles to make sure we girls had a little oasis to go to after bouts of merry frenzy. So, so kind and lovely of them.
The hotel bed was great!

Mike was the consummate host once again, even when in our 'how to do voice-work' panel we degenerated into a free-for-all, which, though deafening and not entirely useful, is actually a reflection of what sometimes happens when you leave a bunch of flappy-jawed nutters together. Cacophony pony. A great galloping many headed noise monster. Meet our shadow. Oopsie doodle. Sorry I had to leave before the end of the panel, because my wonderful security dudes had just taught me some military speak and I could probably have deployed some of that action judiciously right about then! HOOAH!

Thanks for welcoming me to your show. Next time, I'd like to see more of yours. I had a lovely chat with your Granny Smith and just before the last panel, I passed a room where a beautiful Luna and Celestia were fielding letters from the audience. I just peeked in. It was hushed and magical, everyone sitting on the floor listening. When I come back I hope to be able to see a bit more your performances and wonderful characters in action and hear some of your music. I loved it in the autograph room when everyone suddenly burst into song. Ah. Awesome.

Thanks to everyone who got their sparkle on, and gave me drawings and jewels and chocolates and carvings(Ed made me cry, what a love) and T-shirts and their own voice stylings and stood in line for too long. I can't tell you how much I adore you all. Kevin and I both shake our heads at the wonder of it.

And, sorry Moose for making you the elephant in the room.

Again, I'm so honored, thanks.

-- Tabitha

I think she enjoyed herself.

[Hyper!!!I had two avatars, but the admins were able to do something about it...]

Got the Rarisquid.

I want a fabulous squid-horse.

[Mad SurgeLunch break is over, back to the brewThe fad is over and nothing's askew!]

So I've got a hold of the character cards for a pony Munchkin-like game that was advertised at BUCK and on this tumblr: http://buck-card-game.tumblr.com/
I don't remember if they're supposed to be exclusives or just a few pre-release available cards, but they're all illustrated by Petirep, the guy that makes the RainbowDashPresents videos on Youtube, and that's pretty nice I guess Sadly pre-orders seem to be closed now

[Willsun]

Saturday:

• I wake up trying to go to the "The Mane Six (Minus Two)" panel with MrMaydoe and we take the stairs to avoid the elevator line. This was one thing that sucked about all the main panels at the Holiday Inn; they didn't want to crowd the relatively small 12th floor, so they had anyone who wanted to go up form big lines on the first floor by the elevator's foyer. When we made the climb up, they denied MrMaydoe but said I was allowed to go in because I had the purple media badge. It was then I realized I had been given a gift. But with great powers, come great responsibilities.
• I get in and it's Michelle Creber and her band rehearsing for her show later in the night. I catch the end of it and say hi to Michelle and her friend Natalie that does stuff with her on her YouTube channel. I record my encounter. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk9GhR0B9ZI
• Also picture with them. http://i.imgur.com/5MlEa.jpg
• Panel is great. Andrea Libman seems shy as hell, Cathy is seriously awesome because she can do her range of voices so well, Nicole as you've all known was super duper cool comforting the Daring-Do girl that cried, Tara actually didn't speak as much as I thought she would have this time, and Tabitha is such a treat to just listen to and played around just as much as Cathy did with her various voices.
• I mill around and hang out with a few peeps from our forums while waiting for other events and my usual group to come back from a late breakfast since I woke up and left our room before they did.
• We go draw things at the My Little Art Challenge thing I posted about way earlier where Daniel Ingram snuck in to draw something too. Basically they gave us a prompt and told us we had half an hour to draw our own interpretation of it. I had been loudly complaining that I wanted Applejack so I dunno if it was a coincidence that they pulled up Applejack on their computer. Anyway, links to our art again with some adjustments and smaller resolution than my originals:
  Topshot: http://i.imgur.com/Ky5fw.jpg
  Me: http://i.imgur.com/RNosO.jpg
  YenNguyen: http://i.imgur.com/UarYe.jpg
  MrMaydoe: http://i.imgur.com/NIUFG.jpg
  Daniel Ingram: http://i.imgur.com/bVftf.jpg
• We take a break until when it was near time to head to the "Equestria Daily: The Experience" panel for some....fun.
• EQD's panel had no real direction besides showing how they make a post to their front page, and even that took up most of the time as they fumble through the wrong e-mail accounts and talk about non-related things. Sethisto rarely talks and just kind of sits there doing his own things on his laptop while sitting with his mods who are running the panel. Eventually the "experience" ends with them finishing posting a fanart of Derpy and they show off how they can already see people commenting on it. Then they show some a fanart of Trixie crying and running away from some other evilly smiling pegasus male OC and they make a rape joke and cheer on like "Yeah! Get her! Molest her!" Classy. It was around this time that we decided to leave because this was awful.
• With much appreciated help (thank you so much Topshot/YenNguyen/MrMaydoe/Lhet), I do my reshoot interview with Claire. Lhet is a superstar for quietly directing some dude away that was about to walk in front of the camera.
• We meet up with some COOL DUDES and while deciding on dinner plans, we run into William Anderson (fellow composer with Daniel Ingram) in the lobby. I was walking last behind our group and turned around in time when I heard someone mention it was him. I call everyone to come back and no one hears me the first time and William Anderson jokingly says to me, "Ah, I guess I'm not famous enough for them!" Eventually we all come back around and talk to him and take photos with him. Very chipper nice guy.
• After dinner with some COOL DUDES and seeing a conga line of bronies dancing their way into a Denny's, we head back to rest. We also take turns doing popcorn reading of the fanfiction "No Regrets" in the con's booklet magazine...all 5 pages of it, but made awesome and hilarious since we were with aforementioned COOL DUDES reading it.
• We make it to Ponystock just before Michelle Creber goes on to perform along with MandoPony. They had to cut a few songs since they began later than expected, but man everyone was pumped and excited to hear Michelle. She really can belt out those lines!
• Then we go downstairs to check out the rave. Very dark, very sweaty, lots of dubstep. We entertained ourselves for about 10 minutes before bouncing.
• We laze ourselves in the lobby floor watching an anime that constantly talked about a character named "Luna" in it (Casshern Sins) and eventually disperse to retire.

