You know, sometimes its easy to think that these things happen half a world away, in places where we can't be touched by them on a personal level...or to think that our community, however global, is somehow isolated from the rest of the world.

It isn't.

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/7177952/

There was a fur named Charlotte at the rock concert that day in Paris, and she is among the list of those who did not make it out alive. I can only pray that she didn't suffer...

I pray also that perhaps one day the people of the world can experience such a borderless brotherhood as we do here in the furry fandom.

As for ISIL, their belief system is steering them towards their own destruction. No state can make only enemies and expect to thrive. They have already sustained so many attacks as to be virtually defenseless, and I feel it is only a matter of time before one nation or other throws their whole army at them and wipes their burgeoning nation off the map, or they socio-politically collapse on themselves. Terrorism is a thing that probably isn't going to go away, so long as there are humans with bones to pick. But ISIL's days are surely numbered. I think they've stirred too many hornet nests to avoid that fate, especially now.

So, events played out in a very last-minute way that somehow worked out as if it were simply meant to be. My original plan was to go to FangCon, since I had made promises to people that I would be there, but as we came into the Fall season these plans began to change. Almost all of the friends who I was looking forward to seeing decided not to go. This list of people not going eventually grew to include the ones I had made promises to, essentially eliminating the reason I was planning to attend in the first place. Even though I still had an opportunity to attend with another friend of mine, I opted to redirect my funds into spending a week with my new girlfriend up in Wisconsin.

It turned out to be a lot of fun, and something that I needed to do. You can only really date someone online to an extent; lovers of any persuasion need to know how they can get along in person, especially if they are looking for a love that sticks. While most of the women that have come into my life have had...questionable motives with me, I have no doubt that this one is sincere in her interest.

Perhaps typically, I have no idea how to respond to that. I saw to her needs while we were up there. We indulged in each other, shared facets of our lives, experimented with sex, shared experiences together, and made each other laugh...We get along, yes. But it's all still so new to me that I come away unsure of myself.

I am formulating a new plan. Chicago is a half-way point between us that is easy for us both to reach cheaply. I have for quite a while longed for someone to share my experiences with on a more personal level. I am considering inviting her to attend the con up in Chicago with me...I think it is Midwest Fur Fest? We need to jump in and drink deeply of the cup of life if we want to form deep bonds.

I did clear the first hurdle though, aside from the financial stress of actually getting to her. Her cat definitely approves of me.

I just wanted to put out a notice that a longtime friend of mine and Ark staff member Oddclaw Sideways passed away last night from complications during surgery. He was most recently known as Motley the ferret, but had a number of characters and aliases he had adopted over the course of the years.

I haven't spoken to or played with him in a good while, but it seems strange that he's suddenly not in this world. R.I.P. Motley; Second Life is going to be a little more dull without you.

So, after having two sets of potential roommates all back out of the room I had reserved, with FangCon only two weeks away, I have decided to cancel my reservation. I've already pre-registered, like the furry trusting idiot I am, and probably won't be getting that money back but at least I won't arrive and end up having to sacrifice my mortgage for being the only one paying for 4 nights in a hotel room.

With any luck, I can put what money I didn't already spend on FangCon towards seeing my girlfriend in Winsconsin.

Guess it's not just art that furries are unreliable with.

I just got news down the pipe that the fandom is now one convention smaller.

Oklacon, one of the largest campground-based conventions in the fandom is no more, by order of Oklahoma State Park Association.

From what I hear, two furs decided to get naked and try yiffing in front of the portable restrooms last year, in front of everyone. They were subsequently ejected from the con and banned, and charges were brought against them, which meant a legal incident report had to be filed for the parties responsible for the state park the convention called its home. Fearing liability, the park overseer decided not to allow the con to return this year.

Apparently while the con staff were in negotiations with other state parks, one of the banned furs called the Oklahoma State Park Association and told them about the incident. As a result of that, an edict was passed down banning Oklacon from every state park in Oklahoma.

I had this strange dream last night.

