Retrospective · 5:02am Mar 5th, 2012
I was looking through some of my old favourites tonight, and it was quite the blast from the past. I've been watching this show for over a year now, quite a startling realisation for myself. When I initially got into the show I didn't think I'd keep interested in it, and that I'd be back to work in no time at all. That...didn't exactly happen though, and my interest in the show only grew from there. I remember chatting with people at the end of season 1, and we'd discuss how we saw the fandom falling off when it ended, and that we'd still keep in touch. But as we all know, the fandom's size only grew exponentially. And it's only continue in that fashion. I think it's probably slowing down a little now, but even so, the size it's grown to is pretty unprecedented in my mind. I mean, it's a show aimed at 5 year old girls....
My beginnings
[youtube=cJhWrqI6Qvk]
This was the first PMV I ever saw. I saw it after viewing a couple of clips from the show (namely the Enchantress song and...something else I forget now) and it really convinced me to watch the show. The animation looked nice, it had dragons, and the ponies were cute as hell. So I though I'd give the first episode a gander and see what it was like. 5 hours and 15 episodes later I could not get enough of the damn show. I quickly ended up in the /co/ IRC channel on IRCHighway by virtue of a friend of mine (Scherzo, an artist and fanfic writer) in another channel being pretty active in the community. So it was pretty neat knowing someone else engrossed in the show. Coincidentally, the time I joined was roughly when EqD started up. It was pretty small back then and I remember the celebrations over the first 100k views, and how Seth could post lingerie ponies without having to worry about hoards of rampaging ponychan users knocking down his door. Admittedly times have changed, and that sort of stuff doesn't really belong on EqD anymore, but I guess it was a...simpler? time.
>Fanfiction
I've never really been a reader. I'm ashamed to admit that I've barely read a book in my life, and fanfiction had never been a big thing for me. I'd read a few in my time, including a stupidly long Starfox fanfic which I really enjoyed but haven't been able to find since. Back when EqD was starting though, it was basically a fanfic dumping ground, far more so than it is nowadays. So I got into reading fanfics, and I rather enjoyed a lot of them. It's no secret that I love my shipping stories but I really just love anything with emotion. I recall reading a story called Bittersweet which was pretty damn sad by the end and had my teary eyed. Towards the end of May 2011, a strange thing started happening on GDocs. People's stories were being deleted and no-one really knew why. Having seen the life that fanfics endured on EqD and GDocs, I decided something better was needed. I've been doing web programming in various forms since I was about 14, so I thought I'd have a go at making a fanfic website. It took me about 2 months to have something functional up and running, which was quite a long and somewhat painful process. I enjoyed getting feedback on it from my friends as I went though.
The first ever mock up for Fimfiction
So when I got to this stage where it was usable, I decided to approach Seth about testing the site and promoting it on EqD. After a couple more weeks, I got my first blog post on the site! I got a ton of hits and users on that day, and the site got going. It was pretty slow at first, many authors either didn't really want to use the site, or didn't know of it. Frankly things were a mess back then. The rich text editor was fundamentally broken and lead to a lot of issues with story formatting. There was also some tension growing between "us" and PonyFictionArchive. They were somewhat cheesed off (and probably rightly so) that Seth had "picked" Fimfiction over PFA. Things are all amicable now but there certainly was a little drama there.
Nonetheless, things plodded on kind of slowly. I'd get pretty excited whenever a story from the site was posted on EqD and sit there watching the crazy traffic it generated. It was all tiny amounts compared to now (6k hits a day versus 450k nowadays) but it still gave me a massive high, that people were enjoying using the fruits of my labour.
But...I don't like change...
The next really notable event in Fimfiction's history was back in September 2011. Having gotten sick of the site's layout, I decided to redo everything from scratch design wise. The result was the Fimfiction you see here, still going 6 months later. As I expected, many people were unhappy about the change, but I knew this would happen. People don't like change. And I can't blame people for that because I often feel like that too. I knew people would come around to it eventually though, and I'm pretty confident that the original doubters would agree that the existing site is a lot more fluid and intuitive to use than its ancestor.
