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Inkbunny

Release 82 - Spamhammer

It's been a while, but we're still around. Welcome to Inkbunny R82, Spamhammer.

We recognize that a number of issues have been cropping up recently. This update brings in a whole new set of tools and foundational reworks that set the stage for improving how staff responds to some of those issues, while reducing the impact that these issues have on the user experience.

Right off the bat, and in line with the release name, we've got a slew of features that relate to curbing spam that has plagued the site for a number of years. While our increased staff has allowed Inkbunny to bring ticket response times down to a level not seen in a decade, there are a number of areas where the structure of the existing site did not allow for assistance from our newer Community Moderators. That has been reworked to give Community Moderators visibility and functionality to work against spam as well, while still ensuring a high level of accountability to higher-level staff. Community Moderators have leeway to moderate and remove spam accounts that are considered untrusted.

And what does untrusted mean? That's an existing designation, but it was pretty limited in scope prior to this release. New accounts would be considered trusted after a day or two from creation. This was, broadly speaking, not a great system for filtering out problematic users, and it generally only caught the least motivated individuals. The trust system has been reworked into a basic scoring system, and additional tiers have been added. If a new account dips too low as a result of its actions, it may automatically be marked as spam. The actions that can currently result in this are pretty focused, but we have the tooling in place to expand this further, and there is an appeal system in place to guard against false positives. In addition, even the newest account on the site previously abided by the same limits on comments, Private Messages, journals, and submissions as any other account on the site. The rework implements much stricter limits on new accounts that are gradually lifted as accounts graduate to higher levels.

Some of the restrictions introduced to reduce spam may leave users unable to register a new account unassisted. To help alleviate the issue we've added a system that allows users to provide referral codes to other users to allow for account creation regardless of those restrictions. All trusted users will gradually earn the ability to generate codes over time. If you need more than the automatically allowed amount, staff can create additional codes for your use.

We've also significantly increased visibility into spam and abusive behaviors for staff at all levels. We'll still rely on user reports for a number of issues, but the additional tools allow for staff to be proactive when workload allows, reducing the impact of spam and abuse on normal users. Private Messages from untrusted users will take some time before they appear in your inbox, allowing staff and the automated systems to remove them. Additionally, these same messages will no longer immediately send email notifications, regardless of settings, to reduce abuse via Inkbunny's notification system.

There are also a number of changes that help enhance security and privacy for users. Users now have a variety of options to choose from for privacy levels regarding contact details, watched by/watching lists, and journals, allowing users to select specific audiences for each — and we're looking to expand these options to other parts of the user experience as well, depending on the impact and adoption of these tools.

Speaking of contacts, the process by which contact types are managed and updated on the site has been reworked to allow us significantly more flexibility in the future.

We've also added an external link warning page to protect you from malicious or deceptive linking. This option is enabled by default, but can be disabled in your Account Settings if you choose not to use it. The whitelist is expandable and users may request specific sites be added to it via a support ticket.

Thanks to the contributions of
Elly
Elly
, there have been a number of improvements to comment display including the ability to preview BBCode for a number of the locations where it's available. This is just the first in what we hope is a number of additional contributions by some of the talented people that call the site home.

We're working on a new system to allow certain notices for an account to be delegated to another account. The current implementation is limited to allowing staff members to receive notices for the Inkbunny account, but in the future this will allow users who run business or project accounts separate from their personal accounts to reduce how much context switching they need to do.

Under the hood we've made a number of changes, adjusting and optimizing table layouts and planning for future activity, but the biggest change is the implementation of Valkey as a cache for search results and for a number of other items that would previously have required reading from disk. This should take pressure off Inkbunny's disks and allow for additional improvements in the future using the freed headroom.

Welcome to R82.
Viewed: 7,401 times
Added: 1 month, 2 weeks ago
Site News Item: yes
 
Kadm
1 month, 2 weeks ago
You may be asking yourself why it's been years since our last release, why there is so little in this release, and where the features for normal users are. Originally, I had intended for several more features to make it into this release, and there's a trail of half-finished features in my repositories that just need polish before they can be released. Ultimately, a lot of things come down to priority: what's going to make the site more efficient and allow us to put time into improving it.

Since last year, I have personally deleted over 4000 spam accounts. Each of these takes around 30 seconds to remove when we take care to verify we're not impacting other users. And this work could only be done by Super Moderators and above because when we designed Community Moderators, we determined that it was best to keep account termination a highly restricted permission. This release changes things, putting guardrails on the process and opening it up to allow Community Moderators to assume some of that role, freeing up more time for senior staff to focus on improving the site.

Another factor behind the relative size of this release is how much work went into creating a real CI/CD pipeline for Inkbunny. There's still work to be done, but rather than individual developers running test servers (which took a significant amount of time to set up and deploy), Inkbunny now has a reliable infrastructure for deploying test servers in minutes. There are currently thirteen Inkbunny test servers in operation at various stages of development, for the developers working on the project.

This release would not have been what it is without the help of the users who volunteered to help test it. I especially want to call out
Fynnley
Fynnley
and
Devourer
Devourer
for their significant contributions across almost every build I put out. Their work prodding at things was very helpful in ensuring this release shipped smoothly.

I've said this to a lot of people, but I have never been more optimistic about the future of the site. We're working through things that bog us down, improving efficiency, and reinvesting those gains into making Inkbunny a better place. There are going to be things that not everyone is happy about, but we intend to keep Inkbunny here to support the community as best we can.
Devourer
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Thank you for welcoming me in :3
I'll definitely keep prodding things and help out, it's been a fun time
newfer2222
1 month, 2 weeks ago
I'd like to give something like $30/year, old Reddit gold style, but I'm also *very* concerned about that contribution staying anonymous.
Telain
1 month, 2 weeks ago
The Donations link at the top of the page shows your options for donating. You can decide if any of those options are anonymous enough for you. Inkbunny does accept a number of crypto currencies.
Glittery
1 month, 1 week ago
Are you legally at risk if it isnt? Totally valid to be concerned, Im just curious given the state of the world whether its embarassment or an abundance of caution.
MozameMogki
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Thanks for the hard work you all put in
GreenReaper
1 month, 2 weeks ago
As Kadm says, spam and scams are two of the biggest time sinks for Inkbunny staff and while developing tools to address this has taken [mostly him] even more time, it's well-spent. If that were the only thing in this release, it'd be worth it, but the preview tab, privacy settings and link warnings are icing on the cake.

Thanks and congratulations to all involved at every step!
SideB
1 month, 2 weeks ago
This is certainly appreciated.
I received many of those scam attempts and was already quite satisfied with how quick the staff was to take care of it.
Also just now found out about the new comment header thing with Edit and Preview as tabs. Very nice little change to however did that.
VarraTheVap
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Sounds awesome! And am noticing the preview tab right away~
Devourer
1 month, 2 weeks ago
We are so back :3
Fynnley
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Love this update and hope for many fun additions to come :3
ConejoBlanco
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Nice to see new nice updates in here, since I think IB is already great in features i dont think needs so much more.
DanielBunny
1 month, 2 weeks ago
How will the new account restrictions affect new artists? And if I'm understanding this right, there's a new automatic spam filter in place, but this will only be applied to new accounts, correct?
Kadm
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Almost all existing accounts are considered trusted at this point. Initially activated accounts have some pretty strong limits on them, some of which we're going to probably adjust going forward, but it doesn't take very much actual participation in the site to graduate to the next (still untrusted tier) which is still restricted, but much less so. Most of the limits for the second tier and above are things people will never hit.

We also have the ability to promote accounts out of the untrusted state if needed, and should someone be auto-marked as spam (which is currently VERY unlikely), it will let them appeal it and our ticket response times are low enough that it should be pretty quick.
frchpk
1 month, 2 weeks ago
There is no additional PM settings but at least now it’s being filtered, nice!
Kadm
1 month, 2 weeks ago
This is one of those things that I wanted to make it in, but I think it will need to wait for a smaller subsequent release in a few weeks. We reached a point where I simply needed to say 'this is what's going in, polish, iterate, and release'. More control over your space is coming though.
frchpk
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Sweet!

