A Critique of Ponygram (MLP Video Essay)
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- Опубликовано: 18 янв 2023
- This video is the result of 50 interviews and countless hours of research. It was created for the purpose of critique and spreading awareness of these problems, nothing more. No usernames were mentioned and everything was kept as anonymous as possible. With that being said, if this video makes you angry, please take some time to reflect about why.
Also, to all Rainbott fans who are watching this giant essay, you know the drill. I want my audience to uphold the same values that I put in all of my videos and projects. Do not spread any negativity about this group or anyone within it. I want us to focus on spreading positivity and creativity to everyone. The Rainbott community is one of the friendliest fan bases that I’ve ever seen online, so please continue to be kind. Thank you for everything. 💚💜
Rain's Instagram:
/ rainbott
Nettle's Instagram:
/ cardboardghost
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My Little Pony and all footage from it belongs to Hasbro.
Fluttershy TBH creature meme drawn by missmagicalgirl9724! Love it sm!
Additional visuals were taken from Joshua Rocha, General Sam, FX Networks, Jowyb, homemadetbhcreatures, Remul-Lemlem, flamelauncher14, NaClson, mister davie, hotdiggetydemon, Sherclop Pones, SpiritArtWriter, and XCageGame!
8-Bit covers of MLP music by RC88, PerspectiveZero, and DJDarkness. 
Кино
![Roddy Ricch - 911 [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/5N3lAfydeWs/mqdefault.jpg)
⚠️ 2023 SEPT: Update! It got WORSE. After this video came out, fans have been keeping me in the loop about the rise and fall of creators in the PG fandom. However, I’m not interested in making any other videos on the topic unless problematic creators return to the platform. Thanks for all the support! I love hearing about all of your own experiences in similar fandoms. 💕
Man... I am so sorry this happened to you. But I am glad it is going to get better for the ponygram.
On a happier note. I wish you well for your series! I really like the Dreamworld entertainment videos you make and as I consider myself to be a big fan of mlp too, I am excited for this story!
I recently left the Ponygram community, I was never a part of the constant drama that occurred there, but I was very sick and tired of hearing about it. It was making me super stressed and triggering in lots of awful ways. My health was at its worst and I made up my mind. I think it's best I keep my distance from the community. I can't see myself returning there anytime soon. ✨
You didnt deserve this harassment. The popular pony gram people having alicorn ocs shows what Big mean egotists they are. Im glad you left ponygram i cannot wait for echoes of unity
Bytheway i never heard of ponygram what.? I'm just so glad don't know about it 😓
Can I have a question? How to not get canceled when u want to share political views, when you want to share unpopular opinions that could get you canceled. Not for a thing to get canceled, but for oversharing, for validation or sort of thing ... My dream to make a content was always to find someone who is alike me or a friend to whom I can share anything.
I never want to be popular, I just want to have a beacon thanks to it I find someone who is alike me.. I cannot so now so far, whenever I'm a little myself now even when I just DM ppl or publicly speak up in servers I must fake myself in order to interact ...
The irony of all this stemming from a series where “Friendship is Magic” is literally in the canon material’s title
It's not too surprising when you think about it considering majority of the people that like it like it more so because of the characters and it's story, rather then it's overall messages, hell the show had a literal episode basically saying "OMG y'all are missing the point"
@@vixymix101 wait which episode
@@curepinkie1637 i think they're referring to the episode 'Fame and Misfortune' maybe?
exactly. I think the exact same thing quite often looking through the pony community on IG.)
@@purrpletiger2159 I loved that xD
From the very first point you brought up I was so surprised that this kind of behavior is happening in online fandoms to THIS DAY. This feels like the kind of thing that died along with the 2010s. Really funny how the internet never changes
Fr
I completely agree! I find it absolutely fascinating how much the internet has managed to stay the same, despite how much time has passed and how many other things have changed. Fandom culture is so unique to study as a subject, I always love discussing it with my anthropology professor!
ALSO SHUNKS? IN MY COMMENT SECTION??? Oh my gosh hello! I love your videos! :> 💕💕💕💕💕
You ever heard of the saying "history repeats itself" ?
The ride never ends.
It’s not really surprising though because if Undertale or fnaf is Anything to go bye fandom bullying has been around a long time
It's really funny that a community surrounding a show about FRIENDSHIP could be so toxic smh.I don't understand how they didn't learn anything from the show ;:(
Loud minorities unfortunately :'c
Reminds me of what happened with the MHA fandom or the Steven universe fandom
The whole gatekeeping of Ponygram reminds me of the time of the Undertale fandom when one fan with an edgy Sans OC would harrass another fan with a similar edgy Sans OC
And that rabbit hole went surprisingly deep, and it had no right to be such a large sub-culture. At some point it, it stopped resembling Undertale by any margin and just became Magic Skeleton World with a character template.
One of the most uncanny points of my life remembering it now, how invested I once was in that subculture. My memories now are fuzzy, in no small part due to the drinking, but the emotions remain and it’s a helluva time to look back on. It just eventually became incomprehensible to me, I just couldn’t anymore, something inside of me snapped and moved on like none of it ever happened, like I never saw those things! What a weird world to live in.
I’m sorry for ranting, I just have some very specific emotions tied to that moment in my history, one I’ve largely forgotten about. Truly a phase that I’ll get war flashbacks to in my older years when a small child shows me their own crudely but charmingly illustrated OC’s. Cringe culture may be dead, but some memories are buried for a reason.
Funnily enough I was thinking of how downhill UT went overtime after hearing the beginning of where this vid was heading. I managed to overlook the bad >> as nostalgic as it is, I don’t blame after hearing how others interpreted it sometimes without knowing the game first.
honestly, the AU fandom is still kicking! I'd also like to say it calmed down a lot.
