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Setting the record straight...
12 years ago
I saw a comment on the most recent announcement from the FA staff that kind of bothered me. So I wanted to post a journal on my thoughts about FA and give a little bit about the history of FA.
Before there was FA, there were a lot of smaller furry communities. There wasn't really a single hub for furries to come and feel safe. A lot of people, myself included, were on DA. I didn't feel safe there and I never got a sense of community or felt like anyone gave a crap about the art I was doing. I saw a need. I set out to try and create a place for people to come and share their wares without feeling uncomfortable, hence the birth of FA. At the time, I had no professional training with PHP or servers. I was young and ambitious, but I was doing the best I could in the best way I knew how.
So fast forward a bit to the transition of FA to a new owner... FA had had a lot bumps and growing pains. The community had grown a lot faster than I had ever imagined it would. At that point in time, I was inexperienced. I knew this was an issue. It was around this time that I needed to go to college. I knew that if I went to college, I could learn a lot more about the web and languages being used. And not just knowledge of how the web works, but other personal skills like public speaking. It got to a point where I realized that I could not give FA the attention and knowledge it needed so I had a chat with Dragoneer. Let me be clear, I did not WANT to give up FA. I did not want to abandon the community. That being said I realized that under Dragoneer's care, there was a better chance of the website succeeding and thus I sold FA's code, domain, and hardware to Dragoneer.
I've grown a lot in my industry and I have learned a lot about public relations and personal skills. I know I have to keep growing and learning as a web developer and a person in general. Do I agree with the decisions of the admins of FA, not entirely no. Do I regret handing the reigns over to Dragoneer, no. I would probably have done it again at that point in my life. I knew I needed to focus on fixing things with me before I could help anyone else.
If anyone has any questions, I would be happy to answer them.
- Alkora
Before there was FA, there were a lot of smaller furry communities. There wasn't really a single hub for furries to come and feel safe. A lot of people, myself included, were on DA. I didn't feel safe there and I never got a sense of community or felt like anyone gave a crap about the art I was doing. I saw a need. I set out to try and create a place for people to come and share their wares without feeling uncomfortable, hence the birth of FA. At the time, I had no professional training with PHP or servers. I was young and ambitious, but I was doing the best I could in the best way I knew how.
So fast forward a bit to the transition of FA to a new owner... FA had had a lot bumps and growing pains. The community had grown a lot faster than I had ever imagined it would. At that point in time, I was inexperienced. I knew this was an issue. It was around this time that I needed to go to college. I knew that if I went to college, I could learn a lot more about the web and languages being used. And not just knowledge of how the web works, but other personal skills like public speaking. It got to a point where I realized that I could not give FA the attention and knowledge it needed so I had a chat with Dragoneer. Let me be clear, I did not WANT to give up FA. I did not want to abandon the community. That being said I realized that under Dragoneer's care, there was a better chance of the website succeeding and thus I sold FA's code, domain, and hardware to Dragoneer.
I've grown a lot in my industry and I have learned a lot about public relations and personal skills. I know I have to keep growing and learning as a web developer and a person in general. Do I agree with the decisions of the admins of FA, not entirely no. Do I regret handing the reigns over to Dragoneer, no. I would probably have done it again at that point in my life. I knew I needed to focus on fixing things with me before I could help anyone else.
If anyone has any questions, I would be happy to answer them.
- Alkora
Its bullshit
I'm honestly more worried about how effing slow the site's been the past 4 years than anything..
No matter what people think, the fandom is technically just a huge collection of individual people with a dedicated shared interest.
I'm soon approaching two years in the fandom, and I have to admit that it was not initially easy to get familiar with it. From a newcomers perspective, it was quite a learning-curve. Not only does the fandom has its global norms and conventions, but the many different parts of the fandom have separate and often isolated interperations as well.
When it comes to interperating the fandom as a whole, many people seems to have their own idea about what the fandom is (based on their stand within it). Those ideas can be miles apart, to say the least, and often people think their isolated idea applies for most of the fandom. This leads to a lot of misconception. This fandom is so big and diverse that interperating it in its entirety is more or less impossible. It's simply different for all the different members in it. For some it's just a fascination and a hobby, for others it's a fully fledged lifestyle. A lot of people devote their whole self to the fandom, some treating it almost as a cult.
The more someone are devoted to one thing, the less they can be devoted to other things. It is thus very easy for a person with a low number of very strong devotions to enclose themself in a bubble. This is not only true for the furry fandom, but for any fandom in general.
In the end, it's easy to forget that the fandom is just a bunch of individual people with a dedicated shared interest.
Creating this site was one of the brightest things that a person could do for a small community, that grew so fast that it could not keep with its pride.
The problem I have is a lot of the admin's views about me are slanted due to the older code that is running on this site. I've seen many messages from admins bashing me and my work. I'm really unsure as to whether or not they would accept my help or just slap me in the face.
It would be great if you could get back onto the team with your knew knowledge; but honestly, with the way things are going here, it may be best to not to. I'd fear what they would say to you. But honestly, if they choose you to help instead of the new staffer, I would have been so happy. You really are a great guy and what you did with Blimped! by yourself really shows how much you have grown ^ ^
It's one thing to start what becomes something of massive importance, and quite another to recognize when you need to let it go. I, like most other furries hearing details about the going-ons with the FA issues at the moment, had no idea you founded this site.
I, too, felt threatened in the DA environment. Pictures of people with slit throats and gouged eyes are OK, but heaven forbid you post anthro art, adult or otherwise, no matter how polished or rough.
You had mentioned a bad taste being left in your mouth regarding comments being said by some of the dev team, having torn through your old (and premature) work on the site, and it got me thinking...do you ever talk to any of them? Still talk to Dragoneer, or not at all? Does anyone ever ask you for your opinion at all, on how you feel or think about any of what FA is doing or where it's going? Or did it get cut completely loose from you?
If I'm reading into it correctly, it sounds like the team has literally nothing to do with you now; if it were me, I would find that hard to cope with, no matter how successful or unsuccessful the roads the site wandered down became.
I wear masks for people all day, every day, in my button-down corporate work environment. I'm rarely genuine, because the role I play requires me to shoulder that weight. You could argue that I'm stating it backwards, that my strengths and flaws as a person make me fit to fill that role. No matter. My point is: even with that quality, to have someone question my credibility and honest work, and completely shut me out of my own earned glory...I haven't figured out how to smile past that, how to force myself not to demand that right, even years ex post facto. I suppose I might be too proud. I envy you for that quality you have.
I hope you do venture off into another endeavor of your own. You certainly carry yourself with the right composure to earn respect and be taken seriously:
Honorably.
This question makes me laugh, because it's equivalent to "Wouldn't YOU rather be the one blamed for every bit of drama ever?" XD
I have a question but is not FA related. Will Blimped be back? >:
I wish it didn't dissapear...I really liked the site D: