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Sereg Since: Jun, 2010
#35026: Aug 28th 2014 at 12:10:02 AM

I actually don't remember where that term came from, but I get it from context now, which is the important thing.

Seraphem is a fan of my verse. However, his reaction to the reveal that there are flying elephants in my verse left him flabbergasted, especially at how mundanely it's treated.

MidnightRambler Ich bin nicht schuld! 's ist Gottes Plan! from Germania Inferior Since: Mar, 2011
Ich bin nicht schuld! 's ist Gottes Plan!
#35027: Aug 28th 2014 at 1:18:18 AM

From where I'm standing, the feature box has ten stories, not seven. And we actually had a perfect 0/10 sex stories in there once, at the moment we did the first Skype call.

Actually, I think it would be a good idea to ban clop from the feature box, even with the mature filter off. Clop (the more depraved, the better – it won't get popular unless you can slap 20 trigger warnings on it) often dominates the box at the expense of other material; holding clop up as the pride of Fimfiction makes the fanfiction community look bad to the rest of the fandom, and the fandom as a whole to the outside world; and way, way too many people write clop just because it's an easy ride to popularity. Banning it from the feature box would solve all three problems.

edited 28th Aug '14 1:18:40 AM by MidnightRambler

Mache dich, mein Herze, rein...
TheHandle United Earth from Stockholm Since: Jan, 2012 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
United Earth
#35028: Aug 28th 2014 at 2:51:50 AM

Flying elephants are only marginally less plausible than flying horses. Is the race called Dumbo?

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Sereg Since: Jun, 2010
#35029: Aug 28th 2014 at 3:36:04 AM

Flying elephants are only marginally less plausible than flying horses.

That's what I thought.

Is the race called Dumbo?

No, but he was an inspiration. The race is called Loxodonts.

TheHandle United Earth from Stockholm Since: Jan, 2012 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
United Earth
#35030: Aug 28th 2014 at 3:56:18 AM

If people give you grief over that, I'll get flying elephants on my fic just to be contrarian. And their Princely Siblings will be the ANCIENT PSYCHIC TANDEM WAR ELEPHANT.

With some modifications.

But it would be cool to have a Cyborg god Armed with Canon.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
JapaneseTeeth Existence Weighed Against Nonbeing from Meinong's jungle Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Mu
Existence Weighed Against Nonbeing
#35031: Aug 28th 2014 at 5:38:50 AM

For me at least, the thing was more that Pegasi are a pretty well-known mythological creature (and while they weren't originally a species, they're often treated so now), so seeing them in the setting is hardly odd. Dumbo was, even in his own universe, an anomaly. I just thought it was odd to include flight as a standard elephant ability when the only well-known example of a flying elephant in fiction is explicitly identified as being a unique example.

[up]I would approve of the Psychic Tandem War Elephant appearing.

edited 28th Aug '14 5:39:12 AM by JapaneseTeeth

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TheHandle United Earth from Stockholm Since: Jan, 2012 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
United Earth
#35032: Aug 28th 2014 at 5:59:14 AM

Pegasus himself was also an anomaly. He was a demigod, and entirely unique.

It would be interesting to ascribe ponies a divine genealgy. A pony Theogony. Do we personify everything? Is Fate an Eldritch Abomination? Are the Elements of Harmony their own divine, sentient existences?

Perhaps the world stands on top of four elephants on top of a Turtle? That would explain the sunraising powers!

OH, I FINALLY KNOW WHO MY VORLONS WILL BE: THE TURTLES!

"Will we be able to vanquish the Stars' design, or will we all perish?"

Yes.

EDIT: I say, Discord sure had a bunch of nasty kids! He's also the son of the Night, Nyx (not to be confused with Luna/Selene).

Oh, I can sense that fitting the two mythologies together is going to be a headache...

edited 28th Aug '14 6:20:35 AM by TheHandle

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
JapaneseTeeth Existence Weighed Against Nonbeing from Meinong's jungle Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Mu
Existence Weighed Against Nonbeing
#35033: Aug 28th 2014 at 6:22:53 AM

[up]I'm fully aware that the original Pegasus was unique, but we've had thousands of years to expand the concept of "winged horse".

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TheHandle United Earth from Stockholm Since: Jan, 2012 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
United Earth
#35034: Aug 28th 2014 at 6:36:36 AM

That's okay, humanity's not going away anytime soon: the Flying Elephant will surely be able to catch up, in itme.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Unknownlight Since: Aug, 2009
#35035: Aug 28th 2014 at 9:53:10 AM

From where I'm standing, the feature box has ten stories, not seven.

The last three stories don't count. Those are "popular stories that have recently updated". They work on a completely different system from the first seven and cycle through new updates rapidly.

CDRW Since: May, 2016
#35036: Aug 28th 2014 at 10:17:29 AM

Thanks, Midnight. As usual, your suggestions are really helpful.

CleverPun Bully in the Alley from California Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
Bully in the Alley
#35037: Aug 28th 2014 at 10:28:55 AM

@Midnight: The downsides of clop being featured so often have been discussed for as long as FIMfic has existed. Considering the site's lead coder has no less than 96 clop fics in his favorites, I would recommend you not get your hopes up tongue

Besides, leaving the featured box 100 percent automated creates plausible deniability.

