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FA, Drama, and YOU! Part 2
12 years ago
So now that a few days have passed, and people have had a chance to digest the information in my previous journal and make a decision based on the information available at the time.
Speaking of which, today Zaush came out and made a journal, addressing the allegations that were flying around about him. You can (and should) read it here: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5434971/
So, we're not going to talk about that particular topic again, though I do still plan on editing the previous to bring some of the other things folks mentioned/showed to me. What I want to address this time around is the topic of Accountability, and how it affects you and the community. Because, ultimately, this is the biggest issue behind everything, and has been for awhile.
Now to fully understand this, we have to understand a few things (and I lightly touched upon this in the previous journal, but I realized I never really got to where I wanted to):
1) Fur Affinity is, to the best of my knowledge, a privately held company. That means that it isn't government-owned or anything like that. (I may be incorrect, as I saw someone say they had stock in FA. If so, that does...alter things slightly, but I"m not 100% on that)
2) Based on that fact, that means that whoever owns the site (That is, Dragoneer) have final say in policies, staff members, site design, etc.
3) the site is not paid ENTIRELY out of Dragoneer's pockets, however. It does accept donations, as well as sell page space for ads, which helps bring in revenue. This does not affect management of the site, however.
4) Despite the power being strictly in Dragoneer's court, you DO have some power! Which, if you haven't noticed, has been exercised quite a bit lately...but more on that later!
So, as we can see, Dragoneer has quite a bit of the power here when it comes to FA. Which is fine, but the problem here is he isn't making a site exclusively for his use. He has helped make a site that is used by a community.
Which is a REALLY BIG DEAL. Why is that such a big deal? Because it means one thing:
Dragoneer is NOT the only one who makes this site; nor are his staff. You see, a site like FA or Deviant Art, or InkBunny lives and dies by one thing: The Community.
It doesn't seem to occur to a lot of people, but in truth, we as a Community make the site what it is. I don't mean the design and layout, but I'm talking about the actual CONTENT. What people really come here for, comes from a variety of people, a variety of sources, and comes in a variety of styles. Artwork, music, editorials, stories...ALL of this is created by the users AND the Staff.
You see, Dragoneer can and does exert his control over what can or cannot be uploaded (MLP fan artwork: A-OK!; Sexual cub artwork: Nope.avi), and he has control over both how the site is ran by his Admins and Mods, as well as choosing those who will or won't work on the coding and design of the site.
He even contributes his own artwork and photos to the site! Which is great, as that contributes to the overall content on here.
But he is not the ONLY ONE. This is not a personal website, it is a Community site, with many, many, many folks contributing to make onewhole work that is ever changing; a living, thriving thing.
Which is what brings me to my point: Accountability.
You see, Dragoneer can make all the rules he wants, assign whoever he wants to the staff, but ultimately he has to answer for all these decisions. This has been a major issue with FA: many users believe that because it's a free site, that Dragoneer has to answer to no man. But that is SIMPLY NOT TRUE.
See, if we wish to stay here, we have to agree and follow the policies and upload guides and all that; but on the other side of that coin, the community is helping create the content of this website, and therefore, when rules, staff, and anything else changes, it's at the community's mercy. Afterall, we'll be the ones using it, right? Providing the artwork and stories and music that others enjoy, thereby actually increasing the actual value of the site. It only makes sense that Dragoneer and the Staff HAVE to be held to a standard by the community, because we are helping them.
There's this perception that the users are leeching off Dragoneer's site, but it's really not like that. You DO Have some users that are here that take and take and never provide any thing of any real value or use here, but they are the minority. Even then, it's nearly impossible to not contribute something, either by buying commissions or what have you. Which means that every decision that Dragoneer makes, that effects the website and thus the community, will be scrutinized...and rightfully so.
This is part of the reason the Zaush situation here blew up. There was absolutely NO reason given for why he was now part of the team, and rumors were spreading like wildfire. In an attempt to lessen the damage, the staff took to the Fender journal (http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5417252/) and were hiding comments that were violating the Code of Conduct. Now, it's possible that not EVERY comment hidden actually violated it, but we will work off the assumption that they were.
But there's a major issue with that, and that it was giving off the impression that our right to speak out over what was being perceived as a foul move was being silenced. Thus, now not only were the rumors about Zaush's possible issues flying about, folks believed that we were censored! This idea spread like wildfire, causing panic and disorientation, as information became increasingly difficult to get (and thus lead to the first journal I wrote, because people needed SOMETHING to help inform them).
