Alright, here goes the official announcement. I know this is causing a lot of debate so I want to take the time to explain it for everyone.
Starting in a week, all MLP content, both FiM and classic, will be removed from Sneezefurs. This involves anything in the Media Gallery, Video Gallery, and Forums. Further posting of MLP-related content will be removed. Discussion about MLP will still be allowed in chat and social topics. There will be a subforum somewhere on this site (Possibly in General, possibly in IFS or Art) that will provide an easy redirect to the MLP-sneezing's new home. More details on that will follow as they develop.
Several people have questioned my motivations for this radical change and I want to say that there was a lot of thought put into what to do. I will agree it could have been communicated better, but the decision wasn't made in haste. Realize that even as a community site, this is still largely run by my efforts (as always, a huge thank you to Chikara) and finances. Donations have helped, but have rarely been frequent enough to pay for a full year. I have a vision for this site, and sometimes things come up which conflict with those visions.
In recent years, MLP has grown from a niche within furry to a full-fledged fandom of its own. There are 'brony' conventions that bring in even more people than the largest of furry cons. MLP-related sneezing has become so frequent that it takes up a noticeable percentage of your average DeviantArt search. Meanwhile, a FurAffinity search yields almost zero MLP content. This tells me that the core supporters of MLP-sneezing are not active in the furry community, which creates a conflict between the function of this site and the usage.
In order for MLP-sneezing to grow into its own community properly, it needs to be forced to find a home of its own. A place where those who visit are guaranteed to like MLP, a place where they can expand and draw the crowd they deserve. That simply cannot be found here at Sneezefurs. By leaving MLP content here at Sneezefurs, it makes it harder for that community to properly form. I have always appreciated Smiles' efforts and accommodations but I feel that I have been unfairly stifling the growth of something that has been becoming much more popular than my site on its own could hope to be.
I hope that helps everyone to better understand why the decision was made to remove MLP from Sneezefurs. I encourage anyone who is a fan of MLP to continue to support whatever location the community expands to, and I hope that the community there will provide direction for those looking to expand from MLP to original content involving anthropomorphism. Also remember that while Sneezefurs accommodates non-anthro, it is not the primary function of the site. If possible we would like all contributors to try their hands at anthropomorphic content, aka animal-people.
