We can put our paws together and stop it 🐾
1. "It's probably a kid/teen" - the more reason to teach them a lesson by banning them.
2. "It's just a form of flattery" - teach them that hurting other people is not the right way of showing appreciation.
3. "They will just do it again" - they can do it outside of our fandom where it doesn't matter then.
4. "It's a side effect of being popular" - actually thieves doesn't take into account how popular someone is.
The less popular someone is, the more it will hurt them, because others wont be able to spot it out as fast.
^This is precisely why it's been difficult for me to stop this because I'm a small creator, ppl don't know where my character Theo is from.
This has been going on for THREE YEARS. There many unwanted arts, many ppl who thought they talked with me.
I don't feel comfortable fursuiting as Theo, I don't want to encounter people who had a thing going on with someone they thought was me.
I don't feel like drawing Theo, he reminds me of the awful things the fandom has had to offer for me.
I don't want this for anyone else.
Obviously, there's the glaring part where with regular simple characters, there are always others who are alike. The issue arises when it's
literally exactly the same & when those people use the exact same artwork. But with fantastical characters even being similar is enough,
you can take one detail out and people will still see the same deal. For the next comic if I have time I want to talk about how we
recognize characters. If I have time.
1. "It's probably a kid/teen" - the more reason to teach them a lesson by banning them.
2. "It's just a form of flattery" - teach them that hurting other people is not the right way of showing appreciation.
3. "They will just do it again" - they can do it outside of our fandom where it doesn't matter then.
4. "It's a side effect of being popular" - actually thieves doesn't take into account how popular someone is.
The less popular someone is, the more it will hurt them, because others wont be able to spot it out as fast.
^This is precisely why it's been difficult for me to stop this because I'm a small creator, ppl don't know where my character Theo is from.
This has been going on for THREE YEARS. There many unwanted arts, many ppl who thought they talked with me.
I don't feel comfortable fursuiting as Theo, I don't want to encounter people who had a thing going on with someone they thought was me.
I don't feel like drawing Theo, he reminds me of the awful things the fandom has had to offer for me.
I don't want this for anyone else.
Obviously, there's the glaring part where with regular simple characters, there are always others who are alike. The issue arises when it's
literally exactly the same & when those people use the exact same artwork. But with fantastical characters even being similar is enough,
you can take one detail out and people will still see the same deal. For the next comic if I have time I want to talk about how we
recognize characters. If I have time.
Category Artwork (Digital) / Comics
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 800 x 1412px
File Size 1.1 MB
I didn't have much choice, the admins here on FA stopped helping me eventually. Wouldn't go after the thieves anymore, and websites where he was posted on wouldn't help either. Instead I had an artist design a new sona for me, so that I'd have someone else fighting with me if it ever happened again. Hasn't happened since I retired Solaria and got Zefram.
It’s so sad that this comic needed to happen, but I’m glad you said this. Fursonas and even characters might just seem like silly props to people since they’re based on animals (for the most part), but for so many of us they represent an important part of us.
I don’t know what I would do if people used my fursonas for porn or even SFW things; they represent ME and as such it feels like I myself am getting violated.
I don’t know what I would do if people used my fursonas for porn or even SFW things; they represent ME and as such it feels like I myself am getting violated.
When I read this it reminds me of that time Ken Sugimori (original creator of Pokemon) tried to sue furry porn artists for Pokemon porn. I think the legal state itself determined that something generic or without financial gain couldn't be considered theft, but I never got to see Ken's response to the situation.
It's weird for me having a fictive character of Flamedramon which was made by Akiyoshi Hongo. Wondering what creators of characters think over the use of their property. The internet is a strange place, once something is posted on it, it may end up as someone elses profile picture or role play identity. Fanfiction is practically the worst of every fandom, but sometimes I wonder if the solution to your problem is to do what
Vader-san did with his Synth character, or
ino89777 did with their Dutch Angel Dragon.
To quote Winston Churchill "You never get to the end of a journey if you stop to shy a stone at every dog that barks."
It's weird for me having a fictive character of Flamedramon which was made by Akiyoshi Hongo. Wondering what creators of characters think over the use of their property. The internet is a strange place, once something is posted on it, it may end up as someone elses profile picture or role play identity. Fanfiction is practically the worst of every fandom, but sometimes I wonder if the solution to your problem is to do what
Vader-san did with his Synth character, or
ino89777 did with their Dutch Angel Dragon. To quote Winston Churchill "You never get to the end of a journey if you stop to shy a stone at every dog that barks."
I don't understand how anyone can do this... Just take someone else's character design and claim it as their own. I've seen numerous characters that look eerily similar to my fursona, but luckily the patterns and species aren't the exact same, so I think it's not on the same level as the thing with Theo (I'm not even a small creator, just a lurker basically so eh I dunno). But I can relate to this on some level, that's what I'm trying to say.
