Difference between revisions of "Fur Affinity"
GreenReaper (Talk | contribs) (→History: Cub art: Let's stick to the facts on this . . .) |
GreenReaper (Talk | contribs) (+and some of them followed through with this threat (I am not sure we need a full listing of who - a number might be appropriate, once all who are going to leave do)) |
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Fur Affinity is assisting in the planning of a [[convention]] known as [[United!]], tentatively scheduled for August 2007. | Fur Affinity is assisting in the planning of a [[convention]] known as [[United!]], tentatively scheduled for August 2007. | ||
| − | === | + | === Pornographic cub art === |
| − | In late October/early November 2006 a debate arose over the presence of [[pornographic]] [[babyfur]] artwork (or "cub art"). Such art was previously forbidden by the site's Terms of Service, but this rule was not being enforced. Polls and discussion showed that the site's members were divided on the topic. Some artists threatened to leave the site if it was not forbidden. | + | In late October/early November 2006 a debate arose over the presence of [[pornographic]] [[babyfur]] artwork (or "cub art"). Such art was previously forbidden by the site's Terms of Service, but this rule was not being enforced. Polls and discussion showed that the site's members were divided on the topic. Some artists threatened to leave the site if it was not forbidden; some of them later followed through. |
On 5 November it was announced that such work would be allowed, with the requirement of mandatory tagging. The main reasons given for this decision were that no actual minors were harmed during its creation, and that depictions of many other activities that were illegal, such as rape, murder and drug use, were permitted. Conversely, work that depicted [[human]] children in sexual situations was forbidden, including that of [[anime]] characters.<ref>''[http://www.furaffinityforums.net/showthread.php?tid=4257&page=1 FA Policy Notice - "Cub" Art]'' - [[The Dragoneer]], 5 November 2006</ref> | On 5 November it was announced that such work would be allowed, with the requirement of mandatory tagging. The main reasons given for this decision were that no actual minors were harmed during its creation, and that depictions of many other activities that were illegal, such as rape, murder and drug use, were permitted. Conversely, work that depicted [[human]] children in sexual situations was forbidden, including that of [[anime]] characters.<ref>''[http://www.furaffinityforums.net/showthread.php?tid=4257&page=1 FA Policy Notice - "Cub" Art]'' - [[The Dragoneer]], 5 November 2006</ref> | ||
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* [[LiveJournal]]-like account upgrades to allow users to purchase extended features and customizations to make their FA user page stand out. | * [[LiveJournal]]-like account upgrades to allow users to purchase extended features and customizations to make their FA user page stand out. | ||
* Better integrated help and site information. | * Better integrated help and site information. | ||
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== Fender == | == Fender == | ||
Revision as of 00:13, 6 November 2006
{{LinkingSupporter}} is to be used on authorized pages only
Fur Affinity is one of the furry fandom's largest communities, and the second largest furry-specific art gallery after the VCL. It was created as an alternative to art community sites such as SheezyArt and deviantART, promoting itself as allowing people from the furry/anthro fandoms to upload art, music and stories regardless of rating.
- Addresses:
- Ran from/to:
- February 2005 - 1 August 2005, 10 December 2005 - present
Contents
Features
Features that separate Fur Affinity from most other furry art archives include the ability to allow users to track new updates from their favorite artists, highlight favorites and upload a wide variety of art (images, music and stories). The site attempts to promote community through its comments system and individual journals.
While works of all ratings are accepted (other than 'photographic nudes, "cub" related pornography and images whose intent are to slander or discredit others'[1]), art rated as mature or adult is not shown to visitors, or to users who have not specified it as a preference (which requires giving a date of birth resulting in an age over 18). In addition, a tagging system is in use, and users may browse or block the display of art based on these tags.
Administrators
- Admin Team Lead: The Dragoneer
- Admins: Arrow Tibbs, Damaratus, DragonMyr, Glaide, Killy the Fox, Marthaen, Pinkuh, Scooter, Uncia and Vitae
- Coder Team Lead: Jheryn Lightfoot (Alkora)
- Coders: The Crypto and yak
- Server Administrator: Gushi
- Moderators: Silver R. Wolfe
See also: Fur Affinity staff page
History
Fur Affinity was launched at the beginning of January 2005 as an alternative to SheezyArt. During that time period, Sheezy abruptly changed policies to both remove adult art and take a stronger stance against users and their uploads. Warnings were supposedly issued from the site's service provider, advising Sheezy Art that they were not permitted to host adult content on their site. Much of Sheezy's community was abandoned after the rules change took effect. This migration left many with few alternatives. Many of those burned by SheezyArt went on to sites such as Fur Affinity and y!Gallery; when the latter decided to ban anthro art in May 2006, Fur Affinity gained further traffic.
