Furaffinity

[Pelusban]

I'm not a furry, but regularly consuming some furry art on furaffinity.net.

Furaffinity is kinky by its nature, I think it's just part of its essence. They often suspend artists, and it's usually okay, if their art is questionable even by their liberal standards. But now they suspended Babystar, a highly appreciated, award winner ABDL artist with decade long legacy. I hope the suspension is not final and can be explained why it happened, although I think her art is valuable and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it, and specially not on Furaffinity.

So this is a huge red flag for me about the site. As I know, Furaffinity's founder/owner, Dragoneer has passed away on 7th of August this year. It's just a speculation, but I hope this ban was just some arbitrary action and not a sign of deeper problems and decline of the site. Any thoughts?

[Max Puppy]

FA, Dragoneer in particular, has always hated babyfurs. I don't think this was an accident and recommend signing up on alternative sites like Inkbunny and sofurry.

[Pelusban]

On 9/20/2024 at 2:10 PM, Max Puppy said:

recommend signing up on alternative sites

Thanks, I just did.

Edit: I don't know yet what to think about Inkbunny. It's way more intense, sexual and questionable than FA. But specially if FA makes a campaign to drive away more and more valuable artists to these sites, so be it.

Edit2: After browsing a bit on Inkbunny, I decided to return to Furaffinity. Currently they're still better and have a lot more artists and content for my taste. Although I don't like FA's latest changes in their policy about babyfur and age regression, and how they ban previously allowed things and punish their reliable good artists for no reason, perhaps they have to adapt to the new situation after Dragoneer. There are a lot of examples when companies got worse after the leader passed away, that's natural, but it's not necessary to happen. So I decided to be tolerant about them for a while and I'll see where they go in the next months.

Now there are discussions on adisc.org (I'm not registered there, I only read it occasionally), about this problem with FA, and also about Inkbunny as an alternative. Lot of FA users, including me see Inkbunny as a risky site because of questionable cub porn art and it's understandable if a lot of artists just don't want to go there.

[Crinklz Kat]

 

[Max Puppy]

Dragoneer's wonderful "legacy" continues.  He hated babyfurs and those running FA do too.

[Pelusban]

I still don't think it's that. There are childlike characters even in Dragoneer's own gallery. And he had plenty of time in the past to harass these artists, but never did to this extent. This is a new level, they want to keep artists in fear and uncertainty with unexplained rubber rules and harsh punishments.

They can get away with this because the site has a constant supply of lower quality hobby artists who have no idea about anything and they can come and go. But when good artists leave, their loyal followers will also leave with them, so the traffic on the site will decline and the overall quality will be worse.

The trust is lost and cannot be restored. I think the serious artists will do this: they remove their art from FA and move it to somewhere else, preferably to their own website. Then probably they leave some advertisement art and contact info only.

[MegaChar]

I saw this eventually coming in 2021 of FA purging babyfurs off its website. The staff on FA are not fond of them which I don't know why but....

This reminds me of the time my local furry group did a purge of babyfurs and diaper furs by making a example out of me because I had a different vision of the direction the group should go. Well...over half of the local fur group left and the group is as far as i know hasn't had a fur meet in about 7 years now so its safe to say its quite dead.

Furaffinity is killing itself by doing this. Babyfurs make up a big portion of the members on it. Local fur group disenigrated from people hating on groups which the fandom was built on. Openness and kindness

So will FA...

[Crinklz Kat]

I'm just waiting to hear how the admins find themselves banned from all of the major cons. 

[Pelusban]

20 hours ago, Crinklz Kat said:

I'm just waiting to hear how the admins find themselves banned from all of the major cons. 

Is there any chance of that?

From the little information I collected, it seems Dragoneer's widow, Sciggles is the head admin now, who was in hospital during the main suspension wave. There is still nothing explained. They lifted the suspension for some artists before the end of their ban. Maybe FA is silent because they still don't know what to do, because the reaction from the community was stronger than they expected.

I think the problem for babyfur artists, they need publicity to make a living. They just can't leave, so probably they want to remain on FA even with the compromises and fear, because there is no decent alternative for them now. Some of them have made their own websites, but those cannot be found, so they still need something to advertise themselves.

My opinion is, Dragoneer held the admins at bay about babyfurs, because he was an artist too and although not liked them, understood their needs and that it's also FA's interest to have them. But then the brakes released and the lower level admins, with their accumulated frustration took the opportunity.

[Crinklz Kat]

2 hours ago, Pelusban said:

Is there any chance of that?

Perhaps - if what folks say that babyfurs make up the majority of con staff is true, then all it takes is enough votes on the board to make it happen. 

[Max Puppy]

Dragoneer learned his lesson the first time he crossed babyfurs years ago because they made art of him in a full diaper.. good times and wish I saved it

[Firefly 35]

It's not just babyfurs.  Lots of people were banned/censored back in 2021 for saying that vaccine policies of the time were causing problems.  Lots of people left and FA eventually shut down their forums and moved their "social area" to discord. 

