Hey everybody, it's your ole pal the Lunatic with yet another topic I want to weigh in on.

Today we're going to talk about an idea someone had, the "Your Character Here" story. You may be asking me 'what is a YCH story?'

The concept is about what one would think of as a YCH piece of artwork: A template is made out, and in key areas certain things are changed to fit and suit your needs. You basically 'buy' the position, and then your character is inserted into the artwork.

The same idea is now being applied to stories: Write out a basic story, take some new words such as character name, description, etc, and tailor the story to suit their needs/desires.

 woofwoofwoof wrote up a journal yesterday, to try and see if there was an interest in such things, as can be seen here: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5792717/

Oh, wait...I'm sorry, no it can't! Why? Because WoofWoofWoof deleted it!

...why did Woofwoofwoof delete it? Because it cast Woofwoofwoof in a really bad light, that's why!

How did it do that? Because...well, let me just show you, instead. Yes, luckily I managed to have the journal up on my Firefox, and I took screenshots.

The journal itself isn't even that bad, it's when we start getting into the comments...

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u....._journal01.png
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u....._journal02.png
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u....._journal03.png
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u....._journal04.png
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u....._journal05.png

See, you have an inherent problem with the YCH story: People already don't feel like they're getting something unique, despite it being tailored at spots. Which means that adding on additional costs (such as doubling the cost just for your character due to it having some 'not normal' designs about it), feels kind of absurd. If the story is already written, and small parts are being made to custom fit you, why are you getting charged that?

But that isn't why I'm mentioning this. Look at how he responds to people, look at how he TREATS THEM.

He treats them like DIRT. Scratch that, dirt gets more respect here than his clientele is here.

For a guy who is supposedly attempting something to appeal to a wider audience, he is doing a bang-up job of making sure he doesn't HAVE that wider audience. He insults and belittles, and then he blocks you so you can't even actually have a conversation with him back (As I've mentioned to others, he blocked me 'cause I got snarky with him after he got snarky with me since I didn't agree with his view of Minecraft. Yeah.)

Plus, on top of that, he goes ELSEWHERE on here to continue fighting with people over it, like so: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5793181/

So yeah, his customer relations? Really awful. Like, the absolute pits.

If woofwoofwoof wants to attempt this idea, more power to him. But his journal isn't transparent enough to really allow folks to see WHY their prices are jumping up so much (and 30 dollars is a 200% increase from the base of 10 bucks. That is an absurd increase), and then him verbally insulting and abrasive and abusive manner is garbage.

The fact he deleted it is just him trying to cover up the horrible mistakes he made, and I refuse to let him do that. (In fact, this isn't the only other time he's attempted to do this; http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/2612656/ for yet ANOTHER incident with woofwoofwoof).

It's ridiculous that he thinks he can treat people like this yet still have a fanbase. Especially over stories that are already being crafted, and will continue to be repackaged for others.

If you guys really want a story written...there are other, better story writers who aren't going to charge you a shit ton of cash. Why not do some searching, find some folks who you really like, and hire them?


On top of everything? He's actually blocked  Milkjunkie and  Echoen from being able to respond to him. I'm not surprised, it seems any time anyone has a dissenting opinion from his own, he just insults them and then gags them to think that is SOMEHOW going to help the problem. It doesn't.

Not to mention, at the moment woofwoofwoof is offering 3 people free YCH stories....only, one of them is his boyfriend.

Now, look, if he wants to do stuff for his significant other, that's entirely up to him. That is HIS CHOICE. But when you are offering something like this to people, to show the kind of work you can do, it might be better to pick someone else. Because really, you need to show you can have growth OUTSIDE of the norm, and handle it well.

But really, nothing about this tells me that he can handle that well, if he can't handle anyone saying 'umm...I'm not gonna pay that!'

Edit: Whoops, didn't mean for this to go up without absolutely NO TEXT the first time! ^^;;

So, in case you guys didn't see my last journal, my friend Milkie (furaffinity.net/user/milkjunkie) had landed on some pretty hard times, where he couldn't even get to keep a job for more than 24 hours before his bosses just decided to dump him. This, combined on top of more expensive living conditions and other assorted affairs left him in a pretty bad spot.

Things have been looking up, where he had yet another interview for another job (fingers crossed!), and the last Milk Money fund raiser on Monday managed to at least help him cover some of his bills.

