I got way too late to the party
>>43533650it was 20% cooler
>>43533650Eeehhh... more lousy, very annoying and idiotic too, you got way more fanart and stuff, but also more idiots crying and fighting over ships and shit.
I think that "being late" is great. There is a colossal amount of content produced over the years to consume.
>>43533650being late means you come when it dies.when it mellows out.or when it becomes truly awful.
>>43533689You have a point Though, I imagine the feeling and the community itself wasn't quite the same back then. Just kinda curious about it
>>43533650The porn had more soul.
>>43533650Human pussy on ponyPre-goobergate Tumblr being the main hub for pony content.
>>43533650karen got mad because we liked tard pony, faggots got mad because we like political pony, we captured and held the entire internet hostage with memes for a fiew years at some point, also in between those things we got confined here.
>>43533845What about pony pussy on human?
>>43533854I always just thought derpy was clumsy and not tarded, I don't know why people had to get mad at the bestest and cutest pony ever.I think they did this because they're upset they'll never have a soul and pure and beatuiful as derpy's.
>>43533864That's what EqGs are for
I joined the fandom back in 2013 when my older brother’s friend introduced me to it. It was amazing time to be around for, but being young and broke meant no cons. I didn’t even get to experience BronyCon because I was still pretty young when it ended for good. Though sometimes I wonder how legitimate my brony status was back in the day, considering that I almost never watched the show and was mostly involved in the fandom. Plus, I lost interest in a few years until I rejoined the fandom back in late 2024. I feel like such a fucking dumbass for not engaging more with the show and the fandom when I was younger and it was all in its prime.
>>43533662Were the yurifags as annoying as they are nowdays or were they somehow even worse?
>>43533650There's always jokes about autism and schizophrenia but nowadays they are more true than jokes. There was a lot of excitement in the past and nowadays the only people who are left are retards, faggots, gatekeepers, and actual autists; I sometimes check back in to see but I do it less and less. Now I do it years apart.I still remember the early ytps, waiting for new .movs, the threads that were on here like the FNAF Pinkie one (I think a few of my posts got screenshotted for the screencap), and fanfics like Malideus or figures like Chatoyance. I was always a fair-weather fan and never considered myself brony (actual bronies are furries in denial) but it all seemed like an exciting shitpost gone out of control. Crazy how big MLP used to be.
>>43533650You just had to be therehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLjYP9AbNf8
>>43533662>shipsMaybe if you were on the tumblr side of the fandom.
>>43533948Sounds like it would've been fun to be thereShame I was born a zoomer spic
>>43533650i spent a whole autumn in 2012 sending death threats to people with pony avatars on deviantart
>>43534404funny how that worked out, huh?
Latecomer here as well. Just started watching over the summer. It's kind of like exploring the ruins of an ancient civilization. I like getting to form my own perspectives on the show this way (i'm at S6 now). I actually like twilicorn even though it wasn't popular at the time (and still isn't totally).>>43533689this. Mentally advanced series and friendship is witchcraft are more compelling to binge than the actual show>>43534013I was always aware that 10% cooler was a brony meme, so I thought it would be a big thing in the show, but it's just a throwaway line in one S1 episode. She never even says swag. Same with Pinkamena--she appears for 5 minutes in S1, then never again, but that was apparently enough of an impression to leave a lasting imprint on Pinkie's perception in the fandom as a secret psycho. It's just interesting how innocuous things just became iconic memes for no other reason than right place right time
>>43533662Was AppleDash a big thing back then?Even when I wasn't a brony I remember stumbling upon a shit-ton of pony stuff but I don't recall ever finding stuff about that ship in particular. I always felt like that shit came out for nowhere
>>43534812It's niggertrash garbage for 15 year old tiktok "fans". The raped of the raped, they're not even fans of the fandom. They're fans of fans of the fandom. Shipping AJ and Dash completely and utterly disrespects their core personality elements by reducing them to a faggot stereotype rather than who they actually are. All slightly masculine women must be carpet eaters, what a wonderful message to send.
Remember the bizzaro times when /mlp/ hivemind hated any and all OCs? That was strange, especially considering MLPG didn't hate OCs.
>>43534812AppleDash was relatively big, but not as big as LyraBon or Lyra x Hands. Tchernobog tried to make "feathermarking" a thing, but it never quite made it into fanon. SoaringDash was also quite popular, and BigMac and Spike were the shipping kings shipped with everyone (RD included). Well, also back then selfcest with R63 version of yourself wasn't consudered weird or fetish-y, it was normal, so that was also a thing.
