You’re not a household name. You’d never get recognized at the grocery store. But walk into the right conference, Discord server, or meetup? People know you.
That’s “Pony Famous” — a term born from the My Little Pony community describing the strange reality of being genuinely famous within a niche. You’ve got fans, influence, maybe even critics. Just… within a niche community.
I’m Pony Famous in the Kubernetes and Cloud Native ecosystem. I know a lot of folks in and around that space, and they know me. Others in the community are more Pony Famous than I am — I try to stay humble about it — but the term fits.
My wife is Pony Famous in our county’s tennis community. She’s got fantastic ball control, and after a recent match, the people she played against couldn’t stop gassing her up. She’d never get stopped on the street, but on the local courts? She’s got a reputation.
The maintainer of a beloved open source library. The top contributor in a subreddit. The voice everyone recognizes on a niche podcast. All Pony Famous.
It’s real fame. It just comes with a small asterisk.