One of the best arguments I've heard so far. While I respect the rights of the individual, I also understand the concept of community. However, the only real flaw I see within your argument is that the "Fetish X" community is PART of this community, and if one is to be banished and ostracized, what's to prevent, say, "Fetish Z" from receiving the same treatment further down the road? If I were to make a political comparison: "The People of the United States have shown they are unable to reach a decision regarding Gay Marriage on their own, and as such, to protect the people of the United States, we must initiate a constitutional ban on Gay Marriage." What's forgotten here is that the people of the US ARE gay. Not all, but discounting that portion of the country as not BEING members of the country is in perfect juxtaposition to the current situation running around here on FA, albeit a far less-significant one, and on a far smaller scale.

I'm not sure where I heard the quote, but it seems fitting: "The wants and desires of the majority should never impede on the rights of the individual."

In the mean time, thank you for taking a refreshingly cool and calm stance, and actually working to make a legitimate defense for your feelings on the matter. It's a welcome change, and was rather nice to wake up to this morning. :-D

Thanks for your comment. And yes, it's true that fetish X (for any value of X) has the disadvantage of being the smaller part of the community, and will suffer from one of the main problems with vanilla democracy: the tyranny of the majority. As checks and balances against this in general, we have only the discretion of the admins; it being their site, the choice of where to draw the lines between fetishes X, Y, and Z is entirely up to them; this vote being extended to us is of course only a matter of courtesy (though it is a very positive sign that, even though fetish X apparently has no advocates among the admins, that they are open-minded enough to leave the question open rather than dismiss it outright!)

At least on the Internet it's easier, should one be outvoted in one community, to join other communities where one is more accepted--something harder to do in the Real World. But we may not have to worry about it, in this case--as of now, at any rate, "allow" is winning against "ban", though not by much.

An apt statement indeed.

The willingness of the Admins to set this forth unto us is, indeed, worthy of being noted. Also, you are most certainly correct that the internet facilitates the ability for like-minded individuals to congregate. However, I do see that the problem here isn't with "Fetish X", the problem lies within each individual's ability to discern between harmful matter, and lack thereof, resulting in poor arguments on both sides of the table, and total and utter support for poorly-thought-out rhetoric.

Thus far, a majority of the arguments I've seen in the furry community in general equate to the concept of "My cat has four legs, my dog has four legs, therefore my cat is my dog." That's all well and good when you've got a microphone and the attention of a room full of people, but when this becomes the baseline for various arguments ranging from moral acceptability to where a particular event should be held, I think it's about time that we, as individuals, take a step back and re-evaluate our reasons for being where we are.

I understand that in any group, there will eventually be schisms once the numbers get large enough. It's one of few constants ingrained in the Human Psyche, "mental ghetto-ization" if you will. It's a round about way of saying it, but attacking this from the angle of "vote, move on, vote, move on" is ignoring the problem and treating the symptoms. We're looking to improve ourselves as a group by pushing out all who disagree, rather than improve ourselves by coming to accept that we are all individuals, and as such, we WON'T agree on everything all the time. Focus on what outwardly harms others, not what inwardly makes us uncomfortable.

What I think has made this discussion between us so vastly different, is that neither of us has had to bring up our individual stances on the current topic in order to defend the argument revolving around it; an aspect worthy of recognition and thanks in and of itself. It's so awesome to experience people thinking for themselves, I must thank you for standing up for what you believe, and voicing your opinion in such a polite, presentable fashion.