Welcome to the prelude of the upcoming 2026 Princess /mlp/ pageant, where your favorite ladies from across all aspects of the franchise be it canon, fandom, or memery are judged and selected for who is most deserving of being crowned the queen of the board.I hope everyone is looking forward for another chance for their contestant of choice to win the coveted 'Jackie'. For those unfamiliar with this thread, this is our equivalent to the 'Ms. /co/' and 'Queen /v/' competitions, a voting tournament to find the lucky girl worthy of being called the princess of the board. Last year, our 2025 winner was the pretty peppy perky professional party pony herself, PINKIE PIE, who took the win in the Finals against fellow smile enthusiast Minuette.This is NOT the nomination phase just yet, I am not taking candidates. As with years prior, I like to make a thread a few weeks ahead of the tournament to get a gauge on how the board is feeling on the existing ruleset and open any necessary discussion on the upcoming Tournament, going by thoughts taken from the exit polls of last year. This thread is coming slightly later than usual, I tend to try and aim for the first of the month but was delayed in making the poll and thread. The points of discussion are as follows, please let me know your thoughts on each.POLL: https://forms.gle/3rt7XiAXKyJuZNJr7>DateTypically I start Miss /mlp/ a week after the Anniversary stream has had time to wrap up, but this year my scheduling is going to be dicey throughout late October and November.Therefore I would like to propose starting Miss /mlp/ 2026 on TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20th, which should at least land a couple days after the series finale in the Anniversary. It's a bit awkward starting in the middle of the week, but I would like to be able to finish Miss /mlp/ on the Friday before Halloween this year if possible. It could also start on Wed instead, but Tuesday would be in the case of...>Loser's BracketIn the exit polls of Miss /mlp/ and Mr. /mlp/ 2025, there was positive reception to the idea of Loser's Bracket / Double Elimination Rules returning for the following year. For those unfamiliar, Loser's Bracket rules means your competitors have two chances to win, if they lose once they compete against losers from the other match-ups in an opportunity to work their way back up to the top. We first implemented Loser's Bracket in 2020 for Mr. /mlp/, wherein there was an issue of the Loser's Bracket dragging on because it could only run at half the speed of the main bracket. By the time we were halfway through the Loser's Bracket, a winner in the Main bracket had already been decided.
>>43569664Luna gets a SECOND award this year!
>>43569664However, there are ways to streamline the Loser's Bracket by turning most match-ups from typical one-on-one's to four-way free for all's, which allows it to keep pace with the main bracket. The first round of the Loser's Bracket (which will occur in Round 2) will be normal one-on-one's, but everyone following being four-ways with one winner will allow it to keep pace with the main tournament.There is only one additional caveat rule to reduce dragging it out: if you lose in the Finals, there are no second chances. The Finals will consist of the two competitors who have yet to lose, and picking the winner of the Loser's Bracket, but the finalist to lose will not get a second chance to compete against the winner. The "True Finals", pitting the winner of the Main Bracket and the Loser's Bracket, will likewise be winner's take all and if the winner of the main bracket loses, that's it as well. This may seem unfair to the two Finalists, as everyone else in the Tournament stage gets a 2nd chance but them, but you may find this preferable to the alternative of stretching out the pageant for an extra two or even three days to let the loser Finalist go against the winner of the Loser's Bracket, and then potentially the winner of the main bracket getting another shot if they should lose the match they just lost.If those rules are agreeable, I think it'd be fine to bring back the Loser's Bracket in this format as to prevent too many extra days added on, but as always if there are any disagreements with its implementation we can discuss it here in the thread. Of course, if you do not want to try Loser's Bracket for Miss, you're also free to vote for the traditional Single Elimination for Miss and try this approach with Mr. >All-StarsLast year, the Ms. and Mr. /co/ pageants started a tradition where after completing eight years worth of tourneys, enough for a reasonably sized bracket, they would pit their eight winners together in a smaller tournament to see who stood the test of time and can stand as a winner amongst winners. Being this is our eighth year and our eighth winner is about to be selected, I thought to field the question to you all of whether you would like to have an All-Stars of our own.Typically our previous Miss and Mr. /mlp/ winners are still given the chance to compete in the relatively new ‘Royal Round Robin’, a side-tournament with a Round Robin format of our past winners competing, but it still might be interesting to see how the seven (soon to be eight) Princesses of /mlp/ do in a traditional tournament together. If you are interested in this option, there are choices as to whether to hold Miss/Mr /mlp/ all-stars separately or together, whether to have the Princesses and the Princes compete in their own individual tournaments or one larger 16-entry bracket together to find a best winner overall, and of course if we go with this idea whether you’d still be interested in the Royal Round Robin for this year or not.