In it, I had become aware that someone was trying to assassinate a furry friend of mine, so I was dragging him all over the place in an attempt to avoid it. He didn't know someone was out to kill him, and for some reason I couldn't tell him; only that he was in grave danger and I was trying to get him out of it. We went on a road trip and did things like cut across construction sites in cities with someone shooting at us.

Eventually I took him to my house, which was the only safe place. My whole family was staying there for some reason, and it was hard to find a place for my friend. In the morning I discovered that my friend had left on his own during the night, leaving his stuff behind.

Even weirder? This dream occurred twice in the same night, with the second time around having more detail.

So it would seem that our original plans for FangCon appear to have fallen through. We went from having a full room to having just myself and Graye going.

Seeing as how Graye is not in the greatest financial situation and that I myself am struggling after having to unexpectedly purchase a second lawnmower during a month when several high-dollar Kickstarters were going through...

I am seeking at least two other roommates. Current room share is $218, split between just myself and Graye...meaning any additional people we get will make the share significantly less than that. (room rate is $109 a night, Thursday through Sunday, leaving on Monday).

FangCon is in Knoxville, TN. You can find more info here: http://fangcon.org/

Inability to source additional paying roommates before October will mean that neither of us are going to be able to attend. (Which is no skin off my nose, as I can use that money toward visiting my girlfriend up in Winsconsin).

...that my ancient-ass character on FurryMuck still works! xD

Having to re-learn a lot of the commands and lingo. It's hard to believe that it was a quest for action Mucks that lead me into the Star-Fox rpg that ran continuously for over 10 years...As of recently, a player I had originally met there is now my girlfriend. <3

Here I go again, off into the RPG fires. "I put on my robe, and wizard hat"

I guess it's true what they say, about some things never changing.

I had this bizarre and disturbing dream last night, and only just remembered to post it.

I dreamt that we were at war with the Ponies. You know, of My Little Pony fame. There was horrible and disturbing violence on both sides of the front lines, but my job was to penetrate deep into Pony territory and slay their generals. In a montage similar to "Meet the Spy", I was able to assassinate Fluttershy from a rooftop, Assassin's Creed style, while she was on her way to a meeting. I hid her body and then staked out the meeting with all the careful deliberateness of Agent 47 from Hitman. I was just about to make an action against Applejack when Twilight Sparkle uncovered me using her magical powers and made an example of me by snapping my neck and feeding me to her zombified pony bodyguards.

It was very disturbing, and I woke up very much WTF about it.

Weird thing is that A) I have absolutely nothing against MLP the show or the people who love it, and B) I haven't been playing a lot of action games lately since my XBOne ran out of memory space. So I have no idea where any of these themes came from.

I am royally pissed off at Sanguine Enterprises right now. They are (or once were) the premier publishing house for furry themed tabletop roleplaying games, so I've been trying to support their various entries in Kickstarter.

It was bad enough that I had to hunt down the figurehead of Sanguine at Anthrocon to collect the remainder of my reward tiers months after they were supposed to have been mailed after the first time I supported them.

But now I log in to discover that one of their successful projects was never mailed to me even though I supported it. Instead, the project was listed as "dropped". In spite of this, updates left on Kickstarter allude to rewards being sent out.

I sent Sanguine an e-mail through their website (since they leave no contact through Kickstarter), but I strongly suspect that like last time, I will never hear back from them.

I'll give 'em a month. If no effort is made by them to resolve this then screw 'em; they don't need my support.

---

UPDATE

Ok, so I guess the problem was on Kickstarter's end and not Sanguine's. For an unknown reason, my pledge was declined/didn't go through, and I never got the notice. Since I didn't respond in enough time to fix my pledge, Kickstarter moved the pledge to my failed projects list with the vague "dropped" tag.

Sanguine was actually very prompt about getting back to me this time. Perhaps they learned from their first kickstarter attempt. Anyhow, I guess things are good now. Still waiting to see if my pledge can be salvaged, but even if it can't, I feel much better knowing that money didn't actually exchange hands (even though the project was successful). That was my main concern, since if I am going to be paying for something, I would like to get something in return.

