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I no longer feel safe to post art here. I'm sorry.
2 years ago
12 years ago when I migrated away from deviantArt (due to a decline in overall site quality there) to FA, it took me a while to get comfortable enough on FA to feel safe about uploading NSFW content. I'd spent several years as a viewer getting used to it all before I started uploading any art, and even longer to get over my fears of offending the wrong person with something that both they did not want to see, nor something that I would want to bother them with. There's still a lot of content that I'm sure is relatively-tame that I've held back on uploading, a lot of the time because it feels "unfinished", where it doesn't feel like it's fully fleshed out or presented with a decent enough explanation of it, or the context or timing of it just feels like it wouldn't work well as a "new submission". I've got way too many dumb hangups about being "too repetative" with one TF theme or another that I ended up with a lot of backlogs of very similar things that now would be "too much of a flood" to upload all at once. Even though I know there's fans out there who'd probably like to see it, I have this dumb need to stay relatively "balanced" on different types of content so new submissions feel "worth wasting people's time on". That's just mostly artistic merits alone, not even considered the aprehension I'd have to then worry about on top of that about making sure to self-censor even further to keep in line with heavy content restrictions.
My fictional lewd content and interests generally feel very far removed from my physical sexuality. As an avatar for myself Kree tends to share my nervous shy nature, but even as he is he's way more adventurous than I expect my IRL self would be. I've never really had much of an interest with physical porn media, both photos or videos. Watching IRL strangers having sex just isn't for me. Due to my shy nature I have yet to delve into the unknown as far as dating someone IRL. Generally I don't really have much interest in "losing my virginity" if it involves hooking up with a random person, because I'd rather someday get to know someone very well first before I'd even think of wanting to do something IRL with them. There's a lot of stigma out there about being "a virgin", and it's taken perhaps decades to just feel comfortable ignoring that weird label about whether your bits have touched someone else's bits. There's a lot of social stigma out there that says you ought to care about virginity for peer-pressure reasons™. It took me a long while to even just come to terms with the idea of being bisexual (what with, y'know… never dating), and that I wasn't just some "confused" guy straddling the fence between "the only two" options of straight or gay. Without the safety of the social circles of the friends I've met in the furry fandom, and all the wonderful art and chats with peeps I've had all this time over the years, I would probably be even more of an introverted shut-in than I already am. I'm so grateful for all the people I've met along the way, and all the stupid nonsense fiction we got to share with each other.
I used to think that FA was a safe space where (generally) things were free from the stigma of excessive censorship. Somewhere to just draw completely fictional things in fictional scenarios, free from the "normal" spaces that pervade all of the world and the Internet where anything not squeaky-clean gets shunned. The restrictions generally seemed (at the time) just around all those IRL things I had absolutely no interest in. Looking back on it now, I'm wondering if I was just choosing to turn a blind eye on all the past FA dramas out of fear of losing the one safe space I had online… but then maybe that safety was just an illusion the whole time…
For some reason violence gets a free pass almost anywhere in the outside world. I feel like I'm the weirdo for most of the time preferring very few deaths in a show/movie/etc at all. It gets tiring, having to put on a mask and go out into the world that seems to embrace fiction involving violent and gruesome ends to lives, but it's unthinkable to ever have a consentual interaction between two adults. Steven Universe got cancelled (and then sorta un-cancelled slightly) over the idea of having a gay wedding, of all things. Everywhere that isn't a hardcore no-limits porn area is violently opposed to NSFW content, and I don't feel comfortable in traditional "porn club" scenarios either. It feels exhausting just trying to find one place to get away from it and just… be able to exist.
I value the comments and interactions I've had over the years with everyone, so I'd prefer to keep the existing gallery content preserved as it is. If I'm asked to remove content I will (leaving the comments, if possible). I don't want to invite further trouble by drawing attention with trouble tickets or other interactions. As far as I'm aware all my content has been either adult characters, or wholesome parent & child interactions. I'm not into the sorts of content they're removing, and it's way too stressful to go back and self-police myself just to figure out where someone someday might mischaracterise me as that sort of content.
I've heard a lot of people tell me that my content is (probably) safe and that there's (probably) nothing to worry about. While I'd very much like that to be true… both the intial announcement and the following ones have been far too vague and open to subjective opinion to bring back any sort of comfort. First it was no blanket species bans (but with news of private feedback that there absolutely will be blanket bans), then followed up with very definitively publicly announcement of blanket bans. I do not feel safe at all, and there's no telling how far further things will be restricted or open to interpretation. Especially since this is a retroactive ban, then just about anything will be in danger of future retroactive bans. Nothing is certain and nothing is safe.