I also liked the option to hide your watcher and watching option, however i seem to have trouble applying it as when I enter my correct password it wouldn’t work. Also it be better if I can’t see my own watcher and watching list either

I love to see more updates soon. Being able to delete your comments on someone else’s page would be really nice aswell!
NekoStar
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Worked for me~

Idk why you'd wanna hide it from your own view tho haha! Surely you already know who you are watching?
Kadm
1 month, 2 weeks ago
There was a defect with saving settings on the Account Settings page. It's been hotfixed.
NekoStar
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Ah gotcha. Y'all move quick! :D
frchpk
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Thank you for fixing it! It works now for me!
MakoRuu
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Elly is the best!
ArielCelestia
1 month, 2 weeks ago
They absolutely are! <3
Masterful
1 month, 2 weeks ago
...And you can collapse threads with some manner of comment nubbin. Neat. *3*
MasterMarik
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Greatly appreciated after all the spammers attempting to be my friend randomly. Really made friend requiests untrustworthy,.
DeltaP
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Nice work
Etis
1 month, 2 weeks ago
External link warning breaks dropbox links.
Kadm
1 month, 2 weeks ago
If you link me to one, or gimme a Support Ticket with more info, I'll triage and fix it immediately.
MorisuZone
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Thank God. No more spam bots :)
Tweaker
1 month, 2 weeks ago
The additional post visibility options are fantastic. I love that I can make journals only visible to mutuals or people I watch! Good stuff! Are there plans to expand that sort of control to other types of posts on the site? (e.g. submissions)

Here's hoping the commission scam PMs and other issues get stomped out after these changes.
Kadm
1 month, 2 weeks ago
I want to expand the visibility and privacy options to submissions as well, but it may be a little bit while we evaluate what performance gains Valkey has earned us, and the impact that adding it to the much more heavily used submission table will have. It's going to happen, we'll just have to evaluate cost and method.
FurCollector
1 month, 2 weeks ago
The "Watching/Watched by" privacy is ass, if you ask me. I mean, is already difficulty enough to track the activity/state of certain artists or people of interest* with the Favorites privacy in case they hide it to conceal their activity, now we can't rely on Watch activity either? Who asked for this feature? Probably somebody from the high niche did, I remember when long ago, an Emerald level sponsor asked about concealing the list of people who faved an image, and it was implemented like nothing, just because somebody who paid a lot asked for it.
Worse, now when one's contacted by an old blank account for commissions or stuff like that, one won't even be able to see if they follow people or fave things at least; I mean you patched an issue with these in a side, and broke it in the other.

The collapsed comments seems fine.

*People of interest like certain popular commissioner and friend of everyone, who nobody knows about for almost a year already.
Tweaker
1 month, 2 weeks ago
I think this is a justifiable feature. Peoples' profiles are hounded by bad actors constantly to catch them in "gotcha" moments over the types of artists they follow and content they consume. Sharing these things is a great way of networking with other like-minded folk on the site, but if you want the freedom to browse and follow who you want free of that external scrutiny, you should be able to. It puts the power in the hand of the user, which is exactly in line with the site's philosophy and where that control should be. No complaints here, props to the dev team on that one.
GreenReaper
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Not everything, or even most things, are about money. This kind of stalking is something that has bugged a fair number of people over the years. Your desire to collect furs does not trump that.
FurCollector
1 month, 2 weeks ago
The problem is that precisely, a lot of high tier artists see stalking everywhere, even in users approaching and commenting often and openly in their work, in the worst of cases. It's a thing that "is all about ego" and the such as far as I've seen lol. But whatever; If 'stalking' is the new word for 'engaging'...

And now, totally unrelated; my desire to "collect furs" died a long, long time ago lol, when paywalls came up and I found out that completing an artist's full portfolio would require money and levels of exclusivity I could never reach hah xd
Since then, this artistic name hasn't represented me anymore, but I still keep it to avoid impersonation. Now, since you're here, I'd like to ask how the username change works in this site; I once asked about recovering an old username and I was vaguely answering about the username being kept exclusive to my account, and unable to be picked by others. Is this true? And if I wanted to change back to it, would it be still be "claimable"? Would be nice to finally know about this.
GreenReaper
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Yes, if you change your name your old name is reserved and redirects to you, and also comes up on search, if I recall correctly. You can't rename to someone else's old name. Only staff can override that and would not typically do that before enquiring with the former owner, especially if they were active. You should be able to switch back to your own old name, though. You can choose whether to notify your watchers of the name change (either way, they still watch you).
FurCollector
1 month, 2 weeks ago
I'm glad to finally know, thanks for clearing it.
ButtholeCharlie
1 month, 2 weeks ago
" FurCollector wrote:
I remember when long ago, an Emerald level sponsor asked about concealing the list of people who faved an image, and it was implemented like nothing, just because somebody who paid a lot asked for it.


Yo, genius, this is the way of the world: people who fund things or get the ear of those in charge are the ones who can influence. This isn't a government so they don't need broad approval of people.
FurCollector
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Your username and latest journals say all about you. Keep walking, nobody is gonna nibble on your bait here.
LichMemeLord
1 month, 2 weeks ago
I agree with this one, how are we supposed to track artist activty if now the watching/watched by is auto hidden? hide their favorites, hide their activity,Seems to me like Artists just hide themselves from the world and there's no way to ask them if we can see anything, but I wonder how this will affect being able to track artists going forward, cause if they hide everything until you follow them, seems to be gatekeeping to me, similar to how some artists go "You cant see anything I do or make unless you have an account, and even then you may not be able to anyways".
Athari
1 month, 2 weeks ago
" cause if they hide everything until you follow them
Currently there's no "Users watching me" level of privacy, afaik. If it's ever added, I can see it becoming toxic.
Athari
1 month, 2 weeks ago
I'm concerned about this hiding as well. Browsing favorites and watches are my way of discovering new artists.

Maybe a notice could be added when privacy is set to a high level, for example, "NOTE: By hiding your watches and favorites, you're harming the discoverability of other artists. Please choose carefully." Hopefully, it'll shame artists into not switching to full paranoid mode.
Tricksta
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Still here if you need help.
Kalli9920
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Sweet, thanks for that huge update. New options and settings are always appreciated.
NekoStar
1 month, 2 weeks ago
A welcome update! You guys continute to do such a wonderful job with the site, and your hard work does not go unnoticed. The team behind IB keeps this place afloat.
Thank you for striving to maintain a safe environment for everyone that considers IB their home (or at least one of the primary places they choose to host their art~)
RobbyBunny
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Great improvements, I love the live preview in the comments. I have a similar set up going in my MD / HTML editor at work and it's a massive QoL.

Thank you all for your time.

If you need additional resources for the mundane work I'd be happy to volunteer, I've been a active member for well over a decade and I happily call this place home but I see you have a lot of talented members and contributors already 🙂 so I doubt you're in short supply.

Great work everyone.
orchua
1 month, 2 weeks ago
tansk to all
Cressie
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Now you can hide your watchers/watching list.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you 🙏🙏🙏
EclipsionXXX
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Thank you Inkbunny team for alerting us about this new update.But may I make a suggestion? Instead of communicating via email in case of technical problems, you could have your own profile on the site, so we can visit you and ask certain questions about on this site, it would be easier and more accessible for everyone who trusts your website.This is just a suggestion and not an insult.
Telain
1 month, 2 weeks ago
I'm not sure what you mean. Emails are sent in addition to updates from the
Inkbunny
Inkbunny
account. And if you have questions, you should generally use Support Tickets, which has a link on the bottom left of every page.
DainenDog
1 month, 2 weeks ago
This is a wonderful update, especially the new privacy options.

Giving users more control over what parts of their activity are public is always a positive change. Different people use the site in different ways, and being able to choose how much information they share helps everyone feel more comfortable using it.