So there is another art theft site that is rustling people's jimmies these days. You might have noticed that the theft going on there is pretty blatant...they're using the same titles the artists used for the work, the same descriptions, and sometimes even linking back to where the image was stolen from. There is a reason for this.

Copied from  Adleisio, who got it from  oli_snowpaw :

"So, I have been notified by several people about pages of Peter & Company and other pieces of my artwork being supposedly "available for sale" through Wallpart.com, and in the past 24 hours have seen many other artists make journals/submissions talking about finding their own work on there as well. Naturally, the inclination of any artist finding their work available for sale without their consent is to head to the "Report Violation" link attached to every listing and file a complaint to have it removed.

PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DO NOT DO THIS ON WALLPART.COM'S WEBSITE.

I've dug into their site code and reviewed some audits that were performed by other folks in various places online who were aware of this site's existence, and there's some very devious bait-and-switch going on. Essentially:

- They are not actually selling any of the images that appear on their site. Their "search function" is nothing but scraper software, which essentially just loads up hits from Google Images and displays them within a pre-built "shop" template based on the image's resolution. This is why every single piece on there has a title that is lifted directly from whatever gallery site (FA/DA/Weasyl) or general website was hosting it. Example: They have my title card from my Kickstarter page for the P&C pilot, with the title lifted straight off the description.
- The dependence on Google Images is also why doing a search for your own name will turn up different results each time, or possibly no results at all. Their "search" function never actually searches their own listings, because they have none. Confusingly enough, performing the same search multiple times often returns different results at different times throughout the day. I was able to find dozens of P&C pages supposedly for sale by searching my name yesterday, but today none of them show up in search results -- even though the direct links to the page forms (which I saved) still exist.
- Their "Report Violation" link is actually a 100% phishing form. If you fill it out, no matter what you put there, you will be sending them a LOT more than you anticipated. This is actually the main purpose for the site's existence -- they completely anticipate artists being upset about their work supposedly being sold, so they developed a system to exploit those who complain.
- Various pieces of malware and other malicious code have been found embedded throughout their pages at different times. This site is just bad news all around.
- The site itself is hosted in Russia, and has already swapped web hosts 4 times in the past few months. The current host is listed as ENOM, and other bloggers/artists have already sent complaints and reports to their contact page, with little luck. It looks like it's already been branded and caught in the past and is trying to keep itself alive.
- Also, for a site claiming to have "billions of images" available for print, to only have a little over 3,000 "happy customers" should be a pretty big red flag on its own.

So please -- DO NOT EVEN VISIT THIS SITE. Do not give it page views, and most absolutely DO NOT FILL OUT ANY VIOLATION FORMS, EVEN IF THE ARTWORK ON THE PAGE IS YOUR OWN. Instead, there is a Change.org petition asking for the domain to be stripped and brought down.

Please share the word around as much as possible so other artists don't potentially fall into their trap by thinking that their "Report Violation" page is actually what it claims to be. These people are pure scam artists, plain and simple. Avoid them at all costs."

---

Here is the Change.org petition: https://www.change.org/p/remove-wallpart-com-stealing-people-s-work-without-persmission

Years of heavy smoking have finally taken their toll on one of the pillars of the early Furry Community. Mr. Winger had been having trouble breathing for a long time now, having had to drop out of the convention circuit a few years back and have elective surgery to remove his septum for easier breathing. I guess a few months ago he ended up on a ventilator, unable to breathe on his own, and with a prognosis of no recovery, his doctors and caregivers have decided to pull the plug.

For those of you who may not be aware, Douglas Winger was one of the original furry artists, who became known for his toony style that could mimic a variety of popular cartoons. He was also one of the people who pioneered "hyper" as a fetish concept in furry art. He was known as a nice guy who cared about and watched out for his furry brethren. I didn't know him personally though I remember making a few chance encounters with him at some cons opposite of his compatriot Gideon Hoss...unless if I'm mistaken. Those would have been my early conventions, and I am not great at remembering the fine details for those.

