E621

E621 (stylized as e621) is an image board mainly directed towards furry content of all kinds, largely being used for hosting pornography. It runs off of the Ouroboros platform, a software designed specifically for this site. The name most likely comes from Monosodium Glutamate, a common food additive, which has an E number of 621 (Hence the name e621)

Policies and content
e621 makes use of a DNP list, and takedown requests are honored when following the guidelines of the Takedown page ( https://e621.net/static/takedown ). Images that are removed are also blacklisted to prevent posting.

Registration requests for inclusion on the site by artists and users might or might not be moderated by e621's staff, depending on the amount of spammers or trolls they are being hit with.

Uploading of photographic child pornography or bestiality media is not permitted, and uploading of images from pay-sites is discouraged, with the exception of a few images (usually for publicity purposes).

Additionally, any post could be deleted without notice if they fail to meet a standard of quality as determined by the moderators (poorly drawn or badly compressed art), though this is uncommon.

Regarding post tagging, the site uses a "tag-what-you-see" (TWYS) tagging system where posts are tagged based on what is visible in the images and animations. ( https://e621.net/wiki/show/twys ) Although this system is seen as highly effective for searching and blacklisting, it has caused several conflicts between the site's administration and a number of its user base and various posts' artists, primarily regarding the tagging of genders. The site features a page on its wiki specifying how they tag genders. ( https://e621.net/wiki/show/howto:tag_genders ) Despite said page featuring a disclaimer stating that the site's gender tagging system is only for the purposes of searches and blacklists, "Not and Never for describing the character" (i.e. not as a personal labeling system), this policy has nevertheless led to a number of artists requesting DNP status solely out of a refusal to accept the site's tagging policies. Eventually, it was announced on February 12, 2020 that the new version of the site would include the introduction of a new "lore" tags category to complement the TWYS system, including canonical (i.e. by what the artist or copyright owner says) gender identity tags. However, "Lore" tags will be a locked tag category; only administrators would be able to add tags to the "lore" category after they sanction them first. Nevertheless, the site's TWYS, gender tagging, and "minimum quality standards" policies have led to continued criticism among several artists and members of the site (former and current). On June 22, 2019, after having received several complaints about the vulgar terms "dickgirl" and "cuntboy" as gender tags over time, head admin NotMeNotYou announced that the tags would be aliased to less vulgar terms "gynomorph" and "andromorph". Other tags that incorporate the two vulgar terms would also be aliased to use the less vulgar terms.

Mascot
e621 has two mascots, both of them being feline characters; Hexerade and Esix.

Controversy
Early in 2010, the owners of e621 were looking for a mascot to adorn the site. After asking the site's users to come up with their own ideas, a poll was opened to decide on which character should be selected. However, a few weeks afterward the poll was closed prematurely as it came to light that one of the contestants had been rigging the contest by signing up many alts through proxies to vote his mascot up.

In response to this, the administrators announced that they would select a mascot among themselves. After deliberation, they selected a five character mascot team from the leaders of the poll, featuring characters by Mellis, Chizi, Keishinkae, Darkdoomer and Manafox.

e961/e926
In July 2009, a work-safe counterpart, e961.net, was brought online. The site was named after the E number of the then-new artificial sweetener, Neotame. Unfortunately, in November 2009 it was aliased to the original site due to traffic issues caused by the popularity of e621. However, users who want to view only safe for work content can use the "rating:safe" tag to exclude all mature content from e621, except banner adverts which will still include adult content. Images can also be filtered by placing ratings (i.e., rating:explicit) on the tag blacklist.

In November 2012, e961 was rebuilt as e926, a joke for it being a 'bleached' version of the site, was reinstated along with updates to the main site. It displays content from e621 that strictly has a safe rating. The site's login system shares e621's login database, but requires separate login, as it most likely has its own cookies. Notably, it also has its own "safe for work" advertising.