I agree with what's been said - people should be civil, and not discriminated against (etc, etc).

However the one thing I'd have to say about all of this is that it all seems rather serious; people seem to be forgetting the most important thing. The internet shouldn't be taken seriously. It's all in good fun, and definitely isn't to be taken seriously (with the possible exception of aforementioned suicide threads, and some other subjects related to real life).

Lighten up, have fun! Otherwise what's the point?

>>2494503

Some of us actually like to be serious.

>>2494502

Well, we obviously agree. One thing, though: About people killing themselves over stuff on social websites. The people who would do that are probably already depressed, because it seems like a really harsh thing to do. I know it's happened, but I have a feeling that those persons should honestly have sought help earlier. And another thing to add: It's much easier to make people sad than happy.

>>2494490
>Yeah all in all, I just wish people were more easy going in general.

THIS!!!! Another thing I've noticed in the fandom. When this fandom was new, nearly all of us had very thick skin. We could laugh and be easy going about anything. It's one reason this fandom has been able to be so strong and generally more accepted than other fandoms out there. We aren't a group to react heavily to parasprites and feed their unholy desires. We aren't a group to get worked up amongst each other.

Or, we once weren't that kind of group. We still have those qualities to a collective to some degree, but it has been on the decline. Now, don't take this as me saying it's the newfriends who can't be easy going. Oldfriends were noticing this evolution even in us as well (and usually would jokingly blame it on having a loving heart as opposed to the cold heart a lot of us had from /b/). Over time, this fandom has shown a lot of signs of softening the skin.

I personally love jokes. One thing I loved most about MLP: FiM is that it would show the friends pulling pranks on each other, and when Gilda got bent out of shape over the pranks and misdirected anger, she was the one at fault. I can't think of any specific examples, but I've seen too many things in the media in my life time where the people trying to have harmless silliness is the problem, and try to say harmless silliness is harmful. Quite frankly, I've always seen people who say that as people who are pretty incapable of being loving and overall just bitter people looking to fight anypony over anything. From life experience, I can't imagine I'm missing the point too far in that.

Some people need to learn to lighten up and have some fun! Pull some Pinkie pranks on one another!!!

Anyways...I really need to get ready for work. Got a presentation today, and I'm probably going to put Derpy on one of my slides for fun. =)

>>2494506
keep in mind though, some people are sensitive... even pinkie didn't prank fluttershy, she knew fluttershy would be too hurt by it and that it would damage their friendship.

Well put Soldier, well put. I swear, one of those days I'm going to fly out to where ever the hell you stay and buy you a tall cold one.

