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Commissions CLOSED, Messages Sent Out!
General | Posted 6 months agoCommission messages have been sent out!
If you sent a request, be sure to check whichever accounts you asked to be contacted at.
Be sure to also check both your email inbox and spam folder, since sometimes the commission emails end up in there.
As always, thank you to everyone who sent a request!
Please keep watch for my next opening if you want to send a request next time!
You can get notifications when I open for commissions by joining my Telegram channel:
https://t.me/AhnikArt
My Social Media Links
Commission Info
If you sent a request, be sure to check whichever accounts you asked to be contacted at.
Be sure to also check both your email inbox and spam folder, since sometimes the commission emails end up in there.
As always, thank you to everyone who sent a request!
Please keep watch for my next opening if you want to send a request next time!
You can get notifications when I open for commissions by joining my Telegram channel:
https://t.me/AhnikArt
My Social Media Links
Commission Info
Commission Form CLOSED, Messages Pending!
General | Posted 6 months agoThe commission form is now closed!
I will be sending out messages to those whose requests got picked throughout today and update with another journal once they're all sent out!
My Social Media Links
Commission Info
I will be sending out messages to those whose requests got picked throughout today and update with another journal once they're all sent out!
My Social Media Links
Commission Info
šØ Commissions are OPEN for June-July! šØ
General | Posted 6 months agošØ Commissions are OPEN for June-July! šØ
Prices & Info:
https://www.ahnik.art/pricing/full-images
https://www.ahnik.art/pricing/stickers-emotes
Comm Form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1.....7mxdA/viewform
The form will be open until Monday June 16, 8 a.m. PST, so thereās no rush to get your ideas in.
Feel free to DM any questions or ask them in a reply!
Thank you to all those who send requests, it helps me out a lot! :3 šāØ
You can get notifications when I open for commissions by joining my Telegram channel:
https://t.me/AhnikArt
My Social Media Links
Prices & Info:
https://www.ahnik.art/pricing/full-images
https://www.ahnik.art/pricing/stickers-emotes
Comm Form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1.....7mxdA/viewform
The form will be open until Monday June 16, 8 a.m. PST, so thereās no rush to get your ideas in.
Feel free to DM any questions or ask them in a reply!
Thank you to all those who send requests, it helps me out a lot! :3 šāØ
You can get notifications when I open for commissions by joining my Telegram channel:
https://t.me/AhnikArt
My Social Media Links
Adjusting Sticker Commission Prices!
General | Posted 6 months agoI'll be opening for commissions tomorrow, and sticker prices are being adjusted down a bit, from $28 each to $23!
The costs for the set of 10 and extra characters have also been adjusted accordingly!
You can check my website for more comm information:
https://www.ahnik.art/pricing/stickers-emotes
My Social Media Links
Commission Info
The costs for the set of 10 and extra characters have also been adjusted accordingly!
You can check my website for more comm information:
https://www.ahnik.art/pricing/stickers-emotes
My Social Media Links
Commission Info
Life/School Update! More Commissions and Posts Incoming!
General | Posted 7 months agoHey hey, all!
Okay so, one more term of school has been defeated and Iāve just got the fall term later this year to go! But for now, Iām on summer break, which means for the next few months Iāll be able to take more commissions than I have been so far this year and work through them more quickly.
Iāll also be posting more regularly again, hopefullyyyyy Tue-Fri each week whenever possible since Iāve still got a big backlog of stuff to post. Not everything gets posted everywhere though, so hereās a quick breakdown of what to expect depending on where you follow me. Links to all my sites are on my Linktree ( https://linktr.ee/ahniksaur# ).:
- WIPs of stuff Iām working on: Will be posted to Telegram, Bluesky, and Twitter only.
- New art by me: Will be posted everywhere.
- New art NOT by me (commissioned, gifted, etc.): Will be posted everywhere except Telegram.
- Old art (both by me and not by me) thatās already on FA: Will be posted to Bluesky, Itaku, and Twitter.
- Commission openings: Will be posted everywhere, but if youāre ONLY interested in these, Iāve got a Telegram channel JUST for commission openings ( https://t.me/AhnikArt ).
Speaking of commission openings, the next one will likely be late May to early June, so keep an eye out!
I think thatās all for now. x3 Thanks, all!
Cheers,
Ahnik
My Social Media Links
Commission Info
Okay so, one more term of school has been defeated and Iāve just got the fall term later this year to go! But for now, Iām on summer break, which means for the next few months Iāll be able to take more commissions than I have been so far this year and work through them more quickly.
Iāll also be posting more regularly again, hopefullyyyyy Tue-Fri each week whenever possible since Iāve still got a big backlog of stuff to post. Not everything gets posted everywhere though, so hereās a quick breakdown of what to expect depending on where you follow me. Links to all my sites are on my Linktree ( https://linktr.ee/ahniksaur# ).:
- WIPs of stuff Iām working on: Will be posted to Telegram, Bluesky, and Twitter only.
- New art by me: Will be posted everywhere.
- New art NOT by me (commissioned, gifted, etc.): Will be posted everywhere except Telegram.
- Old art (both by me and not by me) thatās already on FA: Will be posted to Bluesky, Itaku, and Twitter.
- Commission openings: Will be posted everywhere, but if youāre ONLY interested in these, Iāve got a Telegram channel JUST for commission openings ( https://t.me/AhnikArt ).
Speaking of commission openings, the next one will likely be late May to early June, so keep an eye out!
I think thatās all for now. x3 Thanks, all!
Cheers,
Ahnik
My Social Media Links
Commission Info
School, Commissions, and WIPs Update
General | Posted 9 months agoHey hey, all! I just noticed that itās been over a month since I posted anything here on FA. x3 So I thought Iād do a quick update journal.
Iāve been really busy with Payroll and QuickBooks courses the past month, as well as working on commissions, but Iāve got my last final exam for now coming up on Thursday. Iāll have Spring Break off from school before being back to classes at the start of April with a lighter workload than the past month has been, so Iāll be returning to posting stuff on my regular schedule soon and working on my current batch of commissions at full steam ahead!
Thereāll also be a commission opening coming in about a week and a half, so keep an eye out for that if youāre interested in getting in for the April-May batch. :3
While Iāve been busy with school, Iāve only been posting WIPs, since WIP posts take a lot less time to prepare than posts for finished pics. And since I only post finished pics to FA, thatās why things have been quiet here from me. x3 Iāll be dropping a batch of finished pics on here (and on all my sites) starting next week, but if you want to see WIPs in the meantime, or want to keep up with WIPs during busy periods when Iām not posting finished pics, here are the sites that I *do* post WIPs to and have been posting to for the past month:
Bluesky:
https://bsky.app/profile/ahnik.bsky.social
Telegram Channel:
https://t.me/AhnikWIPs
Twitter:
https://x.com/AhnikSaurToo
Thatās all for now, cheers, all! Look forward to more art soon. :3
School
Iāve been really busy with Payroll and QuickBooks courses the past month, as well as working on commissions, but Iāve got my last final exam for now coming up on Thursday. Iāll have Spring Break off from school before being back to classes at the start of April with a lighter workload than the past month has been, so Iāll be returning to posting stuff on my regular schedule soon and working on my current batch of commissions at full steam ahead!
Commissions
Thereāll also be a commission opening coming in about a week and a half, so keep an eye out for that if youāre interested in getting in for the April-May batch. :3
WIPs
While Iāve been busy with school, Iāve only been posting WIPs, since WIP posts take a lot less time to prepare than posts for finished pics. And since I only post finished pics to FA, thatās why things have been quiet here from me. x3 Iāll be dropping a batch of finished pics on here (and on all my sites) starting next week, but if you want to see WIPs in the meantime, or want to keep up with WIPs during busy periods when Iām not posting finished pics, here are the sites that I *do* post WIPs to and have been posting to for the past month:
Bluesky:
https://bsky.app/profile/ahnik.bsky.social
Telegram Channel:
https://t.me/AhnikWIPs
Twitter:
https://x.com/AhnikSaurToo
Thatās all for now, cheers, all! Look forward to more art soon. :3
Fitness Goal āØ Achieved āØ
General | Posted a year agoWho reached their fitness goal and is officially not overweight anymore for the first time in their adult life?