Of course a similar event happened recently when I changed the rating system, and again I think the same cycle of hate and then acceptance and then agreement will be followed.
Frieeeeennddsss
I think the biggest part of the last year for me has been how many friends I've made. Nowadays I'm pretty much talking in calls on Skype all day long with a group of people I've genuinely grown to love, and I deeply value their friendship and that they want to spend time with me. What is life if you don't have friends to enjoy it with after all?
On the flip side though, I know I have some issues with myself. I get very wound up over minor things, and in recent months a lot of events in the fandom have literally kept me up at night. I won't go into details, but various people know what I'm talking about. In short, the fandom doesn't really come across as being as tight knit as it once was, and there seem to be a lot of people here for ulterior motives with egos that keep swelling, fuelled by, what I can only assume is, naive obsession from fans who probably can't see what's really going on. But whatever, I'm an extremely bitter 22 year old guy, and I know that's an issue I need to work with, frankly for the sake of my own health.
I think I'll write up some more about my life over the past year outside of Fimfiction, but I think that's a big enough wall of text for now that no-one will read.
tl;dr
*hugs*
For what it's worth, I read it. You definitely got me in a ponderous and retrospective mood - I even went back and watched my first PMV.
I'm sure it's been a long and crazy trip for all of us here, so I won't blather on. Whatever troubles you've been having, at least you've found friends. If we can take nothing else from the show, there's still that. Some of us are still pretty much "in the closet," so to speak.
At any rate, I'm glad you've been around, and I hope you'll be around. Thanks for all your hard work.
You really should write a biography for the site. Its very interesting (and nostalgic) to look back at what this site once looked like. I only joined Fimfic a few months back, even then I though of it as a small hamlet for decent stories. Now I come here each and every day to brows through stories and try to pick out the best. The site itself is incredible, nice and streamlined. Easy to use both for authors and just simple fans. It plays a big part in what I see the bronydom as. I hope we (and this gem of a site) keep expanding as we have.
Bah, I'll stop myself here or I'll join you in writing a wall of text. Suffice to say that many a brony (myself included) are incredibly grateful for all the work you (and the mods) do for us. Please keep it up!
24717
Oh wow. I think I can only thank you for your hard work. I remember visiting /fic/ every single day to check for updates to Romance Reports over the course of many happy months, and I've linked it to more people than I care to remember... I've always been a huge fan of yours, enjoyed every story you've written and keenly look forward to all your future endeavours.
24712
Thanks so much. You always have a special place on the site for me. The Empty Room was undoubtedly the first "big" story on the site, and probably went a long way to getting people on to the site, and your constant activity around the place is the kind of thing that keeps me motivated.
24713
28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ls3thfCq3r1qfs9fxo1_500.png
Personally, I came right after the end of season one. And I still remember the video that turned me brony. It was a 20 min long pmv called "Ponies the Anthology" and when the theme song from saints row came on, It was over, And like it or not, I eagerly searched out more pony content.
At first i was ashamed, but now, I embrace it.
24727 That's probably my favorite PMV.
Thank you for everything you have done for the brony community, Knightly. Really, the hours I've poured into this site have been entirely worth it. I don't know what I'd do in my free time if not for this (probably something productive
) (free time? what is that? do you mean ponies? 
).
I'm just a little nooblet, I only joined the community about 3 months ago, but I really look forward to all the good times, good fics, and good friends that this community brings together.
Keep on rockin', everypony, and thank you again Knightly!
knighty why won't you return my pms
i really liked your sexy pictures
can we please talk again i want to see more
plz
please respond
Well, theres only one way too discribe the epicness you have done that changed every one.
i22.photobucket.com/albums/b342/scair/using_a_computer_like_a_boss.jpg
*WoT Read*
Heh, from what it sounds like you and I joined the fandom right around the same time. It wasn't more than 14-15 episodes at the time, and I remember wanting to see more. I originally popped up in PonyChan and started perusing everything there, just wanting "more pony" even if it was fan-generated content.