@@redactedoktor I really hoping your not drinking heavily enough to forget stuff. As time passes, your memories become fuzzier and fuzzier. The severity of how much you can’t remember is based on what your brain and you choose to remember, and also how long it’s been. I was around for that time, I don’t remember majority of it outside of being an outsider looking in on the shitshow.
@@strxwbxrry_420 Thanks for the concern! In the time since my comment, I've limited my alcohol usage, and started even regaining some memories I didn't at first realized I'd forgotten. It's been a wild ride honestly, but I really feel like I'm doing better.
As someone who's part of multiple fandoms; Sonic, Hazbin/Helluva, etc., this essay perfectly describes what happens in fandoms.
Yep it's best to keep your head down keep moving ig idk
Star Wars and Voltron to.
@@idreamofsquidz814 Don't forget Undertale and Five Nights at Freddy's.
"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not."-Lorax
To sum almost everything up, Giving immature people an access amount of ""celebrity status"" ends up chaos.
Its in everything. I was in a lot of content creating sub communities like OFF fangame dev, object show making, etc and it was all the same
Ponygram went "this isn't 'friendship is magic' this is ' control is power' "
Cozy glow basically
This is so fucking accurate
a lot of fandoms are like this and it's so disgusting how common it's become. this reminds me of doll twitter honestly.
Gave me war flashbacks from doll twitter 😂 I once asked a creator about a Polly Pocket in an image she’d posted and I was suddenly blocked and told by her fans to stop harassing her. All I wanted to know was which Polly it was because had the same one as a kid 😂
I’m convinced the only way to have fun in a fandom is to liberally block and only go full fan-craze among true friends in dms. I 100% believe everything in this video because of what I’ve seen in other fandoms.
Younger fans please, you can make any kind of oc you want. Everything you make is unique even if it’s the same idea/color/whatever because *you* made it. Our individualities make our art individual.
Can I have a question? How to not get canceled when u want to share political views, when you want to share unpopular opinions that could get you canceled. Not for a thing to get canceled, but for oversharing, for validation or sort of thing ... My dream to make a content was always to find someone who is alike me or a friend to whom I can share anything.
I never want to be popular, I just want to have a beacon thanks to it I find someone who is alike me.. I cannot so now so far, whenever I'm a little myself now even when I just DM ppl or publicly speak up in servers I must fake myself in order to interact ...
As a person who's in Ponygram, I THINK I know who these "accounts" are... 😭
I don't and I'm dying to know of you're willing to share (I'm in the community I'm just clueless lol)
@@pinkiichi Me too 👀
I joined Ponygram in around 2021, I think! I have met amazing people and learned a lot about myself! I have developed amazing characters/OCs that I love! I simply can’t imagine myself as an artist without MLP, so this video was a treat to watch! It’s crazy how people have such a different experience from me!
Not very friendship is magic of them :/
Am... I the only one who never even heard of ponygram until this video?... I've been a fan of the show since 2015 and strive to reflect the virtues it teaches in my work and day to day interactions, there needs to be more people out there that LEARN from what they watch
After hearing the shenanigans that have happened within this fandom it makes me question what kind of society we live in I feel very bad for what you had to go through I’m glad I found your small fandom the rainbott community is the most peaceful community I’ve ever known I plan on staying forever no artist should have to hide in fear all artists deserve to be seen as individuals too and hopeful one day it will happen
we live in a society
i wanted to see if anyone on twitter talked about ponygram, and it took me all of 20 seconds to find someone replying to a tweet linking this vid with something along the lines of "the ponygram fandom isnt toxic at all 🥺🥺" (why? idk because they said so) "just treat everyone equally"
i checked their ponygram, 3k+ followers. gee, i wonder why they think so highly of ponygram 😭
edit: just noticed idk how i missed this, but this account does NOT like rainbott, yikes.
If it’s the user I’m thinking about, yeah, I kinda get the ick from them. They’re well liked in the community and haven’t done anything wrong so I can’t be TOO harsh but they give off a major “no bad vibes allowed” message I can’t tolerate.
Like, it’s one thing that they run an account dedicated to uplifting smaller creators, which is good, but it’s another thing that they seem to plug their ears and go “LA LA LA THE FOCUS GROUP IS BIASED DONT LISTEN TO THEM NOTHING IS WRONG LA LA LA”
There actually was an equivalent to this in the 2010s fandom. It was called TwitterPonies. Not sure if it’s still around, but I remember one of my friends getting really sucked in to it
I was into TwitterPonies back then! Lol I ran into so many really nice, socially awkward people on there but I think I ran into an equal number of creeps and bullies as well. I was 13-15.
I just saw people saying on Twitter that you “lied and made this up” 😭 oh my god
But I honestly believe there are people this toxic in the mlp community. There were groomers/pedos that nobody wanted to take care of or expose because “it’ll ruin their image” and while that has nothing to do with Ponygram, it says a lot about the community that they’re all kinda…stuck up and self absorbed? Oh, and that adults are acting like children over pastel horses.
The fact that you interviewed 50 creators in this community and nobody from that community believes you is sad.
The issue of p*dos (I don’t even wanna say the word ;-; it makes me feel icky) is something that I almost covered in this video, because of how often it is swept under the rug by many fandoms online, which is SUPER dangerous. However, I decided to take a different route in the end, especially since I worry I might not be qualified to tackle such a serious topic. I appreciate your comment, though! I am always interested in gathering more information for these issues.
ITS LITERALLY A SHOW ABOUT BEING KIND, LOYAL, HONEST, FUN ANS GENEROUS...
