krad

Anyone that's spoken to me on the topic of Furaffinity knows that typically I've repeated the same thing for years: I'll use it when both Dragoneer and Yak are gone.

This post is about, why.

First and foremost, yes, I have an account on FA (Furaffinity) right now. I made it during a time where I had little social options and was losing friends and it felt like the only way to keep up with them. After some improvement in my life, I dropped it and resorted to only using it to advertise commissions. Had I been in a better emotional state at the time, I don't think I would have made an account for anything more than name-camping, if I made one at all. I say this all to quell any perceived contradictions for the what I'm about to say.

The next important thing: If you are unaware of the history of FA, it's important to know that its initial inception was by another person. I had an account with them at that time, but when it proved to be too difficult for the original owner after a significant security breach, Dragoneer stepped in. Already because of the breach I decided to let my original account go, despite it not being compromised. But already, my opinion of FA was poor because the framework already had poor security.

In the decade that followed I was very glad I went with my instinct to not use the service as over and over again accounts were compromised. Password leaks, comment exploits, compromised PM system, staff accounts compromised. And the worst thing is, many of these security issues were warned of before they got bad. They had the chance to fix it, and did not.

You can find a whole timeline of issues on FA from 2005-2016 compiled here, with citations
https://stuff.veekun.com/fa-timeline.html

The most infamous of these incidents was the 'Furry Leaks' fiasco. Before it happened, a user on the site pointed out the exploit, warned of the problem it could present and even offered to fix it. Yak, lead sys admin and developer of Furaffinity, ignored the warning and refused the assistance. Not long after that, someone used that exploit do get database dumps of several prominent accounts to expose for all to see. Hundreds of people had their personal communications, phone numbers and addresses exposed to the public. Something that could have entirely avoided had Yak any idea what he was doing.

But it was because of this leak we learned just how poor a leader Dragoneer truly was. (heads up for brief mentions of human and animal sexual abuse)

I never really had much of a strong opinion about Dragoneer but I felt his handling on moderation was especially poor. From petty bans to ignoring multiple counts of harassment. But the note leaks exposed some far worse administration decisions. Like telling a user ‘pretty please remove the journals about having sex with your horse on the website’, cus he's worried about the feds. Or telling someone he doesn't know what to do but he's sorry, when a member confessed to him they had been sexually assaulted by a significantly popular member of the community. A person that Dragoneer then hired on to Furaffinity staff. And this is just of the notes I *personally* read.

I'm not saying he's evil, but Dragoneer was a terrible leader and Furaffinity is better without him. Do I think it's good that he died? No, of course not. His death was a tragedy brought on by our poor medical system but that's another discussion. He should have handed over the keys ages ago, that's how I would have preferred he be removed from the position. But due to his absence, it's becoming very clear that his leadership has been holding back Furaffinity for over a Decade.

Since Sciggles has taken the reins, Furaffinity has implemented multiple advances to the site that had been promised over a decade ago are finally seeing the light. Tag filters are finally a thing on Furaffinity, there are display name changes on the road to username changes. More talented staff has been brought on and it shows in the speed and quality of the updates. The advertisement inquiry turn around is the best it's ever been since they first launched it.

The moderation team has been whipped into shape, wrongful account bans were overturned, more clear and reasonable guidelines were put in place, and mods that abused their power were removed from their positions. It still has a long way to go, of that there is no doubt, but this is the first time in the life of FA that I have ever genuinely thought I might want to use the service.

But one thing is holding me back.

Yak

Yak continues to hold back the advancement of Furaffinity is the single worst thing about it right now. He is the one responsible for every security failure on that site, yet he is still, somehow, on the staff despite his multiple critical failures. It is common knowledge that he is unwilling to work with anyone, as has been seen through the years of his spurning all assistance and refusal to give anyone database access.

Every time there is discussion about the different platforms to use and where to sink one's time into, I have to warn anyone using Furaffinity, to treat it like their password for that service is already compromised. Never use the notes, never put any personal information in the notes if you do use them. Because you never know if Yak's incompetence and hubris could cause another notes breach. You never know if another hole Yak refuses to fill has exposed passwords, again.

Even if the service was moderately secure, it doesn't even work that well. They pay a whole lot of money for the servers, with specs that don't exactly make sense for what they're trying to run, but the service isn't speedy which means the infrastructure itself is poor. They even recently had a major database issue that proved how poor the structure is. And that's all Yak's doing. No one has touched the databases since him for over 15 years. Every poor service element of the website lays squarely on him.

And then there's all the rumors. Such as the rumor that the real reason Yak is unwilling to give anyone access to the databases is because he's using the servers for his own needs. Game servers, or another secret website. Once I heard it was some sort of niche auction website. This is, of course, unsubstantiated, but bears investigating nonetheless. This is what happens when you have one sole person responsible for the server of a website of this scale with absolutely no means to check what he is doing with it.

So I still stand by my statement.

I'll use Furaffinity in earnest when Yak is no longer on staff.