It would be nice to do it right away, but better wait a little bit, just to be safe.

It's also a lot to do all in one afternoon.

Tbh, the apology just sounded more like classic damage control, as it always is with these websites/companies. Transparency is, for some reason, never a strong suit anymore.

Well one thing at the very least they made clear is that they're pausing all upload moderating with regards to artwork (as long as it's not just nude photos or hate symbols or whatever), so they can be called out on it if they do take them down again right away. Can't say what'll happen in the long term but that's kinda just life.

Indeed. It is kinda life. To me, the apology reminded me of the South Park episode with the oil drills and Cthulu.

"We're sorry...."
"Sooorrryyyy....."

Lmao.

I can't stand South Park.

But it's certainly much more of an attempt at an apology than most other big websites ever give for anything.

I don't watch South Park anymore. Getting older made me realize it isn't funny. I'm mostly concerned if this apology is truthful or not or if it's a typical, classic 'band aid' into just getting people to shut up like other websites/companies do.

Basically the "Justin Trudeau" tactic.

Though what I'm referring to is websites like Google/YouTube, Facebook/Meta, Twitxter, Twitch and deviantART not even attempting to apologize (sincerely or not) and instead throwing a tantrum about "wHy CaN't PoOr PoEpLe JuSt StOp CoMpLaInInG aNd LiKe uS nO mAtTeR hOw ShItTy We ArE?????"

I can't argue with that, especially on the Youtube, Facebook and DeviantArt front. However the issue is still the same there and on FA- trust. The concept and building/loss of trust is serious. And FA doesn't exactly have a good, clean track record of good decision making or enforcement (abusive or otherwise). This causes a loss of trust in the community, whether or not in this instance you're ABDL or otherwise. Trust is hard to earn back when it's taken away, and even increasingly harder to get back the more times that trust is consistently strained in general.

As someone who grew up being bullied by people who claimed to want to be my "friends" from my earliest memories, I've grown to always be a bit cynical towards everyone and everything. I get the sense that I'm not an outlier in that regard among the furry community. It's hard to build trust with people who themselves have difficulty with trust (for totally valid reasons of course.)

Of course. My main argument in the matter is whether or not FA staff/admins deserve the trust simply because they said 'sorry', despite all the harm that was done to individuals already. It doesn't magically undo the damage nor restore accounts/posts that were nuked already and they already don't have a good track record in regards to policy updates/decision making. Their inability to be transparent and clear further damages trust, which is why people have already been leaving because of it. Trust is as important as it is ultimately fragile.

Indeed. But I never assume that things will always be better wherever I go. So I just have a life habit of being skeptical 24/7. If one always expects to be screwed over, there are no surprises.

If you expect nothing then you can't subsequently be disappointed. That mindset is generally the direct cause of broken trust, and it's how I feel in regards to FA staff and the apology. I believe in action, not words. People can say anything that anyone wants to hear, but that's independent to actually doing said thing.

I guess I just lost trust in everything a looong time ago. I'm too jaded and cynical to expect sincerity from anyone, period. I honestly don't even believe in sincerity as a concept. Never did.

I don't think it was ever not safe. Honestly, i feel like the whole thing about the upload policy was blown WAY out of proportion as it is.

And yet... https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/10971342/

I wouldn't risk it yet. They're only pausing the rollout due to backlash meaning there's likely to be a follow up down the line. I'd wait till that before making any decisions.

Yeah.