@@Rainbott makes sense! It wouldn’t fit in this type of video anyway since it’s been (mostly for me) more on RUclips over the past couple years. People wanna keep their “horse fame” for the stupidest reasons
Can I have a question? How to not get canceled when u want to share political views, when you want to share unpopular opinions that could get you canceled. Not for a thing to get canceled, but for oversharing, for validation or sort of thing ... My dream to make a content was always to find someone who is alike me or a friend to whom I can share anything.
I never want to be popular, I just want to have a beacon thanks to it I find someone who is alike me.. I cannot so now so far, whenever I'm a little myself now even when I just DM ppl or publicly speak up in servers I must fake myself in order to interact ...
I'm a model, I had a similar experience when I decided to join a model community and my career was destroyed and I had to build back up but I built with excluding the community I'm still not as big as I used to be . This type of toxicity not only hurt my living and nearly made me homeless but also traumatized me . Any time someone from the community tries to talk to me I get terrified and will have nightmares
"As long as you love what you create, never stop creating."
LOVE YOUUUU!!
off-topic a little, but I truly adore the pixelated MLP songs in the back, the babs seed one goes so hard
It has gotten so much worse. I'm still an active part of the community after leaving for several months. I was bullied and guilt tripped off of ponygram, and that's what made me feel I had a responsibility to rejoin, to try and fix the damage done by this person. There has been a lot going on that's no longer drama, but now true problems, like racism, homophobia, ped****les, fe**l, and more. At this point we're losing creators left and right, and although no one will admit it yet, the few good accounts left are pretty much trying to make a falling tree stand back up. At some point, it's going to hit the ground.
This is a good reason why I've stayed a fandom watcher since 2014. just quietly writing fanstories and keeping what I drew for my fav ships to myself while keeping an eye on community news. Yeah, it's lonely, but I'd rather have a few close friends I can talk to irl then a hundred online that only talk to me if they want something or hate my existence for dumb OTP reasons.
Thanks for making this video!
i use to be apart of pony gram as a twilight grimdark, i left because i felt like it was slowly dying. and all of a sudden i peak in and its a hellfire
“It wasn’t really a big thing” tells me you were not around for the “Tumblrpon”/Tumblr ask blogs back in the show’s early days. It was HUGE on Tumblr! There were hundreds of ask blogs that would draw answers to questions sent in by other users, interact with each others ponies, sometimes follow entire storylines… Good times!
Honestly so glad someone has a made a video about this. I have been in the fandom since 2015, and the whole popularity thing has always been a problem even before ponygram. I remember being harassed because my oc had a similar color palette or something ridiculous. it is so sad to see that people are still gatekeeping in the mlp fandom and just fandoms in general about headcanons, stories, etc. Some things just never change i guess, but at least there are more people calling this out now.
I have to say the way you handled all of this was very mature and kind!
I'm an... observer of ponygram, not role-playing but art and oc creation. I have had to block stories and block creators over taxing my mental health to see everyday.
Im both a huge pony fan, and a furry, and I've found a lot of pony fans and artists are uh not nice to furries, ironically considering having a fursona and drawing colourful dogs is alarmingly similar to having a ponysona and drawing colourful horses.
I've had creators say furries are all into feral nsfw (art where the animals look like their real life counterparts, not anthro or humanised at all) and I gotta say I was personally insulted by that. Gotta love pony creators acussing your community on mass of being into actual dogs :/
For context this was the content creator talking about mlp 'stuff' getting heated saying ponies aren't feral, and in defense of ponies throwing furries under the bus.
Kind of a "im not like that, they are!" Situation :/
What if someone did a social experiment, where all the out-of-character Cyber bullying, was canon to the character and they’re storyline .
I have way too much free time on my hands and now I'm genuinely thinking about doing thIs
@@Ahedghog doit.
It already exists. Look up any of the News or Gossip accounts
This is a horror story that hits way too close to home. But for me it was deviantart.
Feels like every fandom winds up like this now, and I'd love it if someone who understands human psychology better than me would do an actual study of how & why it keeps happening. It makes you want to avoid interacting with any fandoms, let alone making anything creative for one.
Literally why hs cliques happen. Everyone follows one person in fear of being ostracized. The entire emperors new clothes story highlights this phenomenon
The interesting thing is, at some point a fandom largely mellows out. Seen it with the Sonic fandom, the Undertale fandom, stuff like that. It doesnt always take the same amount of time and usually it happens after it reached its worst phase ever, but eventually they become a lot more chill. Honestly having an amazing time in those fandoms.
There's really something to be said about how fandom culture works.
The popularity bias applies to all fandoms and I hate how these popular people can get problematic ships trending with no questions asked and people just go along with it because they are popular makes me leave certain fandoms because that becomes all that I see there are some Eek ships
Like rarity x spike. Spike was a BABY dragon when she and Spike met. Rarity additionally admitted to having known about his crush long before he confessed. She however, clearly plays into that crush, trying to get him to do things for her, like that birth present for himself, she convinced/manipulated him into giving his birthday present to her despite him literally having a year to work on it for himself, he worked hard, and she wanted it because it was a shiny gem. Not really any reason, and given how she even treats him no better than the other ponies do, it's kinda gross to me. She even freaks out in a far later episode when he finally gets an age appropriate crush/gf.
And yet it's still a possible ship??????
@@enderwalkgang She never played into his crush she was just being nice she's his friend but outside of that you're write
Edit: and the gem episode isn't a good example of their relationship ?? She asked for a gem, he gave it to her, she cherished it, and gave it back when she realised she was wrong because her friend was affected
@@chaoticenbybard6699 she 100% played into his crush
its a drawing. who gives a shit. god you people need therapy or something
@@misakayy1911 it can normalize gross shit. So no it's not just a drawing.
