FA+
Shop
Ads and Setting
10 years ago
When I was thinking of ways to monetize FA, I didn't think the people who ran the place would choose the laziest, most uncreative, and intrusively annoying way to do it.
Adult ads are disgusting. They take any mature image you may want to create, provide a mood for, craft a specific setting for, make a point with, a theme, an atmosphere - and drag it down into the basest most juvenile level of "get laid tonight - hot grandmothers in your area". It turns an art gallery into something cheap, base, and shitty, beyond the control of the artist and their content. Some might say, if you're drawing porn, what do you care? Because not all porn has to be that kind of "stupid" porn that 99% of porn on the internet is - no characterization, no style, no soul. Let's not force that association on artists. I remember Miu once remarking that he wanted to show through his style that adult characters and stories could be cute and playful. I respected him a lot for having that specific goal, and pulling it off effectively. It's easy to see how adult ads can completely ruin such a presentation in the mind of any third party who views it.
Furthermore, any professional who may have cause to draw a "mature" image, with nudity (flagged mature regardless of how tasteful and skilled it may be), will be reluctant to host their work on FA because of this association.
nb4 "adblock blah blah blah" This is about presentation to anybody, not your own personal experience. I already use adblock.
I don't suppose it's too much to ask that the intrusive shitty ads be left aside, and instead we come up with additional services and features that some people might be willing to pay a yearly membership for? I know that's more work, but if you're serious about blending a community site with a business model, that's the best way to go as I see it. The best solutions are rarely the easiest ones. And seriously, how can you in any way have your finger on the pulse of your "community" and not foresee this reaction?
FA has become second rate - between the ads and the way they compress the quality of gallery images so they look janky on good monitors. I'm so glad I've divested my need for FA recently, but I feel very bad for artists who depend on it.
Adult ads are disgusting. They take any mature image you may want to create, provide a mood for, craft a specific setting for, make a point with, a theme, an atmosphere - and drag it down into the basest most juvenile level of "get laid tonight - hot grandmothers in your area". It turns an art gallery into something cheap, base, and shitty, beyond the control of the artist and their content. Some might say, if you're drawing porn, what do you care? Because not all porn has to be that kind of "stupid" porn that 99% of porn on the internet is - no characterization, no style, no soul. Let's not force that association on artists. I remember Miu once remarking that he wanted to show through his style that adult characters and stories could be cute and playful. I respected him a lot for having that specific goal, and pulling it off effectively. It's easy to see how adult ads can completely ruin such a presentation in the mind of any third party who views it.
Furthermore, any professional who may have cause to draw a "mature" image, with nudity (flagged mature regardless of how tasteful and skilled it may be), will be reluctant to host their work on FA because of this association.
nb4 "adblock blah blah blah" This is about presentation to anybody, not your own personal experience. I already use adblock.
I don't suppose it's too much to ask that the intrusive shitty ads be left aside, and instead we come up with additional services and features that some people might be willing to pay a yearly membership for? I know that's more work, but if you're serious about blending a community site with a business model, that's the best way to go as I see it. The best solutions are rarely the easiest ones. And seriously, how can you in any way have your finger on the pulse of your "community" and not foresee this reaction?
FA has become second rate - between the ads and the way they compress the quality of gallery images so they look janky on good monitors. I'm so glad I've divested my need for FA recently, but I feel very bad for artists who depend on it.
I don't look at porn on this computer, not even fakku.net
(trying to keep this computer like.. perfect since it cost a pretty penny lol plus gaming PC)
so like.. when I turned off adblock for this website to look since I have been hearing so much about the adult advertisements
I was shocked
I thought ads were based off your search internet history
but no.. they choose the laziest form necessary
Plus that says A LOT about the furry community, when a new comer looks into this website for the first time.. and sees pocket pussy ads? Wtf??
>Don't know how to watch porn without getting malware
*facepalm*
"I thought ads were based off your search internet history"
Google ads are based off your search internet history if you haven't blocked google-analytics.com and googletagservices.com with NoScript. Other ads on FA are random.
