Eh, I never really left.
And honestly, if you disregard most of the drama and the bullshit that goes on there, FA's a pretty simple place. I mean I've seen from the sidelines that what's gone down with all the things that's happening. The issues with hacking, hiring so called 'alleged' rapists into their team for improvement or whatever, the drama, the cheating, the lies, the false promises. Etc. etc. the list goes on.
I know it's an awful thing to say, but it's truthful; None of that shit relates to me so why bother?
The only issue that will ever rise is if harassment/hacking of my account happens, and since I tend to stay in my own small little bubble of people to talk to, shit's pretty damned simple and easy...and boring, but I'd rather have it boring and easy than melodramatic and stressing.

If you come back, you come back, that's your choice and you shouldn't make your decision on what your fans or what other people say. We all love your art, but I'm sure the lot of us would rather have you content and at peace. And if it means leaving FA because it caused an icky feeling in your belly, then so be it. We should be supporting you and being there for you, not being passive aggressive/whiny/bitchy just because you left a site. Big deal.

Weasyl, hands down, is a far better site. That's just the honest fact of it. People stay on FA because of the nostalgia and the population being so high. High population=watchers. Watchers=popularity+attention+commissions. Commissions=Money. I've talked/seen multiple artists say they HATE FA, that they don't like the place, and that they openly admit that administration, the people, the drama, and lord knows what else drive them up the wall, but the most reason why the stay is because of the easy access to money and the few friendships and small bubbled communities they've managed to develop with other artists.

You come to FA and stay for the money and friendship.
Dealing with the bullshit just happens to be a nasty drawback.

Either way, in the end it's your choice. Do what YOU want to do. Not what everyone else is nagging you to do.

I am proud to say that I didn't <3 Completely moved here and didn't regret a second of it! Somehow my art is a little better received here than on fa? So yeah, I'm here to stay <3

FA has become a kind of toxic place to me. And the drama about the alleged rape made so many people show their faces. And being a survivor myself I just really can't bring myself to side with people like that and not stand my ground. So I moved here, best decision ever, I love weasyl to bits!!!

Go ahead and ignore the post i made earlier if it's still displaying... o-o the code goofed a bit... Anyway i deleted my FA when i moved here so as to remove any temptation to go back. ~shrugs lightly~ Haven't been back since unless i'm linked elsewhere.

I did, but only as of, like, yesterday, and it's only because I can't find a job yet and need the money and, unfortunately, FA is a lot better for getting commissions than Weasyl is. I still intend on "leaving", just.. once I find myself a job. xD

I did not go back.
My account stays logged in ONLY so I can keep up with a few artists and see their work because they are not active here or never moved, but I have not posted anything there since coming to Weasyl. I have made more friends here than I ever did on FA or dA and I feel that people actually kind of care about my work.

Plus, the fact that theres an alleged rapist on the staff and the people who showed their true colors about it, especially the ones who don't think its wrong, makes me uneasy. I want nothing to do with people like that. Even when I stayed in my bubble I saw a lot of drama. I just didn't really like it there as a whole.

I went back because I wasn't getting anywhere near as many commissions here/on Tumblr as I did there. I couldn't afford to stay away.

I still hate it there. I've been back for like a month or two and I only gotten one there (I'm hoping this was because I joined right around the time people started saving up for cons) but I've gotten into four or five people, at least 3 of which were because someone directly insulted me or my art. I have literally never had that problem on Weasyl or Tumblr. So there's that.

If you want to/need to go back, I won't judge you in the slightest. My boyfriend compares it to working for a company with policies you don't agree with. Maybe you hate corporate's beliefs, but you like the people in your office, and you gotta pay the bills. Just don't go back because people are trying to manipulate/guilt trip you into leaving. If it helps you could always lock your profile on FA.

I never really left. I'm keeping my personal doodles on Tumblr/Weasyl, but posting as normal to FA. I had to be honest with myself, it's a business hub. Until Weasyl kicks it out of it's spot or it crumbles entirely I probably can't afford to leave.
Also what sparta said:

If you want to/need to go back, I won't judge you in the slightest. My boyfriend compares it to working for a company with policies you don't agree with. Maybe you hate corporate's beliefs, but you like the people in your office, and you gotta pay the bills. Just don't go back because people are trying to manipulate/guilt trip you into leaving. If it helps you could always lock your profile on FA.

I had said I wouldn't completely leave because I felt it would be commercial suicide for me, and I was kinda right.
When I opened for comms here I almost didn't get any clients, so I guess I'll continue managing both at the same time.

