More FA drama!

[Tetsudra]

This is incredible stuff: https://www.flayrah.com/6194/fur-affini ... -uncertain

As, equally, is this:

And this: https://twitter.com/fatransparency

The lesson? If you're willing to pay for a site to host furry porn and let people get away with anything they want, it doesn't matter how poor of a leader you or your team is.

[Leeward]

To be honest, I couldn't care less about FA. I don't post to it; my page just says to go to my DA profile instead. I hardly visit it; the people I follow on it mostly have DA alternatives with duplicated content.

The first time I visited FA, my reaction was "Holy crap, what an ugly, poorly designed, outdated-looking website! Most of the art is pretty crappy too, who would spend their time on this thing? How is this so popular??? Oh right, porn."

Basically what I'm saying is that FA is a shithole with the staff to match and it's no surprise. Who else would you expect to run a cesspool but a sewerage worker?

[Linea]

The site looks like it was put together in the 90s and the layout is terrible confusing.
Honestly is just a bad place to be in, the forums are awful and very poorly run.
I was pretty disappointed to visit that site and I never have since.

But as for the drama, it looks to me like a few people are upset over the person running it and instead of going quietly they made a big stink and caused all sorts of hell. They're even doing an "AMA" for goodness sake.

[Franky]

Oh shyte Kalmor!

Never thought he would snap.

BTW:

left and leaked conversations and information which revealed a tool which moderators could use to search for their names in comment sections on the website, among other items .

We all knew this existed. Donno what the drama is about.

[Rakuen Growlithe]

But as for the drama, it looks to me like a few people are upset over the person running it and instead of going quietly they made a big stink and caused all sorts of hell. They're even doing an "AMA" for goodness sake.

Not quite. FA is the biggest furry site out there so what happens on FA is of importance to the furry community at large. Yet for years it's been plagued by bad management and Dragoneer ignoring people's offers to help. And in most cases, when people have tried to get anything or point anything out it has just got them banned. It happened to me and it happened to probably half of the ex staff members. Yet most users just shrug it off and the site keeps stumbling along while the people that actually care can do little more than look on in frustration every time Dragoneer lies, every time his poor decisions are exposed and every time there's another mass resignation of protest.

[Kangee Gold]

Here's the thing. Go to an art site for the art. Stay the fuck out of the forums. There are absolutely no exceptions to this rule. Artist, especially internet ones, tend to be very poor willed and pants-pissy.

[Rakuen Growlithe]

None of this is about anything happening on the forums, it's about the way the site is run. Admins left the forum because of the way the site is run. The drama is about who Dragoneer brings onto his team, how he treats people and how the site has stagnated for the past six years or more.

[Linea]

FA is the biggest furry site out there so what happens on FA is of importance to the furry community at large...plagued by bad management...site keeps stumbling along while the people that actually care can do little more than look on in frustration every time Dragoneer lies, every time his poor decisions are exposed and every time there's another mass resignation of protest.

I understand how difficult it must be to migrate such a large community, but if this is a 6-year-long issue surely that says a lot about the community who has been willing to tolerate this for so long?

[Rakuen Growlithe]

It's just a problem with human psychology and what people want and/or need.

FA is the biggest furry site. Posting on FA gives you the biggest audience, the most attention, the most comments, most opportunity to sell commissions. Moving away from FA is almost certainly going to have a negative effect on an artist, hence they stay on FA.
Fixing a site takes time and effort. FA doesn't need to compete with anyone because it's the biggest site so the motivation to make any real change doesn't exist. Hence FA doesn't do anything.
If people were to leave and FA lost it's position then it would motivate change. But moving from FA comes with a risk that most artists aren't willing to take. Hence, no one moves, there's no motivation for change and nothing happens.

It's a horrible circle but it's just people doing what is best for them. That's why people only leave when they are forced to or when massive drama hits and temporarily tips the risk/balance assessment.

[Kangee Gold]

And how exactly is the site run? People post art, people look at posted art. That hasn't changed in the past 6 years despite all this pointless drama. Why does anybody need to bother with the forums and other community aspects on an -ART- site? There's hundreds of furry forums and communities all over the internet dedicated to the community aspect of things and are "run without drama". The only people complaining about FA seem to be all the people that got themselves too involved with the aspects of the site that nobody with any common sense should even bother glancing at.

