The origin of the term "snuff" has been described in this thread. It derived from films in which protagonists were actually murdered, which were then sold underground for the purpose of sexual gratification. Nothing on this site corresponds to this definition.

The use of the term "snuff" to describe fictional work in which a character is deliberately killed is not justified either. On that basis the entire works of authors such as Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle are snuff, and films such as Aliens and Lord of the Rings are snuff films. This is nonsense.

Sexually oriented, purely fictional fantasies in which the violent death of a protagonist occurs are widely represented on this site. Ordinary people who have no interest whatever in bdsm commonly enjoy fantasies of this kind. If somebody enjoys a fantasy, which is very much like a dream, it does not imply that they would actually want to act it out in real life. Our fantasies and dreams often depict things that we fear, or that horrify us, or excite us, but in no way represent our behaviour or intentions towards living people.

Personally I do not enjoy depictions of violent conduct, written for the purpose of sexual gratification, that appear to describe extreme real life sexual or physical abuse resulting in injury or death. It can be difficult to distinguish fantasy from a description of real life abuse. It is very difficult to come up with a technical distinction that works.

Some of the most exciting fantasies that ordinary people enjoy involve sexually violent death. The artist Dolcett remains an inspiration to many artists and writers of adult fantasy fiction. His artistic depictions of sexually oriented torture, execution and death are hard to confuse with any possible or even probable real life scenario, but highly effective in a fantasy context.

Story Codes are used on this site to help people find the stuff they like, and avoid the stuff they don't. It would defeat the object entirely if material in a Story Code category that some people didn't like was excluded entirely.

As a Story Code, the term "snuff" is used on this site in a much wider sense, where a fictional story involves the violent death of a protagonist, whether consensual or not. I do not see how anybody can reasonably argue that fiction should not deal with murder, even sexually motivated murder. Even if a story depicted an actual real life murder, it could be described as journalism. Many of my own stories involve what is technically suicide rather than murder.

I support the continued use of the "snuff" category, even though many people seem to confuse its use to depict fantasy fiction with the historical interpretation of the term.