>>43533689>I think that "being late" is great. There is a colossal amount of content produced over the years to consume.wrong
>>43534871TBF Rainbow Dash shipped with any of the mane 6 was popular (except Rarity). There are early shipping charts that clearly show this. PinkieDash would be the first because of that Gilda episode.
>>43534725>Same with Pinkamena--she appears for 5 minutes in S1, then never again, but that was apparently enough of an impression to leave a lasting imprint on Pinkie's perception in the fandom as a secret psycho.It's because Cupcakes started that concept in the fandom, before that episode even aired. The fanon Pinkamena is pretty much a combination of that one scene in S1 and the version of Pinkie Pie in Cupcakes.
>>43533650It was really bad, be glad you're here now.
>>43534871So it was pretty much just another ship like any other, right?Wonder why It took so much more relevance nowdays
>>43535290Staff interference in S9/comics/G5It's a literal forced meme
>>43535290AppleDash and FlutterDash were the most popular among M6 RD shippings. TwiDash, PinkieDash, RariDash are nowere close. So calling it "yet another" ship is a bit disingenuous.
>>43535467(TwiDash numbers are inflated due to Twi being the MC)
>>43535297Nope, here's the hard data based on fan-art, see the pic.The main contenders are: TwiDash, AppleDash, SoarinDash, FlutterDash.PinkieDash and RariDash are somewhat behind, everyone else is a loser deep in the bottoms.It started with TwiDash supremacy in 2012-2013, with SoarinDash taking over in 2014-2019, then AppleDash in 2020-2023, then SoarinDash in 2024-2025, then AppleDash again in 2026.TwiDash and AppleDash were neck-in-neck in 2012 and 2015, SoarinDash and AppleDash were almost equal in 2019.After 2022 TwiDash stopped growing, so FlutterDash eventually surpassed it in 2024.
>>43535679>nope>posts graph proving I'm rightAnon if the show ended in 2019 with forced AppleDash shipping by the staff, and the next data point after those episodes aired was 2020, and AppleDash was dominant in 2020-2023, then the next four years were literally the forced ship being #1And that's without even accounting for the fact that as a forced ship it attracted less creative output than natural pairings.Like don't get me wrong I don't like FlutterDash either but the high point of AppleDash is literally a product of S9. Storm of Zephyr Heights is 2024 and it has forced appledash as well. It's a popular ship and a pretty normal ship legitimately, there are plenty of real AppleDash fans, but it's also a forced ship that post-FiM tard writers propped up artificially.
>>43535679If only shippers weren't cowards, perhaps we would have more scootadash
I hate all shipping between Mane 6 characters.
>>43535679>>43535703 (me)Like to circle back, anon asked>Wonder why It took so much more relevance nowdaysIt took more relevance after the show finished because of S9 and idw forcing it. It was just another normal ship during the run of the show like anon said.
>>43535705Here's zoomed-in graph
>>43535715Thanks anon!
>>43534019That's where most of the fandom was, remember ALL the blogs? Remember Princess Molestia?
>>43534812Rarijack was waaaaaaay more popular (didn't liked it)
>>43535729Especially after it got forced HARD by Whitediamonds
>>43533650Everywhere filled with pony profile picturesPosting pony memes from mylittlebrony on facebook for all your friends and family members to seeMeeting bronies at school, my little pony clubsPony videos in youtube recommendations even if you weren't a brony20% cooler, brohoof /)Annotations on youtube videosComments on pony videos (no "youtube kids" censorship)Being excited to talk about the latest episodeStarting conversations with strangers by asking them their favorite ponyHumanized was fineAnime styled ponies everywhere because everybody learned to draw from animeHVOP everywhere, nobody knew about the alternativeGetting your clop from rule34 websitesEndless music releases on pony radio stationsLoving everything on Celestia Radio even when it was shitty and ameteurish, because it had ponieswatching all this disappear, one by one, some instantly without warning, some quietly, some withering painfully even today; feeling yourself slowly forget the exuberant love of the fandom left to its own devices, replaced with the memory of encroaching corporate parasitism snuffing the life out of anything human; cherishing each little spark of true community and love, the memory of warmth the only thing that keeps you sane looking to the bleak fate of internet culture yet to come
>>43535725mlp-ask-blogs and mlp-lgbt-headcanons tumblr are two sides which almost never intersect (they even have completely different art-styles). And DWM happens when they do intersect.
