Um, how is Converse paying furries to be in adds and then hopefully selling more shoes "money leaving the fandom"? As near as I can tell, it's money coming into the fandom since furries would be getting paid to do the adds.
The control issue as far as people engaging in commercial activities because they were sought out based on their being in the fandom is purely up to them to watch their backs on. There is no one entity controlling furry so no corporation could come in and just buy it. FurAffinity being owned by a company which isn't really associated with the fandom just means they own one website, not the fandom. If people don't like how it's run, they can pull their content and go elsewhere just as they could with a site owned by furries.
Artists are learning how to market themselves. Using larger meta websites means they are more likely to be seen by more people. Many are also using Patreon. Now I'm not a huge fan of teaser images all over saying "If you want to see the whole thing, pay up!", but I can't blame the artists either. They are finally starting to realize their work is worth a lot more than what was assumed 5-10 years ago. To that extent, furry is more commercialized. At least it's mostly furries selling to furries.
Um, how is Converse paying furries to be in adds and then hopefully selling more shoes "money leaving the fandom"? As near as I can tell, it's money coming into the fandom since furries would be getting paid to do the adds.
The control issue as far as people engaging in commercial activities because they were sought out based on their being in the fandom is purely up to them to watch their backs on. There is no one entity controlling furry so no corporation could come in and just buy it. FurAffinity being owned by a company which isn't really associated with the fandom just means they own one website, not the fandom. If people don't like how it's run, they can pull their content and go elsewhere just as they could with a site owned by furries.
Artists are learning how to market themselves. Using larger meta websites means they are more likely to be seen by more people. Many are also using Patreon. Now I'm not a huge fan of teaser images all over saying "If you want to see the whole thing, pay up!", but I can't blame the artists either. They are finally starting to realize their work is worth a lot more than what was assumed 5-10 years ago. To that extent, furry is more commercialized. At least it's mostly furries selling to furries.