The anti-spam improvements and moderation tools also sound very promising. Thanks to everyone involved in the release.
Issarlk
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Thanks for the hard work.
Kittzy
1 month, 2 weeks ago
The new commenting features are also a welcome improvements, the preview and threads tidy things up nicely :D
B4639T
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Elly
Elly
Thank you so much for helping and supporting the inkbunny community(us all) :3
leinad56
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Nice news, thanks you inkbunny staff <3
billmurray
1 month, 2 weeks ago
ヽ(・ω・)ノ
billmurray
1 month, 2 weeks ago
the thread tree markers are an interesting touch xD
bullubullu
1 month, 2 weeks ago
They have been needed for a while! In a long discussion where people partake at different "levels" of the discussion, the comments were incredibly confusing to keep track of sometimes, so I like that it has been implemented^^
dilbertdog
1 month, 2 weeks ago
where do we find these referral codes

Telain
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Under Account, Settings, Referral Codes
billmurray
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Please add different icons for Friends-only content vs. No guest content, if not already!  All of the locks on everything are confusing me and making it more difficult to determine which content I should pay closer attention to @w@
billmurray
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Kadm
1 month, 2 weeks ago
There was definitely some feedback during testing that we should have more icons for different levels, but I didn't really have the bandwidth during the closing week of the release. We'll probably rework it down the line in conjunction with implementing some of the same options for submissions.
skunkbitez
1 month, 2 weeks ago
This is amazing! Finally this new system can filter out automatically a lot of spam and hate mail I get on here, despite PMs being reportable they're a playground for stalkers to attempt to harass artists sometimes
Will this new system allow for more traditional blocking? It's infuriated me for a while I can't actually remove a user from following my account from me blocking them.  Not being able to remove a follower incentives them stalking me as they get direct notification feeds of my art I think and sometimes makes user behavior worse. The blocking system should hide other users you block from you, that would be cool to see implemented
Kadm
1 month, 2 weeks ago
There's definitely room to discuss changes to the block system. We're never going to do blocking in the style of old-Twitter, but there's a lot of room to respect that people you block shouldn't show on your profile, and you shouldn't show up on theirs. This is just the first pass of privacy enhancements that I'd like to do though, so keep your eyes open.
skunkbitez
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Yeah I just think some sort of incentive that hides the profile from the user who is trying to use the blocking just helps a lot to prevent a lot of the situations I've experienced, and also just being able to remove people publicly from the following.  Thank you for responding and glad to see ya'll would be willing to at least change it in some way.  Eyes peeled!!! Thank ya'll for continuing to help improve the site I really appericate it
Athari
1 month, 2 weeks ago
" Will this new system allow for more traditional blocking?
The sort of full blocking you describe has never been "traditional" on gallery sites, furry or not. Full blocking exists only on a tiny portion of toxic social media sites.
skunkbitez
1 month, 2 weeks ago
The reason why I referenced "traditional" blocking is because inkbunny as it stands doesn't even have the feature to remove unwanted followers from your following.  I personally have gotten severely stalked by people whereas other MOST other social media sites will at least remove your follow.  
The blocking I do describe does exist, for example deviantart & tumblr completely hide users both ways that block each other in a way they looked banned for example.  That's what I was trying to describe, but even a baseline to simply remove unwanted followers is what I would like to see, because as it stands, it encourages a lot of stalking behavior.  There doesn't need to be a complete nuclear hide of profiles (though I think social media sites acting like blocked users are banned people is good, it makes it hard to find profiles and to ignore people, but that's just my experience. specifically in the way tumblr does it, because twitter's system is designed to make you evil and want to lurk) but making it so these users aren't literally being notified about me though I'd like nothing to do with them would be great.  It's a really weird feature to even allow watching if a user is blocking you honestly, I'm not the only person with problems with it.
Athari
1 month, 2 weeks ago
The stalking case needs to be balanced against the "I block anybody who disagrees with me" case. For galleries specifically, where art comes first and social features come second, this leads to unhealthy balance as there're no rules on who you can block.

If there's actual stalking happening, I think it's better to handle it by reporting the user to the mods, as that behavior goes way beyond "I'd rather not see this person for personal reasons" case, which blocking is designed to solve.
Telain
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Completely hiding users from one another isn't really a solution. As GreenReaper has said in response to another user:
" It's meant to be a communications block, not an "encourage them to make an alt account to follow you instead and then maybe comment and PM you when they shouldn't, since they can now" block.
DallasTMouseBoy
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Awesome! Thank you very much, Inkbunny staff! ^ ^
GeneralGreenstar
1 month, 2 weeks ago
While it likely won't negatively effect me any time soon, I am extremely curious to know more about how the new point system works.  I am sure many folk are curious.  It sounds like it could be an actually helpful thing if implemented right
Kadm
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Almost all existing accounts would automatically be promoted to Trusted as a result of the upgrade. There's only actually one way for an account to be automatically marked as spam currently under the score system. We'll expand that, but for now, the one way to get marked is basically a 100% guarantee that you were banned before, and even if it false-positives you (unlikely) you can immediately appeal and staff will review.
bulletcrow
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Thank you for doing this so successfully. I was amazed how quickly and seamlessly this was done. Wonderful work.
OriasNyuszi
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Jól működik a 'Preview', meg a közvetlen válaszolás is! 🐰👍
Gute arbeit!
kitsuneyoukai
1 month, 2 weeks ago
sounds fantastic :V! keep the good work :3
Omatic
1 month, 2 weeks ago
How does the watch list privacy feature work? If you disable "watching" on your profile, could you still show up in the "watched by" list of someone else, or vice versa? (I'm keeping mine public, I'm just curious.)
KrystalTentacion
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Honestly very nice
I know some friends who really needed the privacy options because of some issues, I hope it’ll makes things easier for everyone
Acehole
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Seems like good ideas. I just blocked spammers and in most cases I was under their radar as I'm not that active here.
Is there any chance you can look into allowed NSFW human stuff as long as the human is clearly an adult and the work must have something furry about it, can't be solo human.
It would mean so much to me and others that lost our home on SF when the site was ruined that we could post our work here.

There must be some kind of work around that would allow it, even if the work is censored unless you download something to decode it or have it set to friends only or need a password.
There's 1000's of people that are forced to use FA where they hate it, the site has the worst story UI ever and IB is perfect.
I know it wouldn't be easy but the gain.
frchpk
1 month, 2 weeks ago
A lot of users including myself ngl would like it if humans can be allowed on certain circumstances
Acehole
1 month, 2 weeks ago
That is my point to have the stance on humans that SF and FA have. There's 1000's that's been displaced by Toumal and Terra with they're poorly thought out changes to what was once a great site. IB has the better design and more numbers. The human rule updated IB would be more free then FA. That one rule has held this site back and stopped it taking the number one spot. All these other fixes are great but they don't fix the main problem which is allowing human stuff. For example an adult human and adult anthro would be about as wild as it got and would open the site up so much.
frchpk
1 month, 2 weeks ago
A site that has some similarities to e621, FA, and IB (Pawprint.ing) allows human NSFW just as long the human doesnt appear childlike
Everything else is allowed! Even aged up underaged characters are allowed as long they have some adult features
Acehole
1 month, 2 weeks ago
That would allow so many more to use IB. I really wish they would look into it as IB has been around what 14 or 15 years now and that rule really should be looked into as it is stunting the growth of IB. I've been a member here over 12 years and would love to see IB evolve into something more.
GreenReaper
1 month, 2 weeks ago
So, here's the issue:
Human x Human is human porn.
Human x Furry is human porn and bestiality.

Neither of these are things we want to host for legal reasons. The former we also don't want to host because it is off-topic. But it's humans (i.e. "persons") that are our main concern, due to the copious number of laws relating to their depiction. Stuffing an animal in there - including furries, which as far as I can see legally count as such (see e.g. 1 USC 8; elsewhere it is implied) - just makes it worse.

Yes, some other sites do it. They are not in our jurisdiction (FA, in particular, is in the USA with its extensive First Amendment rights). Most also do not host cub, and thus have to evaluate the age of cartoon characters, an issue fraught with uncertainty. We feel on slightly safer ground evaluating their humanity, and potentially defending that evaluation in court.

As fans of furry content, it is also something we as volunteers want to spend our time and money on. Inkbunny has always been an explicitly furry site; it's what we signed up for and what donors fund.

