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An update on me and recent events
2 years ago
General
COMMISSION STATUS: OPEN
Journal starts HereG'day.
I hope you're well. I have been okay.
As tempted as I am to leave this journal as just that, short and sweet, I would rather lay out what's on my mind and alleviate any concerns given the length of time between any activity of mine here. I'll try and break things down and be somewhat coherent in the rest of this journal.
Me - What's going on, how have I been?
I've been okay. Ups and downs, navigating the world of mental health, life choices, lessons from the past and where my future can go. I don't think I can add much of note that no one here hasn't experienced this year.
It's mostly been a good time. Hanging with friends, finding new things to do, studying Business and 3D modelling some more which I will show off sometime soon.
But, big good news, there's a 99% chance I'll be moving into a place with both my partner and my best friend sometime in September. Unless something really stupid happens beyond all of our control, it'll be a new life to settle into that I'm really looking forward to. Excited and nervous. <3
Burying the Blue Bird
Twitter sucks arse and I hate it. I have always disliked Twitter and as the years went on, it became easier for me to see why I did. Everyone migrated there, turned their page into a "gallery", used it for engagement. But soon enough if you follow more than just that artist, you're having to filter out random retweets of jokes, memes, random BS, and the slew of political shit. Twitter's filter system is garbage, ads are rubbish and the layout is fuckin' awful for browsing.
On top of that, every couple days it was drama of some kind. If it wasn't politics, it was fandom stuff. Sporadic outbursts of "X being a Y" and "*content* is harmful because hrmrmmrhph" over, and over again. Twitter was a constant binary argument platform for me. I didn't engage, but I watched it happen every few days. Sometimes legit problems, sometimes a bunch of gas-lighting. Sometimes a bunch of no-name tools stirring shit for a moment in a spotlight.
Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of awful stuff in the world worth fighting against, I do want to support the people I know are deserving of it, friends or not, and I try my best to share information that's important, but I can't handle a constant stream of negativity every single day, even if occasionally interjected with a dumb gif.
It wasn't worth wading through that much shit just to get a glimpse of what friends were doing at a particular second. Genuine mental health issues just from using the website. The Big E only made these issues worse along with bringing a slew of problems with him.
So I deleted my Twitter and I will not be returning.
This new furry website called FA
Complacent.
FA has barely changed in the whole time I've been here. I recall when I first joined the search function was broken, or something, and it took some time until it was fixed. Personally, I don't mind how FA looks, the layout is okay, it works. My issue is the backend. The mechanical and feature side of things.
FA lacks a whole bunch of features that other art websites have had since inception or have added almost a decade ago. I think the only things I can say I've seen FA update from a feature perspective is more species on the species list and a same for the list of genders. I... genuinely can't think of anything else that's been added that has been noteworthy. Which is disappointing to say the least.
The priorities for the website doesn't seem to be on making the website a better, cleaner thing to use with features useful to both viewers and content creators on the platform. No, it seems the focus is to be socially acceptable. Now I know that sounds kinda like a bad take but let me explain.
---
The content within the furry fandom and this side of the internet is rife with things that are risqué. For a long time the means to handle a more touchy, sensitive subject is to avoid it. I understand that legally there are some things that should not be on a website, but for all things that legally are acceptable, the means most turned to would be blacklists. Block lists. Keywords specific to those things to be put onto a user-defined list that will exclude that content from appearing on that user's end of their interaction with the website.
FA has lacked a fully functional blacklist for a loooooong time. Not to mention the thumbnail system had been broken for a long time as well, which some considerate artists attempt to use to hide content that some may find unappealing, only to find that it just doesn't work that way. I don't know if the thumbnail issue has been fixed, I just stopped browsing and stopped trying when it was an issue.
Despite how long blacklist functionality has been lacking, despite how many people on the regular complained about it and begged for it to be implemented and fixed for the sake of the whole userbase, nothing has been done.
FA has, over recent years, been refining their rules and terms of service stuff. Not everything has gone over well. Everyone probably remembers the vague pokemon rule implementation that just went through recently. Big uproar. Lots of people mad. A lot of unclear information that lead to lots of people effected and lots of collateral damage.
---
With that information in mind, here's my issue. Almost two decades of people asking for functional features to better cater the content they see and experience to their liking, specifically the ability to filter out content they dislike or do not want to see, FA have instead decided to tell people to not post things that may fall into an area with blurry borders. Instead of doing the work that basically every other art-based website does by default, the work has been shifted on you to assume what is and isn't okay based upon an unclear direction.
FA, by intention or accident, has been the hub for all furries for ages. To maintain that, you need to compartmentalise how your website functions to ensure that people can still interact freely and the content uploaded can be kept in places for those who want to see them.
This is not the actions I expect of a company who cares about its user-base or cares about their position on the internet within a large but niche fandom. These are the actions of a company that sees valid, tangible improvements in the user experience, user interface and user control as not worth their time, money or effort to do or do right. It's easier and less financially costly to rewrite or reorganise a small portion of the Upload Policy every so often than it is to program a blacklist on a... god knows how old website code-base.
