Slogan: "Friendship is Magic!" | |||||||||
| Preceded By | 4chan's /b/ | ||||||||
| Launch Date | 8 February, 2011 | ||||||||
| Reason For Creation | Banning of ponies from 4chan | ||||||||
| Most Active Board | /gala/ | ||||||||
| Official Language | English | ||||||||
| Demonym | Ponychanner | ||||||||
| Ruling on NSFW Material | Tasteful NSFW on some boards | ||||||||
| Average Traffic | ≈12,000 posts/day | ||||||||
| Currency | Ponychan Bit | ||||||||
| URL | http://www.ponychan.net/chan/ | ||||||||
Ponychan (Full name: Pony Channel) was a pony-themed, community-oriented imageboard. It became the fifth member of the United Chans on 10 March, 2013.
Origins[]
When ponies began to run rampant on 4chan, they mainly concentrated in two areas: the pony threads on /co/ and /b/. In late January, 2011, users from the pony threads on /b/ were banned one after another in a mod attempt to rid /b/ of ponies. As a result, a user by the name of Orange Blaze founded Ponychan as a haven for these users. This event became known as the First Great Pony Purge. The /co/ threads also founded their own chan, FiMchan. While both pony boards, the two chans had very little in common. To this day, many FiMchanners regard Ponychan with distaste. The reason for this is the very different ideals each chan was founded on. While FiMchan decided to stay nearly the same as the 4chan threads, Ponychan wanted to be completely different from 4chan. The staff of Ponychan would remove anything even resembling 4chan culture in an attempt to let Ponychan form its own culture. These attempts were successful and Ponychan still manages to be vastly different from 4chan even today.
Early Days[]
A small portion of /lol/'s raid on /test/
The early days of Ponychan are regarded with nostalgia by most users. Even users on offshoot chans such as Stevenchan, GETchan, efchan, and MLPchan remember these times fondly. They are remembered as a time of peace. The generally accepted time frame for Ponychan's early days is from its inception to 11 July, 2011. The first big event to occur during this time was the splitting of /pony/ and /oat/. Originally they were solely one board, /pony/, the pony discussion board. However, the admin wanted a board for serious discussion and a board for off-topic discussion. Thus he split the two. GETchan's origins stem from this split. The first GET Thread was made on 19 April, 2011, the same day that /pony/ was split. The original thread was a GET thread about the split itself. This led many GET-loving users to come together and form their own threads. The GET Threads became a serial thread on 14 May, 2011.
The next big event was the /lol/-/test/ War. A secret board for users to hang out with the mods called /lol/ was made. A select few users were chosen to post on the board. These users were known as /lol/is. Meanwhile, word of the board got out to a group of individuals who claimed /test/ as their base of operations, though the name of the board was unknown to them. They called themselves /test/es. This led to a search for the board, though it was largely unsuccessful. /lol/ then raided /test/ with zebras on 24 May, 2011 while referring to themsalves as "the Forsaken". The following day, the /test/es managed to figure out the name of the board. They were far too late, however, for the /lol/is had discovered a new secret board and made it their base of operations, /chandroidtest/.
Before the /test/es could make their next move, however, the admin intervened in the fight and decided to delete both /lol/ and /chandroidtest/, as well as force the /test/es out of /test/. The /lol/is were given a time limit of half an hour before their boards were deleted. At this moment, both /lol/is and /test/es came together to bid farewell to their boards. It was a time of harmony between fighting and the inevitable demise. The two groups then proceeded to integrate back into the Ponychan userbase and came across each other a few times, each time peacefully.
Disagreements and splits[]
A chanball image depicting Ponychan's offshoots
The end of Ponychan's early days were marked with much fighting between users, including the staff itself. A controversial event concerning the admin's methods of moderation occurred on 11 July, 2011, causing multiple mods and users to leave the chan for good. Three days later, Lunachan was founded as a bunker for those that did not want to get caught up in these disagreements. It soon found itself getting much use. Frequent bouts between the staff and users began to occur over the idea of Ponychan being founded on the idea of "love and tolerance". The phrase originated from the /b/ pony threads, constantly used to sarcastically reply to trolls. Orange wanted to apply the idea of real love and tolerance to his chan, however. As a result, the community that formed was quite different to the 4chan's community.
Users argued that the idea of love and tolerance was only a façade to lure them into a false sense of security while mod activity remained secret. The staff argued that the idea of love and tolerance was the ground on which Ponychan was built, therefore being a key factor in making Ponychan so different from other chans. The hostility temporarily eased with an influx of posters from 4chan's /b/, but conflicts soon began to arise again. At the same time, tension began to grow between the GET threads and the rest of the chan. Eventually, the GETters founded their own chan on 6 November, 2011. However, the conflict did not end until the 13 November. The staff then considered the users' demands and on 12 January, 2012, /ef/ was created. It was meant to serve as a board with more lax rules and a more 4chan-like approach. The board was eventually deemed a failure and scrapped. Many users, feeling this was unjustified, set out to build their own chan, efchan.