How do I always end up posting so late. Gotta save the rest for later again.

Also if you guys want to watch all the recorded panels on YouTube, just go to the EverFree Radio channel. They have everything they promised to cover up already, except maybe the closing ceremonies but I don't know if they even recorded that one.

[PerrydottoHow is a pegasus like a writing desk?]

So I apparently had a post written up here that I accidentally closed and it's all gone now. Massive derp on my part and I profoundly apologize that I seriously don't feel like writing it again. I'm just that dense

Basically, BUCK was great, meeting fellow goons was great (Venusy and Mad Surge are both wonderful people and should feel wonderful), the Bronydoc panel was short but interesting, the events were pretty good and of course all that music was tons of fun. Even though I hope that BUCK will get a bigger variety of guests next year (I love the musicians, but they made up most of the guest lineup by far) it was still a very insightful weekend with good panels and the same delightfully friendly atmosphere that I loved so much at Bronycon.

One of the best parts, not gonna lie, was that one of my Discordlicious prints went for 180 pounds in the charity auction. That got me so flustered, sweet jesus. It's hard to put into words, but I'm definitely happy that the money is going towards a good cause.
Myself, I won this fabulous creature in the auction:



Bottom line - YAY!

Now onto catching up with all the EFNW stuff, phew.

[BartonFink]

Haha the Daring Do girl is so in line with how Nicole Oliver presents herself that it's kind of amazing. It is the most Nicole Oliver thing.

[DarkMatter]

So there have been some nasty rumors around about certain bronies making certain comments to Michelle Creber and the other CMC VAs. I won't go into detail. But just know that, according to Michelle and the others, none of it is true.




Glad to hear that, if you ask me.

[IsaakEquus Ludens :3]

Given the amount of people there were probably /some/ bad apples, but overall the vibe I got was really friendly and awesome.

----

Alright, let's get this show on the road. At least... part one of this show. Because I started writing this and suddenly I got over two pages worth of stuff... just for Thursday, which wasn't even a conday

I’d like to preface this by saying I had the most overwhelmingly awesome time thanks to you guys. Those three days were the time of my life. You’ve probably heard me mention this several times but that really felt like 3 weeks rather than 3 days.

If you’re looking for all the pictures, check out my post in the thread in At the Gala.

Alright, so I’m not too sure where to start so I think I’ll just go through the whole shebang chrono(il)logically and stream-of-consciously.

Thursday

I’d like to say it started on Tuesday when I met Kefka & Ixnay in Vancouver, but I think this’ll be long enough as it is . So Thursday it is.

