Skye

Please read this topic:

Welcome to Canterlot! I'm sure you're looking forward to take part in all that we have to offer here. Tales has certainly posted several of the important links you will find very useful, as well as the locations of some of our most prominent areas. So my parroting her comments there certainly won't serve you any use. However, I would expect that you might have poked around the forum a bit already, so I hope you're finding it very comfortable and easy to use as it is!

However, I'm sorry that I'm going to have to disappoint you here. For the Mane RP, we've taken a lot of time and effort to establish the rules and lore as we have in order to make it as compatible with the way Equestria is presented in Friendship Is Magic as the TV show is. We've made some exceptions and some modifications in order to better diversify the world, but we still very strongly try to keep to what makes the world work in the show. As such, we won't be changing any rules or making any exceptions simply for one character alone - that wouldn't be fair to the hundreds of other people out there who have or who would have wanted us to do the very same thing. If we had, we wouldn't have the nicely structured roleplay that we have right now!

Yet, you can still play your character. We have two areas, a Free For All and a Crossover area. The Crossover Area is much like the Mane Roleplay area except that it doesn't have to adhere to the rules as the Mane RP area does. It's much more free. If you wanted to, you could play Discord's son in the Crossover area, that's what it's there for. But for the Mane RP, our rules are the way they are for very good reasons. I'm sorry to disappoint.

But whichever you choose, either by tailoring your OC (I even had to tailor my own, and that's no small feat!) to fit with the mane roleplay as we've established the rules and guides for it, or by coming up with a new OC specifically for that area, you'll likely find that the rules still allow a large amount of flexibility.

I hope you find your own place here!

As a moderator in the main chat, I'm constantly having to be on the watchout for people who take the license we give them to be a little free amongst one another and just running with it. There's definitely a difference to be said between 'having a little fun' and 'being a complete git'. Like Corsair says, this is not 4chan yet we still attract some 4chan-esque behavior from individuals. Because the chat is live, there's no delay or stopping someone from making comments that are precisely the kind of thing he's talking about. There's no buffer, there's no editing. It's just said and then it's done with. And that's why the chat gets the way it does sometimes. I, for one, am not always capable of monitoring each and every individual line of text that goes up - I only have two eyes and I have other things I'm trying to do at the same time. Much of the stupid that goes on happens when I'm not actively watching the channel.

I realize this is the Internet. On the internet you can say things you wouldn't normally say because of the anonymity. I just feel it's not right to use that anonymity to disrespect others. We also have members here in many age groups. Some younger members (I do NOT mean all the younger members) seem to feel they don't have to be polite or considerate to others, or listen to the mods. If you want to be accepted by the community, that is NOT the way to go about it.

This is quite apt. People need to learn to self-monitor themselves. Just because it's the internet, doesn't mean the license to be a jerk is given. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. Everyone has someone who can make them feel about six inches tall, and The Internet Tough Guy act doesn't impress anyone. Being a jerk and then getting banned for it garners no sympathy. I can safely say that everyone who has been banned from the channel has been banned because of their OWN behavior and not for the behavior of anyone else's.

What we ask is that people be respectful and friendly towards one another. 'Don't be a jerk' is a pretty big one too. It's too bad that too many people don't feel that they're being a jerk when they're being intentionally disrespectful to other people.

Here's how not to get banned in chat:

• If an Op or Voice tells you to stop doing something, stop it and don't argue.
  
• Don't bait anyone.
  
• Don't post porn or gore. That should be pretty easy to identify. If it's smutty or bloody, don't post it.
  
• Don't post anything that could get you arrested.
  
• Don't say anything that's intended to get on someone's case. And don't bother trying to play innocent when you're doing it, we know when you're doing it and we don't have a sense of humor.
  
• Don't smartmouth off to the Ops or Voices. We know the rules.
  
• Don't troll. We've been around long enough to recognize it when we see it. And again, don't bother trying to play innocent when you're doing it. We know when you're doing it and we don't have a sense of humor.
  

The above should be pretty plain and simple. There've been enough people that come in and can't abide by the simple rules above that go for pretty much any internet interaction. The proof that we have enough people who do abide by those simple rules should be proof enough that it's not that hard.

It's a show targeted for little girls, but I think it's safe to say it has transcended its intentions. FiM was also designed for parents -- and by extension and good design -- everyone else to enjoy as well. It was designed to challenge the concepts that cartoons for girls should be overly feminine, and only deserving of certain quality expectations, which -- up until a little over a year ago -- were remarkably poor.

Targeted, Intended, they are the same thing for this purpose. It's written and artworked to appeal to the children as well as their family, but the targeted and intended audience is the children. Therefore, it's going to be written from the standpoint of the children first and families secondly. It's not going to be written specifically to appeal to the adults with the children as an afterthought ever. And you can challenge the concepts of being overly feminine without getting overly negative. It should go without saying that there's a discernable difference between a bloody nose and a decapitation. Anyone who can't tell the difference between these two very different type of injuries needs to have their head examined.

