Has anything happened on here that would have caused a permanent website takedown? Or people threatening the lives of other users? Or anything like those in general?

The first team of admins basically told artists to get fucked if they wanted their stuff off the site, which gave the site a bad reputation that still lingers.

They almost shut the site down once because of something one random guy did that I can’t quite remember. May have been a CP accusation.

I recall the Admin Husky mention that the reason why they now have moderate approval is because there was a week where these users were uploading gnarly stuff like real life car accident and chainsaw injuries. he was the only one manning the boat at that time.

Moderator approval has been a thing long before Husky joined. If the page doesn't lie it has been a thing since the inception of the page.

I doubt this is a topic they're keen on discussing. If you tell people basically the worst and most frustrating ways they could potentially screw up this website then some troll is going to basically use that information to do the same thing again.

Fenrick said:
The first team of admins basically told artists to get fucked if they wanted their stuff off the site, which gave the site a bad reputation that still lingers.

Still lingers? I've never heard about it until now.

Personally I would love to tell artists to get fucked. You put something up on the internet on FA or whatever idc if you say "DIS IS MINE DON REPOST OR ELSE REEEEEE"...you put it out there, it belongs to the internet now. You wanna protect your shit put it behind a paywall like Patreon, but if you put it on a free platform people are going to take it, that's kind of the price you pay for building your brand. Not saying I would post DNP material here, but in my own perfect world that type of thing would be allowed.

Dyrone said:
but in my own perfect world that type of thing would be allowed.

but your not a artist,so you can't look from their viewpoint.

Dyrone said:
I doubt this is a topic they're keen on discussing. If you tell people basically the worst and most frustrating ways they could potentially screw up this website then some troll is going to basically use that information to do the same thing again.

Still lingers? I've never heard about it until now.

Personally I would love to tell artists to get fucked. You put something up on the internet on FA or whatever idc if you say "DIS IS MINE DON REPOST OR ELSE REEEEEE"...you put it out there, it belongs to the internet now. You wanna protect your shit put it behind a paywall like Patreon, but if you put it on a free platform people are going to take it, that's kind of the price you pay for building your brand. Not saying I would post DNP material here, but in my own perfect world that type of thing would be allowed.

Well then, don't display anything in your windows because, in your idea of a perfect world. people are allowed to come up and take the things they see in them.

people

NotMeNotYou said:
Moderator approval has been a thing long before Husky joined. If the page doesn't lie it has been a thing since the inception of the page.

To my knowledge, this is true-- though I admit the earliest history is not something I know well... but it's been around for 6-7 years at the very least.. that said, the earliest iamges-- those posts 11+ years ago, show that multiple people approved a variety of posts, suggesting that approvals have been around for that long.

Dyrone said:
Still lingers? I've never heard about it until now.

Well, that would be because you're not an artist.

And no, the new kids don't really know about the bad rep we had.... because we've worked hard to get rid of it. But there are many artists who've been active in the fandom for 8+ years and remember. The repulation's not anyway near as strong as it was a few years ago but, as Fenrick said, it lingers still.

Personally I would love to tell artists to get fucked. You put something up on the internet on FA or whatever idc if you say "DIS IS MINE DON REPOST OR ELSE REEEEEE"...you put it out there, it belongs to the internet now. You wanna protect your shit put it behind a paywall like Patreon, but if you put it on a free platform people are going to take it, that's kind of the price you pay for building your brand. Not saying I would post DNP material here, but in my own perfect world that type of thing would be allowed.

*deep breath*

Pay walls are a nice idea, and it helps... but it still leaks all over. There is at least one thread that's been posted in in the last day or two that is literally "I posted something from a website that pirates material and I didn't know it was DNP." Every week, we're telling people to go the the source first, and yet... people still post pirated material. Pirated material is easy to get.

There is literally no way to protect your artwork outside of not posting it online. Even if I built a super complicated image obscuring web thingy to slather every square inch of the image with water marks... people will remove it anyway.

There's a degree of truth the to th e statement. I can't control where my artwork is reblogged or shared.... but the problem is when best_art_on_facebook decides too delete the artist's water mark, slap their own watermark on it and repost it with a comment like "whoa!" and no way to find a way back to the artist. The problem is when someone on tumblr decides to repost an image with no way to get back to the artist's pages. That is damaging the artist. it's not publicity, it's stealing.