I caught the 09:13 bus from my place to Bridgeport Station where I would transfer into the 351 to Whiterock. Whiterock was the place where I’d meet up with BronyMike and two other congoers to go across the border. I met all of them earlier this year at the FanExpo Vancouver, which is where the whole me-going-to-Everfree scheme was hatched.

I knocked on two other houses before finding the right one, got in, said hi, shook hands, dumped our stuff in the car and we were off!

To give you an idea of how the roadtrip went, we screamed Hit Me Baby One More Time REALLY LOUD . This also pretty much destroyed my voice...

We got to the US border, I marvelled at the Big Brother-esque cameras before crossing and drove up to the little booth. There the borderlady asked what we were up to in the US. She was really cool when BronyMike explained the whole Brony phenomenon. Anyway, since I have a Dutch passport I needed to get a special... something so that I could cross.



We parked, got into this big, glass-faced building and stood in line for about 45 minutes. Apparently if you want to get into the US from Canada as a Dutchman America requires your face on a photo and all of your fingerprints. ALL OF THEM. (Now I’ll never be able to sell defense secrets without Electric_Pony not catching me )

After being immortalized by Big American Brother we continued our way through the beautiful state that is Washington. The highway cut right through rocky mountains with sheer cliff faces lining the asphalts. Pinetrees dotted the slopes, slowly making way for snow at the top.

After about a 2 hour drive we got hungry and stopped at a Subway, which is where we found:



We’re not sure whether this was a congoer or the nice girl in the Subway who instantly recognized the shirt one of my compadres was wearing.
If anything we went on our way and after another hour or so I got dropped off at Ixnay’s and said my laters to my driver and fellow drivees.

I liked the little “Ponygoons: Come on in!” paper you slapped on the front door Ixnay.

I met most of the gang in the basement below: Kefka, Electric, Raganti, Mr. Material, Pete, Ixnay’s dog. I think Raganti mentioned he knew who was coming down as he recognized my camera bag.

Later on Londonarbuckle and Bloodwulf arrived and the Barbecue could begin in earnest!



The deer and antelope was delicious!


On the Dr. Pepper laden fridge was this little business card that made me go all

Outside in the Seattle sun we talked for a good while, cooked up some crazy ideas (Detrot), and then we were off to the Live Rifftrax showing. I tagged along with Electric_Pony & Haller in EP’s rent-a-car; an incredibly roomy, silver Nissan of somesort.

(Meanwhile the Dutch spygear in my backpack was recording every single inch of every single spectrum known to man)

We parked in a garage near the cinema and we ran into an interesting introduction to American culture: a group of young teens threatening someone to death and telling him to go back to his own country.
As a foreigner, I’ve never felt more welcome.

We boarded the cinema and I was introduced to the insanity that is American Cinema food. You don’t do a bag of popcorn, you do a friggin’ TUB in which a grown man could bathe. More on American cuisine later...

“When you go back, you’ll be looking like us!” - Electric_Pony, 17-08-12. I was inclined to believe him.

Rifftrax in short:
Norman, Cylinders, Torgo! Longest getting up scene ever. There were so many huge, laugh-out-loud moments my lungs felt they were about to collapse by the end.

With the day finished for now we went our separate ways, prepping for the insanity that would be the con. I rode again with Haller and Electric, who dropped us off at the Marriott. Thanks for that!
The evening was kinda fuzzy, maybe Haller can pitch in on that...

I'll get to Friday tomorrow. Maybe rI'll recap one day every day.

[Willsun]

So there have been some nasty rumors around about certain bronies making certain comments to Michelle Creber and the other CMC VAs. I won't go into detail. But just know that, according to Michelle and the others, none of it is true.




Glad to hear that, if you ask me.

Let me clarify this from my view.

I do not know of all the "nasty rumors" going around, and don't think it should be called that in the first place because things became twisted. I know one of the people who brought up unpleasant experiences of people they have seen and the things they said at Everfree. These things exist and I have seen some of them firsthand myself. But are we here to bring down the convention and blame the entire fandom or pin it all on the people running Everfree? No. There are undoubtedly some folks who were not cool who also went to Everfree, and it's a fact.

