FA+
Shop
Too small for FA
2 years ago
General
~~*~~
Thoughts of the Rada! Apparently my fursona is not fit for NSFW art on Furaffinity. This community that I've been involved in for over a decade now, the community that taught me how to draw, taught me how to write, taught me how to express myself and find the confidence I had lost, is now closing its doors to me. I love my friends, the majority of which came directly from this site. I even met my husband through art trades done here. When I moved across the country, it was with friends I had made on Furaffinity that housed us for the better part of a year while we searched for a house. Our roomate is an artist I looked up to when I joined here. This website means a lot to me.
And now what I do is considered bad by the website. My character, despite sharing my real age, having a hefty, muscular body type, and never once being portrayed as immature to any extent, who is a representation of not only myself, but what I aspire to be for the people around me, someone not to look up to, but to rely on, now has a limit on what he can and cannot be drawn in. While I could make a new fursona that conformed to the rules of the website to use in the fetish material I draw and commission, I'm very attached to him. He's a part of me.
As many of you know I am an advocate for safe, sane, and consensual acts of affection. I myself am not particularly interested in sex so much as foreplay and BDSM experience. My comic, Buckles and Sin is meant to be a friendly introductory into the world of BDSM that doesn't needlessly inflate expectation or dishonestly present the relationships involved. I wanted to portray something real, something honest, while being creative with the world building and character design I've become so passionate about. I depict characters being on the smaller, cuter end of physical appearance because I want the art I make to be approachable, subtle reminders that anyone can be kinky, no matter how tall, thin, short, or thick we are, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. There's already an abundance of the standard 'athletic' body type, idealized bodies that so many strive for but so few actually possess. I wanted to be different than that.
I've nestled myself into a particular corner of the furry BDSM fandom that is admittedly very small, and yet I've managed to get almost seven THOUSAND of you to follow me. That means the world to me. If I can help even one person come to terms with their own sexuality, or help expose the curious to the realities of what was already at the forefront of their interests, then I can be satisfied that my work was worth the time and effort I put into it. I'm going to continue making art, but I will be trying to find new avenues in the mean time.
And now what I do is considered bad by the website. My character, despite sharing my real age, having a hefty, muscular body type, and never once being portrayed as immature to any extent, who is a representation of not only myself, but what I aspire to be for the people around me, someone not to look up to, but to rely on, now has a limit on what he can and cannot be drawn in. While I could make a new fursona that conformed to the rules of the website to use in the fetish material I draw and commission, I'm very attached to him. He's a part of me.
As many of you know I am an advocate for safe, sane, and consensual acts of affection. I myself am not particularly interested in sex so much as foreplay and BDSM experience. My comic, Buckles and Sin is meant to be a friendly introductory into the world of BDSM that doesn't needlessly inflate expectation or dishonestly present the relationships involved. I wanted to portray something real, something honest, while being creative with the world building and character design I've become so passionate about. I depict characters being on the smaller, cuter end of physical appearance because I want the art I make to be approachable, subtle reminders that anyone can be kinky, no matter how tall, thin, short, or thick we are, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. There's already an abundance of the standard 'athletic' body type, idealized bodies that so many strive for but so few actually possess. I wanted to be different than that.
I've nestled myself into a particular corner of the furry BDSM fandom that is admittedly very small, and yet I've managed to get almost seven THOUSAND of you to follow me. That means the world to me. If I can help even one person come to terms with their own sexuality, or help expose the curious to the realities of what was already at the forefront of their interests, then I can be satisfied that my work was worth the time and effort I put into it. I'm going to continue making art, but I will be trying to find new avenues in the mean time.
I can't really see why people minding their own business with their fictional characters there should be a reason to avoid the platform.
Especially since everyone can moderate their own experience with their tag blacklist, not that they really need to i have been there for years and the 'accusations' are really grossly exaggerated.
I've been working to diversify where I post, but I'm nervous about posting my kink stuff anywhere.
Not being an artist, I'm trying to stay positive, but I understand the fear. But this is something that I don't see ending quickly. You may want to wait until to "move on" to other sites.
