I'm making a voluntary choice not to support this platform, because it does not meet my expectations of a constructive online community. I have always had high standards. I feel like if you're going to build something that millions will use, you should put some effort into it and take it seriously. Moderators do not in my opinion perform their roles in good faith. Users here openly engage in harassment and hate speech, and get away with it. Other users support them. There have even been instances where I feel the moderators have engaged in hate speech, and when I asked for clarification, edited the conversations to make the whole thing go away. Moderators have blocked users here. Moderators have blocked some users from communicating with others. It's just insane. I don't support it, and I'm not enabling it by putting the brand name on the artwork that I create in the spirit of uniting people in an appreciation of beauty.
This kind of toxic authoritarian exclusive community is antithetical to my whole effort as an artist. And I can't discuss it if the moderators so freely erase history because any argument I ever make is met with a comment like "well, you never cited any example of anyone being ___." So fuck it.
I'm not making any judgment about anyone else who chooses to look on the bright side, ride it out, fight to improve things, stand in solidarity, etc... because I cannot possibly know their circumstances and options when it comes to a furry community. And I know that if you don't have an account here, you can't look at most of the art here.
Let's be real for a second tho. Social media is cancer. I don't use facebook, twitter, or any of that shit. Furry sites are the exception because over the past 30-some years of being one, I've met a few people who frequent furry websites. And also, they're not jam packed with corporations trying to sell me bullshit nobody needs. And there's another more popular one that I've been posting on for 15 years so it isn't like I'm packing up and starting over.
I also feel there are a few deeply concerning things going on here that we need to speak plainly about. An entire genre that is considered "furry" because a child is wearing a single costume head and little or nothing else. A conceptual con where the basic concept is violating age of consent law. Rampant disregard for copyright and trademark laws, combined with vicious retaliation whenever a base pose or fur coloration is even casually similar to a completely atypical earlier work. Some of my friends are surprised to find I even have an account here, like, "I didn't know you were into that!"
Into what? Do you want to know what I'm into here? Because it probably isn't "that." I have been putting up with "that," because "that" is all allowed in the rules here!
The thing that sets IB apart from FA is that you can discuss generative AI here without being burned at the stake. And even that's being generous; we still have an army of trolls here who will rip into you or call you a "director" or a "AI user" because in spite of your MFA and body of work and history of gallery showings... you're still a sleazebag leech on the art world because you added stablediffusion to the list of art forms you've experimented in, alongside watercolor, oils, sculpture, charcoal.... you get it. They're here.. but in fewer numbers. And I get to follow the artists I followed on FA until they were brigaded off of there.
There are other sites that were made for pro-AI artists. I'm on one of them now. There are no brigades of trolls... it's specifically against the rules there.
Everything sucks now. I know html. I have real art out in the world and on the internet. I don't need some website that espouses fascist ideals and skirts the limits of pornography laws to validate my existence and memorialize me by freezing forever whatever petty argument I was in when heart disease or a car accident takes me. If you're ever curious about me and want to get to know me, look for me in a community that embraces human rights and shuns fascism. The only thing out there you're likely to confuse me with is a brand of rat and bug traps.
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4 months, 1 week ago
20 Apr 2025 01:03 CEST
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