In any event, Doug has been an inspiration for many artists here today thanks to his dedication and longevity. His art was some of the most prolific of all of the early furs and can still be easily found all over the internet.

So rest well, Mr. Winger; you will be missed.

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6832927/

Source is from Ezzleo's Journal : https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6739524/

"Paypal: The AUP Change is Nothing (chill the fuck out)" posted 12 hours ago
Hey,

So people need to be aware that the whole Paypal thing is being blown out of proportion. The $2,500 fine they 'threaten' you with in new AUP is fancy legalese to protect their own asses for if/when you should ever commit high level (felony) fraud against them. That's like, when you're doing some serious bad shit and they catch you with your hand in the cookie jar; i.e. money laundering, child pornography, narcotics trafficking, or whatever.

Seriously, people....

Just keep these FOUR THINGS in mind and chill the fucknuggets out. Here you go:

1) never say anything in comments when paying that will raise a red flag (i.e. "Here's payment for the nude, adult, penis in the vagina artwork you're doing for me!! Thank you!!)

**you can still use it for adult art, just keep that shit to yourself, how else will they know?**

2) never send payment as a "gift" (receiver doesn't have to pay fees and getting gifts from 'random' people like this all the time WILL raise red flags with paypal)

3) artists should consider sending invoices -- they are more secure and protect both parties much better than leaving something in the hands of a commissioner who may be "new"

4) if the artwork is traditonal and will be shipped, purchaser MUST include address -- failure for them to do so can result in them filing a claim afterward saying they never received it (and they will WIN and get their $$$ back)... if digital artwork, then no address needed

There you go. Now go back to buying your porn and keep quiet about it. :3

Some of you may be aware of the recent attacks on furry conventions...about two to three years ago, Anthrocon recieved a bomb threat, there was the gas attack at...Mephit if I'm not mistaken?

Well apparently the same person was responsible for all of them, and he attempted to bring a pellet gun disguised as a real firearm into BLFC a few days ago. He was caught this time and hauled out by the police.

I don't know much about this guy, but judging by some comments on the "capture post" ( https://www.facebook.com/klaceybunny/posts/10206544398507133?comment_id=10206544509949919&offset=0&total_comments=81&notif_t=feed_comment_reply ) he seems to be a real nutcase. He's gone out of his way to threaten the family members of furs and some even seem convinced that he's actually murdered one.

I'd like to know more about this person and his supposed mis-deeds. If what people are saying is true, he may face some jail time, but I'd like to have more information in case he turns up again. Anyone on my friends list heard of him before?

A friend of mine is doing something silly and offering a chance for free art at the same time.

http://www.furaffinity.net/full/16471753/

 midnightwolfsune passed away in March of complications from sickle-cell anemia. It took a lot of research from her good friends to discover this but it has been confirmed.

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6702400/

Rest in peace, Ampz. I never met you, but the impact you had on your friends says it all.

http://aceofstars.tumblr.com/post/1.....nt-changes-all

In short:

PayPal does not have access to IP's as it is a monetary exchange service.

This literature is legalese that protects things like their forums, their website layout, and everything associated with and posted to PayPal's web domain now that they are no longer an affiliate of E-Bay.

Unless if you actually post your art and stories to PayPal's forums, there is nothing they can assert. IP still belongs to the owners until a transfer of sale is made, even when PayPal is used to make the sale. This operates under the same laws that keep credit card companies from owning shit you buy at Wal-Mart until the credit "transfers".

Please pass this on, as I am seeing pretty much widespread panic on the Internet over this, and there is absolutely no need for it.

Valve has just been rolling out the initiatives lately in preparation for the release of the Steam Machine console. All the hype and build-up has lead to a new initiative that could land Valve in so much legal trouble it has the potential to completely nuke Steam.

The initiative I am talking about is setting up a paywall in Steam Workshop. They are encouraging (forcing?) players to sell the various mods they make for their games. Aside from the obvious issues with quality....Well, the only reason the mod community is allowed to exist in the first place is because the assets they create, which almost always borrow from someone else's IP, are handed out for free. Modded content is very rarely ever completely original. Now that Steam is allowing people to sell IP content that they do not own the rights to, I am expecting an avalanche of lawsuits to snowball onto Valve in the next couple of months.

