Oh! So the Mouse is gone and it is all the fault of dumbasses who couldn't work out the necessity of the throttle. Gone is artwork that was stellar and stories that were too. I should know I wrote a fair chunk and I am mad. A place that I liked a whole lot has gone to the wall because people are not patient enough and mature enough to realise that things have to grow and change or die.

Requiesat In Pace Playmouse.

Nice and informative journal and link. It was Playmouse after all that introduced me to your artwork in the first place. Ah well I have my memories.

Goodnight, sweet Playmouse. May angels sing thee to thy rest.

I wondered what happened to the place.

But now, I can see this is a blessing in diguise. For one reason only.

Now Red can come here ^.^

Yea I was so pissed over this.
STOP FOR SECOND AND FIND OUT WTF IS REALLY GOING ON before you go panicing and waving lawsuits around! MORONS!!

I don't know the site. In fact i never heard of it or anything (I must been totally oblivious) so i don't know the full extend of things and can only base myself on what the messages in that LJ thread got to point out.

This is how i see it. As things changed so suddenly you got a big stir which did mayor damage. Even with every good intention things should have moved a bit differently. Simply pointing out that the site has a forum and whatnot just isn't the way to go. Things should have halted. All art in suspension AND full stop.

A message should been written to replace the site explaining the difficulties, issues and how things should move forward with a point towards the forum to discuss and come to a solution to progress the site. Of course accompanied with a big fat PayPal or whatever service donation button.

from that point on you could have determined if the website be best to become paid for all the way, specific things become paid for and whatnot. polls would be useful and probe the community. If it came to something useful then you use it and set maybe a criteria of people who need to sign up/donate to continue. If this all failed, all efforts to get support are hopeless then he could have pulled the plug, delete the entire archive himself and it's over.

You won't avoid big stinks like the "sue" people or the mayor complaining but you would have gotten the community's attention in a far better, fully involving way. As i see it both sides are now the blame for it's demise which could of been possibly avoid or, maybe was indeed destined to happen. But at least it would of died peacefully.

Sounds like the users themselves are at least partially responsible for the death of the site. I haven't been to the site in about a year (since I discovered FA), but it will be missed. I discovered a lot of artists, including you, on that site.

Thanks for the heads-up on Playmouse, Roochak. I was never there myself, but its demise illustrates a very important point.

There is no such thing as 'free'.
Not in this universe.

See that 'Donate' button up in the left-hand column on this page? I clicked it and donated. Not a lot, but it was something.

And the sooner folks realize that "stuff is free on the internet" is a myth, the less likely FA will go the way of the Mouse.

I was considering posting something about this, but I usually try and watch what I say cause my mouth will get me in trouble.

Yep.. Playmouse is gone, sadly and foremost, it was partly to blame on the users because they didn't wanna choke up the money when we asked for donations, then, they threated to sue or leave the sight completely when the throttle was put in.

Thanks guy... next time you see a donation request, ya might wanna take it a bit more seriously then, "OMGWTF LAWL.. FREE FURRY SMUT ONLY... blahblahblah"

Kit PAID for the site out of his own pocket to keep it up as long as he could and only just a few people were willing to help him out.

It was a great sight, and I'll miss it as well.

Geez... that just sucks... Especially for long time PlayMouse members like me...

Personally, I'm not suprised; I just wish Kit Fox could have been spared all the agony and fustration. The man worked his ass off to make the site what it was and all people could do was bitch and complain, leaving him to largely fend for himself. It's been like watching a friend slowly die from some horrible cancer. You'd give anything to be able to change what's going on but it the end, all you can do is hold their hand and watch them die. I will miss Playmouse deeply. It was one of the few places I was a part of to have a real sense of comradirie and community about it. I honnestly felt like I was welcomed there, that I belonged.

While I will always remember it fondly because that's how I met Roochak, LeTu Otter, Steel Anhk, Roland Guscard, and a bunch of others. I will always be indebted though to KitFox and Playmouse, because without them, I would have never read "A Little Story from a Horse named 'Mystery'". In speaking with the author, I met someone so special and so unique that words failed me for the first time in my life. The year and change since have been so special that they truly are beyond price.

Look around you Melissa. I know it hurts like hell, having the site die, but you are not alone. We are all here for you.