I also never got why a character couldn't interact with another character all cause of.. weird canon but.. aus exist..
the incest stuff happened JUST as i was getting into ponygram and i don’t even CARE if in your canon they’re not related,, those users were so gross about it? i remember going into a live they were hosting and instead of actually explaining this it was. like. yelling at the viewers and making fun of them for thinking the niece-aunt relationship was canon in the first place? i wasn’t even that aware of the users at the time but i remember being just. so put off by that,,,
i know this is an old video, but with current pg stuff coming out it was really nice to hear someone actually say what everyone was thinking lol
never heard of ponygram before this, but now I want to join it so I can make a difference. I've been wanting to do something like this but had no idea where to go, now I know where I can go + I can hopefully make a difference at the same time
Unfortunately, people on Ponygram DO NOT want to change. Even after all these years, they're still super toxic.
yeah, makes me wanna join with a world that's a multiverse so literally everyone who wants to interact is canon, but make it so that it's specifically for those who aren't popular/in big canon stories/rarely get picked. but i know that would only cause more drama because toxic assholes are always gonna be toxic assholes and find a way to ruin everything. it sounds like a self-sustaining garbage fire and the only way to change it would be to just put it out entirely. nuked from orbit.
You can’t make people change if they don’t want to
@@chaosbeam4654 of course not, that never stopped preachers tho
Finally got to the end, as an artist on ponygram thank you so much for airing out huge issues. The only critique I have is using two private vents (I was vented to by the same person.) But thank you.
I did pony instagram wayy back in 2014. I was a child. I got bullied for my oc/drawing not being too good back then. Years later only did I use my oc again and not I'm an art student in college. It messed me up back then though - people only befriended you based on how well you could draw it seemed or how pretty your horse was. It wa so fickle and fake and I hated it so much lol
It's videos like these that make me glad to not have been a pony roleplayer on any other platform when I got into mlp
of course i discover this days after making a rainbow factory oc ponygram
update reply to this, i've seen a LOT of drama, but havent been pulled into, caused, or joined any so far, thankfully. I've so far gained a following of over 500 and found some good friends, some of which got dragged into drama... ponygram is definitely a mess, but im determined to keep myself drama free
I was part of the MLP community in the early 2010s and I remember there being so many “bad oc” accounts that would humiliate users by posting about their ocs and shitting on the creators. They’d always use the defense that “it’s not hate, it’s an opinion,” but humiliating others on a public platform is, in fact, hate.
I was scared shitless to post anything related to my mlp ocs, because god forbid it was either a Mary Sue or if it looked too much like a canon pony.
Not MLP but there was an account that just posted things they thought were bad (any fandom) and they somehow found something I posted in 2013 (this happened in like 2020 or something?) and posted it making fun of it and also calling me a bad artist for not including details that WERE NOT PRESENT IN THE CHARACTERS BACK IN 2013. I was like “oh this is so stupid that they would try to make fun of me for this right” only to see the rest of the fandom AGREEING and LIKING the public shaming of the art I made when I was young. I was crushed man. I felt like I couldn’t interact with the fans anymore because they had shown that they’re fully willing to make fun of my silly old art. I couldn’t trust anyone in the fandom tag anymore and I got very little support during the whole situation (I didn’t get DIRECT hate either though, a lot of them didn’t even seem to realize that the person who made the art that got reposted was there and seeing all of the stuff happen. But watching them support a public shaming on my art was hate enough for me)
I can’t imagine if that happened in 2013, when it was a new piece of work rather than someone digging up old art (at least THEN they wouldn’t be using that STUPID excuse of “the characters don’t look this similar to each other” YES THEY DID BACK THEN THEY ADDED MORE UNIQUE FEATURES YEARS LATER). I guess one other time when I was young an art I had posted got IMMEDIATELY reposted onto a cringe subreddit and then a swarm of people came to harass me about it. That was an interesting experience.
Long story short accounts (or subreddits I guess) that post other’s work to make fun of suck
I'm so sorry this was your experience. While I still love My Little Pony I haven't kept up with the fandom much since 2017. I joined in 2012 as a 12 year old. So I've been here a while. And a lot you talk about reminds me Deviantart back in the day. Good on your for standing up for yourself and talking about this and also not naming people.
I think you are very brave for letting this out even though you are being harrassed on social media. I'm sorry to hear that is happening. Some people just never grow up or learn from their mistakes. It's sad really.
You got me back into MLP, thank you
There is an Owl House server that's behaving similarly. A friend of the server's owner DM'd me to harass me and admitted that they did it because their friends were talking shit about me and my artwork even though they know I'm disabled and my art isn't as good as everyone else's because drawing is literally physically painful for me for extended periods. One of those friends is the owner of the server.
I've been extremely bitter and highkey vengeful about it but I'm not going to be chased out of there just yet.
this is almost exactly how it used to feel on deviantart between 2015-2017 too :( i never got bullied or attacked for by other MLP creators for creating MLP content but there was certainly, most DEFINITELY a popularity bias. i remember feeling really discouraged that my art or designs werent reaching as far as other pony artists because they were just much more popular than me
After being in the fandom on Instagram through the entirety of my high school years, adult creators like ponytowne and others with large platforms really ruined it for me. Got harassed so much, cyber bullied and manipulated during my time on there by those with big platforms.
It’s ironic because the whole fandom is based on a show about being kind.
It’s a super toxic place for minors or anyone vulnerable really.
Nice video x ty for the time and effort you put into making it.
It's really sad. Grown ass people bully kids watching a kids show.
