Messages

1

Weasyl Wankfest / Re: Weasyl prioritizes infrastructure overhaul while usage drops

« on: June 08, 2014, 11:24:07 am »

Some artists I've been following the work of have quit posting stuff on FA but they haven't moved to/become active on Weasyl or any other furry art site, instead they've been posting on tumblr and/or twitter. Anecdotally, I think there has been a certain shift of furry subculture community and social networking activity to twitter especially and also tumblr : away from FA and other furry run sites

Perhaps that is an issue here : people who don't want to use/be on FA can post their work and get feedback, comments and commisions from the large furry community on tumblr/twitter so for some that will be just as good, if not better than weasyl currently is.

Of course Weasyl is a dedicated platform for art and social networking combined and superior to tumblr/twitter in that respect (Just finding someones stuff amongst their reblogs, retweets et al can sometimes be hard) so I suppose it comes back to playing the long game and keeping things together over the years it might still take for Weasyl to become the go-to furry art site if it does become such.

In fact, I just noticed on the latest FA news journal that someone who has been on FA for a mere 8 months was saying:

Reading all the comments here just make me want to up and leave this site and go somewhere else.
I enjoy being on FA, but all the problems - drama, and shit that keeps going on regarding admins and running the site professionally is becoming REALLY off putting.

^
http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5819207#cid:40613411

These things always move slower than we might wish, but time will tell. Sooner or later, time will tell.

I've definitely noticed this too. A lot of people have shifted away from using FA but haven't replaced it with another furry art site. These people often maintain accounts on FA, weasyl, etc., but they aren't really active there. Instead, they use sites like tumblr to post work and twitter to keep their fans up to date on their activities. There's probably some serious advantages of doing this. Better uptime. Smartphone accessibility. Automatic notifications... and a userbase that is less prone to drama and creepiness (at least a little bit)... the hardcore basement dwellers seem to only hang out on furry-specific sites and eschew mainstream social media. Furry in general is becoming more mainstream, more focused on furry socialization and less on trading media with furry characters in it.

You can also bulk upload to Tumblr. I don't recall ANY furry-centric art site having a bulk upload feature.

On Inkbunny you can bulk upload multiple submissions, and also upload multiple files to a single submission (useful for comics, accompanying sketches/sketch dumps, alternate versions).

Tumblr, like any blog, is a great tool for distributing a stream of creative output. It's not so great at displaying lots of work in an organized fashion. Most artists can use both a blog and a gallery. Fans who are not looking at their blog may miss out on some updates and sketches, but to an extent that's always been the case (e.g. LiveJournal).

Ensuring that uploads are as easy as possible is important, but part of what makes it harder is adding value (i.e. selecting pools/folders/ratings, adding keywords).

For a furry artist, it is really important to display everything you've ever drawn in chronological order, and organized in to specific folders by genre? I don't think it is. Artist want people to see their best and most popular work, as a way of saying "hey, I can draw you something like this," to get further commissions. A lot of artists are in fact critical of their work from several years ago, and may not want people to think their old art represents their talent if they've improved since then... so gallery folders aren't really necessary from the standpoint of selling commissions. I think this may be why you see a lot of artists who are most active on places like tumblr and basically use FA or weasyl like a file dump, and don't really spend much time there. Often, they will post notices on their accounts stating that they will not respond to communication on these sites.

Inkbunny, specifically, has been far too "tainted" by it's cub porn reputation to attract a mainstream furry audience. For a lot of furries, especially a lot of the people who entered the fandom recently, after cub was banned on FA, this seems to be the fandom's one taboo. People want nothing to do with it, regardless of how unusual their own lifestyle is.

2

News Media / Re: Yet another vehicular death

« on: February 19, 2014, 11:45:20 pm »

Whether his parents were comfortable around furries or not, I think, more than anything, his parents probably weren't prepared to deal with the internet fame phenomenon... The extent to which furries keep up on each other's lives and the outpouring of support from 10,000 of his closest friends was something they probably didn't expect, and albeit well-meaning, I think a lot of people who don't really know much about furries would be kind of shocked by it... like "who are you people anyway?" I think that's how my parents would react in the same situation, they wouldn't exactly appreciate the thousands of people they never heard of somehow being involved in what they would think is a private family affair, despite those people having good intentions.

3

Scandal! / Re: Ren Queenston gropes people in their sleep.

« on: January 27, 2014, 11:00:33 pm »

It must be a slow news day in the furry fandom.

4

Weasyl Wankfest / Re: PARTYING WITH THE BRAND: AdventureCru cries loudly about Weasyl

« on: January 27, 2014, 03:16:33 pm »

What this #adventurecru thread needs:

1. More trips to Total Wine & More.
2. Less bitching about weasyl.

5

Other Topics / Re: Art Site Project 5,206: "Commission Me"

« on: January 24, 2014, 05:37:32 pm »

Furries will not use it because it isn't an explicitly furry run site with paw prints in the logo. Furries are fickle like that and treat the fandom like some secret society, i.e. we don't talk about furry with anyone unless you're one of us.

