The Future of FT

[★ Panda ★]

I would just like to say that we do have a concrete plan for the Debate board (that doesn't involve getting rid of it, but it should help); however this came up right when we were going to reveal that. And considering part of the problem here is that everyone keeps being terrible no matter what policies we put into place, we haven't exactly had motivation to set it into motion.

Also, the issues span way farther than the debate board. The harassment staff (and I'm sure members) are facing has had very little to go with what goes on in that board, if anything.

[Lee Fumetsu]

i did not know this was happening, I don't know what to say. I would hate to see this site to go into ruins and see close down since this the only place i feel comfortable about talking about my problems even though I don't post them at often.

[Cadmus]

the image of the website as a castle, full of conversation and spirit, left to moulder as a pile of raw code in the corner of a serverbank somewhere in ohio.
it really saddens me.
I am very disappointed in all of you that have ever trolled or bullied or blackmailed people from this site, for shame

[Dazed]

I... Oh, my.
This is unfortunate, to say the least. I can't find the words to represent how I feel about about this, but I can try.
I was not expecting this. I fail at seeing many of these issues, but I understand that I misinterpret and confuse things. I assume that everything is done with a kind heart, but I'm wrong.
Oh, dear.
I look back, and I now know what is meant. This is meant to be a safe place for all, no?
I'll say that I really, really don't want to see this site gone. But if the general feeling is that it's doing most people more harm than any good, than I'll have to agree with shutting down the site.  I don't like that it may shut down so soon after I joined, but you take the good with the bad.
I've met some great people on here, and I hope I can stay in contact with you all.

[Adsila (add-sill-uh)]

R u still accepting new members?

[STERLING]

I just want to say you guys forget there is a living breathing person behind the screen. Every attack, blackmail, etc. it all effects someone real. We all have families, friends, personal lives, feelings, emotions, etc. just because we don't see eachother doesn't mean what you say doesn't effect us.
Please take this into consideration. We all come from different backgrounds, ideas, and values. We may not all agree, but we need to be respectful of eachothers feelings.
And to those whoever you are constantly making this site unsafe and toxic, what is your goal. Take a minute to think about it. Are you just here to ruin everyone else's safe space? Are you just trying to make a statement? Whatever it is, please cut it out, because you are effecting people's lives. Outside of this forum.

[Assan]

This quite truly makes me want to cry. I have poured much, no, all of my heart into this site, and the friends I have made here. Even my new Boyfriend(Twizzy, someone I am sure a few of you know), came from FT, I met him because of FT. I have done everything I could to help out this site, and try to keep this toxicity from continuing. I apologize to everyone though, because I have failed at that, and at a few points, I feel like I ended up causing more problems. These last few weeks since I made a post about not coming on, and talking with anyone for a day, well I haven't been able to come back for very long, I think I made maybe one post since. I didn't even come and post about getting a boyfriend. This site has become depressing to me, not because of the toxicity, no because I truly don't know how to help anyone any more.

but I am still willing to try, if I can, but I also know that if the staff close FT, it means there was nothing more I could do
I know you(the staff) wouldn't do this unless you could not think of any other solution. I know many if not most of you, and have had quite a few conversations. If FT is closed down, well I don't know what I will do. Even without posting much, I can't help but go and check FT every now and again. It is a part of my life, and losing it would be like losing a part of me

and sorry, I just I can't even remember the time before I joined FT, over a year ago now.

[★ Panda ★]

Because I've gotten a few PMs regarding this:

We wouldn't just randomly shut it down. There'd be warning, and time to tie up lose ends and such.
I think it'd be nice if we could finish out this year, but I'm not the one paying so there's no guarantee on that. Though I think its safe to say we're not exactly in any rush.

[Vincent]

It saddens me to pay a return to the forums under these circumstances, but as a former active member I'd like to weigh in my opinion as well.