I want Octavia to win this yearShe's such a classy donkey lady
>>43569664I want to win because i am epic
>>43569668As far as dates go for an All-Stars, as I mentioned above I'm likely not going to have time to run it the week immediately following Miss /mlp/, and I wouldn't want to delay Mr. /mlp/ for too long, so my proposal that is if All-Stars is voted in, we will run both in December. October for Miss, November for Mr, and December for All-Stars.>Randomization vs SeededAs always a divisive choice that seems to swing back and forth between the years. Last year in the exit-poll ‘Randomized’ just passed a 51% approval rating but as usual I think it best to provide the option here and allow you to vote on using randomized brackets again this year, or to return to Seeded which was last used in 2023.>Mini-BracketsConsistently a popular choice but want to present the option whether to do them this year or not given, if Loser's Bracket passes, there will be also be a good number of additional matchups. In particular, one choice I wanted to field was asking if you'd like a return of a new format that was tested and met with approval last year, which was rather than 8 Mini-Brackets of 16 competitors apiece, allowing for 2 Mini's of 32 and 4 of 16 so that some Mini-Brackets that typically have many more applicants than others get a bigger roster to work with. Last year, Background Pony and Best OC were the two Mini-Brackets that were chosen for having 32 as opposed to 16.>SiteThere were discussions last year of making a new website for Miss /mlp/ in an attempt to increase security and prevent rigging, and a 64-52 voted in favor making one. However, I clarified that I could only make the attempt since I have no experience in building websites, and I’m sorry to say that ‘attempt’ was all I could manage. Beyond my lack of experience, 2026 was an even busier year than 2025 for me and I simply did not have the time to put into making it, much less with one with all the ID tagging / fingerprinting that would have made a new site worth the effort. Contradictory, anons also voted 63-53 AGAINST acquiring such data anyhow.We will be sticking with Google Forms for this year as in years prior; it’s a format I’m familiar with in layout, forms, sheets, and scripts. However I will be taking any precautions in increasing security of the polls, which leads me to…>Randomized Security QuestionsBy making a few tweaks to the script that generate the Captcha at the end of the form, I’ve managed to make it so that the questions are not manually set, but instead are pulled randomly for a long list of past security questions. Three are picked at random to serve as the questions for a set amount of time, and then after 15 minutes it will automatically switch them to a new set of questions. This way, if the answers are shared in the thread or anywhere else, they will expire within a short amount of time.
nominating suri
Took you faggots long enough.Nominating Sweetie Belle
>>43569676I feel like this would also be useful for anons voting who may not know a certain question, if they are stumped and do not feel they can confidently answer 2 out of 3 in order to pass, they may simply wait 15 minutes and check to see if they know the next set.Assuming you approve of this method I will implement it in Miss, and I've also included a section for submitting more Security Questions to make the pool of questions to pull from as varied/large as possible.>Whether to Run Mr. /mlp/Finally, there is a question of whether to run Mr. /mlp/ at all or to try another tournament in its place. Last year in the exit poll I asked this same question with a 51% approval of keeping Mr. /mlp/, but that’s close enough I thought I’d run it through again in the Preliminary poll to gauge interest. It’s no secret that Mr. is a good bit less popular than Miss, and suggestions has been expressed in other tournaments like a tournament of duos and pairs, couples, favorite /mlp/ media, etc. If you’d still like to see Mr. /mlp/ you need only vote yes but if you are interested in something else, be sure to suggest what you might like to see instead. I think that covers everything, but if there are any other important topics you think I should add to the poll above to vote on I can add them. I intend to keep this thread up for at least a week: making the preliminary this late and this close to the anni-stream I worry a lot of anons may be distracted and miss it on the catalog, so hopefully leaving it up for an extended period for filling out the form should give enough people time to notice it and vote on it. Typically I consider 100 responses a solid consensus.
