Ok, I gotta get to the core of this. Why are many people making these "closed species" things? I've been trying to figure out what makes people want to lock things up so tightly for the past 4 or 5 months...

-Shrugged- Because if you create something yourself and you have specific guidelines for a species, closing the species makes it easier to regulate and you can create the designs yourself.

While it may be easier to keep track of, the main portion I'm trying to figure out is where the need to so heavily regulate to the point of prohibiting fan art makes it "easier" to become more recognized; cause historically that hasn't worked so well (ex. iPhones may be neat, but they only hold 25% of the market share- while Android, a more open project, holds 50%).

I'm not trying to tell you to open your species, I'm just trying to gather information on why there is such a disproportionate open- to closed-species balance.

I think generally all you need to know about closed species is that the artist wants to design them themselves so they can sell them. It's profitable to the original designer and it keeps guidelines specific. To the person that created them, there's not really a negative side to it. But if you open a species people just do whatever they want with your creations.