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The Age When Life Starts Taking Things Away.
a year ago
I didn't know Dragoneer, and yet news of his passing is still distressing. I didn't agree with all his stances, opinions, or whatever, but this site is, in aggregate, good. It prioritizes the "community" above profit, at least as far as I can tell. That is so extremely rare in the world now. I got out of the habit of using it because I needed to monetize my work to survive. I've always felt like the site itself managed to maintain a level of user friendliness you rarely see anymore, while also keeping up just enough to maintain relevance. I doubt that was an accident. If FA passed away with Dragoneer it would be a great shame. I'm at the age where I too have to get checked for cancer and such more and more regularly. Lumps, spots, pain... I tend not to go until I'm genuinely worried because it costs so much. My only job is art and my body is in a state where art is all I can do now. Once it fails all of this ends for me. So I have some idea of what his last days were like. Where does that money come from? Who do you turn to for help? Does anyone care? In some ways death might have been the best outcome. I've seen first hand what happens when death leaves someone behind, with a mountain of debt and no way to pay it. I know that at the end of the day life is valueless to the machine.
Ive lost a lot of friends to the culture war; seen groups who existed for decades fall apart into screaming matches, watched people lose their damn minds over social media, had some attack me. It's been a grim decade and I don't see a light at the end of the tunnel. As the years have gone by more and more names on my follow list have gotten that infinity symbol. Someday it will appear by mine too, if anyone notices I'm gone anyway. If the site even exists in a year or ten. Things end, and rarely in the way that movies tell us they will.
If nothing else Dragoneer left something mostly good behind for people who didn't know him personally. I hope it lasts and passes into the hands of people who will also take care of it with the same gentle kind of hands. Awkward, malfunctioning, autistic, retards need a place where they can be a blight on the world together. This is a nice place for that. Sectioned off for the most part, happily degenerate. Not a bad legacy, even if it is nothing but ones and zeroes.
Ive lost a lot of friends to the culture war; seen groups who existed for decades fall apart into screaming matches, watched people lose their damn minds over social media, had some attack me. It's been a grim decade and I don't see a light at the end of the tunnel. As the years have gone by more and more names on my follow list have gotten that infinity symbol. Someday it will appear by mine too, if anyone notices I'm gone anyway. If the site even exists in a year or ten. Things end, and rarely in the way that movies tell us they will.
If nothing else Dragoneer left something mostly good behind for people who didn't know him personally. I hope it lasts and passes into the hands of people who will also take care of it with the same gentle kind of hands. Awkward, malfunctioning, autistic, retards need a place where they can be a blight on the world together. This is a nice place for that. Sectioned off for the most part, happily degenerate. Not a bad legacy, even if it is nothing but ones and zeroes.
I passed the 2/3 of a century mark this year. I've seen my friends and and former coworkers stumble and fall and at our age, a lot of us aren't getting back up. The day Dragoneer was born I already had a job that paid half-way decently and was paying on a first (and second) mortgage.
I've muddled through life since that time, making some good decisions, some bad; landed on my feet and on my @$$ a few times each. Since I was forced into retirement almost eight years ago I've been spending most of my time online. In that time I've become disabled so my only other option is to sit in front of the TV, drink beer and order pizza. I'd be dead within a year. Three of my neighbors (that I know of) did that and you could ask them -- if they were still alive.
So, you're right. We need to take better care of ourselves. Work on something we can leave as a legacy. And yes, Fur Affinity has been a safe haven for many of us weird kids who never grew up. I guess this is Dragoneer's legacy. I just hope the next hands it falls into doesn't decide they need to change everything.