I just hope I'm wrong
"If you're not drawing children but it affects you anyway, it's your fault"
Stop making excuses for this moronic policy.
I do not know what is the more laughable: that they encourage artists to come forward and put themselves under the spotlight, or that they do not accept any comment, probably knowing that everyone will point out your journal or Argonvile's, as a counter-example.
"Corgi, otters, ponies, and other short creatures, will not be affected based upon stature alone."
If they say your sona is no longer allowed then FA def needs to word their rules better
Boy, can't wait for them to crack down on content containing animals, and expanding those terms to include anything with paws or muzzles. Oh, boy, oh, boy. This whole thing angers me.
Vikki doesn't look like a kid in the slightest, she's just a typical petite woman proportionately. I frequently forget that she's meant to be only 4 ft tall.
That said, FA is a private entity and can therefore do - within certain limits - whatever it feels is in its best interest. I can do the same, which for right now means waiting and seeing what happens. I like being smol and cute and don't intend to change.
*squeaks and hugs her fellow shinyvixen<3*
You'd think a furry art site of all things would understand that characters can be different from the norm. I guess we're just going to have to stick with one uniform body type regardless of what the species is.
...are we sure IMVU doesn't own FA any more?
Sorry you're having to put up with this BS Rada, fingers crossed FA realise this isn't as simple as they assume and backpedal. Might be worth looking at alternatives like Weasyl just in case.
My gallery would largely be unaffected in its current state. But I have been privately playing around with a more cutesy cartoony style because I want a diverse artistic range. But this whole thing makes me feel really discouraged from doing so.
Very sorry to hear all this. You've fallen victim to the site's hypocritical B.S. ways of acting like it has any form of integrity.
The reference I linked them: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/47261757/
...the fuck are they talking about? He looks like a goddamn Starfox character, just short at first glance, HOW does that even remotely look underage to ANYONE???
Whichever moderator gave this as their argument has quite clearly never seen neither a corgi pup nor an adult corgi before...
I really do hope they completely revert this BS, but they've been becoming more contradictory and vague the longer this goes on.
I would actually suggest Inkbunny due to how powerful their tagging system and how consistently competent their moderation and rules are (Them having longevity is also a plus)
As much as I applaud FA for cracking down and cleaning house of Cub art in 2010, the way that the updated UP is worded is incredibly broad and general and overall, a huge overcorrection. However, I can see the logic in it so to Steelman the FA admins reasons For a moment: Characters with childlike proportions can be viewed as being coded to represent underage characters and to have art of them in NSFW contexts is a "dog whistle" for extremely unsavoury things. Extending the current ruling to cover certain Pokemon & Digimon is understandable as their designs are meant to represent immature versions of their final forms (at least in the case of pokemon).
On the other hand, you can contort this reasoning to apply to Kobolds, Dwarves, Hobbits or even Sonic characters, no one is going to unironically argue that Frodo Baggins is a kid. Hell you could go even further and argue that femboys are actually young teens or Taurs are no different from "1,000 year old loli Vampires" in principle and those would be very stupid hills to die on.
I have a confession for you Rad; I'm not a fan of chibi and shortstack designs so most of your characters don't really appeal to me. Heck, a concern I had during that one stream was that you'd draw my Batsona with such proportions.
but
I love that you explore the more wholesome aspects of bondage and BDSM. I hold that those things don't need to be inherently sexual so that easily gets my respect and cutesy characters... actually work very well with that.
It's rather absurd in your case that they'd rule your fursona as inappropriate for NSFW despite him explicit that he's a 30 yo Corgi/Kobold. Too be crass, is that any different from people with Dwarfism? Too quote your partner "Peter Dinklage is a child. Someone should really let the guy know!".
It's a worrying shame that the admins have been so uneven and selective in their judgement and have made feel alienated. I certainly hope things don't escalate so much that you feel unwelcome here and made to leave.
It's fucking disgusting.
