Hello Everypony,
This is going to be a bit long, because I have a tendency to be long-winded. (I can't help myself).
How I Became a Brony
Well, I started watching MLP about three weeks about. I kept seeing all of these weird images of these colorful characters with huge eyes popping up every once in a while on various programming-related sites. Finally someone posted a video, so I clicked in and found myself watching the last episode of the first season. For some strange reason, I felt myself compelled to continue watching....
Then I watched another, and another, and another.... I was trying to reinstall windows on a handful of computers, so I had some time to burn. Actually, I had all night to burn. Before I knew it, it was the next day, and I had watched almost every single episode.... Which was strange, because I'm not the kind of person that someone would expect to watch a show like this......
The wasn't the crazy thing though. The crazy thing was I had this insatiable desire to watch the episodes again! At first, I tried to fight it, but then I said "well, why not" and re-watched. The damage was already done. I was now a serious fan of this show.
How Everyone Else Did Too
But watching the show myself just wasn't good enough. I felt an amazing drive to indoctrinate other people as well.
So there I was, driving back after picking up my younger brothers from college, and all of a sudden, I just can't stop myself. I start rambling about ponies. I talk about everything - the show, the characters, the animation - everything. What happened next was about 5 minutes of complete silence, and then they laughed.
They thought I was joking! So then I told them that, no, it was not a joke. I really am watching a show that features a bunch of brightly colored, talking ponies. I told them that it really was a great show and they should watch at least one episode before they draw any conclusions about my mental health. (Being the older brother, I may or may not have also made some ambiguous threats and/or made use of some other type of coercion.)
To say that they were skeptical would be an understatement. They were beyond skeptical. But they were curious.... So, after some thought, I decided to play Applebuck Season. To make a long story short, it worked.... So, I decided to indoctrinate everyone else that I could as well.
Sometimes it didn't quite go well, but sometimes it did. Altogether, I have added another 8 or so fans. Hopefully, more will follow. I will not be satisfied until everyone, and I mean everyone, in the entire world is a BRONY!
How I Found This Site
Well, my next step was to try and find somewhere that I could talk about ponies online. I have probably checked out just about every pony related group on the net. I'm not sure why, but I never actually clicked into mlpforums when it popped up in the google search.
For various reasons, all of the MLP fansites that I tried rubbed me the wrong way. One of the primary things being the fact that it was hard to avoid the NSFW content. Being in a working environment for most of my day, this was a serious, serious problem for me.
Finally, I decided to check out this site today, and I was really impressed. I was impressed by the maturity and friendliness of the members here. I was impressed by the clear set of rules outlined in the site's constitution.
I was completely impressed by how nice this site itself is. It loads fast and it looks nice (some of the other MLP fansites out there make my eyes burn). I have been a web developer for a while now, and I have only very rarely come across a forum where you can tell that the mods, admins, and owner are all very good at what they do. This site is a joy to use.
Then I ran across this thread while trying to find out what the owner of the site was like:
http://mlpforums.com/topic/6452-the-cost-of-running-mlp-forums-a-comprehensive-report/
Wow, just wow. That the site owner would be so open with running this site completely impressed me. This is something that even experienced corporations have a hard time doing. And that the site owner would actually take the time to set this site up in the right way, with the right tools, and the right hosting. Ok... That did it... I was sold! I had to sign up ASAP.
I tip my hat to the members, moderators, admins, and the owner of this site. Well done!
And now... Here I am. It feels good to join the mlpforums herd!