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Dying site? by TideKeeper
So after the fiasco of the bot invasion late last year, I've sort of drifted away from Weasyl altogether. It still seems like the site load times are drastically slow compared to other, similar sites, and I'm wondering if this is one of those "sinking ship" sorts of scenarios. I'm hesitant to fully abandon this place altogether just yet, but there doesn't seem like there's much left here.
On the one hand, the people who do care about this site seem to care fairly wholeheartedly - but on the other, even though I seldom check in lately, it feels like there are fewer and fewer things in my notification inbox each time. Activity here seems to have diminished significantly.
Are people (staff or otherwise) still trying to keep the site afloat? It was fairly damning when the staff were silent/unreachable the last time there was significant trouble with the site, and the general sentiment seemed that there was a lack of caring and responsibility in that department, and that's likely chased many users away - myself included.
It's just a shame to see a site that seemed promising start to flounder this way. And if it does go completely belly-up, I'm wondering where people have begun to go instead. It seems like this was meant to be an alternative site to FA, but it would defeat the purpose if people went back there, right?
Dying site?
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Comments
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For me, I'm keeping an eye on FurryLife Online as it kinda gets itself setup and running. There's no guarantee that there's much to be done about it being a real replacement for FA due to how much of an anchor it is, but I like the aesthetic and will eventually get off my lazy bum and start uploading there more with PostyBirb.
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I think that engagement looks differently than how people expect. I don't see Weasyl dying at all.
A lot of people don't look at the Views counter for their images, that show a lot more of the traffic. I do agree that it is slower than other sites, yet the content tends to be more profound and communication more direct.
Commenting is what people look at for engagement, but twitter and tumblr and instagram have conditioned people to look at things as if it were in a feed, scrolling, looking, and Maybe liking. Favorites aren't likes, and as a word, it seems to encourage less casual interaction. Giving a comment for many websites is so much more intensive than clicking a heart button, but here on Weasyl it is the equivalent opposite, it seems, where leaving a comment shows interest and is closer to a Like than clicking the favorite button. And then the views get buried in there, but those are really the same thing as a Like, since people Scroll through their submissions (like a feed), then click (Like) on the ones they really want to view (that they enjoyed just by looking at the thumbnail.)
People's content brains are confused by multiple flow-charts of engagement, and content creators are stuck trying to learn new arrangements to show their work to audiences online.
People's content brains are less confused by things that are familiar and habitual, like all those sites people have been on for years, and content creators are stuck trying to keep their audiences.
There are multiple circles going on here, in multiple directions. I think that it comes down to people having a hard time building new habits. Setting scheduling timers to Go Check and Comment and Engage helps facilitate a whole environment of activity. Scheduling seems artificial, but it's really how the wants of the brain translate to the actions of the body.
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User wise, the site is fine. Lots of people uploading and interacting, it's just a bit quieter than other sites.
Staff wise the site is dead, so if you so end up needing a staff member for anything you likely will not get a response, which really sucks. No one is touching e-mails, or the mod reports and the forums have been abandoned. Twitter too. I used to be an Admin and I left because I was literally the only one doing anything around here, it became to much for me and I got sick of nothing being done so I left. The other staff followed and the ones that stayed behind are so inactive they haven't even noticed of they probably don't even care. :/ -
I dunno... problem with furry sites is that it's like 90% FA, and everything else is a small chunk for one reason or another. Weasyl remains one of the nicest to use alternatives, but yeah... not a lot of action here. Furry Network looked like the big up-and-coming one at first, but... that site is horrendous to use, and pretty quite now. Of all the sites I'm on, the most active is Deviant Art, which of course is not furry-exclusive, and has some really wonky rules about uploading adult stuff when it comes to furry things. So... no clear answer really.
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I feel the same way too and expressed this as well earlier when all of this was going down, but instead I feel that I have nowhere to go as I really, really do not want to go back to FA.
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jaugur
It's kinda similar to what's happening to youtube. People talk a lot, they say they want alternatives, but in the end they're not willing to switch completely because the audience is in youtube. For most people it is better to stick with a horrible place because it is what they know (and where they get their monies).
It doesn't help this site has been severely neglected. I don't think people will seriously consider any other website unless FA has another catastrophe, and I'm pretty sure it will eventually happen.