As with pretty much every company or body of individuals running a thing that I've had my eye on for a while has done over the past 5 years, my faith is finally shattered and I don't believe they have our interests at heart, because they're not putting in the effort to improve the website. Which has lead me to look to updating other galleries and finding new places to be.
I am not leaving FA, FA left us. I will continue to upload here, read notes, etc, but I will upload elsewhere just as much as I do here.
Pick up your game please, FA. Give us a blacklist and the things we asked for.
Where can I find you?
I'll be here. Kinda.
I'll throw up on my userpage and a journal all of my current active galleries. It's been cut down a bit due to how some websites handle themselves so I either don't upload there at all or limit the content that I do upload.
I am considering opening a discord server just for me to upload and share my stuff with, directly talk with people, etc. But I don't produce often enough to really feel that's worth it. I'll consider it for longer.
Itaku has taken my fancy with the way it's laid out and the gallery interface, AND really cool with the split SFW/NSFW profiles. Neat as. Might see more of my stuff up there than here, though I don't know if I'll upload all of my current gallery there.
Speaking of,
SpottedSqueak has made a tool to download your gallery for uploading elsewhere. Beautiful person, wonderful artist, fantastic friend, boon to FA and provider of useful tools FA won't make. https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/10584471/
If you want to export your gallery and upload it to another website, look no further.
If you read this far, thank you. I know it's not easy to read big things these days, takes time, effort, attention, etc. I appreciate you taking the time to trawl through my ramblings.
I hope you're all doing well. I hope you're all taking care of yourselves and your loved ones and having the best time you can.
I hope you're well. I have been okay.
As tempted as I am to leave this journal as just that, short and sweet, I would rather lay out what's on my mind and alleviate any concerns given the length of time between any activity of mine here. I'll try and break things down and be somewhat coherent in the rest of this journal.
Me - What's going on, how have I been?
I've been okay. Ups and downs, navigating the world of mental health, life choices, lessons from the past and where my future can go. I don't think I can add much of note that no one here hasn't experienced this year.
It's mostly been a good time. Hanging with friends, finding new things to do, studying Business and 3D modelling some more which I will show off sometime soon.
But, big good news, there's a 99% chance I'll be moving into a place with both my partner and my best friend sometime in September. Unless something really stupid happens beyond all of our control, it'll be a new life to settle into that I'm really looking forward to. Excited and nervous. <3
Burying the Blue Bird
Twitter sucks arse and I hate it. I have always disliked Twitter and as the years went on, it became easier for me to see why I did. Everyone migrated there, turned their page into a "gallery", used it for engagement. But soon enough if you follow more than just that artist, you're having to filter out random retweets of jokes, memes, random BS, and the slew of political shit. Twitter's filter system is garbage, ads are rubbish and the layout is fuckin' awful for browsing.
On top of that, every couple days it was drama of some kind. If it wasn't politics, it was fandom stuff. Sporadic outbursts of "X being a Y" and "*content* is harmful because hrmrmmrhph" over, and over again. Twitter was a constant binary argument platform for me. I didn't engage, but I watched it happen every few days. Sometimes legit problems, sometimes a bunch of gas-lighting. Sometimes a bunch of no-name tools stirring shit for a moment in a spotlight.
Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of awful stuff in the world worth fighting against, I do want to support the people I know are deserving of it, friends or not, and I try my best to share information that's important, but I can't handle a constant stream of negativity every single day, even if occasionally interjected with a dumb gif.
It wasn't worth wading through that much shit just to get a glimpse of what friends were doing at a particular second. Genuine mental health issues just from using the website. The Big E only made these issues worse along with bringing a slew of problems with him.
So I deleted my Twitter and I will not be returning.
This new furry website called FA
Complacent.
FA has barely changed in the whole time I've been here. I recall when I first joined the search function was broken, or something, and it took some time until it was fixed. Personally, I don't mind how FA looks, the layout is okay, it works. My issue is the backend. The mechanical and feature side of things.
FA lacks a whole bunch of features that other art websites have had since inception or have added almost a decade ago. I think the only things I can say I've seen FA update from a feature perspective is more species on the species list and a same for the list of genders. I... genuinely can't think of anything else that's been added that has been noteworthy. Which is disappointing to say the least.
The priorities for the website doesn't seem to be on making the website a better, cleaner thing to use with features useful to both viewers and content creators on the platform. No, it seems the focus is to be socially acceptable. Now I know that sounds kinda like a bad take but let me explain.
---
The content within the furry fandom and this side of the internet is rife with things that are risqué. For a long time the means to handle a more touchy, sensitive subject is to avoid it. I understand that legally there are some things that should not be on a website, but for all things that legally are acceptable, the means most turned to would be blacklists. Block lists. Keywords specific to those things to be put onto a user-defined list that will exclude that content from appearing on that user's end of their interaction with the website.