I’m relatively new to pony gram and I knew about the frequency of fallout posts but I had no idea about the rest of this drama. So far I’ve had a great experience on ponygram but I’m very sad to see that is not the case for everyone. I wish I knew which creators were bad so I could know who to avoid but I understand wanting to keep it anonymous. I love all of the stories that Rain creates and they have inspired me to keep creating my own. It’s very sad to see one of my favorite creators be hurt by a community that I truly love and that hasn’t hurt me in the same way. I hope that ponygram improves in the near future and I hope the popular creators that bullied Rain and so many others can learn from their mistakes one way or another. Thank you for this video essay Rain and please never stop creating what you love ❤️
I've always separated Ponygram and the rest of the mlp fandom since Ponygram can be-….absolutely outta pocket-unhinged. It's like the 4chan of social boards. Which is ironic since Bronies started on 4chan. Even in the age of g5 mlp, ponygram is still seething if not more so now
Casually made a ponygram cause i wanted to ponie rp a few weeks ago,,, very glad i havent posted yet
Not in the fandom, but I've been in a similar situation in two other fandoms, and this is super brave of you to do. Also I feel oddly reassured that you too were so traumatized by a toxic fandom that you had to talk in therapy about it. I always worried I was just too weak and too sensitive and this was not truly that bad. Of course horrible that you had to experience this, but its healing to know that I didn't made it up
To stand on my little soap box for a second; this video intrigued me.
I have recently started my own ponygram, despite my previous experiences when I didn’t have an account. I thought; “what the heck?” Because I didn’t need people to like my content; or do I. I’ve been thinking back to accounts that I’ve seen before, which had gained traction instantaneously. They had no issues while integrating into the community, and it all looked so magical to me. It inspired me to make my own ponygram, which took me a couple tries to nail down.
It’s been a few months now, and I’m wondering why my page hasn’t gotten any attention. I don’t ask for attention other than the occasional promotion, which is often ignored. It makes me contemplate whether or not starting it was a good idea. Then I stop myself and say; “why should I care?” Because Ponygram isn’t some obscene popularity contest, right? Wrong. I- have run out of things to say.
I’m stepping off of my soap box.
Can believe the ponygram community can be this bad. Thanks for making this video man
Man glory my favorite character, good to see her voice actor
"medicine cat" not the warrior cat flashbacks that just hit me 😭😭I'm not gonna hide it, I would irl roleplay as my warrior cat oc with the other weirdos in middle school
Fr, practically war flashbacks with those arguments ppl were so pressed about medicine cats 🤣
Really great video! Also, Tysm for including the fan artists in your videos. I started freaking out when I saw my fanart come up TwT you're awesome, Rain :3
Idk anything about ponygram, but speaking as someone who has been a perpetrator of cliquey behavior (especially the discord shittalking thing, owch) this video called me out in a lot of ways that really pushed me out of my comfort zone. I’ve had a my little pony redemption arc since then, and I’m generally a much better person, but that experience traumatized me in its own right for various reasons I’m not interested in getting into, and this video kinda worked as good exposure therapy for me in a way.
I think from my perspective as having been part of these sorts of cliques is that, a lot of the time, it’s sort of an echo chamber where people aren’t really aware that what they’re doing is wrong. If they have friends supporting their actions, then they’ll think they won’t get any consequences, and thus that their behavior is acceptable. I believe that everyone but the most despicable deserves at least some empathy, but it all starts with breaking that echo chamber, I think
Thank you so much for speaking out about this, I've never personally been a part of this community. But it's always nice to see what people speak out when things like this are happening!
this is also how mlp amino was
talking abt ponygram got me thinkin, anyone remember the train wreck that was zuri purry
Omg yeah!!
@@Luckybab72 I’m SO glad I’m not the only one who remembers that 🥹
to be honest I don't really involve myself with drama , I rather get together with others to talk about similar interests and sharing drawings of ocs or fanart. And mlp played a big part of my childhood ngl
This reminds me of my of my old online friend group, which like you I had to explain to my therapist about roleplay. They were just like this and man I’m glad I’m away from it.
Wish I knew how to put it into words at the time.
Also thought I’d mention I’m reading your remake of the muffins series and it’s 200% cooler than the og. Great stuff you’re doing and I am looking forward to checking out more of your work!
This sounds like the same drama that used to happen all over MLP ask blogs on tumblr like 7-8 years ago (holy cow I'm old). I left because of all the petty drama and the stalking from obsessive types. It was bad. Kind of validating to know I wasn't the only one who was dealing with this nonsense.
You have the power of making me listen to an hour long video Owo, I really love ur content, an I started making new MLP oc! Thank you for making this video( even if Im not on ponygram )
I never thought I'd grow a resentment for a fictional horse roleplayer, but oh dear god, and rain i am sorry you dealt with this, i was once part of a group like the elites in the pony gram circle and when i realized i was hurting people I left, losing about 5 closr friends and whole community, but I am happy I cannot destroy others opinions because i said we don't vibe. There was this one girl who was very kind but she said my name with a reverence, like a fan greets their hero, she asked my side of the story, I said "Things didn't work out, they don't always do" and I let them like those people, I do not like that she likes them, but, i know her opinion of me, I don't want her to be hurt or feel anger at my ex friends. Its painful that people are not able to understand their power and their influence.