Now the thing Michelle Creber is probably tweeting about came about through a long line of miscommunication. The only bad experience I have read that had anything at all to do with the girls of the CMC was something my friend had posted about that she saw. The story goes that on Saturday when I waited for my interview with Claire Corlett and eventually went to our interview spot away from all the crowds along with her and her mother, my friend (who stayed back waiting on me) noticed a couple of guys nearby who recognized who Claire was. After I was done with my interview and they saw Claire and her mom exiting the Marriot to go somewhere else, they sniggered and made jokes to each other (out of earshot of Claire of course) with things like "Dear Princess Molestia" and saying things like, "Nooooo come back to that room with me!" All of which are creepy because they are saying these raunchy things regarding Claire and she's just a young girl. My friend did not post the entirety of this story, but simply wrote about how there are creepy fans saying things about the CMC (which only included one: Claire). Many people somehow read this as if my friend saw people openly saying stuff like this to the CMC girls' face and harassed them openly. And now word of this gets to the girls and we have Michelle saying that it never happened, because she's right. In conclusion, yes, there were horrible people saying horrible things about ONE of the CMC girls, but no, they did not yell or say anything that she would have physically heard.

I don't believe anyone is aiming to blame Everfree for this experience because they can't be everywhere all the time and they certainly can't kick people out over something like this. Bad people are found everywhere and in conventions all the time. It's simply one of the worse things to hear and see coming from bad fans who attended Everfree is all, and thankfully the CMC were not actually harassed and had a good time like they deserved. My friend who wrote about the bad things had a good time herself, and I stand up for her pointing out how terribly wrong it is for some people to act the way they did at a convention of a show aimed at a demographic meant for kids.

tl;dr - No one harassed any of the voice actresses. Some people made creepy jokes to their own friends ABOUT the voice actresses and was overheard by other attendees who wrote about what they said.

[DarkMatter]

Oh, well, that IS disgusting. Like Isaak said, I guess you're always going to have bad apples show up an cons, especially with that many people. It's gross and those guys should be ashamed of themselves but at least the VAs themselves weren't harassed like many seemed to think happened.

I really hate some people, though. I mean, come on. There are some things you just don't joke about.

I'm glad you and your friend had a good time overall though.

[IsaakEquus Ludens :3]

Blegh, that's terrible. I hope those guys read all this and hang their heads in shame. Con director Bejoty has some strong words on the subject too.Good to know they're working on it.

Thanks Willsun for clearing things up! Straight from the source is the best, especially with things like these which inevitably get mangled beyond recognition.

[BartonFink]

The big tumblr post that's getting tossed around says the VAs were directly harassed (more than once, even), that's probably why this blew up and got to them directly. Screw those hallway guys though.

Glad the CMCs enjoyed themselves.

[Kraps]

I hope EQD gets backlash for their panel though, because even though their crap was mostly fandom-based it's still pretty messed up and has no place at a pony convention.

[Mad SurgeLunch break is over, back to the brewThe fad is over and nothing's askew!]

If that's any consolation, at BUCK we had VERY smelly nerds during the Pinkie Party. Perrydotto considered handing them her can of deodorant more than once
Although I'm ashamed as well for the assholes cracking bad jokes, I'm glad that the CMC had a great time Although now I gotta ask, what did EqD do this time?

[Throbulatorhello.jpg]

• EQD's panel had no real direction besides showing how they make a post to their front page, and even that took up most of the time as they fumble through the wrong e-mail accounts and talk about non-related things. Sethisto rarely talks and just kind of sits there doing his own things on his laptop while sitting with his mods who are running the panel. Eventually the "experience" ends with them finishing posting a fanart of Derpy and they show off how they can already see people commenting on it. Then they show some a fanart of Trixie crying and running away from some other evilly smiling pegasus male OC and they make a rape joke and cheer on like "Yeah! Get her! Molest her!" Classy. It was around this time that we decided to leave because this was awful.

Stay classy EqD.

[Stuff]

Who the fuck would harass/threaten one of the voice actors (or any members of the show crew or, hell, ANYONE that didn't do anything wrong)?

[JupiterDermatologists Hate Her!Local Apple discovers weird old trick]

Nobody said that happened, this is the post that started the whole thing.

bronies need to learn to ... not to make molestation jokes around the underage voice actresses

Whatever that escalated into is just Internet Telephone (the game) syndrome or something. And now people can call her a liar cause what she didn't say happened didn't happen.

[BartonFink]

Yeah, that's the post that started the rumors about directly harassing (if you read the whole thing it directly states they were harassed in a different part). That claim was what the VA was responding to on Twitter so we can discount that, the rest is up in the air. Also EQD panel is dumb, blah blah blah.