FA has lacked a fully functional blacklist for a loooooong time. Not to mention the thumbnail system had been broken for a long time as well, which some considerate artists attempt to use to hide content that some may find unappealing, only to find that it just doesn't work that way. I don't know if the thumbnail issue has been fixed, I just stopped browsing and stopped trying when it was an issue.
Despite how long blacklist functionality has been lacking, despite how many people on the regular complained about it and begged for it to be implemented and fixed for the sake of the whole userbase, nothing has been done.
FA has, over recent years, been refining their rules and terms of service stuff. Not everything has gone over well. Everyone probably remembers the vague pokemon rule implementation that just went through recently. Big uproar. Lots of people mad. A lot of unclear information that lead to lots of people effected and lots of collateral damage.
---
With that information in mind, here's my issue. Almost two decades of people asking for functional features to better cater the content they see and experience to their liking, specifically the ability to filter out content they dislike or do not want to see, FA have instead decided to tell people to not post things that may fall into an area with blurry borders. Instead of doing the work that basically every other art-based website does by default, the work has been shifted on you to assume what is and isn't okay based upon an unclear direction.
FA, by intention or accident, has been the hub for all furries for ages. To maintain that, you need to compartmentalise how your website functions to ensure that people can still interact freely and the content uploaded can be kept in places for those who want to see them.
This is not the actions I expect of a company who cares about its user-base or cares about their position on the internet within a large but niche fandom. These are the actions of a company that sees valid, tangible improvements in the user experience, user interface and user control as not worth their time, money or effort to do or do right. It's easier and less financially costly to rewrite or reorganise a small portion of the Upload Policy every so often than it is to program a blacklist on a... god knows how old website code-base.
As with pretty much every company or body of individuals running a thing that I've had my eye on for a while has done over the past 5 years, my faith is finally shattered and I don't believe they have our interests at heart, because they're not putting in the effort to improve the website. Which has lead me to look to updating other galleries and finding new places to be.
I am not leaving FA, FA left us. I will continue to upload here, read notes, etc, but I will upload elsewhere just as much as I do here.
Pick up your game please, FA. Give us a blacklist and the things we asked for.
Where can I find you?
I'll be here. Kinda.
I'll throw up on my userpage and a journal all of my current active galleries. It's been cut down a bit due to how some websites handle themselves so I either don't upload there at all or limit the content that I do upload.
I am considering opening a discord server just for me to upload and share my stuff with, directly talk with people, etc. But I don't produce often enough to really feel that's worth it. I'll consider it for longer.
Itaku has taken my fancy with the way it's laid out and the gallery interface, AND really cool with the split SFW/NSFW profiles. Neat as. Might see more of my stuff up there than here, though I don't know if I'll upload all of my current gallery there.
Speaking of,
SpottedSqueak has made a tool to download your gallery for uploading elsewhere. Beautiful person, wonderful artist, fantastic friend, boon to FA and provider of useful tools FA won't make. https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/10584471/If you want to export your gallery and upload it to another website, look no further.
If you read this far, thank you. I know it's not easy to read big things these days, takes time, effort, attention, etc. I appreciate you taking the time to trawl through my ramblings.
I hope you're all doing well. I hope you're all taking care of yourselves and your loved ones and having the best time you can.
The first one is the lack of tools for writers. Posts are limited to 5000 characters, something *way* too small considering some stories have 5000 *words*. But like said, I heard they have something for that in the works, even if I have no idea what.
The other is the fact you cannot hide folders from guests or sfw profiles. For example, I have a folder named "Fetishes" and inside a folder for normal porn, vore, fellation, transformation, gore, etc. Any guest will see that I have these folders in my gallery and even how many pictures the folder has. They may click the folder and see no art, but they will be already aware that the artist has plenty of nsfw content hidden behind some filter. I think that, if unintentional, that this is a rather serious oversight. We will see, though.
Besides these issues, I discovered that Itaku is very nice overall and people posting there is trying to make it feel nice. And I say this very aware that i was very hesitant to join it at first, already very burned out with promises of sites that aimed for our content.
Regarding twatter, tbf the only reason why I keep it is because its the only contact I have with some Japanese artists who dont post anywhere else. Otherwise I'd have kicked out that site long ago.
I already made my choice and I'm leaving this site only for my SFW stuff. Worked so far. And tbh I'd like if people stopped using fA, because then they'd care and start trying to implement the features we've asked for over a decade at this point.
This "modern" look fA has? that we got halfways through 2020?
It had been announced and promised mid 2009. Following the same idea, we likely are going to see a blacklist here around 2035 or something like that. So yeah.
As always. Greatful that you are a thing, and despite us not talking much, you're a consistent source of good, you're open. Up front. Honest, blunt, very similar to me, and I appreciate that <3
FA staff is horrible and the least capable of running a legitimate website.
Yes, we have been promised a series of new features for the site. Then the site got sold. Then it went stagnant again. Then it got bought up. We were promised a new, bigger future. And that is still yet to be seen as the site sinks from its own staff not knowing what the staff is doing.
But hey, the responses were 'mostly positive' while they conveniently curated and blocked the negative feedback that told them how much of an a$$ they were being.