Registration for FA Live (FA United's first art show) is now live!

http://www.faunited.org/#!art-show-registration/c1kr9

We've also got entries for our dance competition up as well.

Dance Competition
http://www.faunited.org/#!dance-competition/c5l6

Pre-registration for FA ends July 31st! Be sure to pre-register by clicking
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/primar.....58803?ref=ebtn

We recently learned of an exploit which was used to compromise the ad server. We are trying to be open and transparent about what happened, and what steps we are taking to resolve the issue.We learned of the issue after doing recent server maintenance (security updates), and upon reboot, the ad server started issuing rogue links. No personal data was affected. Once we found the issue we pulled the server immediately to quarantine the system while we investigated.

A vulnerability in third party software we used (OpenX) allowed unauthorized software to carry through the ad server, and potentially inject malicious re-directs to sites serving malware. From what we can very few users were affected, and we regret that this happened. To fix the issue, we spent the majority of the weekend rebuilding the ad server and upgrading to a new platform all around. The ad server is on a new platform, and has had extra security measures implemented.

All advertisers have been compensated for the down time. Our ad server generates more than 16,500,000 advertisements a day.

Sites large and small -- even those like Target, eBay, Yahoo and Google -- are constantly targeted by malware and other malicious attackers, and we try to stay on top of it. Furry art galleries are no exception. We regret that this happened, and are taking measures to ensure that this does not happen again.

Special thanks to  atkelar for helping us determine the root of the issue once we were alerted to it.

Further, we have discontinued use of Viglink (our ad referral software) due to users concerns regarding privacy. Many users have expressed concerns, and after a discussion with internal staff and those from other galleries, we agreed that it was in the community's best interest to discontinue its usage

Good day!

Allow us to briefly apologize for an unforeseen issue with one of our servers that has left Ads, Password Resets, and Account Creation temporarily disabled. We are aware of the issue and are working to correct it. Those whose ads are affected will be credited with additional air time as appropriate and will receive an email notifying them of this issue, the length of downtime, amount of credit, etc. once the server is brought live again.

We appreciate your patience and wish you all the best.

Update: The server maintenance is complete. We are currently looking into an issue with ad server, and will credit all advertisers 48 hours for the downtime. We expect to have the ad server up by tonight (6/8/2014) and will post updates as we have them.

We're looking for a skilled layout and CSS wizard to join phoenix team to help us finish our first milestone! Is that person you? Drop us a notice with some examples of your work in a comment on the journal.

Citizens of the Realm,

It has come to our attention that a handful of users have been using scripts to automate the mass watching of users. While we allow scripts and add-ons (provided they're not malicious or have a detrimental impact to the site) we will take action on any script or tool which we feel puts an undue burden on the site and our resources or which has a negative impact to other users.

Any user found using a "watchbot" to automate watchers en mass risks having their account wiped and permanently closed. This may or may not come with a warning given your account's history.

Thank you,
Princess Celestia Fender

NOTE: The amount of "watchbots" is limited to roughly two dozen so far. It's a small, isolated group, but we wanted to address it publicly.

Just a reminder: our Kaiju art contest ends in a little over a week (June 1st!).

---

www.faunited.org
Aug 15-17, 2014

---

FA United 7: Monster Island is hosting a "Design A Kaiju" art contest. We're seeking talented, creative, and aspiring monster designers to submit their original, monstrous creations or kaijufied characters for FA United 7! We need creative people to submit ideas for our site, conbook, and our limited edition FAU Monster Island art book (available to sponsors and up!).

It's your chance to get your art seen and featured on the site and in the community!

http://www.faunited.org/#!kaiju/c488

While we've already got a lot of fantastic Kaiju designs (with more coming), when it comes to Kaiju, you just can't have enough. We need your creativity! Your spark! Your city-stomping, battleship-shredding dragons, saurians, monsters, and giant beasts to help make our con a stand-out success!

== THE PRIZES
* 1st place: Elite Sponsorship for FAU 7 (plus the chance to design a site banner!) and $125
* 2nd place: Super Sponsorship for FAU 7 and $75
* 3rd place: Sponsor Registration for FAU 7 and $40

We'll also feature your art and submissions in an FA news post with all the fame, fortune, and watchers you can handle!* It's a great way to get your art in front of the community!
* Fame and Fortune not included.
* Watchers not guaranteed.