I hope that these issues are taken to heart and understood by most of the community. As a newfriend to the community, I've noticed these issues immediatly upon arriving. These problems scare me and me nervous about getting serious in the community.
This is a problem. If I feel this way, then certainly there are many mewfriends sho feel the zame.same. Afraid to get dragged into the community if drama will arise. I am willing to tKe that dangerous step, but it shouldn't have to be so precarious. I love the caring within this community. I love the well thought out, deliberate lostz and the funny, cute nature of everything. It's heart war7a wild weed has been sown in the heart of this fandom. The clash if cultures and philosophies is getting overwhelming. The fandom is getting dragged down by politics. Once where every pony walked freely, to say as they please and hang out with each other all in light fun, our hides have softened and we become scared, angry, and generally agitated at lne another over such simple things.
For a pony to berate another over something so simple as being an "attentiin horse, is not only downright silly, but uneccessary. Let them get attention. If people don't want to give them attention, they won't. This is how it is in real life. People don't go calling each other names. We're not on the playground, people. Let's be mature. A large lot of us are adults here. We do understand that name calling gets us nowhere, right? Ignore the attention horse. Let them cry foul. They will receive what they sow.
Problems such as these should not tear us apart. Are we really so childish that we will argue and cry as somepony geberated? The fact that the community hops on the train and beratez the berater is almost as bad as the initial berating. The berater only needz to be told once, if at all. Ignore the berater and cheer up the pony in need. Tell them to ignorr the fellow, but don't argue and berate the fellow. With thousands of users it turns into a huge fight when all that was needed was a few kind words. Only one person needs to raise their eyebrow at the berater, not hundreds.
And if others agree with th e berater and feel that they need to expres their hate and dislike for the pony who is asking for help or attention, i have only one thing to say.
Stop. Sit back. What are you really here for? This show, this comunity is about understanding each othere Why are you berating another unique individuL? Why are you standing to your opinions so strongly. Are we not here because we love the carefree attitude of this show? The morals and ethics in the show? The understanding and caring nature of it all? If you sir or madam are not here to express a love for the show and to talk about the show and enjoy it in other's company, then why are you heree? Try to mull the things over. Berating another pony is not going to gelp the community. Let each pony flourish. Even the most craziest of us ponies have something to offer. Think about Pinkie Pie. How many times has it seemed that she has nothing to offer? She may seem eeird or cra,y, but she has so much to offer.
This show is about care and understanding. To forget these concepts and to push and grind against others with your opinions is uncalled for. This is a kids ahow, after all. For us to be berating each other over something like this is downright sily. Opinions, strong, idealisti opinions are uncalled for. If you disagree with somepony, fine. Say so, even. But are your opinions really so important that you would destroy another? That you would scare any newfriends such as myself from joining the community? That you would oppose other ponies to uphold your idea?
Calm down little ponies. This is all in good cheer. Love one another. Even if you disagree. We are all onlh pony. We all have out own ideas to offer, our own conceptions. Let us put them to use. Let us coalesce together in a pot of community. We are a community, arn't we? Let's exchange ideas and hang out.
As friends.

>>2494448

Well well, I spend a large portion of my work day considering how I want to reply to the posts I mentioned and I find out that Whelp has already done just as good as job:

>>2494493

This is one kick-flankpost, Whelp.

The only other thing that I do want to mention in regards to this post by Moony;

>>2494445
>As for tolerance: are the racist, the murderer, and the rapist not human as well?

I’m not going to go into murderers and rapists here, suffice it to say that I don’t believe that somepony who destroys somepony else’s life deserves tolerance on any level. There are certain absolute morals for which there are no excuses for breaking.

Instead I just want to focus on the other thing, racism, or discrimination on any level for that matter. In my opinion tolerance is valuable here to a point, one should always attempt to get to the root of somepony’s problems and issues; perhaps their parents were bigots and brought them up as such, perhaps they’d had some negative experiences in the past and it had affected them , we ought to tolerate people like this in so far as we are able to understand them, because with understand is it possible to help change their disturbing viewpoint.

However, it will often get to the point that somepony is unwilling to change, perhaps they simply are bigoted, perhaps they get some enjoyment out of it, either way discrimination itself is not acceptable, and I don’t think that we should tolerate people who simply refuse to be good, rational human beings and instead act out to hurt others. Hurting other people is not acceptable, that sort of thing is a crime for a reason.

To put it simply, if somepony actively chooses to be a bad person, why would we tolerate them? We have morals for a reason. Being human may entitle you tolerance, but if you are destructive to others then you’re going to lose that privilege. That’s why we have justice, society as a whole does not tolerate those that break our morals, so we lock them up where they cannot be a danger to others.

Now personally I tend to give people second chances; when it comes to punishing kids at school I tend to make sure that I give them a punishment to help them really think about what they’ve done, to understand why their behaviour isn’t acceptable and why it needs to never happen again, especially in regards to discrimination; making them sit there in silence for an hour isn’t hugely productive, whereas making them actually do a bit of research into an issue might help them to see. Unfortunately I know from experience that some people are simply not going to change, and that’s when I have to get more serious; some people do get expelled, because the school system considers them unfit to be around normal children.

Well, I've said this before, but I'll say it again: You are very good with words.
I'll have to get the most epic salute out of my folder for this thread.

However, one thing I must disagree with you on.
You said it's not possible to love on the internet. I dissagree. Friendship is a kind of love. Of course we arn't seeing each other face to face, maybe we would even dislike some of the members if we would see them into the eyes.
However, I believe that the way this community acts is what can be called friendship. Supporting others while they are down, being honest, humoring others, remaining loyal to our community, dispite what others may think of them and being kind in general.
And I believe that you know that friedship can bloom here as well, dispite of what you said. You contradicted yourself sometimes.
Yes, I do believe that love can bloom on the battlefield internet.

