Reposted Because It’s Awesome: I Really Hate FA
This was posted by ![[info]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
maikujaku, and I’m reposting it because, not only do I really hate FA for precisely these reasons, but someone sang it in our room one night at AC and I’ve been trying to find some evidence of the song since 
Sung to the tune of “Still Alive” from Portal.
===================
This was a failure
I’m making a note here EPIC CRASH
It’s hard to keep the servers up and running
Amateur Coders
The searches are down because we suck
Donations you sent to us We don’t know where they have gone.
But there’s no sense crying over every mistake
Fur Affinity’s searching Has turned out to be fake.
And you gave us a ton
So our systems all could run
But the searches were all Just a lie
I bet you’re all angry,
Cause everything’s 404 not found
It’s visitors not DOS attacks That killed me
My website’s in pieces
The servers all run like they’re on fire
As you wait it hurts because We don’t know what we can do
We just made a website Without planning it well
We had no idea we’d be going through hell
So we asked for your cash to buy servers that would crash
Seems donations were all just a lie
So how long is ’shortly’?
Been looking at this dumb fox for days
Maybe you’ll find someone else to host you
Maybe FURNATION
That was a joke HA HA Don’t leave
Hardware in a cardboard box Was just a figure of speech
Look at me still singing while the site is offline
Maybe all the donations Should buy bandwidth next time
But I got a new car And some drinks down at the bar
While the servers are all still offline
FurNations running and We are offline
And so is VCL but We’re offline
We’ll be back shortly but now We’re offline
We’re up an hour but now We’re offline
We should all give up and just Stay offline
We’re online! Back offline!
The Site Is A Lie (c) Joey Porter/Corsi Mousehold
December 31st, 1969 at 19:00:00
July 6th, 2008 at 14:15:36
Ouch. =)
I’d like to see an open discussion about what people would consider the ideal furry art archive (assuming, of course, that it had good uptime). Is the problem with FA that it’s totally unreliable, or are there other missing features (search) that would make an art archive better?
July 6th, 2008 at 14:25:57
I think the optimal setup would be VCL with search/friend/watch features. And not use this dumbass unoptimized browse thing. They’d save X amount of bandwidth in just having it not default browse a bunch of crap I wouldn’t even look at. I liked Furnation’s setup before the conversion and like VCL’s nice simple design that at least have a semblence of a search function to it, but doesn’t have the membership like FA does. Websites, Operating Systems, games, etc need to stop acting like looking pretty is so damned important. It can be the nicest looking thing in the world, but if it is going to be down 30%+ of the time running with reduced functionality, it defeats the purpose.
July 6th, 2008 at 15:13:26
Well said, I agree, on all points. And, FA doesn’t even look nice
July 6th, 2008 at 15:19:25
Reliability is my biggest beef with FA, I wouldn’t mind it so much if they at least had predictable uptime. Their downtime, and the lack of rudimentary features like Search, are direct results of poor coding.
The other main issue I have with FA is that they try so hard emulate Deviant Art, without realizing that DA isn’t that great of a site, when it comes to features. Their associated userbase is what made DA popular, not their platform. So, to spend countless hours meticulously trying to re-create it (and not very well, I might add) without any real improvement shows, to me, an administration team that’s missing the point.
July 6th, 2008 at 15:21:49
I like the social aspect of FA, but DA is not a very good social model to emulate. I agree with you there, but I’d really like to know what a *good* art archive would look like. I’m sure there are plenty of people who are ready to step in and provide an alternative to FA, if only those people knew what people wanted — as opposed to what people don’t want (downtime).
July 6th, 2008 at 15:27:45
There are certainly a number of different approaches already out there, and I kinda hope FA will just stay down so those other sites will have a chance.
Alas, if I knew the answer to your question, I’d already have prototypes running. Social networking isn’t really my forte, and if I built an art site, it would probably look a lot like a new-age VCL.
July 6th, 2008 at 15:30:05
You don’t feel that VCL offers way too much art and no way to really find what you’re looking for?
July 6th, 2008 at 18:49:12
Nice one.
I find it hilarious that the latest crash has already netted them $18K.
July 6th, 2008 at 20:29:21
O.O
Note to self: Downtime is more profitable than reliability…
July 6th, 2008 at 20:47:59
You’re telling me.
July 6th, 2008 at 22:58:20
Honestly, I prefer sites like FurryArtPile and e621, despite the latter’s admin being a total bitch. Ones that you can just search for the the tags on images to find just what type of art you want. Of course, I’ve no idea if FA actually has or had that feature, as it seems to have been “down” for years now.
July 13th, 2008 at 17:20:14
Oh dear god, this is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever read =’3
And by personal experience, I can testify that saying that FA’s coders are amateurs is actually an over-estimation.
July 13th, 2008 at 18:37:43
Oh yes, I’m quite aware