When it comes to drama, there's no bettering FA. With a single picture they've thrown what seems like every user into hysterics. It's absolutely delicious. (Yeah, it's a banner journal. So what, want to fight about it?)

To get the point out of the way, I'm a fan of the show, and the banner. I'm by no means a rabid, obsessive fan; just someone who enjoyed the show and all the jokes that flow from it. And on a website that houses thousands of pony-based images, covering all sorts of mediums and subject materials, it seems appropriate that homage is to be paid. Of course, as I'm sure any one of us can tell about the number of journals based around it, not everyone feels the same way.

Drama is not new to FA. Not at all. Hell, the fandom and even the internet in general are sources of it. But it's a natural byproduct of things like this, where information is exchanged so rapidly and on such a grand scale. We're all looking for different things, and when we find stuff we're not looking for it makes us a little upset. That's why historically FA has been known to be prone to a flurry of "srs bsns" that we all get tired of hearing. In an art site that houses both a large variety of clean and pornographic art, with each having similar tags, streams are bound to be crossed. I can't tell you how many times I'll have stumbled upon fanart of my favorite TV show (Tiny Toon Adventures) only to find a comic of Babs giving a strip tease and Fifi being puffed up to the size of a blimp. Or worse.

I'm a firm believer in "to their each their own." I don't necessarily agree with a lot of the stuff out there, but hey, if you're into it, go for it. For a majority of users here, I think the same is true. Disputes get raised every now and then, and from what I've seen it's from been something somewhat understandable- snide comments over art quality (looking at you, Alexx) or the aforementioned porn. So the conflict of interest is natural, and visible in all walks of life, not just the internet. But what makes things blow up like they have over MLP?

The answer, in a word, is visibility. I've played a game with my friends where we turn off the mature filter on my account and refresh the front page, betting how many times it'll take before we get a page where the twelve most recent submissions don't include something pornographic. (We've only played a few times but I don't think we've ever been successful.) These days, a similar game could be played with pony-based images, and I think the same results occur. However, you don't see nearly as much hatred for the porn as you do for ponies. Based on what I've observed, I think there are two mane main reasons:

1. The people doing the hating: A good part of the time, it seems to be someone on this website for pornographic purposes. Or at least, people who like "serious" art. People who don't like the porn here can turn it off and go about their lives, innocence intact. You can't turn ponies off, however, so if you don't like it, then you're just going to be bugged endlessly by it being shoved down your throat. If not for the mature filter I would have stopped browsing on this site a long time ago, so I can see how distasteful stuff everywhere would be frustrating. It's not a fair comparison to make, I'm aware, but it at least puts things in perspective a little. So with a group not accustomed to being frustrated to user content, they're bound to be more outspoken.

2. Artists are drawing ponies, not original stuff: This is secondary, but something I've seen. A lot of artists I like have done some pony stuff, and it's both entertaining and refreshing. But again, if you didn't like ponies, it'd suck to see artists you liked suddenly doing nothing but just that. I know if people I liked started drawing dick all the time I'd be upset. I can't help but refer to the case of an artist whose work I love, Thorn, who posted beautiful pony art (check her scraps), and subsequently journals apologizing about it based on negative feedback. Frankly, that sucks and shouldn't happen. If you want to be butthurt, don't do it to artists who enjoy things enough to make fan-based pieces. Keep fighting in the comments so much and we'll start to look like YouTube.

So, what's to be done? Well, there are two obvious courses of action. First, we could all grow up and learn to respect each other's differences. However, there's no way in hell that'll happen, so we'll have to settle for something simpler: We keep opinions to ourselves. A speaker they brought in to address my freshman class said "If you can't accept something, at least tolerate it." There's a lesson there the internet could stand to learn.

TL;DR: Ponies are such a hot button issue because it's everywhere on FA in the same way porn is, but even more present due to its clean nature and lack of a filter. So, with people's inherent distaste being aggravated into full-blown hatred over seeing it everywhere, drama results. We all need to learn to just stop ourselves from starting, or at least fighting, flame wars. If you hate drama in general, don't start it, or even bring the subject up. Toleration is a beautiful thing.

I'm being hypocritical in regard to my own advice in that last paragraph, but it still holds true. I couldn't sit idly by without making a journal no one would read about the subject, so here you all go. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some hunting to do for the first episode of season two. May all your days be happy and your future drama-free.