It is a pity, as I have probably spent thousands of dollars on Steam over the years, and will lose all my games if Valve goes under. You can bet that I'm not going to spend a dime more there unless they can somehow buy their way out of US copyright law.

A fursuit head belonging to  WayaJarrard known as Waya Lockheart, was stolen out of the headless lounge at FWA sometime Sunday. I would like to ask all of you to keep and eye out for it. Here is a link to the head in question:

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/4881808/

If anyone knows the whereabouts of this head, please let Waya know or note  Runtt with the info.

FWA was fun, but definitely not as good as last year's. It wasn't a total wash for me but definitely not as awesome as it usually felt in the past, at least until the end.

For starters the hotel. I thought the Westin was poorly designed for a con like ours, but the Mariott Marquis makes it look like a godsend. The elevators were even worse than the Westin's if you can imagine that. If you can't, I can describe it by telling you they would not go down until going all the way up, nor would they go up until going all the way down. I spent more time waiting for and riding the elevators then I did at the con. Also, every trip there were always desperate assholes who would force their way into an already overcapped elevator because they needed to be somewhere right now.

The elevators weren't the hotel's only fault, though I wish it were...the place is an architect's wet dream but it wasn't designed to be able to regulate temperature. The hotel was always hot and muggy, even in the rooms, and I got told by several first timers that the con smelled as bad as they were told. (If you haven't gone to a con yet, I recommend disregarding these stereotypes, but I couldn't defend it here because it was true. It usually isn't.).

It also seemed like there was too much room this year, meaning things were so spaced out it took a long time to get from one place to another...making it even more difficult if you were in a hurry to find someone.

Oh, and I can't not talk about the incredible amount of theft going on at this year's con. It was almost like Atlanta residents were there waiting for us and started making off with shit as we filtered into the hotel. I know that Atlanta is not a particularly safe or friendly city but I've never felt it as much as I did this year. Telephone got her car and trailer stolen, though rumors that she lost everything including her fursuit were exaggerated. Other people had automotive break-ins if not outright thefts, and there were also some people obviously not in the con who made off with other people's con gear when they weren't looking. A friend of mine even bore witness to this and tried to tell the thief off and shout him down. That was the first day of the con. After that police started actively patrolling the Marquis, which went a long way towards making things feel relaxed.

The Convention itself was pretty boss though!

FWA had some great guests of honor this year and probably the largest Dealer's Den and Artist's Alley I've ever seen it with. Rabbit Valley Press once again failed to show up in spite of registering so I think I'm just going to assume they no longer do the convention circuit and get what I want online and just eat the shipping. Unexpectedly ran into  tsampikos who was selling two new art books through his publisher, which was wild since I'd thought he'd left the fandom. Also ran into  tacokurt who is a hell of a nice guy, and  severuscoil who seems much friendlier too. It was kind of shocking. I feel like I've made peace with him, even though it's not like we were in a tiff or anything.

I met a lot of people who I wish I had time to hang with more. I did not attend hardly any of the panels, which is mostly the fault of how spread out the hotel was and how long it took to track people down. I did go to the Furry Speed Dating for Opposite Genders which turned out about as well as you'd expect. I think I'm just going to give up on it, the whole concept of close companionship with someone. I can't lower my expectations any further without trying to "turn gay", and I don't want to actually go and hurt someone by pretending to be something I'm not. It wouldn't be fair to the hypothetical other party. I did get closer to a cute local girl but I don't know if we're long-term compatible or if she isn't spoken for. I feel like things are changing though and I am getting into more of a comfort zone with being perpetually single and inexperienced, so there's that. Or perhaps I just no longer care? I have friends, that is what is important.

I feel like I spent a lot of money this year but when I think about it I realize that my actual con expenses were not all that bad. It was the food that got me. Prices for food in Atlanta have gone way up, and I routinely found myself spending $40-ish on meals that normally would have cost only $20. Even parking for the entire weekend was only $60 and I used the garage directly across the street from the Mariott.