The website frchpk mentioned launched last year and is playing with fire by the sounds of it, being hosted by a German company in Germany, a country which criminalises depictions of bestiality. (That said, it looks like a cool site, and I wish them well!)
frchpk
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Pawprinting is actually made in the UK but uses German servers to bypass UK age vertifcation laws.
I see it is playing with fire with furry x human content.

I think young humans is probably a bigger issue
GreenReaper
1 month, 2 weeks ago
As far as I know the hosting location is not a defence - the law applies to UK entities, including sole traders - but as a practical matter I guess it makes it a bit harder for them to do more than just block it. (IB is in the same situation but primarily hosted in France.)
frchpk
1 month, 2 weeks ago
I see that it’s not bulletproof. Pawprinting may need to ban some human content

Is Inkbunny made in UK but hosted in France or vise versa? (Slightly confused about where Inkbunny is actually from, I heard from the pawprinting creator Xen that Inkbunny was made in the UK)
GreenReaper
1 month, 2 weeks ago
IB is legally based in the UK, as I currently live here. Its code was written in Australia, the USA, here, and other places, and it is hosted primarily in France, with caches in many other locations.
Fynnley
1 month, 2 weeks ago
As a german here let me stop you both. Yes that specific law is written in a way you could in a translator assume it means illegal. However the freedom of arts law means everything is fine to be drawn UNLESS a law explicitly states the freedom of art doesn't apply. That's how human x feral, loli, cub etc is fine in Germany.

Source: I read the law booky very closely and asked a lawyer as someone who hosts a "taboo art" CDN for another site
GreenReaper
1 month, 2 weeks ago
I'm aware that this applies to humans, and I can see the potential extension to animals (though there is also the question of "human dignity" which comes up when animals are involved and was part of the basis of such laws). Do you happen to have any citations to hand relating to fictional depictions of humans and animals in particular?

There are a few other reasons we don't host in Germany, and of course the content in question needs to be legal in our jurisdiction, too, but it could help give peace of mind to another furry community I know based elsewhere that may be hosting in Germany.
Fynnley
1 month, 2 weeks ago
First of: you should prolly set *.wikipedia.org as trusted, the boring normie wiki is still safe for furries ;)

Now to the actual topic, if you look at the Grundgesetz Article 5.2 it says (in my best law german to normal english):
" The freedom of art finds its limits in [...] personal honor.

(Read: you can't create hate-art or draw real humans in degrading situations, there is again an exception here which is for satire reasons against public people, but not the point)

There is also a note about it finding its bounds in the context of other laws, this can often be interpreted as "oh reallife laws apply to art", but its written in a way where to a german we read "it is limited when another law says it limits the freedom of art", which is where a lot of confusion on this comes from.

184 does not explicitly state the freedom of art is to be impeded. German laws is really complex with some laws by word making things illegal, but then having a section in a "higher" law that then goes "oh yeah nah of course thats allowed". This is one such case where yes written and translated I get the notion, but no the GG is higher and allows it

TLDR: just dont draw real people in bestiality situations without consent and then the freedom of art saves you ^^
GreenReaper
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Thanks for the information - and yes, that and WikiFur as well.

I asked about that dignity/honor aspect in part because the UK has at times forbidden depictions of both real and fictional people in degrading situations, especially where bodily harm is involved (see also Operation Spanner). When I dug into it, the justification went all the way back to (paraphrased) "you can't damage your body or that of animals under your control because your lord may require it for service (especially military)" - and so depictions glorifying such should not be permitted - although nowadays I imagine the demands on the national health service might also be a factor.
Acehole
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Technically it isn't as there's no such thing as anthros, like there's no such thing as goblins or other such things, So a human and anthro wouldn't be bestiality, it would be fantasy. Also an anthro has human reasoning so can consent, again that removes the bestiality part.
A clear work around would be no ferals and humans, anthros are fine. You allow anthro and feral porn now and that is way closer to bestiality than human and anthro.

I know you have your reasons but they are holding IB back, ask yourself is at least trying not worth it? So much to gain and nothing to lose by looking into it.
SF left a void that only IB could fill as it stands now.
Ask yourself, wouldn't the infusion of 1000's of new members, the fresh income and all the traffic they bring worth at least trying?
There's a large untapped part of the fandom that would allow a modern, well laid out, well designed and well staffed site to clean up.
At the moment their only choice is to use a badly designed site with subpar story UI like FA or a toxic site that is slowly dying like SF.
GreenReaper
1 month, 2 weeks ago
I fear there is potentially a lot to lose from my own perspective. 😼
There are significant 'costs' involved if you get hosting human content wrong.
Other staff would, at least, have to deal with more content involving humans.
The main benefit would accrue to human-x-furry-content fans and creators.
We'd rather the latter made furry-x-furry versions of their content; some have.

We don't need human-fan money to keep Inkbunny going. At the same time, our library is large enough to complicate hosting, so growing faster is not the bonus you might think. (The transition to SSDs hurts here; they're expensive in the sizes we would need, while larger HDDs are largely relegated to storage-as-a-service pools or far higher-tier offerings.)

Regarding the fantasy argument, I don't think that's quite how it works. There was a time when certain humans were not considered legal persons, after all...
At the same time e.g. the Internet Watch Foundation makes it clear that they do not act on reports involving fictional animal characters, which is in part a reference to furries. If they were considered people, to an extent that such content were reportable, they would.

It's been fifteen years since our policy on humans relaxed in a meaningful way, and it is unlikely to do so in the future. I'm sorry to disappoint you. Perhaps if the untapped audience is there, someone will make a site specifically for it, just as Inkbunny was made.
frchpk
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Well…. Removing humans in nsfw all together does make things simpler

While anthros are not ferals, they are still animals with a different body and mind.

The law is complicated, but it’s understandable it may be better to put some restrictions to avoid trouble.
And many IB users are not into drawing humans at all.
Acehole
1 month, 2 weeks ago
It is just this site is becoming stagnant, it hasn't grown in many years, yes numbers might've gone up but it hasn't grown in any meaningful way, there's very little variety here.
Haven't you wondered why IB is still second best to FA? This site has better staff, a better UI, more features, is cleaner, caters to different content better, has less breakdowns and is a nicer place to be but is still second to a worse site. What is the one thing FA allows that IB doesn't?

15 years is a long time not to update rules and it has single handed stunted IB's growth. Ignoring what people want is what pushed SF from the top spot to second, then to third and now dead last.
TheDingy
1 month, 2 weeks ago
FA might be larger, but it's also far more limiting really when it come to what a lot of users here want.

We're a community that doesn't want to become mainstream.
Acehole
1 month, 2 weeks ago
You are stunting yourself by limiting what the site can allow.
GreenReaper
1 month, 2 weeks ago
FA, frankly, also got there first. Well, arguably SheezyArt and y!Gallery did, but they decided to turf out large enough segments of furry fandom that it coalesced around FA. We were five years late to the party. The network effect is real.

A lot of furries also aren't fans of cub (FA had polls suggesting about 50/50 in favour of a ban) and once FA banned it and IB didn't that was essentially it. Perhaps if we'd been able to keep up the payment for digital downloads after AlertPay threw us off along with FA and SF, but the cycle of third-party providers basically turfing cub artists off over the years suggests that wouldn't have been that viable either for what was always a core part of the audience.

As TheDingy says, though, biggest is not really the target anyway - and it comes at a significant cost. I mean, look at what happened to Dragoneer - $170k in debt and dead at 44. I'm 44 this year and I have enough medical conditions as it is.
Devourer
1 month, 2 weeks ago
" GreenReaper wrote:
after AlertPay threw us off along with FA and SF


I feel like the Alertpay ban is kinda forgotten, especially how it impacted all three furry sites, and IB and SF were arguably hit harder since printing was an advertised and used feature for both, and was intended to pay server bills.

