Yerf era? o.O

I'd imagine they'd have bitched about the lack of porn, then made a few new porn sites since the clean site had rules they didn't like. Rather like what happened.

That's what VCL and Orlando were for :p

The yerf era? I'm not entirely sure what that means, but I'm sure I'd love to hear this.

Just that at one point, the most regulated art site in the fandom was THE place to be for artists. The admins didn't like seeing the Sonic furry fad, so they banned the style. Can you imagine the screaming fit people would throw about that now? XD

Yeah. There would be bitching like you wouldn't believe. I remember the backlash from Y!Gallery banning furries, the FA backlash from the banning of cubs and Sonic characters. If that happened now? Whew....

Yeaaaahhh, I may not have been around for that, but I have heard some /stories/ man. Some of the things they did would have people in an absolute uproar right now. >->

You know you're old school when you can remember the original Avatar furry archive, which wasn't regulated at all. VCL was around before Yerf and anyone could post there. Yerf was called the Squeaky Clean Furry Archive (SCFA) before it was renamed to Yerf. It was Yerf's regulations that made it an attraction for artists because getting an account on Yerf was an achievement. I know a few artists who were elated when they were granted an account on Yerf because, to them, it meant that they had succeeded in becoming decent artists and could separate themselves from the rank crowd of hack scribblers of furverted fantasies. Of course, those artists who considered yourselves decent and were rejected by Yerf's administration, then Yerf was a load of BS and any artist who had an account there was an elitist snob.

And people think FA has drama?

To this day I say I was effin' lucky to get on Yerf.

In 1997 I managed to squeak on in with my dumb doodles at a time that Yerf (SCFA when I got in) were somehow good enough to be among those ranks. As I looked at how Yerf evolved into the elitist cesspool it became, I was made clear that the only reason I was even still on there was because of their grandfathering rule for those already there.

It was hard having to let it go and at times I miss it, but I do admit I much prefer being on art sites where I have more head-on interactions with those actually still watching (Oh I was familiar with the mailing list. I put up with a bunch of BS from there and won't miss it).

That said, there IS one thing I miss about Yerf....and oddly enough it's the Sonic ban, but not for the reasons you might think.

I had a bunch, BUNCH, of Sonic fancharacters I had made during that time. I wanted to share them, but was fearful of them getting removed due to their Sonic-esque artstyles.

My solution to let them pass through? Create a whole new artstyle for them! And I've been tweaking that style ever since.

I can safely say no other site has ever pushed me artistically as much as SCFA/Yerf day, and probably never will. Am I being elitist for being fortunate enough to be there? Maybe, maybe not. But I'm still happy about it just the same and do miss it at times.

I think a lot of artists pushed themselves in new ways in order to get on Yerf. I liked the ban on Sonic stuff because, frankly, I never saw the attraction of long, skinny legs and enormous shoes. I could do without the Pokemon and MLP stuff as well. Boy, am I gonna get flamed!

Not being an artist I was neutral on the supposed elitist thing, but the stuff about Yerf being elitist seemed to be so much BS to me. People who complained were, as I said, mostly artists who were rejected. I was okay with Yerf's standards because it meant I didn't have to dig through a load of rubbish to find art that I enjoyed looking at. As far as I'm concerned, the elitist claims were just sour grapes on the parts of the rejected. I once made the mistake of publicly asking a rather popular person (and Yerf-reject) why, if Yerf was a bunch of self-centered elitist pigs, she would even WANT to have an account there. I got toasted good by her white-knight friends for that one.

I'm glad you and so many other artists drove yourselves to improve because of it.

(and this is why I keep my Pokemon art on a different account, or a separate folder in Weazyl and DA's case)

And yeah, I do admit I know of at least a couple artists who weren't accepted that really should have, especially with how much they've improved since then. I also recall there was this huge cartoon vs. realistic artstyle rivalry on Yerf thanks to admins that mostly favored the more realistic styles. THAT I can safely say I'm thankful isn't as big an issue now as it was back then, at least not a very vocal one.

I don't remember that, but I wasn't heavily into the drama stuff. I just looked at stuff I liked to see. My personal collection has a mixture of both realism and toonish. I'm not sure which I prefer, to be honest. Just as long as it's good.

See, I have a problem with the whole hatred of the elitist asshole thing. Being an asshole is unacceptable, being elite isn't. I don't understand the mentality of "I hate you for being recognized for your hard work!" It just blows my mind.

I do miss having someplace with peer reviewed art because it did give you some standards to aim for or aim to exceed. The internet just allows so much vitriol to happen whenever somebody experiences the slightest disappointment that no site designed with peer review in mind is ever going to survive :(

When I got on Yerf, I was excited, until I realized that by that point they let almost anyone in. XD

With great flailing and outcry!

Ah, good ol Yerf! That brings back memories!

Dominus tecum