āØš This guy šāØ
My Social Media Links
Commission Info
āØš This guy šāØ
My Social Media Links
Commission Info
New Gallery Folders
General | Posted a year agoIāve added some new folders to my gallery to group some posts by themes/kinks! Hope theyāre useful. x3
My Social Media Links
Commission Info
My Social Media Links
Commission Info
š¾ We're Baaaaack~! š¾
General | Posted a year agoLong live FurAffinity! š¾šāØ
Sticker Set Links!
General | Posted a year agoI realized I forgot to include the links to the sticker sets in the last three Telegram sticker set commissions I posted. x3 I've added them to the descriptions for each of them.
BlazinDevilify's and Chlorozone's sets are here:
https://t.me/addstickers/AhnikStickerComms7
Wulflock's set is here. I've also moved their previous sticker set here to keep all their stickers together.:
https://t.me/addstickers/AhnikStickerComms8
BlazinDevilify's and Chlorozone's sets are here:
https://t.me/addstickers/AhnikStickerComms7
Wulflock's set is here. I've also moved their previous sticker set here to keep all their stickers together.:
https://t.me/addstickers/AhnikStickerComms8
Dragoneer
General | Posted a year agoI didnāt know him closely, but he was always very friendly and radiated positive energy the few times we interacted. I recall when he commissioned me, he praised my professionalism at a time when I was struggling with a lot of self-doubt. He had no way to know how much I needed some kind words at that time, but they really gave me a boost. I wish Iād told him then how much that helped me, because now I wonāt have the chance to.
He built something wonderful here on FurAffinity, and I hope what he built will last longer than any of us.
He built something wonderful here on FurAffinity, and I hope what he built will last longer than any of us.
Commission Tier Update: The Return of Soft-Shaded Pics!
General | Posted a year agoHey hey, all!
Iām once again making soft-shaded pics available as a commission tier.
These are pics with a higher level of polish to the shading, making shadows soft-edged and blended, as opposed to the hard-edged shadows in a cel-shaded pic.
This tier will be fairly pricy because this kind of pic takes me a long time, and I donāt expect itāll be for everyone. My other commission tiers will stay the same though! This is just an extra option for people that want super-nice shading and are willing to pay extra for it. :3
My website has been updated to include the soft-shaded tier and now includes some notes about the differences between the tiers:
https://www.ahnik.art/pricing/full-images
Some of the more nicely rendered images previously listed as examples of cel-shaded pics are now considered examples of soft-shaded pics, and Iāve removed images that were sort of in-between the two categories to avoid any confusion.
Thatās all for the main announcement, the rest of this journal is just TL;DR info about why Iām bringing this tier back.
Since I stopped doing soft-shades a long while back, Iāve felt the way I shade some pics start to sort of drift back towards what I would consider soft-shading. Sometimes this happens if I really like a certain OC or piece Iām working on and want to give it full polish. Sometimes I do it as a treat for commissioners that have commissioned me a lot.
However, this has caused some confusion around what the baseline expectations are for a cel-shaded pic that doesnāt have this extra polish. Itās also caused scheduling problems for me, as Iāll schedule time for a certain number of cel-shades in a month, but then end up taking much longer on them since I polish them up to the level of soft-shades.
Iām hoping that by bringing back the soft-shade tier, this will clarify expectations for people commissioning cel-shaded pics. I also hope to take some worry off of my shoulders so that I donāt feel I have to start polishing ALL cel-shade commissions to the level of soft-shades now, which would not be sustainable for me in terms of time invested to income earned.
Thatās all for now, thanks all for reading!
Cheers,
Ahnik
Commissions are OPEN
My Social Media Links
Iām once again making soft-shaded pics available as a commission tier.
These are pics with a higher level of polish to the shading, making shadows soft-edged and blended, as opposed to the hard-edged shadows in a cel-shaded pic.
This tier will be fairly pricy because this kind of pic takes me a long time, and I donāt expect itāll be for everyone. My other commission tiers will stay the same though! This is just an extra option for people that want super-nice shading and are willing to pay extra for it. :3
My website has been updated to include the soft-shaded tier and now includes some notes about the differences between the tiers:
https://www.ahnik.art/pricing/full-images
Some of the more nicely rendered images previously listed as examples of cel-shaded pics are now considered examples of soft-shaded pics, and Iāve removed images that were sort of in-between the two categories to avoid any confusion.
Thatās all for the main announcement, the rest of this journal is just TL;DR info about why Iām bringing this tier back.
Since I stopped doing soft-shades a long while back, Iāve felt the way I shade some pics start to sort of drift back towards what I would consider soft-shading. Sometimes this happens if I really like a certain OC or piece Iām working on and want to give it full polish. Sometimes I do it as a treat for commissioners that have commissioned me a lot.
However, this has caused some confusion around what the baseline expectations are for a cel-shaded pic that doesnāt have this extra polish. Itās also caused scheduling problems for me, as Iāll schedule time for a certain number of cel-shades in a month, but then end up taking much longer on them since I polish them up to the level of soft-shades.
Iām hoping that by bringing back the soft-shade tier, this will clarify expectations for people commissioning cel-shaded pics. I also hope to take some worry off of my shoulders so that I donāt feel I have to start polishing ALL cel-shade commissions to the level of soft-shades now, which would not be sustainable for me in terms of time invested to income earned.
Thatās all for now, thanks all for reading!
Cheers,
Ahnik
Commissions are OPEN
My Social Media Links
Life Update! School, Spanish, and Social Media
General | Posted 2 years agoHey hey, all! This year has been a busy one for me so far, so Iāve been posting less frequently and itās been a while since I share anything about whatās going on with me personally. So lemme do some of that now. uwu
The biggest news for me personally is that Iām going to be studying accounting part-time beginning in April! This is a totally new direction for me but I think itās going to be a very good fit for me and Iām really looking forward to it! :3
Iāll continue to do commissions during my education, since the income from it will be how I pay my way through the program. In fact, the most recent batch of commissions I took went towards paying my first tuition fees, so thank you very much to everyone that got a commission for this month. :3 š
((Also on that note, thereās another commission opening coming next week, so if youāre looking to get a commission keep an eye out for that. š))
Another thing Iāve started tackling is learning Spanish! I grew up speaking Spanish at home with my parents, but English everywhere else, so Iāve never learned Spanish properly. Iām planning on moving to Mexico some years down the line, so I want to be prepared for when I do. Iām a little worried about culture shock when I move there, but Iām also excited about all the opportunities and new experiences Iāll be able to have there. :3
Back to the more immediate present, now that my schedule is returning to normal, Iām going to be making an effort to post more frequently and consistently, as I was doing before. Iāll also start posting art Iāve commissioned again, which I hadnāt been posting for a long while due to being busy and wanting to prioritize posting commission work Iāve done. x3
It might take a while before new stuff Iāve commissioned starts showing up here on FA, since I still need to get all my older commissions posted on my other social media, but Iāll get caught up eventually! In the meantime, new art I make will still be posted here to FA at the same time as everywhere else.
Speaking of other social media, this is a good chance to plug all my other spaces again, since a lot of people have moved around to new social media spaces over the past year:
FurAffinity:
https://www.furaffinity.net/user/ahnik
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/AhnikSaurToo
Mastodon:
https://meow.social/@ahnik
Bluesky:
https://bsky.app/profile/ahnik.bsky.social
Telegram Art Channel:
https://t.me/AhnikWIPs
Telegram Commission Notifs Channel:
https://t.me/AhnikArt
Thatās about it for now! Thanks as always to everyone whoās always sending good vibes my way, and I hope to continue drawing stuff you guys enjoy!