I'm extremely not interested in cub art. There's a lot of themes that really turn me off, and I don't like to look at them. Generally, my instinct is to just avoid content that I don't like and tune it out. But even if I really dislike certain themes, as long as no real person is being hurt by it, all I care about it is that it's outside of my view. I don't feel the need to destroy or deplatform someone because they do fictional art that I dislike. The idea that every instance of a certain race of a fictional species should now be grouped under the same category as "cub art" sounds completely unhinged. The idea of a "child Riolu" and an "adult Riolu" can exist just fine as two separate concepts even if they share similar designs. But now there's the very real threat of someone labelling me as a pedofile just for drawing a Riolu. Those two things are a world apart, and I don't want to stick around in an atmosphere where things get lumped together like that.
I'd prefer to find somewhere I can rehost my content, but as far as I'm aware none of the existing sites support "backdating" older content. I've got those dumb hangups and if I have to start over fresh with a whole "new" set of submissions, it's going to be a slow and painful time. I'm going to have to do some very small and curated reuploads that won't be able to preserve all of the old contexts and comments. I can't just jump into new platforms as well as other people can. Plus, I don't exactly feel confident in dumping 1000+ submissions on a website all at once either. It's looking like I might have to get back into doing web development (outside of my day job) to build a custom self-hosted gallery where I can preserve the existing submissions and their comments independently, and maybe design some more granular content filters. It will probably be 18+ because I don't want the logistical (and moral) headaches of having underage users. I've also got a few empty accounts already parked on other sites, and maybe I might start posting to somewhere like Weasyl eventually. I may also just resort to posting via Telegram or Discord, although they're not really a good substitute for an archive.
The past week since the policy change started has been extremely stressful and anxiety-inducing, and even if I had a new gallery solution ready to go, it's going to be a while before I think I can get back to drawing art again at the same pace I was at. For a long time drawing has been my go-to way to relax and unwind, and so it's been a real wreck to my usual routine (and blood pressure) to have it undercut by this. I really hope that someday soon I can get back to that same happy place, and hopefully also get back to entertaining some peeps. That's the main reason I post stuff, so that it hopefully might be entertaining for someone out there.
Extra details edit:
- I'll eventually be putting together a self-hosted gallery website. I’ll provide more details later about this.
- The current gallery uploads will stay as they are, any deletions will be due to someone else wanting it gone.
- I've got a bunch of parked empty accounts across various sites. I'm open to suggestions, and it's looking like Weasyl might be a good alternative? https://www.weasyl.com/~kree
- I could start plans to reupload on other sites but without the ability to backdate old content it's going to be tough to curate a good list of what is worth everyone's time to reupload again fresh. Some of those old uploads wouldn't make sense as reuploads. I'd hate to waste people's time with a flood of all of it. So bear with me as I try to figure it out. Hence why self-hosting might be where I end up focusing for a bit until I can get comfortable again on another gallery site.
- I stream intermittently over on Picarto some weekends: https://picarto.tv/KreeTheBasilisk
- I'm available to chat on Telegram ( https://t.me/kreethebasilisk ) and Discord ( Kree#5103 )
- I've been using Discord as a place to chat with peeps and make stream announcements when I go live on Picarto. I've been sharing art there in the past so it may be a stopgap way to share art with peeps in the meantime, but it's not going to become a replacement for a proper gallery site.
- I'm still deciding between making the Discord server public vs invites-only, but contact me if you'd like an invite. It's primarily 18+ at the moment to make it easier to just be an adults-only space.
Thank you all for your time and comments. It pains me to have to make this decision. I enjoyed hopefully entertaining you all with my nonsense scribbles, and look forward to reconnecting with people again on other platforms.
My fictional lewd content and interests generally feel very far removed from my physical sexuality. As an avatar for myself Kree tends to share my nervous shy nature, but even as he is he's way more adventurous than I expect my IRL self would be. I've never really had much of an interest with physical porn media, both photos or videos. Watching IRL strangers having sex just isn't for me. Due to my shy nature I have yet to delve into the unknown as far as dating someone IRL. Generally I don't really have much interest in "losing my virginity" if it involves hooking up with a random person, because I'd rather someday get to know someone very well first before I'd even think of wanting to do something IRL with them. There's a lot of stigma out there about being "a virgin", and it's taken perhaps decades to just feel comfortable ignoring that weird label about whether your bits have touched someone else's bits. There's a lot of social stigma out there that says you ought to care about virginity for peer-pressure reasons™. It took me a long while to even just come to terms with the idea of being bisexual (what with, y'know… never dating), and that I wasn't just some "confused" guy straddling the fence between "the only two" options of straight or gay. Without the safety of the social circles of the friends I've met in the furry fandom, and all the wonderful art and chats with peeps I've had all this time over the years, I would probably be even more of an introverted shut-in than I already am. I'm so grateful for all the people I've met along the way, and all the stupid nonsense fiction we got to share with each other.
