4chan/History/mlp

/mlp/ - Pony was created on February 17th, 2012. The show My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic had spawned a major subculture on 4chan during 2011, centered mostly on /co/ and /b/. There were so many posts that many Anons quickly grew tired of the "spam" and demanded that the horsefuckers be banned. After several failed attempts, Moot and the mods realized that trying to smother this subculture wasn't the answer, and thus /mlp/ was born, followed shortly by Global Rule 14 15: Thou Shalt Not Post Pony Outside /mlp/.

Multiple altchans were created prior to the creation of /mlp/, but this article will focus on the 4chan board and culture.

[Timeline currently copied from [[4chan/History, will be supplanted with more info eventually.]]] = Pre-history =

2010

 * October 2 - The first known thread talking about MLP:FiM is posted on 4chan.
 * October 9 - The infamous SO MUCH PORN post is made. Let's point and laugh at the wrongest man in history.
 * October 10 - My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic officially premiers on the Hub. First episode reaction thread.

2011
= /mlp/ History =

2012

 * February 16 - Since the cartoon series My Little Pony - Friendship is Magic becomes massively popular, surpassing its /co/ boundaries and adopting a pseudo culture under the name of bronies. moot creates /mlp/ - My Little Pony in order to stop the massive flood of My Little Pony threads on 4chan. Some bronies would rather create /b/reads: Threads outside /mlp/ that are essentially a circlejerk between trolls and tripfags, to the point of sharing contacts.
 * November 8 - On a /q/ thread about /mlp/, http://thereisnosanity.com/posters/statistics.php is posted by a pony shitposter, leading 4chan to question if organized shitposting is actually real.
 * November 9 - /g/ begins to investigate. They eventually come to the conclusion that the website’s owner, Seff, is in some form a leading figure within the shitposters. The plot thickens; users panic and the mods start get involved. On a second thread, Seff himself comes in to clarify the situation: He is building a system to track the shitposters, their threads and their posts to later email them to moot. Still investigation shed some light on him and proved he shitposter on /a/, There is no sanity is nothing more than Seff’s personal nick on the Internet, whit sites like his Youtube channel and myanimelist page (Though thereisnosanity is a common phrase, there’s a chance, albeit low, that the users are unrelated). The situation got many boards in a panic and Seff was doxed and raided IRL. Later on the same thread moot posted screenshots from Seff’s emails, confirming that Seff was a shitposter that ratted everyone out by emailing moot when he realized there was a leak. Still, He wasn’t forgiven. Whether this was a clever act of damage control for when the site was discovered, or Seff was genuinely scared of being discovered, is yet to be seen. [This is the first known example of organized shitposting, or at least one of their rings being exposed. Thereisnosanity deserves its own article at some point.]

2013

 * January 30 - /mlp/ is renamed to "WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW?", due to the reaction of the board towards Twilight Sparkle becoming an alicorn, for the sake of new toys.
 * April 20 - /mlp/ reaches their 10M GET, (taken by Vinyl Scratch) and breaks the record of the most replied post of 4chan with 2046 replies.
 * May 27 - Lauren Faust does an AMA on /mlp/ and the entire board collectively lose their shit. moot renames /mlp/ to "IT'S HAPPENING". [Highlights to come]

2014

 * November 12 - The admin of archive.heinessen.com, the main archiver for /mlp/, /fit/, /k/, and /x/ (among others) announces on /mlp/ that the site will close due to personal reasons. /mlp/ panicked as there was no other archiver that had archived /mlp/ from birth and many requested a torrent be provided. Some even offered to pay for the archive to continue while others asked to mail him a HDD to save full images. Other threads discussing this were made on /r9k/, /toy/, and /k/. In the end, /k/, /mlp/, and /r9k/ were made available for torrenting (/fit/ was given to other archives as well) while /x/, /int/, /an/, /toy/, and /gif/ were deleted.
 * December 7 - During /pol/ Harbor, some /pol/ users flee to /mlp/.

2015

 * January 21 - At 11:00 AM EST, moot announced his retirement from 4chan. /mlp/ makes a goodbye card as do several other boards.
 * January 30 - ISIS comes to /mlp/ and threatens to kill a rainbow dash plushie if trips aren't achieved in the thread. Trips are gotten relatively quickly, while more trips are garnered to kill the terrorists and their families. After this /s4s/ joined the fight, making /s4s/-tan the leader of /mlp/ with quads and permanently banishing the terrorists with quints.
 * February 1 - A superbowl ad shows the main cast of MLP in Colts fan gear for two seconds. /sp/ has a meltdown and /mlp/ has a good time.
 * February 5 - /mlp/ gets sad after a known writefag gets terminal leukemia.
 * April 4 - Default name on /mlp/ is changed to "=" as a reference to the premiere of Season 5 of MLP:FiM
 * April 11 - The default name on /mlp/ is back to normal.
 * October 1 - /d/ goes through a mi/d/life crisis, as the ban on Western art is enforced. /d/eviants discuss this in /mlp/, who acts as a safehaven (because /d/-tan and /mlp/-tan are dating).