My friends Yuki, Serge, and UncleCarmine are once more streaming today, playing Borderlands 2 in an effort to help drum up a bit more in donations to help Milkie out of the situation he found himself in.

So, if you're feeling generous, go watch them play some Borderlands 2, and if you can spare it, help toss a couple of bucks in to help! They should be starting soon (roughly around 2:00 pm EST), but may have some slight delays in getting everyone together.

https://furstre.am/stream/UncleCarmine

is where they'll be playing the game. Thanks for reading!

So, my friend Milkie has been struck pretty hard lately, in a variety of ways. (read http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5750721/ for more information).

And in short? he's in some dire need of funds to not become completely homeless. So some of his pals...myself included...are gonna be streaming video games for donations!

https://inkbunny.net/journalview.php?id=133320

So if you'd like some more info, read here!

Right now, however, we're going to be playing Killing Floor, here!:

https://furstre.am/stream/UncleCarmine

Come watch us play and help throw a few dollars out to help our friend Milkie!

I've been having a really strong urge to watch the two Tim Burton Batman films, The 1989 Batman and it's first sequel, 1992's Batman Returns.

Showtime will be starting roughly about 9:30 pm EST!

http://news.xbox.com/2014/04/ent-at.....ill-excavation

Seems someone has gained the rights to dig up the supposed landfill where the E.T.: The Video Game carts are at, and are going to go see if they can uncover the truth! Folks are allowed to attend, though I wouldn't spend a lot of cash to go see this. XD

So now that a few days have passed, and people have had a chance to digest the information in my previous journal and make a decision based on the information available at the time.

Speaking of which, today Zaush came out and made a journal, addressing the allegations that were flying around about him. You can (and should) read it here: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5434971/

So, we're not going to talk about that particular topic again, though I do still plan on editing the previous to bring some of the other things folks mentioned/showed to me. What I want to address this time around is the topic of Accountability, and how it affects you and the community. Because, ultimately, this is the biggest issue behind everything, and has been for awhile.

Now to fully understand this, we have to understand a few things (and I lightly touched upon this in the previous journal, but I realized I never really got to where I wanted to):

1) Fur Affinity is, to the best of my knowledge, a privately held company. That means that it isn't government-owned or anything like that. (I may be incorrect, as I saw someone say they had stock in FA. If so, that does...alter things slightly, but I"m not 100% on that)

2) Based on that fact, that means that whoever owns the site (That is, Dragoneer) have final say in policies, staff members, site design, etc.

3) the site is not paid ENTIRELY out of Dragoneer's pockets, however. It does accept donations, as well as sell page space for ads, which helps bring in revenue. This does not affect management of the site, however.

4) Despite the power being strictly in Dragoneer's court, you DO have some power! Which, if you haven't noticed, has been exercised quite a bit lately...but more on that later!

So, as we can see, Dragoneer has quite a bit of the power here when it comes to FA. Which is fine, but the problem here is he isn't making a site exclusively for his use. He has helped make a site that is used by a community.

Which is a REALLY BIG DEAL. Why is that such a big deal? Because it means one thing:

Dragoneer is NOT the only one who makes this site; nor are his staff. You see, a site like FA or Deviant Art, or InkBunny lives and dies by one thing: The Community.

It doesn't seem to occur to a lot of people, but in truth, we as a Community make the site what it is. I don't mean the design and layout, but I'm talking about the actual CONTENT. What people really come here for, comes from a variety of people, a variety of sources, and comes in a variety of styles. Artwork, music, editorials, stories...ALL of this is created by the users AND the Staff.

You see, Dragoneer can and does exert his control over what can or cannot be uploaded (MLP fan artwork: A-OK!; Sexual cub artwork: Nope.avi), and he has control over both how the site is ran by his Admins and Mods, as well as choosing those who will or won't work on the coding and design of the site.

He even contributes his own artwork and photos to the site! Which is great, as that contributes to the overall content on here.

But he is not the ONLY ONE. This is not a personal website, it is a Community site, with many, many, many folks contributing to make onewhole work that is ever changing; a living, thriving thing.

Which is what brings me to my point: Accountability.

You see, Dragoneer can make all the rules he wants, assign whoever he wants to the staff, but ultimately he has to answer for all these decisions. This has been a major issue with FA: many users believe that because it's a free site, that Dragoneer has to answer to no man. But that is SIMPLY NOT TRUE.

See, if we wish to stay here, we have to agree and follow the policies and upload guides and all that; but on the other side of that coin, the community is helping create the content of this website, and therefore, when rules, staff, and anything else changes, it's at the community's mercy. Afterall, we'll be the ones using it, right? Providing the artwork and stories and music that others enjoy, thereby actually increasing the actual value of the site. It only makes sense that Dragoneer and the Staff HAVE to be held to a standard by the community, because we are helping them.

There's this perception that the users are leeching off Dragoneer's site, but it's really not like that. You DO Have some users that are here that take and take and never provide any thing of any real value or use here, but they are the minority. Even then, it's nearly impossible to not contribute something, either by buying commissions or what have you. Which means that every decision that Dragoneer makes, that effects the website and thus the community, will be scrutinized...and rightfully so.

This is part of the reason the Zaush situation here blew up. There was absolutely NO reason given for why he was now part of the team, and rumors were spreading like wildfire. In an attempt to lessen the damage, the staff took to the Fender journal (http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5417252/) and were hiding comments that were violating the Code of Conduct. Now, it's possible that not EVERY comment hidden actually violated it, but we will work off the assumption that they were.

But there's a major issue with that, and that it was giving off the impression that our right to speak out over what was being perceived as a foul move was being silenced. Thus, now not only were the rumors about Zaush's possible issues flying about, folks believed that we were censored! This idea spread like wildfire, causing panic and disorientation, as information became increasingly difficult to get (and thus lead to the first journal I wrote, because people needed SOMETHING to help inform them).

While all of this was going on, there has been no word (that I've seen) addressing anything, up until Zaush's journal posted a few hours ago. No word from Dragoneer, Sciggles, or anyone else.

Whereas, if Dragoneer HAD addressed these issues, about why he chose Zaush and what happened with the hidden comments, that would be him showing that yes, he acknowledges he has an accountability to the users of the site.

It's been speculated that he would then open himself up to all sorts of questions and critiques, which may be true. The response would be overwhelming, and rightly so. However, that is NOT a bad thing. Transparency is a good thing when it comes to stuff like this, and funny enough the Fender journal said that they were going to become more transparent, so that the users aren't always so out of the loop. So far, they are off to an awful start with that, because the silence does nothing but enforce the idea that they're just ignoring the problem until the fires die down.

If they do address the issues now, it may actually be too late. It's during those first crucial hours that their action (or lack thereof) is so important. People have reactions, they talk, decisions are made. The Mass Exodus was an example of this, people were making their decisions.

And the truth is, while it is assumed by many that 'they'll be back in 2 days', that simply isn't going to be true for everyone. The fact that again people have been moving off site, trying out new sites, means that those sites are gaining new followers (but new detractors as well), and some will return, but some swill stay there. FA is no longer the only game in town for the Furry Community, and every time something like this happens, it hurts FA. There are now less people contributing to the overall content of FA, to its' value.

It doesn't help when things like this happen, or the black out back in December.

Ah, the Black out of FA for a week or so gave people plenty of time to test out other places, to see how they might like those. For that event, Dragoneer does deserve some credit: He wound up fessing that they were aware of the problem, they just hoped it wouldn't become such a huge problem so fast. But at the same time, they knew about the problem, and putting it that they 'hoped' it wouldn't be a problem makes it sound like they were not even attempting to make a plan on how to deal with it...and that's bad.

The event last summer revolving around Chase showed another example of how lack of transparency hurts FA and his credibility.

For those of you who don't know, Chase was a former admin who was into bestiality (this is not a journal about THAT subject), who would then in turn use his favoring of this to side with anyone else who was into it in disputes, and punish the other party...as you can see, this is a very bad thing, because he's not choosing to be unbiased.

It came out last summer that a new account had been made into an Admin...but it was a sock puppet account, to allow Chase back onto the staff without the users knowing. A former staff member allowed it to leak, and thus the users found out...and were upset over it.

What ended up happening was that Dragoneer basically said "Well, it's too bad you guys don't like him. He's staying." and that was that.

He didn't take any accountability about how Chase abused his power before, and basically told the community "Deal with it."

If you would like to read up on this more, go here:

http://furaffinityleaks.blogspot.com/

It's quite a read, but it'll give you a better idea overall than you are getting here.

But my point is, Dragoneer used his position as Site Owner/Head Admin here to make a decision that went against the grain of what the community wanted, and it upset them. Then he had the black out to deal with, THEN the Zaush uproar, where the impression that the community was being censored. It really is no wonder that the bubble burst the way it did, because no one was taking any responsibility or accountability for these decisions.

So the users voted the one way they could: They decided to move elsewhere.

Understand, that without you guys, this site is NOTHING. If we all moved to Weasyl at once, FA would be little more than a monument to an era of the Furry Community. Dragoneer has a lot of power, but so do you guys. But we have to decide that, together.

...as a final note, there is one thing about Zaush I wish to address. The journal that Zaush wrote addressed the sexual allegations, but did NOT address how he talked or handled the others on the coding team for FA. It's been mentioned on his journal ( http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/...../#cid:38152884 ), but you guys should be just as concerned with it...you should demand an explanation, and we should get one! Because...people have to be held accountable for their actions. If they're not, then we don't have any laws at all.

So my friend  PZOwned has had some computer woes, having a PSU that fried. She's ordered a replacement, but was needing some cash for some other things.

So she's opted to sell an graphics card she has to get the money. It's listed on Amazon right now (http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-list.....;condition=all) For well under the asking price others have it listed, having listed it at 99.99 USD with shipping costs.

If you're looking for a pretty decent graphics card, this might be a really good way to get something you're looking for and to help out a fellow fur. :3

Happy Halloween, all you ghastly kiddies out there! Tonight's feature will be a mini-marathon of 3 Halloween movies: Halloween, Halloween 2, and Halloween H20. Showtime will be sometime around 7 or 8 PM EST, depending on what I'm doing/how I'm feeling. Be sure to keep an eye out for my submission for the showtime later!

Tonight is Luni's Trick 'r Treat holiday treat! Tomorrow is my birthday, and as such I'm gonna play two of my favorite movies!

Will they be a treat, or am I gonna trick everyone? Come in around 8 PM EST tonight to find out!

Tonight we're delving into the world of Italian horror, with Lucio Fulci's Zombi 2 and then following it up with Zombi 3.

For those of you who are wondering where is Zombi, it's very simple: George Romero's Dawn of the Dead was marketed as 'Zombi: Dawn of the Dead' in the European markets, and Lucio's film was marketed as a kind of sequel (but not really) to his film.

Zombi 2 is remarkable for kind of starting the push for Italian horror in the late 70's and 80's, and is often considered to be fairly gory. :3 So come join in! Show starts around 8 PM EST.

Tonight's films will be John Carpenter's The Fog, and Wes Craven's Shocker. Will be starting around 8 PM EST.

Tonight's stream is scheduled to start at around 10 pm, EST. Tonight's selection is the Hammer Studios' version of The Mummy, followed by the Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires.

Should be some cheesy fun! Drop on in.

Tonight's menu is consisting of Creepshow and Trick 'R Treat. Come join in, and have the most fun you can have being scared! :V

Showtime will begin approximately 8 PM EST.

Tonight we'll be finishing the Phantasm series with 3 and 4, with a show start time of roughly 9:30 PM EST.

The stream will start a bit later than usual, as I forgot to include Survivor in my programming. x_x So the stream will begin roughly around 10 PM, EST.

Tonight's features are: Phantasm 1 and 2

Tonight we're showing the 1981 Werewolf classic, An American Werewolf in London!

Show time is roughly at 8:30 pm EST, feel free to hop in!

http://www.livestream.com/lunisasylum

www.livestream.com/lunisasylum

Just a quick reminder to anyone wanting to join in, I'm gonna be starting to air tonight's show roughly around 9:30, and before that I'll be showing some old cartoons and commercials. Airing Disney's Sleepy Hollow and Godzilla 2000 tonight.

if you want to watch!

I'm looking for a start time of roughly 9:30 EST, with some cartoons airing before the main feature.

Tonight's Selection:

Disney's Sleepy Hollow
Godzilla 2000

Hope to see you there!

Here in roughly half an hour I plan to stream a short, creepy movie from the project 'Fear(s) of the Dark', and then moving onto the main feature of Cabin in the Woods! Feel free to join in!

http://www.livestream.com/lunisasylum

So I managed to stream last night to some modest success, which made me pleased. But I figure if I'm going to continue doing these streams, some rules should be set down:

1) During Movie streams, if you have already seen the movie, please respect the other people in the stream who have not. Teasing and such are okay, but if you're coming in to ruin others' fun, I will boot you. (This is especially true if you're trying to ruin movies I haven't watched!)