I used to think that FA was a safe space where (generally) things were free from the stigma of excessive censorship. Somewhere to just draw completely fictional things in fictional scenarios, free from the "normal" spaces that pervade all of the world and the Internet where anything not squeaky-clean gets shunned. The restrictions generally seemed (at the time) just around all those IRL things I had absolutely no interest in. Looking back on it now, I'm wondering if I was just choosing to turn a blind eye on all the past FA dramas out of fear of losing the one safe space I had online… but then maybe that safety was just an illusion the whole time…
For some reason violence gets a free pass almost anywhere in the outside world. I feel like I'm the weirdo for most of the time preferring very few deaths in a show/movie/etc at all. It gets tiring, having to put on a mask and go out into the world that seems to embrace fiction involving violent and gruesome ends to lives, but it's unthinkable to ever have a consentual interaction between two adults. Steven Universe got cancelled (and then sorta un-cancelled slightly) over the idea of having a gay wedding, of all things. Everywhere that isn't a hardcore no-limits porn area is violently opposed to NSFW content, and I don't feel comfortable in traditional "porn club" scenarios either. It feels exhausting just trying to find one place to get away from it and just… be able to exist.
I value the comments and interactions I've had over the years with everyone, so I'd prefer to keep the existing gallery content preserved as it is. If I'm asked to remove content I will (leaving the comments, if possible). I don't want to invite further trouble by drawing attention with trouble tickets or other interactions. As far as I'm aware all my content has been either adult characters, or wholesome parent & child interactions. I'm not into the sorts of content they're removing, and it's way too stressful to go back and self-police myself just to figure out where someone someday might mischaracterise me as that sort of content.
I've heard a lot of people tell me that my content is (probably) safe and that there's (probably) nothing to worry about. While I'd very much like that to be true… both the intial announcement and the following ones have been far too vague and open to subjective opinion to bring back any sort of comfort. First it was no blanket species bans (but with news of private feedback that there absolutely will be blanket bans), then followed up with very definitively publicly announcement of blanket bans. I do not feel safe at all, and there's no telling how far further things will be restricted or open to interpretation. Especially since this is a retroactive ban, then just about anything will be in danger of future retroactive bans. Nothing is certain and nothing is safe.
I'm extremely not interested in cub art. There's a lot of themes that really turn me off, and I don't like to look at them. Generally, my instinct is to just avoid content that I don't like and tune it out. But even if I really dislike certain themes, as long as no real person is being hurt by it, all I care about it is that it's outside of my view. I don't feel the need to destroy or deplatform someone because they do fictional art that I dislike. The idea that every instance of a certain race of a fictional species should now be grouped under the same category as "cub art" sounds completely unhinged. The idea of a "child Riolu" and an "adult Riolu" can exist just fine as two separate concepts even if they share similar designs. But now there's the very real threat of someone labelling me as a pedofile just for drawing a Riolu. Those two things are a world apart, and I don't want to stick around in an atmosphere where things get lumped together like that.
I'd prefer to find somewhere I can rehost my content, but as far as I'm aware none of the existing sites support "backdating" older content. I've got those dumb hangups and if I have to start over fresh with a whole "new" set of submissions, it's going to be a slow and painful time. I'm going to have to do some very small and curated reuploads that won't be able to preserve all of the old contexts and comments. I can't just jump into new platforms as well as other people can. Plus, I don't exactly feel confident in dumping 1000+ submissions on a website all at once either. It's looking like I might have to get back into doing web development (outside of my day job) to build a custom self-hosted gallery where I can preserve the existing submissions and their comments independently, and maybe design some more granular content filters. It will probably be 18+ because I don't want the logistical (and moral) headaches of having underage users. I've also got a few empty accounts already parked on other sites, and maybe I might start posting to somewhere like Weasyl eventually. I may also just resort to posting via Telegram or Discord, although they're not really a good substitute for an archive.