Thank you for making this video! I've also been a pony content creator on Instagram for around 3 years but I'm not really the kind of person who's interested in roleplaying and stuff like that. I launched my Instagram account in 2019, but after a year or so I began to realize the same problem as well. Creators with thousands, if not tens of thousands, of followers often have more power and control over the platform, which renders it very difficult for small creators like us to be included and gives us an unfair disadvantage. I still remember back in the early days when I was very afraid to text anyone via dm because I was scared of getting blacklisted or blocked by other creators. I've only been making memes and sharing my music on my account these days, but I believe there's a possibility that problems like popularity bias and gatekeeping might be happening in other parts of the fandom as well. Even if I become a well-known brony musician in the future, I would still help less popular creators around and make them feel included in the community. I don't like to see small artists giving up on what they're doing simply because of unfair treatment and popularity bias. Ponygram is supposed to be a fun place for everypony and popular artists should not be the one who dictates and controls everything for the sake of gaining advantages. As an Instagram creator, I was constantly annoyed or even infuriated by problems like these and I really hope it can be alleviated as soon as possible. Thank you for spreading awareness about the issue and thank you for making such a spectacular video!
this pretty much sums up the grammy awards.
I have been in the mlp community for quite a long while but im glad i never went on pony gram plus i didn't even know it even existed at all and i plan on not to go on pony gram after learning about this.
Also great video it's very informative and interesting ❤👌
Thank you for making this incredible video, I was not part of the community or anything of that sort. However I know the feeling of being bullied by bigger creators and having no one to turn to. You were very brave on speaking out and I am so proud of you for that. I'm sure other creators in that community are happy to see someone speak out on this. I hope you are doing well after this ❤️🩹
Hey I am glad that you did this even if you get some back lash i am happy to see others talking about this so thank you :)
I am SO sorry you've had to face stalking like that from creators 💔Amazing video!
Currently walking to the guidance office while listening to this. Love being mentally I’ll 🥰
My only problem I've had with the accounts who shamelessly repost art of their RPed character without credit or permission from the OG artist, pretending its just a photo they took as their character.
Sounds like a kid.
I've seen more harassment on ponygram than all of 4chan's /mlp/ board which is really saying something when 4chan is the less toxic brony space
Oh god. Back in 2013 I used to run a mlp instagram account roleplaying as that god damn apple tree called Bloomberg that appeared in like one episode. It was a joke thing obviously but I remember there was someone who roleplayed as Tom the diamond, (that boulder Rarity was obsessesed with when she got corrupted by Discord) and we used to act like we were best friends. I don't remember much anymore but I had no idea the pony roleplaying accounts were still such a big thing.
BAHAHA NOOO BECAUSE I HAVE A ROSE DIAMOND NEXT GEN!!! LMAO
NO WAY REALLY??? OMG SHE IS ONE OF MY FAV TOY CHARACTERS!! 🥺💕
@@Rainbott ME AND MY FRIEND CRACK SHIPPED HER AND PHARYNX. THEYRE TWINS LMAO AND THEY DO HAVE A PG 💀💀💀
18:59 man that’s horrible I’m not even in the ponygram side of Instagram-I’m sorry that happened to you
im so happy pony instagram is being talked about, i havent finished the video but i remember apple rawr who faked cancer and had a lot of people draw a red balloon for them. shit was crazzzyyy
WHAT??? NO WAY WHAT I DIDNT EVEN KNOW ABOUT THAT ONE
@@Rainbott omg it may have been 2010-14 sometime then it was a huge thing. they just posted pics from google that had cancer patients with iv tubes. there was a whole group that had rawr in their name. haven’t heard anyone talk about it since
I haven't been My little pony fandom outside of my irl circle, but hearing all of this saddens me. It's something I have experience in Genshin fandom in it's own way and it feels like people like this cannot reflect on their own mistakes or do anything to change for the better. Am terribly sorry this is happening in My little pony international fandom as well and especially am sorry you were affected to the point that you had to talk about it to your therapist. Fandoms are meant to be fun and not spaces for bullying. Sending all the support your way Rain!
This is so wild dude. I didnt even know there was an Instagram mlp community where all this was happening.
It was horrible being in that fandom. Trying to get my character's story out there and not succeeding because I wasn't a popular alicorn account.
Also the amount of creeps on that platform..... I hated it.
Man entire hour that not loop! You must have put a lot of work on this
Yay
Thank you for making a video like this Rain,
It’s extremely important to spread awareness about behaviors like this in any community and honestly I hope that whoever acts like some of those popular creators gets to reflect on themself for once to hopefully change for the better..
Wow. I’ve been absent from the mlp fandom since around 2017. And maaan a lot has changed and gone to shit.
I’m very thankful for your videos because they have given me a lot of information and updates!
I will admit, this ponygram stuff seems hella messy, but also feels like a fun concept. I’m probably very late to the party, but I feel inspired to make a page with the story of my own character now! She’s been collecting dust on my shelf of characters for many years now, so it would be fun to bring her story to the world!
Also happy late birthday!!! I turn 22 in a few days, so it’s great to know there is someone of my own age who still has a lot of heart for this fandom!
Maybe we can talk sometime?
How are new and smaller ponygram members supposed to not contribute in some way to the popularity of the problematic people if you guys refuse to even bring up their names? Like who am I supposed to look out for?
That’s a very good point; however, I knew that if I mentioned any usernames in this video, I would risk having it taken down. With that being said, it’s a fairly small community, so most folks have a general idea of which groups were involved with the problem. Recently, it hasn’t been as bad as it once was, but there are still one or two major groups in this video that exist today, and I do take issue with how they’re run, especially now that they’re continuing to collaborate with creators who support VERY unsavory stuff (like I can’t even type it here because it’s bad 💀)
I never knew about any of this! i honestly didn't think instagram could HAVE communities like this! so sorry you had to deal with all of it...
Good lord, this reminds me so much of the HArpg community on dA. What is with equine communities and drama?
I've wanted to join but I feel like I'm too late and too old. I love G1 and G4 has grown on me and I just want to make cute ponies doing cute things and maybe do commissions and collabs...