I tried out Playmouse briefly some time ago, but it was only the trial account. I was so caught up in other places (LONG before FA, mind you), that it was one of the places that got swept under the rug for me.

The irony is, I was just waiting out the week to get my next paycheck. An artist friend of mine asked if I'd join to help the place out. She really had her heart set on helping KitFox. I don't know him, but I'd do just about anything to help out my friend. I was just waiting on this Saturday's paycheck to come through so I'd have money to spare after my insurance and truck payments to give to the site and access the premium stuff. Such a shame it went down before I even got a real chance to jump in. Part of the money I intended to use will now most likely go to FA. And this whole issue makes me feel like I need to hug me a Dragoneer.

So after years of being around, PM has finally seen it's end? Bummer... it was a blast back on the yahoo days, though I lost touch once the site went live. It was fun while it lasted. >_<

I really had my heart set on helping Kit too, and not just b/c he's a fellow Coloradan'.... People don't realize just how much he's actually done for the furry community over the years long before Playmouse ever existed. I'm still holding out hope that it can start over and have only those who understand the terms and conditions apply and join. I can't see it being totally over for him with this but I certainly wouldn't blame him if he washed his hands of all of us now. ....This entire week has been nothing but Over-reacting by all sorts of people from every walk of life and I'm quite sick of it right now.

Once again it's just the vocal minority and extremists doing everything in their power to keep every last one of us in the silent majority even more silent so that they're the only voices that are ever heard....it's a Travesty to what our founding fathers originally envisioned

*headdesks* Damn it. I knew it was only a matter of time, in the end. . . :(

RIP PLaymouse. You will be missed lots

I really didn't have much associated with PM, aside from a place to post my rough drafts. Though I do believe that it was where I met you, Roo, and you suggested I come here wasn't it?

Still, shame that PM is gone.

As you know, I had an account on PM and there were folks there who I haven't seen here or on the other furry board to which I post (ahem, cough, FAP), so it looks like I'll be losing touch with some... While that stings, I think the biggest shame is that all of the art that was stored there was lost.

As for the litigious twerps threatening lawsuits, I can't for the life of me understand why Kitfox just didn't tell them to sod off... If the a-holes didn't have the money to help the site through donations, they certainly wouldn't have forked over any cash to hire a lawyer. In addition, none of the lawyers I know would have had the professional cajones to bring suit pro bono based on the rationales I read... A judge would have laughed a case like this out of court.


Oh well... In any case, good quote on your subject line...
Cap

And so we bit them goodbye...

Awwww.... That's a damn shame. Well, my thanks to them for lasting this long.

I was afraid this was gonna happen, and it is a pity, I was a longtime member *and* contributor.

I also think people who say "SUE SUE SUE" need to realize that they need a valid case (i.e. against the Terms of Service) before they say it. In this case I'd say it's both the admin and the users. The admin needed to realize if they had a case before panicking and the users to realize he may have been allowed to do it. (If I ever set up a site like that I'd have an attorney help draft the ToS.)

Meh...it does suck indeed.

Kit's totally depressed by this, and sincerely, burnt out. And I have to say I cant blame him.

For years, he tried to keep up a high-quality and FREE art site. And yes, even a place where one could feel belonged.

But it was like...termites that are inside of a tree.....sure it looks ok on the outside...until the tree is totally destroyed. Thats what happened to the site, and thats ALMOST what happened to Kit.

Right now...he obviously needs time to heal. *hugs* Maker bless you Kit...I dont know how the heck you put up with it for so long.

I'll point out that I'm still around, stressed as all heck, and trying to gather up bits and pieces. Thank everybody for their support.

I'm going to refrain from replying to the person who said "He should have..." and pointing out that I did. Seems that one of the main reasons for complications are that people just don't read things.

Since this is a complimentary journal entry, I'll leave some extra information here:

1: The file system for the site was deleted. Art, site code, etc, gone. MOST of the site code I have a backup of. Some of the custom changes may be lost.
2: The database is intact to a degree. I have a semi-recent backup of it. This means all the forum stories are still around.

And for a bit of bright in the gloom:

There is a SMALL chance that I may be able to recover everything. Not done yet, and the window of opportunity will close in about 48 hours, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

That being said, i want to be honest about something else...
Even if I do pull this backup, I don't know if I have the heart left to keep the site up. I definitely don't have the financial resources at the moment. So the big money hole and my life situation will need to be corrected first.