== THE RULES
* All entries MUST be 300DPI, high resolution.
* All entries MUST be rated no higher than PG-13. Violence/destruction and stomping are fine, but NO gore!
* NO trademarked characters. (Sorry, Godzilla, you're going to have to sit this one out.)

== HOW TO ENTER
* Email your entry (high res) to info2014[at]faunited.org
* AND submit your design to Fur Affinity with the keyword "faukaiju"
* That's it!

The deadline to submit is June 1st, 2014! Winners will be selected and posted shortly after.

== By submitting a design you agree that we can post your Kaiju to:
* The FA United site.
* The FA United con book.
* The FA United Monster Island Art Book (Sponsors and up).

To celebrate the release of the new Godzilla film we're offering 10% off *all* levels of registration for FAU 7: Monster Island! Just use coupon code "Godzilla" when checking out to save 10% on reg. Offer ends Friday Sunday night! We've extended the discount due to demand.

http://www.faunited.org
Aug 15-17, 2014
Whippany, NJ

Guests of Honor: Fox Amoore, Colson, Fossil... and you!

We will return with some news regarding site updates, progress and fixes after this weekend. We know you've been craving news and updates, and we've been working on just that. =)

https://www.faunited.org
Aug 15-17, 2014

---

FA United 7: Monster Island is hosting a "Design A Kaiju" art contest. We're seeking talented, creative, and aspiring monster designers to submit their original, monstrous creations or kaijufied characters for FA United 7! We need creative people to submit ideas for our site, conbook, and our limited edition FAU Monster Island art book (available to sponsors and up!).

It's your chance to get your art seen and featured on the site and in the community!

http://www.faunited.org/#!kaiju/c488

While we've already got a lot of fantastic Kaiju designs (with more coming), when it comes to Kaiju, you just can't have enough. We need your creativity! Your spark! Your city-stomping, battleship-shredding dragons, saurians, monsters, and giant beasts to help make our con a stand-out success!

== THE PRIZES
* 1st place: Elite Sponsorship for FAU 7 (plus the chance to design a site banner!) and $125
* 2nd place: Super Sponsorship for FAU 7 and $75
* 3rd place: Sponsor Registration for FAU 7 and $40

We'll also feature your art and submissions in an FA news post with all the fame, fortune, and watchers you can handle!* It's a great way to get your art in front of the community!
* Fame and Fortune not included.
* Watchers not guaranteed.

== THE RULES
* All entries MUST be 300DPI, high resolution.
* All entries MUST be rated no higher than PG-13. Violence/destruction and stomping are fine, but NO gore!
* NO trademarked characters. (Sorry, Godzilla, you're going to have to sit this one out.)

== HOW TO ENTER
* Email your entry (high res) to info2014[at]faunited.org
* AND submit your design to Fur Affinity with the keyword "faukaiju"
* That's it!

The deadline to submit is June 1st, 2014! Winners will be selected and posted shortly after.

== By submitting a design you agree that we can post your Kaiju to:
* The FA United site.
* The FA United con book.
* The FA United Monster Island Art Book (Sponsors and up).

== Registration Re-Opened
Due to recent issues with spamming we were forced to close registration on the site. We're happy to announce that registration has been re-opened, and to combat the issue we've tightened security against using "disposable" email addresses during sign-up.

== Phoenix Update
Work on the Phoenix site re-coding project continues, and we hope to have some new screenshots and progress updates in the near future. We're still laying down the ground work on the project and developing the backbone.

One thing we can share: the Phoenix Project WILL be Open Source. We are moving towards an open source model for the site and the community, and to allow others to use (and contribute) code to the final product.

https://github.com/FurAffinity

== FA United
This year, we're hosting FA Live -- an art show re-designed from the ground up. What's FA Live? An interactive art show with +watches, +faves, shoutboxes and even profiles for the artists themselves! Attendees will be able to +fav art, and entries with the highest number of +favs will allow artists a chance to win prizes and super-spiffy rewards! More to be announced soon.

Dealer's Den tables are still available.

http://www.faunited.org

== Banner Update
 anti-dark-heart has made an amazing new banner which we're happy to use to welcome the arrival of Spring! Although, given the recent weather conditions we're not really sure what Spring is anymore.

https://youtu.be/CZrbFaz28g0

FA United Monster Island and Fat Loot Games are giving away free copies of the game Monster Stacker. We've got about a dozen codes to give away.

Details on how to enter and get free game codes can be found here:
http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5574241/ Day 4

Our primary goal in 2014 is to give a breath of fresh air to the site, the administration, and the community. Over the course of the next twelve months, we plan on overhauling many aspects of the site, as we have started recently by improving transparency and openness with the community.

Over the last several days there have been a number of concerns raised by members of the community, and we wanted to address them in an open format for community review and discussion. Your feedback continues to be important to us as we grow and change, and we look forward to reading it.

We apologize for the delay in posting this article, however we had to come together as a team to ensure that all parties were on the same page as we approached the community.


Rules, Consistency, and Trouble Tickets

At the moment, we understand that there’s a lot of concern with the consistency of moderation, as well as the time taken to respond to Trouble Tickets. Over the next few months, we hope to tackle these issues using a multi-pronged approach.

First, we plan on eliminating much of the ambiguity that currently exists within the Terms of Service and other policy documents on the site. We will be rewriting, condensing, and simplifying many aspects of the rules in order to make them clearer and easier to understand for the community.

Once this is complete, we will begin recruiting new administrative staff. This will include new staff to help with Trouble Tickets, as well as staff to assist in site moderation. We hope to include new procedures and guidelines for training staff that will help to ensure consistency, clarity, and a more positive experience.

By improving clarity, training, and bringing on additional team members, we can work to lower ticket wait times in a consistent and sustainable manner.


Project Phoenix Rumors

Some rumors have circulated regarding a team of coders working on a new version of the site prior to the announcement of Phoenix. While they did ask permission to help, they were not a part of site staff and were working independently on their own project. They were not in communication with site staff, nor involved in site developments.

Additionally, there have been a number of concerns regarding one of our staff members and alleged incidents in his past. Sexual assault is a serious topic, and we encourage anyone who has been a victim of sexual assault to contact authorities or a crisis hotline. We understand the community’s concerns, and we have heard you on this topic. However, there is no criminal background on this topic, nor a violation of Fur Affinity policy, and we cannot make staffing decisions based on allegations alone. We would not knowingly bring someone onto the team with an alleged criminal background without reviewing the situation carefully.

Initially we hid and removed content that brought up these allegations. Our intention was not to stifle users’ ability to bring up criticisms or discussion, but was intended to ensure discussion stayed within the confines Code of Conduct. We will not remove content related to this issue so long as it remains civil and in line with the Code of Conduct.


Site Staff and Data Access

Another concern has related to what staff can access what data. How Fur Affinity collects and handles data, as well as who has access to it, has been subject to a great deal of rumor and speculation over time. Therefore we have started work on a Privacy Policy that will become part of Fur Affinity’s policy documents in the coming weeks. This will outline what data is collected, how it is used to enhance your browsing experience, and how to remove your data from our systems if you wish.

As for staff data access, it should be noted that none of the Project Phoenix developers have access to the production database, where user information is securely stored. Nor do they have administrative access on the site. As for user information, anything not publicly accessible is restricted to trusted administrators, some content only allowing specific administrators to see it, and only under certain circumstances. Fur Affinity does not share your data without your permission except under certain circumstances, such as a valid legal request.


On Old Projects

One concern that has been brought up is the number of old projects we’ve had in the past. We acknowledge that there have been quite a few and we apologize for this, as none came to fruition. Many of these were simply a refresh of the user interface, which often times didn’t pan out due to complications with the site’s existing code that needed to be fixed. Project Phoenix aims to function as a complete transformation of the site, allowing us to rework the user experience as part of a greater whole.

Some have also brought up that they liked old designs better than the new one. We understand, some of them were pretty nice! Unfortunately, a design that looks great for one page won’t always translate well to another, which we found to be the case with our older designs. The way we approached the redesign this time was different, it’s still not final and we’re working on incorporating your feedback, but we can better ensure that it works across our entire application.


2014 and Beyond

Our end goal in 2014 is to improve all aspects of the site. Again, we don’t anticipate this will happen overnight and we ask that you be patient with us. These changes will take time and we’ll continue to update you as they are rolled out. Any questions or comments can be directed to this article, and we’ll be responding to them regularly.

We are aware of growing concerns over an issue regarding one of the members of the Project Phoenix development crew, and we are currently working on a response to address those concerns. We will also be working with the community to help quell rumors, and answer questions regarding the current state of FA, as well as plans for future development.

Jan 2014 banner update brought to you by the ever talented  verli. Congrats! May you survive the +watch and +fav storm with relative ease.

---

Announcing Fur Affinity: Project Phoenix

Fur Affinity is happy to announce that the next version of furaffinity.net is in active development. Our goal is simple, to provide you with a better experience that can be sustained and improved upon for years to come.

To reach this goal, we will be rewriting Fur Affinity from the ground up. Codenamed Project Phoenix, we’re able to take full advantage of new technologies that have emerged since Fur Affinity's birth, ensuring the site is easily maintained and extended upon for years to come.

We’re also working on a visual refresh, improving the overall look and feel, as well as the user experience. We’ll be holding our design to a higher standard to ensure that Fur Affinity provides ease of use while retaining high visual appeal.


Design prototype for Phoenix - Click to enlarge
Fur Affinity relies on its community, and it’s because of you that we’re all here today. We’d like to thank you for your patience and your faith. From today, we’re going to be posting regular updates regarding this project and the site in general. 2014 is a new year for us, and we want to increase transparency and trust for all aspects of the administration.

---

About Fur Affinity: Fur Affinity was created in 2005 as an outlet for creative expression within the furry community. Today it continues to be the largest active community site for the furry fandom.

About the Team:

We’ve established a team experienced in product management, UI, and the development of large-scale web applications.

Dragoneer: Owner and head admin of Fur Affinity, Dragoneer has been with FA since 2005. He manages the organization as a whole as part of his day-to-day responsibilities. For Project Phoenix, he provides top-level guidance and direction to ensure the project meets the organization’s needs and vision for the future of FA.

Adam Wan: Also known in the fandom as Zaush. Development lead for the new Fur Affinity. Adam has over 11 years of experience in various technical fields such as web development, game engine development, UX, and applications for integrated systems. Lately his work has been related to user experience, complex intranet tools, and integrated applications.

ctrlaltdel123: Developer working under Adam Wan to help with the new Fur Affinity. He has experience designing, implementing, and testing real-time software systems and web applications.

Nanuk: Product and marketing lead for the new Fur Affinity. Nanuk has experience managing and marketing products for large scale web properties. He works to help organize planning and development of the new Fur Affinity, while maintaining transparency with the community.

Just a quick note: the banner has been updated, with art coming by  thunper.

New for 2013: the official FA Christmas, Holiday Tree, Yule Log Decoration and Festivus pole decoration!

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/12239491/

Want to get your hands on one? Here's what you need to know!

- The 2013 FA ornaments are limited edition. There will only be 500 made (or until we run out of trees!). Each ornament is individually numbered.
- We promise the ornaments will not cause your tree to crash! It may go offline, but some Christmas trees just do that on their own.
- Ornaments are laser engraved on natural cut cedar wood, and no two are alike. The individual grain of the wood varies with each and every ornament. As an added bonus: they smell absolutely amazing!
- Ornaments are $25 each (shipping not included). We offer discounted shipping rates for orders with multiple ornaments (inquire within!).
- Any orders made by December 14th will be shipped that day, ensuring your ornament will arrive by Christmas!
- You're free to order more than one, but we encourage you NOT to decorate your entire tree with 'em! That'd be weird.
- $10 from each sale goes to Fur Affinity (will cover costs of SSL cert renewal and to fund a mobile-friendly site design). The rest covers time, labor and material to make them.

We're taking orders NOW. Interested? Fill out an order form today:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/17k.....CmeAc/viewform

Update: The beta is currently on hold pending revisions. We will update when it's ready for testing again.

---

We meet again, and with more good news! Our private testing has proven successful, and we're making it available for the public to join in the testing!

Accessing the beta site is as easy as visiting http://beta.furaffinity.net

Currently in testing:
* Deferred Notification System - We've re-vamped how the site handles notifications, vastly improving upload and posting times for both submissions and journals. Once posted, the site sends out notifications in small batches until all watchers on your list have received the update. As a site note, this also fixes the issue of missing notifications some users have experienced. Depending on the number of watches you have, this may be anywhere from instantaneous to upwards of 10-15 minutes and site load.
* Site-wide SSL - Site-wide SSL has been enabled on Beta. You can enable it via the Account Settings page (link below for the lazy!). This is disabled by default, but can be enabled for site-wide SSL.
http://beta.furaffinity.net/controls/settings/

SSL encrypts data to and from the source (making it harder for third parties to intercept your information). This is especially useful when you're sharing an open connection (public WiFi, nosy roommates) where people can potentially "sniff" out packets to attempt to get information. By default, the site currently encrypts pages where passwords/logins are used. Site-wide SSL extends the encryption to all pages of the site across the board.

