Who gets to decide what counts as "obligatory pony"?

KUBA18i
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Artist -

Hello.
Over the course of my time on this site, I have uploaded a lot of pictures, a big part of which include crossover pictures. Sometimes, these pictures feature a small amount of MLP characters being surrounded by a larger amount of characters from other IPs.
Generally speaking, I’ve never gotten in trouble when it comes to site policy, except for the last month or so. I noticed that a few of the pics I uploaded got slapped with “Rule #3 - obligatory pony”. To my understanding, this is a term that was coined long before I joined the fandom to describe unrelated pictures with a single pony hastily edited in. However, I was somewhat confused, since I didn’t think these pictures were all that different in the crossover aspect from other pictures I used to post in the past.
To illustrate my confusion, my latest artwork, >>3437727 (deleted), has been deleted for that very rule, whereas a very similar picture I uploaded last year, >>3196500 (deleted), is still up. Same amount of MLP characters(Twi + Spike), same style/type of picture.
Has there been a change in moderation/policy, or is there something I am missing? Does the clarity/obscurity of the MLP character in question matter here? What about the number of MLP chars vs the number of outsider IP chars?
Background Pony #2213
Site moderators decide what is “obligatory pony”.
To illustrate my confusion, my latest artwork, >>3437727 (deleted), has been deleted for that very rule, whereas a very similar picture I uploaded last year, >>3196500 (deleted), is still up.
Well, that’s ironic.
The presence of an image on the site, even for a long time, is not evidence that it is not rule-breaking. That simply means a moderator has not seen it, and neither has any other user seen it and cared to report it.
Does the clarity/obscurity of the MLP character in question matter here? What about the number of MLP chars vs the number of outsider IP chars?
You’d have to get a reply from the moderators for an official answer. In my personal opinion, neither of those have definite measurements. Instead, especially when the work is composed of things you did not make (eg. public 3d models, vectors, screencaps), the most important question is “what’s the point?” If the image’s purpose is to show characters interacting, or to highlight similarities in their personalities, or because they share a voice actor, then there is an MLP-related reason for the image to be here. If the purpose is just “here are a lot of things I like all in the same image”, that’s not likely to meet the pony-relatedness threshold.
Blissful690
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Loves Misty
Ironically, the image that OP mentions is still up has since been deleted. (It was still there when I viewed this topic this morning)
saby
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Staff can’t possibly oversee every last image that gets uploaded. We only become aware of issues when they’re reported, or randomly while doing routine tasks or browsing the site.
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