I partied more this year, simply by virtue of rooming with a different set of people. This turned out to be a double-edged sword. While I love partying and hanging out with people, I'm not the kind of person to go all night. I was supposed to be sleeping in a room that was packed well into the AM, and absolutely sweltering. I understood then why one of the roommates was so desperate to swap rooms with me to get out of that one...I was originally supposed to room with the group from the Myrtle Beach meet but ended up with the Columbia Party Machine guys. It was only bad that first night though, and after that it became much more pleasant and fun. Perhaps it was just because I was tired from making the trip down that night...and next year the host of the party is thinking of getting a suite instead of just a regular hotel room. I felt super useful though because I not only contributed to the $300+ worth of alcohol at the party, but I was able to give people rides to the con who otherwise would not have made it. So I felt morel like I wasn't just part of the background this year.

Matthew Ebel's set was even better than ever, and the little accidents only made it more fun. He's a great performer, and I think it's only a matter of time before he's too big to consistently make FWA. I'm hoping he puts that touching tribute he wrote for FilthyRotten on a future album; it was ace.

 xedgewolfx's set at the end of the Dead Dog Dance was probably the best moment in the entire con, outside of bunny snuggles. He built his set around a remix of "He Is Risen" by some Christian band I'm not familiar with. Yeah, that's why I like him; he never does what you are going to expect which makes him fantastic for when you get tired of the typical wubs and the untz. It was probably the most euphoric, fun, and transformative raves I've ever witnessed. I almost danced. Still felt too self-conscious, so maybe I do still care on some level. Now more then ever, I realize I need to just let go. No one is ever going to be interested in me, so I need to stop holding myself back. Live fast and die young, and let things take care of themselves however the chips may fall. Trying to carefully curate my reputation like I did to survive middle school is not impressing anyone, so literally fuck what other people think of me. It's time to live.

So that was my FWA for 2015. I did purchase a few commissions but it is going to take me a good while to scan those in...two months or more. My scanner/printer broke, and convention expenses kept me from getting one when I needed it. I think there was only one or two commissions that needed to be taken home after I paid, so I guess we'll see what kind of turnaround those get.

Probability is high that my next furry convention is going to be FangCon 2015. If FWA remains in this hotel for next year, I am not sure about returning to be honest...there are so many more conventions popping up and already existing that I need to see.

So since those FWA memes floating around are geared primarily toward artists and suiters, I figured I'd just make an actual journal.

Yes, I am going to be there, should be at the con from Thursday through Sunday. Will be rooming with my local fur friends this year instead of staying with  oceanotter like I usually do. No drama or anything, I just feel like i need to expand my circle of friends and meet more local people. I keep thinking that maybe if I meet more people I'll get introduced to someone, friend of a friend-like, who may become a my significant other. Though it isn't something I am terribly concerned about; as I have mentioned before, I am ready to give up on the fandom as a potential source for dating material. I am more ready to just have fun with great people and make some friends, hopefully some that stick.

I'm not sure what my goals are this year. I am probably going to end up spending more money than I'd like, especially since FWA will have the vendors that I just assumed would be at FangCon. (silly me, they're not -that- big yet). Grandiose plans I had to do more this year no longer seem logical, even though I have a roommate now who's paying me an extra $100 a week in rent. As much as I would have loved to visit Universal Studios this year, it is unlikely I can make it happen.

Maybe I could do Anthrocon? Some of the people I'm going to be associating with are thinking about going, and if I can get in with them it is a possibility. A stronger one than Megaplex would be, since I only know one guy who goes to that and he isn't local. (Two actually, though the other guy is no longer active).

Regardless, it seems like FangCon is a shoo-in if nothing else major comes up. I'll be more ready for that this year and hopefully should avoid having another financial crash right before the holidays. yay.

umm...what else? Oh! I am in the process of going back and uploading more stuff to my Weasyl ( https://www.weasyl.com/~coon ), some of which you aren't ever going to see on my gallery here. At some point in the future I am going to shed the characters I've been hiding behind and just go with my fursona, probably opening an alternate account just for him. My other characters are not going to go anywhere, so don't worry; they'll just have their own account (this one/weasyl) and will be taking a back seat when it comes to getting commissions.

