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Okay, so... About all that then
2 years ago
I've been sitting on this a while, trying not to knee-jerk react, and watching how the policy change discussion played out. I think I've seen all the different arguments and memes and things to be afraid of now. And honestly? I still don't want to talk about it in public. At all. But I've spent the last few days being empathetically terrified, frustrated, and on edge... just like everybody else potentially effected by this. Because nobody likes staring down the prospect of their artistic livelihood being arbitrarily shitcanned on the one place they can find reliable, non-stigmatized viewership.
So, I'm not looking for a debate here. I'm just going to talk for a bit, because I don't want to seem like I'm ignoring it either. It affects me. So we're gonna get it all off our chest and then hopefully move on for a bit. I'm going to split this into two pieces, "What I Think" and "What I am Doing" and you can cut to whichever part you care about.
----
What I Think of This
For starters, everyone has over-reacted. Myself included. I'm not surprised by this. It's in our nature. But it's also not our fault. They dropped this on people out of nowhere, at the end of the week, with little explanation or clarification, and slapped a hard deadline to comply a month away on it. People panicked. Because what's the outcome of this? People are gonna be harassed and called pedophiles for drawing perfectly harmless content because it upsets someone's sense of moral decency. Nobody wants that kind of stress. Nobody wants to get kicked off a platform they've spent 5 to 10 to 15 years building up an audience on, for posting the same type of artwork they've been doing this entire time and were told was fine. It's agonizing.
So the backlash was expected. And I am somewhat happy and vindicated to see how big of an uproar it seems to have been. But lets be real here. The policy is going forward. They're not going to "change their minds" or backtrack. They're already preparing something intended to "better explain" the policy and provide clearer guidelines regarding the change and how they review things.
....this will not help. It's the internet. And we're furries. We've already made up our minds. XD
Still, they're going to TRY and it will probably assuage some of the fears people are under. But near everyone else is going to remain pissed and up in arms and that's just going to be the website for the next month, so just brace for impact. We're in for a whole lot of yelling and stupidity and contradictions. BUT... it's not going to change a lot? Most of us are probably going to be fine. For one of two reasons...
1) The Mods have never been proactive. Unless something is directly reported by some asshole, nobody is coming for your gallery tomorrow. And even if it does happen, there will be a legitimate review process and there appears to be an opportunity to appeal. So it is not immediately the end of the world. (So long as you don't bite yourself in the ass by flying off the handle at the mods when you appeal; we are all fucking human, remember that.) As far as this sort of thing is concerned, you will be no more or less safe from judgement a month from now, than you were a month ago.
2) I do not believe this rule change was made with actual malicious intent. Will it be used for malicious intent?? Almost Certainly. Yes. Because people with agenda's in positions of authority cannot be trusted to abide in good faith. But on the whole, no... I do not believe this was drafted as a means of attacking the community and specific types of artists. They were just rewriting some things to better fit their way of addressing things and it came off in the worst way possible, because these people have ALWAYS been terrible at communication.
Here, while reviewing possible new art sites... I found this in the rules over at Itaku...
Banned content:
Do not post art in any form that sexually depicts characters that are clearly underage according to the artist.
Characters that are underage by canon but are portrayed as adults by the artist are allowed, since by definition those characters are still adults.
That's it.
That's all you had to fucking say. From the very beginning. Full stop.
Why was that so difficult?
Anyways...
Everyone needs to calm down and breath for a bit. I mean, don't stop fighting? This is all still kind of a problem and needs to be addressed and you need to make your voices heard. But what I mean more is just... Don't Panic. And not because nothing is out to get you, like some people are reassuring and calling people dumb for over-reacting... No. You've every right to fucking panic. Just. Don't. You need to re-direct that energy to both maintain your sanity and also to address the situation calmly and at least ensure that your voice is heard. You don't want to come off as someone who is just over-reacting and flying off the handle. This is all gonna play out over the course of a month. You have time to absorb the details of the situation, let the admins try explaining themselves, and then continue the discussion in good faith. The outcome will not be perfect. But so long as you don't destroy yourself in the process, you will be okay. Worst case scenario, you have to find another website to post on and-- I know. There aren't any good options there. But you should probably just start looking into them.
FurAffinity has never been all that reliable. Either through drama or bad coding or both, this site is gonna fall apart one day. Have a backup. Even if it's not the best backup. Even if you currently have zero traffic there. Don't leave all your chips in one basket. For the basket was a mimic all along and is waiting to eat your hand-- :p
----
What I am Going to Do About It
Nothing.
I'm doing functionally nothing.
I'm not taking anything else down. I already took about two dozen things down a few months back during the last bit of unfortunate drama I witnessed. Nothing I personally thought was bad. Nothing I thought or believed was actually cub porn in any sense of the term. But just old shit posted before the original ban that I could look back at today and go "you know what, there are people that could misconstrue this, so... let's just not deal with that possibility." But I'm done with that now. Are there still some things people could act suss over? Especially with this latest rule adjustment? Yeah, probably. But I don't care anymore. I don't want to scroll through everything again and painstakingly decide if I think some puritan would decide something I never intended as cub is suddenly cub because they say it is. Fuck your personal opinion of moral decency. I don't give a shit.