I wonder how the winds of the network effect would have gone if Sofurry launched with that name instead of Yiffstar, a big reason for the rebrand was people thinking you could only post porn
Acehole
1 month, 2 weeks ago
VCL was one of the first and Yiffstar was an early site that predates FA. It is a little sad a site like IB be held back. I never said  biggest but you need diversify more. Not to point fingers but IB has been stagnant under your ownership, FA and SF were more healthy when they allowed cub but FA refuseal to make the site friendly to writers and SF's trashing the site means neither one is a suitable home for most.
Neer lost money on FA due to how he ran the site, not trying to talk ill of the dead but Neer was useless at running a site. He treated it like his own little club house, wronged countless people, stole money from the site to pay for his house, brand new car, trips for him and his wife at the time and didn't keep up on repairs or deliver what he promised. The fact FA has recovered a lot under his ex says it was leadership that failed. Neer's biggest failing besides being a man child was he didn't listen to others and ignored warnings. The same deal with his health, he ignored every warning sign and piece of advice until it was too late to do something.
SF is another one, once a thriving site with a fanbase and respected. Then Toumal forced poorly thought out changes on people and wasn't a big enough man to admit he messed up. This year Toumal has repeated the same mistake he made in 2009.
Toumal just like Dragoneer doesn't listen, thinks he knows it all and that has brought his site down a second time as for 2 years while the new site was in beta he was told the new site isn't what people wanted. The design and missing features were a deal breaker. Toumal gets more like Neer every day, right now I've been told he's banning people he doesn't agree with.

Don't be like them, don't refuse to listen to others. Just look into the human angle, it is the last barrier this site has.
GreenReaper
1 month, 2 weeks ago
I won't ban you. But I don't have to save you🦇 host human porn. 😼

In fact, we have published policy changes on AI and 3D renderings in recent years, among other topics. In both cases these resulted in the removal of thousands of submissions. Inkbunny did not permit human content at launch, and our current position is a carefully-chosen compromise. We don't intend to make it more permissive. If anything, it may tighten in response to relevant legislative changes in the UK.

I agree in part w.r.t. your point of stagnation, but I feel that has far more to do with UI and site features, which both VCL and its contemporary Yerf failed to keep up with as we moved into the social media era. My own main area of expertise is the backend - database management, query optimisation, CDNs, server configuration, leasing, etc. Efforts in these areas tend not to be obvious except in their absence.

I'm also not the best manager, and this has its costs. Over time, people drift away and must be replaced, but we did not actively bring more volunteers on until recently. Inkbunny grew to a point where it took most of the remaining staff's effort just to keep afloat. Kadm has helped a lot in this area, notably with the recruitment process (Jeffy, Salmy and myself were also involved, but someone had to take the lead).

Still, I do listen. But listening is not the same as agreeing.
What you want will not happen, for the reasons previously expressed.
If IB is less successful than it might have been as a result, so be it.
Acehole
1 month, 2 weeks ago
I never said you didn't listen, I was just warning what happens when site owners don't listen, both Toumal and Dragoneer are a warning how not to run a site but I never added your name. The UI is fine, it is one of the site's best features, clean, simple and a joy to use, anything other than small well thought out changes would have the same effect as SF did with both failed redesigns. The stagnation comes from the same content and no new infusion. Human content would give that. But you have said this isn't happening. Given you have just said legislative changes in the UK my restrict the site further it might be time to kill two birds with one stone. Move the site's hosting to another country that would allow human stuff and future proof the site for decades to come. The way things are going in the UK it is probably going to happen so why not do it on your own terms,
GreenReaper
1 month, 2 weeks ago
As mentioned here, we're largely not hosted in the UK, but France and Quebec, with a French provider - there's just a cache here - but legally speaking, the organization is here, because I am. That's not likely to change anytime soon.

The legislation I mentioned also holds individuals personally responsible for complying, so you don't get off the hook by incorporating elsewhere.

Again, you're not going to get what you want here.
Legal issues aside, it's not a site we want to run.
Acehole
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Fair enough but you can't complain when the site grows more stagnant as you've been given a fix.
Rules do evolve over time, At one point only people of a certain colour had any rights, the right to vote, get married, have a fair trial and protected by the law, a little rich given what's happening in the UK now. But the rules did change to allow these things. The same for gays, at one point a gay person would be beaten, locked up and treated like a criminal just for liking the same gender. That was changed. Now a gay couple can get married, adopt a child. Woman didn't have the right to vote until the laws were changed. Times change and smart people change with them while the ones who don't change get left behind.
Wasn't the now defunct Furrific hosted in the UK, the owner was from the UK and I pretty sure it was hosted in the UK and that allowed human stuff. That site wasn't shut down the owner retired it.

You've listened to my views and been respectful so I can do the same. I do hope one day you reconsider.
Athari
1 month, 2 weeks ago
How many human×furry artists are there? It feels like we're discussing hundreds of artists who'd migrate to Inkbunny overnight if it relaxed restrictions on humans. I always assumed it's a pretty small number of artists and they won't affect site traffic or dominant content in any meaningful way.
Acehole
1 month, 2 weeks ago
There's loads, there's more humanxfurry writers and artists in the fandom then cub artists.
An example is look at FA, a fair chunk of that is humanxfurry content content.
IB's a better site then FA, that's a fact yet FA has more numbers and the only thing they allow over IB is human stuff.
Back in it's heyday humanXfurry was Sofurry's bread and butter, I think back in the early Yiffstar days they didn't allow human stuff either and the site didn't grow until they changed the rule.
But Greenreaper has given his views and with the new site Mousepad it overtake IB.
Athari
1 month, 1 week ago
Decided to check out human×furry art on e621. 99% of humans seem to be faceless and/or offscreen males... I'm disappointed. This is incredibly boring. Even when humans are cannon in a setting, there're barely any attempts at creating human characters. All I see is placeholders.

I frankly expected more of art like that by Jay Naylor or Kabier, where humans are actual characters.

The more I browse, the more I agree with GreenReaper's position that I'd rather these be furries. I mean, there're several good pics, and it's a pity they're disallowed, but vast majority of art with humans is anything but convincing me that it's worth to have it on the site.

Funnily enough, when I search for most popular human art on Inkbunny, this faceless offscreen male issue isn't present — characters usually have faces. But there's another issue, obviously.
Acehole
1 month, 1 week ago
Not the best site to check as it is a fan site, also just checking art is one sided as you get furry photos, music and stories. Maybe check historic SF and FA for more well rounded numbers?
A fair chunk of the content features humans, if that wasn't the case then FA and SF wouldn't be around, last check FA has 4 times the members IB has.
LichMemeLord
1 month, 2 weeks ago
??? Human x anthro is fine. Unless that's the UK's wording, allowing human x furry content should be fine. look at derpibooru. they have human x pony content and everything's fine.
GreenReaper
1 month, 2 weeks ago
While I appreciate Derpobooru is well-loved in the MLP community, its premise - like e621 - is hosting work that, in most cases, they lack legal permission to host. In other words, they're already violating the law, and relying on "unintentional infringement" as an excuse. They're also said to be in "France/Gernany" on Twitter, though this may refer hosting.

But it's true, the UK law that comes closest requires a reasonable person to believe that the animal or human is real. This could be seen as similar to the German case described above, except that the UK has a history of censorship in this area. That doesn't help us from having to evaluate the age of every human to avoid it being a prohibited image of a child (which deliberately includes fictional people), and hope that we got that close enough for a judge or jury to agree. That's simply not a risk that we want to take for content which we consider largely off-topic to begin with. Remember, this is Inkbunny, where "Christmas cake" starts at 12, not 25 - what's the chance that humans get drawn younger than 18?
frchpk
1 month, 2 weeks ago
I think sites like derpiborru and also one other MLP and equine NSFW site that I forgot the name of espically reupalods people’s works without permission from sites like Inkbunny, FA, etc

But at least the other site has it’s own DNP list, I put myself in it!
Athari
1 month, 2 weeks ago
" That doesn't help us from having to evaluate the age of every human to avoid it being a prohibited image of a child (which deliberately includes fictional people), and hope that we got that close enough for a judge or jury to agree.
FurAffinity became stricter some time ago and sometimes you have to put huge boobs on furry females and/or massive muscles on male furries to prove that the character is indeed "adult". One way to approach allowing human content on Inkbunny is to use a similar overly strict rule — if it's a human, it must be an obvious adult with zero ambiguity (so, boobs, muscles, body shape, face, hair etc. clearly belonging to an adult), and if there's any uncertainty, it's disallowed.