But, just like HArpg, behavior like this gains the community a reputation...and then people don't want to join. Yeah, every community has it's problems but it also falls to the community as a collective to do better. It can be done but it requires everyone to be on board.
This reminds me of the Drawn To Life fandom, but a bit flipped. I was a really good artist, but only drew for my own enjoyment. Omg. I can’t tell you how many threats I was given by several people moderating random blogs or moderating on the small amino over ocs. OCs! I drew my ocs for myself to make me happy, but these randos would demand I make ocs for them since I can draw. Or they would demand I draw only x,y,x topics that THEY like, and not draw what I like because it’s not “cool”. Whatever! I ignored those type of things.
Just like you though, I did some interviewing with people in the fandom about problems. Mostly on the fandom amino. Out of everyone I interviewed two very specific moderators were always causing strife, not only to me, but other artists too. If you brought up these moderators (with proof mind you) up as a problem in private to an admin, well, might as well shoot your own foot. All the mods would blindly defend problem mod because “friend”, and literally make up anything to attack the person who reported the problem. Even if the only reason for reporting the problem is to help and not hinder.
I ended up ousted from the community from this, but the funny thing is the people I interviewed ended up leaving the fandom too due to the only reason for being is the rp I provided and the generous art I would give. This angered the moderators more, because I must be talking bad. Like no? Your own actions are bad! I don’t have to talk for others to know that! It’s crazy how many people from the Drawn To Life fandom still talk to me and lament how the fandom is dying and miss it when I use to host all the fun group rps. I don’t bother with drama though. I rather stick to my own self made fandom and not have to deal with rando threats.
We need a updated video for this tbh things have gone really sideways by the past few months
i want to just firstly say that my personal experience with ponygram and its community does not invalidate or make anyone else's experiences less true, especially with rainbott's experiences with the community and how horrible it was to them. not to mention everyone else in the comments sharing their own experiences with the horrible people in the community.
i learnt about this community through this video and decided to check it out for myself, this was early june, i decided to join, made a character and i personally have had no first hand experiences with bullying, drama or hateful stuff. I know that my opinion may also change in time and i may end up leaving the community if it became unbearable but I have met some of the most lovely and genuine people through this community and i am grateful to have joined. however. i do believe some specific steps i took have meant i am the safest i can be in terms of not dealing with nasty people, it may not be actually helping but it feels helpful to say as i took a lot of advice from this video of what and who to avoid.
1) i dont take part in events of or interact with any of the major popular people on ponygram.
2)i stay within the "drama free" hashtag of mylittlegram instead of ponygram.
3)my oc isnt canonically anything very important in the world they are just a regular horse and arent incredibly special or the child,partner or family of any canon to the show characters.
4)my oc is only involved in small stories my friends have as like a side character or even as a bg character
cant think of any other reasons rn but like to me those are the main ones that keep me under the radar of the popular people and to kinda shimmy around their circle of hatred.
I also want to just say that i have seen drama, and bewares or DNIs made of people but so far i haven't seen any that aren't true, like the person called out for being racist wasnt random they actually fessed up to it and made an apology about it and the same with homophobia and other people who are bullying or sending death threats to people. people have rightfully been called out for being actually horrible (but i have not been aware about anyone recently whos been chased off the platform because of the examples rainbott has listed like an oc being the kid of an in show character type of thing or just petty nastiness towards a person who did nothing actually bad or that didnt deserve to be called out) but because i have not seen people being unrightfully kicked out does not mean it hasnt happened in that time (june til now), i am just trying to speak from experience from my smaller follower count area of the community.
my opinion of ponygram may change completely in a few months or it may never change and maybe ill never experience the stuff that rainbott has as well as many other artists in these comments. If you don't believe you could deal with "guess who is horrible this time" once every two weeks and the possibility of dealing with nasty people first hand i would not recommend the risk. Even if i haven't got experiences to back up the risk warning many other people do and you should very much consider it before joining.
I am sorry for the ramble and i am not trying in anyway to defend the actions of those horrible people, none of them deserve the platform they are given and the power they hold to sway thousands of people on a whim because someone didnt breathe correctly in their presence. I accept that the community will probably always have a bad rap, no matter how many nice people are there but i promise if you go looking for them there are some lovely people who just want to draw colourful horses, maybe tell a story with em and have a good time and nothing else, me included!
I just wanted to take a moment to anyone who is possibly scrolling the comments a mildly positive thing about ponygram and that not everyone is mental i promise, i may have never experienced the craziness first hand so if you do join be wary!
and rainbott if you do see this thank you for educating everyone about such an important thing and calling out the problems within the community, i am sorry that this was your experience and it put you through so much stress you didn't deserve any of that.
i want to again say that i do not in anyway want my positive experience with people in the community diminish the horrible experiences some of you have had to deal with. I just wanted to share my opinion of the community, my experiences and what i personally think.
