A couple of days ago, the patrons of FurAffinity were introduced to the latest of many proposed projects to create an entirely new user interface that will be much uglier than the one from back in 2009. Now if you've been around FA long enough, then you know exactly how that story ends, and I really don't have anything to say about the project itself. However, as the customary drama got underway, a particularly perverse argument insinuated itself into the midst of the jolly festivities, like a church fart in a recording studio, and soon swelled to a torrential downpour of verbal diarrhea capable of leveling apartment blocks and sweeping hapless bystanders out to sea, and that pungent argument was this: It's wrong to make any accusations against anyone unless you're talking about something that they have been convicted of in court. That's just spreading lies and gossip.

So what I really wonder? Is whether even one of the people making that argument would have let themselves be caught applying the same defense to Allan, at the time the whole shitfit about him went down.

Look. As someone who was labeled suicidal in grade school, and was made a scapegoat for any number of petty administrative tyrants' rage and bitterness over all the dreams they'd given up on, literally on the sole rationale that I liked making drawings in black and white (like every comic strip in existence at the time,) I'm well aware of the abuses that we would be inviting if we decided to automatically believe all accusations about anyone. There is a very wise saying that applies to the internet, which says: never create a weapon that you wouldn't be willing to give to your worst enemy. But nobody[1] is actually trying to argue that we should blindly trust every conceivable accusation that might come from the miserable pod people on sites like lulz.net, or from sockpuppets that just happened to pop into existence right after the drama of the day started.

When people who had been our friends for years, who had shared their art with us, sympathized and supported us, gave a warning about the way Allan had taken advantage of them, we trusted their judgment. Not because we wanted to start a witch hunt, or to get rid of the idea of innocent until proven guilty, but because we cared about them, and because they had proven themselves deserving of our trust. And that is exactly as it should be. The fact is, when someone has shown themselves to be reputable and made positive contributions to a community like furry fandom, they deserve a kind of trust that we wouldn't extend to just any ignorant shit-stirrer.

So if you ever agreed with any of the (perfectly reasonable and evidence-supported) accusations made against Allan, not because you personally witnessed his actions, and not because he was charged with anything in a court of law, but based on the word of people that had consistently demonstrated their integrity and their clue-have, and you're now trying to argue that nobody's word matters, no matter how much they've contributed to the community and to the world, because it's all just rumors and hearsay? You are a Rush Limbaugh-grade hypocrite, plain and simple. And if you think that isn't so, and it's just not my place to decide what anyone may or may not be guilty of? Well then, show me the crime that Allan was convicted of back then, or else you must have just been spreading lies and gossip about him =3

So, having pulverized that entire line of argument into a fine paste, I suppose I'm going to have to address the idea that everyone will now just pack up and move to Weasyl. The thing is, I dearly wish I was able to believe that was true. And I'm not coming from some kind of fanboy position of hyping Weasyl or vilifying FA at all costs; when Weasyl first launched, I had serious objections to some of the people that were running it and what they presented as their goals for the site. However, I think that by now, my objections have been pretty thoroughly addressed, and the few admins that just made me go "sweet Bokonon, what a pan-broiled assbastard" have all resigned. In terms of alternatives to FA, Weasyl is clearly far ahead of the pack right now.

The thing is, though, a few years ago, I heard, and believed, an argument that FA was bound to die out because of its corruption and incompetence, and we should all abandon it and move to Inkbunny where we'd have a far more pleasant and technologically superior home to rally around (an argument that I'd see being made in response to the exact same people creating drama right now, in fact.) And I really wanted to believe Inkbunny could succeed, and I contributed a lot of my time and money trying to help it.

I assume I don't have to go into great detail about how that turned out, but after having been exposed to the overwhelmingly poisonous community on Inkbunny, and seeing just how every artist that ever gave it a chance was repaid for their goodwill, I'm just not able to have any faith anymore in the whole idea of The Next Big Furry Art Site.

And maybe things might be different if I was some kind of big-name artist with followers in the 5 figures, but the fact is, I have no talent. Every time I try to draw something, I envision the kind of creation you might expect to come from the extradimensional love child of Walt Kelly and Michel Gagne, and end up producing something that looks like it was drawn by Ted Rall, and I just get too depressed to go on. The only real skillset I have is telling computers how to be, and I can't even make a living off that. So all I can really do is follow the people with actual talent wherever they're posting. And again and again and again, I see them making high-minded promises about how they won't stand for travesties just as bad as the current one, and they're going somewhere where they might be seen as something more than freak show exhibits to be prodded at just to see them wail in despair, only to come slinking back to FA with their tails between their legs.

And if it makes you mad to hear that, you ought to know that you have the power to make me look like an absolute idiot. If everyone actually did move to Weasyl *and stayed there*, I'd be left looking like one of those two-bit cult leaders that make promises about how, sure, the end of the world may have completely failed to happen the last 10 times they predicted it, but this time, God really did tell them the exact date of the end of days, no fooling! But I don't think this time is going to be the special one. I don't think anyone is going to do anything different from what they always do.

-- Bartolo Polkakitty
Leave the night light on inside the birdhouse in your soul.

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[1] Yeah, yeah, I know, *somebody* is inevitably going to try to argue that just because lol internet, but they are not anywhere close to being even a significant minority.