EDIT:
Sorry for the multi-post. Due to having a filter set wrong on my profile, Weasyl would not permit me to post anything above a general rating. I received an error message. After correcting this in a separate tab, somehow the journal posted itself multiple times.

takes drink
Well, here we go.

I'm finally ready to talk openly and bluntly about the reasons surrounding my migration from Furaffinity to Weasyl. In the past I have been fairly reserved and applied a heavy filter to what I posted. At this point I think that it's time for me to go ahead and open up about what I think. There's going to be some swearing and I'm not going to lie this journal may come across as a bit rude. In any case, you've been warned.

I mean really, what is it with FA and this shit? They can't even hire a much needed coder without somehow managing to make that process a bloody nightmare. I mean really, lets think about that for a moment. When you can't hire someone to do some coding without things crashing in a ball of flames then it is safe to say that a lot of things have gone VERY wrong. I'm going to go full disclosure here, I knew Zidonuke for a brief period from playing a MMO with him a couple years back. I don't think most of the stuff he was accused of happened yet. He seemed like a fairly decent person when I met him. All that being said, the guy does have a significant record now. Did Dragoneer not realize that people would feel upset that a person with a record of hacking, destroying communities, and doing significant damage to websties had been brought on? Not only that, but did nobody tell him "Hey bro, this might be a bad idea."? Nobody seems to have been there to help Dragoneer. This is why I don't exclusively blame Dragoneer on this. There are people who should have told him that this was a poor decision.

Getting back on point though. It really says something when hiring a coder is so monumentally difficult that it can't be handled without outrage. Think about that for a moment. Furaffinity has gotten to the point where it can't even hire a freaking coder without drama. How disgusting is that?

For me it wasn't just this one incident though. There has been a pattern of disturbing failures that I really can't ignore. Before this it was the Zaush thing. As with the Zidonuke issue there is a history of accusations which should be concerning. I want to take a moment here to reiterate that these are "accusations" that I am referring to. Because I have not heard information from parties directly involved in the event, that's what these events are to me. If someone who was/is directly involved presents information that isn't second or third hand then I'd be happy calling it something else. But I digress. The same problem appears here as with the Zidonuke situation. The accusations leveled against Zaush are of a serious nature and cannot be ignored. Was there really no one else that could be qualified for the position? Was there no one who would not cause a PR fiasco? Weather he is guilty or not, someone should have expected the resulting shitstorm that engulfed Furaffinity. Is it really so surprising that people reacted the way that they did? Did nobody pull Dragoneer aside and say, "Hey bro, maybe this isn't the greatest idea. Could we interview someone else?"

Then there was the incident with the admin who was into bestiality. There was a screenshot dump a few years back showing communication between Dragoneer and this admin showing that Dragoneer knew about the bestiality. So, what was the response? Did someone think to remove this person from Furaffinity staff? Did someone think to make a statement condemning the behavior? Did anyone do anything positive about the situation? No, of course fucking not. Dragoneer covered it up.

So, there's the history of terrible staffing problems. On their own, I can say that any one of these issues makes me really uncomfortable being on Furaffinity. The thing is, the list of problems I have with this website doesn't end here. If it was just really bad people running the website then it would be a bit more bearable. So, lets go a little bit deeper into the rabbit hole.

The total ineptitude of the people running the website is astounding on so many levels that I can only stand in awe of how many ways the admins and staff have managed to royally screw up. Lets think about something again. Think about all of the U.I. upgrades that have been promised on that website. Every single one has failed. Bear in mind that I don't mean they failed in the sense that they were really bad. I mean that they never even got developed enough to the point that anyone saw fit to let them see the light of day. Every single fucking U.I. update that has ever been attempted on that website has failed so utterly that it had to be scrapped. We are at least 10 months into Phoenix and really there is nothing to show for it. On its own that last statement should say a lot. I mean really, a while back they were even bringing in volunteers from the community. How can you not even have a screenshot or beta tests after 10 months? Bear in mind, it's not as though they're trying to build something from the ground up. This is a freaking user interface update, how complicated can it be? I am not comfortable using a website where the admins are comfortable asking for money to buy new equipment, but can't find the time to plug it in. They have had about a year to plug the damn thing in. I don't think i'm being unreasonable in saying that I'm not comfortable with that.

Oh, and then there's the issue of how the fundraisers are handled. Anybody remember how Furaffinity's community had that fundraiser for a new server? The one around February of last year? Yeah, that server has spent the last year being unused or in absolute minimal use because nobody has been able to make the time to plug it in properly. They have the time to gather thousands of dollars from the community to get a new piece of equipment, but when it comes time to put some effort into plugging it in it's suddenly too difficult. Why do I bring this up? I'm glad you asked. They recently had another fundraiser that brought in around $18,000. $10,000 of which is going to pay for a tax debt which didn't get mentioned until someone prodded the information out of the staff on a reddit thread. (More on that later.) As someone who holds a degree in accounting, I feel that I am legitimately concerned about the state of any business, person, website, or organization that manages to have $10,000 in unpaid tax liabilities. A debt of that size is VERY serious and really needs explaining. Why does it need explaining you ask? Glad you asked that question too. Furaffinity's fundraiser had a goal of $25,000. Some basic algebra tells you that $10,000 is a whopping 40% of a $25,000 budget. When you consider that they only raised about $18,000 that algebra tells you that the tax liabilities count for more like 55.55% of the budget. Anyone who has ever worked with any meaningful amount of money will tell you that if a single line item chews up more than half of a budget proposal then it needs to be explained. It needs to be explained thoroughly. Is it really asking so much for me to ask what went wrong? I mean, if we can be asked to put $10,000 towards Dragoneer's failed business practices then I think it's safe to assume we aren't in the wrong asking what went wrong. (By the way Furaffinity is listed as a L.L.C. last i checked. So yes, these are failed business practices.) Before anyone goes and says it, yes I am perfectly aware that Furaffinity is a free website. Has anyone considered that this might be part of the problem? Facebook, Sofurry, F-List, MySpace, and InkBunny are all free. Have you ever seen any of those websites asking their users to pay their debts? Facebook for example is somehow worth $200 billion dollars. (Go read this article http://money.cnn.com/2014/09/09/investing/facebook-worth-200-billion/ ) But somehow FA can't pay its taxes.

So, for anyone who wondered why I moved away from Furaffinity, I hope this has satisfied your curiosity. The site hasn't had a meaningful UI update in years, includes a dog fucker, hacker, and an accused rapist on its staff and wonders why the users have a problem with any of this. There is a complete lack of follow-through when people using the website donate money for new hardware. To top the whole pile off it's apparently too much to ask how a website managed to get $10,000 in debt. But it's totally ok to ask the people using the website to pay the debt back. So yeah, I'm done with that cesspool.

I'm sure this journal will shock people who aren't used to me using strong language or expressing strong opinions. Hopefully you won't think too much less of me for this journal. I think that I've been just a little too quiet about my thoughts on this matter for too long. I kept sticking with that website because people were there. Over time, I have expanded to skype and seen enough people migrate over hear to Weasyl that I am now comfortable saying that I'm done with Furaffinity.