I figured I should clarify my position on this. I’ve been on both sides of the fence over the years, whether it be making stuff for someone else or receiving stuff from others.

I’m all for it! People have my blessing to do whatever they please with my characters or settings, just as long as that doesn’t extend into trying to take credit for whatever might be considered my intellectual property. I’ve been a bit too controlling about it in the past if someone wanted to do something with my characters I wasn’t necessarily comfortable with, so I think a laid back approach would be far better in comparison.

The internet is gonna be the internet anyway. Once something gets popular enough, whether it be characters such as Loona from Helluva Boss or species such as the avali, people are going to run wild with it. It’s completely counterproductive to be a control freak about it, much less pulling moves similar to how Nintendo handles popular fan creations…

Still. This does not necessarily mean I’ll give things I didn’t create the ‘canon’ stamp so to speak. It took me far too long to realize this if Disintegration is anything to go by, but it ultimately doesn’t matter too much to begin with. Just have fun with it! People might consider it their ‘head canon’ anyway if they like it. But personally it might be too much of a headache for me to keep track of every little thing people make while trying to incorporate it into my own work, and I don’t want feelings to get hurt during the process.

It’s just flattering if I inspire anyone to begin with!

I do consider content to fall into the following categories, however.

Canonical: Official material made by the original creator or whoever owns the intellectual property. The mere concept of canon helps to establish a timeline and internal consistency with the overall lore, especially if there’s multiple creators involved.
Example - Fallout: New Vegas

Fanon: Fan content that tries to stay faithful to the source material. It generally tries to expand upon the original work while putting its own spin on things, but it’s the ‘head canon’ of fans at best if it’s not officially incorporated into the canon for various reasons.
Example - Fallout: New California

Derivative: Fan content that borrows characters or ideas from another work while making zero attempt to stay faithful to the original content. This can range from someone wanting to do a crossover of Warhammer 40k and Pokemon to poorly written erotic fan fiction created by weirdos on Furaffinity, such as myself.
Example - Fallout: Equestria

There’s other examples I could probably cite, but you get the picture. Certain projects I’ve seen such as Fallout: New California and Undertale Yellow go to great lengths to stay faithful to the original work, but they can’t really be incorporated into the official canon for practical reasons. There’d be issues regarding who owns what, and it’s possible that future canon content contradicts fanon material outright, so it’s better for everyone involved if it just remains in the ‘fanon’ category.

With that in mind, my official position is that only whatever I write is going to be considered canonical a vast majority of the time. Then of course whatever artwork I commission unless specified otherwise. It’d take something being a collaborative effort altogether for me to be comfortable with someone else writing about my characters or settings in any official capacity, but the astounding level of emotional and mental maturity I’ve witnessed among furry artists over the last five years means that I’m usually averse to it these days.

I hope that clears things up, and I’ll shoot this journal link to whoever asks for my permission to create any fan content accordingly.