6

Other Topics / Re: Plans for FC2014?

« on: January 21, 2014, 08:26:31 pm »

I believe they meant there is no at-con pre-registration this year and that online pre-registration will be available after they do their software upgrade.

7

Other Topics / Re: Uncle Kage wants you to donate towards someone's medical bills, because furries.

« on: January 16, 2014, 11:02:35 am »

'point and laugh' was the only good reason to go to Antheria.

Hey, I had a great time at Antheria... though not because of the 'official' con programming (which centered around introducing Kage to a west coast audience where he doesn't enjoy the status and popularity he has back home) but because I got to spend time with a lot of great people, made new friends and the venue was pretty cool, by the beach in kind of a 'fun zone' area where most people responded very positively to us. I had a great time despite the number of things that 'went wrong.'

There's also currently internet slapfights going on elsesite about just that very point - is furry a 'fandom' anymore? But that's outside the scope of this thread. And the point of my original post was not to say that 'big' name GoHes have 'made' AC, it's that Conway thinks that. Or that it strokes his ego. Pick whever you prefer, either is enough for them.

What is a fandom anyway? But you're right, I would say the term 'subculture' fits better. Anyway, I would pick the latter. I guess that's a perk of being chairperson of a large (by furry standards) convention. You get to meet your heroes. And I don't think that really affects the con in a negative way, to have a GoH that doesn't interest most attendees, though you could say it's a financial waste.

8

Other Topics / Re: Uncle Kage wants you to donate towards someone's medical bills, because furries.

« on: January 15, 2014, 06:10:48 pm »

By 'helping furry' Kage really means stuff like this. This article, and others like it, is what opened the door to getting the semi-mainstream media guys into AC. AC GoHes before 2004: Furry artists. After 2004: Cartoon VAs, comics artists, etc. And the occasional Japanese fursuiter nobody's heard of.

Sakai hasn't helped Furry, he's helped the AC-industrial complex. Which is what Conway cares about.

How much have these GoH made Anthrocon the big event that it is? I mean, over years the focus of the fandom has changed tremendously to being mostly about fursuiting and personal characters now. I've heard crazy stories of "insiders" like this guy selling $10 grand, not in commissioned art, but in folios, prints, animation cells, etc. at Confurences of yesteryear, I don't think they could do 1/10 of that now at Anthrocon which is 5 times the size. I don't think very many furries actually have an interest in animation, comics or movies as a career anymore. I went to Antheria, they had Mike Kazaleh for the GoH and with all due respect to the guy, I don't think anybody went because of him. People went to party and fursuit with friends. They would have come if there was no GoH... hey, that might be a new con concept, the GoH is you. I think most people that went on the GoH harbor cruise were more excited about going on a boat than meeting the GoH.

9

Other Topics / Re: Plans for FC2014?

« on: January 15, 2014, 05:53:15 pm »

I know, they axed the "how to quit the fandom" panel.

Presenter dropped out.

Are you saying they quit the fandom?

10

Other Topics / Re: Uncle Kage wants you to donate towards someone's medical bills, because furries.

« on: January 13, 2014, 11:21:26 pm »

I will try to raise a couple commissions after this to donate the funds to his cause, this is horrible and I read the last journal you posted. I familiar with Stan's work and I respect him as a samurai.

...as a samurai.

11

Other Topics / Re: Plans for FC2014?

« on: January 10, 2014, 11:26:36 pm »

The FC schedule came out. There's only one or two things I'm interested in, and a whole lot of dreck.

I know, they axed the "how to quit the fandom" panel.

12

FA Obsession Collection / Re: [THE CREATURE STIRS] or "A rare FA code update"

« on: December 17, 2013, 10:08:01 pm »

I guess this means they watch the lulz site lol.

13

News Media / Re: NSA spies on furries, gamers, via SL

« on: December 09, 2013, 02:33:05 pm »

>furries aren't fursuiting
>furries having "occupations" in the first place

Your tax dollars at work, people!!!

14

Scandal! / Re: "Furlaxation" convention chair a registered sex offender

« on: September 15, 2013, 11:38:26 am »

What seems to be lost on the guy involved is that it doesn't matter if he is guilty or innocent or what his story is... By doing this he jeopardized the good standing of the con with their hotel, etc., and put the reputations (both their furry reputations and their professional reputations, if they have any) of the other people involved at risk, should this somehow erupt into a media circus. It was wrong of him to not at least suck it up and disclose his legal problems to all involved before they signed on with the con.