Bad blood only continued to flow between the staff and the users. A group of RPers disagreed with Orange's moderation and they were banned. They went on to found Equestriachan. A substantial portion of the board began to demand changes in moderation. Refusing to negotiate any longer, the staff only ignored these demands. On 13 July, 2012, these users founded MLPchan. As a result, Ponychan lost a substansial amount of its userbase. Soon a change in adminship took place, as Orange took an indefinite leave. The chan changed greatly during this time, as users found themselves surrounded by a completely different form of moderation. The image of love and tolerance slowly shattered and the users discovered the cultures of other chans. Soon people were able to say "faggot" without an extreme reaction from the userbase.
Merger[]
On 24 January, 2015, talks began between the staffs of MLPchan and Ponychan to discuss the idea of a potential merger. Eventually it was agreed that MLPchan would merge into Ponychan and the Ponychan name would be retained, while adopting various aspects from MLPchan, including the Tinyboard software, the /anon/ board, and part of the MLPchan staff. The merger was completed exactly three months later on 24 April, 2015, and MLPchan ceased to exist as a separate entity.
United Period[]
Following the merger, the community enjoyed a period of renewed interest and activity. Many technical and social improvements were made, and a site that may have fractured irreparably thrived for several more years despite waning interest in the imageboard side of the fandom. However, in time, conflict and stagnation again arose as the changing needs and wants of the community were not met by the succeeding administrations. The fandom continued to evolve, but interest in the imageboard side of the fandom began to decline.
Natural End[]
By the end of the decade, much of the community's activity resided either in established sub-communities or recent arrivals who were not affiliated with any of the site's history. With the rise of dedicated sites, forums, and chat groups on apps like Discord, the need for an imageboard for things like fanfiction & reviews, art hosting, friend-groups and roleplay further waned. While there was still a loyal remainder of members, it became clear that it would not be needed for much longer.
Shutdown[]
The post announcing the final shutdown
On December 8, 2023, the administration announced that the end of the server lease would arrive on January 7, 2024, and they would not be renewing it. Citing a desire to go out on their own terms, and that the domain was not for sale or to going to be used further, they would make that the final date for the site. At the end of that day, the site ceased to operate.
Final Message[]
A final farewell message from Ponychan
Ponychan.net was an imageboard for the My Little Pony: Friendship is magic fandom, that operated from 2011 to 2024. It was a home for a wide variety of communities in the fandom, and was a well-known fixture in it throughout the explosion in popularity of the show.
Originating from the emergent interest in the show at 4chan when the show first aired, Ponychan was beloved by countless thousands of its members. The benefits of an imageboard befit the community’s boundless energy and creativity. This attracted a large and diverse number of people to spend their time there.
Many wonderful artists, reviewers and writers came to share their work and appreciate the creative wave the show and fandom inspired. Fans enjoyed long and continuous discussion of the show and it’s themes, as well as making many of the fandom’s most well-known memes & jokes, and spreading many of its views and perspectives. And the curious, casual visitors often became a regular attracted to the community’s fun and pace. It inspired multiple additional sites and communities, and spread this wonderful show and its fandom.
Most importantly, of course, is the incalculable amount of friendships it facilitated, the special moments and memories shared, and the friend groups and sub-communities it enabled to find each other, many of which still remain. The passion for this website, show, and fandom created fun, drama, art, writing, comedy, and friendship that will long outlast both itself and the show that spawned it.
While the fandom has grown and evolved, and certainly not dissipated, the need for an imageboard hub was not to be forever. Artists and writers and their fans over the years have created dedicated spaces more suitable for their media, and friend-groups and subcommunities have evolved into chat application spaces. The fleeting nature of the imageboard post facilitated much of the site’s enjoyment, and mirroring it, in time it has run its natural course.
There is great joy in this, in such a thing finding closure yet rebirth through new spaces and groups. The many special moments and memories you may have created have impacts that will always remain. Even if those memories fade, they happened, and affected many. Those whose passion and work kept Ponychan running should be proud of how that work enabled countless memories, that live on in people’s hearts and minds. Those who spent their time and energy here should be pleased at having experienced them.
We’ll always carry them with us.
If you have friends from this special time, send them a message today.
Not everyone took seriously the central theme of the show, but you can find greater joy in your life by carrying it with you: be an honest person, a loyal friend, show kindness to yourself and others, be generous with your love, spread joy wherever you go, and find magic in friendship.
I am glad we had this time together, and I hope your life is a wondrous journey. Perhaps we will meet again, down the road.
Farewell!
Archive[]
The final archive of the site is hosted at GETchan:
https://getchan.net/ponychan-archive
The Ponychan.net domain refers users to Ponyville.us and Ponychan.org
Gallery[]