Also do NOT forget that FA over the past decade has been known to be complete morons when it comes to arbitrary rule changes that backfired horribly (the old Cub art ban being one of the VERY, VERY few exceptions) Inkbunny or at the very least an e621 archive for your art should be a MUST these days.
I'll be honest here. I oppose to removal of anything as law should not work backwards, and while I would defend your art in general including your main sona design, I can't directly defend your especially chibi art mostly involving lowest evolutions of mons or replicating that style (like mentioned buckles and sin)
Yeah, yeah, canonically they are adult and they behave as such that's why I'm still here, but it's no much different from "this 7yo girl is canonically 400yo vampire" that internet at large was laughing at for decades now and it always felt really weird to fav something that fit me but depicts that. (Again, the line is somewhere beyond your sona design or designes in your labyrinth series iirc)
Another thing is that this might be another situation of "they came for X and I said nothing [...]" Where some services slowly prune out all NSFW content, which makes me question things.
I'm ace, technically, it's complicated... The point is that for me while I like bondage, most direct sex acts are a big no no, but I accept existence of that art as I know it doesn't hurt anyone, and people are actually into it.
And the same argument I can put here in your defence, people are clearly into it, and it doesn't hurt anyone as it's just art and those are not human kids acting as adults.
My problem is that reasoning that allows removal of your content, allows removal of much, MUCH more. Like feral for bestiality, most vore and many hardcore bondage scenarios for death, everything even remotely close to non-con for rape and so on. (List is not representative of what I'm into)
Part of my interest in short, cute characters stems from my own role as a submissive, as well as being of an over-analytical mindset. I like the thought of others being able to overpower me. In real life, I'm 6 foot even, and 222 pounds (recently that number was 238). It's hard for me to be a submissive because I am bigger and stronger than most partners I have. I can escape many of the situations I'm put in, especially if the dom is inexperienced. In fantasy, having a smaller stature makes it a lot easier for me to get into roleplay and art scenarios I enjoy. I don't have to suspend my disbelief near as hard, don't have to worry about the logistics of a 150 pound toned furry dominatrix carrying a 220 pound me. Also, I like when people think I'm cute. I'm overweight, square-shouldered, and have both resting bitch face and resting bitch voice. Rada gives me the opportunity to live vicariously, to enjoy a part of life that I personally will never get to experience.
I don't think there's anything wrong with being cute, or anything wrong with those that chose to represent themselves that way. And naturally, if one side of the coin is people wanting to have that appeal, then the other is the side that seeks it.
The thing however is that chibi, small, and by consequence first forms of mons will be viewed as younger versions of those characters. While they are not human at all as you pointed it out, since hardly anything here is human I think analogy still applies making scrobunny be like young versions of cinderace... Sure one should be free to depict any species, but no matter what's written, this will get that impression from avarage viewer.
But then comes style. Most art I see on the internet is hardly in correct adult proportions, as most of the art is not in photorealistic style, and that also includes humans. This alone should protect you and others that might suffer from this change, but it doesn't. It's the same story like fair use and reviews on YT.
The rule change is bad because it's so wide... Poeple on r/furry_irl will yell "puritarism" under ace post talking about importance of knowing what person you talk to is ok with, while THIS is puritanism as mostly those well marked posts will suffer, and I only learned it from few such posts by people that will be affected (not just you two)
I will not even say "there are better things to ban here", as I can't think of many that plague my searches, and one thing I'm scares of the most is art sites changing rendering fav system pointless as if this will continue I'll have to download every pic I like.
Now I'm thinking is there a way to backup all favs before the chnage.
I'll do the one thing I can, which is to make it abundantly clear: I happily accept and embrace your small, cute side, and I know I'm not the only one.
I have always found your style to be utterly adorable (not in a cub-adorable way, simply in general) and your latex shiny is still some of my absolute favorite - I don't want to loose that just because of a moronic policy change here *hugs her old corgi-friend*
They also don't try to regulate what adults can do with their fictional characters or how they have to look like, therefore it has a bit of a bad image because of some fandom purity zealots constantly shooting against it but to be honest, the image those people are trying to draw is comically exaggerated.