While all of this was going on, there has been no word (that I've seen) addressing anything, up until Zaush's journal posted a few hours ago. No word from Dragoneer, Sciggles, or anyone else.
Whereas, if Dragoneer HAD addressed these issues, about why he chose Zaush and what happened with the hidden comments, that would be him showing that yes, he acknowledges he has an accountability to the users of the site.
It's been speculated that he would then open himself up to all sorts of questions and critiques, which may be true. The response would be overwhelming, and rightly so. However, that is NOT a bad thing. Transparency is a good thing when it comes to stuff like this, and funny enough the Fender journal said that they were going to become more transparent, so that the users aren't always so out of the loop. So far, they are off to an awful start with that, because the silence does nothing but enforce the idea that they're just ignoring the problem until the fires die down.
If they do address the issues now, it may actually be too late. It's during those first crucial hours that their action (or lack thereof) is so important. People have reactions, they talk, decisions are made. The Mass Exodus was an example of this, people were making their decisions.
And the truth is, while it is assumed by many that 'they'll be back in 2 days', that simply isn't going to be true for everyone. The fact that again people have been moving off site, trying out new sites, means that those sites are gaining new followers (but new detractors as well), and some will return, but some swill stay there. FA is no longer the only game in town for the Furry Community, and every time something like this happens, it hurts FA. There are now less people contributing to the overall content of FA, to its' value.
It doesn't help when things like this happen, or the black out back in December.
Ah, the Black out of FA for a week or so gave people plenty of time to test out other places, to see how they might like those. For that event, Dragoneer does deserve some credit: He wound up fessing that they were aware of the problem, they just hoped it wouldn't become such a huge problem so fast. But at the same time, they knew about the problem, and putting it that they 'hoped' it wouldn't be a problem makes it sound like they were not even attempting to make a plan on how to deal with it...and that's bad.
The event last summer revolving around Chase showed another example of how lack of transparency hurts FA and his credibility.
For those of you who don't know, Chase was a former admin who was into bestiality (this is not a journal about THAT subject), who would then in turn use his favoring of this to side with anyone else who was into it in disputes, and punish the other party...as you can see, this is a very bad thing, because he's not choosing to be unbiased.
It came out last summer that a new account had been made into an Admin...but it was a sock puppet account, to allow Chase back onto the staff without the users knowing. A former staff member allowed it to leak, and thus the users found out...and were upset over it.
What ended up happening was that Dragoneer basically said "Well, it's too bad you guys don't like him. He's staying." and that was that.
He didn't take any accountability about how Chase abused his power before, and basically told the community "Deal with it."
If you would like to read up on this more, go here:
http://furaffinityleaks.blogspot.com/
It's quite a read, but it'll give you a better idea overall than you are getting here.
But my point is, Dragoneer used his position as Site Owner/Head Admin here to make a decision that went against the grain of what the community wanted, and it upset them. Then he had the black out to deal with, THEN the Zaush uproar, where the impression that the community was being censored. It really is no wonder that the bubble burst the way it did, because no one was taking any responsibility or accountability for these decisions.
So the users voted the one way they could: They decided to move elsewhere.
Understand, that without you guys, this site is NOTHING. If we all moved to Weasyl at once, FA would be little more than a monument to an era of the Furry Community. Dragoneer has a lot of power, but so do you guys. But we have to decide that, together.
...as a final note, there is one thing about Zaush I wish to address. The journal that Zaush wrote addressed the sexual allegations, but did NOT address how he talked or handled the others on the coding team for FA. It's been mentioned on his journal ( http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/...../#cid:38152884 ), but you guys should be just as concerned with it...you should demand an explanation, and we should get one! Because...people have to be held accountable for their actions. If they're not, then we don't have any laws at all.
Speaking of which, today Zaush came out and made a journal, addressing the allegations that were flying around about him. You can (and should) read it here: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5434971/
So, we're not going to talk about that particular topic again, though I do still plan on editing the previous to bring some of the other things folks mentioned/showed to me. What I want to address this time around is the topic of Accountability, and how it affects you and the community. Because, ultimately, this is the biggest issue behind everything, and has been for awhile.