If you encounter any issues please let us know in this journal. The current Beta is ONLY testing the above two items. Anyone reporting other issues shall be poked to death by us and/or fellow users.

Set your pokes to stun, and begin enjoying swift, easy uploading!

Note: These changes ONLY apply when accessing the site via beta.furaffinity.net. If you go back to live site (www.furaffinity.net) the fixes/changes will no longer apply.

-=LAST UPDATED: 2013-11-22, 11:00PM EST=-

Greetings, citizens!

We've been seeing a massive increase in spam lately, and for once it's not coming from spammers, but by users on the site. To combat this rising plague we are modifying the rules as of this posting.

* "Spam to Win" - Journals and submissions which require OR directly encourage other users to create additional journals and submissions are PROHIBITED.

* YCH/Auction Reminders - These Reminders must be unique and new submissions, and may NOT be a copy nor variant of previously posted submissions. These Reminders may NOT be submitted, removed, and then reused in the same fashion as other notices outlined in the Acceptable Upload Policy.

~ Rules Change Reasoning: - The volume of new notices created due to YCH, Auctions, and users requiring or encouraging other users to create additional submissions and journals on their behalf has become excessive and is inconveniencing Fur Affinity's community.

ANY NEW SUBMISSIONS OR JOURNALS created after this posting (Nov 21 @ 6:00PM EST, 11:00PM EST) in violation of the Spam to Win policy be removed if found.

The AUP and Code of Conduct will be updated later tonight to reflect these changes. If users have questions regarding this policy we will be periodically updating this post with a Q/A to respond to answers.

Thank you,
The Fur Affinity Admin Team

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q: May I still advertise auctions, et al. via journal or in the descriptions of new submissions?
A: Yes. You may do this as often as you would like, provided you adhere to any restrictions outlined in our Acceptable Upload Policy.

Q: What about Streaming, Commission, or Price notices?
A: This rule change does NOT apply to these notices. Please refer to the Acceptable Upload Policy for applicable restrictions and limitations.

Q: May I create a journal to "signal boost" the journal, account, or submission of a friend or artist I like?
A: Yes, UNLESS the aforementioned user's journal encourages or requires you to do so in any way.

Q: May I still post works in progress for auctions, et al. that I have sold?
A: Yes; however, incomplete art is still required to be submitted into the SCRAPS folder as per the Acceptable Upload Policy.

Q: May I still create raffles, contests, etc.?
A: Yes, provided that entry doesn't include the exchange of consideration such as cash, items of monetary value, require nor encourage other users to create additional journals and submissions, nor violate Fur Affinity's site rules.

-=Site Staff Monitoring This Thread=-

We've received our current load for testers. We'll be reaching out to everyone selected once we've got the test environment setup.

---

Good news, everyone!

We have news that's NOT a banner update notification!

We're looking for testers to help put a patch through the ringer, and we need volunteers! Specifically, volunteers who meet a specialized criteria:

* Volunteers MUST have 8,000+ watchers
* Volunteers MUST have original, fresh content to post (submissions and/or journals)
* Volunteers MUST have an account in good standing

Interested? Send a note to THIS ACCOUNT! We're accepting 20 total volunteers to help out!

We're testing a patch that significantly modifies how FA sends out notifications. Currently, artists with large amounts of watchers may face timeouts when submitting journals or uploading new submissions, and in some cases notifications of the submission may get lost when this happens. This new update in testing instantly submits the journal or submission, then breaks up notifications into smaller batches. Watchers will be notified gradually until the list is complete.

The hideous Spider People of Taurus VII need not apply.

EDIT: Lowered watch count slightly to make it available for a wider audience.

Banner has been updated! Art by the truly amazing  silverclaw1.

Greetings, citizens! We're looking for a few good volunteers to step forward to help out with the site! We're recruiting for two kinds of positions this time around --Admins/Moderators and Wiki/Documentation Specialists.