It seems the FA administration is likely going to destroy themselves if they continue with those kinds of policies, kind of like what Tumblr, Twitter, and Facebook to some degree have done. 

 

[Chris_jr10]

Some people just creep unconsiously toward the self distruct button and that's how view FA staff cos the BbayFurs whatever your own feelings are are the doers.

[Pelusban]

This is from today on Furaffinity:

Oct 22, 2024 - Upload Policy 2.7 Revision and New Feature

[ValentinesStuff]

1 hour ago, Pelusban said:

This is from today on Furaffinity:

Oct 22, 2024 - Upload Policy 2.7 Revision and New Feature

And they just banned the depiction of any minor character that is not human, since the entire furry community can be considered fetish or kink.

 

Quote

Upload Policy, Section 2.7 - Content Involving Minors

Content featuring minors is not allowed when the minor is in Mature or Adult content outlined by our Content Guidelines (Section 1.1) nor the presence of sexual activity, sexual objects, sexual language, adult themes, nudity, fetish or kink content, or other prohibited content (examples detailed below); however, exceptions may be made for non-sexual depictions of birth and breastfeeding.

 

Definitions:

• Presence is defined as directly being in or the implication of being in the same scene, such as sharing a comic panel, contiguous image, reference sheet, or specific section of a story where characters are engaging each other.

 

• Minors are defined as real or fictional humanoids, animals, or fantasy creatures with a childlike body, the consciousness of a child, or younger than 18 years of age.

 

• Fetish is defined as a specific sexual fixation (objects, body parts, activities).

 

• Kink is defined as uncommon sexual activities.

 

So they can still delete whatever they want under this policy.

[Pelusban]

Yeah, for me it seems they just ignited the purge with their bans and now they gave that grace period to the artists to give up and leave the site "voluntarily". And there is still no explanation why they are doing this. I don't understand why they are in denial about their real intentions.

[MegaChar]

On 10/22/2024 at 10:29 PM, Pelusban said:

Yeah, for me it seems they just ignited the purge with their bans and now they gave that grace period to the artists to give up and leave the site "voluntarily". And there is still no explanation why they are doing this. I don't understand why they are in denial about their real intentions.

Furries typically are liberal thinkers so they for some unknown reason don't ever like to state why they do things even when its obvious what they are going. They use emotions for actions instead of logic and it can be a huge fallacy in the end.

Like I said babyfurs and diaperfurs make up around 40% of the member base and this just told them to pack up and leave. Pretty much again, they are blaming babyfurs and shooting themselves in the head after throwing a hissy fit at them.

"We are not pushing out or removing the babyfur or ABDL community. You are welcome to still post your content on Fur Affinity so long as it abides by our Upload Policy."

That is exactly what the heads of the local fur group said to me too. Word for fuc*ing word. Geezeust christ!

[Crinklz Kat]

Reading between the lines.... you're welcome to stay here and post as long as you conform to what we call "normal".   And the irony is that liberal people claim to be more open-minded, yet in actual practice, can be far more prejudiced than those they accuse of the same.

[Pelusban]

I registered on Weasyl yesterday and I see some bigger names, like Babystar or Good boy created or revived their account there and started uploading their content. Maybe they are doing this elsewhere too. Furaffinity will lose a large part of their users.

[Pelusban]

Now a lot of moderators left FA and also Squiggles, the head of the site issued an apologizing statement. Also it seems they revoked the bannings (I see they even unbanned Fangthefox, who got a permanent banning months ago) and regarding to the 2.7 rule, they paused all further bannings except obvious hard violations. They also looking for new staff to moderate the site.

So it seems there is a big change in their approach. It's not over yet.

[Snugglebear_69]

Waaayyyyy too much drama. 

[Firefly 35]

On 10/26/2024 at 3:06 PM, Crinklz Kat said:

Reading between the lines.... you're welcome to stay here and post as long as you conform to what we call "normal".   And the irony is that liberal people claim to be more open-minded, yet in actual practice, can be far more prejudiced than those they accuse of the same.

Standard neoliberal politics there.  Coservatives have been trying to undermine free-thinking groups since the 70s with claims like such.  Best thing to watch out for is someone who seems mostly but not totally aligned with a group's goals and who really wants a leadership position.  That generaly catches about 80% or so of hidden conservatives.

[Demon-hunter]

As a Furry supporter and enthusiast, I realize all these website has their pros and cons. Especially in the past 10 years though political and cultural changes.  Heck I know alot if abdl and Furry artist are still rocking it on Twitter/X with out issues. I have go to website a BlueSky you would still get banned for such content

I agree 

On 10/26/2024 at 3:06 PM, Crinklz Kat said:

Reading between the lines.... you're welcome to stay here and post as long as you conform to what we call "normal".   And the irony is that liberal people claim to be more open-minded, yet in actual practice, can be far more prejudiced than those they accuse of the same.

[Demon-hunter]

Heck I hated when FA changed their login policy with double authentication or something years ago. And I couldn't log back into my account and I said screw it