I think the largest chunk of human+furry content belongs to that "clearly adult" category, so by expanding the range of allowed content to obvious human adults with furries, most of SoFurry content should become compatible with Inkbunny.

FiMFiction, which allows stories involving humans and ponies, has a similar rule that the age of humans in stories must be absolutely clear. It's sometimes annoying (it limits how you can structure a story), but it's much better than not being able to post at all.
Athari
1 month, 2 weeks ago
" me and others that lost our home on SF when the site was ruined
Surely ArtStation-like design proved by FurryNetwork to be very successful at making sites obsolete on arrival? 😁
Acehole
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Not many sites are geared towards writers, this and the old Sofurry site is about it. Now with the new SF UI, Toumal banning people for disagreeing with him and how written works have been chewed up by the new SF the site has become a joke. Staff ignore trolling unless aimed at them or they're friends. SF is dying, the site's number checked via third party trackers since they turned off they're own live stats when the numbers went down is saying it has been this low in over a decade. They hide all complaints behind a wall and never address them. Right now they are lying to people that two entry lever coders and about five mods can fix the new site so it doesn't break down every other week and upgrade it. They are using an overengineered back end that should have a full staff of 30 but only has two semi skilled coders. That site is train wreak in slow motion and it was Toumal that ruined it.  
Athari
1 month, 2 weeks ago
In what ways is the new user interface for stories on SoFurry worse than the previous one? The area is largely the same (except for the sticky toolbar), new controls for fonts and colors have been added (they weirdly lack a sans-serif font, but it's still more than before).

Can't comment on moderation. I've been inactive there for quite some time.
Acehole
1 month, 2 weeks ago
It isn't as clean looking, it is dark and depressing, it is harder on the eyes due to font and color, makes reading a chore. It is oversized, it looks like an afterthought, the comments are now on the side which can give spoilers, the comments are harder to read all packed in tight like that, no voting, how can a story earn a following with no way to rate it? That means a badly written couple of pages of smut is pretty much the same as a 100 page masterpiece as there's no way to differentiate between the two. The old site had the best UI and the best story reader. This is junk and the lower numbers on the new site back this up. For 2 whole years Toumal was told the new beta wasn't what people wanted and did it anyway. On top of that they are banning people who say anything bad about the new site, that is a dictatorship and even Dragoneer himself never banned people over that. It has no journals, no shouts, no chat, the notes look like crap. And moderation that was always bad on SF is now even worse. The new site in the 4 months it has been up has broken down more times than the old site did in the last 4 years. They are covering up problems and stats rather than fixing them. 4 months and they've done nothing but bandaid the site.
JinxMcKenzie
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Amazing! Finally new updates !! <3
MisterFluffums
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Awesome, I keep being amazed how many peepz are willing to put in shoulder grease for this site.

Thank you all for everything you do, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.
ObrienOvercomes
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Glad to hear it!
coolperez8
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Nice, glad to hear this.
Kz
Kz
1 month, 2 weeks ago
definitely needed the preview feature lol, was hard work having to keep "editing" comments within 10 minutes when the BBC codes didn't work as intended :P

as an aside, i really wish there's a way to have a[n archive] page where we could see the comments we have made in the past (or submissions where I have commented on)

--Kz
Athari
1 month, 2 weeks ago
It's easy to get access to the list of comments by a user — just become a moderator. 😁

But yeah, I'd love to see some of moderator-only tools to become available for us plebs.
Bunnybits
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Huge W to all inkbunny's staff! Thats amazing!
Atrolux
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Good work. I didn't see it mentioned but the ability to collapse comment threads is a huge boon, they sometimes obscure so much!
DrgnHybrid
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Thanks for all the hard work that yall have been doing. Been on the site for well over a decade at this point so seen the ups and downs of it and hope to be here well over 2 decades going forward.
peterb
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Thanks so much!
Fynnley
1 month, 2 weeks ago
i love your pfp lmao
peterb
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Lol thanx
thecooler
1 month, 2 weeks ago
I would say AI only posting accounts would enters as spam accounts in my book, but that is just me I guess...
but its good thing we got a bit of security on that I hope that would also improve the upload waiting times too I assume.
Rayvond1X
1 month, 2 weeks ago
😎👍
Roxalew
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Thank you for the new update Love the comment preview feature too, that is so handy!
smolfoks
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Hello dear. I am very enjoy to be here. I am very furry artist like make the commission. I would like to do you furry art commission
GreenReaper
1 month, 2 weeks ago
...WE GOT ONE! 🎐
GratitudeAdvocate
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Cool, man!! I'm already seeing a BIG improvement while leaving this comment... so KUDOS and MANY THANKS for the update and for all the dedicated hard work at ensuring this website rules the roost above all else (if not a few others)!

Your efforts are seriously appreciated. *gives shepcoon hugs freely*
ShanetheFreestyler
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Previews are good! Thanks a lot,
Elly
Elly
!
lunalaimoonglow
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Great update! Thanks so much for it!

I may have discovered a bug! Making posts with PostyBirb seems to be broken! Its uploading the image, but nothing else and this is the first time I've had this issue!

Thanks again for Spamhammer!

Kadm
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Thanks for letting us know. I've got a fix queued up for when the admins are available to apply it. Should be good tomorrow!
DefinitelyNotAFurry4
1 month, 2 weeks ago
It seems that api responses have a leading invisible character now making JSON parsing break?
Kadm
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Thanks for letting us know. I've got a fix queued up for when the admins are available to apply it. Should be good tomorrow!
lunalaimoonglow
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Thanks so much~!!
Ajinelox
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Thank you for making the site better! As an artist I get bombarded with scam bot PMs when I post about my commissions. Hopefully this makes the change and finally bot scam accs leave us artists alone.

Have a good day/night/day :D
CosmicNemesis09
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Thanks for the amazing work :3
Kellyn
1 month, 2 weeks ago
" Some of the restrictions introduced to reduce spam may leave users unable to register a new account unassisted.

Can you elaborate on this a bit more? The idea that someone has to know someone else to make an account is a little concerning to me. Don’t get me wrong this is a great way to combat spam, but I worry that making the platform invite only will overall hurt it’s growth in the long run and I’m not entirely convinced the ends justify the means on this one.

Also what do you mean by “may”? Is this something you intend to turn on and off to stop attacks by large groups of bad actors? Or are there certain red flags you will be looking out for on an IP by IP basis that will determine if you need an invite to join? Or is the decision to go invite only not fully set in stone yet?
Kadm
1 month, 2 weeks ago
" Can you elaborate on this a bit more? The idea that someone has to know someone else to make an account is a little concerning to me. Don’t get me wrong this is a great way to combat spam, but I worry that making the platform invite only will overall hurt it’s growth in the long run and I’m not entirely convinced the ends justify the means on this one.


Nothing changes for the majority of the internet with regards to registration. We're moving away from hard banning spam addresses to a system where addresses that have been used for spam are added to a grey list, and IP addresses on this list can still access the site (unlike a ban), but they'll be unable to register new accounts from those addresses without a referral code. The majority of IP addresses won't be impacted.

" Also what do you mean by “may”? Is this something you intend to turn on and off to stop attacks by large groups of bad actors? Or are there certain red flags you will be looking out for on an IP by IP basis that will determine if you need an invite to join? Or is the decision to go invite only not fully set in stone yet?