>>43569664>This is NOT the nomination phase just yetSupporting >>43569686 btw.
>>43569687I very much hope that Mr. /mlp/ runs this year, gives me a chance to advocate for my favorite stallion.
Nominating Daisy's 10/10 plot
>>43569664Who the hell is "Verity"?
>>43569941Some shitty tiktok kid meme.
>>43569941>>43569944newfags
>>43569664I love you PageantAnon !!ROv+0ocHQ3t I will nominate you for Miss /mlp/!
>>43569941If you remember when the anons involved with Gamergate decided to donate a bunch of money to some sea lion in order to show that actually 4chan is the internet love machine, Verity is /mlp/'s equivalent of that. Big controversy happens, everyone thinks 4chan is full of naughty bad people, so anons donate a ton of money to a cute horse because then they're obviously the good guys.
Oh boy, it's almost time for drama! I wonder what autistic shit will go down this time.
>>43569971I mean it'll just be people picking against popular ponies and people being mad about that, right? That's what it always is.
>>43569941whats the capital of france?
Prepared my 50 gmail accounts.
>>43569676>Randomization vs SeededReminding you faggots to do the sane thing and vote Seeding this yearIf you vote Randomized I will pray your favorite gets pitted against Celestia or Lyra in the first round because it's what you deserve
>>43569683>>43569686>>43569819spackers
>>43569993My favorite already won Miss /mlp/. That's why I'm picking randomized, because it's more fun and chaotic.
>>43569941Horse we rescued
>>43570008i ALMOST put trixie but I think to myself shes got this in the saddlebag
>>43569944>>43569974https://x.com/Twital_hd/status/2093799168615596413
>>43570103>"They" in bioTwital wasn't always a flaming homo, was he?
>>43570103
>>43569944>>43569974>>43570103Wait, there's actually a tiktok meme called Verity? I thought first Anon was just trolling by making stuff up.Will a second Verity win Miss /mlp/ 2026?
>>43569941Lurk moar newfag, this is why board culture is dying.
It's Marble's year wooooo
>>43570142Limestone's*FTFY
>>43570142>>43570147Everypony but Rarity's year.
>>43570128Not unless you ponify this shit.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVlKLpxyCBY
>>43569941>>43569944You have to fucking go back.
>>43570165Please don't. I see enough of this shit and I don't even use Tiktok or watch Slopcraft tubers.
>>43569664my autistic pattern recognition predicts either trixie, FS, or celestia wins and if they dont win then they wont even make second place which means its clearly Rarity's year!
I would pay bits to see a final showdown of rarity and octavia
>>43570223Same, it would be an epic British vs French duel
>lost to the winner last year and 2022>has fairly often had more threads up at a time than any other pony this yearFeels like it's going to be an octavia sweep
>>43570223You can actually do that. Like.. you know.. bots and stuff oco
>>43570229I'm not so sure, usually it's the most normie waifus who win and Octavia isn't that
>>43570238>>43570223Octavia has an honest shot as far as background ponies go. I think Lyra is the strongest background horse left but Octavia's managed to break Top 4 before and has ONLY lost to winners the last three times she competed
>>43570561Five of the last seven winners are basically the top 5 most popular ponies and the other two are essentially meme wins. Neither Lyra nor Octavia are nearly as popular or memed so I think the winner's gonna be either Celestia, Trixie, Rarity or FluttershyIf Octavia wins then you can screencap this to humiliate the fuck out of me for all of eternity because of how wrong I was
Can't wait for the /co/ schizos to show up and have conversations with themselves about their forced Steven Universe memes
>>43570572
>>43569941RTFMhttps://knowyourmeme.com/sensitive/memes/events/marenheit-451-charity-art-pack
>>43570090I hope Trixie keeps getting into the finals and losing, so she keeps showing up again and again every 2 years.The Trixie drama is simply the best
>>43569676>Randomized Security QuestionsSo is this referring to captchas then? I thought it was talking about the 3 filter questions that are usually at the beginning of the poll
>>43569941SHE'S MISS VERITYMARE OF HUMANITY
>>43570654It is talking about the filter questions.