Cheers,
Ahnik
School
The biggest news for me personally is that Iām going to be studying accounting part-time beginning in April! This is a totally new direction for me but I think itās going to be a very good fit for me and Iām really looking forward to it! :3
Iāll continue to do commissions during my education, since the income from it will be how I pay my way through the program. In fact, the most recent batch of commissions I took went towards paying my first tuition fees, so thank you very much to everyone that got a commission for this month. :3 š
((Also on that note, thereās another commission opening coming next week, so if youāre looking to get a commission keep an eye out for that. š))
Spanish
Another thing Iāve started tackling is learning Spanish! I grew up speaking Spanish at home with my parents, but English everywhere else, so Iāve never learned Spanish properly. Iām planning on moving to Mexico some years down the line, so I want to be prepared for when I do. Iām a little worried about culture shock when I move there, but Iām also excited about all the opportunities and new experiences Iāll be able to have there. :3
Social Media
Back to the more immediate present, now that my schedule is returning to normal, Iām going to be making an effort to post more frequently and consistently, as I was doing before. Iāll also start posting art Iāve commissioned again, which I hadnāt been posting for a long while due to being busy and wanting to prioritize posting commission work Iāve done. x3
It might take a while before new stuff Iāve commissioned starts showing up here on FA, since I still need to get all my older commissions posted on my other social media, but Iāll get caught up eventually! In the meantime, new art I make will still be posted here to FA at the same time as everywhere else.
Speaking of other social media, this is a good chance to plug all my other spaces again, since a lot of people have moved around to new social media spaces over the past year:
FurAffinity:
https://www.furaffinity.net/user/ahnik
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/AhnikSaurToo
Mastodon:
https://meow.social/@ahnik
Bluesky:
https://bsky.app/profile/ahnik.bsky.social
Telegram Art Channel:
https://t.me/AhnikWIPs
Telegram Commission Notifs Channel:
https://t.me/AhnikArt
Thatās about it for now! Thanks as always to everyone whoās always sending good vibes my way, and I hope to continue drawing stuff you guys enjoy!
Cheers,
Ahnik
I'm Alive! Plus a Heads-Up for Upcoming Commission Openin...
General | Posted 2 years agoHeyo! I'm alive!
Things have been quiet here for a while since I've been staying off social media for a bit to work hard on commissions and prepare for some life changes next year. x3
Btw, taking time off of social media is great and we should all do it once in a while.
But now I'm back and I'll be posting the stuff I've been working on, so look forward to that!
Also a heads-up that there'll be a commission opening in the first or second week of December to fill the queue for January 2024!
I'll be doing one-month queues rather than two-month queues for the foreseeable future to keep things a bit more flexible, so openings will be smaller but more frequent!
Things have been quiet here for a while since I've been staying off social media for a bit to work hard on commissions and prepare for some life changes next year. x3
Btw, taking time off of social media is great and we should all do it once in a while.
But now I'm back and I'll be posting the stuff I've been working on, so look forward to that!
Also a heads-up that there'll be a commission opening in the first or second week of December to fill the queue for January 2024!
I'll be doing one-month queues rather than two-month queues for the foreseeable future to keep things a bit more flexible, so openings will be smaller but more frequent!
I Have Bluesky and Linktree Now!
General | Posted 2 years agoHey hey, all! So thanks to a kind anonymous user on Twitter who gave me an invite code, Iāve now got a Bluesky account! For those who have Bluesky accounts already, you can follow me there:
https://bsky.app/profile/ahnik.bsky.social
And man, this couldnāt have come at a better time. Twitter is rapidly getting worse, with the most recent awful decision Iām aware of being silently setting all accounts to only allow DMs from Verified users. Fuck Elon Musk.
Since my list of āplaces where I'm activeā has changed and grown rapidly over the past few months, Iāve also finally made a Linktree that will be home to all of my social media links (which now include Telegram, Mastodon, Itaku, Bluesky, etc.) here:
https://linktr.ee/ahniksaur#
Iāll update all my social media profiles soon to just point there for convenience. Now when something changes, Iāll only need to update one site rather than a dozen. :P
To save time, Iāll preemptively answer what have so far been the most common replies Iāve gotten when I tell people Iāve made a Bluesky account:
Bluesky is a new decentralized social media platform. Structurally, itās almost identical to Mastodon, but attempts to be a little more user-friendly and polished in its presentation. Visually, itās almost identical to Twitter.
Bluesky is currently in development and in an invite-only closed beta. Many features have not yet been implemented but whatās there so far seems to work perfectly fine based on what Iāve seen so far.
Time will tell whether Bluesky will be good or not, but Iām trying to be optimistic!
I donāt have any invites to give out right now! Iām not sure whether theyāre given out at set intervals to all users or based on how long youāve had an account or what, but none are available to me at the moment.
If weāre friends or mutuals (on any site/account) and you want a Bluesky invite, let me know and Iāll make a list! When I have invites to give out Iāll randomly roll names from the list to give out however many invites Iāve got.
This has already been addressed and debunked. You have access to the internet. You can fact-check ghost stories before you repeat them. You have no excuse for spreading misinformation like this.
https://twitter.com/joabaldwin/status/1675914065686953985?t=39Mx__sLE7ESyPKfspMQyQ&s=19
Bluesky uses Hive AI models to generate labels for images. The images arenāt used for training the AI.
I donāt give a crap, and Iām tired of the puritanical āI wonāt use a platform unless itās perfectā arguments I keep hearing recently. If you had a Twitter account in the pre-Musk era and didnāt move away from Twitter until Musk owned it, you sound ridiculous saying stuff like this.
Iām not pro-Dorsey, but thereās a reason people werenāt leaving Twitter en masse until after Musk took over. Up until then, Twitter was a viable space for content creators. To be a potential replacement to it, new platforms only need to be viable, not perfect.
Sorry for getting a little spiced there, ha ha. I'm just tired of people who aren't content creators as their primary source of income trying to tell those who are that they're morally corrupt if they rely on a site that's anything short of perfect. Not being able to post FFXIV screencaps until the perfect site shows up and not being able to make an income are very different stakes to have in the game.
Anyway, that's all for now. Cheers, all!
https://bsky.app/profile/ahnik.bsky.social
And man, this couldnāt have come at a better time. Twitter is rapidly getting worse, with the most recent awful decision Iām aware of being silently setting all accounts to only allow DMs from Verified users. Fuck Elon Musk.
Since my list of āplaces where I'm activeā has changed and grown rapidly over the past few months, Iāve also finally made a Linktree that will be home to all of my social media links (which now include Telegram, Mastodon, Itaku, Bluesky, etc.) here:
https://linktr.ee/ahniksaur#
Iāll update all my social media profiles soon to just point there for convenience. Now when something changes, Iāll only need to update one site rather than a dozen. :P
To save time, Iāll preemptively answer what have so far been the most common replies Iāve gotten when I tell people Iāve made a Bluesky account:
āWhat the heck is Bluesky?ā
Bluesky is a new decentralized social media platform. Structurally, itās almost identical to Mastodon, but attempts to be a little more user-friendly and polished in its presentation. Visually, itās almost identical to Twitter.
Bluesky is currently in development and in an invite-only closed beta. Many features have not yet been implemented but whatās there so far seems to work perfectly fine based on what Iāve seen so far.
Time will tell whether Bluesky will be good or not, but Iām trying to be optimistic!
āCan you give me an invite?ā
I donāt have any invites to give out right now! Iām not sure whether theyāre given out at set intervals to all users or based on how long youāve had an account or what, but none are available to me at the moment.
If weāre friends or mutuals (on any site/account) and you want a Bluesky invite, let me know and Iāll make a list! When I have invites to give out Iāll randomly roll names from the list to give out however many invites Iāve got.
āI heard Bluesky uses any images you post on it for training its AI!ā
This has already been addressed and debunked. You have access to the internet. You can fact-check ghost stories before you repeat them. You have no excuse for spreading misinformation like this.
https://twitter.com/joabaldwin/status/1675914065686953985?t=39Mx__sLE7ESyPKfspMQyQ&s=19
Bluesky uses Hive AI models to generate labels for images. The images arenāt used for training the AI.
āBut Bluesky was co-founded by Jack Dorsey, the bad, bad man who founded Twitter!ā
I donāt give a crap, and Iām tired of the puritanical āI wonāt use a platform unless itās perfectā arguments I keep hearing recently. If you had a Twitter account in the pre-Musk era and didnāt move away from Twitter until Musk owned it, you sound ridiculous saying stuff like this.
