en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/5476803 Comments by 9942 http://www.equestriaafterdark.org/2014/03/dark-skyes-dating-sim-revealed-as-scam.html#IDComment805726416 Would anyone care if it's not? Sat, 15 Mar 2014 04:40:00 +0000 http://www.equestriaafterdark.org/2014/03/dark-skyes-dating-sim-revealed-as-scam.html#IDComment805726416 http://www.equestriaafterdark.org/2013/10/tumblr-takedown-half-empty-pone.html#IDComment737199262 Says the people who are unwilling to do anything more than sign the occasional petition and type out a few sentences of rhetoric. Legally, what Tumblr and the trolls have been doing is the same as throwing rocks into the businesses in shopping malls. Mall administration is sending bad-faith and harassing notices to business owners, and the trolls have committed libel, both resulting in damages that those parties are liable for. The fact that so few people have been calling for official action to be taken is a testament to the lack of seriousness in the fight against those who have been increasingly turning parts of the community into bastions of hate and intolerance. I guess it might be fear that these groups would be motivated to move from throwing rocks through digital windows, causing monetary harm to throwing rocks through non-digital windows, causing physical harm. It's understandable, but these groups are the kinds that would do that, anyway, regardless of what we do or don't do to stop them. Sat, 19 Oct 2013 14:13:57 +0000 http://www.equestriaafterdark.org/2013/10/tumblr-takedown-half-empty-pone.html#IDComment737199262 http://www.equestriaafterdark.org/2013/10/tumblr-takedown-half-empty-pone.html#IDComment735431408 What kills me is that nobody here is actually serious about resisting anyone that attacks the the community like this. Wed, 16 Oct 2013 03:37:49 +0000 http://www.equestriaafterdark.org/2013/10/tumblr-takedown-half-empty-pone.html#IDComment735431408 http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/07/poll-results-do-you-like-equestria-girls.html#IDComment686695712 In a way, I guess I feel sorry for you. You've contributed so much to the community, and here you are getting angry and ragequitting because someone disagreed with you, giving an extraordinarily terse reply without any real effort being put into it. I wonder if, my Mr. Henshaw, when I eventually reach your age, I'll be just as tired and unwilling to put out the same effort as in my youth. I avoided telling you to your face that your comments were little more than stock replies that any burgeoning troll would use. I wonder if it was because I respected your forethought in actually engaging with someone in a sea of worthless, quarter-baked half-thoughts? I wonder if it was because of your ability to pick apart peoples' arguments, especially when you thought that they were wrong? It wasn't unreasonable to believe that you had good ideas, a good background, and the dedication to see through with whatever subject you talked about. After all, you make witty comments that are sufficiently brief to get your point across while not adding any unnecessary wording. At the same time, you have the capacity to engage in a lengthy, detailed discussion, taking on religious conservatives at every attempt of theirs to put in the last word. Your wit isn't relegated to just making superficially snide remarks, either. Your experience with the ins and outs of political players and their publications enables you to have insight that the majority of the retard ocean and mindless pandering that is modern political debate could never hope to attain. The easy answer is that I was simply expecting too much. I was wrong. I was just so lazy and was so easily wooed by the fact that you separated yourself from the crowd by using complete sentences and bothered to express an actual opinion that I didn't bother to consider the fact that much of your comments are largely composed of the straightforward and brief dismissals or the cheap, tweet-sized bits of snarky pseudo-wit that have increasingly inundated the Web over the years. So narrow-minded that I believed that that could be enough to think that there could be enough of a glint of intelligence in the common man that it could be forced out at will, like pulling up an iceberg and finding it to be so much more. And so when I pulled, you cut and ran, and I responded as if I should have expected something different. Of course, I've never been one for easy answers. I pulled up the iceberg, and looking at what was taken, I found a handful of snow. And looking down at the waters where it had been, I found nothing in its place. I felt embarrassed for looking for icebergs in a pool of ice cubes, but why? Wasn't my goal, since the beginning, to do just that? Wasn't my goal to seek the oasis in the desert, to find the island in the ocean, to find the mythical double 360 no-scope headshot? I suppose you could ask me what I was planning to do once I got to that oasis, when I found that island. And maybe I could answer that I would argue over how