Its a tossup between the panicking of people worrying about 'how to tell about furry' (Which honestly, if you're panicking about, means that in reality it probably wasnt even something worth mentioning to someone to begin with!) or all the elitism over what lets you call yourself furry to begin with (or treating someone like a category-traitor if they decide they dont want to do something that is perceived as the one right and true way to be 'furry'). The second thing isnt actually a furry-specific thing and does show up in other contexts, its just that due to the inherently vague and open nature of 'furry' that it gives a lot more room for hardliners backing a specific definition to start making annoying noise.
[edit] - theres a lot of other good points made in this thread too but, as cause pointed out, they are not *specific* to furry, hence i explicitly didn't mention general things that were just as common outside.
Also I recall once saying the same thing about the FA forums as kobuk did (except more brief and mildly) and as a bit of irony got in trouble for violating rule 2 xP (I think from kobuk himself, but possibly not) - but again, thats a generic problem with a lot of forums, not FA's specifically. I've never had any trouble just using it as an image hosting service. The file resolution limits annoyed us, but other than that it was a better alternative to the overly commercial feel of DA which seemed to be pressing left and right to get premium membership and all that stuff.
Also I have to say that the whole thing about 'furries are hated everywhere D:' is completely untrue - rather its trouble-makers are hated everywhere (except in hives of "scum and villainy" if you happen to be the right kind of trouble maker to fit in). Nearly every community we have been to has been accepting of furries in general (unless again, you cause trouble) - and most of these communities were sites for a specific game.
The transcendence community for example is extremely friendly to furry and the IRC has attracted a fair number of furries for unknown reasons. The only case of a furry hate post that ever occurred was from a guy who had a grudge against us being a community manager & getting the privilege of hotfixing the game, and was using every excuse he had to try to make us look bad. Considering that he was resorting to things like complaining about us being furry, well.. his post because a subject of much laughter in IRC for a few days after which he was promptly forgotten.