Is this lingering reputation part of why takedown requests extend to character owners?

I always just assumed it was to avoid REEEEEEEEEstorms from people with their own internal view of copyright law.

supermarcopolo said:
I recall the Admin Husky mention that the reason why they now have moderate approval is because there was a week where these users were uploading gnarly stuff like real life car accident and chainsaw injuries. he was the only one manning the boat at that time.

That's the reason why users can't upload stuff until their account is at least a week old. Like what Nimmy said, the approval system was applied way before I joined

I miss Mellis. The new mods are nerds who eat lunch in the back of the cafeteria like weirdos.

Dogenzaka said:
I miss Mellis. The new mods are nerds who eat lunch in the back of the cafeteria like weirdos.

Heh. Definitely a minority opinion, but some of us old-timers do share it (the part about missing Mellis, I mean). Mellis was a very tough admin. They suffered absolutely zero gruff before pulling out the banhammer. They've often been accused of being unfair, but I don't remember feeling that way. I think that if stuff slipped by, it was because Mellis was human and even then the site had enough users, comments, and other content to police that one person just could not sort through it all.

Edit: Clarification.

MagnusEffect said:
Is this lingering reputation part of why takedown requests extend to character owners?

I always just assumed it was to avoid REEEEEEEEEstorms from people with their own internal view of copyright law.

Honestly.

Can you truly not imagine why someone wouldn't want their art--or art of their characters-- up on a website that allows all sorts of furry porn? Can you not imagine why someone wouldn't want, say, the picture they drew for their kid to the kid's specifications posted somewhere where the user base will talk about what a fucking horrific abomination it is? Or how they want to fuck it?

There are SO fucking many reasons why someone might not want art of their character, or their own art posted around online. can we please fucking not assume that they're all doing it for the simple sake of pitching a hissy fit and causing people trouble?

I mean, I know it's a huge stretch to ask people to have empathy for one another and all, but...

Think the only thing I can remember that could've caused a permanent shutdown would have been if the handover of the site didn't go through as smoothly as it did, I also think the site wouldn't be nearly as functional if Varka/Arsehole-destroying sex toy company didn't take ownership of the site.

SnowWolf said:
Honestly.

Can you truly not imagine --

I'll admit I get knee-jerky about it, probably because the ones that draw attention to it are the ones that make a fuss and immediately threaten to sue everybody in public comments.

MagnusEffect said:
I'll admit I get knee-jerky about it, probably because the ones that draw attention to it are the ones that make a fuss and immediately threaten to sue everybody in public comments.

Sorry if I got a bit fussy, it's just... There are always going to be people that are over dramatic and huffy. But those people are the minority. And it's really dangerous to treat a group of people--artists in this case-- like they're all like the loudest and most vocal members of their group.

Without getting political about it, it's something i've seen a lot lately, and it is *always* intended to discredit everyone like that. "I think maybe kids should be accompanied by adults in order to buy tide pods" turns into "Antidetergent activists want to BAN detergent pods from grocery stores!"

and I hate that shit so much. It's dangerous and unhealthy to society.

And while this is jsut about furry art.. y'know? it's the same tools being used to dismiss people without even considering if they have valid concerns. There will always be drama queens. But they're not all of us.

Dogenzaka said:
I miss Mellis. The new mods are nerds who eat lunch in the back of the cafeteria like weirdos.

we eat in the back of the cafeteria because everyone else is weirdos.

I heard that back in the day the admins were so harsh they'd ban people for the smallest of things, even for no reason whatsoever. I'm not sure if that's true or not though.

Corinthian said:
I heard that back in the day the admins were so harsh they'd ban people for the smallest of things, even for no reason whatsoever. I'm not sure if that's true or not though.

Not that I remember, but there were "Bat Weeks" where Mellis came down extra hard for infractions. That's probably what most people recall as being unfair, since one pretty much had to keep up with the forums to know when Bat Week was occurring.

ikdind said:
Not that I remember, but there were "Bat Weeks" where Mellis came down extra hard for infractions.