Although I usually don't read posts as long as this, I'm making an exception for The Soldier.

And I have to say, it's about time that somepony finally says all of this. I almost completely agree with everything he says.
The one thing I disagree with however are The Soldier's claims of Friendships being unable to form through the internet. Regarding this specific topic, I agree more with Big Boss' latest post.

Other then that though, I salute you on a job well done. As I said before, it's about time somepony posted something like this.
For that, I respect you.

I agree with everything but the love part, though I would agree on message boards maybe not so much, but in chat rooms it can, if the people in there have known each othe long enough.

You are awesome Soldier, keep up the good work.

>>2494511
>>2494512
>>2494513
We herdminded. Not that I mind.
But everypony should have their own oppinion.

What I basicly want to say is, well, friendship can be obtained in the most scurril ways. Love can be many things. If it is only being friends, caring deeply for somepony else, or romantical love.

Community, just keep it up.
You are the true heros.

>>2494511
>>2494512
>>2494513

I already gave my thought on the topic of "love" and the Internet, in case any of you care:

>>2494493

>>2494515

Also Frollo's post, which should probably be read first.

>>2494435

>>2494517

Did you even read all of what he wrote?

>>2494124

He even specificially addressed what you are saying here.

And if you are really that jealous, go out there and make something like this, rather than complaining. I'll have you know that Soldier spent several hours on writing this. You can do the same if you try instead of... Whatever the hell you think you're doing right now.

Not cool, dude. Not cool.

>>2494519
>1. deletes offending post to because in retrospect I was being a assdamaged moron for no reason which I should try to not be in the future
>2. reads proper post
>re-reads
>re-re-reads
>gets point
>shuts up and fades into the herd/background/community far more willingly than before
At least I'm not Anon.

>>2494520

Stop feeling sorry for yourself. Anypony can be a constructive member of the community, including yourself. So contribute. This is definitely not the way to do it.

>>2494172

>As for tolerance, I divide it into two sections: Tolerance of actions and tolerance of persons. Here, we should always remain tolerant of a person, regardless of their actions,

That was what I was going to say, actually. That's what I think love and tolerance means. It's not about going all apathetic to anything everypony does. It's about accepting that people have flaws and they have their reasons for doing and thinking the way they do.
Arguing those actions and thoughts are not opposite to tolerating the person.

I have lately contemplated making a "depression/suicide" thread, but I fear that 1. I can't make sense of what causes my depression, and 2. that it won't be able to help at all.
2 is mostly because I've already asked for help on so many places, both on the internet and by talking to a gratuitous amount of "experts"...

And on top of that, I think I agree with most of what you said :)

>>2494522

Hello. I've only seen you in the RP section before, I believe?

Try some pills made from dried St. John's Wort. They're basically like natural happy pills, but with less side-effects and they can be had without prescription. Take them for a week or so, see if you don't feel just a bit better.

>>2494521
>Contribute
I know. I was... just to scared to...
>this is not the way to do it
Understood.

>starts more work on that RP-thread series he was too scared to write up and run without seeming completely insane
Inspiration comes from the strangest places. Thanks, Whelp. It's good to know that my imaginings that everypony else on Ponychan is a natural-born psychologist aren't totally, totally unfounded.

>>2494524

I'm no psychologist, I just state my opinion. If I had been one, I would probably cause more problems than I would prevent. But that's good to hear. Even if you don't think your contributions mean anything, they do. Trust me. There's always somepony out there who cares.

I can't believe I hadn't seen this thread up until now. I feel compelled to make a point, but I haven't read the whole thread and believe anything I say might as well have already been said. I will, however, say that this is amazing.

I suppose, being a central part of the roleplaying derails that happen around here, I have to address that issue somehow. I really don't like derailing threads, and I really don't like offending anypony with those things. It is impossible to RP in /oat/ without stepping on somepony's hooves, since only allowing spontaneous RP makes it difficult to make a specific thread for it. The ambience over in /rp/ scared most of the /oat/ers away when we tried to go there, too.

