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I think about this a lot too, and actually was talking about it on Twitter with some cool peeps today. I hope there's enough safe, hate-free and elitist-free spaces out there for kids venturing on to the internet to talk about MLP. Unfortunately I feel that with this particular fandom, it's less likely to than other kid-focused lines. My niece is 11 and she adores the new show and characters, but I had to help her find specific sites to visit in order to exercise her love of it without running into the large amount of hateful, selfish, or inappropriate material out there. Thankfully she prefers to talk about it with her friends, so she's not interested in an MLP forum or place to chat. But I know if it were me, I would've wanted a safe space to talk about it.

 

I don't intend to start any sort of disagreement or hurt feelings here; our members who are fans seem respectful of the line and understanding that while it can be enjoyed by everyone, it is ultimately marketed to and meant for children, specifically young girls.

On one hand, I'm happy that MLP has a lot of fans.

On the other... There are a lot of problems in the fandom. =(

BZP was truly special in that regard. People can complain all day and night about how authoritarian it was, and how little sense a lot of the rules made. But it was safe, and it was fair, and there's a reason it was one of my favorite online communities.

 

The problem with the MLP fandom is that the adult fandom basically emanated from some of the dankest corners of the internet. Now, I'm not judging it for that (in fact, I think it's hilarious how a bunch of internet trolls suddenly started watching a show all about friendship). But most pony fansites, even if they keep the very worst of that out, still try their best to be open and accommodating to everyone, and that generally means that while the dirtiest jokes are out, innuendo is still fair game (for instance, while Equestria Daily's main content is pretty benign, and they warn you when it isn't, the comments are another story entirely). And at this point trying to make a community that was kid friendly would be futile; not only has the time largely passed for a new community to gain any sort of prominence, but I fear that the worst of the fandom might see a forum that is basically telling them to keep out, and their resentment for that could lead to worse trolling, flaming, spam, and than even BZPower has had to deal with.

So yeah, it's sad. I'm not going to say that adult pony fans shouldn't have a space to make their jokes and talk about the show from an adult perspective. But it shouldn't keep there from being a safe space for kids to talk about the show, and yet it does.