This is all something that we can turn on and off, and that we'll probably expand on in the future as well. But generally speaking the intention is for things not to be that different from how they are right now. There may be some mobile networks and datacenter/proxy addresses that fall into this that will need referral codes to create new accounts. We're definitely not going invite only in any way.
Kellyn
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Ok that is a LOT clearer than what you originally wrote. I approve.
frchpk
1 month, 2 weeks ago
What kinda IP addresses are restricted from joining without a referral code?
Kadm
1 month, 2 weeks ago
IP addresses that have been used for spam and abuse.
frchpk
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Any specfic country IP addressed or just those spam account IP address?
Kadm
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Well we did block a big portion of Nigeria at one point. But no, we address spam as we find it. We're not preemptively blocking anything. The grey list grows based on actual abuse experienced here on Inkbunny.
frchpk
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Im not surprised a large list is from Nigeria
Some countries are more scammy than others…

But yea, it’s reasonable not to block the entire country, ther are legitimate users out there too.
Kadm
1 month, 2 weeks ago
The important thing in my mind when designing things was that it's not a hard block. I think the majority of folks when faced with that will know someone that is already a member, or failing that, they can email the admin email box and we can generate codes as well.
frchpk
1 month, 2 weeks ago
I see, to make a new account on Inkbunny it requires a code in certain areas? (Specfic IPs)
Kadm
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Only if the IP you're accessing from is on the grey list.
hera
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Hi, I reported a site bug in January 2026 and still no one has even looked at it.  Support Ticket #27519
Kadm
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Someone has definitely looked at it (I did), but I haven't had a chance to do more than that. There's definitely going to be a focus on minor defects in the coming few months.
hera
1 month, 2 weeks ago
oh I see, no one replied to me.  :(  I am glad its being looked into though.  
TheRealMedley
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Is there going to be something done about the way mobile interacts with the site? I will click on my userpage, then gallery, then try to search my gallery and get hit by the spam filter even though I only hit each link one time, I have brought this up before and told that I am hitting the links too many times and that is what is causing it but I literally only tap my screen once when I am doing this, I don't know why it registers as multiple hits.

Just wondering if this is something that will also be addressed, its the only thing I have a real issue with at the moment as a primarily mobile user.
GreenReaper
1 month, 2 weeks ago
When you say "the spam filter" do you mean a 429 rate limit error? The issue is your user page is considered an expensive page, as well as your gallery (twice, because it is setting up search results for your gallery and then viewing the results) and then the actual search is likely another script call.

Other than that, perhaps the browser you are using is attempting to preload? The gallery view may do this too, i.e. try to fetch the next gallery page, depending on browser policy.

You might have better luck going directly to "search" and hit "use my name" below the artist name box, then enter what you are searching for there. That way you literally do just one search, rather than several behind the scenes to show all the pages you click through that contain your work.
TheRealMedley
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Edit: I do mean the 429 yes, I try to wait about 5-10 seconds before I tap another link, and wouldn't mind knowing a good wait time in between the link taps, I am not trying to rush find things, just trying to find them.

I didn't know I could use the search function like that, I usually do what I do to find a very specific peice that I know the name/character of, if I can use the search my username and get specific with one particular piece I am searching for?
Athari
1 month, 2 weeks ago
What are you trying to achieve by searching your own gallery? If it's sorting of all your submissions, then the Stats page does that.
TheRealMedley
1 month, 2 weeks ago
I am searching for specific peices of art to share with others on discord or telegram, I keep all my posted and old art on an external hard drive that I don't keep connected to my PC 24/7 and I don't feel like connecting it and searching that as I only have one USB port in my current PC and I am usually drawing and have my macro keyboard connected so I can continue to draw and chat about older pieces I have done. My IB gallery is the one untouched gallery I have that has art from 13 years ago. I rely on this gallery for referencing my old stuff vs new stuff. I often search my own gallery
Athari
1 month, 2 weeks ago
If you need to find a specific piece of yours, then what GreenReaper suggested above should work perfectly for you. That being said, I'm confused why you're hitting rate limits even with your workflow. I've tried doing it a couple of times and never hit a 429 error.
TheRealMedley
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Its a mobile issue that I have encountered, I tend to just search my gallery on my phone and then send it via mobile discord/telegram instead of via PC, again this makes me wonder why single tapping links on mobile causes this issue, I would understand if I was like tapping my screen a dozen times, but its one tap on my username, one tap on the gallery, one tap on search and some how it equals out to too many, and even when I regular search I can't find stuff I have hidden, IE my old MS Paint and 3D Colors art so searching via the search function isn't my most viable option....

I will probably do a screen recording of this phenomenon as it shows how many taps I do on my end but I don't know if it will replicate itself as its not an everytime issue, its just an annoyance I face maybe once a day? And I check my IB a lot in one day so its not like the biggest issue.

Also, no offense, but what's it to you to be askin me this? I am allowed to search my own gallery and be annoyed by the 429 error especially when I am not actively trying to activate it
GreenReaper
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Athari is helping out with site testing (for releases like this one) and I imagine he would like to try to track down the cause of the issue and help solve it for you and any others who might be impacted by it.
TheRealMedley
1 month, 2 weeks ago
I get that, but you can see why I got a little defensive when asked these questions by someone without the IB staff pin by their UN, it felt invasive with little to no explanation as to why these are being asked. All answers I gave are honest ones relevant to my issue at hand, I have stopped getting as many 429 errors when I take more time to cycle through my link taps but it still happens on occasion. I don't know why I hit those 429 errors and I have been told in a support ticket it is because on y'alls end it looks like I am repeatedly tapping the link, when I only ever hit it once on my end, I don't know if its my mobile browser that is repeating the process creating the problem or if it is on your end where the site doesn't interact with mobile in a smooth way. I will say when I am on mobile I switched to desktop site and it reduced the amount of 429 that I get to almost none.
TheDingy
1 month, 2 weeks ago
What I found interesting the inability to report a user from directly within DMs, I had go to lodge a ticket. When there's scammers and spammers, a report button in DMs might be quite useful!
Kadm
1 month, 2 weeks ago
There are a lot of improvements to be made to reporting and Support Tickets in general. I've got a lot in mind, including making it easier for users to interface with the Support system. It may not end up being next release, but hopefully this year yet.
yisikopato
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Thank you!
Sadly fighting bots and spam is an everyday battle on the internet...
Hopefully that helps :D
Akimkozir2013
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Nuh uh
Angellothefox
1 month, 2 weeks ago
When I saw this journal, I thought I was in trouble again. XD
bullubullu
1 month, 2 weeks ago
It's great to see that things are moving, and what you describe is a bunch of behind-the-scenes stuff. I'd call that a foundation. Once that's solid, you add the blingy features on top of that, seems like the right way of doing things!^^
ThePinkPandaCat
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Thanks for the anti scam update

Now, there will be no strange DMs
bullubullu
1 month, 2 weeks ago
You have made "friend request" be turned off by default on older accounts! Is that on purpose? Everything else is still fully visible (watches and watchers)
bullubullu
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Wait! Disregard this one, I just checked around and I was wrong lol
Giratina
1 month, 2 weeks ago
The preview function is a very welcomed addition. Thank you.
DegenPedant
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Woohoo! Thank you all for continuing to labor for IB <3
UnchainedMonkey
1 month, 2 weeks ago
I find it odd that on journals the symbol for friends only and for registered users only is the same symbol. What does make user management of things a little bit confusing in some cases?
Kadm
1 month, 2 weeks ago
We've got a rework of the icons in process. It's not optimal, but I think the feature is more important than the visual aspect.
UnchainedMonkey
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Cool. Glad to hear it. I am genuinely glad to see some user visible updates happening.  it's always hard to say what has and has been accounted for from the outside. so I figured I would mention it and see what gets said.  
ScubaCat
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Sweet, thanks for the improvements :3 My strategy generally being to not even read a dodgy PM, check to see how old and how many submissions that account has (Typically anything less than a week and 0 submissions) and nuke the PM without reading it if im not satisfied, but I guess for more users here they might not be woke enough to realize 'Maybe I shouldn't even read this PM?' It was much worse on DeviantART before the 2010s though, trolls were able to reply to comments you leave on submissions even if you've already blocked them which was ridiculous
WickerDoodles9
1 month, 2 weeks ago
We got Release 82 before Grand Theft Auto 6.
PoorSal
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Thank y'all for your work <3
m3g4
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Pog. Greatly appreciated :3
Bloodhawk
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Hi, are you going to do an update that allows r34 marvel characters? like spiderman? his half man and half spider so his not technically human, spider man can shoot long strings of web and I'm really angry that spider man is considered human.