Iām not pro-Dorsey, but thereās a reason people werenāt leaving Twitter en masse until after Musk took over. Up until then, Twitter was a viable space for content creators. To be a potential replacement to it, new platforms only need to be viable, not perfect.
Sorry for getting a little spiced there, ha ha. I'm just tired of people who aren't content creators as their primary source of income trying to tell those who are that they're morally corrupt if they rely on a site that's anything short of perfect. Not being able to post FFXIV screencaps until the perfect site shows up and not being able to make an income are very different stakes to have in the game.
Anyway, that's all for now. Cheers, all!
So I Picked a Great Time to Make That New Twitter, Huh?
General | Posted 2 years agoTurns out if I'd just waited a few days Twitter would have saved me all the trouble by self-destructing. :^)
I Have a NEW Twitter!
General | Posted 2 years agoIāve made a new Twitter account at https://twitter.com/AhnikSaurToo
If you guys want to keep up with my content on Twitter, thatās where Iāll be posting from now on and follows are greatly appreciated to get the new account up and running. :3
Iām gonna try to EVENTUALLY re-follow most of the people Iām following on my original account but thatās gonna take a while since thereās almost 700 of them! >W> š¦ Iāll follow a few people to start, mainly whoeverās @ I can remember off the top of my head, but the rest Iāll pick up gradually as I run into their content organically.
After writing the recent journal about there potentially being some restrictions on my Twitter account ( https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/10585789 ), and after a couple more incidents of friends confirming with screencaps that they were not receiving notifications for tweets where Iād tagged them, I decided there wasnāt any point wasting any more time.
Iām hoping I can avoid these weird restrictions on the new Twitter account, but it might be difficult considering Iām not even sure why the old one was restricted in the first place (though Iāll share some personal theories below).
No. Itās probably handy to keep that one around so I donāt plan to delete it.
I will also continue to check it as regularly as I always have at least until I finish all of the commissions currently in my queue, since for some commissioners that may be the easiest way to get in contact with me.
If Twitterās gonna be invisibly restricting accounts like this, itās barely worth it to maintain one account, let alone two. So going forward, ALL of my content will be on AhnikSaurToo, from the vanilla to the extra-kinky.
If this kinda thing happens again Iāll probably (probably!) just stop posting to Twitter and only keep it on hand for following artists I like that only post there.
ā¦Okay, probably no one was actually asking that. uwu
But Iāll answer it anyway!
Short answer, I donāt know why.
It may have been something to do with the Indonesia ban a lot of other artists have been affected by, although I never got an email notification about it. It may have been part of Twitterās overall crackdown on NSFW content in general.
A new thought occurred to me while I was setting up the new Twitter account though. Itās been a long while since I set up a brand new Twitter account and the process has changed slightly. I noticed that while setting up a new account, the user is encouraged to interact with their timeline in order to prove that theyāre not a bot.
The user is informed that their account will not have full visibility until they have engaged with their timeline enough for Twitter to be confident that theyāre not a bot.
Screencap of this here:
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/896463552402047016/1124080245809623153/photo_2023-06-29_10-22-03.jpg?width=510&height=671
On my original account, I had for a longgggg time not really been interacting with the timeline at all. I just used Twitter for posting my art, replying to comments, and replying when people tagged me. I hadnāt actually been on the main ātimelineā page of Twitter in a long while.
I wonder if Twitter may have concluded that my account was likely to be a bot account because of this behavior and limited its visibility, similarly to how new accounts have limited visibility until itās determined that theyāre not bots.
Thatās just my wild theory and Iāll likely never know the reason why. But Iāll be making sure to engage at least a LITTLE with my timeline daily on the new account to make sure that doesnāt become an issue, ha ha.
Thatās all for now, thanks all as always for your continued support! Thereās a lot of new art coming soon that Iām looking forward to posting. :3
Cheers, all!
If you guys want to keep up with my content on Twitter, thatās where Iāll be posting from now on and follows are greatly appreciated to get the new account up and running. :3
Iām gonna try to EVENTUALLY re-follow most of the people Iām following on my original account but thatās gonna take a while since thereās almost 700 of them! >W> š¦ Iāll follow a few people to start, mainly whoeverās @ I can remember off the top of my head, but the rest Iāll pick up gradually as I run into their content organically.
Why the New Account?
After writing the recent journal about there potentially being some restrictions on my Twitter account ( https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/10585789 ), and after a couple more incidents of friends confirming with screencaps that they were not receiving notifications for tweets where Iād tagged them, I decided there wasnāt any point wasting any more time.
Iām hoping I can avoid these weird restrictions on the new Twitter account, but it might be difficult considering Iām not even sure why the old one was restricted in the first place (though Iāll share some personal theories below).
Are You Deleting Your Old Twitter?
No. Itās probably handy to keep that one around so I donāt plan to delete it.
I will also continue to check it as regularly as I always have at least until I finish all of the commissions currently in my queue, since for some commissioners that may be the easiest way to get in contact with me.
What About the Extra Kinky Alt Twitter?
If Twitterās gonna be invisibly restricting accounts like this, itās barely worth it to maintain one account, let alone two. So going forward, ALL of my content will be on AhnikSaurToo, from the vanilla to the extra-kinky.
What if You Get Restricted Again?
If this kinda thing happens again Iāll probably (probably!) just stop posting to Twitter and only keep it on hand for following artists I like that only post there.
Ahnik, Tell Us Your Crazy Theories About Why You Think Your Account Got Restricted!
ā¦Okay, probably no one was actually asking that. uwu
But Iāll answer it anyway!
Short answer, I donāt know why.
It may have been something to do with the Indonesia ban a lot of other artists have been affected by, although I never got an email notification about it. It may have been part of Twitterās overall crackdown on NSFW content in general.
A new thought occurred to me while I was setting up the new Twitter account though. Itās been a long while since I set up a brand new Twitter account and the process has changed slightly. I noticed that while setting up a new account, the user is encouraged to interact with their timeline in order to prove that theyāre not a bot.
The user is informed that their account will not have full visibility until they have engaged with their timeline enough for Twitter to be confident that theyāre not a bot.
Screencap of this here:
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/896463552402047016/1124080245809623153/photo_2023-06-29_10-22-03.jpg?width=510&height=671
On my original account, I had for a longgggg time not really been interacting with the timeline at all. I just used Twitter for posting my art, replying to comments, and replying when people tagged me. I hadnāt actually been on the main ātimelineā page of Twitter in a long while.
I wonder if Twitter may have concluded that my account was likely to be a bot account because of this behavior and limited its visibility, similarly to how new accounts have limited visibility until itās determined that theyāre not bots.
Thatās just my wild theory and Iāll likely never know the reason why. But Iāll be making sure to engage at least a LITTLE with my timeline daily on the new account to make sure that doesnāt become an issue, ha ha.
Thatās all for now, thanks all as always for your continued support! Thereās a lot of new art coming soon that Iām looking forward to posting. :3
Cheers, all!
My Twitter *Might* Be Restricted?
General | Posted 2 years agoHeyo! So, in the latest bit of āTwitter sucksā news, it seems like my main Twitter, AhnikSaur, *might* be being restricted to make my content less visible.
I say āmightā because I never received any notice from Twitter that this was happening. But Twitter has been shadowbanning and otherwise throttling access to individual accounts behind the scenes for a long time, so that doesnāt necessarily mean itās not happening.
Recently some accounts such as Kajyās have been affected in similar ways (see their journal about it here: https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/10585108/ ). However, what Iāve generally heard from those affected is that they were advised of the action via email and I havenāt received any such email, so whatās happening to my account may be something different.
The reasons I think my account might be restricted in some way are:
- Friends have mentioned to me that they never see any of my content in their timelines.
- A friend has mentioned to me that they are not getting notifications for tweet replies from me on their tweets.
- A friend has mentioned to me that they arenāt getting notifications for my tweets even though they have post notifications turned on for my Twitter.