Whatever was previously wrong with my computer seems to have corrected itself.

I am not sure exactly what happened, as I had tried multiple things and each one of them failed. I tried completely uninstalling/wiping the problem programs and reinstalling them from scratch...multiple times. I purchased a registry fixer utility program. I ran several antivirus and malware platforms both in and out of safe mode, and all of them came back clean. I did a computer refresh, which is like Windows 8's "reformat-lite", and that only fixed Skype. I downloaded and ran a recommended German web-based virus scanner, based on someone's suggestion that it was a well-hidden rootkit that was breaking my programs. This found a thing and quarantined it but did not fix my problem. I ran the scan again in safe mode with networking and it came up clean. After that I finally gave up and installed Google Chrome, and then Firefox started working again all by itself two days later. Then my computer did the expected forced update to Windows 8.1 and this time it was actually successful!

So. After two weeks of being unable to use Internet browsers and Skype on my main PC, it is now back in operation, and technically running better than new (when it was new it failed the 8.1 update)....and I am at a complete loss as to why.

I can only speculate that something...be it a rootkit or something else...altered the base-level settings these programs used to operate/connect to the web. Since settings were what was being altered my computer and its associated programs did not see this as a problem, even though the changes affected the base operation of some programs. Whatever that antivirus found must have been what made the initial change to these settings, but quarantining it didn't change anything back. Something else must have...an update that I didn't notice perhaps?

Regardless I am on 8.1 now and everything is running. I just need a new printer/scanner combo and I'll be back up to my rig's usual standards.

Seems like it's just been a week of conclusions here.

My computer troubles have come to a conclusion. I do not know as of yet exactly what the problem is/was, but I do believe I have finally managed to resolve the issue. After doing some research online into the nature of my browser hangs, I found people were divided evenly into two camps: One side had a permissions issue with a DLL, and the other group had a very well masked rootkit. I've been running the only recommended scanner that is supposed to be able to detect/take care of it, and it's been running for two days now...only at 2%. It has until tomorrow morning to find something, which I doubt it is going to happen. As for the DLL, I did not have the particular one mentioned, but I did add a branching permission to one with a similar name...and now I can use Skype no problem, and FireFox and IE both run outside of safe mode now. As an added precaution, I have Chrome waiting to install if I need it.

Also, it's been a week now since the initial IMVU announcement and it is becoming increasingly clear that we're all being taken for a ride. I am going to go back to my Weasyl and start up an Inkbunny account. I am going to crosspost everything I have here, whether the artists are at these places or not. And then I don't know...Watch and wait? It has come up that IMVU is a cesspool of art/character theft, and the only way we're given by which to address this is to file a DCMA. A lot of people are pulling their art because they don't want to have to deal with that, plus many of our copyrights here are implied rather than filed. In conclusion, I may end up pulling my gallery as well, though I don't know for sure right now what I am going to do about that. I may just wait until I have to file a DCMA myself first. It doesn't honestly bother me as much as the possibility of the site becoming riddled with malvertisements.

Dragoneer's actions, for all the smoke and mirrors, seem to become even more reprehensible with each passing day. It turns out he wasn't the only legal owner of FA/Ferrox, and that he made this sale behind the other owner's back, pocketing the money. This, coupled with his previous behavior and the fact that this acquisition went through in the middle of a fundraiser leads me to believe that he is...you know what, I'm not going to stoop there. Let us just say that I have been giving him far too much credit over the years as a person who means well, and that ends now.

But no. I am not abandoning this site. Not just yet. Even if I later decide to remove some of my art, I plan on remaining here in more or less of a social capacity, continuing to watch those remaining who I've put on watch, and spread their art around through favorites. Maybe nothing will happen and things will eventually settle down and FA will operate like it always has? Maybe things will get better? Even if it doesn't, it is most likely going to be a gradual process...there's probably not going to be any scorched earth here and I don't see any reason why we should be burning bridges.

