Peter New's Ponyville Ciderfest Incident Report

So, by now, most people have heard about the incident that occurred at Ponyville Ciderfest involving Peter New and a fan who frequents the /mlp/ board on 4chan. An individual posted a photograph of Peter New using a urinal in a bathroom at the convention. Many people were expecting HN to hop on this story like it was a bottle of Fiji in the Desert, but were shocked when we said...nothing.

Well, simply put, we were waiting for the other side of the story to come in, with some sort of verifiable source (We especially are no strangers to convention mishaps, or upsetting show staff, though we've never done something like this).

Ultimately it did, and upon reading the party in question's recounting of events, we feel as though they deserve to be posted publicly. 

http://www.peternew.net/2015/11/24/thank-you-you-know-who-you-are/
Peter New's recounting of the incident is here on his website, it is too long to copy the entire thing, but we shall include the following passages:

Ego, too, though I wonder here if you lost a bit of foresight with the lesson you were trying to teach me. My ego is healthy enough. Some might say too healthy. Alas, you taught me that I’m so important to you that it’s worth owning a picture of me urinating. And more than that, I’m so important and meaningful to you that you felt like all your 4chan friends would be impressed by you because you got to be near me in a bathroom while I had my cock in my hand. And some of them are impressed, too! Wowzers. So many people impressed that celebrities piss too! I want to congratulate you and all your – I’m sorry I’m not up on the lingo for what to call loathsome 4chan anons; I’ve heard “losers” but I was pretty sure “nitwits…’ I’m going with: dickwits: ego boosted, though like I say, I don’t know if it needed it. In any case. It’s a win for you. 

Lastly, I want to thank you for violating me. And it was a violation. Totally. I know because I feel embarrassed, hurt, angry, confused, like it’s my fault, and all of the things someone usually feels when they’ve been assaulted. I’m grateful because it opened my eyes to the inequality within me. See it never even occurred to me to call the police because I’m a man. It wasn’t until it was pointed out to me later that if you had creeped on any of the women the way you creeped on me, the first thing would have been to call the police. And it’s thanks to you that I’m ready to do that next time. Also it’s thanks to you that I’ll be taking stricter precautions: no more going to the same toilets as fans. Or perhaps I’ll have bathrooms cleared for me and guarded while I’m in them. And maybe I should go all out and insist on cons having a police presence.Or I may just cancel all further appearances. I’m considering it all, thanks to you.

It is clear from these remarks that New feels strongly about what occurred. Here, we provide what was said by the subject in question. We have not altered the content in any way from how it was provided to us.

Events as they happened:
The cast being me, Yanon, Banon, Ranon, and Fanon. So I met up with everyone Friday morning through the thread (I hung out with a dozen new anons that weekend it was crazy) those 4 included and we were all chilling and such. Y and B were fans of peter and wanted to get a picture/talk with him. They are poor so they opted to go to the tub panel in which peter was going to get drunk and sit in a tub with not much clothing/casual wear on (the panel was supposed to recreate some other tub thing that happened at another con). They figured that it would be a good chance to meet him in an informal atmosphere. Well they went and I spoke with them after they got back. They said it was silly and they had too much to drink and they were too awkward/there was never really a good chance to meet and get a pic with him because it was pretty crowded. They did take pictures of his antics including the time he walked out in his socks to go to the bathroom. They showed me the picture in question which B took and Y posted it in the thread. 

Throughout the night and next morning people in the thread were talking about it a little and someone suggested they should get it signed. Someone (probably B or R) was talking with some person that knew peter and said he would think it was funny (that he pissed in his socks) and offered to get it printed. People in the thread goaded him on and R eventually decided to show peter (whether he just showed him the pic on his phone or a printout I’m not sure). R came to me later and said Peter wasn’t happy about it and he felt bad. I spoke with VIP staff and no one said he had complained about it so I told R that it was fine and to forget about it. Later in the day I hear from F that people were showing him the picture at the VIP cocktail party when he was flirting with some chick and he got all upset and started telling this story to people about how some creep snapped a photo of him. The conversation proceeded down the “oh those 4channers are passing around a creep picture making fun of you.” “What neckbeard no-life scum.” Etc. And he started telling a couple people about it and the story became more and more embellished. 

I mentioned that to Y, B, and R and told them to not mention anything because Peter could overreact. That was when B posted the apology that everyone has been capping and sharing. Later in the Sunday thread R and B expressed how bad they felt and were depressed about Peter getting upset about it. They thought he would laugh and were just bummed about the whole deal. We discussed it in person and came to the conclusion no one could have seen them and no one knew so they weren’t in any trouble. There are maybe 3 other people outside the five of us who know who it was and 2 of them are close personal friends of mine. A day later peter new posts the rant.

If what this person claims is true, then the incident - while still bad - would be less rooted in malice and more rooted in very poor judgement.

Now is the part where you expect us to take a stand on the incident, and to that we say "why?" Make your own opinions. Is Peter New justified in his anger or is he inflating the situation? Should the anonymous individual provide a formal apology? Is all of this really, really dumb?

Fight it out in the comment section.