I think some of the issue comes from that he speaks about transparency and then didn't show any until two months later, It is also suggested he was not the only owner of FA and he sold it without consulting the other owner, so there is some good and bad to all of this.

It would have been more ideal had he mentioned this and came up with a more detailed plan of how to handle some of the issues which have now become apparent, like the need to file a DMCA with IMVU for users that have stolen and are selling artwork, which I heard actually ost like 10-50 dollars upfront to even file because it is a legal thing.

They left no instructions of how to even file one or how to addres it other than a Trouble Ticket, and of course we can't really contact IMVU ourselves without an account. There are just a lot of details that are missing to make this more effective.

Also I have had people meet Neer in person and have a different opinion than Strype. While he seems to be trying, how effective has it been?

Before the IMVU sale, Dragoneer has been the only owner of the site since it was bought from Alkora. The guy claiming ownership helped fund the site in the early days, but gave up any ownership and rights many years ago. This is an issue that came up when the first sale happened and was already resolved.

DMCA notices do not cost any money to file, and non-US users can file them. Any site or company based in the US has to comply with them. There are plenty of free fill in the blank forms out there you can find.

If you want my opinion on Dragoneer himself, I believe that he is doing his best to run this site, but until the sale to IMVU, he had to work on other jobs full time to fund his own life in addition to the site. I do know the site barely broke even on monthly costs. As far as promises of transparency goes, I agree they've not been followed up on, but it is a very small group of people who run this site more than full time and writing transparency reports takes time as well. It can easily have simply been pushed to the back burner.

Things have been far from perfect for FA, but at the same time it is a personal site that has balooned out of control. Users have every right to ask questions and require proof of things, but Every time any drama happens with the site, I see witch hunts and unsubstantiated rumor being spread as fact. I see mistakes corrected YEARS ago being brought up as if they're still issues.

Do I 100% trust everything that's said about the site and staff and anyone involved? No, but I do let them do what they need to do. As a customer of the site, a member of the furry fandom, and someone who has stake in the community as a whole you have the power to improve things.... and to do that, you SHOULD go to weasyl or sofurry or inkbunny or wherever you want. You SHOULD also stay at FA. The key to long term survival of any fandom or overall community is to diversify the points of contact. Don't let FA be your only source of income or your only source of community and contact. Sites die and people move on. Being prepared to make that transition as easy as possible is key. A community should never be dictated by a single person or site, so don't let Dragoneer or IMVU or anyone dictate your community by making FA your only home. What matters are the people around you in that community. Make contact with them in multiple locations. You don't have to be everywhere, but choose a few key places. Someday FA will be gone. I'm not going to speculate how or when, but I'm not going to let my community die with it.

I am kind of hopeful things will go well, but I am also skeptical, so far I have not made any plans to move, and I do have stakes in other sites, just not really has popular there because I quite easily get out competed I guess would be a weird way to phrase it.

My only thing with IMVU buying FA is that I have had at least 5+ users complain about their for profit policies and that several artists have had a really bad time dealing with their admins and I have even had people have really bad run ins with the Admins here on FA, most comments were along the lines of, not friendly, arrogant, and just not helpful and didn't even attempt to solve the problem or explain why there is no way to fix the problem.

So, that is why I said I have heard versus I know, but as far as some of the stuff that goes on within the community there are some users and admins who come across as being....morally questionable. Not to say we all don't have our moments, but there are some more than others who give an air of that it is a part of their personality.

I'm not trying to come off as an FA apologist here, but with a site as large as FA, there are going to be some bad run-ins and bad reviews. I have had very little experience with the administration of FA, so I cannot comment on it myself either.

The furry community is also a very large community. You are going to find people from all areas. I'm also not going to say this is the case with everyone, but I've seen a lot of FA staff driven away and had their names dragged through the mud over witchhunts over single comments. Accusations that have never been verified or disproven to this day...

As it stands now, I see a much larger issue in the reactionary nature of the furry fandom... with single people who have a grudge against someone driving others away completely. It's not healthy to the community as a whole, and frankly, having a few people with questionable pasts in positions overseen by others is a lot healthier to the community than having witch hunts and explosions at every rumor.

If we have one of those questionable people abuse their power and not be held accountable *BY THE STAFF* we may lose one furry site, but when we treat every accusation and rumor as immediate truth and pull out the torches and pitch forks, we're degrading the quality of the community as a whole.

That I can agree with, though there are some people who have had such questionable pasts on multiple accounts with multiple sites that fear should be justified in that case, fear is a perfectly normal response, it is how react that is important, and if the admins can do enough to quell those fears.

So yes, it is not perfect, nor do I expect it to be, but I do expect honesty.

I want honesty as well. There are a select group of users though who will not accept honesty unless it matches their bitter resentment. It is a common theme to hear only what is desired to be heard, which is almost certainly resigned to raw negativity.

Yeah, unfortunately, I would have more faith in people if people would just be honest.