And, a over a year after this came to light, it seems to just have recently erupted into a shitstorm with people quitting their roles within the con. Apparently, furry drama sometimes comes with a delay.

15

News Media / Re: Tragedy at the Furry Convention

« on: August 26, 2013, 08:19:13 pm »

What's the point of going to a furry con if you can't have the run of the place? Especially at a smaller con where there isn't much "programming," mostly just a lot of people socializing, in suit, out of suit, and the go-to place for that is the lobby and other public areas of the hotel. For a lot of people the draw is fursuiting in a public area, albeit within the relative safety of an organized event.

If I'm going to drop a not insignificant amount of money to stay the weekend at a furry con hotel, I expect to be able to wander around the whole thing, not just some back room where they shoved all the furries so they wouldn't embarrass anyone. I don't think that wanting to get your "money's worth" out of something is an immature attitude in the least.

IIRC Califur dropped a hotel like a hot sack of crap a few years back because they wouldn't afford the con the entire public space within the hotel. I think the only "reasonable" restriction imposed by a hotel on fursuiting, is the new con in Reno which doesn't allow costumes in the casino.

16

News Media / Re: Anthrocon Media Coverage 2013

« on: July 07, 2013, 07:46:25 pm »

Pittsburg must be a really boring city with nothing else to talk about because I've never seen that much media coverage at any cons I've been to (which does not include Anthrocon).

17

FA Obsession Collection / Re: Dragoneer is torn over reporting man wanting sexual pics. of 16 yr. old

« on: June 03, 2013, 01:22:21 pm »

He's not allowed on FA but he's still very active in the furry community in southern california and participates in a lot of events so he shouldn't be hard to find, if you want to talk to him for some reason.

I don't really know the guy personally and I don't have an opinion one way or another on him. A lot of people seem to love him regardless of the controversy surrounding him.

18

FA Obsession Collection / Re: FA Begs for Hardware to Ameliorate Sloppy Code

« on: February 28, 2013, 08:31:19 am »

there's only 350GB of data, but hundreds of billions of rows. mostly notifications related

And how many accounts are there that haven't cleared notifications in years because they're inactive or banned or whatever.

It's like a hoarder complaining that he needs a bigger house to store several decades of old newspapers, and every day the paper boy brings more... when what he really needs to do is cancel the subscription.

19

FA Obsession Collection / Re: Site slowdowns cause severe issues

« on: February 07, 2013, 12:28:59 pm »

Here's the interesting thing: The delayed response and failure to quickly act may have lead them to believe it's fixed even though it's not.

I hate to be all "FA is a free website so quit complaining" but FA is a free website so quit complaining. This is an amateur-operated fandom website not Bank of America online banking, to put things in perspective. The fact that they're at least taking steps to address the issue, in a relatively timely manner (a day or less) is commendable in my opinion and shows that they actually are trying to fix this, even if trial-and-error isn't how you would choose to go about doing it.

20

Other Topics / Re: FC2013 Sudden Report

« on: January 25, 2013, 03:51:56 pm »

As I sit here feeling very cruddy, I really question the logic of bringing 4000 hygiene challenged, touchy-feely individuals together to party in close quarters, during the peak of flu season.

That said, I feel like the FC weekend is a great way to kick off the year with a bang, to celebrate the end of the stupid "holiday season" and it's something I definitely have been looking forward to for some time.

This year's FC did seem a lot more subdued than last year, though I can't put my finger on exactly why... like who exactly it was that didn't show up.

I was a bit surprised seeing the volleyball people, expecting them (at least some of the parents) to request "any weekend as long as it's NOT THE FUR CON WEEKEND..." for their tournament.

I arrived sort-of late and the Marriott could not honor my room reservation, which I had made half a year in advance. They were actually pretty embarrassed about it and it actually worked out OK because they offered to completely refund any of my money they had on deposit, and they put us up in a nice room in the St. Claire, for the remainder of the con, for free! I'm definitely very happy with the Marriott hotel for doing this but I really wonder what their issues were if this happened to other people too.

Some guy carrying around a box of wine and wearing vibrating gloves kept trying to touch me inappropriately in the Marriott jacuzzi.

I could probably count the number of female attendees I saw on one hand.

They had a go at elevator management this year, which I think was a good idea, but it seemed poorly handled, with different FLARE staffers seeming to have vastly different ideas on how to run it, where to route the line, how many handlers should accompany a fursuiter in the fursuiter line and exactly where to draw the line on what is or isn't considered a fursuit, for elevator priviliges. I'm not sure why the Hilton didn't suffer this problem, other than the number of furries who didn't want to stay there after last year.

For 2 years in a row now, I've made the mistake of missing panels I wanted to see, because they were early on Friday, and sticking around on Monday when there is absolutely nothing happening (besides people checking out).

But in the end I had a lot of fun. See you next year, San Jose!