Tumblrin Down the Other Hole

Don't get me wrong, we here at Horse News love shitting on Tumblr.  And we, like the internet-drama-obsessed socially awkward neckbeards we are, enjoy talking about how bad Tumblr is at every possible occasion.

But, at the end of the day, we like to think of ourselves as totally are legit journalists and as such are compelled to present multiple viewpoints to every story.

FAIR AND BALANCED!!!

And Tumblr, much like a good woman, has more than one hole for us to probe around in but usually whines and bitches about it when we want to do so.  And, after a bit of poking and prodding, we were able to learn that there actually are things on Tumblr besides social justice warriors and a few remaining /b/ and /pol/ accounts from the July 4 raids.




Yes, believe it or not, there are a few brave souls out there who go on Tumblr to run Ask blogs, not just to bitch about an imaginary patriarchal rape culture or take screenshots of those people to put in their satyrical pony news website. With a bit of our signature Horse News Investigative Journalism™ (by which I mean I bumped into the guy at a convention), I was able to track down toonboy92484, best known for running the Ask Pirate Dash blog, and make shady under-the-table deals to convince him to answer a few questions:

http://askpiratedash.tumblr.com/

 
HN:  Why did you choose Tumblr as a medium for your work over other social media or art sites?
APD:  Tumblr is the place where I got the most feedback and replies. I've had a deviantART page for over 10 years, but before I discovered Tumblr I only had about 90 followers there. On Tumblr, I got 100 followers in the span of a month. And it only grew from there. So because I knew Tumblr was were I could get feedback and interactions more frequent than all my other sites, that's where my focus was.
     
A lot of our audience knows Tumblr mainly for SJWs, especially after some of Chelis’ articles. Could you give us a basic summary of what “Ask” blogs are and what kind of work you do on yours?
The ask blog community is collectively know as 'Tumblrpon'. And the community is basically blogs where the moderator will pick a pony or a group of ponies and portray them in their own vision. And people will submit questions to help further a storyline on an ask blog, have a one-off answer, or a combo of both.
What I do on mine, Pirate Dash and my OC ask blog Mic Boom, is take in asks and answer them the way I think the characters would. Answers on Mic are used to help develop him as a character. And PD is an alt-canon universe where it's Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle as pirates, and the adventures they have.

So in many ways similar to a CYOA?
You can have CYOAs as an ask blog too. What separates ask blogs really is that the moderator has a little more control on the direction of the story, characters, settings, etc.

Where did you get the idea to combine pirates and ponies?
The idea actually came from a deviantART group prompt. The group was an alumni group of sorts for people that participated in the first round of EQD's Artist Training Ground event in the summer of 2011. One of the themes was pirates vs. ninjas. So I (lazily) slapped a tattered vest and eyepatch on Rainbow Dash. I followed that with a pic of her 'capturing' one of the group's mods. And I was still in love with the concept. At the time, Mic wasn't doing as well as I hoped as an ask blog. So I opened Pirate Dash, gave her Bookworm (Twilight) and Scoots as crew members, and the rest is history.

"Why's all the rum gone?"

What is your favorite Ask blog besides your own
Oh man, that's a toughie because there's so many. Ask King Sombra by Wiggles is up there. She made him more interesting than what the show portrayed him to be. Some of my other favorites include Ask Libra Pony, Ask Sketchy Twi, Out of Work Derpy, Milkmare of Trottingham, Needs More TwiDash. There's so many and I know I'm forgetting some, and I feel bad about the ones that I am forgetting.

What is the weirdest piece you’ve ever done
I haven't really ventured into too many 'weird' stuff persay. I've done risqué pics (bad ones really) if you look hard enough. The only one I can think of is where PD has fire shooting out of her mouth after eating a habanero pepper, because I did something similar during Trotcon last year.

What is the best (or weirdest) risqué picture you’ve done?
It was an edit I made to a PD post, where Bookworm is gagged, implied to have her hooves bound behind her back, and looking bashful. It's kinda lazy, lol

Have there been any bad or strange questions you've been asked or art requests you've received that you had to turn down?
I never really get art requests, so I can't fully answer that part. And I don't seem to attract the weirdo/creepy asks that other blogs do. It could be because I have anon turned off though. I'm pretty vanilla there, lol

Any ships you like (besides TwiDash)?
I'm fond of RariJack for the opposites attract aspect. There's an in joke that I ship Flutterfire, which is Fluttershy with actual fire. I've found that I tend to hate certain ships more than like them.

What’s your least favorite one, then?
I hate Doctor/Roseluck. I'm not a fan if Doctor Who at all, and Roseluck is one of my favorite background ponies. So when that started to take off in S4, the 'NOPE's picked up.

Best and worst pony, go.
Best pony is Rainbow Dash slightly edging Twilight, and worse pony hands down is Doctor Whooves. Though I do like his CCG card.

"I'm the captain now"

Any fun experiences with SJWs on Tumblr?
Oh do I. I won't name names (as best as possible), but I called out one guy who runs a FlutterDash blog for a terrible social justice joke he made, which was basically rolling my eyes and saying it sucked. He proceeded to call me trash because I wasn't 100% on board with the lynching and death of Ask Molestia. Then I drew PD and mod pone saying 'I heard you were trash, me mod.' 'Oh that's just garbage.' Because puns, which is all I'm know for it seems. Then the lover of a very infamous SJW picked up on that, and called me a 'rape apologist' and all that. So it blew up into a big argument with no victor.

Well, at least they didn't message your family members about it. What was your favorite moment from TrotCon? (Yes, I did this shortly after TrotCon. Shut up, I'm busy.)
My favorite moment from Trotcon was getting to meet Andrea Libman and getting a pic with her. And I gave her some of my prints with Pinkie and Shy as a gift too. It was so amazing, and she's a sweet and funny person. And it also gave me a story with a mane six VA.

More accurate representation of why it's taken me so long to get this article up

When will Pirate Dash and Twi have sweet lesbian sex (as requested by Toast)
You act like it hasn't happened yet ;)
We demand pics.
I shall provide when I return home. There's plenty of pics of them pre-Bookworm makeover. Post-makeover, I gotta work on that, lol
Warning: NSFW links (but hey, if you're stupid enough to read HN at work, you'll probably be clicking on these anyway...)
http://thebootydepot.tumblr.com/post/78518812817/have-a-nsfw-edit-of-bookworm-from-the-latest-pd
http://hladilnick.tumblr.com/post/60116771789/meanwhile-in-the-fungeon
http://nsfwzed.tumblr.com/post/52457935791/request-for-tj-pirateworm-bondage-thats-all
http://thebootydepot.tumblr.com/post/38445611895/dashaloomodblog-pirateworm-and-the-magic

Sounds good. Anything else you'd like to add or shamelessly self-promote to our viewers?
For pirate fun, check out Pirate Dash. For nervous weather pegasus pony fun, check out Mic Boom. For mod blog fun, check out piratedashmod. And for everything else, search toonboy92484. A warning for Twitter, there's a lot of sports.