I mostly sit in the sidelines there, because for every artist that came here, there's about that many who are still on FA that I still watch. And since I write instead of make pics, no one bothers equally on both sites. shrugs

I never fully left FA - but I drastically cut back what I post there. I only post commissions there now, and use it to follow artists. All my personal stuff and most of my interaction goes on WZL. I would make the move entirely, but unfortunately as I do commissions for a living I need to keep up an FA presence so I can keep taking in new work. WZL is slowly but surely gaining me commissions, but nowhere near the rate FA does, yet. It's very unfortunate but something I hope will change over the next year or so.

Honestly I think that 'it doesn't affect you!' argument is ridiculous. Being in a toxic environment where rape allegations and the like are ignored is dangerous for anyone, especially people sensitive to such things (survivors etc). And by ignoring it, you're condoning it, IMO. You're saying 'well, I'm perfectly willing to ignore serious issues and dismiss them as 'drama' and belittle them by saying they don't affect me, because stuff like the safety of survivors and potential new victims doesn't matter to me'. It's kind of disgusting :/

I went back to FA about, oh... six months or so after leaving it. My reason was quite simply that I have the most watchers there out of all the sites I post my art on, and thus the most chances of getting noticed.

In the end, it all boiled down to my priorities: was the reputation of one member of the site more important to me, or was my own recognition as an artist more important to me? Honestly, my own recognition as an artist is more important to me than whether or not a coder/admin on FA has a bad reputation or not.

I no longer post there. I only really keep my FA right now to follow about 4-5 artists who just refused to leave. Little by little, I am having less artists to watch there as the moment they move or post there stuff somewhere else as well, I unwatch on FA and only watch on other sites. Most of the artists I still watch, Im doing so for ongoing projects that all seem to be coming to an end soon. Once I have no more artists to watch there, I will likely be transferring my gallery and leaving it all together.
I understand those who go back or dont want to leave FA.
I see no future in FA with my own personal work.

As some said, I never left. It doesn't feel like an option even still. Yet I am still very much here.

I'm only uploading business there, not pleasure.
If people wanna see my non-commission work they can come here, and people's opinion about "overreacting" just tells me they're lazy, controlling jerks who can fuck right off.

Never left. I keep both my gallery there and here updated pretty easily, and it's kinda like a foot in each boat thing? I don't doubt FA will eventually die off (with all the broken promises, the obvious lies, the security issues, and lately in their "updates" more and more people are voicing their discontent) but who knows when that will be.

There are still a lot of artists that only post on FA and yeah, the bulk of commissions come from there, and while I don't agree in any way with what goes on there keeping my gallery up/uploading art there does not mean I support it.

Of course if I had a bunch of FA people telling me I'm being oversensitive/stupid/whatever by having a Weasyl, I'd prolly just leave FA entirely :/

I left for good. Cleared all my favourites, watched artists and everything. I just can't go back, especially now that I've settled here. I've never gotten weird comments or whatever here on Weasyl, and to me it just seems like a much nicer site overall for design and responsiveness/helpfulness of the staff. uwu

I can understand people not wanting to move for business, but idk, you'd think if enough artists moved, their fans would follow..
But there's always the approach of still using it but not posting full work on there? I know of a few artists who only post previews on FA so people have to go to their weasyl to view their full works + posting commission slots n stuff on weasyl earlier to encourage commissioners to move.

For me personally though, I'd only ever consider using FA again if the staff and site changed for the better. Which doesn't seem like it will happen for a long while. unu

I left but I still log in from time to time if someone posts a journal or something and they have their profile set to members only.

I Never fully left, but I refuse to post personal work. I had a few artists there that I kept watching, and I mainly commission through FA. I personally feel that Weasyl is a better site, but I don't care if people go back to FA or have duel galleries. I crosspost adoptables that i make to both sites mainly for the traffic.
Maybe eventually it'll end up like the myspace/facebook popularity contest.

I left and haven't looked back. I cleared out the people I watch, most of my gallery was either moved to scraps, deleted, or made into thumbnails that point to my WZL. I have no desire to move back to that cesspit, seeing as, honestly? I get more, friendlier interaction here that I ever did on FA. I feel a lot safer here, and that should say something. It's just slower here, which I can afford right this second

I keep getting watchers there actually, but then I noticed the other day that a percentage of them end up popping up over here, which is good, I think! I would really only consider going back if the staff was changed/got the boot (and I literally mean ALL of the staff,) and the site got a massive overhaul, particularly pertaining to tolerance for bigotry.

Ugh, I'm sorry you still have people saying and doing that awful stuff :c You're not too sensitive.

Left for good, haven't looked back. My account is deactivated and has been that way since that blow-up happened. And it will continue to be that way. And its one of those things that, I'll probably go back to DeviantArt before I do FA.

I dumped my accounts (yay no name change feature, hence my multiple fa's) and only go there if I need to find something I don't think is on Weasyl and/or someone links me something. Otherwise that site is pretty well done for me. I don't ever intend to go back.

I ended up going back because I needed the money, but it turned out that all my customers had also left, and all that was left was a bunch of entitled assholes.

Probably going to end up clearing out my gallery again and just using it to keep an eye on the few artists I admire who haven't left.

I did not. I'm getting enough commissions on Deviant Art that it negates my need to really post about them on Weasyl or FA anyway, and the projects have been both fun and challenging, in different cases. I feel that being away from FA has been a good lesson in cross-exposure for me. I'd wanted to branch out from strictly-anthro art commissions for a while, and I'm getting the chance now.

That said, I do miss doing anthro art and may try to do more in the way of it for personal projects.

The only reason I go to FA these days is when a client links me their ref sheet through the site.

8| I went back because well... Weasyl is suprisingly non-receptive most of the time. It's pretty amazing if I get even a single comment on an image here. Haha. Let alone a fav, though those aren't quite as important to me. At least with FA, I might get a random comment or favorite now and then. And people actually seem to enjoy my presence on the site. Even if I'm more human and kemonomimi artist, than anthro artist. (I do try to mix it up, but you know. lol)

However, I did not go back immediately. I was gone for four to six months before I went back, created a new account with this name, and otherwise 're-invented' myself. So far the reception has been pretty nice for that. I do find it mildly amusing, of course, that I post more here, especially with WIPs, but I get more attention there. lol I didn't go back because I agree with the views of the staff though. But then, I went back to DeviantArt after abandoning it along with FA, because of shitty views and actions of the staff. Having practically no profiles to promote myself on wasn't helpful in the least... If I'm eventually going to attempt to make a living off of my art, I need to actually have an audience. Right now, Weasyl isn't really providing that.

Really though, if you go back to FA, do it for yourself, whatever those reasons might be for doing so. Don't do it because 'fans' are guilt tripping you into it, or because someone thinks you've made a poor decision for leaving. Your reasons are your own, and only you will know what best suits you, and what makes you truly happy.

I never completely left because (for better or for worse) I tend to ignore drama on sites and I didn't want to sacrifice my following or ability to make money from commissions. Weasyl is dead compared to FA and while I obviously still use it, FA will be my go-to furry site simply because it's more used by the masses.

I agree with the people who say that you shouldn't let what others say influence your decision to go back or not. If you've got better peace of mind staying here on Weasyl and avoiding FA I hope you stick with your decision =}

Luckily anyone who misses your art on FA can just sign up for a weasyl account XD

I have not gone back except when necessary (such as a link to something I was interested in that was being done there, auction, raffle etc)

I didn't leave because I still like FA. I started out on Sheezyart, so I'm used to dumb things happening on sites, so I just stay.
At times I like to see the drama because it can show how quick people are to judge things or to just be offended or just want to start up shit. I rarely say anything about the drama anymore, however.

Like the recent site rules update... lots of people are bitching and complaining in the news post. It's amusing. I just shrug and keep on doing the stuff I do.

I may check up on Weasyl every day, but I still don't feel that active... mainly because it's still rather quiet here it seems. It will be nice if more people come over and actually STAY here.
There are still things I don't like about Weasyl, too, but I'm hoping they'll change in the future. (notes is one of them. Hate the note system).

I just have a feeling this site won't go too far, mainly because I hear a bunch about sites trying to be the "good site", but then just stop updating or whatever or it just goes downhill. I hope my thoughts are proven wrong, though. D:

I still browse FA (especially now that I'm on my fursuit kick) and up until a couple months ago I still used it for commissions, but I haven't posted personal art there since the exodus.

Since I do art as a living, and FA gives me the most exposure and business (+ I've put the most time and effort there, all my 'track back' had been to there), I had to 'stay'. However, I keep up with posting my art on Weasyl first, and have changed my 'trackback' on my art, but it seems slow to actually affect anything. I dislike features about both sites, but am fairly used to some on both.

I left completely, as did my partner, until a financial situation hit us really hard and I was desperate for options. I got harassed for coming back for such a reason as soon as I did go back, but yet, I wind up posting there occasionally. I dunno. I still hate it there but more commissioners stayed there. Not that I get many commissions, so....at the end of the day I don't know why I'm there. I guess peer pressure, missing artists that didn't post to weasyl, and most of all ease of communication, most people use FA and it's like Facebook for furries like others are saying..... :/ My partner eventually went back as well. I'm not sure if they got harassed but they did for leaving so...yeah.

