I feel like writing this journal after seeing one of FA's more well-known detractors lamenting how people are starting to go back, and they themselves may have to crawl on their hands and knees to get unbanned. Many artists joined up here, but the sad part is that not enough commissioners also made the trip over.

This is really disheartening to hear. I know the "good guys" don't always win, but the odds are really stacked against us if this is the way it's going. This is FA's biggest, most offensive fuck up in it's history, but people just don't care. If THIS didn't do it, short of a total website data wipe, NOTHING will stop them.

As such, I just have a couple things I want to address:

To artists: I don't blame anyone that wants to go back. I'm never going back if I can help it, but art isn't my source of income. I just plead to you to at least attempting to cross post things. Every minute you are less active here increases people's shallow justifications for never coming here. Please help this site grow.

To commissioners who wanna stay here: COMMISSION ARTISTS HERE. Please do! Don't head back to FA if they aren't super responsive here. Find out their e-mails or other sites, tell them you found them on Weasyl! If you want to commission an artist on FA, tell them to contact them here or via e-mail, saying you won't be active on FA much. Please, anything to get the word out.

To artists and commissioners who stay on FA because of a bias against Weasyl or it's users: I'm not here to villainize you. I know a lot of people are calling you heinous shit because you can't afford to leave the site. That isn't right. I have done so in the past and I deeply regret it. Please, don't let harsh words taint your view of an artsite that is evolving as we speak. Give it another chance, please. You don't have to choose one or the other if both feel viable to you.

To people who can't leave because of all the extra work it will take: I'm really sorry. there are a lot of good crossposters for art out there (you can find journals with links to those in my favs), but finding artists you once followed is still tricky and writers still have a bitch of a time here. that said, at least in terms of the writers, the staff is WELL AWARE of the issues. They are going to work on making it less cumbersome to post stories here, and unlike FA, I actually am more trusting with them than Neer's crew.

To people who say Project Phoenix will fix everything: No it won't. Even if it actually happens, which is extremely unlikely, it will still be run by THE EXACT SAME PEOPLE. It will have the SAME problems, if not MORE, except now you'll have folders. whoopee. If this were a company you invested in, you'd FIRE their asses, and for a lot of artists, FA IS their business hub. It's not JUST an art site, and despite claims to the contrary, it IS functionally Furry Facebook. None of this shit would fly anywhere else.

And finally, to the people relishing that they were right to ride it out and FA will has its precious user base back once the "drama" was over: All I have to say is what I said in my last FA journal:

Just remember: [people coming back to FurAffinity] will not be doing so because FA is a better site, or that the community at large is better, or that the staff are in any way competent and/or justified in anything that they have done or will do in the future. It'll be because too many people are willing to forgive all the terrible, shady, borderline illegal behavior of its owners, and unfortunately, artists have to eat. I refuse to believe, short of a total staff overhaul, that anything will ever, ever change.

That's all I have to say. Thank you.

~HT