If he shoots spider web from his willy, is that still human? Personally, I think that's more spider than man.
Hopefully this website can become more spider man and batman adjacent in the next update.
cheers.
Acehole
1 month, 2 weeks ago
This old rule has single handily held the site back and is no longer fit for purpose. If they updated it to allow adult human stuff that is clearly over 18 and furry related like FA does it would open the site up to so many more people and give IB the chance to grow again, I know they are bound by UK laws but could move the site to any part of Europe that would allow it. Cheaper running costs and less rules.
GreenReaper
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Uh, you know... I think you may just have been trolled. 😅
Acehole
1 month, 2 weeks ago
If so it is good fun and I can laugh about it.
Bloodhawk
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Slightly insulted that you wont take my request seriously.
If you won't except spider man, would you at least except Deanna Troi from star wars.
She's a Talaxian alien that reads minds, or is aliens even banned now!?  
GreenReaper
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Aliens are fine as long as they don't look like humans, in a meaningful structural way that means we don't get dinged by UK authorities for just adding "ears or antennae". After all, my own character is an alien!
Bloodhawk
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Okay, im taking the bate.
No, Your character is not alien, Your species is a biological design construct who happen to be designed BY aliens - ^-
MI HOO MUH HAH, MOATHER FUCKER!
bullubullu
1 month, 1 week ago
Your avatar is bipedal and hairless, BEHOLD A MAN!
Bloodhawk
1 month, 1 week ago
I want a real man to rub mayonnaise all over my soft baby body uvu
Devourer
1 month, 1 week ago
Is ketchup ok?
Rakuen
1 month, 2 weeks ago
It's a bit of an odd take that the thing holding back a furry site is not including non-furry content.

"You know this Burger King is really being held back by not selling Big Macs."
"I think iOS would really catch on if they included the Play Store."
"Yes, this BMW showroom is nice but you'd get even more people if you sold Mercedes."
"I like sushi as much as the next guy but I think selling pizza as well would bring in more people."
Acehole
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Not really, if human and anthro stuff tugs your rug then that's it and it is still furry. I'm not saying the site should allow human only porn but expand on the furry side instead.
Look at FA, they removed Cub and it cost them but the site still is in the top place because it allows human and furry together.
Devourer
1 month, 2 weeks ago
" Bloodhawk wrote:
If he shoots spider web from his willy


This mental image will never abandon me until I die
Fynnley
1 month, 2 weeks ago
I mean sometimes you may need to bind up a baddie while swinging...
Bloodhawk
1 month, 2 weeks ago
How else would he web zip line to your ceiling?
SemiRetiredUser
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Yet, people who you blocked can still fav pics you post.
GreenReaper
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Sure. You don't get the notification, though.

It's meant to be a communications block, not an "encourage them to make an alt account to follow you instead and then maybe comment and PM you when they shouldn't, since they can now" block.
bullubullu
1 month, 1 week ago
I've seen people complaining about that feature a bunch of times, but when you lay it out like that it makes really good sense that's how it's arranged!
SanisPifo
1 month, 1 week ago
The current blocking system seems pretty ideal to me. A blocked user can still view artwork and journals, but they can't interact. If someone started getting blocked and you can't see te art, a stricter system would probably just encourage them to create a new account so they could not only view people's artwork again, but also comment and interact.

That said, is there a stronger form of blocking that could work? Maybe preventing new account creation from the same IP address, or increasing the amount of time a new account must exist before it can interact with posts?
GreenReaper
1 month, 1 week ago
Well, that gets into more site moderator activity (though technically staff can also institute user-to-user bans). We do have a system of greylisting IPs to prevent registration now, though if we were banning a member from the site as a whole a full IP block would likely be instituted for a time.
SanisPifo
1 month, 1 week ago
I'm impressed by this Inkbunny update. I honestly didn't think we'd ever see an update like this again. It's good to see the team making an effort to improve the site.

The new features are nice, and I hope we'll continue to see new additions and improvements in the future.
Kadm
1 month, 1 week ago
My plan is to generally look at quarterly for releases this size. The next one might be a bit bigger because it's got contributions from non-staff developers as well. But I want to start talking a bit more about what's coming too, so look for that in the future as we near August.
hexahecta
3 weeks, 5 days ago
not being able to register new accounts seems a bit questionable for ensuring new folks still have an easy time setting up on the site
Kadm
3 weeks, 5 days ago
Unless someone is registering from an IP that we've flagged for abuse, the registration process is as it's always been.
ymg4901
2 weeks, 2 days ago
Like a few artists have already mentioned here, artist stalking is completely 100% real (and has been for a long time now online). And there seriously needs to be the ability to at least block certain users or watchers from being able to view an artist's own uploaded creations or profile also. Not just in communication.

The argument here that simply keeping it as just a "communication block", does not make sense. It makes No difference if the stalker or troll wants to continue harass said artist (like in comments). They'll still create a new account, and do that.

Mod reporting also is not always the answer either because sometimes subjectivity gets in the way.

It is a fundamental online privacy choice, if an artist also wants to restrict certain art site members from being able to view his/her own artwork. And I criticize the furry community for not respecting this for a long time now as I've seen on other furry art sites as well.
Kadm
2 weeks, 2 days ago
I guess we'll see what happens over time. I'm going to focus on 'I can allow specific people I control access to my content' as a path rather than 'everyone but this person has access to content'. I think one of those is healthier than the other. If that's not far enough, we can have conversations at that point, but I do think what you describe/want is more inclined to lead to harder to track escalating negative behavior.

Inevitably, if you post something publicly (for the purposes of Inkbunny, that means registered users can see it) then you need to expect that your options are limited for controlling who views it. You can post things as friends-only, and it's not great, but that allows you to control who sees it. I'll see that expanded and made easier in the future, but I think that expanding blocks specifically the way you're asking is way down on my priorities, below a lot of other items.
ymg4901
2 weeks, 1 day ago
While I have no intention to debate, the problem is not that artists don't want people to see his/her own creations (else this wouldn't have been talked about here). It is simply the fact that there is not even a tool for an artist to (properly) filter or moderate the community viewing audience. And I don't mean any guest users.

The 'friends-only' tool, is only useful for those who already have an (established) fanbase. But what about those of us who want to give this furry art community site a chance to be useful?

I'd say, start at the submission options level first.

Add an option to allow our submission to (only) be discoverable under specific keywords, and even more specific categories. But NOT, allow it to be discoverable on the front-end of the site. Which typically does invite unwanted attention for one reason.
Kadm
2 weeks, 1 day ago
I don't know about a lot of the other stuff you mention, but a privacy option to exclude you from the frontpage probably isn't a heavy lift or a large change. I'll see about getting it in with the other planned privacy options I have in mind.
LeBozar
1 week, 2 days ago
There is no way to restrict a person from viewing your content unless you do a whitelist (like the friend-only feature). If someone really wants to view your public content they'll just make an alt account to do it, and since they won't use that account for interaction, there is no good way to detect that.
So 'block from viewing' button would just create false feeling of security. And let's face it, the real way people would be using it is for preemptively blocking people whose fetishes they don't like, and that is just bad for the site as a whole.
ymg4901
1 week, 4 days ago
I would also strongly suggest looking into adding at least some level of privacy options to filter who can and cannot watch an artist's own submissions in the registered user community.

I'll just see what's done about this. But it's clear in this journal's comments that I'm not the only one complaining on the artist side. And I can only see the artist complaints growing as time moves on if these more popular furry art sites continue to ignore the artwork privacy issue. Though I do appreciate your mostly constructive replies.
Kadm
Kadm
Lunarmoon21
2 days, 7 hrs ago
TV fh gì gì gì fh fh
Kittzy
1 day, 4 hrs ago
And now a little over a month, I've basically seen zero journals about bots/spam accounts pm'ing them with scams
Kadm
14 hrs, 7 mins ago
There's definitely a lot less of that. It's not gone, but the tools that we added have made a huge difference in the visibility of it to end-users. There's definitely some refinement (some of it already staged for later this month), and then starting to get more automation in place, but letting more of the lower level staff handle the issue in a way that still protective of users privacy and data has made a huge difference. We'll probably have more to say in the near future!
Kittzy
8 hrs, 28 mins ago
Right on!!! 😎🤙
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