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I [was] SUSPICIOUS of the gofundme link stuck on my page
a year ago
General
edit4: post-domain-redirect "hack"
the person sciggles responded to my inquiry with
Hey there, sorry for taking so long to respond. This is the first moment I've had to really look at my messages.
If there is excess funding it will go into a savings for any hardware or necessary emergency funds for FA.
although with the goal changed I don't foresee there being any excess funding but I do not want to be antagonistic about it, especially with that cruciFAxion drawing on all my pages now.
edit3: now they have updated the thing with a slew of new expenses. I appreciate the increased amount of information and that this notice is removable, but some of these items are really screwed up. I noticed "$38.4k - Fur Affinity past contract services owed (expense found after GFM launch)
This covers contract work that was already completed for Fur Affinity but wasn’t yet paid for. While these are not an immediate need they are a required expense." what the heck that is outright Trumpian, to hire people, not pay them, and then never talk about it. What sort of contract work would that even be? Building a gazebo so the server can go outside? How long ago did this happen? Was dragoneer (or whoever) EVER planning to pay whoever these apply to? DId they file lawsuits suddenly? That is NOT good management. I wish D had asked for help while he was still alive. I wonder if it was for the manufacture of those awful plush dolls that were being sold a while ago.
edit2: I suddenly wonder: WHO is to "own" fur affinity if community money is being used to finish paying imvu for it? Prior to this the impression given was that imvu had been out of the picture for years.
edit: (this previously said "I object to" the link, which perhaps makes it seem like I oppose the idea of it rather than the particulars of it)
they already exceeded the goal BEFORE putting that there, and I have no reason to believe that money will be 100% put toward the stated expenses, ESPECIALLY surplus money, if those expense estimates are even accurate. I won't disparage the dead beyond what I already have but those aren't the ones begging for money now. I do not understand why this doesn't have the X on it that every other site announcement has.
I did send a message to that Sciggles person asking about it, but I am afraid of talking to people like that --holders of relative power whom I don't know or know anything about-- and I already feel too mentally invested in this.
the person sciggles responded to my inquiry with
Hey there, sorry for taking so long to respond. This is the first moment I've had to really look at my messages.
If there is excess funding it will go into a savings for any hardware or necessary emergency funds for FA.
although with the goal changed I don't foresee there being any excess funding but I do not want to be antagonistic about it, especially with that cruciFAxion drawing on all my pages now.
edit3: now they have updated the thing with a slew of new expenses. I appreciate the increased amount of information and that this notice is removable, but some of these items are really screwed up. I noticed "$38.4k - Fur Affinity past contract services owed (expense found after GFM launch)
This covers contract work that was already completed for Fur Affinity but wasn’t yet paid for. While these are not an immediate need they are a required expense." what the heck that is outright Trumpian, to hire people, not pay them, and then never talk about it. What sort of contract work would that even be? Building a gazebo so the server can go outside? How long ago did this happen? Was dragoneer (or whoever) EVER planning to pay whoever these apply to? DId they file lawsuits suddenly? That is NOT good management. I wish D had asked for help while he was still alive. I wonder if it was for the manufacture of those awful plush dolls that were being sold a while ago.
edit2: I suddenly wonder: WHO is to "own" fur affinity if community money is being used to finish paying imvu for it? Prior to this the impression given was that imvu had been out of the picture for years.
edit: (this previously said "I object to" the link, which perhaps makes it seem like I oppose the idea of it rather than the particulars of it)
they already exceeded the goal BEFORE putting that there, and I have no reason to believe that money will be 100% put toward the stated expenses, ESPECIALLY surplus money, if those expense estimates are even accurate. I won't disparage the dead beyond what I already have but those aren't the ones begging for money now. I do not understand why this doesn't have the X on it that every other site announcement has.
I did send a message to that Sciggles person asking about it, but I am afraid of talking to people like that --holders of relative power whom I don't know or know anything about-- and I already feel too mentally invested in this.
There are unknowns listed there, and they said that they would account for everything.
No matter what, FA is going to need funds moving forward.
I still have those up to ~2007/08 and it would be good to hope that hadn't devolved to the extent of "just shove everything on the credit card and we'll worry about it later".
But it feels more and more like you and I are kind of the lone voices on this.
However, FurAffinity won't really be FurAffinity without its flaky user interface.
Well, more seriously, I personally don't believe that it is much relevant to discuss the pertinence of their choice of displaying the donation link this way. Whether you accept it or not, Dragoneer had a major influence on FurAffinity and his passing is surely a true shock for all the people who have been working with him on this website we are all using almost everyday. Displaying a visible donation link is fully understandable in my humble opinion.