- When checking my account on the shadowban checker https://shadowban.yuzurisa.com/ it isnāt able to test my account for shadowbanning because it isnāt even able to confirm my account exists. My other Twitter accounts and even those of people affected by the restrictions Kajy is facing are at least discoverable by the shadowban checker, but my main doesnāt get any results at all, which is what you'd expect if my account were a private account.
EDIT: I had been checking repeatedly all day and getting no results for my account, but when I checked again just *after* posting this NOW I'm getting some results (which indicate there's a search suggestion ban on my account but at least it was able to find the account.)
So it seems that in some way or another my account is being restricted/hidden/muted/etc. by Twitter and that sucks!
Iām currently debating what to do about this but I wanted to get a quick journal out about it to let people know and see what others have to say and how many others are experiencing this.
And of course, gotta finish off by plugging other places to find me as I have done increasingly often throughout the past year. :P
Itaku
Currently active and posting to it at the same time as FA.
https://itaku.ee/profile/ahnik
Mastodon
Not currently active but will be soon!
https://meow.social/@ahnik
Telegram Channel
Currently active. Gets everything FA gets and also WIPs. Sometimes if an image has a lot of alts this is the only place where I post all of them.
https://t.me/AhnikWIPs
Discord
Not currently using this for posting art.
Mannnnnn, I REALLY donāt wanna resort to a Discord server but if I run out of other options I guess itād be on the table. x3
Bluesky?
I WANT to try this but itās an invite-only beta right now.
Literally just learned this is a thing today and I need to learn more about it, but if itās going to be what it purports to be, it could be great! If anyoneās got a spare invite code and is willing to toss it my way, I would be incredibly grateful. šš
I say āmightā because I never received any notice from Twitter that this was happening. But Twitter has been shadowbanning and otherwise throttling access to individual accounts behind the scenes for a long time, so that doesnāt necessarily mean itās not happening.
Recently some accounts such as Kajyās have been affected in similar ways (see their journal about it here: https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/10585108/ ). However, what Iāve generally heard from those affected is that they were advised of the action via email and I havenāt received any such email, so whatās happening to my account may be something different.
The reasons I think my account might be restricted in some way are:
- Friends have mentioned to me that they never see any of my content in their timelines.
- A friend has mentioned to me that they are not getting notifications for tweet replies from me on their tweets.
- A friend has mentioned to me that they arenāt getting notifications for my tweets even though they have post notifications turned on for my Twitter.
- When checking my account on the shadowban checker https://shadowban.yuzurisa.com/ it isnāt able to test my account for shadowbanning because it isnāt even able to confirm my account exists. My other Twitter accounts and even those of people affected by the restrictions Kajy is facing are at least discoverable by the shadowban checker, but my main doesnāt get any results at all, which is what you'd expect if my account were a private account.
EDIT: I had been checking repeatedly all day and getting no results for my account, but when I checked again just *after* posting this NOW I'm getting some results (which indicate there's a search suggestion ban on my account but at least it was able to find the account.)
So it seems that in some way or another my account is being restricted/hidden/muted/etc. by Twitter and that sucks!
Iām currently debating what to do about this but I wanted to get a quick journal out about it to let people know and see what others have to say and how many others are experiencing this.
The Obligatory Plug
And of course, gotta finish off by plugging other places to find me as I have done increasingly often throughout the past year. :P
Itaku
Currently active and posting to it at the same time as FA.
https://itaku.ee/profile/ahnik
Mastodon
Not currently active but will be soon!
https://meow.social/@ahnik
Telegram Channel
Currently active. Gets everything FA gets and also WIPs. Sometimes if an image has a lot of alts this is the only place where I post all of them.
https://t.me/AhnikWIPs
Discord
Not currently using this for posting art.
Mannnnnn, I REALLY donāt wanna resort to a Discord server but if I run out of other options I guess itād be on the table. x3
Bluesky?
I WANT to try this but itās an invite-only beta right now.
Literally just learned this is a thing today and I need to learn more about it, but if itās going to be what it purports to be, it could be great! If anyoneās got a spare invite code and is willing to toss it my way, I would be incredibly grateful. šš
Regarding Upload Policy 2.7
General | Posted 2 years agoRegarding Upload Policy 2.7 (UP 2.7) and Its Recent Update
If youāve been on FurAffinity during the past week or so, youāve likely seen a lot of discussion regarding the recent update to FurAffinityās Upload Policy 2.7, as well as the policy as a whole.
I knew I had to write a journal about it, but I waited a while because I wanted to hear other user's opinions on it, wait for further clarification from FA administration on the policy, and receive a reply to a trouble ticket I sent in on May 19, the day the recent update to the policy was announced.
I wanted to get my two cents in because I think good rules about content moderation are crucial for any social media site, and they can be the hill that sites live or die on ( source: Tumblr ).
Thereās three main points to address when it comes to this policy:
(1) UP 2.7 fails to functionally accomplish its ostensible purpose.
(2) The real reason for the currently ineffective implementation of UP 2.7 is the lack of a blacklisting function on FurAffinity.
(3) If FurAffinity continues to exist without a blacklisting function, there will likely be more ineffective policies like UP 2.7 in the future.
Background Information
If youāre planning on reading this journal (and especially if youāre planning on joining the sitewide conversation on this policy either here or elsewhere), I strongly suggest having first read the current wording of UP 2.7 in the FA Upload Policy ( https://www.furaffinity.net/aup ) and the three recent journals posted by FA explaining the updates to the policy:
J1: https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/10552819/
J2: https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/10557600/
J3: https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/10560608/
None of these sources on its own explains the full scope of UP 2.7, which is why itās important to read all of them. It will be hard to follow what Iām saying if you havenāt. Iāll be referring to these journals as J1, J2, and J3 in the text that follows.
Lastly, and very importantly: Iām not trying to personally attack FurAffinityās admin staff here. I want to have a discussion about policy, and why UP 2.7 is a bad one.
Iām sure the admin staff knew the update to the policy would result in a lot of controversy (especially since many FA users who joined after 2015 are just now learning UP 2.7 even exists), and I doubt the decision was made flippantly. I think both the recent update and the original policy are bad, but I donāt think theyāre intentionally bad. I want to think of the FA administration as allies for users to work towards a better policy with, and I hope others who are upset with the recent decisions will share that sentiment.
With that out of the way, letās get into it.
The Case Against UP 2.7
UP 2.7 is fundamentally flawed.
It fails to effectively accomplish its own goal and threatens a lot of collateral damage in the process, so it is objectively a bad policy whether or not you agree with its intent.
Itās not just the recent update affecting fictional species I disagree with. I think the policy has been poorly implemented ever since it was redefined to suit the third-party interests of IMVU, who owned FurAffinity in 2015.
Why UP 2.7 Just Doesnāt Work, Explained Using Apples
A policy to ban certain content (letās say apples, for example) from being posted to the site should generally meet three requirements in order to be effective:
(1) Accuracy: If the policy is supposed to ban apples, it shouldnāt accidentally ban oranges in the process. Even red oranges are still oranges, not apples.
(2) Completeness: If the policy is supposed to ban apples, it should ban ALL apples. (Iām looking at you, Red Delicious apples, your name is a lie.)
(3) Transparency: Users should be able to generally understand what counts as an apple without needing to consult a moderator. A user should be able to read the no-apple policy as written and know whether this (link) is okay to post or not.
Transparency is important because it allows for users to mostly self-moderate when deciding what to post, reduces the amount of manual moderator intervention necessary to keep the site in line with the policy, and reduces user anxiety about being unfairly penalized for failing to abide by a policy thatās too vaguely-defined.
The current implementation of UP 2.7 fails at all three of these.
Why UP 2.7 Fails on Accuracy
UP 2.7 is an overgeneralization. In its attempt to cover all potential cases it wants to target, it risks targeting several categories that it presumably is not meant to. These include:
- Humanoid or semi-humanoid fictional characters and species that have small proportions even as adults.
Consider the infamous āold ass Treeckoā (link) from the episode āTreeās a Crowdā (link) in the Pokemon anime.