The past week since the policy change started has been extremely stressful and anxiety-inducing, and even if I had a new gallery solution ready to go, it's going to be a while before I think I can get back to drawing art again at the same pace I was at. For a long time drawing has been my go-to way to relax and unwind, and so it's been a real wreck to my usual routine (and blood pressure) to have it undercut by this. I really hope that someday soon I can get back to that same happy place, and hopefully also get back to entertaining some peeps. That's the main reason I post stuff, so that it hopefully might be entertaining for someone out there.
Extra details edit:
- I'll eventually be putting together a self-hosted gallery website. I’ll provide more details later about this.
- The current gallery uploads will stay as they are, any deletions will be due to someone else wanting it gone.
- I've got a bunch of parked empty accounts across various sites. I'm open to suggestions, and it's looking like Weasyl might be a good alternative? https://www.weasyl.com/~kree
- I could start plans to reupload on other sites but without the ability to backdate old content it's going to be tough to curate a good list of what is worth everyone's time to reupload again fresh. Some of those old uploads wouldn't make sense as reuploads. I'd hate to waste people's time with a flood of all of it. So bear with me as I try to figure it out. Hence why self-hosting might be where I end up focusing for a bit until I can get comfortable again on another gallery site.
- I stream intermittently over on Picarto some weekends: https://picarto.tv/KreeTheBasilisk
- I'm available to chat on Telegram ( https://t.me/kreethebasilisk ) and Discord ( Kree#5103 )
- I've been using Discord as a place to chat with peeps and make stream announcements when I go live on Picarto. I've been sharing art there in the past so it may be a stopgap way to share art with peeps in the meantime, but it's not going to become a replacement for a proper gallery site.
- I'm still deciding between making the Discord server public vs invites-only, but contact me if you'd like an invite. It's primarily 18+ at the moment to make it easier to just be an adults-only space.
Thank you all for your time and comments. It pains me to have to make this decision. I enjoyed hopefully entertaining you all with my nonsense scribbles, and look forward to reconnecting with people again on other platforms.
And I agree with the Riolu part. There are multiple Pokémon that look like 'kids' but can very well be an adult. Mudkip, Treecko, hell even (Ash's) Pikachu! Is just...So stupid of a rule concept
The west’s general distaste of sexual content could be boiled down to Christianity having “no sex until after marriage” with the intended message of “having a family is suppose to be meaningful, not the result of a one night stand with a stranger” but it has gotten warped by nutcases into “you should marry asap, and then you should only have sex if it’s in the pursuit of having a child” whilst ignoring the fact that that type of thinking leaves a number of people in loveless marriages and children being put up for adoption because the partners just wanted to have “Christian approved” sex.
It is good to have a backup no matter the outcome but with how vague everything is, it’s probably best to wait until the rules actually take affect before deciding to stay or jump ship.
The UK would like to disagree. You want porn? Go ask your ISP to enable it for you (ofc with ID and shaming)
Germany aspires such a system too. And you know - if germany does - then so will the rest of the EU soon.
Europeans are just as bad as the US in this regard if you ask me. It's just a slower process with more hurdles.
I do think the reactions as a whole towards this change have been rather hyperbolic. There's a ton of scaremongering about what seemingly wasn't meant to be nearly as sweeping a change as some make it out to be.
Of course I considered the fact that it could be an overreaction, which is exactly why I went out of my way to search from as many different sources of information across journals from a lot of different people to try to find multiple perspectives, many Twitter threads, and checking over the official announcements several times over. What I kept running into was some pretty clear accounts from various artists being treated poorly for doing exactly what the announcement instructed them to do. I also kept running into many screenshots of Discord conversations from the 2.7 feedback channel where a lot of quite problematic things happened in those conversations where feedback was either ignored or deleted. There was a lot of very troubling opinions being shared in there that I would rather not attempt to quote. That channel is now closed.
There have been a lot of conversations in that thread that harshly contradict the public announcements several times (e.g. blanket species bans). The only form of providing feedback (outside of hounding them with trouble tickets and putting a target on your back) was that private Discord thread that is gone now. There are archives of it, and there's a long list of feedback given that was silently ignored.
All I got out of all of this is a metric ton of stress and anxiety that has severely ruined the past week and derailed my naive idea that this site could be a safe place for me to continue calling a digital "home". Of course I would have written it off as an overreaction if I could have! Do you think I wanted to put myself under this stress? Why would I want to abandon the place that I've invested so much energy and so many years of my life into? It fucking hurts to do this! If anything I was incredibly biased towards wanting to write this off as just scaremongering drama!
