I know I might not have the reach in audience of a certain cookie, but I feel like after seeing quite a few artists that I enjoyed and looked up to leaving the site due to what I feel is a massive overreaction, I must speak up about this issue.
I need to say it, as a Trans artist myself I feel that leaving the site to go to "Safer" spaces such as bluesky and the like isn't really going to do anything to improve Inkbunny. What seemed to have sparked this sudden push for queer artists to leave is the revelation that the head Administrator is a mildly transphobic libertarian chud, and that his lax moderation has allowed for the harassment of specifically queer artists on this website. This revelation has escalated to the idea that the website is somehow compromised by the right wing and therefore unusable for queer folk.
I'm lucky to never have experienced transphobia here in all my years, despite my outwardly trans or GNC OCs. Neither has anyone I've known before this incident. If you've experienced transphobia on IB, that really sucks; it isn’t fair and moderation should be paying attention to resolve this issue if blocking and other direct means don’t work. What I've seen though suggests that the problem isn’t as common as people say.
The point I'm trying to get to is that this website is largely queer centric, it's main contributors are generally queer themselves or allies and this is a somewhat unique space where there exists no divide between the "Mainstream" queers and the "Problematic" queers that exist in other websites such as Twitter/Bluesky.
I'm about as queer and left as you can get, I understand the fear and panic that the American presidential administration has brought to a lot of people. I also fear that the world is getting more callous and cruel, and that there eventually won't be a space for queer individuals to exist. This is why we need to fight and exist louder and prouder than ever, to maintain control over the spaces that allow us to do so.
From my past experience with moderation about the Ai situation, they seem to be keen on the idea of people cultivating their own experiences, be it through tags, blocking, blacklists and the like. I fully understand that these ideals were birthed from the sudden enforcement of partisan rules that Furaffinity had placed on their users a decade ago. I’m highly skeptical of Inkbunny’s leadership because in the past they’ve generally been unwilling to do anything more than the bare minimum. Their default stance is to do nothing, which functions as a double edged sword in the sense that we can be as loud as we want without being banned, eventually forcing the site’s administration to change once enough voices cry for it in unison. It genuinely feels crazy that we’re worrying about the head mod’s personal opinions when Ai is a much bigger threat to the site’s artists.
We aren't inkbunny employees, as queer artists a strike/boycott of our presence practically means nothing to the administration. Our voices are heard when we are on the site and we are being as loud and annoying as possible, and yes posting our art is part of being loud and present.
I do not feel like the site has been compromised to the right wing, and believing that it is, engenders the idea that our presence here as queer artists means nothing. When that really couldn't be further from the truth. No website truly has your back as a queer person. Bluesky has had issues about banning prominent transphobic figures despite their general audience wanting them gone, Aethy nearly collapsed due to the admin's fear of being targeted by the trump administration, Baraag has a few pretty prominent chuddy artists and can sometimes be a rather uncomfortable space to be in as a queer person. No site is perfect, and I agree that inkbunny has a lot of problems that need to be solved, but we won't get them if we're not here to fight for them!
If you take one thing from this journal, it’s that I know It's hard and scary to see how the world is right now. I'm afraid too, I'm afraid that the world will just be too hostile for someone like me to exist in, but I'm a lot less scared when I'm surrounded by a community that's willing to be by my side hand in hand when the going gets rough. This is a very unique space where we're celebrated for being furries and queer artists, no other website is specifically like this right now and we’d NEVER be getting it back if we allow it to slip from our grasp.
If any admins are reading this. Please do better. I've only spoken up on a few issues that truly bothered me about this website, but you need to understand that you have to TAKE ACTION and listen to your users. We're here because this space is truly unique, and we want to help you improve it. But we can't do that if you don't do anything no matter how we express our concerns. What do you want this space to look like in 5 years? Right now, with tons of queer artists leaving, we’ll be left with nothing but AI generated nazi cubs. And that’s a sad end to a website that was built on the ideas of freedom of expression. Be professional, apologize, do something.
If things don't change, I will continue to be loud and present about these subjects, and I encourage others to do the same. BE LOUD, BE HERE, BE PROUD.
You really think any of the more normie queers on bluesky care about that "Cubsite" and the artists on it, that they'll make a big movement to bring in some sort of change? They won't, to them we are an inconvenience, to the world we are degenerates. But to us? To me? I really think the queer artists on inkbunny are some of the most wonderful people I've ever met. There’s nothing more beautiful than being able to truly and honestly express yourself. There aren’t many spaces left where this is the norm, and if we lose it, it’ll be gone forever.
Join me, stay by my side and fight, and we’ll win.