Now to fully understand this, we have to understand a few things (and I lightly touched upon this in the previous journal, but I realized I never really got to where I wanted to):
1) Fur Affinity is, to the best of my knowledge, a privately held company. That means that it isn't government-owned or anything like that. (I may be incorrect, as I saw someone say they had stock in FA. If so, that does...alter things slightly, but I"m not 100% on that)
2) Based on that fact, that means that whoever owns the site (That is, Dragoneer) have final say in policies, staff members, site design, etc.
3) the site is not paid ENTIRELY out of Dragoneer's pockets, however. It does accept donations, as well as sell page space for ads, which helps bring in revenue. This does not affect management of the site, however.
4) Despite the power being strictly in Dragoneer's court, you DO have some power! Which, if you haven't noticed, has been exercised quite a bit lately...but more on that later!
So, as we can see, Dragoneer has quite a bit of the power here when it comes to FA. Which is fine, but the problem here is he isn't making a site exclusively for his use. He has helped make a site that is used by a community.
Which is a REALLY BIG DEAL. Why is that such a big deal? Because it means one thing:
Dragoneer is NOT the only one who makes this site; nor are his staff. You see, a site like FA or Deviant Art, or InkBunny lives and dies by one thing: The Community.
It doesn't seem to occur to a lot of people, but in truth, we as a Community make the site what it is. I don't mean the design and layout, but I'm talking about the actual CONTENT. What people really come here for, comes from a variety of people, a variety of sources, and comes in a variety of styles. Artwork, music, editorials, stories...ALL of this is created by the users AND the Staff.
You see, Dragoneer can and does exert his control over what can or cannot be uploaded (MLP fan artwork: A-OK!; Sexual cub artwork: Nope.avi), and he has control over both how the site is ran by his Admins and Mods, as well as choosing those who will or won't work on the coding and design of the site.
He even contributes his own artwork and photos to the site! Which is great, as that contributes to the overall content on here.
But he is not the ONLY ONE. This is not a personal website, it is a Community site, with many, many, many folks contributing to make onewhole work that is ever changing; a living, thriving thing.
Which is what brings me to my point: Accountability.
You see, Dragoneer can make all the rules he wants, assign whoever he wants to the staff, but ultimately he has to answer for all these decisions. This has been a major issue with FA: many users believe that because it's a free site, that Dragoneer has to answer to no man. But that is SIMPLY NOT TRUE.
See, if we wish to stay here, we have to agree and follow the policies and upload guides and all that; but on the other side of that coin, the community is helping create the content of this website, and therefore, when rules, staff, and anything else changes, it's at the community's mercy. Afterall, we'll be the ones using it, right? Providing the artwork and stories and music that others enjoy, thereby actually increasing the actual value of the site. It only makes sense that Dragoneer and the Staff HAVE to be held to a standard by the community, because we are helping them.
There's this perception that the users are leeching off Dragoneer's site, but it's really not like that. You DO Have some users that are here that take and take and never provide any thing of any real value or use here, but they are the minority. Even then, it's nearly impossible to not contribute something, either by buying commissions or what have you. Which means that every decision that Dragoneer makes, that effects the website and thus the community, will be scrutinized...and rightfully so.
This is part of the reason the Zaush situation here blew up. There was absolutely NO reason given for why he was now part of the team, and rumors were spreading like wildfire. In an attempt to lessen the damage, the staff took to the Fender journal (http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5417252/) and were hiding comments that were violating the Code of Conduct. Now, it's possible that not EVERY comment hidden actually violated it, but we will work off the assumption that they were.
But there's a major issue with that, and that it was giving off the impression that our right to speak out over what was being perceived as a foul move was being silenced. Thus, now not only were the rumors about Zaush's possible issues flying about, folks believed that we were censored! This idea spread like wildfire, causing panic and disorientation, as information became increasingly difficult to get (and thus lead to the first journal I wrote, because people needed SOMETHING to help inform them).
While all of this was going on, there has been no word (that I've seen) addressing anything, up until Zaush's journal posted a few hours ago. No word from Dragoneer, Sciggles, or anyone else.
Whereas, if Dragoneer HAD addressed these issues, about why he chose Zaush and what happened with the hidden comments, that would be him showing that yes, he acknowledges he has an accountability to the users of the site.
It's been speculated that he would then open himself up to all sorts of questions and critiques, which may be true. The response would be overwhelming, and rightly so. However, that is NOT a bad thing. Transparency is a good thing when it comes to stuff like this, and funny enough the Fender journal said that they were going to become more transparent, so that the users aren't always so out of the loop. So far, they are off to an awful start with that, because the silence does nothing but enforce the idea that they're just ignoring the problem until the fires die down.