I'm soliciting input and ideas. The more I get the better. Be aware that not all are necessarily doable or a good idea for me to try.

If you have any questions, comments, etc, please feel free to note me or email me or join the #Playmouse channel on SorceryNet IRC (I am USUALLY idle there though, so be patient) at irc.sorcery.net 7000. I'll try to get a chance to reply to everything, though please be aware that I am somewhat frazzled, overworked, underslept, abused, misused, and just trying to get things pieced back together... So I might be delayed or absent in replying, and I apologize in advance for that.

I will attempt to make arrangements to act as an in-between for people who are trying to contact other folks from Playmouse. Please be aware that this requires me to HAND-SORT through the database and find the appropriate contact information, so please be kind.

Kit, take care of the "somewhat frazzled, overworked, underslept, abused, and misused" part of your life before plunging your hands into Playmouse again.

I want to thank you for all the dedication and enthusiasm you put into that site, though. Playmouse was where "Roochak" was born, and that's why I'll always be indebted to you.

I agree with Roochak! Take of yourself, first. :)

If Playmouse does seem revive-able, you could hand off the reigns to someone else, and just play advisor for now. I think also most of the larger art archive/community sites have a team of admins maintaining their respective sites. Delegating the work is definitely a good thing. The trick is finding someone already insane enough to say "yes"...

But for now, yeah, just try to take it easy. :)

Kit,

Don't listen to the jerkwads who try to second-guess you: from what I saw, you were giving PM a full-court press, and it's a shame that people weren't willing to step up and help more (myself included, considering how I'd drifted away from the site in recent months, to my shame). Like Roochak, PM was where I first posted a furry erotica story, and where I realized I could actually be pretty good at this. In many ways, it was my birthing place.

You take care of yourself first. If you can save the backup, great, but don't jump back into it. Take some time to recover and regroup, and when you're ready, let us know.

"Tumblewing"

(reads the LJ)

Internet Drama FTW

Aye, that does really suck. I had an account there for the brief time it was up before going down. Not sure what I could have contributed...but it looked like a good site and I can understand funds problems. Poor guys. I suppose that's what impatient people get.

I am truly going to miss Playmouse. It was the first furry site I ever found, and it led me to DA, FA, and many others. It was there that I met many life long friends, and even the love of my life. It is thanks to the hard work of Kit and some others from that site that Cooper is the person he has become today, and I have done my best to keep up.

We shall miss that site dearly.

Playmouse was a class act,plain and simple.The world of Furry art and Furry erotica is a much,much poorer place today.......

I stopped uploading my work to Playmouse and visit the site when I noticed the artworks were being posted with less quality compared to the original, but still...it was a good site and a part of the furry community, it'll be greatly missed.

Posted with less quality than the original? Are you referring to the resize on the details page? That's the same as FA. It starts with a "medium-size" version on the details page, which you can click to pull up the full-size version. The resized version was created by the site, but the full-size was precisely byte for byte as uploaded, no changes made.

No no, the full-size was converted into less quality too, or atleast the site did that around the time I uploaded my art - they may have changed/fixed that glitch though after I stopped uploading, and I did report it to the administrator at one occassion.

<--- The administrator.

I don't keep enough records to know whether the problem you experienced was with the old 4Images back end or with Coppermine. I know that for years, Coppermine has worked well and quickly and does not make any changes whatsoever to the full image (newly-created window for that display).

There have always been issues with people not reporting bugs. :/ Seems that people see "Oh, that isn't working right." and instead of letting anybody know, they just leave. So things aren't brought to my attention to be fixed. *Shrug*

Oh...Sorry, didn't knew you were the administrator. XD
But yeah, I knew it had that odd glitch since two of my characters where in those colors that really appear horrible if you go too low on the quality, green and pink/purple.

So it was very noticable in full size, and I even saved my own work from Playmouse to compare with the original file size, and what I downloaded from myself on Playmouse were only half the quality size as they should've had, but kept the same height/lenght size.

There is one thing I'd like to know myself Kit:

Exactly what were you doing that would even warrant a lawsuit? On what grounds?