>>43569664A T T E N T I O NPicrel is an already predetermined winner of this year's miss /mlp/Thank you for your attention to this matter>>43570572Want to have a funny flamewar here?Nominate one of PPG girls and make sure she goes further than initial nomination, the thread will quicly devolve into a /co/mblr-/dbs/pic war
>>43570690>Nominate one of PPG girlsThe one voiced by Tara Strong, obviously.
>>43570142 fact
Gollyta yearGollyta boardGollyta fandom
>inb4 rarity jobs again
>>43570812You say that as if it isn't a guaranteed outcomeThe question is, how soon is she going to job?
>>43570903not getting five votes to pass the preliminaries
Another pageant, another chance to piss everyone I hate off with absolutely zero effortYou already know who my mare is, and you know she's going to progress at least twice no matter how wide she gapes your anus with rage
>>43570982>You already know who my mare isStrawberry Sunrise!
>>43570607like this: https://desuarchive.org/mlp/thread/42769657/#42771440one guy shows up every year to miss /mlp/ to RP as steven universe
First day in and we're up to almost 40 responses so far, would like some more to reach the desired consensus Poll: https://forms.gle/3rt7XiAXKyJuZNJr7>>43570654No it is indeed about the 3 filter questions at the beginning of the poll, rather than setting them manually at the start of the round I've got code now that can shuffle them on a schedule from a pool of questions. This way, if the answers are leaked either to the thread or off-site, the questions will always automatically shuffle into new questions within a short time frame.Though I'm likely to put these questions at the END of the poll now rather than the beginning. If they are put at the beginning and the voter takes a long enough time to go through the rest of the poll, there is a chance they could hit the timer to shuffle before they hit submit and thus their answers would now be for the wrong questions. This risk is greatly mitigated if the questions are instead the last thing you see / input on the poll rather than the first.
>>43570925Local whorsefags will either commit mass seppuku or go full Brandon Hole if that happens
bumpin
Remember to vote for human Pinkie Pie and to vote for the BABA (Big Awesome Boobies Award) to happen!
I was really confused because I coulda swore all-stars was round robin but apparently not. I like round robin for such a small pool.
>>43571588With so many form submits, timeout is still bound to happen to some unlucky Anons. What will happen then? Will it submit the answers to old questions? Display an error?Other than that, putting verification at the end makes sense I think.
>>43578249I just ran a couple of tests of putting in an answer and then waiting intentionally for the timeout. I recall the Captcha, if it changes on you before you hit submit, rather than putting your answer through will instead refresh the page and inform you that the form has been changed and make you hit submit again, and it was my hopes it would do the same in this scenario. However it does not seem to be doing that and even if the answers change on the form before you hit submit, they still go through without the same error as the captcha. I will do more testing to see if I can get it to behave the same as the captcha does, but maybe Forms has updated this in years as to not force a refresh.In worst case scenario, for those few who get caught by the timing, I do still review all answers manually and I am able to see the history of the questions: if I see one off but matching the set of questions just previous to it, I can safely assume it updated as they were putting them in and grade them accordingly. >>43577276The "All-Stars" pageant suggested would be more like a traditional Single-Elimination Tournament with brackets rather than the Round Robin we've done for the past winners in the previous couple of years. Of course the option remains to do both if you vote on it, but I thought to ask if Anons would like to do both or skip Round Robin this year as to give All-Stars more attention.Reminder to fill out the poll!POLL: https://forms.gle/3rt7XiAXKyJuZNJr7
BUMP
>>43579716Found out the difference: Captcha still behaves that way because Captcha has a specific answer it's looking for before it allows you to pass, the security questions as always are open-ended (as to avoid a simple F12 work around) which is why it doesn't force a refresh if it changes before you submit. As I said I will simply continue to be diligent and check the questions with the answers on the list when one is submitted.We're hovering under 60 and have been there for a bit, let's see if we can get more over the rest of the weekendPOLL: https://forms.gle/3rt7XiAXKyJuZNJr7
THIS IS SUNSETS YEAR BABY
>>43585382sunset who?