I really hope you can shake off the bad memories about your oc so you can enjoy him once again. This comic is really well done, and I hope it will also contribute to people understanding that character theft is never okay. I would be interested to see a comic about character recognition!
I really hope you can shake off the bad memories about your oc so you can enjoy him once again. This comic is really well done, and I hope it will also contribute to people understanding that character theft is never okay. I would be interested to see a comic about character recognition!
I want to hold the fuck up over here.
I was 14 when I first started liking digital art. I was sheltered in a muslim family and didn't really know whats up. I stole a werewolf and little red riding hood image back on Deviantart and posted it on my own page. Eventually in minutes, I got over 50 comments telling me to take it down, threats for disrespecting the artist, called a theif, even to the point I should feel ashamed and kill myself.
This was when I was 14, ONE PERSON NOTED ME (and to this day I still respect them) They went by "crazdude" it is an artist/ crafter/ furry who was kind enough to actually elaborate and explain to me who the actual artist was.
My arguements were " its on google, so it should have been fine?" Then I learned that google just takes images from the sites and has the original source on them "SOMETIMES". Then after learning the process, I took it down, and immediately tried to make art on my own to rectify it.
Safe to say ....Drawing is hard XD especially with no experience.
what I am trying to say is
-1. "It's probably a kid/teen" - the more reason to teach them a lesson by banning them. -
I was that teen kid....and if I was banned outright? I may of not learned my lesson and actually gotten into the furry community where I made some amazing friends and met some amazing people down the line
I have probably chipped over 10k dollars in art commissions over my whole life so far. Just imagine ruining the potential for all those artists who may of not gotten a commission just because people were so rushed into banning and threatening someone instead of explaining it to a kid possibly?
I learned my lesson, I hate INTENTIONAL art theives more than anything, but if its unintentional and misunderstood, I would want that to be clarified before any harsh action is taken :/
I was 14 when I first started liking digital art. I was sheltered in a muslim family and didn't really know whats up. I stole a werewolf and little red riding hood image back on Deviantart and posted it on my own page. Eventually in minutes, I got over 50 comments telling me to take it down, threats for disrespecting the artist, called a theif, even to the point I should feel ashamed and kill myself.
This was when I was 14, ONE PERSON NOTED ME (and to this day I still respect them) They went by "crazdude" it is an artist/ crafter/ furry who was kind enough to actually elaborate and explain to me who the actual artist was.
My arguements were " its on google, so it should have been fine?" Then I learned that google just takes images from the sites and has the original source on them "SOMETIMES". Then after learning the process, I took it down, and immediately tried to make art on my own to rectify it.
Safe to say ....Drawing is hard XD especially with no experience.
what I am trying to say is
-1. "It's probably a kid/teen" - the more reason to teach them a lesson by banning them. -
I was that teen kid....and if I was banned outright? I may of not learned my lesson and actually gotten into the furry community where I made some amazing friends and met some amazing people down the line
I have probably chipped over 10k dollars in art commissions over my whole life so far. Just imagine ruining the potential for all those artists who may of not gotten a commission just because people were so rushed into banning and threatening someone instead of explaining it to a kid possibly?
I learned my lesson, I hate INTENTIONAL art theives more than anything, but if its unintentional and misunderstood, I would want that to be clarified before any harsh action is taken :/
If you are actively pretending to be a specific someone's character AND paying money to commission porn of them, at that point you have a wider understanding of how things work already - instead of just ripping one image from google without knowing. So I'd say this is a completely different situation here.
actually no ^^:
while I wasnt getting porn, DA points and Requests were kinda cheap.
I had a friend named Crystal do the same thing for months and only found out after it was happening ( this was like 2 years later and we were getting feral wuffaboo sparkle wolfs together, and no one knew the origin story. She too just got a character from a comic she thought was cool and just didnt know any better
while I wasnt getting porn, DA points and Requests were kinda cheap.
I had a friend named Crystal do the same thing for months and only found out after it was happening ( this was like 2 years later and we were getting feral wuffaboo sparkle wolfs together, and no one knew the origin story. She too just got a character from a comic she thought was cool and just didnt know any better
I agree with the sentiment, but the message is a bit muddled and hard to grasp from just the comic. I don't know if the phrase "cyber-bullying" is appropriate for someone simply deceiving others about their identity. Also the end message about there not being rules that you have to let people say or do things on the internet isn't really true unless you just resort to harassment, which is infact not allowed on most sites.
