Quite honestly, if a furry website made an app or something for the business furry that could be used to set up and track their commissions easier than doing it by journal and then charged a dime per commission to use it, their site would not have to rely on donations, they would rely on those that use it as a way to make money off their art.
The stemming of this conflict with FA is the fact that there are two users. The consumers/social furs and the providers/business furs. The FA staff clearly thinks of their site as more for the former than the latter and because of this conflicts like this will arise.
For instance, the conflict in the thread was a "consumer" fur was assuming that people were upset because of the cost of the site (free), which is the primary force a consumer worries about. The artist responds, by saying the cost is not the problem, the reliability is. So I think that as a furry website is relied on by more and more business furs it is important that they have a methodology in place to keep it in place.
I think creating an app which would make it easier for artists to track their commisions and making some business fur centric programs and then charging a SMALL fee for the service will bring the best of both worlds. Artists can rest assured that the service will always have financing through the work that they do. And the more artists that come to the site (and thus bringing more maintenance/issues) the more of these fees would come in making it work as the site grows.
Unfortunately, I think it's too late for FA to create something like this as I doubt business furs would pay for a site they seem to be turning against when it's free. The newspapers say you can't beat free... actually you can, just don't be greedy and have most of the income go to actual costs of running things instead of going to a board/investors.
I invested 50 bucks in Weasyl after AC 2011, and I'm making bubkis in return. However, it seems to me to have been a good investment.
Quite honestly, if a furry website made an app or something for the business furry that could be used to set up and track their commissions easier than doing it by journal and then charged a dime per commission to use it, their site would not have to rely on donations, they would rely on those that use it as a way to make money off their art.
The stemming of this conflict with FA is the fact that there are two users. The consumers/social furs and the providers/business furs. The FA staff clearly thinks of their site as more for the former than the latter and because of this conflicts like this will arise.
For instance, the conflict in the thread was a "consumer" fur was assuming that people were upset because of the cost of the site (free), which is the primary force a consumer worries about. The artist responds, by saying the cost is not the problem, the reliability is. So I think that as a furry website is relied on by more and more business furs it is important that they have a methodology in place to keep it in place.
I think creating an app which would make it easier for artists to track their commisions and making some business fur centric programs and then charging a SMALL fee for the service will bring the best of both worlds. Artists can rest assured that the service will always have financing through the work that they do. And the more artists that come to the site (and thus bringing more maintenance/issues) the more of these fees would come in making it work as the site grows.
Unfortunately, I think it's too late for FA to create something like this as I doubt business furs would pay for a site they seem to be turning against when it's free. The newspapers say you can't beat free... actually you can, just don't be greedy and have most of the income go to actual costs of running things instead of going to a board/investors.
I invested 50 bucks in Weasyl after AC 2011, and I'm making bubkis in return. However, it seems to me to have been a good investment.