I know this is a little over a month old, but I just stumbled upon it today.

http://www.dailydot.com/society/5-signs-fading-fandom-my-little-pony/

Thoughts on this? Personally, I can't disagree with the article entirely as some of what it says is true, but a few of the examples they used (like Tinker's slander thing) were pretty weak in my opinion. However, I am experiencing a loss of interest in the community. My only involvement in the brony community anymore is this guild, watching the show, and I check EqD or Derpibooru when I'm procrastinating or bored. I don't particularly like some of the prominent brony community figures and I'm getting tired of all the pointless slander from "anti-broines" and bronies alike. Don't get me wrong, I still love the show and some of the work the fans produce, but I just don't lurk YouTube for those great remixes like I used to.

Fluttershy wrote:

I just don't lurk YouTube for those great remixes like I used to.

Yep, same. I stopped checking EQD 6 months ago or so as well
The only thing I still do is checking FiMfiction 5 times a day

The novelty of it kind of wore off after the first season for me to be honest.

I just loathe cliche return to status quo happy endings.

I just don't have the time. I have started looking on EqD every now and then since season 3 launch but will probably stop when the season ends. But bronies have a long way to go before dying out.

I think that the biggest problem is articles like that: i.e. articles that take bronies way too seriously. That example of YAC is case and point. YAC is a troll.

(I hope you don't mind my input) - I found the "Brony Psychology 101" article interesting. I'm a new Psychology student and one of the things that I've been leaning towards for future research is media psychology, particularly in the area of online media, since I've spent so many years using it as my primary social medium. I've run online communities as a hobby and I love watching groups of people develop and grow over time with different influences (I actually started out managing a Nintendo WiFi Community called Friendcodes >.>). So yeah, this is something new and interesting to me :p

Admittedly I tend to be quite out of the loop with the goings-on of the internet. I'm usually pretty happy to just sit with a game on one monitor and Facebook on the other <.< But my boyfriend fills me in from time to time - when I let him rant to me - about things he finds, usually on reddit. We're both very open-minded; people are fascinating I just... hadn't heard of bronies.

For the most part, the article's arguments are incredibly lacking.

1) Bullying and drama
I am constantly seeing reports of "bullying" within the fandom. However, I've started to ignore them, because every single time I investigate them it turns out that Brony haters are responsible. They either bully people while pretending to be Bronies, or just flat out lie about stuff that Bronies have done. Examples include the tidal wave of laughably fake rumors of fistfighting at Everfree Northwest, or the recent takedown of the "Little Miss Rarity" tumblr. Statistically speaking, some of them are bound to be true, but as usual, the minority gets exaggerated to make a better story.

2) Big name fans keep their distance
The fact that they took Yamino or the quote about "macaroni" seriously is proof enough that they really had to stretch to find so-called "big names" leaving the fandom.

3) Media oversaturation
The media is bored with us, and we should care...why? This has nothing to do with the "decline" of the fandom, other than pointing out that fewer people are joining. So this point is really just a sub-point of point #4, and they made it a separate point just to pad the article's length. Also, what other fandoms have ever even reached a point where media saturation is even an issue? I can't think of any, except maybe Trekkies.

4) Fewer newbies
The fandom's growth is slowing. The article then proceeds to dance around the fact that this means precisely jack shit. Saying that this implies the fandom is dying is like saying that a forest fire is dying simply because the nuclear explosion that started it is over.

5) Loss of founding values
Not much to say about this one, since they provide nothing to back it up other than one guy's opinion. However, I think that this is the one point that does have some validity to it. But this is only a problem if you view it as some kind of unified religion. Some people, even from the start, just like the show and don't build any kind of moral philosophy around it. I can think of a lot of fandoms that never had any "core values" to begin with, and are still going strong. Do Whovians, Trekkies, or Potterheads have "values"? I'm really not that worried, and I'm someone who actually does embrace the silly "love and tolerance" philosophy.

The person who wrote this clearly did so because they knew it would get a rise out of Bronies. Either that, or they are just paranoid.

Pinkie Pie wrote:

Potterheads

Lol I had to Google that. And found this.

Derpy wrote:

Pinkie Pie wrote:

Potterheads

Lol I had to Google that. And found this.

Fuck yeah Avatar:tla.

From what everypony is saying, it is just another phase in the whole shindig. If nothing else, it will be fun to see how this fandom develops and changes.

Also to Nysma:

Number Five says "INPUT!"

...Anyways, this community is always open to input.