But, still, we do stay away from threads that have even any semblance of being serious or interesting. The last thread we did anything on was autosaged, and the one before that was an official wingboner thread that was stickied as a joke. So, please understand that we try not to be invasive with these things.

And, if anypony is unhappy with it, please say something. At least I would stop if I was told to.

>>2494516
Mine was more relevant to chat rooms, and not so much ponychan

>>2494527

I've been to chatrooms. To be honest, I believe the only difference is that it's much harder to have a proper discussion in those places. All the thing we said still apply.

>>2494528
I might disagree. I've been going to the same chatroom with the same people for the better part of 3 years now, and I'd say we're as close of friends as you can really get.

>>2494529
>same chatroom
>better part of 3 years
See, this is why you keep going back there, because you are good friends with the people there...

SOLDIER EEZ CREDIT TO TEAM!

Another meaningful thread by The Soldier, I'm always glad to be around when these things happen.

>I want to start off by saying if you go around with a name and a trip code (or a very recognizable name at the very least) you are doing so because you want people to remember who you are. Does that make you an attention seeking jackass? Of course not.

Never seen anypony insult one on having a name or tripcode here before though. Sure, somew anons will say it is much better to remain unknown but no serious rants about this that I've seen.

>>2494530
Whoop! I can spread my analysis opinion!

From what I can see the environments on message boards and chatrooms are similar, but with a few key differences. The first and most major being pacing. Chatrooms are far more fast-paced because of their nature, you type short things and they're instantly sent, no optional picture like you do with imageboards. If somepony says something in a very active chatroom, it's likely to be swept away by other conversation, but in the same way a new thread can fall down the page list in the same way.

With imageboards, at least you can study each page of threads and link around to other things, however in chatrooms it's a matter of scrolling, and with many chatrooms the text just keeps going up as you scroll, making it even harder to engage in conversation with an active chat. On imageboards, things don't change until you refresh the page, so at least it gives you a chance to sit, think and type out your response. (Another good thing is that if you refresh the page mid-type, your message isn't lost, so you can add in new developments on the fly).

It's merely a matter of personal taste. Impatient people may want to use chatrooms because they like getting responses quickly, whereas others may be uncomfortable with that pace. Whether or not it's as Whelp said
>>2494528
in that you can't have a proper discussion depends entirely on the society there. Just because it's a chatroom doesn't mean you can't have a lengthy in depth conversation, it just depends on the people that are there, whether it's public or private (chatrooms can derail as easily as threads), though I do agree that the pacing I mentioned earlier makes it less natural to write long responses, as you're almost forced to keep up with the flow of things. It feels faster, so you feel you must.

Just an analysis of mine. (hence analysis goggles).

Beautiful.

>(Another good thing is that if you refresh the page mid-type, your message isn't lost, so you can add in new developments on the fly).

This apparently doesn't work for some people. :l

>>2494534
Awwwh
Does your message get killed?
I feel so bad for you T_T

>>2494535
No, it works for me, but when I made a thread about the 502 errors (when they happened), and that it was fine to backspace or press refresh to see if the post went through, some people said that actually it isn't fine because their dialogs get cleared up when they do.
They said they were using Google Chrome, do you use that?

>>2494536
Nah. For some reason I just can't handle the way Chrome is setup. I use Firefox and IE relatively equally, though not at the same time, I shift from one to the other over time and currently I'm on the Firefox side at the moment (though I don't use the latest version).

>>2494537
According to a friend, he had to upgrade from Firefox 4 to Firefox 3.6, haha.

Anyway, I'm not sure if your tone in that other post was intended to be like that, but it sure sounded condescending. Please understand that I'm not offended or anything, but that's because I think you're an awesome guy. Maybe in the future be careful with your wording, other bronies may not be as understanding...

>>2494538
My analysis?

Condascending.... how?
I don't see it. I was just being objective.
But then, I wrote it, so I KNOW how I felt.
So .... condascending how? Can you highlight a point?

>>2494538
OH WAIT!