Fur Affinity had suffered from major security holes and a hacking in during Summer of 2005. The site was shut down on 1 August 2005 due to a disagreement between lead coder Jheryn and host provider Arcturus, the primary administrators of the site.[2] At that time Fur Affinity had 12,174 user accounts and nearly 100,000 submissions. Arcturus and supporters went on to found ArtPlz.
Over the course of 2005, Fur Affinity was able to raise $1,500 in donations towards the purchase of new hardware for its primary server; a server which would, unfortunately, not realize itself until the middle of 2006. Thanks to the community, Fur Affinity was able to build a stronger, faster server than the site originally used for operation.
Fur Affinity returned to operation in December 2005 with a solid backbone and more efficient coding, although full operational status would not be reached until December 10 due to a defect in the ASUS motherboard which powered the server.
There are currently two servers in use by Fur Affinity. The primary server, Gecko, is a dual processor Intel Xeon 3.0Ghz system with 4GB of RAM, currently housed in a Weehawken, New Jersey Level 3 co-location facility. The second server, Phoenix Down, is an AMD Athlon 64 3200+ with 1GB of RAM and is used to store an identical 1:1 copy of the website in the event of hardware failure. Phoenix Down is located at an office at the foothills of Hawk Mountain, near Allentown, PA.
Fur Affinity is assisting in the planning of a convention known as United!, tentatively scheduled for August 2007.
Pornographic cub art
In late October/early November 2006 a debate arose over the presence of pornographic babyfur artwork (or "cub art"). Such art was previously forbidden by the site's Terms of Service, but this rule was not being enforced. Polls and discussion showed that the site's members were divided on the topic. Some artists threatened to leave the site if it was not forbidden; some of them later followed through.
On 5 November it was announced that such work would be allowed, with the requirement of mandatory tagging. The main reasons given for this decision were that no actual minors were harmed during its creation, and that depictions of many other activities that were illegal, such as rape, murder and drug use, were permitted. Conversely, work that depicted human children in sexual situations was forbidden, including that of anime characters.[3]
Ferrox code update
As of June 21, 2006 the site announced an impending upgrade to the site. FA opted to shed their previous naming convention (v1, v2 and v3) and go by a codename for the major upgrade. The 2006 Summer Upgrade for Fur Affinity is currently known as "Project Ferrox".
Features announced as introduced or improved upon were:
- A new user interface which supports better web programming standards, user-requested features and more streamlined navigation for ease-of-use.
- Revised submission interfaces for art, music and stories to allow for faster, more accurate uploads and provide unique features for each artistic area.
- A re-written server back-end to better support scalability and future upgrades.
- Time-limited editable user comments (to prevent abuse).
- Flood detection to prevent spam
- Enhanced site security from account creation to content delivery.
- A more flexible keyword-based search system.
- Groups and Communities
- Community-sponsored error messages inspired by VCL.
- Monthly themes and mini-contests where users can obtain ranks and profile enhancements.
- LiveJournal-like account upgrades to allow users to purchase extended features and customizations to make their FA user page stand out.
- Better integrated help and site information.
Fender
Fender is the Fur Affinity mascot. He was primarily created by artist K-9 upon an idea by Preyfar. K-9 is one of the individuals behind the comic Circles. The site currently employs a version of Fender (which can be found in the header) drawn by various guest artists to reflect the monthly theme of the site.
Being half fox, half ferret, and all personality, Fender was born in an attempt to give the site a unique figurehead to whom people could turn for questions and answers regarding the site. This was done in an attempt to dissuade grandstanding by admins using the site as a pedestal for their own popularity.
Fender is most often mistaken as being a raccoon.
Facts
- During Fur Affinity's official re-opening on December 10th, over 10,000 submissions for music, art and writing had been submitted to the site during its initial 12 hours. The amount of submissions is a tally of both imported art from returning users as well as all new artistic pieces.
- In less than a year since the site's re-launch, Fur Affinity gained over 30,000 users and over 200,000 submissions (based on data collected between December 10, 2005 and August 20, 2006).
- The site transfers a daily average of nearly 80 GB of data and well over 10,000,000 individual files. The site's peak bandwidth record stands at 20.1Mbit.
- Alexa ranked Fur Affinity in the top 25,000 sites on the web as of 20 August 2006, showing equal or greater traffic than the VCL for the prior month. Fur Affinity ranked as high as 15,000 on individual days, but the total ranking has suffered due to intermittent downtime.
- Account import strings began and ended with !pie!
- Fur Affinity gets approximately 800,000 page hits per day (estimated on 10/01/2006).
References
- ↑ Fur Affinity FAQ
- ↑ Plot Holes and Smut Alleyways - criticism of Fur Affinity's past and concern for its future, 24 July 2006, Nothingkat.com
- ↑ FA Policy Notice - "Cub" Art - The Dragoneer, 5 November 2006
External links