Consider also Elmer Fudd, Mr. Piranha, pretty much the entire cast of any Paper Mario game, and way too many other Pokemon and Digimon to possibly list here.
This point is the main problem with the recent update to UP 2.7 announced in J1: The body proportions of these characters have literally nothing to do with their physical age or emotional maturity.
- Non-humanoid fictional species that do not visibly show their age like humans or any real-life animals.
UP 2.7 bans adolescent fantasy creatures, but who can possibly be an authority on what exactly visually indicates that a non-humanoid fantasy creature is an adolescent? What possible visual indicator am I meant to be looking for when deciding whether this thing (link) is 18 years old or not?
- Fictional species or characters that reach maturity in less than 18 years.
Consider Grunt from Mass Effect (link). He was genetically engineered and rapidly aged in a laboratory so he technically has been alive less than 18 years, but you would be hard-pressed to call him a minor. And even krogans who mature normally are stated to reach maturity in about 10 years.
- Art styles that draw all characters with smaller proportions.
This oneās self-explanatory, and sadly not just fearmongering. J2 states that chibi (and presumably similar cartoon styles) may not be allowed in certain circumstances.
UP 2.7 tries to apply real-life human visual indicators of age to all species and art styles. This simply doesnāt make sense, given that the vast majority of characters depicted on the site are not human, and a great many of them are clearly not meant to mimic the real-life body proportions of humans.
Why UP 2.7 Fails on Completeness
Despite its over-broadness, UP 2.7 actually fails to even properly encompass the content itās trying to ban.
J2 states that the policy is ānot concerned with whether or not a character is emotionally matureā.
ā¦What? ā¦Did I read that right?
Correct me if Iām wrong, but isnāt the entire basis for arguing against minors in NSFW content the idea that they arenāt psychologically mature and thus cannot make properly informed decisions regarding consent?
Why in the world would a policy seeking to ban NSFW depictions of minors not be concerned with this?
Going by this, you could design a fictional species of adult-proportioned characters that are over 18 but still psychologically infants and draw NSFW of them without any problems. I somehow suspect that some users who have been thus far praising UP 2.7 would probably take issue with that.
By exaggerating the significance of body proportions and entirely disregarding emotional/psychological maturity in its definition of minors, UP 2.7 misses the point and is thus an ineffective rule.
Why UP 2.7 Fails on Transparency
What the various recent journals by FA, particularly J2, present as a solution to the ambiguity of the policy is ācontextā. Moderators will take context into account when making decisions regarding UP 2.7.
The problem is that context is largely up to interpretation, and thereās no way to predict how a moderator will read the context of a piece.
The same day the update to UP 2.7 was announced, I submitted a trouble ticket linking various pieces from my gallery that I thought might be at risk of ending up on the wrong side of the policy. The response from a moderator arrived a few days later:
āAll of the images you have linked will not be in violation of the update when it goes live.ā
Well. Iām pleasantly surprised, but the fact that Iām surprised points to the issue at hand.
How context is used in making these decisions is not clear to users, which makes it hard to predict what call a moderator will make and creates anxiety for users who fear that they may get penalized quite severely for ending up on the wrong side of a subjective evaluation of ācontextā.
Itās no big surprise then, that artists have been making journals linking their other social media sites, and a couple of artists popular enough to be considered influential have now stated that Itaku will be their primary gallery going forward.
So. UP 2.7 is not a sound, functional policy. It never has been since 2015, but the recent update to it really serves to both highlight and further worsen its flaws.
Soā¦ why did such a flawed policy come to be, and what should the solution be?
The Real Problem Is the Lack of a Blacklist Function
As a content creator myself, I tend to prefer more liberal content policies. Generally, I would argue that only content that causes a real, tangible harm to someone should be banned. (āSomeoneā in this case meaning a real, physical, living being on planet Earth, not a fictional character in a drawing.) This would include things like harassment, threats, hate speech, doxxing, dangerous misinformation, spam, etc. If something doesnāt cause this kind of tangible harm, I think itās generally fine to let it be.
Some users who support the current UP 2.7 may be very uncomfortable seeing any character that even remotely resembles a minor through body proportions, even if thereās no real reason to assume the artist had that in mind. But this falls short of being a tangible harm, and when we police content just because it makes someone uncomfortable, we do a disservice to artistic expression.
Of course, most people donāt want to make anyone uncomfortable. Most people want their content to reach people that enjoy it and be unseen by those that donāt want to see it. And most people donāt mind the existence of content they donāt like, as long as they can avoid seeing it.
This is why FAās lack of a blacklisting function is a major impairment to the site, and the administration should be prioritizing implementing one.
I think very few users actually like UP 2.7 exactly as it currently exists. But given the lack of a blacklisting function, the only way for users to reliably avoid seeing content they donāt want to see is to push for it to be banned sitewide, so for many, UP 2.7 is the lesser evil.
So, although I can understand why some users having been pushing for this ban, and I can understand why FA made the decision to implement it, I donāt think this all-or-nothing approach to handling contentious content will serve FA well in the long term.
Because what happens when the loud minority saying all NSFW of small characters is pro-pedophilia decides that all feral art is pro-bestiality? Or all vore is pro-cannibalism? Or all bondage is pro-rape?
And what happens when thereās still no blacklist function and enough people are uncomfortable with these types of content to jump on the bandwagon calling for a sweeping ban on them?
As long as FA lacks a blacklisting function, weāre going to eventually have more UP 2.7ās.
The Conclusion
FA administrators might disagree with my opinion on content moderation. They might simply not want certain content on the site, irrespective of whether it causes any tangible harm.
And theyāre allowed to! They own the site, after all, and are genuinely trying their hardest to juggle the competing demands of an extremely diverse audience. And as much as we bash them when things go wrong, they generally keep the ship running and deserve praise for that.
But this recent policy update is a chunk of ice the ship just bumped into. If the captain doesn't change course, we'll hit the iceberg eventually.
I think all of FAās users probably agree that the policies that exist, whatever they are, should be effective. And the current implementation of UP 2.7 is not.
But again, UP 2.7 is mainly a symptom of the more problematic lack of a blacklisting function, which I hope is the main takeaway here.
So What Can You Do?
In J3, FA has invited users to share their feedback through the ticket system here: https://www.furaffinity.net/control.....roubletickets/
Numbers matter here. Even if someone else has already voiced your thoughts, you yourself sending them in counts for something. So if you have strong feelings about UP 2.7, Iād encourage you to say your part. You donāt have to be an artist or someone who posts a ton (or at all) in your gallery to have a say here.
If you feel that a post someone else has already made (cough, cough) accurately addresses the issues with UP 2.7, you can always just send in a ticket in that links that post and let mods know you agree with its sentiment to make your opinion heard while saving yourself some time.
And if you want to comment on this journal, I welcome you to! If you want to add to what Iāve said, point out any errors Iāve made, or just simply voice your agreement or disagreement, itās all good discourse. Some people feel more comfortable sending notes than making comments, and thatās good too! If youāve got thoughts, Iād like to hear them.
Please keep it civil if you reply to other comments, though. Itās good to express your opinion, and itās okay to voice your disagreement with someone elseās, but donāt make anyone else feel like theyāre not allowed to be a part of the conversation.
Thatās it for now. Cheers, everyone, and hereās hoping for better policies and better browsing in the future.
Itaku and Mastodon Links!
General | Posted 3 years agoIāve recently hopped onto Itaku and Mastodon, so if you guys are on there, you can follow me at the links below!
Itaku: https://itaku.ee/profile/ahnik
Mastodon: https://meow.social/@ahnik
Iāve written another journal talking about Itaku, why Iām quickly falling in love with the site, and why I strongly recommend making an account there, whether youāre an artist or art enjoyer, and especially if you're a commissioner (why especially commissioners? Check the journal!)
You can read it here: https://www.furaffinity.net/journals/ahnik/#jid:10390304
Or hop straight into making your account on there here!