That sounds like a really bad standard, having inconsistent punishments based solely on what day it happens to be is dumb.

ikdind said:
Not that I remember, but there were "Bat Weeks" where Mellis came down extra hard for infractions. That's probably what most people recall as being unfair, since one pretty much had to keep up with the forums to know when Bat Week was occurring.

Was Bat Week for bans, recommendations, or both? I got upgraded to privileged during a Bat Week. That's all I really remember.

The moderation of the pre-Varka days was not professional at all. Some users got banned permanently after one warning, some didn't get a warning at all. I once saw a user get banned and the reason was "Because fuck off."

Waba said:
The moderation of the pre-Varka days was not professional at all. Some users got banned permanently after one warning, some didn't get a warning at all. I once saw a user get banned and the reason was "Because fuck off."

What account?

BlackLicorice said:
What account?

The remaining list seems to be ban evaders, as they were banned without having done anything on that account, but the reason rarely listed the original account.

Waba said:
The moderation of the pre-Varka days was not professional at all. Some users got banned permanently after one warning, some didn't get a warning at all. I once saw a user get banned and the reason was "Because fuck off."

I think Char in particular did a great job making the site slightly less of a raging dumpster fire.

ikdind said:
Not that I remember, but there were "Bat Weeks" where Mellis came down extra hard for infractions. That's probably what most people recall as being unfair, since one pretty much had to keep up with the forums to know when Bat Week was occurring.

I see. Thank you for clearing that up.

Dyrone said:
I doubt this is a topic they're keen on discussing. If you tell people basically the worst and most frustrating ways they could potentially screw up this website then some troll is going to basically use that information to do the same thing again.

Damn right. While transparency is generally a necessity for good government, there's got to be a balance. You can't just be putting everything out there, all the time.

That being said, this thread has thankfully quickly morphed into a kind of history lesson. A very entertaining one, at that. Wow, “bat week”, “fuck off”. Damn. One might well say this is the stuff of legends! I'm kind of sad I wasn't really active for all those years.

Personally I would love to tell artists to get fucked. You put something up on the internet on FA or whatever idc if you say "DIS IS MINE DON REPOST OR ELSE REEEEEE"...you put it out there, it belongs to the internet now. You wanna protect your shit put it behind a paywall like Patreon, but if you put it on a free platform people are going to take it, that's kind of the price you pay for building your brand. Not saying I would post DNP material here, but in my own perfect world that type of thing would be allowed.

Ah, the age-old tension between private interests and public utility! SnowWolf already kind of answered all your questions, there. I'll just add that you should instead imagine a perfect world with a sensible copyright law and mechanisms to enforce it, not just one that works well for Disney. Mickey Mouse is your enemy, not everyday artists that are just people like you and me. In that world… we'll all be… we'll all be...
~magic friends~
Wanna join the joyride
Be a joyrider

Sorry… I'm getting way too far out on a poetic limb, here. I'm not a cat, so I better get back dow..--WHOA!

ikdind said:
Not that I remember, but there were "Bat Weeks" where Mellis came down extra hard for infractions. That's probably what most people recall as being unfair, since one pretty much had to keep up with the forums to know when Bat Week was occurring.

Dogenzaka said:
Was Bat Week for bans, recommendations, or both? I got upgraded to privileged during a Bat Week. That's all I really remember.

Shark week was the ban-happy weeks, bat week was upgrade-happy weeks. And even outside of 'shark weeks', the lack of a real TOS or any defined procedures for disciplining users meant that punishments were inconsistent and not uncommonly unfair.

Also, moderator approval for uploads was always a thing, but uploads were so slow back then (50 uploads a day at most when I joined?) that one person could easily handle the queue in their spare time.

What exactly happened to mellis? I've lurked a long time but never really view what's been going on.

I think one of the worst things to have happened here was that this image is no longer available

Ttwylerr said:
What exactly happened to mellis? I've lurked a long time but never really view what's been going on.

Nothing, as far as I can remember. They simply stopped being an admin when the site transitioned. Most of the admin folks stepped away at that point.

ikdind said:
Nothing, as far as I can remember. They simply stopped being an admin when the site transitioned. Most of the admin folks stepped away at that point.

I saw a couple sources saying that and I believe it.

In my opinion, no, nothing went that far.