Playmouse was the first place I ever posted a furry fic. That fact is even more important to me, since it's also the essential 'birthplace' of my character, Kuro St. James. While I managed to only post two stories of his there, Kuro managed to grow on his own thanks to friends like Kitfox (who gave me the opportunity, and even created the Story forum to fill the gap), Roochak (who's artwork gave me a wonderful initial pushoff point), D'Otter (for the FIRST ever Kuro-related fic not written by me; that's a milestone for me. Never before have I had a character good enough to be included in someone else's fic), and RedStaR99 (who let me use a few of his characters, and to whom I owe about four fics now, all in various stages of completion).

I'll greatly miss Playmouse, and I'll always keep an eye out for the possible, future date on which perhaps, if the Old Gods might permit it, Playmouse returns to the net. It was my home away from home, and a wonderful place to meet people and post.

Kitfox, I agree with Roochak; take care of yourself before even thinking of any salvage of the site. I'm pretty sure we've all got immeasurable patience, so don't hurry or rush ahead of yourself or anything. Ya did a great job against the odds, keeping it running in the first place. Lot more than I could ever do. I'm intending to keep the little link-logo for PM on my personal site. It might not be currently attached to anything, but to me it's a symbol of respect, and camraderie.

Having been a longtime lurker on Playmouse, I hope that you can get back on your feet and get steady before you leap back into the fran, Kitfox.

Roochak, thanks for posting this, I had no idea this had happened.


... and... what were they trying to sue for? the fact that you had to do what you had to do? were any of them willing to take up the cost?

Damn, that sucks, I used to browse through there alot. Oh well, to be honest, I thought it was dead a long time ago. I am just surprised Kit was able to keep it going for that long with the bandwidth and money issues.

Work mainly, not having much to post myself anyway, (which also goes back to having to work permanent evening shift, just as I'd usually be at my most creative), MSN and an active, local furry board... and I haven't been on Playmouse in months. Now it's gone. I feel like a rug just got pulled out from under me.

Ask not for whom paradise was paved, dear Melissa fan; t'was paved for thee. I think I understand what Joanie Mitchell meant by you don't know what you got 'til it's gone. I loved Playmouse, it was one of the most positive, creative environments in the whole of Furry. I doubt that many of us quite realize yet what's gone. But we will. We will...

Kitfox, I'm really, really sorry that you had to go through this whole shmutz. If you were able to recover the database, all the artists in it owe you a debt, especially since some of them might have lost copies of their own work. If I were you, I wouldn't even try to resurrect the site. Something else will come along sooner or later to fill the vacuum, let its creators deal with the drama. You've done your bit. More than your bit! Thank you very much for everything.

So, it has come to this...

First of all, I am deeply saddened to see that Kitfox and the Playmouse site are going through such hard times as these. Truly, I hope that you get the chance to recover in spirit, in body and financially, Kitfox. Take the time to take care of yourself, because you really do deserve it! I want you to know that I greatly appreciated your tremendous efforts at keeping the site running, vibrant and current for all of us fans out there! Playmouse is and was, without a doubt, one of the very best communities for artists, writers and enthusiasts of its kind IMHO. Playmouse possessed a magic all its own, where the aspiring talent and the seasoned veteran found their forum and grew together with the invaluable feedback that the community shared. The whole of Camp RedstaR pretty much would not exist if not for Playmouse. Over the years, I found special folks out there who enjoyed my artwork, stories and contributions as well as dear friends who supported and encouraged my humble efforts. You gave me and my creations a "home"...allowed us to grow and reach out and touch people all around the world. It has been my pleasure, and honor, to share my stories and cast of characters with you all! It is my wish that Playmouse returns one day...when circumstances are much better! Until that time comes, know that Playmouse will be missed...

**Salutes all the terrific folks who made Playmouse GREAT** THANK YOU ALL for sharing your comments, your inspiration and excitement, your gifts and talents, and especially your friendship! YOU made the magic happen! From all of Camp RedstaR and in my dear CHipMunK's name and memory, and from the old wolf himself...THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING!!! I hope that we're reunited again soon...

Speaking of reunions, Red...I hope you're planning on sticking around here.

No kidding. I'm looking forward to a lot of RedStaR signed pics being put up. :D

Wow, Im always the last to know. I swear to god i thought i was Banned from the site on accdent :P I been trying get on there sense it went down and now to learn the truth im greatly sadden to see that the site has gone down for good. Playmouse was a place i got tosee some old friends, Dusty and Skrap, as well met some New ones. *smirks* Thank you Kit for that :) PM will be missed by me, i hope things get better over time for you.