you define what the hell is a double 360 no-scope headshot. Such a thing would just be a red herring, of course. Sure, I had a plan once I found it, but I never expected to find it, so my plan was always left to be half-baked: turn the desert into a flourishing paradise, create a utopia upon the island, do a triple 360 no-scope headshot. Such impossibilities were meant to be so, but fighting toward that goal made the impossible seem possible, and the possibility of failing to achieve the impossible would be just as devastating as failing to achieve the possible. Well, my dear Mr. Henshaw, I could have said that it was all for the simple act of trying to achieve it: achieving the act of acting and having the presence of principle to fight for the idea, rather than the outcome. But fighting just to fight doesn't seem quite right, does it? Even setting out, knowing that you would never find what you're looking for won't prevent the eventual failure of having not found what you knew you couldn't have found. Well, my dear euphgeek, maybe I shouldn't use you as a mere notepad to place disjointed thoughts, but it doesn't seem right to not address you as the human being you once were before you turned to the representative symbol that you are now, especially since I am wont to addressing inanimate text such as yourself as if you were capable of meaningful response. I know that I should tell you such facts that we both already know, like how I am always leaving out most of my thoughts in the text, or that discussing things with a once-human block of text gives a humanistic catharsis that the normal demagoguery to a private blog could never achieve. But somehow this seems different. As if the fact that I am talking to a dead piece of forum text is somehow different than the thousands of other times I've talked to dead pieces of forum text. I know the feeling. It's dread. Fear of finding an all too familiar face. The fear of having searched so far for that metaphorical iceberg where none should be, and finding that it's just another drifting soul from the same mainland, seeking not truth and fact, but amusement from pushing around the commoners. Thu, 25 Jul 2013 05:04:55 +0000 http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/07/poll-results-do-you-like-equestria-girls.html#IDComment686695712 http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/07/hasbro-q2-2013-earning-show-big-gains.html#IDComment685894063 Television programming revenues dropped 18% during Q2. I don't know how much of that was Friendship is Magic, but considering the fact that there were half as many episodes as last season, I doubt that the show raked in as much money as Q2 2012. It may be more reason to cut the budget and transfer more staff over to other projects. Wed, 24 Jul 2013 01:39:55 +0000 http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/07/hasbro-q2-2013-earning-show-big-gains.html#IDComment685894063 http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/07/poll-results-do-you-like-equestria-girls.html#IDComment685877899 TL;DR version: "Now listen to MY opinion! It's the only one that matters!" I may find it amusing that you aim to gain popularity by making the most superficial comments imaginable, but I kind of expected more wit out of you. My response is rife with material for assholes looking to get as many thumbs up their ass as possible. Whether or not you want to throw your hat into that crowd is your decision, of course, but you could have stopped reading after the second paragraph and proclaimed "I find it amusing that you're so full of shit." Or you could have gone classier and stated "You're comparing MMC to tires? Now I know you're full of hot air." Hell, you could have even read nothing, scrolled all the way down, and said "Not everything is black and white, but I can absolutely say that you're 100% full of shit." If you're going to end a conversation with a cheap, pseudo-charismatic punchline, at least put some effort into it. Trolling is an art form. If you want to properly derail a conversation to the point of no return and ensure that nobody ever gets anything useful out of the discussion, don't be half-assed about it. You grew up during the age of Internet BBS and IRC. You should know this. Don't get lazy on me now. Wed, 24 Jul 2013 00:59:52 +0000 http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/07/poll-results-do-you-like-equestria-girls.html#IDComment685877899 http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/07/poll-results-do-you-like-equestria-girls.html#IDComment685850121 You mean the standard that I summarily shot down in the third and fourth sentences of my second paragraph (The paragraph under the opening one-liner)? I guess I should have formatted that better so that it was easier to see. In any case, I believe that subjectivity is a somewhat necessary part of judging whether or not something meets a particular standard of quality, especially when you're forced to rate something as simply "good," "bad," or "mediocre". Still, there is almost always