What was Flayrah's most significant story in 2012?

This be a tough one, I'll have to think it over.

I put my vote with the National Geographic feature on furs because National Geographic is huge and respected and that will probably bring a lot of attention to the fandom. I can't remember all the stories over the year to say whether it's really the most significant. Looking at mine though I'd consider the launch of SoFurry 2.0 to be significant. Weasyl is also fairly significant, though as far as I know it hasn't left beta or seemingly made a huge impression.

Most of the options here involve deaths or crimes. While those do generate a lot of attention it's temporary. They only have a direct affect on very and few seldom any lasting impact. That's why I wouldn't call any of them significant. Significance to me implies something that will have changed the landscape of the fandom or it's place in the world. None of those stories did that. National Geographic may have and the big sites like SoFurry have a lasting effect on what happens.

As far as the deaths and arrests go, I knew none of those involved personally, so to myself while sad in their own ways and tragic are going to be a consistent thing which will happen year after year. However, I would not blame votes in those for those whose subset of the fandom it did impact.

The MLP porn and the Offbeatr article basically to me showed something many are already well aware of, sex sells. Ironically I would disagree with the results in so that the Offbeatr article is more significant than the MLP since it shows that while sex sells, furry sex seems to be oddly selling more against vanilla.

Of the remaining 4, it was tough, each had significance, but I tend to look past the significance of the words themselves and more the implication on the fandom and trying to find or establish identity.

The ARP article was a bit focused on the Brony aspect, but it did have a lot of other information that was important. The particular part that I liked to know and look forward to the further expansion was the bullying aspect. Don't know why, cause I've always had this theory on niche groups being formed through those who were already beaten down by their peers and experienced that. My thoughts on that were because those who aren't bullied typically don't put themselves into a position to be bullied. So those who find themselves bullied typically find themselves more free to do things which are odd because they are already treated as such in the first place. It'd be an interesting thing to see.

The National Geographic, while comparitavely better produced then many main stream articles still focused on the fursuiters, as the title shows. However, the show itself was about furries, not fursuiters. It shows the media is starting to get the initial meeting correct. Fursuits are the distinguishing factor that makes it easier to pick us out from the crowd. The complexities are however, better shown by the study article. Furries wouldn't learn anything new from it, it's just important because what it's supposed to teach the masses. Masses on Surveys: "Ain't nobody got time for that."

I'm a person who likes history, but particularly if it's history that can show you how things are and more importantly how you can change the present and make a better future. That being said the Chronology of Furry I think makes a tight second, because it's nice to have things published in one spot. However, it's nothing that one couldn't find if one were so inclined on places such as Wikifur and sometimes in the words of older fans. It wasn't anything new to me, though for those who hadn't been introduced it was useful.

Which leaves me with the winner. Which was the Christchurch incident. Not so much for the article itself, but like last year what the between the lines meaning was from it. Last year it was the NHL and I said that means that outside groups are willing to make political deals with the fandom which is significant. In this one, the article itself on Flayrah (which some call a 'blog' more then a news organization) caused an actual news organization, small as it may be to immediately backpedal. While exaggerations have been had by many a larger groups in the media, none had been so quick to go on the defensive. As far as Flayrah, it's probably the most significant story it produced on it's own right. The other three were certainly important works, but mostly of third party origin as far as content.

It was not an easy choice, but can only make one.