Fur Affinity Turns 6!

[Dragoneer]

Today, Fur Affinity turns 6

In all of those years, we've had some times and bad, and hit some incredible milestones. We've managed to see over 5.1 million submissions made to the site, 37.7 million comments, 1.25 million notes and over 2 million journals. And shouts? We don't even want to get started.

So what's next for FA?

Things have been slack in the coding department, and we know that. It's time for a change, and we're long overdue. We're going to fix that.

Today, we're announcing the Version 3.0 of FA, which we will be launching at FA United 4 this Summer. We've got a date (May 21st), and we're going to be pulling in new coders, new talent and a wealth of resources to pull the site to modern standards. Fresh, zesty new commenting, a unique commissions and rating system and a wealth of requested features. We're hiring (yes, paying!) professional UI developer to finish, refine and tweak our new design (a live template test can be found here).

Not to mention, FA's official web hosting will be up-and-running within the next 30 days! More on that soon.

To commemorate that, we're also reducing FA United 4 pre-registration prices by 10% for the next three days. Want to see FA v3.0 live, and be the first to see it? Now's your chance. You can save up to $15 on the cost of admission (and coupled with hotel rooms at the Marriott $10 cheaper than last year, there's no better time to do so!).

Pre-Register for FA United 4 at:
http://www.faunited.org/conadmin.cgi

We've got a lot of work cut out for ourselves in the next few months, but we've come off with a fresh new perspective since December, and we're not wasting that momentum.

So stick around for a while. Fur Affinity is only going go get bigger and better.

Thanks,
Dragoneer

[Stargazer Bleu]

All right Happy Birthday FA, and on Dragon appreciation day too. :P
Can't wait to see the changes, and here to 6 more years.

[Willow]

Oh hey, happy birthday FA.

Would drawing a picture of 6 year old Fender and Rednef be well received and somewhat funny, or too soon?

[Shinzuu_Katame]

as awesome as this is, my mate and I will have to pass. we really want to go, but we're out of money as my mate has a full class schedule this semester. we hope you're run this special again in the future so that we can attend.

[SIX]

Congratulations; FA! You're a big boy now. You can do it by yourself, see?

[sd2522]

A rating system? That...maybe it's the realist in me but that may not work out as well as one would hope.

[Dragoneer]

Oh hey, happy birthday FA.

Would drawing a picture of 6 year old Fender and Rednef be well received and somewhat funny, or too soon?

As long as it's cute/chibi not a problem.

[Dragoneer]

A rating system? That...maybe it's the realist in me but that may not work out as well as one would hope.

Integrating it into the commission system. Good commissioners have nothing to worry about.

[Wolfenpilot687]

Happy Birthday, FA! Fun furry times!

[ToeClaws]

Wooo! Happy Birthday FA! Thanks for all the hard work Dragoneer and the awesome FA team.

[CannonFodder]

Previous commissioners should on top of rating give feedback.

A rating system? That...maybe it's the realist in me but that may not work out as well as one would hope.

It's called critique, if a artist can handle that then why are they doing commissions?

[Alstor]

Congrats on being old in website years, FA! :3

[insane_kangaroo]

Integrating it into the commission system. Good commissioners have nothing to worry about.

*smiles widely*

[redfoxnudetoons]

We're hiring (yes, paying!) professional UI developer to finish, refine and tweak our new design

I thought you said the there was no money for actually hiring coders.

Does this mean some of the more nasty security holes are going to be fixed?

[sd2522]

Previous commissioners should on top of rating give feedback.

It's called critique, if a artist can handle that then why are they doing commissions?

It's the people who want to incite unnecessary drama I see causing a problem. And isn't it a bit redundant anyway? People can favor someone's submissions and they're more than able to leave a critique as is anyway. I just see it as an add on that we already technically have.

[Eevee]

We've got a date (May 21st), and we're going to be pulling in new coders, new talent and a wealth of resources to pull the site to modern standards. Fresh, zesty new commenting, a unique commissions and rating system and a wealth of requested features.

Is there any actual estimation involved in this date (unlikely having not actually found the manpower yet), or are you just aiming for the middle of your con because it'd look cool to unveil it there?

[Dragoneer]

Is there any actual estimation involved in this date (unlikely having not actually found the manpower yet), or are you just aiming for the middle of your con because it'd look cool to unveil it there?

Honestly, it's a bit of both. We want to have it done by Summer, and speaking to Yak, he felt that with the new manpower coming in early May would be a realistic date, so we decided to aim for FAU. Give us a definitive date to aim towards.

[CannonFodder]

It's the people who want to incite unnecessary drama I see causing a problem. And isn't it a bit redundant anyway? People can favor someone's submissions and they're more than able to leave a critique as is anyway. I just see it as an add on that we already technically have.

Yeah, but if someone's feedback is, "don't get a commission, they'll take forever and you mine as well flush your money down the drain", that'd be a massive red flag for possible commissioners to avoid doing business with the artist. Me personally I want to know if the person will do the commission, because I once commissioned a artist, but he ran off with the money.

[the-pale-tailed-fox]

id love to offer any help if needed if i just learned to do coding in just a few months LOL

id offer help with fixing holes in the code in the long run by helpful hacking to find said holes point them out and get out and not do damage!

no need to damage i love the site why ruin it.

[Kuraku]

Happy Birthday!
I can't wait for the new version of FA!

[CannonFodder]

I really do think the commission rating thing is a good idea, it'll keep people from scamming.

[Calisther]

I'm excited about the new design. Looks refreshing.

So does the new design take the creation of groups into consideration like on DA or will it still be the sameold-sameold?

[Dragoneer]

I really do think the commission rating thing is a good idea, it'll keep people from scamming.

Some more details will be posted on that the closer we get to the dates.

[insane_kangaroo]

It's the people who want to incite unnecessary drama I see causing a problem. And isn't it a bit redundant anyway? People can favor someone's submissions and they're more than able to leave a critique as is anyway. I just see it as an add on that we already technically have.

There's a bigger advantage to prevent people from getting scammed and fucked over vs the drama one may cause. There are artists who do nothing but accept cash, do nothing, then whine how "They're out of money"/"Getting kicked out of parent's house"/ and my personal favorite... not doing commissions which they piss and whine how "life isn't fair," "80 bucks go a long ways towards groceries," all while they have "art pieces" in galleries which have a price tag of 3000USD. Example person also has a loaded family, which makes it even worse.

[PenningtontheSkunk]

Happy Birthday FA!*throws confetti*