The Bronies Get Their Own Charity 417
blackbearnh writes "There's a long history of media fandoms organizing fundraising campaigns, donating blood, and doing other charitable activities. However, even large and well-established groups such as Trekkies/ers and Star Wars fans usually work with established non-fannish charities like the Red Cross or Toys for Tots. Some may see them as a plague on the Internet, the Brony community has taken their charitable endeavors to the next level by going to the trouble of creating a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt public charity. The Brony Thank You Fund received word from the IRS last week that, after nearly a year of work, they had been granted tax-exempt status. The Fund is currently raising donations to endow a permanent animation scholarship at CalArts, and is the same group that made news last year when they became the first fan group to purchase commercial time on national TV, for a 30 second spot praising My Little Pony and encouraging donations to Toys for Tots."
Re:Call me a neigh sayer (Score:5, Interesting)
No, it's clinical fixation disorder when they fill their house with plushies, obcessively decorate their correspondence, make public displays of their obcesson, and insist that these are normal, and not obcessive.
In short, you can like my little pony all you want. But when you go so far as to modify your life such that it now revolves around that show, and you feel compelled to convert others to your obcesson, then there is a problem.
There is a difference between intolerance, and refusal to be converted.
Kor Memorial Scholarship (Score:5, Interesting)
The Fund is currently raising donations to endow a permanent animation scholarship at CalArts
The Klingon Language Institute also has a scholarship [kli.org] so fandom born scholarships are not unheard off.
Heh. (Score:5, Interesting)
Watched the show at the behest of a friend. Liked it, it was very enjoyable. Told a different friend about it.
She got about ten times more into it than I did. She started a meetup group in New York, then created a brony *convention*. She invited me to come up and help.
So I did. And I met a bunch of new, fun people in the process.
I always liked the show, but never took it as far as some of the other fans. The whole thing ended up causing me to meet a large group of fun, quirky people, so overall it was very positive.
I haven't been too involved in the past year, since a ton of drama started up and I got tired of hearing about it. I'll probably still watch the show, but my days of flying up to NYC for cons is over.
Though I'll likely be up there to visit friends in the summer. Oh, and Rarity is best pony. Sorry folks. :)
Re: Can someone explain bronies? (Score:5, Interesting)
I've watched every episode and can say without a doubt that the production quality of the show is extremely good. The story arcs are well crafted, the character building is great and even the side plots have a purpose beyond mere entertainment. The only thing I wasn't thrilled about was the Miss America tie in for last season's finale. It fell flat IMHO. The finale itself was good though.
Gotta say I'm a Pinkie Pie fan, her slapstick comedy routines are timed perfectly. She did a spit take in one episode that had me ROFL.
If I were to place MLP with a peer set of TV series it would be Breaking Bad, The Wire, DragonBallZ, FireFly, Cowboy BeeBop and maybe GOT (it still hasn't proven itself, we'll see how this season wraps up).
Re: Can someone explain bronies? (Score:5, Interesting)
And the main character is a "nerd" portrayed in very positive light
The creator if the show did state that she wanted the main characters to have a wide variety of traits (the hard working one, the nurturing one, ect) as a kind of 'you can be who you want no matter what it is' message to the target audience of young girls. The nerdy one being the lead was a nice touch.
Also, a fun bit of trivia /. readers will probably appreciate, an episode once had a that character [imgur.com] working with time dilation equations [wikipedia.org] here.
hate to admit it, but... (Score:5, Interesting)
Daughter (who just graduated high school) watches My Little Pony (the current incarnation, not that horrible 1980's crap), and I've seen a couple episodes, and ... you know ... kids could be watching worse things. The writers don't talk down to the viewer, the dialog is fast and witty and sometimes genuinely funny, and they don't beat you senseless with the moral.
She was part of a brony group in high school, but about half of them quit when the other half got.... wayyyyy too into it. But that's not necessarily a reflection on the show. Geeks can take anything and make too much of it. (Ahem...)
Re:Call me a neigh sayer (Score:4, Interesting)
Your problem is that you like something more than I would like you to. You need to listen to what I say and spend exactly as much time on your hobbies as I tell you to. If you don't listen to whatever I say, then you're objectively wrong.