TLDR; yes PG is pretty bad but i've so far avoided most of the stuff people say is bad about the community so it seems okay to me but it probably wont be okay for everyone who joins it.
i'm so surprised and yet somehow not surprised at all to hear that, though its general driving concepts seem to have shifted, ponygram is still exactly like it was five years ago. i was active in the instagram mlp community back in 2017 or so, and it was HELLISH. from the constant threat of unoriginality and being called out for copying (a fear that still plagues my creative process to this day) to the heartlessness and bullying to the constantly needless drama and gatekeeping.
the part of the community i was most involved with was the selling and trading of characters, and it got DARK in those trenches. people would sell you a character but tell you that you weren't allowed to trade away or resell them at all - if you didn't want them anymore, you'd return them to their creator, often without a refund. sometimes folks would just "decide" to "take characters back" and tell you you were no longer allowed to use their likeness, all because they had remorse about rehoming the character. there were endless adopt accounts making pony ocs that looked so far removed from the show it was almost laughably outlandish; whether the manes were complicated anime-styled hair, or whether the "pony" looked like you'd smushed any average white girl into the form of a pony. caucasian tones for the coat color, and split-color egirl hair. accessories and outfits more complex than anything the show ever began to toy with. sometimes i wondered if they even watched the show. not to mention how fetishistic those designs felt at times. always weird blush and shine on the flanks. and at the worst of times they'd play with transgenderism like it was an aesthetic. god, i don't miss it, lol.
but i AM glad to know that even though the dark machine of ponygram seems to keep trucking, there are individuals like you who have been negatively impacted and are truly willing to speak out about it. you made me feel heard and justified, years later, about an issue i thought i'd never confront again - so, truly, thank you!! and thanks for reading this long ass comment, if you have :)
As someone who recently joined PG at the start of this year and is STILL in it.... holy fuck. theres "drama" right now (issues with racism so its quite different to a personal disagreement), and like. the people WERE in the wrong for sure, but its been SO overdone, like people have begun to bring personal things into it. and the accused parties have been doxxed and had their family contacted. what the hell
HOLY SHIT
Thats horrible to hear. They are this insane? I hope your safe as well as the people who had Their parents contacted
The behavior and patterns shown in this video is so similar to the experience I had being in the dA Warrior Cat RP community for a decade. Exhausting behavior exhibited by adults
I am from an early batch of MLP fans (I actually never got done watching Gen IV, I think I stopped just one season short), but I do wonder if Ponygram will be worse than what I saw on PonySquare / BronySquare back in the hayday -- get it, hay?? -- I'll leave another comment once I'm through with some thoughts on how the two compare
It’s like I GET how someone’s OC could go against your personal worldbuilding and therefore cannot be canon to your OC’s story, but even when that happens to me I’ll still interact with those OCs? Like, it could be an interdimensional portal, or an AU where we mix the lore somehow. Like yeah if I were to make an official comic or something of my OCs I wouldn’t be able to include those OCs but I would also love to work on stories that mix the two stories or just roleplay with them for fun. And yes, I would draw them together. Sometimes I even ship them but then people get upset that I have different universes where my OCs are shipped with different people like cmon I’m a multishipper 😭
TBH, This reminds me of my Tumblr days. Garden Sage was a swamp green zompony. I do not want to say why I stopped because this comment will be flagged for innapropriate content but suffice to stay, it was a mess.
it all comes back to the fact that applications are based on research done on humans to take hold of your attention span and what gives you that dopamine rush. Instant gratification causing all of us to not see the bigger picture or question why things are the way the were served to us. I suppose, just remember to stand up for your belief in something but not to the point of bringing someone else down or not bothering to take in suggestions to make things better or to see a problem from a different perspective. Sometimes taking some time away from a known source of stress (if you can anyways) will help you think more clearly after some time.
I wanted to stop in and comment, as I am currently active on ponygram and felt an update might be nice to hear. It is a train wreck in a much different way these days. People go after harassment, racism, m4p, z00 and other serious issues nowadays, but things get overblown a lot. There are a lot of stalking allegations i see because people don’t realize they are blocked on a different account (many people have multiple ponygrams) and other things of the sort, but they are treated much to seriously and people get attacked or semi-ostracized occasionally, though it is not an absolutely massive issue. I have dodged most every drama by keeping my head down and minding my own business, which is the mindset of many these days. Ponygram is not so large anymore, it’s mostly a small community of creators with multiple accounts filling it out, and it’s been getting smaller. I don’t think I see it dying super soon, and i imagine even if there is a big fallout some will stay and continue their stories despite everything.
a second thing that happened a few months ago was the formation of a second… sister community i guess i’d call it? which basically used a separate tag (i will not be writing it here out of respect to those who wish to stay out of the ponygram spotlight) to have a quieter, smaller space to hang out, and i have seen it being fairly civil, though it has majorly been combined with ponygram, which i think many saw coming.
I think most people these days are just too tired to fight, there aren’t a ton of newer people and it’s mostly people who were able to make it past all of the original drama. I think if this community goes away it will be more of a fade out, because many people are mentally exhausted from the community wearing them out.
For some brightening after all of this: most every big account that is still active is dedicated to bettering the community, many people there now are semi-sane and i have personally found some great friends, people who you can tell have lived a life past internet drama and who just want to share their art and stories.
on whether to join or not (i’ve seen some comments about it): that decision is on you. I do not encourage nor discourage, I may only offer some advice: do not comment on drama unless it is to spread awareness about something legitimately dangerous, keep to yourself majorly (don’t be rude to others, even if it’s in private to someone you trust, don’t join massive group chats and DEFINITELY do not join a discord, they always go badly, etc etc), be kind, collab with people lightheartedly, and do your best to have fun.
I hope anyone who sees this feels some sort of peace of mind from my messy thoughts and update, and i am so sorry to you, rainbott, who had to deal with all that you did. Good luck to all you ponygrammers out there, whether old or new.
And this is why I never want to be famous. Fuck being famous I just want to write my own characters into the universe. Being famous ain't worth it for yourself. Risk factor for your life and own health is amplified by a ton.
Edit: By universe I mean MLP universe.
I had mlp on instagram as my first instance of online roleplay but it was a different format and like almost a decade ago so color me surprised that this is a topic THIS YEAR
this is why I avoid being associated with any fandom even if I like the thing its based around 🙃
I would've made all my ponies alicorns and not give a shit. What are they gonna do? Not let me join their group? I'm already not joining