a good deal of objective assessment in those ratings. An example would be determining that a game is "mediocre" based on the fact that its graphical complexity included unusual attention to facial expression detailing, had a soundtrack full of easily forgettable generic rock, and had a storyline that could have been written by one of Michael Bay's interns with characters as flat and one-sided as a 14th century European World Map. Another reviewer could say something different, and come up with a somewhat different assessment, but a careful eye would probably not be radically different, other than shifting around the metaphors a little and noticing various minor details that one reviewer or the other missed. The subjectivity aspect starts to come into question when experienced experts in the field all start saying the same thing about something. With things like electronics and hardware tools, you usually don't have to read too many reviews to determine a general consensus on the quality of something. With movies, television, and other entertainment media, it's oftentimes necessary to get a general picture from no fewer than a dozen reviewers or so. And even then, you have to realize that even if the storyline was bad, scenes were poorly composed, or the audio was cheap, whether or not you find yourself actually liking the media either in spite of or because of its flaws, just like any other product, is simply up to you. On another note, if you want to see a more detailed discussion of this, scroll down. I have a rousing conversation with euphgeek on the matter. I'm kind of a bastard for poking fun at him until he turned into a hateful mess that is as much of an asswipe douchebag as I was being, but he did make a few decent points with MisterArb about opinions about opinions before the eventual devolution. Tue, 23 Jul 2013 23:52:34 +0000 http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/07/poll-results-do-you-like-equestria-girls.html#IDComment685850121 http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/07/hasbro-q2-2013-earning-show-big-gains.html#IDComment685355051 *Puts sunglasses on DSludge* ... Tue, 23 Jul 2013 06:58:23 +0000 http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/07/hasbro-q2-2013-earning-show-big-gains.html#IDComment685355051 http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/07/hasbro-q2-2013-earning-show-big-gains.html#IDComment685354094 I'm going to do like what many Star Trek fans did with Enterprise and lump alicorn Twilight and Equestria Girls in with all the other bad, non-canon fanfic ideas. Tue, 23 Jul 2013 06:56:11 +0000 http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/07/hasbro-q2-2013-earning-show-big-gains.html#IDComment685354094 http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/07/hasbro-q2-2013-earning-show-big-gains.html#IDComment685352849 I should start selling some stock. Tue, 23 Jul 2013 06:53:31 +0000 http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/07/hasbro-q2-2013-earning-show-big-gains.html#IDComment685352849 http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/07/poll-results-do-you-like-equestria-girls.html#IDComment685351424 You could have written "Fuck you," and the only thing I would have thought is that you are rather direct and succinct. As much as anyone could note your hypocrisy in judging my opinion, and then telling me to keep my judging of other people's opinions to myself, I think that my intentionally provoking you and bringing out your inner, mindless raging should be left to no more than 3 sentences, despite your intentional douchebaggery. Also, I upvoted your comment because it's amusing. The only process that I could think of that doesn't specifically seek an outcome while examining a case is the process used by the United States appellate courts. I used that example because most other appellate courts on the planet don't go out of their way to not look at the end decision made by the lower court just to determine if the evidence and presentation were done to protocol. Most appellate courts, like most peoples' common sense would dictate, pretty much do an entire retrial, with a re-presentation of the arguments and the evidence and come up with an independent decision. American courts only retrial if it was determined that the process was so inadequate that justice could only be done better by using an entirely different process, facilitated by a retrial. There is something to be said about the subjective nature of determining what is good or bad, but the determination of basic facts about a subject is something that should be immutable. If a battery is liked by more people, does that make it better? If a movie is liked by more people, does it make it better? You can't deny that people like what they like, but you can't deny that if someone likes a battery more, it's incorrect for them to say that the battery is better because it lasts longer. It's also incorrect to say that the life of a battery is just an opinion. In Magical Mystery Cure, the songs added to the