My opinions on the "brony fandom" are pretty broad, generally speaking, but I definitely know what you mean when you say things don't feel quite so tight-knit. The pony fandom has become a vector for a lot of things, some things less or more pleasant and productive than others. That being said... what really attracted me to the fandom and even the show was that it encapsulated and engendered the very ideals I already held myself. And, at least in part, I saw quite a few people practicing them.
Not every "ponies changed my life" story is necessarily legitimate, and perhaps some people were just in it for an emotional fad or a basket of warm fuzzies. And more than likely, just as all things can be, some people started using it to their own ends, their own purposes, and lost sight of why the show exists and what it tries to teach as basic principles. As the fandom grows and begins to encompass a broader spectrum of people and personalities, things in general may feel less and less "tight-knit" and not so much a community as an aggregation of random people.
But, we can always feel close to the people (or ponies) we meet and connect with here. I'm grateful for the many people I've met who haven't lost site of friendship, and take from a "little girl's show" things that young and old alike could benefit from. The kind of "magic" it shares doesn't come in sparkly whisps of glowing colored smoke. It's the kind of magic that works in the heart, a much more subtle, quiet kind. You feel it when you "get it, " when you look around and find you have friends you care about more than yourself, and you know they care about you just as much. The world is dark. It isn't perfect, and neither are the people in it, but if people were more willing to look past the show and examine what it tries to instill in the often more willing, open minds of children and take it to heart themselves, it'd go a long way to making this world a more livable, more pleasant place.
We don't need ponies to learn about love and friendship. They're basics of life - or ought to be - and someday when the generation we're raising is raising its own, or the generation after that and "ponies" may be just an old memory, hopefully we'll have learned enough to teach them love and kindness as a way of life. And maybe by then the world will be a much brighter and loving place to live through our persistence.
But since we have ponies now, they're certainly a fun way to learn.
Thanks for all your hard work on the site, and giving others tools to cultivate the fun, friendship and happiness.
*WoT Posted*
24721
I'm happy to know that I helped, in some small way, with Fimfic's growth 
wish I could do more 
but for now I'll keep writing, commenting and reading.
Huuuzahhhh!!!!!
I used to go on EqD all the time, but after FimFiction came out I only visit(ed) once or twice a week. It's been fun here ever since, and will hopefully continue to be.
24747
>that feel when knighty doesnt respond
25151
Cosmo pls respond
I found this when I wanted to see what MLD was about
and it's safe to say that, that fic got me to use this site and it's better than EqD what with no biased ponies saying who can and can't put their story up
24721
Well, shucks...I know I was late to the fimfiction party, but right back at ya, man.
I read it. I'm sure others did too, except for that first guy(
). Man, I did not know this site had a different layout... but thank you, Knighty, for making a place where I could really get some stuff out there. This show started me writing- for real, honest to goodness writing for an audience that would read it each time I updated. I may have only been here since November, but these four months have been some of the longest of my life. Here's to another four months, and many more.
I read it too. You've done a great job, and everypony really enjoys this site! Thanks, knighty!
>comment necromancy
For what it's worth, my only tension/irritation was toward Seth, not you or FIMFic. You put together a really solid site that's more robust in a lot of ways than the PFA; I have nothing but respect for you and your work. I was surprised and a little flattered when you asked me to post the Vault interviews here.
Hi, I don't know if you will respond to this or not, but I just want to say that I really
enjoy this site, it has some great fanfictions and some great authors, I'm currently working on my own story.
And just to ask, how many members are on the fimfiction team? I would really like to know.
The FrozenWarrior 9th/June/2021
The good ol days