And for the record, smut is not a free ticket to the featured box. None of the smut on my alt or main has ever been featured, though a few of them had brief stints in the popular box.

edited 28th Aug '14 10:41:55 AM by CleverPun

"The only way to truly waste an idea is to shove it where it doesn't belong."
Connelly Penguin with mittens from Salamanca Since: Sep, 2012 Relationship Status: Abstaining
Penguin with mittens
#35038: Aug 28th 2014 at 11:08:19 AM

[up] Deniability of active intention, maybe, but not of passive. Being automated doesn't prevent the coder of making the code better. It might just be the "naive still learning programmer" in me, but if it's really a problem, it shouldn't be difficult to...

the site's lead coder has no less than 96 clop fics in his favorites

Oh. tongue

JapaneseTeeth Existence Weighed Against Nonbeing from Meinong's jungle Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Mu
Existence Weighed Against Nonbeing
#35039: Aug 28th 2014 at 11:25:52 AM

I think the main issue is that attempting to police the quality of what makes the feature box could easily lead to legitimate stories being banned because the people who do the coding don't like them. It's basically a choice between the lesser of two evils: leave it so that anything can get it if it's popular enough and risk crap getting in, or filter it more strictly and risk filtering out good stuff.

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Oroboro Since: Nov, 2011
#35040: Aug 28th 2014 at 11:31:59 AM

What would be ideal is user customizable (by genre. Better tags too.) feature boxes, as well as a few other feature boxes in general that focus on things beyond current popularity. Throw a random story box in and then you're talking.

Of course even the current system is miles ahead of something like fanfiction.net

Seraphem Since: Oct, 2009
#35041: Aug 28th 2014 at 11:38:04 AM

Plus, a flying horse, 1. they at least have wings. Yes the size isn't right for them to fly naturally, but they are at least clearly MEANT to fly. 2. Ponies are way way WAY smaller then an elephant. FAR easier to accept them flying then something THAT huge. 3. It's just, not even addressed, no how, why, nothing explaining any of it just BAM Flying Elephant, nothing odd about it at all, see that sight everyday.

And as JT said, Dumbo was a one off, single oddity, further he was only able to fly due to his massively oversized ears, do to a physical mutation AND he wasn't a fully grown elephant, just a smaller young one.

Yes the original Pegasus was one too, but again the idea of a flying horse in general has so infiltrated the collective consciousness that it's not the hard an idea to buy. A flying elephant, not so much.

YamiVizzini Since: Jan, 2001
#35042: Aug 28th 2014 at 11:42:57 AM

So featuring clop is better than featuring nothing at all?tongue

Seriously, though, it's surreal to think that two years ago I hung out on Fanfiction.net so much and was kind of thrown off by FI Mfiction when I was trying to figure out where I could start reading this "Pony POV" thing, and now I check back there so much less often & it feels almost claustrophobic when I do.

(Seriously seriously though, Pony POV and The Immortal Game are just about wholly responsible for getting me interested in FIM in the first place.)

edited 28th Aug '14 11:43:51 AM by YamiVizzini

Seraphem Since: Oct, 2009
#35043: Aug 28th 2014 at 11:52:43 AM

That also raises the question of just what would count as 'clop'. You can have a mature story with sex in it, and not be clop, it would basically be like an R rated movie versus a XXX rated one. And what if said clop DID have some really great writing to it as well?

Not to mention once you ban one things because some people don't like it, where does it stop?

Unknownlight Since: Aug, 2009
#35044: Aug 28th 2014 at 11:59:58 AM

@Oroboro: Knighty says that's happening. He swears. He said so like six months ago.

BornIn1142 from Estonia Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Faithful to 2D
#35045: Aug 28th 2014 at 12:26:31 PM

I used to merely dislike the term "clop," but I've grown to actively hate it the more I see it used.

Unknownlight Since: Aug, 2009
#35046: Aug 28th 2014 at 12:45:20 PM

[up] Do you prefer "lemon" or "porn" or "explicit sexual content" or something else?

TheHandle United Earth from Stockholm Since: Jan, 2012 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
United Earth
#35047: Aug 28th 2014 at 12:54:14 PM

I think just "porn" is enough.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
JapaneseTeeth Existence Weighed Against Nonbeing from Meinong's jungle Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Mu
Existence Weighed Against Nonbeing
#35048: Aug 28th 2014 at 12:59:43 PM

Random question: Would you guys consider the Ponyville town hall an appropriate venue for a wedding? Assuming that they repaired it to the point that it isn't falling apart.

[up]Thing is, some people use it differently. Some people use "clop" to mean "explicit sexual content", regardless of whether it's porn or a legit story that happens to include sex. Others use "clop" as a synonym for "porn", meaning "fap material".

edited 28th Aug '14 1:00:54 PM by JapaneseTeeth

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CleverPun Bully in the Alley from California Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
Bully in the Alley
#35049: Aug 28th 2014 at 1:02:26 PM

To me, "clop" is synonymous with "smut". You could also add "with ponies" but given the Human and Anthro tags that's kind of a blurry line. So lately I've just stopped using "clop" and started using "smut" in all the same contexts. Same reason I don't use the word "brony" (that and it sounds disgusting)

RE: Featured Box filtering; I agree with JT that censorship isn't the answer. The featured box is almost exclusively Sturgeons Law junk to begin with, so excluding things from it is really not going to improve it one way or another.

I'd rather have an author filter for it than a tag filter, TBH.

[up]They used the town hall for the Pie Clone test, so presumably a wedding would be fine.

edited 28th Aug '14 1:03:25 PM by CleverPun

"The only way to truly waste an idea is to shove it where it doesn't belong."
Seraphem Since: Oct, 2009
#35050: Aug 28th 2014 at 1:03:17 PM

Hmmm, it might be, and yeah overall, just, doesn't quite seem right for them. I'd picture it as them setting the whole thing at Sweet Apple Acres.

Yeah I could see them letting them use it just, doesn't quite feel right. Maybe.. doesn't feel special would be a better term.

edited 28th Aug '14 1:04:16 PM by Seraphem


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