I heard about the latest update secondhand, Not only is tag blocking finally a thing, but they also revised that awful rule 2.7 that was the reason so many people (myself included) left FA a year ago. I don't know yet if it's really as good as it sounds, but the fact that it was changed at all makes me very hopeful for the future of this site. Maybe when I actually get around to writing more stories, I'll upload them here after all.

It should go without saying that Dragoneer's death was horrible and never should've happened, but man, this new management so far is a hell of a silver lining!

So I've uploaded one story 2 years ago, and a made a few journals 1 year ago about FA's policy change, and otherwise I've done nothing but lurk on here. When I uploaded that first story, I really wanted it to be the start of me becoming a more active member of this community, but boy, that didn't happen. Here's why:

Part of the reason I haven't written anything else in this time is just plain executive dysfunction, that first story had been in my head for years before I finished and I'm still not satisfied with it. In fact, I'm now in the process of rewriting it, and that's not to say anything about the number of other stories in my head that still don't have a word written for them.

That's not the main reason, though. I grew up autistic and am aware of how my mind works, and I think I could've made myself start working despite it if nothing seriously disrupted my mood, and then something did: the aforementioned policy change. I only had one thing uploaded, and the way the rule is written doesn't seem to affect written stories anyway, but given that my main furry interests are pokémon and vore, it does affect most of the artists I follow here, including some of my friends. It made me not want to add any more content to this site just out of principle, and I would've left FA entirely if enough of the artists I follow had the same idea.

So, why am I writing all this now? Well, I just learned today that this policy change has recently been enforced on a few artists, and that it's as bad as we all feared it would be. So, this is a reminder to everyone to make accounts on other sites if you haven't already, and to remind everyone where else they can find you.

Honestly the main reason most artists haven't moved to other sites is because their followers aren't moving and they don't want to rebuild their followings from scratched, and the main reason their followers haven't moved is because the artists aren't moving and they don't want to miss out on their art. it's a vicious cycle, but one that can be broken, and at the rate FA is going, something is bound to break eventually.

That said, I can be found on Itaku (where I am also a lurker but hope to have stuff to upload soon) and Twitter (where I retweet art and occasionally post vorny thoughts).

https://itaku.ee/profile/mangothebat
https://x.com/mangothebat

Which means the profile I forgot to change out of a year ago is now appropriate again. How about that?

Nevermind. It's as bad as people were saying.

I wanted to wait for further clarification, and I fucking got it, lol. I'm sorry for doubting y'all.

What especially sucks is my first upload here was just a few months ago and I was planning to write more stories… eventually. Now I don't know if I should even stay here, and if not, I especially don't know where else to go.

So uh… any chance there's a good furry site out there that literally everyone will move to and doesn't have a cub problem?

So, there's been a policy change.

I'll be honest, though I've been on this site for a while, I haven't at all been active on it until very recently, so I don't have any experience with what the staff here is like. On top of that, I don't have any art uploaded on here so this change doesn't affect me. With that all said, I may be out of line when I say this, but you all need to GET A GRIP.

Yes, the wording is too vague. Yes, innocents will get caught in the crossfire, yes, I am also scared and worried about what will happen to some of my favorite pictures on this site. Still, I think a lot of people are severely overestimating how far this will be taken, many of which seem to be fundamentally misunderstanding what the policy change even is (some of which have already jumped ship). So, in an attempt to ease some of the tensions, I'm going to remind you all of a couple things.

"What about kobolds/my sona/something else?" They're taking the rules that have already been in effect and applying them to pokémon and digimon. If those other pics were affected, you would've found out months ago.

"I have no way of knowing which of my art is safe/I already deleted a bunch of pics just in case." They told you to send a trouble ticket and just ask them. I don't know if this will still work for images uploaded after the policy change goes into effect, (will they let you send tickets to ask about art you haven't uploaded yet?) but for now at least, we can use these tickets to get a better idea of how exactly this policy is being enforced, and maybe (hopefully) then we'd have less assumptions and fearmongering about it.

So submit those tickets, and if they say no to something that should obviously pass, then raise hell about it. Yes, complain, but please complain about what they're actually doing, and not about the made up fantasies in your heads. I'm sorry, I don't mean to be rude, but I've already seen too many people saying stuff like, "they'll call you a pedo if your character is under 5 feet" even though it was said in the update that size does not indicate age. Like jeez, at least try to understand what you're getting angry at.

So uh, that is all. It bears repeating that I don't like the sound of this new policy either, but for now, I'm going to choose to remain hopeful. Good luck, I wish you all the best.