Also it's against the FA rules to try and report other people's character being stolen. I know, I've tried to do it and it's just closed with nothing being done. It takes ten times the work to track down the person whose art has been stolen and contact them about it than just report it yourself. That's a fundamental problem with the system on FA and something worth campaigning for specifically. However, we as the users do not actually have the power of moderation on this issue currently unless we're the ones being stolen from. There's also no recourse for someone using a character on messaging sites and almost impossible to prove what other accounts on other sites that person is connected to. It's not against the rules of the other sites and the only solution would be just to cyber-bully that person out of conversations by mob mentality and witch hunting.
It's the same way in real life if someone steals from you. Either you report your items stolen and press charges, or the person goes free. If someone reports a theft but the person who was robbed doesn't care to press charges, the witness can't press charges in their place and taking the law into your own hands is itself illegal.
I know you're pushing for the community to hold itself to a higher standard with use of characters and respecting other people's property, but there needs to be a concrete, direct message about the actions we should take, otherwise it can be interpreted however people want, and the way it comes across to me is an angry vendetta of mod mentality to drive people away from the fandom instead of one to correct and reform them. You can't get rid of trolls by just yelling at them and getting angry about them. They don't care or they feed off of it, and it's the internet, they'll just come back with another account. It's better to try a more positive approach than just call them thieving shitheads with no excuses for their actions that should be driven out by mob rule.
Also it's against the FA rules to try and report other people's character being stolen. I know, I've tried to do it and it's just closed with nothing being done. It takes ten times the work to track down the person whose art has been stolen and contact them about it than just report it yourself. That's a fundamental problem with the system on FA and something worth campaigning for specifically. However, we as the users do not actually have the power of moderation on this issue currently unless we're the ones being stolen from. There's also no recourse for someone using a character on messaging sites and almost impossible to prove what other accounts on other sites that person is connected to. It's not against the rules of the other sites and the only solution would be just to cyber-bully that person out of conversations by mob mentality and witch hunting.
It's the same way in real life if someone steals from you. Either you report your items stolen and press charges, or the person goes free. If someone reports a theft but the person who was robbed doesn't care to press charges, the witness can't press charges in their place and taking the law into your own hands is itself illegal.
I know you're pushing for the community to hold itself to a higher standard with use of characters and respecting other people's property, but there needs to be a concrete, direct message about the actions we should take, otherwise it can be interpreted however people want, and the way it comes across to me is an angry vendetta of mod mentality to drive people away from the fandom instead of one to correct and reform them. You can't get rid of trolls by just yelling at them and getting angry about them. They don't care or they feed off of it, and it's the internet, they'll just come back with another account. It's better to try a more positive approach than just call them thieving shitheads with no excuses for their actions that should be driven out by mob rule.
I remember years ago in an art studio I was taught that mockery was considered the highest form of flattery, because nothing was truly original. To create something so perfect that others would lust after it or replicate it was considered the pinnacle of success for an artist because you yourself as an artist were stealing ideas from others to build your own creations from.
“Art is theft.” – Pablo Picasso
“The only art I’ll ever study is stuff that I can steal from.” – David Bowie
“What is originality? Undetected plagiarism.” – William Ralph Inge
I can't help but feel that even though in some way this kind of attention might be really painful, the realization that there is only one "Source" which Theo as a character came from should be something special for Theta to take away from all this. There may be many clones of Theo out there, but there is only ONE Neotheta.
“Art is theft.” – Pablo Picasso
“The only art I’ll ever study is stuff that I can steal from.” – David Bowie
“What is originality? Undetected plagiarism.” – William Ralph Inge
I can't help but feel that even though in some way this kind of attention might be really painful, the realization that there is only one "Source" which Theo as a character came from should be something special for Theta to take away from all this. There may be many clones of Theo out there, but there is only ONE Neotheta.
Not talking about specific art pieces because I understand that nothing is truly original there.
But here in our fandom we have something special, which is creating characters to represent ourselves - it equals to taking photos of ourselves and having people recognize eachother by our looks. We recognize eachother by our characters - that's why pretending to be someone else is truly harming.
But here in our fandom we have something special, which is creating characters to represent ourselves - it equals to taking photos of ourselves and having people recognize eachother by our looks. We recognize eachother by our characters - that's why pretending to be someone else is truly harming.
I sort of have to agree. I come from a point of view I always felt was not going to be taken well.
Early on I was a poor artist, and I also lacked money. Stuff like picture sharing was something I did to give a point and smooth out the idea. Even if it was not my own. Because someone was of similar mind to me. I did, however, use it as an opportunity to try to break away from the parts that would be considered "theft" and desired to make it my own, practicing my art in private to make better pictures for myself, and refining my characters to better suit my own creativity with my own talents.