You mean this post!?
>>2494535
Yeah I noticed when I typed it.
I'd HOPED with a sad AJ face it'd help but I guess it didn't. Sorry bout that! It was written a bit towards the... 'I'm feigning care' end wasn't it?

But at least I get a chance to use this image.

>>2494540
Yeah, I meant that post. But it's okay, man, maybe you didn't notice while you typed it. Who am I to impart judgement?

Anyway, congratulations on the /arch/ival, Soldier! You deserve it for making such great points, your rhetoric is one everypony should aspire to have :D

Phew, just got back from class. Finished reading the rest of the thread. And I just want to say thank you all so much for the kind words and keeping your discussion composed in here. It's exactly what I was looking for.

>>2494511
>>2494512
>>2494513

Just to touch on these posts. Yes, I know my view on "love" over the internet is very different from some. I'm afraid this section may have been worded slightly wrong from what I was trying to get across.

For myself, love is a feeling and an emotion that requires physicality and a deeper connection that cannot be made through simple text. It's something that is deeper and more complex then could ever be done over a website.

This does not mean I do not care about everypony here. This does not mean I do not think friendships can be formed over the internet. It does not mean I think these things can lead to love. But love is a heavy word for me. Saying it and using it should come with a burden. One that I personally feel is too strong over a medium such as the internet.

>>2494526
The Soldier only mentioned RP. I saw nothing about ferris wheels.

Now we lurk and wait for a thread made by mod that gets stickied and obviously is going nowhere....


But in seriousness, I don't think you've ever really done the RP in threads that really were having these intelligent discussions The Soldier was referring to. At least, not the times that I've seen you do it. I know there's probably times I've missed it, but I'm sure you're alright. =)

>>2494542
Soldier has been /arch/ived. Now the battle truly begins.
Ignore the above I just wanted to say it.
>>2494543
We abide by all the codes of conduct outlined above. If somepony wants us to get out (with a valid reason, of course) we'll get out without a fuss.

Besides, when has it not been fun to hunt for autosaged threads?

>>2494544
After doing it in a sticky, I think I found a new obsession. Unfortunately, how often will a thread that sorta has more of a derail element to it get stickied again???

Protip: we did it in a Wingboner thread that !!Scootz stickied...now I just wanna find a mod making a thread of equal derailment encouragement

>>2494545
It's alllll fame and glory with you, isn't it.

I kid. It's awesome.

>>2494146
Somepony had to point this thread to me.

>mfw wingboners are serious and legitimate discussion that in absolutely no way can imply "derail me" ... none whatsoever...and I don't remember many, hardly any, if any complaining....

>>2494547
>mfw that quote

Friggin' unbelievable.

>>2494505
>It's much easier to make people sad than happy.
The disagreement I anticipated experiencing after reading said statement.

I think that this is untrue when presented as a generic statement. It's true for some people, and often the ones who you most want to cheer up, but not all people. I've met many people who you literally just cannot bring down.

just leaving this here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq-XaBmRsg8
PS: i read the op's post on soldier's voice XDDD

Holy shit.

I'm going to be honest here. I actually did afraid to read this and try to find what is going to be here. Ugly mudfest?

No, instead I found most inspiring and genious topic in Ponychan. It seems those who scratched the surface got afraid that thing what we have called 'love and tolerance wouldn't apply, or people wouldn't "accept" because that is in technically "difficult" as term and what it does really mean.

How I view love and tolerance? When we look up for term love, I disagree with The Soldier's opinion about love in context in Internet, because as few other, I too see "love" meaning something more than just affection. For me "love" means also caring, and that's kind of love is viable in Internet.

I agree with the view that tolerance shouldn't mean tolerating everything, but also trying to understand root of problems is important. So what I would what "tolerance" means that we shouldn't judge people by any other means than their actions.

It was really beautiful read all of your opinions. Such elegantly different values appearing so neatly alongside haven't witnessed nowhere before. I really appreciate this place.

And sorry if this contain typos. I'll explain my opinion more, if somepony ask.

I think it's time to lock the thread.
Spambots are going crazy for this.
Sorry Soldier! <3