/rules/ - Ponyville Rules

Hello, my little ponies! Your staff and I have been discussing the state of our humble home together for the past few months, and I think we have something today for you that I am hoping you will like.

We founded Ponyville on a set of ideals: our Constitution. Our site was founded with the dream that the internet needn't be a place of serious business. We defined our home, set ourselves apart, by valuing kindness, tolerance, civility, respect, and understanding: concepts that are seldom held in high regard on imageboard-style websites.

It is the opinion of the staff that the goals of the site have shifted away from our founding Constitution, to the detriment of our most vulnerable users, and as such, we are starting the Return to Love Initiative as a way of recapturing the spirit of kindness and love that our site was founded on.

[1] Enforcement of the Rules
Our policy in the past has always been to err on the side of lenience. In so doing, however, we moved the goalposts too far, and have gone past lenience and into negligence. Effective immediately, a new enforcement policy will be in place: one that is simple and easy to understand.

Moderators will be given much more autonomy to act on the rules. The rules themselves will be vastly simplified, as you shall soon see. The first rules offense a user makes will generally be considered with a warning in thread, publicly visible. The second rules offense a user makes will generally be considered a short ban. And the third rules offense and after will invite any ban, up to and including a permaban, that a staff member feels is fit.

Please note that this is a guideline, and that a moderator will have leeway to even permaban on first offense, depending on the situation, from here on out. Moderators will be much more proactive in enforcing the rules, and though we shall still err in favor of leniency, we shall be taking more firm action towards rule breaking behavior.

[2] The New Rules

We are proposing a new set of rules that are far simpler to read and comprehend. Instead of adding increasing complexity to the rules in an attempt to make them airtight, more responsibility shall be given to each user to act in accordance not only with the letter of the rules, but the spirit of the rules as well.

A. Please show civility and respect towards other users, towards their posts, and towards their threads;

B. Please do not post content which is of a trollishly poor quality typical of “sh*tposting”;

C. Please do not engage in or incite aggressive fighting, name-calling, or other dramatic behavior;

D. Please do not engage in or encourage spamming, raiding, or “doxing;”

E. Please do not post any sexually explicit content, gore, or extreme violence in any form or depiction. Risque or suggestive content is allowed in moderation;

F. All content that is considered illegal in the United States is expressly prohibited on Ponyville.us;

G. Content that is of dubious legality or ethicality may be removed at a staff member's discretion;

H. Rules are subject to change at any time, and may be enforced retroactively. The rules are guidelines to preserve the spirit of the site, and users are expected to behave in accordance with that spirit.

[3] Streamlining Canterlot

It is the opinion of the staff that Canterlot has exceeded its original purposes, and requires substantial streamlining in order to make it functional. Canterlot has become an unnecessary dramatic place, and the following policy seeks to reduce that drama first and foremost.

If a user has an issue to bring to Canterlot, that user shall open a thread, post as many posts as they need, and then request a lock. No other users may post in that thread. After the lock is requested, a staff member shall lock the thread, and then provide an answer.

In so doing, each Canterlot thread shall have the user's posts, a moderators answers, and that's it. “Meta” matters will not be permitted on other boards, outside of /canterlot/, with the policy strictly enforced.


It is our hope that these new policies can reorient the site back towards a more loving nature: one that can protect the vulnerable among us, while also taking stronger action towards rule breakers, and the sort of negative content which has effected the boards to their detriment.

Let us know what you think! Please note too that these rules and policies shall be effective immediately.

Thank you for your time!