This is probably a derail anyway.

edit: grammar

[Scuderia FerrarityThe Corndogs Of Today are the Tacos of Tomorrow]

It is weird going from one panel where it's Wooton and Jim Miller, Sibs and Raven in the audience - art n' animation to
Three teenage girls who are a little too comfortable in front of a microphone.

[Mad SurgeLunch break is over, back to the brewThe fad is over and nothing's askew!]

Stay classy EqD.

Wow, really? The closest equivalent of BUCK was the Bronystate live event, who also had no real direction, technical difficulties and a chat that payed little attention due to loud background music... BUUUUT the panel had genuinely funny moments, Saturn the chairman attended and talked a whole lot about the convention, Wrek (whose art you might have seen around the internet) whipped up a quick sketch of Pirarity on his laptop and messed around with the chat and no dirty jokes were attempted, even if two of the most "dirty minded" users were called to give their contribution.
All in all, the panel could have gone better but we still got a good time. (Venusy, if I'm forgetting something you can pipe in and call me a moron )

[Frith]

EQD's panel had no real direction besides showing how they make a post to their front page, and even that took up most of the time as they fumble through the wrong e-mail accounts and talk about non-related things. Sethisto rarely talks and just kind of sits there doing his own things on his laptop while sitting with his mods who are running the panel. Eventually the "experience" ends with them finishing posting a fanart of Derpy and they show off how they can already see people commenting on it. Then they show some a fanart of Trixie crying and running away from some other evilly smiling pegasus male OC and they make a rape joke and cheer on like "Yeah! Get her! Molest her!" Classy. It was around this time that we decided to leave because this was awful.

bronies need to learn to ... not to make molestation jokes around the underage voice actresses

[Willsun]

Whatever that escalated into is just Internet Telephone (the game) syndrome or something. And now people can call her a liar cause what she didn't say happened didn't happen.

Yeah, in the post she wrote that they were yelling things at Claire, so it was akin to construction workers catcalling ladies except they did this to Claire after she was out of the hotel (and can't hear it) but still within the guys' view. This was twisted into > Claire is one of the CMC girls > all the CMC girls were being yelled things to > the CMC was harassed and had things yelled right to their face > the harassment was heckling that happened at the CMC's panel (??).

But yeah, that tumblr post is from the friend of mine that I mentioned and she didn't say anything false. All the people who got super offended and can't believe such things can be said by people in private wanted to turn her story from seeing guys creepily call out things toward Claire behind her back into full-fledged SHE CLAIMS DUDES WERE CALLING THE CMC GIRLS NAMES AND BOOING THEM AT THEIR OWN PANEL AND MAKING THEM FEEL BAD. The last I saw of other tumblr accounts who are doing this to my friend have gone into straight denial and are posting my friend's older photos and calling on fellow bronies to seek her out, which is extremely deranged and disgusting. They are dead set that the story is the one this whole internet-telephone-game has come up with, and keep saying "SEE SEE, EVEN THE CMC GIRLS TWEETED IT WASN'T TRUE, US FANS AREN'T AS BAD AS SHE SAYS AND WE'RE NICE PEOPLE (btw she's a drama whore and please somebody find her for me when she goes to Everfree 2013)."

e: Quote from the part in the tumblr where people derived it was direct harassment:

When I told someone in con-ops that people were yelling some very inappropriate and sexual things at Claire Corlett, they just told me that they couldn’t do anything about it because there were too many people there to find the people responsible.

Directly goes with my explanation above that it was catcalling and etc.

[nuclearsuplex]

The blog post was a crafted trap designed to create drama. She created the initial post and replied to the hate specifically to rile people up. You can't title a blog post like this:

Everfree is so hilariously awful. Bronies are the most consistently smelly, sexist, and racist people I have ever had to spend an extended period of time with.

And expect it to just slip quietly under the radar. Large segments of people typically don't want to be stereotyped in such extreme ways.

I feel no sympathy for either side. Bronies who get angry and attack her are immature and shortsighted people playing her game. I guess if she genuinely didn't want to cause drama and wrote something that universally negative unknowingly, I can say "Yea, ok you learn and move on." But she started it and fueled the flames on purpose.

[Pocketis she just gonna go booty booty]

The CMC panel was pretty kickin'. Show of hands, did anyone else pause the video, pull up "Applebuck Season", and go looking for the cow she was talking about? I think it's Mooriella here. And was there some in-joke involved in that question about creepers? It seemed like her answer went nowhere.