But. I did stand by what I said earlier. "Stuff like picture sharing was something I did to give a point and smooth out the idea" some ideas can't be conveyed without reference, or personal skill. It sometimes felt like the furry community expected me to reinvent the wheel every time I wanted to explain something visually. Which, that's not quite how it works unless I either A, have luxury item money to dump on an artist (All furry art should ONLY be spent with luxury money), have the time to master my own art hobby (I'm still a noob. And art takes me a long time. Does not help that I am a rather busy student.), or B, have the time to commit to an actual picture. (Back to the point of me being a noob. While I do draw, a single project that a professional artist can do in a day or two easily takes me multiple weeks due to my inexperience. My latest picture was a two-week endeavor for me.)
I am not a fan of the stigma against people who have to use art. And even though I avoid using it nowadays whenever I can, I think some forgiveness should be given.
BUT!
This only applies to people who use art, and don't steal the character.
If someone walks around, with say, Artica art and claims to be the artica character herself, or dogmom art as cherrikissu, etc. Any people who don't make their own characters nor try to do something creative with their medium indeed are not contributing much positivity. But I think those that use it as a stepping stone to refine their own character ideas should not be denied the tool.
Early on I was a poor artist, and I also lacked money. Stuff like picture sharing was something I did to give a point and smooth out the idea. Even if it was not my own. Because someone was of similar mind to me. I did, however, use it as an opportunity to try to break away from the parts that would be considered "theft" and desired to make it my own, practicing my art in private to make better pictures for myself, and refining my characters to better suit my own creativity with my own talents.
But. I did stand by what I said earlier. "Stuff like picture sharing was something I did to give a point and smooth out the idea" some ideas can't be conveyed without reference, or personal skill. It sometimes felt like the furry community expected me to reinvent the wheel every time I wanted to explain something visually. Which, that's not quite how it works unless I either A, have luxury item money to dump on an artist (All furry art should ONLY be spent with luxury money), have the time to master my own art hobby (I'm still a noob. And art takes me a long time. Does not help that I am a rather busy student.), or B, have the time to commit to an actual picture. (Back to the point of me being a noob. While I do draw, a single project that a professional artist can do in a day or two easily takes me multiple weeks due to my inexperience. My latest picture was a two-week endeavor for me.)
I am not a fan of the stigma against people who have to use art. And even though I avoid using it nowadays whenever I can, I think some forgiveness should be given.
BUT!
This only applies to people who use art, and don't steal the character.
If someone walks around, with say, Artica art and claims to be the artica character herself, or dogmom art as cherrikissu, etc. Any people who don't make their own characters nor try to do something creative with their medium indeed are not contributing much positivity. But I think those that use it as a stepping stone to refine their own character ideas should not be denied the tool.
It perhaps reads strange since this isn't aimed at FA specifically. These issues are (usually) rather easy to solve on FA alone, tell the owner and they report the case and hope the moderator with the ticket is having a good day. Sadly FA is not the main hub for furry.
On other platforms it's not as easy, the community isn't "lead" by anyone specifically. Most of the impersonation happens on discord or amino specifically (which I don't even personally use), there anyone can put up a group and be the moderator, so it boils down to hoping those people happen to have morals or that the users in the group abandon ship if the moderators aren't doing their job. Same with telegram, although the community seems a little bit more mature there, and especially since you can usually directly contact someone in private.
So on the current big platforms furries use, the responsibility of being nice to eachother is on everyones sholders, not the ones who put up the service.
On other platforms it's not as easy, the community isn't "lead" by anyone specifically. Most of the impersonation happens on discord or amino specifically (which I don't even personally use), there anyone can put up a group and be the moderator, so it boils down to hoping those people happen to have morals or that the users in the group abandon ship if the moderators aren't doing their job. Same with telegram, although the community seems a little bit more mature there, and especially since you can usually directly contact someone in private.
So on the current big platforms furries use, the responsibility of being nice to eachother is on everyones sholders, not the ones who put up the service.
Even I've seen this happening. I saw a Reddit post that wasn't really related to art, but it was a Discord screenshot of a conversation. When I saw the profile picture of one of the users, I instantly recognized Theo in it. From the little snippit of conversation, I highly doubt that was you. I did go into the comments section and linked your page, saying this is where the character originated. So I'm trying to do my part in helping.
As I was younger, I did one of that mistakes. I didn't even wanted to do something bad, but it happened by accident in my blind love to Dragon-Creatures.
Luckily, the owner talked to me and explained. Since then I have a different and much more careful approach on Art and Characters I like. It was an important lesson and completely reasonable for me. Now I'm on a good way along to all the others and sceptical when I saw something familiar from an unknown Person.
Luckily, the owner talked to me and explained. Since then I have a different and much more careful approach on Art and Characters I like. It was an important lesson and completely reasonable for me. Now I'm on a good way along to all the others and sceptical when I saw something familiar from an unknown Person.