>>> https://itaku.ee/register <<<
I'm not planning to stop posting or being active anywhere I currently am, so no need to worry about that. x3
Twitter | Itaku | Commission Me | Support Me With a Tip
Itaku: https://itaku.ee/profile/ahnik
Mastodon: https://meow.social/@ahnik
Iāve written another journal talking about Itaku, why Iām quickly falling in love with the site, and why I strongly recommend making an account there, whether youāre an artist or art enjoyer, and especially if you're a commissioner (why especially commissioners? Check the journal!)
You can read it here: https://www.furaffinity.net/journals/ahnik/#jid:10390304
Or hop straight into making your account on there here!
>>> https://itaku.ee/register <<<
I'm not planning to stop posting or being active anywhere I currently am, so no need to worry about that. x3
Twitter | Itaku | Commission Me | Support Me With a Tip
Why You Should Make an Itaku Account
General | Posted 3 years agoIāve recently made an Itaku account at https://itaku.ee/profile/ahnik, and Iāve been really excited about the features it has.
If youāre not on Itaku yet, I strongly recommend making an account! From what Iāve seen so far, the site is AWESOME for both artists and commissioners. Here are just a few of the great features it has:
Like FA, DeviantArt, and other gallery sites, Itaku places the main emphasis on art. However, it also has support for short tweet-style text posts, as well as longer text-based content (i.e., stories, journals, etc.).
(However, to my knowledge they donāt support PDFs, .docx files, and other such text filetypes. Any text content you want to post must be typed or copy+pasted into the site directly. I will be reaching out to Itaku support to suggest adding support for these file types.)
The Itaku admin has so far been very quick and open to feedback and has promptly been making upgrades to the server to support the fast growth the site is seeing. They've also been very good about addressing new users' concerns about some of the site's tagging and rating policies and have already pushed updates resolving the main issues.
Despite the fact that Itaku is not a furry site, the admin seems determined to make sure the new influx of furry users find a comfortable home there.
This mindset is reflected in the user culture as well. Non-furry Itaku users on the Discord have been a little surprised but generally chill with all the new furry content creators on there. They just want us to tag our stuff properly so they can blacklist it when needed, which is totally reasonable and something we should be doing anyway. x3 And on that note...
Itaku has the tag infrastructure to support very detailed and easily searchable tagging. Iām a nut for good tagging so I was really happy to see this, ha ha.
The structure of tags largely imitates that of e621, but the golden rule on Itaku is "Tag What You Know" as opposed to e621's "Tag What You See" rule.
Users also have more control over the tags on their uploads than on e621; other users can suggest tag edits for your uploads, but it's up to you whether you accept the edits or not. Tags will only be enforced in extreme cases, such as a user tagging NSFW content SFW, or not tagging commonly blacklisted content. And on THAT note...
Itaku has a functioning blacklist! Nothing much to be said there, but compared to sites that don't have this pretty important feature (cough, cough), it's a great thing to have.
There is also the option for users to add content warnings to their posts. And not just FA- or Twitter-style "writing 'CW' in the title/caption but by then you've already seen the image and it's too late". CWs on Itaku hide the image and display the CW text the artist has written. The image will not be displayed unless you click on the post. This is great both for extreme content as well as spoilers.
I haven't used Itaku on my phone much yet, but from what I can tell the site seems to work just as well on mobile! There isn't an app, but the site layout scales nicely for mobile devices and I didn't run into any issues when I tried it briefly.
Itaku is still a work in progress, but it feels good. It feels thought-out and community-oriented in a way that so many other sites that have tried to do what it does haven't.
The UI is understandable. It doesn't use weird terminology for the sake of being quirky. Things on the site are generally where you expect them to be and work they way you'd expect them to work. It has tons of artist-oriented features that me and other artists usually have to patchwork together by using multiple other sites and applications.
There's a reason so many artists are starting up there right now, and it's not just the current situation with Twitter.
Have you ever had an idea for something you want to commission but had trouble finding which artists are open for commissions, or itās a really niche kink and itās hard to find artists willing to draw it if your usual go-toās arenāt taking commissions? PROBLEM SOLVED.
Itaku has a post type specifically for commissioners looking for artists! You can include a description of your idea, your reference images, the price range youāre interested in, and relevant tags (e.g., āhyperā, āsize differenceā, āsfwā). Artists can browse these posts and reach out to you if theyāre interested in drawing for you!
The reverse of the above feature also exists! Artists can make posts announcing their commission openings, and you can see a list of everyone whoās currently open, or filter the list by tags youāre interested in (e.g., āhyperā, āsize differenceā, āsfwā).
This makes it super easy to find artists that draw the specific things you want to commission! This feature supports both regular commission openings, as well as auctions, YCHs, adopts, PWYW, OBO/ābest offerā, etc. commissions.
If youāre the type of person that doesnāt like planning out commission ideas in advance and waiting for an opening, and instead prefers to come up with an idea on the spot when you see that an artist you like is open, thereās something for you too!
Artist profiles have a field for indicating whether theyāre currently open for commissions. When the status is toggled to āOpenā, all their followers get a notification! This status is also displayed on their profile, so itās easy to see whether a cool new artist youāve just discovered is open.
In short, I really really like Itaku so far.
I could really see it becoming "the one" art site we've all been pining for.
The main downside to Itaku right now is it doesnāt have a huge userbase yet, but YOU GUYS can fix that by hopping on there and making an account!
>>> https://itaku.ee/register <<<
If you decide to, you can follow me there at https://itaku.ee/profile/ahnik.
Cheers all, thanks to anyone who read all the way through! Have a wonderful day. :3
Twitter | Itaku | Commission Me | Support Me With a Tip | My Website
If youāre not on Itaku yet, I strongly recommend making an account! From what Iāve seen so far, the site is AWESOME for both artists and commissioners. Here are just a few of the great features it has:
General Features
Social/Gallery Hybrid
Like FA, DeviantArt, and other gallery sites, Itaku places the main emphasis on art. However, it also has support for short tweet-style text posts, as well as longer text-based content (i.e., stories, journals, etc.).
(However, to my knowledge they donāt support PDFs, .docx files, and other such text filetypes. Any text content you want to post must be typed or copy+pasted into the site directly. I will be reaching out to Itaku support to suggest adding support for these file types.)
Responsive Administration
The Itaku admin has so far been very quick and open to feedback and has promptly been making upgrades to the server to support the fast growth the site is seeing. They've also been very good about addressing new users' concerns about some of the site's tagging and rating policies and have already pushed updates resolving the main issues.
Furry-Friendly
Despite the fact that Itaku is not a furry site, the admin seems determined to make sure the new influx of furry users find a comfortable home there.
This mindset is reflected in the user culture as well. Non-furry Itaku users on the Discord have been a little surprised but generally chill with all the new furry content creators on there. They just want us to tag our stuff properly so they can blacklist it when needed, which is totally reasonable and something we should be doing anyway. x3 And on that note...
Robust Tagging
Itaku has the tag infrastructure to support very detailed and easily searchable tagging. Iām a nut for good tagging so I was really happy to see this, ha ha.
The structure of tags largely imitates that of e621, but the golden rule on Itaku is "Tag What You Know" as opposed to e621's "Tag What You See" rule.
Users also have more control over the tags on their uploads than on e621; other users can suggest tag edits for your uploads, but it's up to you whether you accept the edits or not. Tags will only be enforced in extreme cases, such as a user tagging NSFW content SFW, or not tagging commonly blacklisted content. And on THAT note...
Blacklisting and Functional Content Warnings!
Itaku has a functioning blacklist! Nothing much to be said there, but compared to sites that don't have this pretty important feature (cough, cough), it's a great thing to have.
There is also the option for users to add content warnings to their posts. And not just FA- or Twitter-style "writing 'CW' in the title/caption but by then you've already seen the image and it's too late". CWs on Itaku hide the image and display the CW text the artist has written. The image will not be displayed unless you click on the post. This is great both for extreme content as well as spoilers.
Mobile-Accessible
I haven't used Itaku on my phone much yet, but from what I can tell the site seems to work just as well on mobile! There isn't an app, but the site layout scales nicely for mobile devices and I didn't run into any issues when I tried it briefly.
It Just Feels Good
Itaku is still a work in progress, but it feels good. It feels thought-out and community-oriented in a way that so many other sites that have tried to do what it does haven't.
