- Joined
- Jun 6, 2005
- Messages
- 10,225
The History of the My Little Pony Trading Post
The MLPTP has been on a long and winding journey, undergoing many renovations and
changing hands several times. So, how did we get here?
• 1996 •
In 1996, the original MLPTP (then a .com address) was created by founder J. It quickly rose to success and became the largest and best-known forum for pony collectors available at the time. This was the era of GeoCities, Netscape, and Yahoo MLP fan sites, many of which have been lost to history. We didn't even really have analog cell phones yet! G2 ponies would soon arrive on the scene, becoming a topic of shocked and excited conversation as we beheld the first reincarnation and redesign of My Little Pony.
• 2005 •
The MLPTP (.com) enjoyed nearly a decade of enormous success up until 2005, when the site owner vanished with no apparent plans in place for anyone else to be able to take over. This caused a panic among its members, and while volunteer staff worked to create the new MLPTP (.net), some MLPTP members broke away and formed the MLP Arena as a then-temporary replacement. It has since become a permanent structure. The (.com) domain has since been lost forever.
Right away, with a new owner, S, new software and a new team of moderators, MLPTP(.net) was reborn. It was a difficult climb after the loss of the (.com) site, but as this community always has, we banned together and brought about a fresh, exciting new era. Games and swaps were held frequently, and we all anxiously awaited the reveal of what would become the G3 ponies. There were no internet spoilers back then, no leaked photos from factories--in fact, all we had at the time were the names of the Core 7, until they started popping up in stores and advertisements. There was a contest held for whoever could guess the designs and colors of the Core 7 most accurately, since none of us had any way of knowing!
• 2019 •
Around 2015, the then-owner became absent, and the forum began to show signs of disrepair. The moderator team carried the weight of the forum for several years, until in December of 2019, when @MustBeJewel became the official new site owner. The forum was fully updated to the latest state-of-the-art software, new widgets and features and safety measures were put into place, and many years of backlogs were manually sorted and configured. It was an enormous and arduous labor of love.
Most importantly, measures are now in place so that the MLPTP will always have an owner and caretaker, and will never risk fading into history again.
• 2022 •
2022 brought a lot of exciting changes! First and foremost is the MLPTP's rebranding, with thanks to our artist Marco Albiero, who created the art for our mascot pony and promotional materials. We are also now MLPTP LLC! This will enable us to continue to provide everything we can for our members into the future.
None of this would be possible without an amazing team of moderators, many of which have stood by the TP for decades, and offered tireless and compassionate enthusiasm and support for what is truly an incredible community.
Where will we go from here?
Only time will tell.
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