storytelling and moved the plot along, but used up valuable time that could have been better used for exposition that would have been a superior aid to the story. You're free to like or dislike the end result as much as you want, but to claim that it only helped the episode or only hurt it is a disservice to what it actually did. Each element of something contributes to the end result of that something. Whether it's the wording of a sentence in a novel, the reliability of the contact electrodes in a battery, or the tread spacing on a tire, each element contributes to or detracts from the various functions of the something, albeit to a variable degree. This is especially true when considering the case of the reliability of a tire. The overall reliability of a tire is determined by the various elements that make up the product. The treads allow for traction, the material allows for resilience, and the valve mechanism keeps air in the tire. There is certainly some room for interpretation for the term "reliability", though. A tire can be subjectively determined to be unreliable if it explodes at random intervals or reliable if it doesn't lose air as fast as other tires. It's incorrect, however, to state that reliability is totally and completely up to one's opinion. It's also incorrect to state that you like a particular tire because of its reliability, citing that its treads keep consistent contact with the ground, and people citing concerns about how it also creates a consistent hydrofoil during rain is just a matter of opinion. In the same way, a piece of entertainment media, like a song or a movie has elements in it that determine what, exactly, the product does. Schindler's List entertained people, but used means of horrifying as well as identifying with audiences in order to send a message, as well. It also served to be open enough to audiences to serve its purpose to investors of being profitable. Whether or not you feel like the film was a "success" may be an opinion, but to think that opinions like "The film was not a success because it was silly and hilarious," are just as valid as "The film was not a success because it sought to censor some of the more atrocious scenes in order to capture more audience share," is wrong. And an opinion like "Schindler's List was a great action movie that set the stage for Jet Li films with its use of thrilling, fast-paced action sequences" is just outright incorrect. Not everything is black and white, but to say that absolutely everything is a perfect 50% shade of gray is wrong. Tue, 23 Jul 2013 06:50:20 +0000 http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/07/poll-results-do-you-like-equestria-girls.html#IDComment685351424 http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/07/poll-results-do-you-like-equestria-girls.html#IDComment685296841 You could say the same thing about cheap beer. I don't bash people for genuinely enjoying something, but I do bash them for enjoying or hating something and then turning around and saying that whatever it is that they enjoyed was good or bad based on that gut feeling. I could make an appeal to your humanity and say that it does a great disservice to those that actually put the time and effort into making a finely tuned and truly great product when people treat all of their hard work, as well as the superior product that they made as simply something that can easily be dismissed as being subjective and just an opinion. I'm not that kind of person, however. I don't care how much time and effort someone put into making a polished product, so long as the product does what it intends to do and does it in a properly effective manner. When the general public begins to claim that bad products are worth more than they actually are or that good products are worth less than they actually are, there starts to be a problem. A cheap beer gets you drunk, like any other beer, but it tastes like crap, and isn't worth as much as more expensive beers for a reason. People's enjoyment and appreciation of something is different than the quality of the product or service that they used to acquire that enjoyment and appreciation. I find that most people make the mistake of confusing their feeling towards something with basic facts about it, like liking a Chia Pet and claiming that it produces more oxygen than an average plant just to justify liking a shaped rock with moss growing on it. I, for one, like my Chia Pets, IKEA furniture, and other crappy goods just fine even if I know that it's only because I devoted time and effort to it, rather than because it's actually valuable or useful. I wonder if some peoples' inability to distinguish between liking something and whether or not something is actually valuable or useful is something as immutable as recognizing colors or faces? Tue, 23 Jul 2013 04:38:36 +0000 http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/07/poll-results-do-you-like-equestria-girls.html#IDComment685296841 http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/07/poll-results-do-you-like-equestria-girls.html#IDComment684725632 