That goes for just about everything else. There is a particular level of trauma, either fatal or nonfatal that can be determined simply by diagnosis. A bang or a scrape is going to usually be nonfatal unless it is involved to such a degree that severe shock would set in. However these are cartoon ponies, I must stress again, and as a result, they will never suffer 'fatal' injuries like we will. It will only ever be a matter of a plot point. What would be fatal for one point may not necessarily be fatal for another. So the question is asked, is it necessary to have that level of violence at all? Likely not.

Why should violence and death only be a feature of cartoons designed for boys? Why shouldn't a series be designed for boys without these things, too? Why can't a girls' cartoon explore death? Last time I checked, girls are just as mortal as boys. It's an important lesson everyone will have to learn in their lifetime, preferably as early as they can grasp what death is.

To say that a certain element or lesson doesn't belong to a series because it doesn't fit its supposed mantra -- especially a cartoon that has challenged and broken so many rules -- is doing a real disservice to the series and community. I think it's for this reason that the expectation is there for some heavier subject material.

Will it happen? Who knows. FiM still manages to surprise me every week, and only time will truly tell.

I should add that if an episode was featured where something died, it would probably be done in a very clever way that would steer away from the grimdark. There's a lot of creative ways to do this while staying loyal to the focus of the cartoon.

Violence and Death is a feature of cartoons designed for boys because the toys and concepts are specifically geared towards encouraging that kind of mindset. There will always be a type of mindset between boys and girls that will never be completely eradicated. Not by one another and certainly not by themselves. There are certain levels of violence that will be expected between one another, but the impact of such will certainly be different. Look at when the Mane 6 fought the Manticore. In a boy's cartoon, they would have beaten the beast to a pulp. It appeals to the natural nature of boys to be proud of their prowess over one another. But girls don't generally need to seek that. They need the satisfaction of being able to solve a problem with whatever means was necessary, and often that means using their brains. That scene was designed to appeal to that.

As for the rest of your comment, I only have to say this. It's the expectations of the fans that they are going to delve into many realms and concepts just because those fans are also fans of those concepts and realms. But the show itself is not intended to delve into those realms. While Hasbro has shown that they're willing to integrate some fan desires into the show, the show itself and as an extension, its intention and target, is very specific and different.

I ask you this. When was the last time you saw a Transformers or G.I. Joe episode that dealt with them sitting around having tea and discussing social concepts and bonding on an internal level? I can't remember a single one. But you'll see it in My Little Pony. I think that's what most of the fans don't quite understand. And there is a difference between being overly feminine and girly, and being social. What FiM is about, and this is from Lauren herself, is breaking the mold of being stereotypically girly, but that there's nothing wrong with being a girl either. You only have so much time in each episode to favor certain concepts with each character, and each character is specifically designed to appeal to a particular mindset of girl.

Topic moved to Gaming section.

There does seem to be some issue with the marking as read component we haven't been able to quite lock down yet. There is a solution somewhat, if you use the mobile theme, if you mark things as read in each topic, they -do- get marked read and stay that way even when you go back to the normal theme.

Guys, also keep in mind.

This is a show intended for little girls. Unlike Transformers, which was intended for boys for whom death and violence and such was considered a mainstay of growing up, for little girls it's more intended to be a social environment. Thus, violence and death just isn't supposed to be a normal part of their upbringing. While this is why many of them turned to watch He-Man and Transformers on their own the heart of the matter is that this is a cartoon about cartoon ponies and death most likely will not have a major place in it because the show is supposed to be upbeat and positive because that's the best way to teach good morals. I don't understand why there are so many people who keep trying to bring such negative concepts to FiM such as death, or violence, or any other concepts that you would see in a boy's show. That's not what this show is about. Yes, Hasbro brought about Transformers. But Transformers is not My Little Pony. That kind of death and those kinds of storylines are not essential to the telling of My Little Pony stories. It's just not.

Having read this topic and understanding the emotions and concepts behind it, I think I'm going to lock it against further posts. Reason being is that this has the potential to become quite a passionate and potentially controversial discussion that could turn out very easily to be an argument with hurt feelings. My concern isn't so much of those who are currently engaged in it, but more those who aren't yet, or have been turned away because of it.

So in the interests of keeping the peace and discouraging any flared tempers, I'm going to go ahead and lock this thread. Do keep in mind that I very much understand both sides of this potential, and I'm not condemning nor judging the content.

I know about DeadMau5, I'm just saying.

Shouldn't be be 'De4dhor5-3'?

Hello there!

This is Skye, your friendly Equestrian Peryton here with some exciting new news! Some of you may have noticed, the 'Getting Started' section is no longer visible. That's because we've replaced it with a more centralized 'Rules and Faqs' Section. You can find it on the main page by clicking on the icon you see below:

This will take you to our new Rules, Guides, Faqs and Info page where all that stuff will be stored from here on in. Though it won't work quite the same as posts and topics, at least they'll all be found in the same place. And it'll be quick and easy to find, theoretically. But here's how you can help! In each of the documents, we work hard to make sure all the links all work. So if you come across a link that doesn't work, please by all means, let me know! It'd be helpful if you'd let me know which page you were on with the bad link, and the link to which page it was referring to. That goes for the Rules/Guides/Faqs/Info page and any other reference posts you come across (Like the shortened Application form in the Applications Forum).

Hope this makes things more attractive and easier to use!