Actually, my character appearance and some art was borrowed like that for f-list purposes, the only thing was changed was the name. I've sent a polite request to that person to at least remove the image (which was commissioned by me, because I can't draw sh#$) and... they've freaked out, removing whole account and disappearing. Only to return to me two months later and asking if they can do it again, because they liked to RP that character. I've agreed as long as they credit me as the owner of the original art and place that in their profile.
AAaaa. So much all of this. I've been fighting this with my chars for over a decade @,,@
It feels like utter trash when you come across some big profile someone setup on some site, theyv'e taken your art, your character and turned them into some kind of lust-crazed thing. Twisted around the meanings and the story to fit some personal narrative of their own.
I would love to see more action on this. More accountability for site moderation, to people who do this.
It feels like utter trash when you come across some big profile someone setup on some site, theyv'e taken your art, your character and turned them into some kind of lust-crazed thing. Twisted around the meanings and the story to fit some personal narrative of their own.
I would love to see more action on this. More accountability for site moderation, to people who do this.
Man i worry about this a lot, had my border collie stolen a long time ago, wasn't a good feeling.
Made worse over the fact that I have a bunch of characters a lot of people find cute and they do get around, hell, my kobold twin's stickers are a local meme.
So in the back of my mind i'm always kinda worried another fella is going to be snagged by someone and I just don't know about it, I put a lot of time and effort into my critters, I love my lil fellas, weather souly created or In Gaura and Carth's case, came to me and I evolved them over time and continue to do so.
Made worse over the fact that I have a bunch of characters a lot of people find cute and they do get around, hell, my kobold twin's stickers are a local meme.
So in the back of my mind i'm always kinda worried another fella is going to be snagged by someone and I just don't know about it, I put a lot of time and effort into my critters, I love my lil fellas, weather souly created or In Gaura and Carth's case, came to me and I evolved them over time and continue to do so.
I find it an interesting coincidence that you included a buck as an example of another character harmed by this, since, over a decade ago, someone decided to steal one of my comic's characters (a buck, hence the noted coincidence) for his own fursona... even stole my art, had other artists edit that art, and lied to people that he helped create my comic without getting credit. I didn't even know the thief, but he had people believing I was cruelly denying him credit for his (non-existent) contributions to my work.
Yeah, it really sucks.
Yeah, it really sucks.
While I completely agree with character theft being bad, I don't feel like this submission properly conveys exactly why, it's more complaining and venting. "Our characters take a lot of time, we love our characters, they mean a lot to us." doesn't remotely get to the point.
I'd personally talk about how the characters we make have specific meanings to us. Usually made with aspects of ourselves, or people we are close to, be it in their looks, personality, or maybe even backstory. There's meaning in their looks, choices, and how we wish to treat them. They may be fictional characters, but for some people they're just as fleshed out and detailed as real people are, they are their own entity at that point.
When other people "adopt" these characters, they'll unmistakably ruin something about them. Possibly crossing lines with either roleplay, new art, or other mediums that would use this character. This will undoubtedly come back to the owner, showing them their characters in situations that'll quite possibly scar them, because our characters can indeed mean a lot to us.
Now that we talked about why it's bad, let's also talk about what to do instead when you really like a character. Because you can't outright fix bad behaviour by simply saying no and shaming people.
If you like someone's character, simply talk to them. Even if they're an artist, why not try to get to know them? Ask them about their character, figure out why you like them, or find out that you only liked specific aspects of their look, and accept that there's a personality behind them that you might not even like. This is generally a positive experience for both parties. And if the artist doesn't want to talk about these things, or if you can't even contact them, then just be inspired by their design, and create something like it. Originality is long gone anyway. One can only make amalgamations nowadays. Just don't be petty and immediately make it a "closed race" or something dumb like that.
Also this submission doesn't really touch on cyber bullying at all. In fact, spreading a "Get them all banned" mentality might be more bully-like behaviour, because not all people realize that fictional characters can be this important.
I'd personally talk about how the characters we make have specific meanings to us. Usually made with aspects of ourselves, or people we are close to, be it in their looks, personality, or maybe even backstory. There's meaning in their looks, choices, and how we wish to treat them. They may be fictional characters, but for some people they're just as fleshed out and detailed as real people are, they are their own entity at that point.
When other people "adopt" these characters, they'll unmistakably ruin something about them. Possibly crossing lines with either roleplay, new art, or other mediums that would use this character. This will undoubtedly come back to the owner, showing them their characters in situations that'll quite possibly scar them, because our characters can indeed mean a lot to us.
Now that we talked about why it's bad, let's also talk about what to do instead when you really like a character. Because you can't outright fix bad behaviour by simply saying no and shaming people.