My opinion, unlike most people, is like that of a United States appellate court. I really don't care what the outcome was, so long as the process to achieve that outcome was done correctly. The movie, just like many movies, made money because of a success in marketing and distribution. It's much like how The Smurfs 3D was successful enough to warrant making a sequel. Most people that watched it and proclaim that it was a genuinely good movie because they liked it are generally considered either small children with no frame of reference or likely on psychotropic drugs. Most people that love or hate something rationalize why they do so, and that's generally accepted, but only up to a point. Owl's Well That Ends Well wasn't a particularly good episode, but the cheesy wink at the end caught many viewers off-guard, shaping their dislike of the episode and put the more negative portions that they remember in an even worse light. They may have voiced their dislike of a lower-tier episode, but it was exaggerated by their personal bias. They were right in that the episode wasn't that good, but it doesn't mean that they were right. Take a moment to read that last sentence again. Most of them weren't able to look past their own outrageous biases and determine what was actually wrong or even what, in particular, set them off. The fact that their final conclusion was the same as the final conclusion of someone that could objectively determine what elements went right or wrong doesn't mean a whole lot if they can't be right due to anything other than by random chance. Just because you like or dislike something doesn't make your reasoning for it valid. There might be a gray area between right and wrong, but just because someone is skirting the edge of that area doesn't mean that they're completely within the gray zone, and to say that a person's opinion is firmly within the realm of being "just an opinion" is wrong. Mon, 22 Jul 2013 07:58:33 +0000 http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/07/poll-results-do-you-like-equestria-girls.html#IDComment684725632 http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/07/poll-results-do-you-like-equestria-girls.html#IDComment684703763 A different opinion, then you. Some opinions are valid, then there are some that are just rationalizations of prejudices formed before you get to know something. I can't say that I didn't enjoy Equestria Girls, but the main reason why I enjoyed it was because it was formed from the idea of ponies, and that the rather large number of sight-gags kept the thing going. Taking a step back, I realized that the enjoyment I got out of it wasn't because it was good. The enjoyment that I got out of it was something similar to what the average brony would feel after watching Pirates II: Stagnetti's Revenge. It was a visceral reaction that doesn't mean anything, and doesn't validate the movie any more than getting plastered on some mediocre wine would make the product somehow good. I really don't care if you enjoyed it or not. That's not the point. People have the right to enjoy crappy products or hate great products all they like, but to say that a crappy product is good just because you like it or that a great product is crappy just because you dislike it, and that other people's opinions on that fact are somehow less valid than they actually are is a testament to your obvious bias. In this case, MisterArb is more right. There are many individuals that liked that Magical Mystery Cure because the songs were catchy for them and the animation was good, at least in comparison to the fanmade flash animations that they usually watch. Not all of them were drones, but you can't deny that there was a propensity of blind pony asskissing going on. The episode was rushed and felt more like the staff was forced to take the movie idea that they put alot of their hard work and effort into and turn it into a cheap episode to sell toys. And then they were forced to turn that idea of a movie into another cheap advert to sell toys. I can't say that I really blame the company's executives for making that decision. If I was in the children's toy business, I'd have done the same. Mon, 22 Jul 2013 07:10:22 +0000 http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/07/poll-results-do-you-like-equestria-girls.html#IDComment684703763 http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/07/equestria-girls-poll-updated.html#IDComment680656779 Somehow, I think that claiming that you like a movie simply because it kept you entertained is a poor excuse to support something like that. Maybe you're liking more than a normal moviegoer would simply because you paid to see something that was rather bland and mediocre. Your review indicates that it would have probably been about as entertaining as watching Fantastic Four or Ted. Just because something occupies your time, and you willingly sit through it doesn't mean that it's good. Doesn't mean that it's bad, either, but it also doesn't mean that