I realize that the folks(is it overkill that I want to say "asshats"?) at that OTHER place wouldn't let you post anything with human content. But for me, the incorporation of humans helps make all this special. Humans living among these other species, and being a part of the diversity..... how can that not be appealing to furries?

That was my thought. The Lupines" were just another Fantasy race. I came at this from a grognard Table top Gaming perspective. But you have to remember that in the 90's the fandom had (and still does in some ways) a heavy persecution complex, and Humans were seen as a "Downer" for some, but the "No Humans" policy didn't last, especially after the Yerf leadership emphasized art education and instruction along with it's increasingly stringent membership qualifications. (Thwe Dream was Yerf to become the conceptart.org for furries in 10 years.).

The mixing of the two just made for interesting stories and such. It's alsy why I didn't make the Lupines obviously a superior Mary Sue race compared to humans. each have their strengths and weaknesses wrto the others. It may have originally an instinct for game balance, but it was also a reaction against the SLAN-ification of most furry stories (again reflecting that persecution complex). In fact the story as it was developing was that Lupines and humans in close teamwork (like the Devout pictured above) worked to the advantage of both. Rqather more well that the somewhat successful compartmentalization and occupational stereotyping in the Imperial lands, and far more successful that the open hostility of the Empires' south eastern neighbors.

iirc

The "no humans" rule was mostly over fear of Yerf turning into "DeviantArt 2.0". In hindsight, the "chain of logic" behind that decision seems like a laughable slippery slope argument, but this was the "Wild West" era of the Internet, when sites like Furnation were run out of the admin's apartment. Stories about $ON_TOPIC site being flooded by $OFF_TOPIC content to the point the site turns into $OFF_TOPIC site had a fair bit of weight back then.

Oh I was around for all of it. BBS, dialup, telnet talkers...it was some ride.
Some really good points you brought up, as well as Scott's mention of persecution complex. I suppose the policy was bound to occur somewhere. TBO, I'm in a Discord channel that keeps that policy, with fewer of those 'reasons' to support it.