If you like someone's character, simply talk to them. Even if they're an artist, why not try to get to know them? Ask them about their character, figure out why you like them, or find out that you only liked specific aspects of their look, and accept that there's a personality behind them that you might not even like. This is generally a positive experience for both parties. And if the artist doesn't want to talk about these things, or if you can't even contact them, then just be inspired by their design, and create something like it. Originality is long gone anyway. One can only make amalgamations nowadays. Just don't be petty and immediately make it a "closed race" or something dumb like that.
Also this submission doesn't really touch on cyber bullying at all. In fact, spreading a "Get them all banned" mentality might be more bully-like behaviour, because not all people realize that fictional characters can be this important.
I didn't go into too much detail on what the characters can mean, because there are so many stories that are better to be individually told instead. It's a shame the english word 'love' is so shallow, but I didn't know a better word to use here. The most crucial detail however, is that we recognize each other with the characters - like photos - is what makes character theft harmful.
I also don't have that much time to make the comic very long, so I tried to include the key points. People thesedays are very apathetic towards bad things happening, and prefer to shove them off as 'it's the internet' without realizing that the internet is what we make of it. If we decide we should not do anything, that's probably what happens, if we decide we should stop awful things, we can do that too.
Character theft becomes cyberbullying when those people start to purposely mud your image and start commissioning porn of the character.
I also don't have that much time to make the comic very long, so I tried to include the key points. People thesedays are very apathetic towards bad things happening, and prefer to shove them off as 'it's the internet' without realizing that the internet is what we make of it. If we decide we should not do anything, that's probably what happens, if we decide we should stop awful things, we can do that too.
Character theft becomes cyberbullying when those people start to purposely mud your image and start commissioning porn of the character.
I find it important to point out exactly why you love said characters, because most people don't understand the love and pride that can go towards fictional characters.
And yes, identity theft is no joke.
I feel like defamation to that degree should be an actual illegal offense. And people who do that (I've had the joy to had that happen to me once as well) are simply the lowest of the lowest and deserve to be shunned, shamed, and crossed.
Other than that, I feel a lot of situations actually fit your description, while those are in fact not as bad as one might think. Most faults lie in ignorance, which isn't remotely as bad as anyone who knows the relevance and still does it.
Or in short, I entirely agree with you and this submission, but I feel it's too all-encompassing, and accuses more people than it should.
And yes, identity theft is no joke.
I feel like defamation to that degree should be an actual illegal offense. And people who do that (I've had the joy to had that happen to me once as well) are simply the lowest of the lowest and deserve to be shunned, shamed, and crossed.
Other than that, I feel a lot of situations actually fit your description, while those are in fact not as bad as one might think. Most faults lie in ignorance, which isn't remotely as bad as anyone who knows the relevance and still does it.
Or in short, I entirely agree with you and this submission, but I feel it's too all-encompassing, and accuses more people than it should.
One of my friends has had this happened before a while back. Apparently the person responsible for this was a teen and did not have the funding to create his own character via commission. He could have simply so for free by a template. At some point he was partially forgiven but idk about the latter. afterwards, was desperate to seek forgiveness and yeah, we don't seem him so much anymore.
I’d love to see another comic on this. I’m very deeply attached to a majority of the characters I own and I try very hard to make sure they aren’t too much like any other characters out there and so that they’d not be easily mistaken for another character. I saw one badge someone got done of a character eerily similar to my main sona, down to a similar NAME and it made me feel AWFUL. I lost sleep and beat myself up for letting it bother me so much but knowing others, like yourself, also know this pain is bittersweet but helps me not criticize myself for feeling hurt.
I’m so sorry you’ve had this happening to you with Theo. He’s such a sweet character and seeing art of him makes me smile. I thought it was especially sweet of you to help people try to make their own Luceiry with that species guide you made so everyone could make -different- characters instead of copies of Theo.
I’m so sorry you’ve had this happening to you with Theo. He’s such a sweet character and seeing art of him makes me smile. I thought it was especially sweet of you to help people try to make their own Luceiry with that species guide you made so everyone could make -different- characters instead of copies of Theo.
I also saw your comments about love not being accurate to portray how much characters mean to us. Would it be more accurate to say that because we use these characters and sonas to represent us, because we’ve poured so much of ourselves in them, that theft of them feels very much like we’ve personally been violated? Our characters are us and in some ways are sacred to their owners/creators. We have a special bond with them because of the emotional labor placed into these characters.
I'm very sorry you've had to go through this.
I've been following you for a long time and I know how much this affects you, I've read your journals and your art and we've talked about related topics before.
I know what you mean with our fandom's apathy, or dare I say our indifference to problems on the Internet in general.