you're obligated to support it or your actions around it. I wasted some time and money going to a theater to watch it with some friends. It was worth it to me, not because the movie was good, but because I watched it with some friends. The movie was a cliché children's cartoon with very little going for it, story-wise. And I'm not talking about childrens' movies like Toy Story 3, which got top ratings and awards for its storytelling prowess. I'm talking about stuff like Strawberry Shortcake: Sweet Dreams and other things that you might find in the bargain bin at your local Safeway next to the checkout counters. The slapstick-style comedy elements were what kept the entire thing going, but that kind of thing wouldn't last long to keep the parents in the audience occupied unless the latter half of the movie had been directed by Seth MacFarlane. The children, on the other hand, would be best kept occupied by giving them an iPad and the Gameloft game on it. Tue, 16 Jul 2013 01:27:54 +0000 http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/07/equestria-girls-poll-updated.html#IDComment680656779 http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/07/equestria-girls-poll-updated.html#IDComment680648185 I find it interesting that this fandom had started out as a means to defy the stereotype that ponies were nothing more than toys for little children, but when parts of this community and the art that it bases itself on doesn't live up to expectations, people are quick to dismiss everything as little more than that same stereotype. Many individuals came into the brony community proclaiming that their lives were saved because of it and that they were able to avoid suicide because it lifted them out of a horrible time in their lives. Now that it's served its purpose, it becomes easy to discard the fandom, its hopes, and its goals like yesterday's garbage. Tue, 16 Jul 2013 01:05:17 +0000 http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/07/equestria-girls-poll-updated.html#IDComment680648185 http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/06/equestria-girls-dolls-popping-up.html#IDComment669642601 Wait, what? Do you have a link to that trademark registration? I sincerely hope that they're not going to keep driving this freefalling train off of the cliff any further. Fri, 28 Jun 2013 05:08:03 +0000 http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/06/equestria-girls-dolls-popping-up.html#IDComment669642601 http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/06/equestria-girls-dolls-popping-up.html#IDComment669640380 Though music is oftentimes an extremely important part of a scene, and can be an important driver for actions and atmosphere, much like many scenes from Shrek or Disney's Little Mermaid, it's not necessarily a quintessential part of every film or production. Some shows and films can express atmosphere and action just fine without the need for strong musical cues, such as in some of the darker scenes in Schindler's List. A good director is definitely noticeable when they don't even need to use music throughout a film, such as Poetry, where the tension and emotional investment is cued with a very minimalist use of sound, and focuses almost entirely on the story and situation that the scenes place the characters in to move the narrative, and the audience forward. I don't doubt that music is important for many great films, but if your writing, acting, sound, or video editing departments are proficient enough, a director with sufficient skill can make an excellent film without having to use an entire department. Except for writing. Good writing can make a poorly animated film good, but bad writing will never make even an excellently animated film good. Fri, 28 Jun 2013 05:02:38 +0000 http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/06/equestria-girls-dolls-popping-up.html#IDComment669640380 http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/06/equestria-girls-dolls-popping-up.html#IDComment669624694 Hey, I want these! I need to make another YouTube video where I'm throwing dolls into wood chippers and lighting them on fire. I always need a steady supply of God-awfully disgusting dolls. Fri, 28 Jun 2013 04:26:03 +0000 http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/06/equestria-girls-dolls-popping-up.html#IDComment669624694 http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/06/hype-equestria-girls-eqd-and-twilight.html#IDComment669622687 This is, by far, the most helpful comment that I've seen on here. It's too bad that well thought-out replies and fairly well-done analyses like yours are oftentimes completely ignored by the majority of people. I suppose that I can make a comment about throwing pearls at swine, but really, the main reason that I ever bother to do that is because it's occasionally fun to hit a swine in the eye with a pearl, or jam one up their nose. Fri, 28 Jun 2013 04:21:02 +0000 http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/06/hype-equestria-girls-eqd-and-twilight.html#IDComment669622687