[JupiterDermatologists Hate Her!Local Apple discovers weird old trick]

The blog post was a crafted trap designed to create drama. She created the initial post and replied to the hate specifically to rile people up. You can't title a blog post like this:
And expect it to just slip quietly under the radar. Large segments of people typically don't want to be stereotyped in such extreme ways.

I would have done the same thing cause this stuff is way too rampant in the pony community and needs to be called out.

[nuclearsuplex]

I would have done the same thing cause this stuff is way too rampant in the pony community and needs to be called out.

I agree with you. However, I don't think the way it was done is going to solve anything. Being abrasive will get you attention but not respect.

Edit: Honestly, the best thing would have been to attack EQDaily directly. Get them to apologize for the rape joke. People respect EQD (for whatever reason). Most of the community is shaped by that site alone.

[DiscordWhat have I done? Sweet Chaos, what have I done? Become a beast in the night, Become a God on the run, And have I fallen so far, And is the hour so late, That nothing remains but the cry of my hate, The cries in the dark that nobody hears, Here where I stand at the turning of years]

This again?

I'm not defending the actions of the few, but if people spent half as much time praising and highlighting some of the good things this fandom does rather than focusing so much on these kind of dregs that exist everywhere in society...

Not that they aren't a problem, but I don't see bothering to bash them as a real solution This is a a societal problem that can't be oversimplified if one wants long-term solutions, for everywhere.

[JupiterDermatologists Hate Her!Local Apple discovers weird old trick]

I agree with you. However, I don't think the way it was done is going to solve anything. Being abrasive will get you attention but not respect.

Yeah but it sure gets attention for stuff that needs attention.

If bronies are going to keep holding themselves up as a "movement" or a force for good or whatever than there need to be some standards and they need to be enforced.

[GravensteinCURSE YOU LARSON FOR MAKING ME THIS WAY!]

Oh hey, someone on Tumblr is accusing someone else of doing something that offends them largely for the sake of causing drama? Please excuse me while I REEL IN SHOCK

[BartonFink]

Since we're well into derail here, just want to add it's entirely reasonable, based on the writing and wording of the post, to come to the conclusion the CMC VAs were directly harassed.

No idea on the intentions of anyone here or what-have-you (I actually don't think it was a honeypot or anything like that), just saying, that seems to me (and I double checked it) an entirely fair conclusion to make from how the post was written. Hence the Twitter reaction from the source.

[DiscordWhat have I done? Sweet Chaos, what have I done? Become a beast in the night, Become a God on the run, And have I fallen so far, And is the hour so late, That nothing remains but the cry of my hate, The cries in the dark that nobody hears, Here where I stand at the turning of years]

Yeah but it sure gets attention for stuff that needs attention.

If bronies are going to keep holding themselves up as a "movement" or a force for good or whatever than there need to be some standards and they need to be enforced.

I fail to see how to enforce a standard exactly. The posivity and anti-creepiness is already actively encouraged, and the worst is shut out from the largest sites of the fandom. But, being internet based, you can't really find and stop people acting this way, nor enforce them to do anything.

These kind of things can be fought somewhat in the more public gatherings of the fandom- and efforts are evidently being made to that- but there are difficulties of that as well as people aren't likely to be outwardly creepy going into a con.

I don't see what increased measures we can be. Bronies may have an interest in a good, positive thing, but the traits that society has generated in our primary demographic- stupidity, ignorance, obnoxious sexuality, and so forth- are still going to manifest; this is something independent of the pony fandom. I honestly think we're better at keeping this down then the populous at large. But one can't expect to completely kill this type of antic without major changes to how society raises people, IMO.

[weedgoku]

These kind of things can be fought somewhat in the more public gatherings of the fandom- and efforts are evidently being made to that- but there are difficulties of that as well as people aren't likely to be outwardly creepy going into a con.

At this point I wonder what the fallout would be if EQD was simply not invited fullstop to a major con, with the reason being the rape joke from this one

e: The Some fans Are Creepy Bad People ground has been tread over and over and I think it's more constructive to discuss possible solutions or ways of mitigating the damage. If EQD was actually barred from a con it would be a massive dramabomb move but would it send the message that rape jokes etc. are unacceptable? I am optimistic that it would.