And, eventually, by definition a donation is NOT a mandatory taxe, and people are free to contribute or not. It seems obvious, yet I believe that ones should be aware of it.
And that was posted by Sciggles, so it wasn't anonymous.
The rest, no idea.
When I first saw the link there was only about $50 donated. It just hit its goal very very quickly.
The gofundme link has an X on my phone but not on my computer. Weird.
And she makes a LOT of GoFundMes:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/give-sciggles-a-break
https://www.gofundme.com/f/project-.....pport-sciggles
https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-sci.....ck-on-her-feet
That makes sense: the average American's financial horsepower has been decreasing in the face of the rapid inflation & wealth transfer that's been underway since the pandemic. She's definitely not alone in having an increased reliance on crowd funding; remember that the majority of Americans are one missed paycheque away from poverty. Additionally, the growing wealth inequality is more likely to substantially impact a mother of two young kids. Feel how you will about people having kids in the modern day, but the reality is that they exist & they need funds to be cared for.
With all that said, I'm gonna take the frequency of her fundraisers with a grain of salt. Given the economy, it's not particularly scandalous. Dragoneer literally just passed away a week ago, and assuming their official plan was indeed for Sciggles to take over, then I can imagine she would be in panic mode rn about how she'll pull this off. And, realistically, this is a situation where they actually need all the help they can get.
If there's a scandal, we'll see it unfold. For now, I'm personally choosing to give benefit of the doubt given the circumstances around all this.
Unless the normal newsblock also shared that property.
Idk, never bothered to try and hide it before bc I could just X it out when I was done reading it.
I'm sure it's innocuous and I hope they get what they need to keep the servers running. This place is the last bastion of old internet and I'd be crushed to see it go :(
In other words, it saves from having a lot of people saying something like "I wanted to donate but closed the link. Where's the gofundme again?"
But that's simply my take on why they have it that way.
Anyone who logs in just to post and check their messages probably wouldn't see it if it were only on the homepage.
i felt only a certain familial sadness on the sole basis he was connected directly to people i knew personally even if i dont talk to them anymore and he's always been a figurehead on the main website ive called home since i was a teen (all other of those sites now defunct or very badly managed, fa being an exception, despite how it's, unarguably, badly managed)
but again, the forceful nature of this feels. very very strange to me.
To me, the gofundme feels akin to every other fundraiser: donate if you care to and can afford to do so, don't donate if you don't care or can't afford to do so. Maybe I'm missing some context, I don't really engage with furry outside of FA, but this situation doesn't really set off any suspicion for me personally with the sudden nature of the circumstances.
Grief shakes people at their foundation. Grief makes people panic, especially in situations where the stakes are high -- as they are here. The costs of losing somebody you love are immense and unpredictable, both emotionally and financially, and adding one of the largest online art sites into the mix would certainly make even the most stable person flinch. This is a situation where powerful emotions could cause somebody to fumble.
Also, you can absolutely honour somebody for free. I personally haven't seen anybody speak to the contrary, either. Overall, I see this like a less annoying version of the annual Wikipedia donation drive: it's there to help keep the website alive, but you're free to scroll past it if you can't afford to donate, or don't care to -- no judgement, no guilt.
- hosting is expensive and the cost of it may increase as the site’s backend grows. Perhaps they want to pay a sum for a longer period in advance.
- any changes on the website would not be done for free, they’d need to pay someone. Such projects are expensive, especially if the site itself has aged already.
- this one I’m not sure of: the cost for buying out FA as a company from shareholders might be not that easy and can be costly, the cost could increase if overbid.
Endless possibilities when it comes to business and technical matters.
Regarding funeral and ethic stuff… I’m not from USA but whenever I hear about any kind of social care there, I just see that it is nearly non-existent. We don’t know what costs they’ll have to - additionally - deal with and we don’t know whether Dragoneer wasn’t supporting his mom in some way financially. So again, endless possibilities.
I’d do exact same with the notification with the link if I were someone close to him, because… why not? Shit’s expensive.
Additionally, people - if wanted - would stop paying money to this gofundme. Perhaps they still want to support the case, so when it was noticed - the link was just left there. Because again… why wouldn’t it be left there?
I wouldn’t want to be in situation like this, left with a website to now manage, with fandom’s expectations to manage and possible legal fight to manage.
But you know what is cheap? To imply a hoax. I don’t know. There might be one, there - hopefully - might be none. Time will tell. It’s be very stupid for anyone to use the passing of Neer to rob people off money.
Anyway I didn't bring up the topic!
I'll just add that I don't hate anyone running FA, but I have had some major disagreements with how they run the place. I already contribute my artwork. I don't plan to contribute any money to them.