Having said that, this is not a simple issue, especially with regards to using shame as a moderation tool. The Internet is also well known for piling into specific individuals and ripping them to shreds. That is also something no one wants to go through. You've probably seen this already, but to others who may be reading this discussion, this guy explains it better than me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq7Eh6JTKIg
"Let's moderate these shitheads out of our fandom" makes it sound like it's just "us" vs "them", but it's not that simple, those "thieves" are also people. Some of them have no idea what they're doing.
We have to teach our values by example. If I had someone do this in the chatrooms I moderated I would first talk to them, ask them if they know what they're doing, ask them to stop, give them a warning. If they keep doing it and show no remorse, they will get banned; but if they understand and change, isn't that so much better than going zero tolerance?
I've been following you for a long time and I know how much this affects you, I've read your journals and your art and we've talked about related topics before.
I know what you mean with our fandom's apathy, or dare I say our indifference to problems on the Internet in general.
Having said that, this is not a simple issue, especially with regards to using shame as a moderation tool. The Internet is also well known for piling into specific individuals and ripping them to shreds. That is also something no one wants to go through. You've probably seen this already, but to others who may be reading this discussion, this guy explains it better than me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq7Eh6JTKIg
"Let's moderate these shitheads out of our fandom" makes it sound like it's just "us" vs "them", but it's not that simple, those "thieves" are also people. Some of them have no idea what they're doing.
We have to teach our values by example. If I had someone do this in the chatrooms I moderated I would first talk to them, ask them if they know what they're doing, ask them to stop, give them a warning. If they keep doing it and show no remorse, they will get banned; but if they understand and change, isn't that so much better than going zero tolerance?
I've always asked first, multiple times even, giving many many second chances - but the thing is, most of them don't care, they will continue and they can continue because there is never any consequence for the action (because other people mostly dont care until it happens to them).
I know your character, I've seen him a few times on Telegram, and I think he's extremely adorable. I'm sorry to hear you are having so many problems with this, but besides, well, people using your stickerpack I've never seen your character in anything you didn't post yourself. In any case though, you shouldn't feel bad fursuiting or just identifying with your character, it's yours in the end, and it's supposed to make you happy... I hope these problems will sort out for you. If I'll see Theo in anything where it looks suspicious in the future I'll definitely report it.
It's tough to enjoy something, no matter how much I tell myself to, when it's a source of weekly alerts for something awful that happened. When it's continuous it wears you down.
I know people who have been groped inappropriately at cons because of similar confusion & impersonation issues, and in fursuit your reactions are even slower and more muffled than regular. And since I know there are many murrypurry Theo posers who openly tell people it's okay to touch, the accident is too likely to be comfortable.
I know people who have been groped inappropriately at cons because of similar confusion & impersonation issues, and in fursuit your reactions are even slower and more muffled than regular. And since I know there are many murrypurry Theo posers who openly tell people it's okay to touch, the accident is too likely to be comfortable.
Don't get me wrong, it is isn't right to steal someones art/character but the fandom itself creates this problem.
If you don't have a "unique" fursona and haven't spend a couple of hundred dollars for nice ref sheet and a couple of (porn)pics, no one gives a shit about you.
And this is only the tip of the iceberg.
If you don't have a "unique" fursona and haven't spend a couple of hundred dollars for nice ref sheet and a couple of (porn)pics, no one gives a shit about you.
And this is only the tip of the iceberg.
This is not what the fandom is about though, that's people being stupid and assuming things out of their own insecurity. No one bats an eye if you use a generic photograph of an animal or a creature from a game / show, it all boils down to what you are like as the person behind the name.
Sadly not anymore, the fandom has changed over the years. I've experienced it myself, not that someone stole my art, most furries apparently don't like felines, but some really rude people.
I don't mean the people who ignore you, even if you are nice and just have a small question.
I mean people who insult you, say that they are not interested in you because your sona isn't special or to generic, people who think they are better than you because they have much more pictures.
Sure I've met many nice people here, my best friend and my mate for example and I always try to see the positive side on something, but I am not blind/ignorant.
I don't mean the people who ignore you, even if you are nice and just have a small question.
I mean people who insult you, say that they are not interested in you because your sona isn't special or to generic, people who think they are better than you because they have much more pictures.
Sure I've met many nice people here, my best friend and my mate for example and I always try to see the positive side on something, but I am not blind/ignorant.
Speaking of this, I always find it pretty disturbing to see porn of specific characters from games and such that have nothing to do with sexuality in game.
Like, to make Fox and Falco be lewd with one another feels kinda like raping them...
Pokemon and such are fine since they're just species, but forcing a character to act hugely out of character just to be lewd kinda feels like you're forcing them to be lewd.
And with fursonas that's obviously even worse. I mean with fursonas it's just offensive and kinda like assaulting someone in a way. (not to be hyperbolic)
Like, to make Fox and Falco be lewd with one another feels kinda like raping them...
