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Good ol' FA by MLR
So I see FA is down again.
I notice every time this happens, the Weasyl Twitter account sends out a handful of messages reminding people about various features that Weasyl has, in what appears to be a more and more pitiful attempt at getting FA users to switch [back]. Then FA comes back online and things go right back to normal.
I remember early on when I first worked as a moderator here, there was all this controversy surrounding FA, with hordes and hordes of disillusioned people flocking elsewhere in protest against the incompetent way that site was being run. But all that is now forgotten. I've even forgotten most of the details, or else they've all blended together and I couldn't even tell you the exact timeline of things anymore. Mostly I just remember the "doing favors for your bros" mentality, which was quite irksome, and the genuine disinterest on the part of FA's higher ups in what the community was actually complaining about. I remember after I wrote a super pissy journal on FA regarding my forced departure from their forum moderation team, Dragoneer apologized to me and attempted to mend things, then immediately and quite transparently started trying to use me to get favors from and influence folks at Weasyl. Then he went totally silent after the mildest of rebuffs. I soon thereafter deleted everything from my FA account and haven't been back since. I guess I sacrificed my small place in the community there (and, as it turns out, in the fandom entirely) in order to stand up for some kind of morality or principle. And the world, of course, took notice and cared, because I was super vocal about it and have so much influence. [Because sarcastic tone is ill communicated in text, yes, that is sarcasm.]
FA has really been vindicated, of course. Basically everyone went back there, despite all the protest, and I think the FA staff knew that would happen. It's a funny echo of other situations around the world, really. FA is too big to fail. Can't use Weasyl or some other site because it's so quiet, and we'd have to rebuild our extensive base of followers. And Weasyl has its issues, you know... we don't like the community tagging system, we don't like or understand the rating system, and so forth. So whatever, we'll just keep using FA. What even was the big deal back then anyway? We've forgotten.
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Same as it ever was
I wish weasyl got the breakout it deserved but i guess it takes a lot more than good intention to shift people like that -
Reminds me a lot of political discourse. FA will be here until it isn't. It's honestly a marvel that it's gone on as it has in the way it did for so long. You'd think at some point people would have stood up and taken their ball elsewhere. On that note, Weasyl should have thought more carefully about their launch and people's penchant for not standing up and taking their ball elsewhere.
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Hello MLR! I did realise the FA being down a few days back recently, but part of me didn't really think too much of the possibility of people migrating from FA. Thing is that I kknew all along that FA systems will go up sooner, but even then I think the existing competition against FA as a website service could do more to differentiate (right now, I heard of labels like "FA-lite" which doesn't seem to do much). I use both FA and Weasyl but yeah, the different site issues can be a challenge to overcome first before making any drastic changes.
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Uluri
Weasyl sends out messages and shares things at times other than when FA is down. But it's also true that all other sites react to other websites being down. It's a time when people are actively looking for new places, so its best to try to reach out to people. I think that Weasyl needs to advertise itself more diversely, though, as it's sharability and word of mouth is very minimal. As ironic as it may be, Weasyl could reach out to heck tons of folks simply by Getting an FA ad space. I got myself an FA ad for my weasyl, and the site traffic and community was so active during that time. I could only imagine what it would be like if weasyl itself advertised on FA rather than some random artist.
I actually prefer the community tagging system. There's both a lot of stuff I don't like (sickening to me) that people don't know the tag for or don't tag, and there is content I make that people's eyes and stomaches can be saved from while watching me. It's very handy and useful, and something I wish all artsites could have. One thing I've faced on sites like FA and DA is the lack of filtering and Many notes sent to me from (people who don't even watch me) how they think my occassional [content they obviously don't like] is gross. It's nice that I can be saved from that here. For the most part, most folks here encourage the tagging system quite a lot with how hady it is.
As for the rating system, yeah the rating system is bad. I would much rather see something similar to how Newgrounds has a Selection of "Does the art contain gore/adult content/etc" so that it was easier for people to have their content rated since its a yes/no rather than hoping you get it right.