[Rakuen Growlithe]

And how exactly is the site run? People post art, people look at posted art. That hasn't changed in the past 6 years despite all this pointless drama. Why does anybody need to bother with the forums and other community aspects on an -ART- site? There's hundreds of furry forums and communities all over the internet dedicated to the community aspect of things and are "run without drama". The only people complaining about FA seem to be all the people that got themselves too involved with the aspects of the site that nobody with any common sense should even bother glancing at.

You mean aspects like tag filtering (promised in 2006) and folders (promised in 2008 and again in 2010)?
Or silly things like pictures that can be a decent size? FA limit is 1280x1280. (Although there are tricks to get around that.)
The ability to search the site? (Disabled for almost 3 years)
Having a commissions tab for artists? (Disabled for 2 years)
The ability for users to register? (Disabled for 8 months)
Multiple leaks of database passwords, user information, private messages and such?
The appointment of known hackers that have sabotaged multiple projects onto the development team?
A new user interface? (That's in beta now, 8 years after FA started promising a new UI.)
The site being sold to new owners from outside the fandom without users being informed and just after users donated thousands of dollars to the site?

Maybe you think those are aspects of the site that nobody should bother with but some of those seem vitally important for anyone trying to make a living from their art or even anyone that wants to enjoy that art.

[Contrast]

Not to mention the crappy story uploader. I'm tired of manually putting in all my italics, dammit!! >.<

[Tetsudra]

The site being sold to new owners from outside the fandom without users being informed and just after users donated thousands of dollars to the site?

That one was hilarious. After the sale IMVU started putting ads everywhere, on top of the ads FA was already running. The way it's going, IMVU isn't going to see the returns they want, and pretty soon they'll be forced to replace Dragoneer - which will be a short-lived victory after IMVU starts charging people to upload art, or as they would call it, "aligning FA's creative policy".

Which, to be fair, wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. Even a token charge like $5/month for unlimited uploading would immediately scare off everyone just uploading stuff for the lulz, and free up tons of resources.

[Leeward]

Which, to be fair, wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. Even a token charge like $5/month for unlimited uploading would immediately scare off everyone just uploading stuff for the lulz, and free up tons of resources.

That and it'll probably curb the shitposting of crummy lined notebook doodles, "MS Paint is better than PhotoShop" copyright infringements on Sonic the Hedgehog, scribbles as an excuse for posting what should really be a journal in the description, streaming notices, adverts, and other stuff that can hardly be called "art".

[Helios_phi]

Lol. So you mean I'd have to pay and then still deal with ad's. Ha ha ha ha no. Its one or the other.

[Rakuen Growlithe]

Currently it looks the forums are going to break away from FA and go independent.

https://forums.furaffinity.net/threads/ ... -FA-Forums

[Rakuen Growlithe]

So the forum seems to have been taken over by the forum owner and no longer lists the FurAffinity staff as forum staff. There are apparently negotiations going on about how the forums and main site will split and a poll has been started for the new forum name. At this point there still hasn't been a word about this to users on the main site.

[Sev]

I hate FA; the filters and search tools are just useless, and the forum is the highest concentration of scum and villainy in the fandom.

SoFurry is SoSuperior that it's not even funny.

[Tocs]

SoFurry is SoSuperior

I see what you did there

[Franky]

and the forum is the highest concentration of scum and villainy in the fandom.

Thanks.

[Rakuen Growlithe]

So the forum is official independent. It's even got it's own domain now. And the official announcement on FA is just "Folders!" Toss out something new and shiny to distract them while we sweep this under the rug.

[KinkInZA]

sounds about legit

[Tetsudra]

The new forum domain is: https://phoenix.corvidae.org/ in case anyone is interested.

[Rakuen Growlithe]

Word on the street is that IMVU has issued a cease and desist to take down Phoenix Forums that split off from FA. (Still no word from FA that the forums split, at least not that I'm aware of.) IMVU might also have removed FA Leaks imgur gallery.

[Franky]

Aaand now this: http://forums.furaffinity.net/