So I think I have an idea of how at least the internet works
I'm not a fucking moron, thanks
I was questioning to know if FA had used the same tactics but obviously not.
I was stating that, yes, FA does use the "random" ads for their website.
Just saying.
You have a point sure,
but what does this have to do with internet accessibility?
This topic is about ads honey,
Just saying.
My response was to indicate that those two things aren't connected. You attacked the guy to whom you responded and the argument you made didn't check out. Personally I think his comment seems closer to truth, if what you said is true.
But here is a petition going around for this to end
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/.....move-adult-ads
I think if FA took a leaf out of dA's book, the community would be far better off than it is now. Just my personal opinion, though.
I don't know if this will calm down anyone, but I do hope it gives you all relief. Also Dragoneer has to make a public journal explaining this.
I couldn't agree with you more. It is insulting and damning to business both for Mature content artists like you as well as PG artists like myself.
That wasn't poorly thought out or anything.
Do adverts really set a feeling for a website when you are completely used to their prescence? maybe? maybe not?
Im not sure.
Doesn't for me at least.
As for subscriptions.... ehh... The reason advertising works is because its there for a majority of users. Everyone sees adverts. Even people who dont even have an account on the website. Lurkers.
How many people actually use adblock? very little as far as i have determined, under 30%. What percentage of people do you think are REALLY active in this community? Do you think that number is big enough to allow subscriptions to fund this website? Im... not convinced. Also money then becomes an issue.... us furries are already poor enough, artwork is REALLY expensive as a recreational expense...
I buy more artwork than most people i see... and yet, i dont know if i could afford to support FA directly by subscribing in any good amount.
I honestly believe the FA adverts arent intrusive at all. Constrained to a small rectangle in a space where... youre not naturally looking anyway. Im usually looking down the page to look at comments, or look through someones gallery (scrolled down). They don't flash or shake / rumble to grab your attention, they dont have lots of vibrant colours, they're very tame... again... IMO.... Theres been a few sound adverts according to people but those arent intentional for sure.
furaffinity.net#@#.ads
furaffinity.net#@##ad-extra-flat
furaffinity.net#@##ad-4
furaffinity.net#@##ad-2 In case you were wondering the filters to ad
Regardless at least this nonsense is being sorted
Total failure of creativity on their part, and shows how tone-deaf they are to the spirit of this community.
obviously that's just speculation, but there cant be a whole team of idiots up there.
Clearly furry ads don't work - most people who sell furry products do not have enough of an ad budget to keep FA afloat, and even if they did, you'd need to spend more money than you'd recoup aggressively seeking out advertising contracts from a long run of small businesses that go in and out of business very rapidly.
But that doesn't mean that targeted ads aren't an option. If the art uses MLP keywords, run an ad for ToyWiz or Hot Topic's latest merch. If the art uses keywords for digimon, the Digimon card game is back. If the art uses keywords for foxes, run an ad for a vulpine nature preserve. FA's own keyword and search features should make it easy to automate what ads pop up under what things, and to eliminate the need for obtrusive (and ultimately futile - few furries are interested in hy00man porn) ads.
Also I can't help but think that some sort of "premium" membership like what dA offers (customizeable userpage, etc.) would go over well, so long as it was cheap.
TL;DR IMVU bought something without knowing what it was and now they don't know what to do with it.
The porn ads are a sad idea to say the least. As with most things however, those who run FA will completely ignore the fact that virtually everyone on the site is against them, while everyone on the site will eventually accept this slap as well and continue using FA as their primary art gallery.
I also wonder if this is a sales tactic, where they shower users with unpleasant experiences, then provide a golden solution of "subscribe to the site if you want out of this BS". I would much rather have a sub option than deal with gross porn ads, but it feels underhanded if that might be the way they're going to get us to bite.