2) Relax, sit back, have fun. Don't be picking fights with other people, they're just here to watch the film or whatever too.

3) Cussing and such is fine, but if you're wanting to RP, please take it to another medium. My stream isn't for hot and heavy action. XD

4) While I will show a variety of films, this is an intended adult stream. I will be showing some movies that may appeal to children, but this will not be that common. I will show anything from PG to R, and even past that with my unrated films. Children under 18 should really not be in my streams.

That should go for now, I don't think I need to have any other rules. If the need arises, I'll adjust it then.

As for tonight's schedule, I've had a request to show Cabin in the Woods! Show will start roughly at 9:30 EST, with a special short film shown before the film! Hope to see you there!

http://www.livestream.com/lunisasylum

Come watch the gore and silliness of Peter Jackson's Cult Classic with me!

 Marauder6272 has finally completed his first portfolio, Archaeopolis! 40+ images of the curvy ladies and fellas of the city of Arhaeopolis.

So why don't you head on over to: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/11234053/ and give it a look-see!

Those of you who talk to me reguarly are not going to be surprised, but as might have been noticed I've all but stopped uploading my commissions and such up here.

I have my reasons as to why; if you're really curious, text or PM me sometime.

As it stands, I've got a few other places I've been uploading to, notably Weasyl. If you'd really like to keep seeing what I'm getting done or doing, either find me on there, or perhaps SoFurry..as I plan on uploading stories before too long.

Anyway, I'm still gonna be here, favving artwork and maybe the occasional journal, but my personal projects are no longer going to be hosted here unless things change in a more favorable wind.

...a day late and a dollar short, I've decided to go ahead and write this journal ANYWAY.

...why am I wishing you a Happy New Year's *NOW*, instead of weeks ago? Well, it's really quite simple!

I think the New Year is meant to be March 1st, not January 1st. Now, hold up, I have an explanation as to why.

It started a few years ago, when I started pondering our calendar and the placement of certain events, such as why on a leap year do we add a day to the 2nd month, and why is October (Octo meaning eight, such as an 'octopus' which has 8 limbs) the 10th month?

It occurs to me that February is actually the LAST month of the calendar, not the second. That would mean that when we have a leap year, we would add a day to the end of the calendar, which would make sense! It would also push October up two months, making it the 8th, not the 10th, month.

Plus, looking further back at the Druids, they viewed the seasons as the passing of a life...Spring being the season of birth, the Summer would be young life, fall is late life, and winter the season of death. Why would we celebrate the coming of a new year in the middle of the 'death' cycle? March makes much more sense, which heralds in the Spring, the birth season.

So, Happy New Year's!

EDIT: ALL REFERENCES TO THE HAT ARE OUT OF DATE. It is no longer part of the fundraiser.

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/k.....growing?c=home

Lab Zero has been hosting a fundraiser for their fighting game, Skullgirls. The original goal of funding their newest character, Squigly, was met within 24 hours of the fundraiser started but it continues. Currently, the goal they hope to reach is $375,000 USD to add the first male character, Big Band. If they can reach $400,000 USD, they'll give him a stage and story mode as well!

They've got a fair few different bonuses for helping out, which include a steam key, a OST download, and an hat EXCLUSIVE TO THE FUNDRAISER. The hat is Leviathan, Squigly's parasite. The cheapest you can get in and get the hat is 30 dollars, and that was limited to 5,000 slots and half of those are already taken.

In other video game news, Indie Royale has released their next indy game pack. Normally I take a look at these, go 'eh' and then continue on. but this time around, it's offering the FULL SEASON of Strongbad's Cool Game for Attractive People, which generally retails for 30 dollars. You can get the whole thing, right now, for just a little over 5 dollars, so head on over to www.indieroyale.com if you're interested and nab it now before the price rises.

Oh, and Humble Bundle did a 'Mojam 2' with Team Mojang (the creators of Minecraft), and others that over a 3 day period designed games live over livestream. The streams have ended, but you have the rest of the day to donate any amount to the charities and gain a whopping 8 games. Unfortunately, I've no idea what these games are, but a bit of homework can probably tell you that.

With that, it's been your video game update!

EDIT: ALL REFERENCES TO THE HAT SHOULD BE IGNORED. Valve got back to them today, and said they didn't have enough 'cycles' to put the hat into the game. Which sounds kind of like a shitty answer to me...