If they do address the issues now, it may actually be too late. It's during those first crucial hours that their action (or lack thereof) is so important. People have reactions, they talk, decisions are made. The Mass Exodus was an example of this, people were making their decisions.
And the truth is, while it is assumed by many that 'they'll be back in 2 days', that simply isn't going to be true for everyone. The fact that again people have been moving off site, trying out new sites, means that those sites are gaining new followers (but new detractors as well), and some will return, but some swill stay there. FA is no longer the only game in town for the Furry Community, and every time something like this happens, it hurts FA. There are now less people contributing to the overall content of FA, to its' value.
It doesn't help when things like this happen, or the black out back in December.
Ah, the Black out of FA for a week or so gave people plenty of time to test out other places, to see how they might like those. For that event, Dragoneer does deserve some credit: He wound up fessing that they were aware of the problem, they just hoped it wouldn't become such a huge problem so fast. But at the same time, they knew about the problem, and putting it that they 'hoped' it wouldn't be a problem makes it sound like they were not even attempting to make a plan on how to deal with it...and that's bad.
The event last summer revolving around Chase showed another example of how lack of transparency hurts FA and his credibility.
For those of you who don't know, Chase was a former admin who was into bestiality (this is not a journal about THAT subject), who would then in turn use his favoring of this to side with anyone else who was into it in disputes, and punish the other party...as you can see, this is a very bad thing, because he's not choosing to be unbiased.
It came out last summer that a new account had been made into an Admin...but it was a sock puppet account, to allow Chase back onto the staff without the users knowing. A former staff member allowed it to leak, and thus the users found out...and were upset over it.
What ended up happening was that Dragoneer basically said "Well, it's too bad you guys don't like him. He's staying." and that was that.
He didn't take any accountability about how Chase abused his power before, and basically told the community "Deal with it."
If you would like to read up on this more, go here:
http://furaffinityleaks.blogspot.com/
It's quite a read, but it'll give you a better idea overall than you are getting here.
But my point is, Dragoneer used his position as Site Owner/Head Admin here to make a decision that went against the grain of what the community wanted, and it upset them. Then he had the black out to deal with, THEN the Zaush uproar, where the impression that the community was being censored. It really is no wonder that the bubble burst the way it did, because no one was taking any responsibility or accountability for these decisions.
So the users voted the one way they could: They decided to move elsewhere.
Understand, that without you guys, this site is NOTHING. If we all moved to Weasyl at once, FA would be little more than a monument to an era of the Furry Community. Dragoneer has a lot of power, but so do you guys. But we have to decide that, together.
...as a final note, there is one thing about Zaush I wish to address. The journal that Zaush wrote addressed the sexual allegations, but did NOT address how he talked or handled the others on the coding team for FA. It's been mentioned on his journal ( http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/...../#cid:38152884 ), but you guys should be just as concerned with it...you should demand an explanation, and we should get one! Because...people have to be held accountable for their actions. If they're not, then we don't have any laws at all.
If this is in regard to the "other" recoding team on FA... they were never on staff. They were never officially coders, or associated with the site in any way. There tends to be a lot of confusion regarding how he treated them, and that they left staff -- but they were never on staff to begin with. Long story short, they asked to help recode the site and I graciously accepted. I never heard back from them. They never contacted site staff, nor communicated with us in any way. They were working on their own project without any involvement of FA.
Though the way they were..handled or whatever, may not have been the most ideal on the part of Zaush.
I was talking about the chat logs that have been floating about, where Zaush was addressing them...it wasn't exactly in the most ideal of ways that he was talking to them about it, and while the handling of not adding them to the staff was fair, the way those conversations when made people prickly.
1) Fur Affinity is, to the best of my knowledge, a privately held company. That means that it isn't government-owned or anything like that. (I may be incorrect, as I saw someone say they had stock in FA. If so, that does...alter things slightly, but I"m not 100% on that)
2) Based on that fact, that means that whoever owns the site (That is, Dragoneer) have final say in policies, staff members, site design, etc.
How can you call something like that a fact in your second statement when you've already established that you're unsure about the information.
Regardless, it's an LLC.
There's a lot of confusion that goes on with this "Well, it's 'Neer's site, he can do whatever he wants!' and the whole 'It's a free site, stop bitching!'
Whereas, depending on what kind of company it is, how it's held, etc. actually can effect how the site can be run and such.