Pokemon and such are fine since they're just species, but forcing a character to act hugely out of character just to be lewd kinda feels like you're forcing them to be lewd.
And with fursonas that's obviously even worse. I mean with fursonas it's just offensive and kinda like assaulting someone in a way. (not to be hyperbolic)
I have to agree I've begun feeling rather uncomfortable about that sort of content also, mostly since it's become so relatable. To me the wake up moment was seeing all the nasty artwork on Judy (Zootopia) and then reflecting back to the characters personality and realizing what the authentic reaction would be like - completely opposite, her whole character was to fight against these stereotypes. At least she's not real though, but peoples fursonas are real them.
this has always been fear my own with my species. yes it's not known to well. im not visually creative but my ideas are there. it is clsoed species due to how it functions, but. even then it's a fear because there are those who jsut don't care as you said....and with me only being bale to hope i can afford commisions. it gets harder to keep eye out and such.
i am happy though to see someone pointing this facts out. even a small voice, is a voice if it's heard it can spread. the fact three years has been going on, personally...pisses me off. it more solidifies your point of the smaller artist has it harder as someone bigger would have this stopped in 3 days versus three years.
i am happy though to see someone pointing this facts out. even a small voice, is a voice if it's heard it can spread. the fact three years has been going on, personally...pisses me off. it more solidifies your point of the smaller artist has it harder as someone bigger would have this stopped in 3 days versus three years.
Here's his perma-url if you still need it. People really shouldn't steal other people's characters, hell; he looks like he can well afford his own. https://steamcommunity.com/profiles.....61198202269924
I feel that... I even had a problem because a person was pretending to be me in Facebook, getting money of "comission" that she never made and people insulting me for something that I didn't know... I was lucky that the person was banned but it sucks for all those amazing people who had or having something like this >:( Amazing work as always Theo
I sadly can relate aswell, someone over at ... used my sona to roleplay, until he began to commission whole comics with him... multiple... And not the normal stuff aswell (Stuff which I would count as illigal/criminal in a way)...
Was able to make him remove everything and.. while he was disrespectfull as fuck, he did a "redesign" but the damage is done.
Specially that you always know what he did. Even "redesigned", you always know what he were doing before.
Was able to make him remove everything and.. while he was disrespectfull as fuck, he did a "redesign" but the damage is done.
Specially that you always know what he did. Even "redesigned", you always know what he were doing before.
I've had a few people try and do "redesings" but from the first glance, second and third, it looks exactly the same - only some small detail changed, like the colour of the tailtip is black instead of half blue (but the entire character is fucking blue and black so who would even notice). But sadly those attempts are often enough for big sites like FA to then not do anything about.
I know i'm a bit late to the party on this one... but I too was on the receiving end of one such issue. I was commissioned to do an image involving a character that was basically sold to me as the commissioner's character. After the image was posted, I received contact from the ACTUAL owner of the character and felt absolutely atrocious. We did manage to have the image in question taken down, and we were able to smooth things over with the original owner of the character, but I felt incredibly used and just angry when the whole ordeal kicked off... seriously, not kosher.
Yeah, if I hadn't seen before, someone on Twitter explaining an ordeal they'd been going through to try and stop artists (of our themes) taking commissions from these guys trying to get "themed" art of the victim's character, I would have fallen for the same thing twice already. Makes you have to do a mini audit on whoever commissions you. Really sad people like this exist.
Tbh that's not how it happened
It mostly happen when the furry community started this trend as a way to tell people that everyone is "forced" to be a furry. But as now people are now becoming a little nation called the anti-furry alliance. Also some furrys also sexual and physically abuse young kids or young adults. Also furrys can cause a murder. AND CAUSE THE END IF HUMANITY.
*Takes deep breaths*
What I mean to say is that we the furry community is the worst community to ever exist.
We are nothing but humans in disguise as a animal.
We are nothing but lonely people who don't see our own faces
God won't forgive us
I'm sorry but I quit this furry community
Goodbye my friends
I'm now a human being
-Artzplayz101
I just wasted 30 minutes on this comment for no reason 😅😅
It mostly happen when the furry community started this trend as a way to tell people that everyone is "forced" to be a furry. But as now people are now becoming a little nation called the anti-furry alliance. Also some furrys also sexual and physically abuse young kids or young adults. Also furrys can cause a murder. AND CAUSE THE END IF HUMANITY.
*Takes deep breaths*
What I mean to say is that we the furry community is the worst community to ever exist.
We are nothing but humans in disguise as a animal.
We are nothing but lonely people who don't see our own faces
God won't forgive us
I'm sorry but I quit this furry community
Goodbye my friends
I'm now a human being
-Artzplayz101
I just wasted 30 minutes on this comment for no reason 😅😅
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