Admins/Moderators are expected to assist with the ticket queue, assist users and help make the site a better place all around. Wiki/Documentation Specialist are needed to help write, maintain and improve documentation for the site and to help create a comprehensive FAQ with instructions for the site, troubleshooting, support and more.

2013 Fall Admin Recruitment
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1YO.....Smrjo/viewform

2013 Fall Wiki/Documentation Specialist Signup
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/10M.....NW-0s/viewform

Our server migration went well (though a few hours over our estimate). We are currently running off Jake as our primary DB server, and Finn will be brought up later this coming week as our secondary DB.

Of note: we are making tweaks and fixing a few issues to improve stability and performance. We are aware of some occasional slowdowns and white screens which may affect users, but we should be able to smooth out over a few days. We apologize for the inconvenience, but are working towards fixing this as fast as we can.

In the mean time, we are continuing to ramp up speed and will bring the other half of our database and keep you updated.


Sep. 16, 10:23:27 UTC: Made several updates in the sessions related code that reduces locking contention on several key database tables. This should help reduce the lag during peak hours.

The end of Summer is almost here. There's still heat, sun and plenty of fun left before it concedes to the rise of Autumn! And with Fat Bunny Week over, it's time to shed a few (hundred) pounds and hit the beaches before they close! Or have a pool party (which we have on good word is QUITE spectacular!).

Art by  kaiizree.

Fat Bunny Week - Contests, Events, and Features! (this goes as the title announcement thingy that everyone can see at the top of their FA page)

(the news article)
Welcome to Fat Bunny Week 2013! Over the last month, a team of 5 people worked very hard to put together some really awesome events this week for you to take advantage of! Here's what we have going on this week!

THE BANNER:
Last month, we had the community vote on 10 different entries and  kium was our winner! Please visit them and leave a thank you for the beautiful banner they submitted!
To view all the artists that participated this year, see here--> http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/4903303/


THE FAT BUNNY GARDEN PARTY:
 Goldendruid hosted our first ever collaborative meme! Check it out and see who you recognize! --> http://www.furaffinity.net/view/11320447/


FAT BUNNY COMMISSION RAFFLE:
 NolanBear is hosting a special raffle! Are you planning on doing fat bunny commissions from August 11- August 18, 2013? Each commission you do will be entered into a raffle for a chance to win a free month of FA advertising! You can submit anything (artwork/flash/music/story) to be in the raffle as long as it is a commission that you did for someone this week and it has to be about fat bunnies! Se Journal for for how to enter!--> http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/4939622/


FAT BUNNY TRADING CARD CONTEST:
 Dutch has brought life back to last year's project and now the Fat Bunny TCG is looking for new official cards to add to our official deck! See journal for more details!--> http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/4898955/


THE FIT BUNNY CONTEST:
 sheppymomma is bringing you an off-the-wall contest this year. Are you sick and tired of these damn fat rabbits in your damn FA? It's time to BUFF THEM UP and get these bunnies fit by the end of the week and get a prize for it! See journal for rules and submission guidelines--> http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/4937293/

The clock is ticking down, and there's 10 days left to pre-register for the room. More important, 10 days left to reserve your rooms!

https://www.faunited.org

Join us for our first annual FA cookout and pool party, live music, festivities and more!

We'd like to reach out to the community with a general alert: there's been a slight rise of spammers (BOO!) and we're working on stopping them. The spammers are attempting to link people to an EXE that is a virus/malware software. We don't actually know what it does (yet) as we're not yet willing to sacrifice a system/virt to test it just yet.

If anyone contacts you by comment, shout or note advertising, promoting or suggesting you download anything, and you don't know the person, do not click it. Don't. Don't do it. You'll explode. Seriously. YOU WILL EXPLODE*.

How do you protect yourself?
* Don't know the person, don't click the link! Simple as that.
* Make sure you have a virus scanner that's up-to-date. Microsoft Security Essentials is free for all Windows users.
* If the link doesn't lead to a reputable site, or uses a link shortener like bit.ly or tinyurl, don't bother with it. Do not click it. Ignore it, and just move along.

Use your better judgment!

In the meantime, we are proactively banning spammers or users sending unwanted solicited notes or text.

* You won't really explode, but we hope you'll believe this anyway. Viruses and malware are bad, and you should fully believe there are horrible repercussions for getting one.