While I have a lot of strong fears and paranoia now about smol cute critters in my gallery... kobolds, nimbats, moogles, phooka, etc... I am not going to morality police myself. And I am not going to keep stressing over it. I know the characters I drew were adults. If they weren't adults, I wouldn't have posted it here. I know what the fucking rules are, damnit, and I follow them whether I think they are stupid or not. I'm just... I'm choosing not to live in fear of it. Because that's just putting stress on myself that I don't need.
That said, while I'm not leaving... unless things dramatically fucking escalate, lols, which I guess I can't rule out?? I am going to keep doing more or less as I have been... and continue de-prioritizing this website. A thing it was already forcing me to do when they limited the upload sizes a few months back. So if you want the highest quality versions of my art? Go to Weasyl or InkBunny or, in time, once I start archiving completed works there too, Gumroad. If you want every version of an image and not just the base version I post to FA? Go to InkBunny. Don't like InkBunny, for reasons I perfectly understand? Well, too bad, I got no where else to put them. They'll be on Gumroad eventually? But you'll have to pay for access to that. I'm sorry. This is the best I can do until someone builds a better alternative.
I will not be going to Twitter. Mastadon either, though that has a way higher likelihood than the former. Those are not art galleries, they are not curateable. They are for social media engagement and to maybe lure people to your actual galleries-- that's it. So no. And then, e621 is an image board, not a gallery. So same basic problem. Pixiv is a japanese censorship nightmare, so... yeah, no. Newgrounds... is not for furries. But I guess I will keep it in mind if it comes to that. I'm considering Itaku as a new site to try, but we aren't there yet. Anything else, I'm clearly not familiar enough with to comment on.
But if you're looking for me off FA, here are the usual links.
https://www.weasyl.com/~lapseph
https://inkbunny.net/Lapseph
https://terithsart.gumroad.com/
Thank you for reading to the end of this nonsense.
I love you. Good luck out there.
So, I'm not looking for a debate here. I'm just going to talk for a bit, because I don't want to seem like I'm ignoring it either. It affects me. So we're gonna get it all off our chest and then hopefully move on for a bit. I'm going to split this into two pieces, "What I Think" and "What I am Doing" and you can cut to whichever part you care about.
----
What I Think of This
For starters, everyone has over-reacted. Myself included. I'm not surprised by this. It's in our nature. But it's also not our fault. They dropped this on people out of nowhere, at the end of the week, with little explanation or clarification, and slapped a hard deadline to comply a month away on it. People panicked. Because what's the outcome of this? People are gonna be harassed and called pedophiles for drawing perfectly harmless content because it upsets someone's sense of moral decency. Nobody wants that kind of stress. Nobody wants to get kicked off a platform they've spent 5 to 10 to 15 years building up an audience on, for posting the same type of artwork they've been doing this entire time and were told was fine. It's agonizing.
So the backlash was expected. And I am somewhat happy and vindicated to see how big of an uproar it seems to have been. But lets be real here. The policy is going forward. They're not going to "change their minds" or backtrack. They're already preparing something intended to "better explain" the policy and provide clearer guidelines regarding the change and how they review things.
....this will not help. It's the internet. And we're furries. We've already made up our minds. XD
Still, they're going to TRY and it will probably assuage some of the fears people are under. But near everyone else is going to remain pissed and up in arms and that's just going to be the website for the next month, so just brace for impact. We're in for a whole lot of yelling and stupidity and contradictions. BUT... it's not going to change a lot? Most of us are probably going to be fine. For one of two reasons...
1) The Mods have never been proactive. Unless something is directly reported by some asshole, nobody is coming for your gallery tomorrow. And even if it does happen, there will be a legitimate review process and there appears to be an opportunity to appeal. So it is not immediately the end of the world. (So long as you don't bite yourself in the ass by flying off the handle at the mods when you appeal; we are all fucking human, remember that.) As far as this sort of thing is concerned, you will be no more or less safe from judgement a month from now, than you were a month ago.
2) I do not believe this rule change was made with actual malicious intent. Will it be used for malicious intent?? Almost Certainly. Yes. Because people with agenda's in positions of authority cannot be trusted to abide in good faith. But on the whole, no... I do not believe this was drafted as a means of attacking the community and specific types of artists. They were just rewriting some things to better fit their way of addressing things and it came off in the worst way possible, because these people have ALWAYS been terrible at communication.
Here, while reviewing possible new art sites... I found this in the rules over at Itaku...
Banned content:
Do not post art in any form that sexually depicts characters that are clearly underage according to the artist.
