Yea. The approach to making an MLP rationalist fanfiction is not to change the original material, it’s by working within the set format to provide rationalist lessons. If done properly probably indistinguishable from the canon episode scripts except for not being in a scrip format and being about slightly more advanced subject matter.
For example, from what I’ve herd about the minicamp:
“Dear princess Celestia, today I learned that although the idea that someponies opinion of you is infuenced by somehting as arbitary and wastefull as fashion might seem unpalatable, it can non the the less be unwise to ignore the fact that it is, even amoung friends. Ponies can not always control their subconius impresions, and this is no reason to in turn judle them.
That’s awesome, now I want to see some of those! There got to be SOME that are not to personal or can be easily modified to hide to personal information, right?
I think you’re both thinking a bit too narrowly about the topic of rationalist MLP fanfiction. It needn’t be about correcting irrationalities of the original material (which I’m guessing was Vaniver’s approach?) but it doesn’t need to just follow the show’s “how to treat your friends” moral lessons either… It could introduce new readers to some really advanced LessWrong concepts.
...ooph, I don’t know if I should share the ideas I have on this or not. Because I am thinking of writing rationalist MLP fanfiction, and if so I’d prefer there’d be some surprised delight from readers.… but if I don’t end up having the time to write said fanfiction, it’s better that I share them, lest they not be known at all.
...I suppose if I don’t find the time in the next few months to write said fanfiction fully, I’ll just share all the ideas I have on the topic in some thread here and encourage anyone else who wants them to pick them up and use them.
My post wasn’t supposed to be “how all rationalist fanfiction should be made”, but rather “how I recommend Vaniver to go about it, given the evidence I have about his strengths and weaknesses as a writer”. Guess I could have worded it better.
I look greatly forward to reading your fic! In fact, since given the priors I have over LWers I guess I probably know more about MLP lore and fan conventions (remember all those things Eliezer said in MoR authors notes about the importance of fan conventions? You’d BETTER give Luna an abacus! ), I humbly offer myself up as a prereader even thou I probably suck at most editorial work given my zero experience.
Also, once you’re done, you REALLY should send it over to Equestria daily. Correcting for writing quality bronies might be an even better recruitment pool than the Harry Potter fandom, since even thou it’s smaller it’s closer to the LW demographic and I don’t think HP has a centralized hub like Equestria Daily which means greater penetration can be reached by something good enough to get on there. In fact, it may be worth having more seasoned LWers, or even Eliezer himself really, look over it for quality.
Yea. The approach to making an MLP rationalist fanfiction is not to change the original material, it’s by working within the set format to provide rationalist lessons. If done properly probably indistinguishable from the canon episode scripts except for not being in a scrip format and being about slightly more advanced subject matter.
For example, from what I’ve herd about the minicamp:
“Dear princess Celestia, today I learned that although the idea that someponies opinion of you is infuenced by somehting as arbitary and wastefull as fashion might seem unpalatable, it can non the the less be unwise to ignore the fact that it is, even amoung friends. Ponies can not always control their subconius impresions, and this is no reason to in turn judle them.
Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.”
In related news, remember the advice that keeping a diary increases happiness? Guess how I’m writing mine. :3
That’s awesome, now I want to see some of those! There got to be SOME that are not to personal or can be easily modified to hide to personal information, right?
I think you’re both thinking a bit too narrowly about the topic of rationalist MLP fanfiction. It needn’t be about correcting irrationalities of the original material (which I’m guessing was Vaniver’s approach?) but it doesn’t need to just follow the show’s “how to treat your friends” moral lessons either… It could introduce new readers to some really advanced LessWrong concepts.
...ooph, I don’t know if I should share the ideas I have on this or not. Because I am thinking of writing rationalist MLP fanfiction, and if so I’d prefer there’d be some surprised delight from readers.… but if I don’t end up having the time to write said fanfiction, it’s better that I share them, lest they not be known at all.
...I suppose if I don’t find the time in the next few months to write said fanfiction fully, I’ll just share all the ideas I have on the topic in some thread here and encourage anyone else who wants them to pick them up and use them.
My post wasn’t supposed to be “how all rationalist fanfiction should be made”, but rather “how I recommend Vaniver to go about it, given the evidence I have about his strengths and weaknesses as a writer”. Guess I could have worded it better.
I look greatly forward to reading your fic! In fact, since given the priors I have over LWers I guess I probably know more about MLP lore and fan conventions (remember all those things Eliezer said in MoR authors notes about the importance of fan conventions? You’d BETTER give Luna an abacus! ), I humbly offer myself up as a prereader even thou I probably suck at most editorial work given my zero experience.
Also, once you’re done, you REALLY should send it over to Equestria daily. Correcting for writing quality bronies might be an even better recruitment pool than the Harry Potter fandom, since even thou it’s smaller it’s closer to the LW demographic and I don’t think HP has a centralized hub like Equestria Daily which means greater penetration can be reached by something good enough to get on there. In fact, it may be worth having more seasoned LWers, or even Eliezer himself really, look over it for quality.