For some pretext for this discussion, please read Wanderer D's latest blog post.
How being a mod works and why certain actions need to be taken

For historical context, this decision comes as a result of a story that was not deemed FiM-related enough. The story in question, a sequel to another humanized story, made it to the Featured box on Monday, January 7th, thus catching the eye of the moderation team. In response, the moderation team decided after much deliberation that the story was not relevant to FiM, and thus have enforced the rules and stated that the story will no longer have its future chapters published publicly, but the author will be able to add new chapters covertly where readers can access them via pre-reader password. The author in question, Azurini, has consented to the moderation team's decision.

However, this raises an interesting question:
What do you believe a humanized story needs to be considered relevant enough to the FiM universe to be published?
And what does your story share with the FiM universe, and what does it forgo?
Please leave your butthurt at the door and keep on topic. This is not a forum to vent your frustrations on the moderation team, but rather a discussion to give perspective on the topic at hand.

Personally, because the show itself is so character-focused, I believe that having the characters in the story is enough to consider it relevant to FiM (so long as the characters remain in-character). Afterall, if Red Thrush Private School wouldn't be considered relevant because its only connection was the characters, then other humanized stories such as Last Night of the Firefies and Ponyville Dayswouldn't be considered relevant as well; sure, it wouldn't be hard to force them to be ponies or force them to live in a humanized Equestria, but that would ruin the depth of the experience in my eyes.

Then again, I guess I'd be considered a radical, because my lone story consists of a humanized and militarized characters, occurring on a near-future Earth, without magic, and without fantasy elements. However, I try to remain relevant by offering a re-imagining of the original episodes with a completely in-character Mane 6, several humanized Equestrian locales, technology standing in for magic, and adapting/humanizing several existing elements of the show, the universe, and the fandom. Maybe I just have unique tastes...

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Part of the main problem with deferring to the characters being FiM topical in those two stories is that, probably partly due to the writing itself, none of the characters in the story felt like the ones from the show. They were generic to the point of being completely malleable into any name, which is part of what influenced the decision by the mod team to unpublish the stories in the first place.

I have three fics currently going on:
The first is a direct humanization of each episode
The second is just characters and barely FIM related
And the third is backstory of normal characters and you can't really tell it's very humanized.
I wouldn't submit the second one here because it probably wouldn't be accepted. In the first, the only difference is that there's no magic, no flying, natural hair color, etc., so I have to change some elements up. The third is posted here with no issues.

Oh, the characters in Red Thrush were written fairly generic and didn't retain their personalities, that's why it got unpublished?

You know, that makes total sense now in hindsight--without their character, it really is just a school fic with OC's. I was sweating bullets over my stuff for nothing.

Anyway, I have two fics. One's a bit more relevant than the other, I guess.

The first is an alt universe where there's still magic, there are three types of people, everyone has a mark, and there was a civil war between the three tribes that ended with a treaty, like the show.

The second is another alt universe with no magic. The characters are still around with their personalities, as are the princesses. It just is a bit darker take on the series. I still say it's related enough for me to not worry about it, though.

I agree, I decided to read it since it had made the feature box last night. While Red Thrush was really interesting, it was hardly pony related, just girls with bizarre names. I only read about 3-4 chapters, and not a single pony anything was written.

Last summer I wrote some Humanized stuff and I never posted it due to eventual lack of interest, but I only found it interesting if it was directly related to the show. I only wrote it because I found those stories so interesting, but I'll admit most the of the stories in the folder have no connection to the show, and they don't always hold my interest.

Humanization is surprisingly complicated.

I think that if you can read a humanized FIM fanfic and still feel that they are the same characters from the show, there you go.

Because if you look at the show itself, the fact that they are ponies is pretty inconsequential. They are characters first and ponies second. We just come to associate them as ponies because that's how the characters are drawn and designed. Sure, it gives an interesting angle to how they go about things and also makes for some interesting visuals, but when you get down to it, they still are just regular characters and it almost doesn't matter if they WERE humanoid of some sort. We just remember them best as ponies because, again, that's their canonical images.

Kind of like a character in a live-action film. We associate their images with the actor who played them. Beyond that, they're still just a character.

But yeah, that's my point. If you can make a humanized story and you still feel like they are the same characters, it doesn't matter if they're human or pony.

Hope what I said made sense.

Poor Red Thrush, that was the first fic I ever read on this site.

Whenever I do humanized I basically leave everything the same about the universe and just make everyone human with wings or some other distinguishing feature to differentiate the groups of ponies and other species. Other than that I basically touch nothing.

This is a personal subject for me because my most popular stories have been my humanized ones.

I myself was denied posting by the mods back in August when I submitted my sequel to Last Night of the Fireflies.
I was (as properly said above) a little butthurt about the matter in the beginning but over the last few months I have realized that this is a testament that fimfiction.net as a whole has grown.

I've been reading fanfiction for 15 years now and I have found the reason why the good fanfiction sites stay good is because the update their guidelines and moderation. If they don't the site just becomes a massive inbox of stories like fanfiction.net.

I submitted Last Night back in December of 2011, and since then I have made A BUNCH of changes and so has fimfiction.net. I believe were I submitting Fireflies for the first time today it would not pass moderation. I am thankful that the mods had grandfathered the story and it has not been removed. But I have come to consideration that Fireflies is here because it was done at the right time and the right moment, and (for better or worse) that window of opportunity is now closed.

When I got my rejection post, both mods who review my story admitted that it was good writing and really encouraged me to keep writing and posting other stories on the site. I am taking them for there word on that. Being rejected for a story to be too humanized does not mean it's bad fan fiction. But right now at this moment on the site humanized fanfic that skews too far away from the show will not be accepted. Just as it is with clopfic, crossovers, and grim/dark submissions that are way off the mark for the show as well.

It's a narrow line in humanized fiction on what is MLP and what is to far away from it. It is in the eye and mind of the reader. I guess the final point I'm getting at is Col_Star is right by saying there are some good humanized stories that should be on this site, but the mods are not wrong by setting policies and making changes to the site which may upset a few people in response to the site growing and changing itself.

Alright I'm going to try and stay on topic for the most part but I may digress at points so I apologize now.

So I don't have any stories myself, just not good at creative writing, but I do editing and consulting sometimes. That's beside the point though. I'm going to use a few of my favorite stories on here as my examples on why I think the mods are a little off base here. I won't attack or rant but this is how I see it.

Red thrush was a little off at the begining and still is at times (stupid nut shots always annoyed me) but I felt like after he got farther in they were still the same characters and that should be enough. I love the show most for the characters and honestly enjoy seeing them in a humanized form and in our world. Red thrush wasn't perfect in characterization but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

And I can't belive they would reject fireflies sequel. I am dissappoint to say the least, I loved that story and it even shared a location (or 3 if I remember) within equestria, thus it was a humanized de magified equestria. How is that not fim related?

As for ponyville and canterlot tails, or any clopfics really, most are too short to show any connection to the show or the characters even. Hell i thought they got pinkie all wrong in those but im not into that type of partying so it could be me, and rarity was all kinds of wrong but i think they deserve the freedom to right them (and he made up for those with rainbow's and especially octavias chapters.)

I think the rules are just a bit too arbitrary and if they go this route i personally will be extremely dissappointed and respectfully leave the site. I have quite a few stories in my favorites in danger if this is the consensus and its a terrible thing to suddenly lose a story without any closure. But as i feared i digress. Goodluck to all and i hope they ease back or change thier mind.

Respectfully,
Desert Relic

What is this "relevant" thou speakest of?
OH, LOOK. CHOCOLATE RAIN AND BISON IN PINK TU-TUS.