According to the info at the bottom of the page, there are 18635 users online — 9039 guests and 9596 registered as I write this. How many of those are accessing mature and adult content on this site? The majority I'd wager, but let's conservatively say 10,000. That would be $10,000 a month to pay for the upkeep and upgrading of the site.
I'd be willing to pay $1 a month for a good site, free of non-community ads (I'd be in favor of still keeping ads for artists, cons, and other things relevant to the community). With their history, however, I don't know if enough people would have trust in the management of this site to make good on that commitment.
And since most of the artists I watch mostly put out mature or adult content, I would be missing most, if not all, of their artwork. I would NOT be happy with that.
DA gets by with their premium stuff because it only adds "extra fluff" for the users that pay for it. You dont need the premium stuff DA has to use the site. Its just a little extra thing that its users can use if they want. (it also doesn't hide the mature stuff either)
I DO agree with you though, as long as it still allows the mature and adult artwork to show without it, but maybe adds cool features or something for people to use.
I'm talking about a very nominal subscription fee; only $1 a month/ $12 a year. Even if someone truly cannot afford that, they'd still have access to a user page, SFW gallery, journals, and all of the social-media aspects of the site and community. There would also not be anything stopping individual artists from posting to other free-for-everyone sites such as Weasyl, SoFurry, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. as many of them already do.
The bottom line is, the economic model that was previously in place at FA (pre-IMVU, that is) was not sustainable. The community is extremely resistant to third-party (possibly virus and malware laden) advertisements to pay for the site. The community has shown itself unwilling to transition to other free-for-everyone sites, such as Weasyl or SoFurry, despite those sites offering better features and more responsive management. Something has to give.
And even if $1 seems very small, it builds up after a while. And not all artist go to other sites for what ever reason. Putting mature and adult content behind a paywall, no matter the amount, would kill the site.(you'd be cutting off a LOT of content) Lets remember, not all mature and adult content is sexual in nature. some people even mark their submissions mature just because it has swear words. You'd be cutting the content in half or more for people who cant afford it.
I'm not saying dont add a premium service to this site though. In fact, it could be something that could really help the site in the long run, and there are tons of things you could "unlock" with one. But blocking off a large portion of the content would have a pretty big impact on the site, maybe even killing it off.
And I dont blame people not wanting third party ads. Yes they pay for the site, but there are risks involved with having them. (malware and viruses for one) I just feel it would be better to leave the access to ALL user made content free, but look at other avenues for income.
Please dont take this as trying to start a big argument either. You have some very valid and solid facts that I do agree with, but its just that....cutting off content....it always makes me a little upset. Stuff like that should be left up the artist's discretion(i.e. Patreon, commissions, ect), not the site's.
That's too bad. A pay wall for content would be a good way to weed-out underage users; and I am a bit disturbed by the ease of access that underage users have to adult content on this site.
I guess if all of the other screw-ups that FA has done over the years aren't enough to kill this place off, and drive users to another site, FA will survive third-party porn ads too.
One way I'm sure no one will like would be that artist could pay that fee, the exchange would be space for art work and a platform to make art sells, and maybe a members gallery search. This format would have limited space and or limited image size for the free artist.
List Example - Member Artist
High Quality Image Uploads
No Gallery Limits
Create Different Gallery Types (Sketch, Color, Cute,... etc)
Member Gallery Search
Image Viability Renewal - This is a process that allows you to post in image in the WIP phase under the WIP category, once it is changed from WIP to final its refreshed on the main browse page so it can be viewed as a new post, once it has gone final it can not be changed back, this helps from creating new links for visibility and prevents multiple image of the same type and dead image links in user favorite collections.
List Example - Free Artist
Normal Image Quality Uploads
Limited Image Size
Gallery Limits
Gallery Creation.
Again I don't think anyone would go for this just a side thought.
That's too bad. A pay wall for content would be a good way to weed-out underage users; and I am a bit disturbed by the ease of access that underage users have to content on this site.
