I disagree. Subspecies are not only a realistic extension of the universe, they provide new avenues to explore while still remaining fluffy-centric. The only rules I would add is that any new fluff-species needs to be heavily discussed and scrutinized, not everyone is able to come up with something sensible, and it’s easy to run into OC territory, but by and large I am fond of the idea.
Before I joined the team, I wasn’t even subscribed to the anthro category. Wasn’t even aware they existed here. My point being, there’s a good percentage here that might not be fans, but we have them as a separate category and you legit don’t even have to interact with it if you don’t want to.
Anthros are in so far okay as to clearly state that it’s on some level parody material, and for that reason alone I’m against removing them outright. They aren’t “fluffies”, they should never be considered “fluffies”, and they are only acceptable in the Non-fluffy category of the website. If necessary we will make a category exclusively for anthro, but for the time being that’s my stance on the situation.
This is a genuinely good point raised. We have a strict “non-human violence” rule in place. If anyone chooses to draw anthro, then for all intents and purposes, that’s considered a human in my eyes. And by extension, if you draw anthro, violence should be off the table.
I’m fairly certain we’ve listed similar things, but you are correct, something that’s universally identifying and can easily be called out on would cut down on anyone deviating from the norm. I like the proposed qualifiers. I think it’s easy to forget that all of us veterans know this by heart, but newcomers might not.
Excellent point that can be combined with the previous argument. If we have a unifying rule that either limits them by appearance or behavior, we’re pretty much set. Birdfluffies are an edge-case, they might alter the appearance of the fluffy too much, but if they’re still flightless like pegasi, it might be ruled okay.
I’m going to spend the day (once I’m done working) to make a couple of new groups, I think. Specifically, one for anthro. That will further help separate the content people want to see.
What this discussion has illustrated to me is that, at the core, people have issues with anthros and/or subspecies, but there’s also fervent supporters of them. To ban either is to alienate a portion of the website, and if we start resorting to that, it’ll open a can of worms of what will remain okay to exist.
This will also follow, as soon as I’m able. This list will also go into detail about some rules of subspecies.
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