Zombies are so 2013. I am preparing for the tween apocalypse!

I ran across this article made by the developers behind Pixel Piracy. It pretty much sums up how I feel about Early Access.

You can find the original article here: http://steamcommunity.com/games/264.....15799673239204


"WE WILL NOT BE USING EARLY ACCESS FOR THIS TITLE




Let me just blast through the reasons in bullet form, as there are MANY.

1. WE DON'T NEED TO:

We made enough money from clients on Pixel Piracy to warrant upgrading out 2 man NON studio to a 10 man team across 3 countries, with a PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT studio in Turku, Finland; a DESIGN Studio in Murcia, Spain, and freelance artists working to help our LEAD artist (yes we have a PLURAL amount of artists).

2. IT WOULDN'T BE RIGHT:

Even if we NEEDED the money, it wouldn't be right MORALLY. We already went through the motions of game development one time using Early Access and wound up launching a buggy title way too early because we had a very, VERY avid test group of fans who would say it was perfect. By cooking it until perfection on our own terms, we ensure we are giving our clients what they PAY for and not what WE PROMISE THEM WE'LL COME THROUGH ON.

3. EARLY ACCESS IS ABUSED WAAAAY TOO OFTEN:

"Abused" is a very strong term, as we ourselves are guilty of this. When you are making a game, you start out with a wide open field of open doors to potentially go through. When looking for funding, you look through those open doors into ANY direction you want, and promised based on them. Development of a game OBLIGATES a team to close doors little by little, many times closing UNWANTED doors that you PREVIOUSLY promised. Couple that with the fact that nowadays it's STRANGE for a studio to actually launch an Early Access title, and we're looking at an abuse cycle our studio wants to take no part in. We thank each and every one of you who have helped us get to where we are, and we are learning from the past instead of living in it.

4. EARLY ACCESS IS A CRUTCH WE DON'T WANT TO USE.

We feel Early Access is a "Crutch" people use, and it's one we don't need. We should be judged as professionals in a sector where we attempt to thrive and flourish, not flounder and waddle. The only way we can do so is to produce tight, polished games with the risk of having it all go to hell and a handbasket if we launch it and it turns out to be crap. THIS FEAR is what drives us, it's waht makes us fight. If we take that fear away we'd just promise the moon and then deliver something with no "heart".

5. I simply think EA is garbage at this point in time due to the studios misinterpreting how it should be used.

LARGE studios have NO "real" right to be using Early Access. Come on guys, you base your game's sales point on a HUGE mainstream developer's name and push out a pre-alpha tech demo and charge top dollar for it, just to turn around and whine about how "not enough people bought it to make it viable so we pulled the plug." That has a name where I come from, and it's bullshit, I'm calling you guys on it and will show you how it's supposed to be done. I'm not a AAA studio, I'm BARELY a mid-range studio, and I'm sitting here working on a staurday afternoon after having had my spine collapse on me and having been bedridden for two months now.

If you want the respect of your fans, if you want your "legitimacy" as a game development studio or a world renowned developer or an "ace" producer, don't beat aroudn the bush, don't cash out, don't cut corners and get the job done. I'm sick and tired of Kickstarter, Early Access and all of these startup programs that are supposed to be used by people who NEED the means to get their projects off the ground abused by these Big Name so-and-so's and their rock solid reputations (or not). Why don't you find a publisher to put two million into your idea and get it done? Oh, what's that? Because when you don't come through on a Kickstart or Early Access promise you only dick over a client, and doing the same to a PUBLISHER will hurt because they have nasty lawyers? Well tough s**t friend, them's the bricks. "

Someone made the counter argument in a different thread that early access games are better off because you are relying on your entire consumer base for bug testing, and that if development teams could have done that in the 90's, they all would have. Well, I posit to you: How does it feel to be an unpaid QA tester? How do you feel about paying money for an unfinished product based on the assurances that your feedback might make it better?