2016

 * March 28 - /mlp/ mod goes beserk for a short-lived Scruffening 2.0. Board is cut down to 6 pages. A new sticky appears shortly after, found here. Shitposting ensues.
 * April 6 - Another GET party for Cirno! This time on /mlp/, claiming both 26999999 and 27000000.
 * September 5 - The banner contest for /g/, /mlp/ and /vp/ begins its voting phase. /mlp/'s contest is raided from two sides: One by /mlp/ to get their desired banner, the other supposedly by Barneyfag on multiple passes to get his banner on top. In the end, /mlp/'s banner is withheld until 2021, when a new contest specifically for /mlp/, by /mlp/'s mod, begins.
 * November 6 - The banner contest finally ends. Every board except /b/, /gif/, /pol/, /qa/, /qst/ and /trash/ has one at this point. /mlp/ also doesn't have one due to the previous controversy.

2017

 * April 1 - The Great Board Merge of 2017, /mlp/ and /pol/ are among the boards merged, creating /mlpol/. At first /pol/ isn't a fan but they realize that horsepussy scares off the shills and that the /mlp/ userbase is full of autists just like them. Aryanne explodes in popularity and many are begging for /mlpol/ to stay as a new board. A spinoff chan, is created within the week.

2018

 * December 26 - /mlp/ has a christmas themed 33333333 GET.

2019

 * April 1 - /mlp/ gets two stickies, the first unbanning greentext stories (prior to this it was only really banned in OPs, but 2019 would turn out to be an amazing year for greens anyway), the second explaining the April Fool's joke (being able to like posts)
 * April 2 - /mlp/ gets a sticky announcing the lift of some former board-specific bans, with the exception of rp/fetish threads and Anonfilly, Milky Way, and tulpa threads.
 * April 6 - /mlp/ gets a sticky for discussion of the opening two episodes of Season 9. Stickies for further episodes continue to happen.
 * May 15 - Italy decided to air the next month of MLP:FiM ahead of schedule; /mlp/ gets a sticky.
 * July 25 - Sad Panda announces they are shutting down, /h/ and the rest of 4chan has a meltdown. /mlp/ has a discussion on it as well, because there's some pony content there, but most don't care as it's all on other websites.
 * August 3 - An /mlp/ anon gives Lauren Faust a letter written by the board. The image limit on /mlp/ and many other boards is increased from 250 to 300.
 * August 25 - A Dutch media service called Videoland uploads the remaining episodes of MLP:FiM, including the series finale. /mlp/ goes fucking apeshit and gets a spoiler bunker sticky.
 * October 10 - 4chan is mentioned on German TV and other media. Just in time for its ninth anniversary /mlp/ gets a sticky after a Russian hacker once again leaks production files, resulting in a total of 434GB leaked and three simultaneous rolling stickies being up at the same time, the other two about the anniversary itself and the previous dutch leaks.
 * October 12 - My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic's last three episodes officially air. The event is stickied on /mlp/, and /mlp/'s activity is more than 500% above normal.

2020

 * April 1 - The second post to be infected with coronavirus on 4chan is made in an /mlp/ thread where users are wondering what the joke is.
 * June 26 to August 8 - In response to the derpibooru drama, /mlp/ denizens organize, create, and release an art pack promoting free speech. It results in $21,132.94 worth of donations, nearly all going to 3d horses in need, and becomes the most successful art pack in the fandom's history. Verity!
 * October 9 - /mlp/ gets a sticky in honor of the infamous "this is going to have so much porn" /co/ post becoming a decade old.
 * October 10 - /mlp/ gets another sticky in honor of the actual 10th anniversary of Friendship is Magic. Later that day, after teasing it on his Twitter, M.A. Larson, one of the show's script writers, also visits the anniversary sticky, answering questions, showing unused scripts, and bidding farewell with his favorite mantra. The stickied thread becomes the largest thread in /mlp/'s history.
 * October 11 - A /b/ mod breaks GR15. The mod stickies a pony shitpost, presumably in honor of FiM's 10th anniversary, and /b/ reacts with confusion, pony porn, and image macros unrelated to the thread. As the thread progresses, the OP gets updated three times, referencing Lee Goldson, aka Barneyfag. After being unstickied, it finally falls off the board with 3197 posts, making it the 4th largest thread in /b/'s history.
 * December 17 - Pastebin decides to fuck itself and automatically privates any paste that the SMART filters identify as NSFW, in effect killing virtually all NSFW stories and plenty of SFW stories that writefags have uploaded to the site. The Pastebin SMART filter is, as you'd expect, not smart at all and also privates a bunch of completely SFW pastes found in generals and stickies. /mlp/ and /trash/, both hyper-dependent on storing their works on Pastebin, freak the fuck out as at least half of their shit is obliterated. Aftercase, a well-known CYOA QM creates PonePaste, a Pastebin clone specifically for /mlp/. Another anon compiles dumps of pastes into poneb.in, a static archive that uses the same IDs as existing pastes so broken links can be fixed.

