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The Issue with FA Policy - ITS NOT ABOUT THE ACTUAL POLIC...
2 years ago
Agree or disagree with any wording, interpretation, nuance or intent of FA's policies, regardless of which policy, that does not actually matter. Don't get hung up on what the policy says, or even how the policy will be interpreted.
It's all about the enforcement mechanism. The issue is FA's policy is similar to the issue with the IRS and taxes.
We say similar, because the IRS will actually first demand what you owe and if you pay it all, you're good.
FA doesn't work like that. The instant that any content is found to have violated policy, the user is suspended or banned. There is no opportunity to remove/delete the upload to stay in compliance. You will not be notified or granted a grace period to get it gone.
Anyone who refuses to remove content when asked, yeah fine give 'em the boot. But we object to there being only boots and no ask other than "guess."
Guessing
There are already folks who are scraping their galleries or outright purging them, in hopes of staying in compliance. Hundreds more who are trying to interpret/understand the policy and apply the logic they think they see to the rest of the platform that is FA. Pointing out inconsistencies or contradictions, sharing screenshots of clarifications posted to FA's discord server, etc etc.
All this is done in the hope that they get it right. That they aren't going to wake up one day and find themselves suspended or banned, and have to work backwards to figure out what they missed or what they guessed wrong.
It doesn't matter what any of us think the policy means or says. It only matters what FA admins think the policy means or says, and if you failed to guess what any given admin might think at any given time, you're done. Bye.
"File a ticket to verify" is NOT a solution to this. Getting approval beforehand does nothing to solve the issue. Unless we are meant to ask FA admins to review someone's entire goddamn gallery?
All we ask, the one and only thing we ask, is that when an FA Admin decides that content uploaded before the policy change now violates that policy, give the uploader one chance to remove it.
CLARIFICATION UPDATE:
FA Leadership advises that if an uploader make a reasonable attempt to come into compliance that could be used to figure things out if an issue comes up later.
If you make a reasonable attempt to come into compliance we could try to figure that out if things came up later, but if people make no attempt... I can't make promises, but our team is willing to work with people if they work with us.
Do what you can to establish your intent to comply, lest you find yourself surprised one morning and they have no record of your good faith effort.
It's all about the enforcement mechanism. The issue is FA's policy is similar to the issue with the IRS and taxes.
We say similar, because the IRS will actually first demand what you owe and if you pay it all, you're good.
FA doesn't work like that. The instant that any content is found to have violated policy, the user is suspended or banned. There is no opportunity to remove/delete the upload to stay in compliance. You will not be notified or granted a grace period to get it gone.
Anyone who refuses to remove content when asked, yeah fine give 'em the boot. But we object to there being only boots and no ask other than "guess."
Guessing
There are already folks who are scraping their galleries or outright purging them, in hopes of staying in compliance. Hundreds more who are trying to interpret/understand the policy and apply the logic they think they see to the rest of the platform that is FA. Pointing out inconsistencies or contradictions, sharing screenshots of clarifications posted to FA's discord server, etc etc.
All this is done in the hope that they get it right. That they aren't going to wake up one day and find themselves suspended or banned, and have to work backwards to figure out what they missed or what they guessed wrong.
It doesn't matter what any of us think the policy means or says. It only matters what FA admins think the policy means or says, and if you failed to guess what any given admin might think at any given time, you're done. Bye.
"File a ticket to verify" is NOT a solution to this. Getting approval beforehand does nothing to solve the issue. Unless we are meant to ask FA admins to review someone's entire goddamn gallery?
All we ask, the one and only thing we ask, is that when an FA Admin decides that content uploaded before the policy change now violates that policy, give the uploader one chance to remove it.
CLARIFICATION UPDATE:
FA Leadership advises that if an uploader make a reasonable attempt to come into compliance that could be used to figure things out if an issue comes up later.
If you make a reasonable attempt to come into compliance we could try to figure that out if things came up later, but if people make no attempt... I can't make promises, but our team is willing to work with people if they work with us.
Do what you can to establish your intent to comply, lest you find yourself surprised one morning and they have no record of your good faith effort.
but this is the point of no return. for me, and for furaffinity.