Characters that are underage by canon but are portrayed as adults by the artist are allowed, since by definition those characters are still adults.
That's it.
That's all you had to fucking say. From the very beginning. Full stop.
Why was that so difficult?
Anyways...
Everyone needs to calm down and breath for a bit. I mean, don't stop fighting? This is all still kind of a problem and needs to be addressed and you need to make your voices heard. But what I mean more is just... Don't Panic. And not because nothing is out to get you, like some people are reassuring and calling people dumb for over-reacting... No. You've every right to fucking panic. Just. Don't. You need to re-direct that energy to both maintain your sanity and also to address the situation calmly and at least ensure that your voice is heard. You don't want to come off as someone who is just over-reacting and flying off the handle. This is all gonna play out over the course of a month. You have time to absorb the details of the situation, let the admins try explaining themselves, and then continue the discussion in good faith. The outcome will not be perfect. But so long as you don't destroy yourself in the process, you will be okay. Worst case scenario, you have to find another website to post on and-- I know. There aren't any good options there. But you should probably just start looking into them.
FurAffinity has never been all that reliable. Either through drama or bad coding or both, this site is gonna fall apart one day. Have a backup. Even if it's not the best backup. Even if you currently have zero traffic there. Don't leave all your chips in one basket. For the basket was a mimic all along and is waiting to eat your hand-- :p
----
What I am Going to Do About It
Nothing.
I'm doing functionally nothing.
I'm not taking anything else down. I already took about two dozen things down a few months back during the last bit of unfortunate drama I witnessed. Nothing I personally thought was bad. Nothing I thought or believed was actually cub porn in any sense of the term. But just old shit posted before the original ban that I could look back at today and go "you know what, there are people that could misconstrue this, so... let's just not deal with that possibility." But I'm done with that now. Are there still some things people could act suss over? Especially with this latest rule adjustment? Yeah, probably. But I don't care anymore. I don't want to scroll through everything again and painstakingly decide if I think some puritan would decide something I never intended as cub is suddenly cub because they say it is. Fuck your personal opinion of moral decency. I don't give a shit.
While I have a lot of strong fears and paranoia now about smol cute critters in my gallery... kobolds, nimbats, moogles, phooka, etc... I am not going to morality police myself. And I am not going to keep stressing over it. I know the characters I drew were adults. If they weren't adults, I wouldn't have posted it here. I know what the fucking rules are, damnit, and I follow them whether I think they are stupid or not. I'm just... I'm choosing not to live in fear of it. Because that's just putting stress on myself that I don't need.
That said, while I'm not leaving... unless things dramatically fucking escalate, lols, which I guess I can't rule out?? I am going to keep doing more or less as I have been... and continue de-prioritizing this website. A thing it was already forcing me to do when they limited the upload sizes a few months back. So if you want the highest quality versions of my art? Go to Weasyl or InkBunny or, in time, once I start archiving completed works there too, Gumroad. If you want every version of an image and not just the base version I post to FA? Go to InkBunny. Don't like InkBunny, for reasons I perfectly understand? Well, too bad, I got no where else to put them. They'll be on Gumroad eventually? But you'll have to pay for access to that. I'm sorry. This is the best I can do until someone builds a better alternative.
I will not be going to Twitter. Mastadon either, though that has a way higher likelihood than the former. Those are not art galleries, they are not curateable. They are for social media engagement and to maybe lure people to your actual galleries-- that's it. So no. And then, e621 is an image board, not a gallery. So same basic problem. Pixiv is a japanese censorship nightmare, so... yeah, no. Newgrounds... is not for furries. But I guess I will keep it in mind if it comes to that. I'm considering Itaku as a new site to try, but we aren't there yet. Anything else, I'm clearly not familiar enough with to comment on.
But if you're looking for me off FA, here are the usual links.
https://www.weasyl.com/~lapseph
https://inkbunny.net/Lapseph
https://terithsart.gumroad.com/
Thank you for reading to the end of this nonsense.
I love you. Good luck out there.
I think I have to *ask* for a gallery there? And I've always been uncomfortable doing so. Even though I'm pretty sure I'd get in no problem, I just... was paranoid about it when the opportunity first arised because I was *not* up to the quality I am today. More recently, I just hadn't bothered to get into it?
But I guess it is an option? For vore, certainly, but... I dunno. I'd feel weird posting all of my art there for not fitting to the theme of the service. I'll think about it.
They turned off comments for the obvious reason of "the thread will become an endless shitstorm" as has every community update post they're ever made. Or just people repeatedly replying to it with "Dildos" because that is the meme for some reason. And they don't want to deal with it. They've clearly already sectioned off some discord channel for conversation and are having it there instead.
It's not very transparent because of that... but they forums were trashed and never restored, so there's no where else to chat I guess? It's not like the "Fender" account ever really replied to people in prior update posts anyways (that I recall anyways). But I dunno. I'm not here to defend their actions.