The inevitable just happened to FurAffinity

[rodox_video]

NEWS VIA THE INTERTWITTER

So it appears someone bitched at PayPal and got FurAffinity's PayPal account suspended/frozen/whatever. This isn't much of a shock, as PayPal tends not to like dealing with large sites, and they really don't like dealing with porno sites. It was going to happen sooner or later.

The original message:

Thanks to a kind citizen in Pennsylvania, @paypal has asked us to cease accepting donations using their service.

A later follow-up message:

@NotPetrol A name was not given, else I would lambast them to hell and back for the good of the fandom.

So uh, Dragoneer? Why don't you ban Java "for the good of the fandom"? Or EbonLupus? Or Zeriara? Or Mike Hirtes?

Seriously everybody, why didn't you just put all your porno on the now-dearly-departed Furry Art Pile and have a site that not only worked but was run by slightly less incompetent people? Oh. right. Furries. Carry on.

[The_Oregon_Cavalry]

This has the potential to become interesting I think.  A little more information would be nice though, since I'm not very familiar with FA.

I've always wondered how big of an operation it is to provide FA online.  Is it one guy or a few?  It's obviously not as grand as DA, and from what little I know they actually make money (DA that is).

FA has crashed a few times in the past and they're always begging for more money.  Was FA taking donations through PayPal, or were artists conducting "business" over FA through PayPal?

[MetropolitanDonut]

The biggest difference between the two is that donations were the only way that FA made any money. As far as I've seen they don't have 'premium accounts' or run a store.
In fact, I couldn't even imagine what a premium account on FA would do. Work possibly?

[The_Oregon_Cavalry]

Interesting.  So that would definitely nix the thought that the owner or owners could use FA as a tax write-off on their server operation expenses, hence the constant begging for donations.  That brings up something else though in my mind.  I wonder how much "skimming" of donation funds occurs.

What doesn't make much sense to me is that for the most part you'd think FA's setup would allow the site to be an operating business of some sort.  Surely it doesn't exist as a "non-profit" website with the sole intention of gloriously showcasing art free of charge for all parties concerned.  Hmm.  I think I'm finally understanding why so many people have such a problem with FA.  Poor management decisions/policies and a lack of long term future-oriented goals.  Nice.

Then again I can't think of a reason as to why anyone would even want a premium membership on FA, considering that the majority of "art"  uploaded onto FA is poorly-drawn, perveted fapping material.

[LordNagetiere]

FA is a toy. They don't need to 'skim' off funds if what they would buy with these funds (gaminng servers, new hardware) is what they buy for the site anyway.

Most furry network sites/specialty sites were operated out of pocket for ages. Then google ads came along. FA is pretty big, and has a more taxing demand on it's hardware than most other furry sites (exacerbated by completely fucktarded coding), but that doesn't mean they couldn't be profitable, or at least self reliant. The difference is, that takes real management, and hard work. Begging is easier.

[[AG]]

The thing that shocks me more than anything on the FA donation deal is that fact that furries just drop the cash to hit the quote month to month yet the site remains the same, half working joke its been for the past.. ever. I've also heard that at cons furs tend to also donate money to Dragoneer directly (I got this from a fur who claims he did so himself once), so perhaps there's even more money coming in to the site in donations. Regardless, I doubt its costing so much for the site to run, specially on how poorly its ran. On one hand I think he's quite a smart guy, gaining profit and "popularity" over doing very little above sticking his hand out, making puppy eyes to get his con money or whatever its used for. If he's really spending that much money on the site, it may be more entertaining to toss it in a bucket and light it up.

[ProvincialTwit]

I disagree on the cost to run the place being low, if only because, well, look at their track record.  $16k for a cluster of servers that, if I recall correctly, were more speced out like gaming rigs than web/database servers.  Add to that the complete lack of understanding about how to run any of it, plus the awful code, and so on and so forth ad infinitum. (ad nauseum?)

I would not be the least bit surprised if whomever inked the colocation and bandwidth deal got smooth-talked by a low-level sales rep into some sort of long-term incredibly overpriced arrangement.  I mean, christ, look up the IP information.  The primary FA IP is owned by a provider with only a /26 - a slash fucking two-six!   That means their hosting provider only has domain over 64 IP addresses.  That is downright pathetic.  Though, I suppose it could be worse - they could be trying to run the site off someone's DSL connection.

Regardless, the powers that be at FA have proven themselves time and again to be horrible with money, and while it is tempting to waggle an accusatory finger w/r/t skimming off the top, I can't help but think they really are just barely keeping the damn thing alive with donations.  FA is practically a 'pay service' already.

I'd offer to drop some private advice to ol' fagoneer on a decent colo provider, but considering he refuses to take any other suggestions about his precious little baby, it's a waste of electrons.

[[AG]]

Oh wow... it's way WAY WAY more pathetic than I could have ever possibly imagined.... with that being the case something tells me FA will be going down hard one of these days if such donations drop or Dragoneer continues to believe he's got everything under control. I should keep some popcorn in stock for when the fireworks go off (though it may be quite a while from now).