No, it was NOT an archive. Furaffinity is an archive. It is a site where the artists voluntarily go to post their work for free viewing. e621 was a pirate site that disregarded the artists' interests or desires in favor of a mob rule mentality where anything was all right so long as it was what the 'mob' wanted. As an artist, I DID consider it and all similar sites to be the enemy, which is why I had my name put on the DNP lists -- to help enforce that my work wasn't going where I didn't want it to go.
If people don't want their art to be freely available anymore for whatever reason, that is their right, and no one has any right to post it in disregard of those desires, no matter how many people want to see those works made freely available again.
And it's not like there's an infinite number of bona fide furry archives to look at -- I can only think of three or four offhand -- so the loss of a pirate 'clearing house' should hardly be missed. If anything, it should be celebrated, because now the viewers can come directly to the artists, instead of through a disrespectful third party.
No, it was NOT an archive. Furaffinity is an archive. It is a site where the artists voluntarily go to post their work for free viewing. e621 was a pirate site that disregarded the artists' interests or desires in favor of a mob rule mentality where anything was all right so long as it was what the 'mob' wanted. As an artist, I DID consider it and all similar sites to be the enemy, which is why I had my name put on the DNP lists -- to help enforce that my work wasn't going where I didn't want it to go.
If people don't want their art to be freely available anymore for whatever reason, that is their right, and no one has any right to post it in disregard of those desires, no matter how many people want to see those works made freely available again.
And it's not like there's an infinite number of bona fide furry archives to look at -- I can only think of three or four offhand -- so the loss of a pirate 'clearing house' should hardly be missed. If anything, it should be celebrated, because now the viewers can come directly to the artists, instead of through a disrespectful third party.