This morning, user "Quexinos" (formerly known as Sonique) reported to Saturday Morning Sonic that Ben Hurst – Chief Writer and Director of ABC's Sonic the Hedgehog (1993-1995) – died several weeks ago after fainting and falling into a diabetic coma.

Ben has a page on Facebook, which will probably be made into a memorial.

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Furry art gallery Inkbunny says it is covering hosting costs from sales after three months of operation. The maximum file size of free works has also doubled to 20Mb. The site, launched this June, helps artists sell prints and digital downloads for a 20% cut.

Meanwhile, all-ages art site ArtSpots has undergone a complete redesign – much to the surprise of users. While many praised the new layout, not all like the "blog-like" artist homepages, and some feel the new site lacks useful features like sketch chat.

The changes come not long after Fur Affinity updated its own menu style, providing slightly cleaner visuals and more horizontal space, but also more prominent ads.

Mature furry imageboard e621 has apparently closed its doors:

Thanks to numerous threats to our host, false claims of illegal content, harassment and a few things that are much worse, e621 is being closed down permanently. It's been fun running it.

The closure is likely the result of allegations made earlier today that e621 hosted cartoon child pornography.

Update: All is impermanent. Varka (CEO of Bad Dragon) intends to take over the site.

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Voting for the 2010 Fandom's Favorite Fursuit Fracas has concluded with a clear winner: Flux.

The self-made blue kangaroo spared no expense in promotion, going so far as to hand out personalized energy drinks at Anthrocon 2010. He won with 350 votes to Frisbee's 281.

This year's competition attracted 384 entrants. Voting was open to all LiveJournal users. Both finalists had a single nomination, and received a bye for one single-elimination stage.

The battle for third place was closer, ending 309 to 296. Per prior arrangement, Clementine may now pie Greifer at next year's Doo Dah Parade.