I left there because of all that. I left my gallery intact, because there were people who'd commissioned me who had art in my gallery, or people I'd drawn trade/gift art for, so I left it up there for them. But I don't post any new work there because I don't really want to be associated with a site whose admins act like that. As a woman, I am incredibly uncomfortable with that. That said, I still check my FA account every few days, because one of my favorite artists/writers does not post their art/stories anywhere else, and I was in the middle of a good story. If not for them, I would be completely done with the site. But even though I log on occasionally, I'm basically a ghost. I don't post, don't comment, and don't favorite. I just read that artist's updates and watch to see if any other artists I like post about galleries elsewhere. I hate that I have to go back there, but the story was too good not to finish.

If they ever shape up (I doubt it), I might go back and become an active user again, which is another reason I left my gallery intact. I used to sell a lot of designs on there, and haven't had as much luck elsewhere selling them. But other than that (and the artist who only posts there) there's not really a draw for me on the site anymore.

I went back recently because I'm going to try to start getting commissions from my crocheting/knitting and like people were saying, unfortunately there are more people over there. I wish they had a name change option though because I'd love for all my accounts to have the same name across all the websites, but the one I'm using now is more connected and years old so I don't want to abandon it.

I never left entirely but I stopped posting art over there and moved my journal here except for signal boosts and things like notices that I am going to AC, for the most part. I really want people to move over here and stay put. I do think about posting a few things back there though but probably won't. If I don't like a site I rarely go back. For instance, fuck Facebook; I get really fucking tired of people trying to pressure me to sign onto a site I don't like and I will get terse with them if they won't stop.

i've tried to become equally active here as on FA, though i have slacked on both for a while until recently. I'm totally a creature of habit so breaking the FA habit is going to be hard. plus I do artwork to supplement our income so without most of my watchers there i don't have said income which hurts in the end :/

Previous comments have essentially summed up how I feel about the whole thing, so I will try not to rehash what has already been so well stated. I came here to open up new avenues for business and pleasure and unfortunately my work here has been greatly overlooked so I keep tethered to FA and my main site on Deviantart.

I feel that business is business and I can ignore the stupidity on FA for the most part. I had every intention of moving here to start fresh but my clients and friends keep to the other sites so I will for now as well. I will always be active on Deviantart though since that is my main site.

It really sucks that people are being so crummy and childish by sending you hate mail about your decision. Frankly your business is none of their concern so they need to back off.

I didn't leave completely either, mostly because there's couple artists there that are really important to me and they aren't elsewhere, or are, but not very active. Other, smaller reason being that I try to keep up the hope of getting commissions. I suppose the "problem" with Weasyl at the moment is that it has artists, but not that many commissioners. At least I assume artists are less often buying art, compared to those who only watch art. (really hoping a community grows in here too)
Those who harass people for leaving are pretty unbeliavable, are they thinking that brings them back... And since nothing really is stopping them from following people in another site or two if they really are interested in their work, they are just being selfish arses expecting that everything they want is brought in front of them where-ever they might be. Agh.

I never really left FA but I'm very sparse about using it. Part of me doesn't use FA much because of the Zaush thing, but then part of me also doesn't use it because I've become more active on Weasyl and it's hard to manage two accounts-- and also because the FA site is really shitty and just annoying to use (in terms of site quality.)

I wiped my FA account and deactivated it. There's no going back for me. I do check their "update" journals once a month to see if anything changes, but meh, the only thing that would bring me back to FA is if everyone running the site were replaced with competent people.

I am not going back, and don't plan to, though I can see that for those who primarily do furry artwork, suiting, or adult work it's a huge (and one of the only) viable places to get commissions. I can't blame people who need to do so at all regardless of my personal opinion of the site and its staff.
Of course, leaving also pushed me away from the whole genre / subject matter that FA generally "likes", and that I had accidentally mired myself in, and towards larger more personal pieces of completely different natures, so I suppose it's less tempting for me to go back when I know that there would be few benefits and probably no feedback. If I were still into that material and in desperate need of commissions I might return there, but for now I can safely afford my ethics and keep away.

I left but I'm still logged in to follow folk and keep up with people who didn't leave!

I won't judge at all if you go back; just don't feel like you have to cave in to the pressure of people telling you it's bullshit andt hat you need to come back.

I never left
I just built a backup here to follow the people I liked that did leave
I simply can't start over again on a smaller site

Lurking there, still, mostly because all the (I use this term lovingly) degenerate (lovingly guys) Florida furs at the local meet ups seem to only use that site, and facebook, and hell will freeze over before I ever rejoin facebook. 8( I don't judge people who don't leave but I do judge people who openly make fun of the mass exodus of the site, like, um. Yeah. That's not cool.

I know this is more than a year old now but I have yet to return to FA since coming here.