I feel sorry for FA, in that they follow the familiar narrative of a web service made for a [relatively speaking] small community. It starts out with the optimism of providing a community service that is free for everyone and it's all lovely bubbly hippy, till popularity takes hold and bills need paying to which the begging bowl donation jar must be held out, advertisement put in place and other ideas to fund the service. All the while the service has to remain free else feel the wrath of the community.
What I'm getting at is that I'm reflecting on early 00's community sites and the web in genera, filled with youthful optimism and niave ideals of freedom, but now we surf in a web that has changed with time. The likes of FA serve as a case study for others. We can learn from their experience. Bottom line is that I believe if a furry is going to start a furry website service today they should always have a solid business plan in place to fund its operations and should not be afraid to consider premium accounts. It's something you can pretty much do as a start up cus you don't have an established user-base there to moan at you, where as implimenting it later down the line means you have to take stick on the chin.
It's why I disagree with services like the recently reported WatchTail, a video streaming service relying on advertisement and donations. Donations are not the way forward.
I feel sorry for FA, in that they follow the familiar narrative of a web service made for a [relatively speaking] small community. It starts out with the optimism of providing a community service that is free for everyone and it's all lovely bubbly hippy, till popularity takes hold and bills need paying to which the
begging bowldonation jar must be held out, advertisement put in place and other ideas to fund the service. All the while the service has to remain free else feel the wrath of the community.What I'm getting at is that I'm reflecting on early 00's community sites and the web in genera, filled with youthful optimism and niave ideals of freedom, but now we surf in a web that has changed with time. The likes of FA serve as a case study for others. We can learn from their experience. Bottom line is that I believe if a furry is going to start a furry website service today they should always have a solid business plan in place to fund its operations and should not be afraid to consider premium accounts. It's something you can pretty much do as a start up cus you don't have an established user-base there to moan at you, where as implimenting it later down the line means you have to take stick on the chin.
It's why I disagree with services like the recently reported WatchTail, a video streaming service relying on advertisement and donations. Donations are not the way forward.