I admit, I miss when Ponycon was more geared towards older generations. This is me being old and cranky, but the website is full of G4-isms and G4 pony references. It talks about celebrating 20 years of Ponycon but doesn't make a single reference to any event or pony prior to G4, which began in 2011. I wasn't at the first ponycon but I think I was at the second or third, long before G4 was a thing. There were still panels for different generational stuff back then. Tickets have also ballooned in price and include stupid things like entry to a concert which is of absolutely no interest to someone like me who is hypersensitive to sound.
I decided not to go this year, as I can't drop £400+ on accommodation, transport and entry for what is basically Bronycon plus some tables for older pony trading. It's a shame, since the 20 year history theme should've been awesome - but there's nothing hopeful on site or facebook feed.
It's not that there's ever any hostility from G4 fans at conventions - they're actually pretty cool people. But the convention has got more and more geared to them and less and less about what actually began it. I don't know if it is the organisational team or what the reason is - but it's not really UK ponycon anymore. Maybe in the future it will go back to its roots, but for the time being, it's no longer my collecting space.
It's little wonder that G4 fans think they invented and sustained the community. Although it's also a tad bizarre given their convention shut down and they came and colonised ours, but still think we didn't have a fan community before they existed.
What BC says is true, though. Every generation - probably ours, too - thinks they invented something, but in reality it was probably there before. Going wildly off topic now, but as a mediaeval historian, when I was studying it was a source of endless frustration for me seeing modernists claim something was 'invented' in the 19th century when in fact it wasn't. But it's the same thing. The assumption that something is new because it's within their bubble and not beyond.
Although it is mystifying how they explain to themselves why G4 exists at all if G1, G2 and G3 were such completely anonymous flops.