[Venusy]

Wow, really? The closest equivalent of BUCK was the Bronystate live event, who also had no real direction, technical difficulties and a chat that payed little attention due to loud background music... BUUUUT the panel had genuinely funny moments, Saturn the chairman attended and talked a whole lot about the convention, Wrek (whose art you might have seen around the internet) whipped up a quick sketch of Pirarity on his laptop and messed around with the chat and no dirty jokes were attempted, even if two of the most "dirty minded" users were called to give their contribution.
All in all, the panel could have gone better but we still got a good time. (Venusy, if I'm forgetting something you can pipe in and call me a moron )

It was impressive just how much lack of direction this had. Random members of the audience were quickly elevated to panel members, along with a poor crew member who had been performing a vital task in the toilets. (Tweeting). I was kind of wondering if you were going to end up on the panel when you called Saturn over (while simultaneously being absolutely terrified that I'd be made to go up instead ). It was pretty funny (probably partially because of the particularly poor planning ), even though I haven't seen anything from BronyState before. I think that and the charity auction are the only times I actually ended up in the official photos* (not linking to the exact ones for obvious reasons, but there's one linked in At the Gala that I really like because I consider myself hideously unphotogenic ).

While there was nothing creepy in that panel, the charity auction did start with something similar to:
"Okay children, gather round for brony story time!"
"Right. Today's story is called Cupcakes..."
It was kind of heartening to see everyone yelling "nooo" though. There was also one of the things Pipsqueak said in one of the musician Q&As - despite that, he's clearly got a fine career in either public speaking or comedy ahead of him. I think there were a few Molestia mentions while queuing, and I did kind of a bit when I saw your text about wearing a .MOV shirt (thankfully it was nowhere near as bad as I feared), but otherwise, it seemed like pretty much everyone was obeying the rules and keeping the creepy shit out, at least at the things I went to.

Working on my writeup a bit, still recovering from this nasty fever that I may have caught at BUCK and hopefully didn't spread there. Thankfully, a trip to A&E at least revealed that the worst symptoms that manifested yesterday were being caused by me having a panic attack - which then fed into itself as worrying about spreading those symptoms, which were terrifying in themselves - so no one else should be affected like I was. Still, hate to think I made anyone else ill.

*Looking through those, it also seems that I was in the back of one of the events on day 1 while Perry was near the front, which could have saved me a lot of worrying on day 2 if I'd have known.

[JupiterDermatologists Hate Her!Local Apple discovers weird old trick]

The pony fandom has a culture, is a culture, and currently its a culture that largely turns a blind eye to or actively encourages some just awful, awful shit. And if people just shrug their shoulders and go "eh, whaddayagonnado" then nothing changes and mlp fans keep getting associated as self-righteous sexist racist creeps who lust after catoon ponies.

So basically the answer is The Racist Tree.

[BloodWulfeEverfree Eggnog™: Equestria's choice for over 1000 years]

I think I'm moderately alert and alive now.

Nicole Oliver spending time with that autistic young girl and her father is the sweetest, most heartwarming thing ever.

There's no way I can contribute anything to the aforementioned derail without sounding really cynical, so here's a cephalopod instead.

[Willsun]

I can agree that the face of the first post could have had more tact. But I'm still supportive of the idea that these bad things need to be addressed so that hopefully the awful people will learn that what they say and do are not alright. I see so many people's behaviors shaped simply by whether people around them tell them to stop doing it or not, and if there's no adult to tell them no, then they assume it's free game. Please don't glance over this fact just for the sake of hoping nothing bad is ever linked with any kind of fandom ever, much less the one we celebrate. If you aren't like these people, then don't feel guilty when the bad ones are pointed out.

Anyway, I forgot to write my Sunday experiences!

Sunday:

• I wake up just in time to go see Isaak, Haller, and Lhet at their panel "PMVs from A to Z." They had a good turnout! I just wished Isaak got to show Strive or Shine in its entirety because I don't think some people in the room have ever seen Isaak's stuff.
• I go get CMC autographs. The whole time they're being terribly cute and playing around with Peter New and Lee Tockar by chasing and whacking each other with balloons and stealing each others' stuff. When I got up to Claire, she went "Who are YOU??" thanks to the interview attempts we've had to do. I simply scoffed back, "Uh! Who are YOU!" Oh, and I get a photo with all three CMCs. http://i.imgur.com/ziYzK.jpg
• After autographs I go back to the Holiday Inn and find Isaak and others eating lunch at the restaurant inside. I watch as others shower Isaak with gifts for his upcoming birthday, which included cool Pinkie pins as well as one of those character hoodies with the eyes in front and wavy manes down the hood (it's a Pinkie one, of course).
• I return to autographs to get Andrea and Tabitha's autographs. While getting Tabitha's autograph, I ask her about tomato advice. http://i.imgur.com/NDPPm.jpg http://i.imgur.com/4m2NC.jpg
• Afterwards I bump into Cathy Weseluck in the halls and ask her for a photograph. http://i.imgur.com/mXuVT.jpg
• Eventually the CMC panel comes and I ditch everyone again because I can use my media badge to get in and the line's way too long. If you guys haven't seen the CMC panel yourselves, it was very entertaining because they were energetic and messing around a lot. I've told the tale many times, but like Final Draft (the host) said, they purposefully put Madeleine between Michelle and Claire because Michelle and Claire are like best friends who aren't allowed to sit next to each other in a classroom or else all chaos would break loose. They also do cool poses with sunglasses.
• I was joined up with COOL DUDES during the panel so afterwards we go listen to some letters being read in "Dear Princess Celestia/Luna." The best ones included a bitter letter from someone claiming that he/she found out that "Friendship isn't real" and another one that said they used the power of "social awkwardness" to draw in friends. Thaaaaat's not gonna go well outside of the con.
• Then all of a sudden Tabitha peeked her head in to listen to the letters! I help the COOL DUDES get a photo with her.
• After regrouping with everyone again, we try to sneak into the last panel "Finding Your Voice" with all the remaining VAs who haven't left yet. Little did we know that there was plenty of room because many people were already leaving the convention. Too bad they had no idea the panel included Cathy, Andrea, Lee, Andrew, and Tabitha! Having Cathy/Lee/Tabitha together is just too much because they can do voices like no other and just have a grand ol' time. Cathy/Andrew/Tabitha had to leave early for their planes however, and Andrea/Lee stay until the end.
• After this, like Lhet mentioned, our group goes to have a classy Taco Bell dinner where all our dreams come true. http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m93ii ... 1_1280.jpg
• Before I can register everything was over, I am rushed to the airport. Goodbyyyyyyyyyye!

[DiscordWhat have I done? Sweet Chaos, what have I done? Become a beast in the night, Become a God on the run, And have I fallen so far, And is the hour so late, That nothing remains but the cry of my hate, The cries in the dark that nobody hears, Here where I stand at the turning of years]

The pony fandom has a culture, is a culture, and currently its a culture that largely turns a blind eye to or actively encourages some just awful, awful shit. And if people just shrug their shoulders and go "eh, whaddayagonnado" then nothing changes and mlp fans keep getting associated as self-righteous sexist racist creeps who lust after catoon ponies.

So basically the answer is The Racist Tree.

I fal to see where the active encouragement comes from in any major form.

Awful shit exists everywhere (in similar forms to what's being referred to here); I just question to what degree it needs to be addressed with this fandom. It's good to call people out on doing this, publicly or obnoxiously anyway, but I just don't want mountains to be made of something inbetween a molehill and maybe a small hill. I don't see this as a severe threat to, or a substantial part of, the fandom at all.

My ideal solution to all this is a greater emphasis on child care, early education, and better parent/parental support as a society to try and prevent some of the more negligent or worse upbringings that help create these kind of things in my mind. But that's a long-term thing that goes beyond this for me.

I just don't think we can try and attack and stomp out people behind a curtain of privacy. Sure if they want to do this thing in public they should earn some ire, or if they try and move this stuff out of the curtain, but the plentiful amount of hate they already get hasn't stopped them up until now and isn't going to tomorrow. It's not something you can completely eradicate outside of pulblic places as is, and thus it seems fruitless to be TOO bothered that it exists. (When it surfaces in inappropiate ways is another matter).

And media stations, and people, who are against Bronies would associate us with these kind of people regardless if anyone like that actually existed or not. That's on them more than it is Bronies.

[mr manYou can be my wingmare anytime!]

I fail to see where the active encouragement comes from in any major form.

I dunno man, I see wayy to many princess molestia jokes for my liking.

[TailspinQueen of the skies]

I fal to see where the active encouragement comes from in any major form.

Well, the EqD panel had this

and they make a rape joke and cheer on like "Yeah! Get her! Molest her!"

Seems pretty encouraging to me. And that's coming from a very popular fansite