I don't want to stop posting here. I have to, because this is not the place I thought it was anymore. So I apologise if this seems a bit heated and I saw that response as heckling, because this is a very sensitive and serious topic for me and I'd rather not joke about it.
this whole thing with the new rule is a mess...
Stay safe Kree. All the best to ya.
Been a fan of yours for along time and I wish you the best of luck. I've seen a bunch of alternative sites suggested and I think Weasyl might be the best one right now. It's basically a more modern FA.
I hope things work out for you, and it's understandable you don't wanna risk posting. I hope you find somewhere you can post what you love making without worry
Really hoping that there won't be any repurcassions for you, so that you won't have to delete anything here. I feel the exact some when it comes to comments and all the stuff surrounding an uploaded piece of art, so it would be truly a shame to see anything go away.
I'd love to join your Discord if you'll still be active there.
The caprice and callousness of these rules changes is appalling.
at this point your art and the silly shenanigans involved was one of the main reasons I kept coming back to check on this site.
like I fully believe that this whole change on FA's end is just one persons personal crusade and everyone else is either too scared or unable to speak up against it.
Because honestly, the whole "think of the children" mentality of the change is one that is Difficult as all hell to argue against, even when the other person is just wrong. because all they have to do is accuse you of wanting sexualizing minors to utterly shift the argument to be about you and not the actual subject and its utterly disappointing because pretty much everyone who speaks against the changes is being gaslit into being 'wrong' when they are not
if you happen to start up a discord server or telegram channel or w/e to post your art, we'd be extremely interested in seeing it, if you'd have us
(unless they pull a complete 180 and become consistent about the changes, actually DEFINE the terms used, AND come clean about all the admin caveats they have put in these new rules)
As of right now I've seen several sites that seem to be where most people are storing all their art in the case of complete site fire (That allows "18+" content, I'm using this term to mean anything that is a fetish/kink, even the "SFW" ones):
-Furry Network (The closest to FA in terms of how the site works and is organized, has options for hiding your account from "guests" and Search Engines, lets you organize content by character groups that can be searched)
-Weasyl
(has a SFW and NSFW switch like FA, character profiles and neat features, does require that you go thru a few extra steps to be able to post content, supposedly to help stop spamming)
-Cohost
(THIS SITE IS STILL IN DEVELOPMENT, so the staff is stretched very thin and things might change in the future... legit seems the least "Stable" buuutt it does have promise;
clean site layout with easy to find options but I haven't actually used this one extensively yet to give a full OK on usability; Calls its-self a "Social Media site" and not an "art site")
-e621
(you can create groups and unique tags for art on this site, you need to add your own blacklist tags once you have an account as everything becomes available to see, allows for comic page linking for ease of browsing)
-Inkbunny (Honestly I completely understand this ones reputation; but I care more about people not having to worry about getting banned for things like art-styles and admin preference; I can share a list of blacklist tags that I personally use for anyone interested to make the site less... jarring, same for e6)
It's mostly empty at the moment but I was thinking it might be good to plan out some uploads for it… just gotta get over my hangups about what I ought to curate for a reupload… what to pick and what order… 😰
But yeah I don't intend for Discord to become a replacement for an art gallery, it's still primarily going to be a chat group.
And I hate that it gets more and more popular for this exact purpose. Fuck twitter. It's objectively the inferior choice, imo it ranks far behind even just dumping everything into a folder and "hosting" it on a static "gallery.html"
With so many artist moving i might need to take a look at weasyl.
Did you consider upload tools that allow to upload to many sites at once?
I seen a few artist that use it and have a full archive of all their art on e621 or other sites. Also posting on e621 is pretty low effort as the people over their love to tag everything like crazy. Would miss your silly art, especially your tf comics.
I've really been wanting to get organised with uploads on an alternate gallery (like Weasyl) or code my own gallery but I'be been stuck in a depressing funk since the changes. It feels hard trying to push through the depressing thoughts and get uploads (or reuploads) properly organised. Bad colds going around has also thrown me for a loop on top of that. It sucks because I didn't want to leave people with inactivity this whole time… 😰 Hopefully I can push through it eventually and try to get back to a relatively-normal pace again.
I see they still draw on Picarto but I don't see a collection of art part of Picarto
I can say with certainty that we all value your mental health far more than your art
Take as much time as you need and keep enjoying what you do
:)
I've slowly managed to start reposting my backlog to Weasyl, but it will take a while to get through the whole thing.