For those who don't understand the news title, the following paragraph will help you catch up:

Earlier this year, a new section entitled 'Side Stories' was added to this website. This section offered stand alone stories involving FE characters, which readers could purchase for a small fee ($3.00.) The first Side Story featured in this section was entitled, 'Brian's Big Date.' This comic taken after the current arc of the archives ended, (pages 158-181,) when Brian finally asks Dawn on a date. 'Brian's Big Date' went into detail of what happened on said date.

After the launch (and working out initial bugs) of 'Brian's Big Date, I have steadily received notes and messages from readers, from being upset about having to pay for the comic to politely debating why the Side Stories aspect belittled the Furry Experience characters. All were annoyed at the fact the arc took forever to build up to a highly anticipated event, (the date itself,) and suddenly readers were asked to pay to find out. All these messages have been answered, but I've repeated myself enough times I believe we'd all benefit from a public explanation as to why 'Brian's Big Date' is posted as a Side Story for sale instead of a free archive arc.

The Side Stories are meant to provide further insight into to the characters of Furry Experience. All Side Stories will connect to the main archives in one way or another, however, I agree it's not fair for readers to have to buy separate arcs to understand what's going on in the FE universe. So reading the Side Stories is NOT required to enjoy the main archives.

For example, the website's story arc introduced events which established the start of Brian and Dawn's relationship. If the reader wasn't aware of these events, they would get lost and confused reading future arcs involving Brian and Dawn. ("They're dating? I thought she hated him.")
'Brian's Big Date', on the other hand, is just one of the many adventures they'll be having together-while it has fun extra content for those wanting to know more about Brian and Dawn, those who choose not to read it will not feel lost in future arcs involving Brian and Dawn's dating life.

In fact, when the original arc was written (oh so long ago) it was meant to end exactly when it did-Brian and Dawn agreeing to go on a date, allowing them to be depicted as a couple in future arcs. It wasn't until preparing for Anime Banzai last year that I considered creating a comic revealing what actually happened on that first date, leading to the creation of 'Brian's Big Date.' (Not all Side Stories will be available in print, but more popular ones will have limited publications.)

Now, I don't want anyone walking away thinking I'm mad about the notes and responses I've gotten about this issue. I'm touched so many people care enough about this comic to take the time to share their concerns, and impressed with how polite and well written all the messages I've received have been. Readers have given valuable feedback that will be taken into consideration when creating future Side Story/archive interactions. However, 'Brian's Big Date' will remain in the Side Stories section of the website. Hopefully this lengthy explanation has answered questions as to why.

Invisible gold star points to whoever can list how many times the word "date" appeared in this post.