2021

 * February 25 - In the early morning (or late evening for burgers), a screenshot from the new 5th generation MLP movie gets published and /mlp/ promptly goes crazy. Later in the day, at 10AM EST, Hasbro holds their annual investor conference virtually, showcasing plans for brands and supercharging their blueprints, among which is MLP. More footage of new characters is shown and a male lead is confirmed, among other things. /mlp/ reaches over 500% of its usual activity and two threads are pinned.
 * February 28 - /mlp/'s mods (headed by Twimod) host a town hall sticky to ask for improvements and ideas for the board going into the new MLP G5 series.
 * March 2 - The /mlp/ town hall concludes. Twimod officially announces new changes to /mlp/: An increased character limit from 2000 to 3000 for writers, the dice roll feature used on /tg/ and /qst/, pony meme flags like the ones found on /pol/, and after a long time since the banner contest, the board is also getting a banner. Twimod also unbans Anonfilly threads on the condition that degenerate erotic roleplayers fuck off, while other threads such as diaper ponies and Milky Way threads remain banned on the grounds that they're based on fetish content. Equestria Girls content is also confirmed /mlp/. An /mlp/ banner suggestion thread is also stickied.
 * March 14 - /mlp/'s Twimod stickies a thread for selecting the new /mlp/ banner from a shortlist of ten. Twimod confirms /mlp/ pixel flags will be implemented on the next weekend (it's just pony heads, not even flags). /trv/ also gets a sexy new locked sticky.
 * March 16 - The /mlp/ banner is selected: Twilight reading from a book titled "Butts." It goes into rotation the following day, triggering many who still get mad at cartoon horses after 11 years.
 * April 1 - The Day Of The Rake: Rakes appear on every post and if clicked enough, said poster is sent to /qb/ - Quebec for the day. This board seems to have no rules, so /mlp/ users intentionally rake themselves so they can colonize it with horsepussy. I wonder what Lee thought of it.
 * April 9 - Around 1PM EST a new teaser for the new MLP movie drops, showcasing the last two main characters that were not seen in 3D yet. One of them looks like a carpet muncher and the other one is seen holding a smartphone. /mlp/ reaches 300% activity and a thread is stickied.
 * May 1 - After an eternity, the /mlp/ mods finally implement selectable pony waifu flags. There are eighty different icons to choose from, including main characters, side characters, board-centric characters like Anon and Anonfilly, Equestria Girls and Them's Fightin' Herds characters, the known G5 characters (at least those that were known when anons were creating the flags), and even the /mlp/ 4chan Cup logo. The reason it took so long is still uncertain, but likely due to the fact that the site's code itself had to be altered to accommodate them. Self-fellating thread that mods stickied.
 * June 25 - On /mlp/, new screenshots of the G5 movie emerge in book previews, and a thread about it gets stickied.
 * June 30 - Voice actors for the G5 movie are revealed and /mlp/ talks about it. Another sticky.
 * August 12 - The trailer for the upcoming G5 movie "My Little Pony: A New Generation" is released, and /mlp/ gets a sticky. The reaction to the trailer is a resounding "meh", much to the dismay of doominggers and hopefags alike, although a book detailing the movie's whole plot was leaked a week early just a few hours later.

2022

 * February 17 - /mlp/ celebrates the 10th year of it's existence. As if on cue, Hasbro releases a preview of the upcoming G5 2D YouTube shorts meant to accompany the upcoming 3D series. They are all presented in the typical Cal-Arts style and the board goes apeshit. In addition several VAs from the 2021 movie confirm that they won't be returning for the series.
 * April 1 - The joke is just discord style emotes. Meanwhile, reddit brings back r/place again after five years. The brony community scrambles to poni it up, and /mlp/ reluctantly joins in. Large twitch streamers start streaming the event, directing their hundreds of thousands of underage fans to wreak havoc on the canvas. After 11 years people still hate colorful cartoon horses, so ponies are a major target. In retaliation the bronies and /mlp/ (there *is* a difference) begin to use a botnet that uses (You)r computer and reddit account to place down pixels on whatever location needs it the most. Twitchfaggots seethe at this claiming it's unfair (as if them directing nearly a million in total to do what they want was fine) and afterwards sulk that the pones held the line to the end, despite them only being in it to "make nerds seethe over pixels". The final thread while the event was still happening got 2143 replies despite not being sticked. Someone also was inspired by a moment where Derpy was built over two balls and wrote a futa Derpy fic. All the OPs
 * November 23 - A poster is publically unbanned in the /mlp/ Secret Santa thread by Anonymous ## Mod after (supposedly) being banned for doxxing for posting his own address. (His dox was deleted from the archive, but he had actually made his house the headquarters of a Burmese political party on Google Maps.) Understandably, no one really wants to trade presents with him over fears he might accidentally dox them.

Links

 * https://www.iwtcits.com/ponyarchive/ - repository of the very first /co/ threads.
 * https://hyperindex.mlpg.co/ - The old hyperindex containing many early threads from various boards.
 * https://hyperindex.mlpg.co/plusco98088.html One of the first known pony threads made on an altchan.