As a lot of people have said, this forum has significantly degraded. I think I picked up a noticeable change in user base around the Summer of 2014, and it gradually continued that way until I decided to leave. My decision to leave was in lieu of news about actions of staff and regular members, and the growing feeling I was not part of the community I belonged to when I first joined at the end of 2012. Some of my fondest memories of my first years in the fandom were made here with my friends on the boards and in chats outside the forum.

But the sad fact is that nearly all of those members have left or become inactive.

If what Panda is saying is true (and I've not been around to hear about any of these things), then I agree that it would be better to end this site than to continue supporting it. This forum costs real money and time to remain running, and investing that into a site that hasn't seemed to have a positive turnaround in over a year isn't wise.

"Weeding out" problem members also presents issues. I'm aware that it isn't what staff wants to be doing, but something tells me if members are being banned or leaving on their own terms in large numbers, this site isn't sustainable.

So my answer is yes, in short. The site needs to be ended.

And if this is my last post on FT before it's dissolved, goodbye everyone, and I wish you all luck. Vincent out.

[Anacletus]

.. I was afraid it would come to this. As a member for of FT for two years, I truly hate to see this happen. But I can understand the reason for it. This was truly the best forum i have ever seen in all of my life, I guess all things must come to an end sooner or later, even the best of them. If we do end up shutting down i just want to say, I love all of you guys, even when you fought each other, you are all a big family to me, and thank you staff for keeping FT great for as long as you could.

[NightF0x]

As somebody who had been an active member for a long time, I think it's honestly time for this site to close. This site was great when I started, but lately it has become a cesspool of toxic bullying. I honestly think the only solution is to shut it down. It hurts because I made friends here and have a lot of memories on here, but at the same time it's become a place where if you voice your own opinion and it goes against somebody' else's opinion you get targeted and harassed. That was not the FT I joined.

This is my official last post on this forum. To all my friends I met on here, I love you all. It's a damn shame a few bad apples spoiled the bunch.

[Alastair]

It makes me very sad to read this. Though I've only been on FT for less than a month, it's become one of my favorite sites and I check it whenever I can. I wasn't aware of these issues previously, but if these things have been happening so much, the best course of action might be, unfortunately, to shut it down. Though I can't say I'm surprised since this is a site for furry teenagers, and was probably bound to end up like this anyway (though it's certainly no fault of the mods/admins, you guys are awesome <3).

This has definitely been my favorite furry site, though. It's the only one where I've been able to connect with furries my own age, since most members on other prominent furry sites (FA, SoFurry, etc., etc.) are older. Maybe FT can avoid the fate of shutting down, but if not, I'll try to enjoy its last days.

And hopefully everyone on FT will read this thread. If you've done any of the bullying, blackmailing, etc. ... you should be ashamed.

Thanks for a great time on this site, guys. <3

[ArtificialSweetener]

I have been a member on FT for over a year now. I've been on this site and seen both good things and bad things happen. I did not think the end of the site was so possibly near. I am disheartened to hear this as I have made many friends and good memories here despite some of the bad ones. I think FT has definitely taken on a harsher tone and I don't think it's surprising as it is a forum for teenagers and thus teenage drama.

Despite all the flaws and mistakes made by both members and staff I still enjoy this community and I wouldn't have met the people I've met without this site. I think we have tried working to make it better and I think we should continue trying. Not all members may agree in how things should be done and there will always be some disagreements I do not think that makes this site a bad place. There is drama on every forum I've ever been a part of and I'd hate to see all of us give up and have FT shut down.

That being said I understand why staff may not wish to continue paying for FT or dealing with this drama and that is their choice in the end. It has been an amazing opportunity to be a part of this site and please anyone feel free to add me on Skype or the other sites I have listed to keep in touch if FT is shut down.

[Chen]

Well, I've been here for over a year now, and yes, its pretty obvious this site went down. Still, had some great laughs and banter with the members. I also met a few people, great people. And a few, that I thought were great, but no, they were fake. A front. Like an opaque toxic container, you can't see through it, but when you open the lid you see the extent of toxicity.