>>43533650Waiting excitedly for the next new episode while looking for fanarts and discussions online.
>>43535725>That's where most of the fandom wasNot really, the fandom was scattered across several websites, included but not limited to: Youtube, Deviantart, 4chan, Equestria Daily, Ponychan, Derpibooru. Probably even more websites that I don't remember at this point.
>>43535731You mean forced by EqG?
>>43535736I miss when you had to actually go to a different website to find new content.
Watching the fandom die down and splinter into its different subgroups once various certain proples got their hands on it was the worst part. It was a mostly unified thing for almost a whole decade.
>>43535740WD used pony characters for it, so he's a worse offender, IMO.I literally don't care what barbies do, and the retards that watch it would only make shipping art of the characters in barbie style anyway.
Hanging out in Bronystatehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGSmdOlRokM(/mlp/ stream attempts were banned for "begging/advertising")
https://youtu.be/yBISfv-6hfo?list=RDyBISfv-6hfoHere you go. Everyone,give them a taste of the ancient cancer.
>>43534863I don't really remember this, maybe I missed it as a midfag. But I still have this mindset, maybe I actually inherited it from the board, interesting.>>43535755Ahhh bronystate; the first time I caught an episode release, it was the s2 finale. The hypest of all hype. The timeline isn't perfectly straight but I believe that's probably when I started venturing away from memebase and checking /mlp/ every so often...
>>43534863I remember /mlp/ hating low-effort OCs, which back then there were a ton since everyone used that pony creator flash game. And I guess since the show was still good at that point there was no need to focus on OCs.
>>43533772Yeah, absolutely. The content carries and preserves some of that spirit, but being in the midst of it all was different, it was totally intoxicating. It's the kind of feeling you have when you're at a party full of amazing interesting people that you can't wait to be friends with, the whole atmosphere abuzz with some kind of positive energy. It really felt like, if it were in real life, it's the kind of thing that would have had pre-internet people marching en masse for independence, forming nations and religions. It was a true spirited mass movement driven by something deep in human nature, pure and simple.
>>43535768I only remember there being an OC General and if you wanted fanart of your OC the drawthread had a line that told you to run it by the OC General first, but that disappeared when the interest in the OCG waned and the threads disappeared.
>>43535732>>43535775And there won't ever be anything like this ever againThis was lightning in a bottle
I never shared this feeling many people here seem to have of the community being some amazing thing of positivity and whatnot. I was in the original /co/ thread but only really joined /mlp/ during the S2-S3 hiatus, so it could be that, but I think it has to do more with the fact I'm much older than most people here. So the concept of a fandom teeming with creativity wasn't all THAT special to me. Sure, it was different and bigger, but the thing I came for the most, the fan content (mostly fanart) wasn't all that different from my previous fandom. There was more of it, for sure, but the type of fanart - the good kind you could only find in the early fandom, made by people who would often later become professionals in the field as well - I could find that in my previous fandom too. The slop fanart, shipping shit, that kind of garbage, you can find that in any fandom. What do I mean with quality? The kind where you can immediately tell someone has a talent for it from a single drawing alone. Often these people were enamored by the world of Equestria the most, so these types fizzled out of the fandom after the first two seasons for the most part. I think that was the highlight of the fandom's creativity, at least to me.Not trying to put a downer on anyone's spirits, but I just think the shittiness that everyone's been experiencing in the fandom after it started are simply an effect of the entire internet and perhaps even the entire WORLD going to shit. The fandoms I interacted with in the early 2000s and before usually just died because interest died down (as it did for me as well). The brony fandom dies because of retards making "Bronies TRAUMATIZED me!!" videos and other cancer. That's a phenomenon that didn't exist before now.
>>43535834Yeah that's what I meant in >>43535732 with corporate parasitism. Brony fandom emerged in a medium that the great powers of the world weren't yet able to digest/corrupt, but fandom in the modern internet is well under their thumb, or as I prefer to say, in the belly of the beast. The affliction facing the brony fandom certainly isn't unique, but we have been unique in that we have been adapted enough to create our own places and infrastructure that can resist that digestive force... somewhat.
