As you may or may not know, I am a huge Sonic the Hedgehog fan. I think it's a great series and have never played a game that I disliked. However, I believe that the Sonic series has just about the worst fandom ever. This article details just how annoying and petty the fanbase can be.

http://gamebabble.wordpress.com/2010/02/22/sonic-and-the-wors...

This is a great read for Sonic fans or anyone who like a look at his history. Discuss the article here.
NOTE: The article may contain one or two instances of mild language. I can't vouch for the comment section.

I wish I could favorite this thread. Just the existence of recolors makes every Sonic fan look ridiculous.

I've seen worse...articles. It was overly long, really petty, and just...not that good. :/ The fandom really is terrible, though, but I don't think even half those "reasons" were worth mentioning. He's muddled his own point with loads of useless information.

Oooooooh yeah. Anyone who doesn't realize it most likely is part of the problem. Them and poogeymanz can just be abysmal sometimes. They don't reflect the games themselves though.

Some Sonic fans are pretty much like MLP fans, without the love and tolerance and with more anthropomorphic features.

Gotta love all the "Original" characters.

I love Sonic the Hedgehog, he's a really cool and iconic character! But unfortunately its impossible for me to find fellow people who enjoy but don't take it too seriously. I just treat the Sonic series like any other game series, I play, I enjoy, I sometimes talk about it. But for practically any other person out there on the internet its just horrible Fanmade Characters and Fan Fiction, not even a mere mention of the game series just some seriously disturbing and poorly drawn stuff. Just go to Deviantart, search "Sonic" and click "Newest" and you'll see what I mean...

Here's the thing, though - how is that any different from any other fandom? That's a big thing that I felt that article failed to point out for the most part. Yes, it sucks, but so what? Every fandom has to deal with that crap. Why should Sonic be special and free of all the baggage? The only problem I can see that you don't see with a lot of others is that it's a large fandom, so it's problems seem bigger.

Well from what I've seen, I believe its just that the Sonic fandom just really "gets in your face". I mean like, almost EVERYWHERE on the internet there's someone making horrible Sonic fan-characters for no reason. Why the Sonic series receives this disgusting amount of attention? I have no idea, but its definitely not helping his image. But I just try to ignore it and enjoy the games, because in the end thats all I really care about in the Sonic franchise.

I'm not sure if I understand what you're saying here. What do you mean by this?

THERE WAS LITERALLY AN AD FOR A FANMADE SONIC FLASH GAME AT THE TOP OF MY SCREEN.
WHAT IS THIS

I had adds for a Sonic Exfoliating Brush and an add for getting a job at a Sonic restaurant. Darn cookies.

Because The Internet. And because, as I said, it's a large fandom, so it seems like a bigger problem. In reality, There's just as many, if not far more people who just enjoy and occasionally enjoy the talk about the games, just like you, as there are people who get serious enough into it to contribute their own works to the fandom.

And honestly, the only difference I can see between the Archie comics these days and the (non-erotic) Sonic Fanfictions is that one's official and the other's not.

What I'm saying is: This is the price to pay for popularity. Every popular fandom has to deal with this kind of stuff. Why would you expect Sonic's fandom to be any different? Why should it be any different? Those are all honest questions here.

One word: Sonichu.

You've proved nothing but your own fallacy. I'm done here.

Honestly, I can never get mad at people hating on the Sonic fanbase. There's a disturbing number of them that are...well...disturbing. I don't know why people who are clearly not well are attracted to the series so much even compared to almost anything else.

@CanisWolfred - I wasn't saying that I expect the Sonic Fanbase to be perfect. The article was just explaining why it went so far downhill and how it's so unreasonable. I know that lots of fanbases have problems like these. It just seems like the Sonic series got a particuarly bad and vocal one.

There are all kinds of Sonic fans, though. Classic fans, Adventure fans, Modern fans, cartoon fans, comic fans, casual fans, hardcore fans, kids, adults, teenagers, and fans that are a mix of multiple things. It's hard to pin it down to saying things like: "the kid who plays Sonic CD is the equivalent of the guy who made Sonichu."

It's a bit disingenuous.

Yes, there are fans who go overboard, but no more than there are Mario, Pokemon, or Zelda fans that are just as vicious or out there. The Sonic fanbase just became a punching bag because of Shadow, 06 and Sonic's general lapse in popularity a few years ago that people actively seeked to mock it by searching for this stuff. There's even worse Pokemon related stuff out there, but you don't hear about it nearly as much.

You people may think that Sonic has bad Fanart,but i'm gonna compare it to a Series that has even worse fanart...

I don't think the Sonic fanbase is anywhere near as bad as it used to be.