"If the removal of ""borderline"" child pornography decimates your sites userbase... your site had a problem."
This site never had a problem with cub art before; it had been banned for a LONG time before this policy update was announced.
"Ive seen plenty of content that was absolutely pedophilic in nature being passed off as 'cubs' or 'chibi' or 'a cutesy artsyle' and slipping through the cracks in the past."
Translation: cute art styles are automatically cub porn. Congratulations, you've just proven why this new policy is complete bullshit.
"The simple fact that this decision has sparked so much panic is very telling, and to many of the artists who packed up and ran at the prospect of their galleries being reviewed under these criteria? Good riddance. This site, and community as whole will be a better and safer place without them."
How exactly does a blanket ban on 60+% of pokemon, small digimon, rabbits, otters, mice, rats, hamsters, kobolds, and other small species make this site safer? It doesn't; if anything, it makes this site incredibly hostile to a sizable chunk of its users. And the fact that you think that this makes it safer says more about you than it does about this userbase.
So the list as given also includes Pichu->Pikachu->Raichu as all equivalent to Pichu. And Salamon (Rookie)->Gatomon (Champion)-> Angewomon (Ultimate) as all equivalent to Gatomon. It also means that Lucario is equivalent to Riolu - despite canonical proof that Lucario do not change proportion as they age. At least if you've seen the movie, anyway.
Given these latest changes are specifically for Digimon/ Pokemon I really wish they at least had a clue about what they were talking about - especially having already carved in exceptions for 'non-anthro/ feral' characters which... actually covers the majority of non-human Digimon and Pokemon.
Fucking hell management is so shoddy...
The important part is that the additional clarity totally recontextualises what they've announced, go give it a read, it's not so bad as they initially (terribly) explained it.
"While we cannot present an exhaustive list of thousands of characters, common canonical inclusions would be “baby Pokémon” such as Pichu, Mime Jr., Riolu, and Smoochum, other Pokémon such as Cubchoo, Cubone, Torchic, Ralts, Eevee, and Gothita, and Digmon such as Agumon, Impmon, Gatomon, and Veemon as these characters have childlike proportions or look like adolescent humans or animals."
RIP Eevee - fan favorite 1996-2023. While Eevee in design might be 27 years old, they are still a wee bab.
Why y'all aren't just on Inkbunny is beyond me. It's just a better site, period. It's run by *slightly fewer* nazi apologists lol.
And the worst part is the communication. The horrible, horrible communication from FA staff over the last year.
All of Fender's announcements now have comments disabled. Why? Because they're not popular announcements, and people want to talk about them.
The FurAffinity forums were shut down, with a Discord server (bleugh) replacing it. Why? Because FA's policies were unpopular, and the admins aren't really interested in discussion.
On the FA Discord server, discussing the policy changes is a bannable offense. Why? Because their policies rub people the wrong way, and they're really trying to dodge having to engage with people.
So they're making somewhat ghastly pronouncements from on high, and then they retreat to their tower where they don't have to pay attention to any fallout.
I have had my issues with FA before. Nothing's ever come close to convincing me to leave. I still legitimately like the site. But this? This shit is pretty bad. This might finally be the real fracturing of the furry community. I just pray that furries don't flee to a service that is utterly inferior for the community, such as Twitter or Inkbunny.
Which means that if you primarily do stories you have to do it in the description of a picture, which is going to make things difficult for someone like me, but I guess I could use the practice.
Really, I don't think the people making these rules have any idea of what they're trying to rule -on-.
I should probably add: Technically yes, because while they are specifically using this as a chance to target -specific- Pokemon and Digimon (so specifically that they have refused to create a whole list because it is too much trouble) the actual overall changes to how proportionality are considered echo into their general visual cues of age. Small Characters that are not 'scaled down adults' or 'gremlin short stack' should be considered for only SFW moving forward.
Oddly, while Gatomon and Impmon are on the list, the world's best petite, flat chested fox Renamon did not - so I guess that's just an exception because Renamon.
Also this https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachme.....867/image0.png