>>43535834MLP really was the last "standalone" fandom with own sites, own forums, own galleries, own cons, etc. Post-2017 fandoms are all globalized, people post fanart on globalized platforms, chat on globalized social media, and always are a part of globalized fandom (furry, otaku, "gamer", etc).
>>43533845>Tumblr>Not deviantArtTumblr was the old schizos place, current X (although twatter is far worse from mixing all the other stuff in the end)
>>43535834Lying piece of underage shit.>"Bronies TRAUMATIZED me!!" videosThis lolcow absurdity was never important on its own. It was important by proxy because pretending that it was an existential threat was a minor source of cancer for some time. Even that isn't the case anymore. No bitch, you still can't make me scared of or mad at some youtube nobodies. Not your personal army.>That's a phenomenon that didn't exist before now.Sensationalization existed in Babylon.
>>43536222That cancer is kinda irrelevant for early fandom, anyway. Nostalgia Critic's "a faaamily picture" meme is much more relevant.
Any classic tunes a newfag should listen to?
>>43536260September, The Living Tombstone.congrats now you know the in-joke
>>43536263wait, that's MLP song? I always kinda thought it was just MLP animation with unrelated generic third-party background song. Lyrics literally never mention ponies, equestria or anything pony-related.
>>43536263>congrats now you know the in-jokeWhat joke?
>>43536317i can't remember
>>43536324Sorry to hear you got your asshole raped.
>>43533650You wouldn't be late if you were wheelpone
>>43535679Kind of crazy that there's been more appledash fanart made over the last three years than there was for any of these ships between 2012 and 2017. Living brony fandom theory?
>>43536365Xitter shipfags aren't the fandom.
>>43536260PinkiePieSwear is obligatoryhttps://youtu.be/cP0f5rvVkAU
>>43536365It's almost like the MLP fandom wasn't shipping-centric
>>43536369BASEDhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ_7xq1TIW4
>>43536260You'll hear a lot about SoGreatAndPowerful but Kreuhn Pony also contributed some great jazzy stuff to that scene. Only a few songs but all excellent in their own unique way. https://youtu.be/KZwc0_IBwVY
>>43536356i never knew the existence of such beautiful creatures...
>>43536260Join the anniversary stream in 2 weeks for a crash course.
>>43536376>doesn’t mention YourEnigmafuck you, “He’s a Dragon!” and “Subterranean Equestrian” are both great jazz songs.
>>43536369>PinkiePieSwear is obligatoryboringslop music
>>43536533Wasted dubs
>>43536260https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOuNX2azWRQ
>>43536260rainbow factory and awokenstill shocked rainbow factory didnt win in that toast beard contest
>>43533650join the anni stream in 16 days to get a feel for it
>>43536578>Doesn’t mention the Pegasus device fuck you
>>43536586that one didnt cross my mind okay
>>43536578>awokenBangerI still remember finding out about that song through a Mother 3 video of all things
>>43536619I remember showing it to my mother once when I around 11. I don't remember her reaction but I know she was disappointed.
>>43533650It sucked. It was a bunch of retards bitching about things then, and it's a different bunch of retards bitching about different things now.
>>43536622I remember showing my family AspectOfTheStorm. Also pretty based that he managed to keep it all up on youtube despite leaving music and seemingly pony behind. Amateurish though it may be, this kind of unelaborated midi orchestral stuff still to this day always brings me back to 2012 pony music when I hear it elsewhere. Also shows up a lot in FiWhttps://youtu.be/0G60YvMzpoga passage of music that sounds pony to me, the climax of this 30s:https://youtu.be/G78DRt25G_4?t=138
>>43535735Classic GIF. There needs to be a compilation of these.
>>43536308Lyrics says “everypony”
>>43536624You weren’t there and that is why you larp. Everyone was 1000% less irony poisoned and gay. You are all unbearable now.
>>43534863Oh, yeah, I never thought about it like that but OCs were a big nono thing back when. Calling yourself a brony or brohoofing were also frowned upon. 4chan as a whole was very cynical and angsty about popular things at the time; the culture had its reasons it felt made it justified but I always felt it was too high strung about a lot of things. I felt so happy when everyone started being able to enjoy dumb overplayed memes again.
>>43536578There weren’t many voters anyway. Also by the time the votes were in, Rainbow Factory was already pulling in views on youtube.
>>43536977Funny talking about irony when 2001-2015 was the height of "irony culture" and insincerity. If you were there, you'd remember it too: not just here but everywhere.