Now, I'm not hugely active, because I, honestly, lost interest to keep posting. Went back to lurking, you know. While I knew the underlying toxicity was present (which I have always thought after the incident with that one guy "echo golf hotel" and more so with another guy that left), I didn't actually know how serious it was. This is from observation, keep in mind I'm not completely active and feel free to correct w/e, but, I feel that the staff here are too lenient. Back in June? May? Idk, but then there were two notably toxic people, and it was blatently obvious from one of them, while the other was a little subtle. I know one got a two week ban, only to come back and be more subtle, until an eventual perma ban. The other I don't know what happened too but he's ratted off so thats good. You say you want this site to be toxic-free but you want to avoid bans? I don't think thats going to work. If the toxicity is truly from members on this site and it happens on site and you have solid proof on who they are: ban them. They wont go until you force them to. This may result in a mass banning, or maybe a few bans, I don't know because I don't know the full extent of this.

Unless people have a better plan of action for dealing with the current toxic members, then making them stop permanently by banning them seems like a logical course of action. If these members are already banned but are harassing offsite, then ignore this.



Excuse if its illogical or I'm wrong with something or bad grammar whatever etc its 1:20am and fucking exams bringing me down bruh.

[★ Panda ★]

Thank you, Calyx. That reminds me what else I was going to say:

I take full responsibility for letting the site get this bad. I've always been a pretty big advocate of trying to educate and help people instead of banning. We should have been banning a lot sooner, and I think a lot of the staff would agree with that claim. I realize we've been pretty lenient and a lot of that is my fault.

So, I'm really sorry, guys. I've always struggled with finding middle grounds in situations like this. So that is something I personally, along with the staff as a whole, will need to get better at if we keep the site.

[aprie]

Thank you, Calyx. That reminds me what else I was going to say:

I take full responsibility for letting the site get this bad. I've always been a pretty big advocate of trying to educate and help people instead of banning. We should have been banning a lot sooner, and I think a lot of the staff would agree with that claim. I realize we've been pretty lenient and a lot of that is my fault.

So, I'm really sorry, guys. I've always struggled with finding middle grounds in situations like this. So that is something I personally, along with the staff as a whole, will need to get better at if we keep the site.

Its alright panda, we know you try your best
It might be best to ban them if there's evidence, some people can change but others not so much

[End]

What if, for the moment, we close down registration so that we a can work things out with each other on the site?

It's a big gamble but something that might work

I was thinking of starting a confessions thread so that we can get all of our "sins" off of our chests. I'm not sure if that'll be a good idea or not

[★ Panda ★]

What if, for the moment, we close down registration so that we a can work things out with each other on the site?

It's a big gamble but something that might work

That thought crossed my mind earlier; but I think that a continuing flow of members is kinda essential to a place like this since we naturally have a high turnover.
Plus we're not exactly the fastest at account approvals right now anyways

[Anacletus]

What if, for the moment, we close down registration so that we a can work things out with each other on the site?

It's a big gamble but something that might work

I was thinking of starting a confessions thread so that we can get all of our "sins" off of our chests. I'm not sure if that'll be a good idea or not

I agree, at least till everything is sorted out. And if FT stays, you can reopen them, if not... well no use joining a forum that's going to die so soon anyway.

[End]

What if, for the moment, we close down registration so that we a can work things out with each other on the site?

It's a big gamble but something that might work

That thought crossed my mind earlier; but I think that a continuing flow of members is kinda essential to a place like this since we naturally have a high turnover.
Plus we're not exactly the fastest at account approvals right now anyways

Maybe keep them all waiting until things can be sorted out? Have a message at the application screen, after they've been sent saying "than you for registering, the site is currently under a remodel and you will be accepted once we have finished. Warm regards, FT Staff"