/!\ Wall of text incoming, and there may be some mistakes. Sorry about them. ------------------------- Hi all. This morning, I was thinking about the Brony community and how we're seen by the Internet today. The first thing that came to my mind is the obvious fact that nowadays, there is a lot more people who 'know' us (I mean, know that this subculture exists) now than one year ago, and I can't convince myself that it is a 100% good thing. Of course, this is awesome to spread the friendship, love and tolerance all across the web, and this a very good point. The other important thing to notice is the fact that we don't have to explore the dark, lost, unknown places of the internet to find pony-related stuff anymore. That fact tends to drag to us people who are not as passionate as the bronies were at the very begining. This is not necessarily a bad thing, of course. I'm pretty sure that deviantArt, Youtube, and all other websites I can't think of wouldn't have so much awesome pony-related art and creations (even if R34 stuff is arguable, it's fine with me. It's still art, right?). On the other hoof, the 'disaventage' is that there are more and more people nowadays, calling themselves 'Bronies' just because they think it's cool, but who apparently doesn't understand what the show really means... I have tons of examples of 'Bronies' trolling (and being total jerks), or taunting other people on Youtube comments or forum boards, and each time I see something like this I wonder if our culture isn't victim of its success, of its 'fame'... I know that I'm a 'negative' kind of guy (You know, half-empty glass), and maybe I'm overreacting to this, but seeing a whole community I love being dragged down like this makes me very sad. I can't see any 'solution' to this problem, except keep being ourselves, and hope for the 'new' bronies out there to understand and enjoy the show for what it is, and not to use it as a 'shield' to keep trolling and making fun/insulting others. If I'm posting this, it's because I just wanted to share this thought with you. I may be wrong, I may be right, but that does not matter. What do you think about that? I mean, am I seeing or imagining things? Do you feel this way too? I don't really know that to think anymore.