VitriolicWithering said:
In my opinion, no, nothing went that far.

Nothing went how far? Hit the respond button under the comment you're replying to.

Furrin_Gok said:
Nothing went how far? Hit the respond button under the comment you're replying to.

I meant nothing went as far to force a takedown of this site.

VitriolicWithering said:
I meant nothing went as far to force a takedown of this site.

Oh, well, actually, the site was briefly taken down for a bit. I seem to recall it was even replaced with an FBI warning. Spooky times, until the kind and generous folks at Bad Dragon acquired it and put it back up.

Edit: As it's been some number of years, the details elude me, but I recall that it had to do with a particular denizen of the internet who had a serious hate-on for e621, and complained to its hosting service of the time that the site was serving up CP. This was basically the breaking point for Arcturus, who had gotten tired of the constant drama, complaints, and cost of running the site.

ikdind said:
Oh, well, actually, the site was briefly taken down for a bit. I seem to recall it was even replaced with an FBI warning. Spooky times, until the kind and generous folks at Bad Dragon acquired it and put it back up.

Edit: As it's been some number of years, the details elude me, but I recall that it had to do with a particular denizen of the internet who had a serious hate-on for e621, and complained to its hosting service of the time that the site was serving up CP. This was basically the breaking point for Arcturus, who had gotten tired of the constant drama, complaints, and cost of running the site.

Damn. I didn’t know that.

Letting me being a member.

Didn't Starrykitten (Zidonuke) destroy the web site once or something

FibS said:
Didn't Starrykitten (Zidonuke) destroy the web site once or something

That was F-List, not e621. He never was in any position of power on e6.

Users should probably be aware of the signs and process of sexual grooming.

And another link just because: link

I'm only aware of one or two situations on this site that made me think "Yeah, that's definitely where that was headed." Before anyone bothers pointing fingers, neither situation involved any big names.

It absolutely can happen to anyone.

FibS said:
Didn't Starrykitten (Zidonuke) destroy the web site once or something

NotMeNotYou said:
That was F-List, not e621. He never was in any position of power on e6.

As far as I'm aware, the only user who has succeeded in getting e621 taken down, for any reason besides denial-of-service attacks was a different member of the furry community whom I shall not name, but if you are truly determined, there is at least one forum post from years and years back...

ikdind said:
As far as I'm aware, the only user who has succeeded in getting e621 taken down, for any reason besides denial-of-service attacks was a different member of the furry community whom I shall not name, but if you are truly determined, there is at least one forum post from years and years back...

There's also the WikiFur article.

SnowWolf said:
Honestly.

Can you truly not imagine why someone wouldn't want their art--or art of their characters-- up on a website that allows all sorts of furry porn? Can you not imagine why someone wouldn't want, say, the picture they drew for their kid to the kid's specifications posted somewhere where the user base will talk about what a fucking horrific abomination it is? Or how they want to fuck it?

There are SO fucking many reasons why someone might not want art of their character, or their own art posted around online. can we please fucking not assume that they're all doing it for the simple sake of pitching a hissy fit and causing people trouble?

I mean, I know it's a huge stretch to ask people to have empathy for one another and all, but...

I never thought of it that way.

Kodanis said:
I never thought of it that way.

wow look at that necromancy

Here is a worst thing, post #6268 got deleted.

Chaser said:
Here is a worst thing, post #6268 got deleted.

RIP Cheese Grater. We hardly memed ya.

Ruikuli said:
wow look at that necromancy

LOL

Furrin_Gok said:
I think one of the worst things to have happened here was that this image is no longer available

That's a little freaky. I'm the one who said that to her back then :P

https://e621.net/user

Ratte said:
https://e621.net/user

I am chotto confused...

At a rough guess it's a "The system would work perfectly if there were no users" joke.

savageorange said:
At a rough guess it's a "The system would work perfectly if there were no users" joke.

lol I get it :P

Ruikuli said:
wow look at that necromancy

It's a gift.

Huh, Some pretty neat stuff here!

If you don't mind me adding, Has there been any corrupt mods/admins and so on in 621's recent history after the re-working? Like people who seemed like they could be trusted but, turned out to be one of those peeps who go power mad when given even a little authority of it? ╹ ╹)