What about Inkbunny? It's way better than FA.
https://inkbunny.net/
No image resolution limitation, NO ADS, modern note system + layout, friendly user base + mods, cubs, many great artists. Ohh and btw we even have FA artists over there, who draw cubs there :> Like e.g. wetherby. =P
It is your decision to be here, but if you complain about it, it's your problem.
You have no reason to complain about things, which are better on other websites.
Accept the given rules of your current stay...
I think IB is modern.
FA looks like it's from the 90s, and it is indeed quite old. And the design is just not my taste.
All black and triste here on FA.
IB instead makes you already happy if you see the design.
Also, what's worse than having crap ads appear next to your work? Having your work appear in the fave list of someone whose fetish is raping children. I have child characters I don't want to sexualize, and I don't want them appearing in the galleries of men who think they're "hot". And I don't want to read their fucking comments on my work.
Fuck Inkbunny.
Only a real pedo would feel insecure enough to argue about pedophilia on a site with fantasy porn. By attacking fiction you are deliberately and maliciously trying to move the discussion away from real life child rape!
Seriously, art has nothing to do with real life porn. Why would you think that?
IB >> FA
Your assertions are the projections of a squirming dirty little boy, trying to convince himself the rest of the world is as low as himself.
Someone saying "I don't want people ogling my characters" does not equate to "People shouldn't care about child rape." And it certainly doesn't make people a pedophile.
And you have to follow rules just as equally on any other site. Don't think you're getting off easy just because you like the rules more somewhere else. They just happen to be written towards how you would conduct yourself anyway. Lucky you, but there are a number of people here who don't want their name remotely associated with the kinds of things that goes on over at IB.
I have habit of having ad block on and shut it off only on pages I'm visiting for a long time
I've done it here and... I was shocked
...so many of them...everywhere
...so I put it on again
sorry artists, shuting ad block of is my ay to show support, but...what is much, that is too much
furaffinity.net#@#.ads
furaffinity.net#@##ad-extra-flat
furaffinity.net#@##ad-4
furaffinity.net#@##ad-2
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/.....move-adult-ads
furaffinity.net#@#.ads
furaffinity.net#@##ad-extra-flat
furaffinity.net#@##ad-4
furaffinity.net#@##ad-2
With those added to your filter list, it blocks all third party ads the money grubing admins here added to the site, without blocking the first party user paid ads.
(Chrome and Opera)
furaffinity.net##img[src="//rv.furaffinity.net/www/images/72e60e7ca1d9b68cae0eb7e72f9e2829.jpg"]
furaffinity.net##img[src="//rv.furaffinity.net/www/images/bfc036c7a05655f593cacc5516cf5f5d.jpg"]
furaffinity.net##img[src="//rv.furaffinity.net/www/images/c5b213ec2132a9e9d3c26186aa675ad9.jpg"]
furaffinity.net##img[src="//rv.furaffinity.net/www/images/ead2d411bce19dfb7a26477d1fe321c6.jpg"]
(Firefox)
||rv.furaffinity.net/www/images/bfc036c7a05655f593cacc5516cf5f5d.jpg
||rv.furaffinity.net/www/images/72e60e7ca1d9b68cae0eb7e72f9e2829.jpg
||rv.furaffinity.net/www/images/c5b213ec2132a9e9d3c26186aa675ad9.jpg
||rv.furaffinity.net/www/images/ead2d411bce19dfb7a26477d1fe321c6.jpg
Also does the "ad-extra-flat" one do anything? On my Chrome it just opens up the blank space where the third-party ad would be.
You think this is bad, DA has ads up the ass for free games, and they're fucking invasive lol
but then after 6 years of FA I just tune the ads out anyway.
That being said, I would actually like to see these ads. I don't have any sort of blocker, but I have yet to see anything that wasn't furry-related pop up. o_O
Always remember that the bad guy computer geeks are always about three steps ahead of those trying to keep the internet safe. Be aware that each time a patch or update comes out to fix a problem, it may very well carry its own vulnerability, a common problem for Adobe Flash and Java users.
someone please explane...i might be blind or dumb.