The UI is understandable. It doesn't use weird terminology for the sake of being quirky. Things on the site are generally where you expect them to be and work they way you'd expect them to work. It has tons of artist-oriented features that me and other artists usually have to patchwork together by using multiple other sites and applications.
There's a reason so many artists are starting up there right now, and it's not just the current situation with Twitter.
Commissioning-Related Features
āLooking to Commissionā Posts
Have you ever had an idea for something you want to commission but had trouble finding which artists are open for commissions, or itās a really niche kink and itās hard to find artists willing to draw it if your usual go-toās arenāt taking commissions? PROBLEM SOLVED.
Itaku has a post type specifically for commissioners looking for artists! You can include a description of your idea, your reference images, the price range youāre interested in, and relevant tags (e.g., āhyperā, āsize differenceā, āsfwā). Artists can browse these posts and reach out to you if theyāre interested in drawing for you!
āCommissions Openā Posts and Notifications
The reverse of the above feature also exists! Artists can make posts announcing their commission openings, and you can see a list of everyone whoās currently open, or filter the list by tags youāre interested in (e.g., āhyperā, āsize differenceā, āsfwā).
This makes it super easy to find artists that draw the specific things you want to commission! This feature supports both regular commission openings, as well as auctions, YCHs, adopts, PWYW, OBO/ābest offerā, etc. commissions.
āCommissions Openā Status
If youāre the type of person that doesnāt like planning out commission ideas in advance and waiting for an opening, and instead prefers to come up with an idea on the spot when you see that an artist you like is open, thereās something for you too!
Artist profiles have a field for indicating whether theyāre currently open for commissions. When the status is toggled to āOpenā, all their followers get a notification! This status is also displayed on their profile, so itās easy to see whether a cool new artist youāve just discovered is open.
In short, I really really like Itaku so far.
I could really see it becoming "the one" art site we've all been pining for.
The main downside to Itaku right now is it doesnāt have a huge userbase yet, but YOU GUYS can fix that by hopping on there and making an account!
>>> https://itaku.ee/register <<<
If you decide to, you can follow me there at https://itaku.ee/profile/ahnik.
Cheers all, thanks to anyone who read all the way through! Have a wonderful day. :3
Twitter | Itaku | Commission Me | Support Me With a Tip | My Website
Sickness/Progress Update
General | Posted 3 years agoHey hey, everyone. Just a quick update, I am doing better than before but my infection is still going strong so I've been prescribed another week of a stronger antibiotic by my doctor. I should hopefully be back to full health in a week!
I am doing my best to make some progress on commissions without pushing myself to the point it would negatively affect my health. Progress will still be slow for the time being, however.
I am holding off on updating commissioners with specific ETAs for their commissions until I am recovered because I don't want to give one estimate and then have to change it a week later if my infection continues.
As mentioned in my previous journal, I will be doing a commission opening in early November to help cover expenses related to this and other health struggles over the previous months. Those commissions will be delivered in January-March of 2023 to give myself some wiggle room to catch up after these recent delays.
I will announce that opening in early November on FurAffinity via journal, on Twitter ( https://twitter.com/AhnikSaur ), and on my Telegram commissions channel ( https://t.me/AhnikArt ).
If you're okay with a later delivery for a commission, I would be super grateful to anyone who sends a request for that upcoming opening. :> š
Twitter | Other Social Media | Commission Info
I am doing my best to make some progress on commissions without pushing myself to the point it would negatively affect my health. Progress will still be slow for the time being, however.
I am holding off on updating commissioners with specific ETAs for their commissions until I am recovered because I don't want to give one estimate and then have to change it a week later if my infection continues.
As mentioned in my previous journal, I will be doing a commission opening in early November to help cover expenses related to this and other health struggles over the previous months. Those commissions will be delivered in January-March of 2023 to give myself some wiggle room to catch up after these recent delays.
I will announce that opening in early November on FurAffinity via journal, on Twitter ( https://twitter.com/AhnikSaur ), and on my Telegram commissions channel ( https://t.me/AhnikArt ).
If you're okay with a later delivery for a commission, I would be super grateful to anyone who sends a request for that upcoming opening. :> š
Twitter | Other Social Media | Commission Info
COMMISSION SLOTS Coming Soon & Delays Due to Health Issue...
General | Posted 3 years agoEmergency Commission Slots Coming Soon
Hey hey all, I will likely be opening some emergency commission slots to be scheduled for the first quarter of 2023 next month to cover recent health expenses, for anyone who's comfortable with a longer-than-usual wait between payment and receiving their finished commission.
For anyone who's interested in preparing for the opening, my commission prices and info are all on my website:
https://www.ahnik.art/pricing/full-images
As always, the opening will be announced here via journal, on my Twitter, and on my Telegram channel.
Thank you very much in advance to anyone who plans to send a request, as it'll really help me out during a tough time (more info on that below and to come in future journals). š
Recent Delays Due to Health Issues
I'm currently stuck in bed fighting an ear infection so uploads and work on commissions will be halted for roughly 3-7 days.
This is unfortunately arriving on the tail end of other health issues that I'll speak about in more detail in a future journal that have both increasingly ground down my productivity (and thus income) as well as increased my expenses over the previous several months.
I am also scheduled for a COVID booster and flu shot next week (though that may end up having to be delayed due to the ear infection). Ideally this won't cause any additional delay, but the first COVID booster kept me down for a day so it's possible this one will do the same.
My sincere apologies to commissioners currently in the queue for the delays you've experienced in the delivery of your commissions. I will be sending out an email with more details as soon as I recover from the ear infection out to all commissioners whose commission is expected to be started in November or later. All commissioners are also free to reach out and ask about the ETA of your commission at any time, though I will likely not be able to reply until I recover from the ear infection.
I am fully committed to completing all of your commissions as soon as my health allows, but if your commission has not yet been started and you are not okay with it being delayed any further, I am prepared to fully refund your commission at your request.
If your commission has already been started and you are not okay with further delays, we can discuss a partial refund based on how much work has already been completed.
That's all for now! Thank you to everyone who read this far, ha ha.
All in all, this has been a rough middle segment of the year for me. I'll speak about it more in future journals. Thank you to everyone who has supported me and continues to do so, whether by commissioning, commenting, or being a friend that keeps in touch with me even when I'm not the best at keeping up with my Telegram inbox. š¦
Lots of love, looking forward to drawing and posting more for you all soon š
Twitter | Other Social Media | Commission Info
OC Species Meme!
General | Posted 3 years agoI'm very late to it, but I'm doing the "Give Me Six Different Species to Draw My OC As" meme, so please suggest me different species you'd like to see me draw Ahnik as! :3
You can leave a comment on this journal or on my tweet about this here:
https://twitter.com/AhnikSaur/status/1573334040681541638
Twitter | Other Social Media | Commission Info
You can leave a comment on this journal or on my tweet about this here:
https://twitter.com/AhnikSaur/status/1573334040681541638
Twitter | Other Social Media | Commission Info
Suggestions for Comic Pricing? (And a Commissions Update)
General | Posted 3 years agoI recently realized that the way I had comic commission pricing set up, comics would quickly skyrocket in price with a higher number of panels or characters involved.
This isn't affordable for commissioners and it doesn't accurately represent the amount of work such a comic would take to draw. Since it will likely take some time to work out a better pricing scheme for comics, I've removed comic commissions from my offerings for now.
If any of you either are comic artists who do commissions and have advice, or know of an artist who does commissions whose pricing model you find appealing, please let me know! I want to settle on a solution that fits both me and potential commissioners who are interested in comics. :3
Twitter | Other Social Media | Commission Info
This isn't affordable for commissioners and it doesn't accurately represent the amount of work such a comic would take to draw. Since it will likely take some time to work out a better pricing scheme for comics, I've removed comic commissions from my offerings for now.
If any of you either are comic artists who do commissions and have advice, or know of an artist who does commissions whose pricing model you find appealing, please let me know! I want to settle on a solution that fits both me and potential commissioners who are interested in comics. :3
Twitter | Other Social Media | Commission Info
