Y!Gallery



y!Gallery (also known as y!hosting Gallery) was a themed gallery related to illustrations and stories of homosexual male relationships. The "y" in "y!Gallery" stands for yaoi, a Japanese term for such relationships.


 * Addresses:
 * NEW (after mid-2016):
 * Y!g Dev Log: https://y-gallery.net/
 * Announcements: http://ygalannouncements.tumblr.com/ (updated in mid-2019)
 * Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/ygallery
 * Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ygdevs
 * OLD: http://yaoi.y-gallery.net/ (2019: "server not found"; see archive)
 * Founder: ?
 * Administrators: themdolphins (reverted back to Snover after allegations of embezzlement by Sianne, who ran the site from April to October 2009), BrocoCoconut (technical)
 * Ran from/to: February 13th, 2005 - July 11th, 2016

y!Gallery was one of two popular sites founded as an alternative to SheezyArt after it banned all adult related artwork from their site in January 2005 (the other being Fur Affinity). y!Gallery aimed at creating a place to appreciate the human male form and male sexuality, and as such, females must not be a featured portion or the central part of any media submission.

The site suffered repeated downtime in 2013, and in November 2015 its security was breached, resulting in downtime and data loss. A backup was found, and the site was restored a few days later; however, the situation repeated in July 2016. After initially announcing redeployment of the November 2015 backup, staff announced that "the database has been lost" and that they would close the site and deploy a planned revamp dubbed yG2 as a "fresh start", with no immediate timescale for completion.

y!Gallery and furry
Until May 2006 to Jan 2009, y!Gallery allowed anthropomorphic characters within it, as long as they followed the same submission rules as to male human art. Animals without sufficient human features to be labeled as "anthropomorphic" were not allowed as the sole character (or characters) in a piece of artwork.

y!Gallery's guidelines for determining true anthropomorphism were as follows:
 * Bipedal
 * Opposable thumbs
 * Human-like facial expression
 * Visible eyebrows

To be considered an anthropomorph, and not an animal, the site moderators required that characters should contain at least 3 of these 4 criteria. Anything that does not contain 3 of these 4 criteria may still be anthropomorphic, but it could not be posted without checking with a moderator first.

A group of furry artists had made their presence known within y!Gallery prior to the May 2006 ban on anthropomorphic animals, including Micah Fennec, Turbine Divinity, Brian Wear, Monsieur Le Eh, Artdecade, Whitefire, Strider Orion, Guppy, Inuneko, and K-9. Places of furry interest within the site included the Anthropomorphics and Furry Pride clubs. The presence of these artists and groups after the anthropomorphic ban is uncertain.

Banning of Anthropomorphic Art
On May 10, 2006, the Y!Gallery administrators posted the following announcement:

Artist Patrick Fillion was suspended for two weeks for uploading art that included Ra which Patrick thought was permitted as a mythological figure but a y!Gallery moderator deemed to be a furry. After Patrick's suspension had expired, Patrick deleted his art from y!Gallery and posted a farewell message to y!Gallery, and then y!Gallery "shut down [Patrick's] access".

Anthropomorphic art ban lifted
In January 2009, Y!galley administers lifted the Furry art ban and allowed Anthropomorphic art to be submitted to the site again, with strict guidelines of what is permitted and what is not. Some furries have criticized these guidelines as "biased and bizarre", with a few even suspecting that it was a desperate stunt from Y!gallery to increase attendance and declining donations (the site at the time already owed more then $200, with another $200 being deducted on Jan, 23rd, 2009). Nonetheless, in the two days since the furry art ban was lifted, members donated more than $400.

Trivia
On April Fools 2006, y!Gallery announced that it would henceforth be known as "deviantART Adult", and changed  the site theme to match.