FurBuy

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FurBuy is an internet-based auction website primarily geared for selling furry items and items of interest to furry fans.

Contents

History

Furbuylogo04.gif

The system was custom-made by Jurann and went live to the public on 1 December 2000. Prior to release, several months of research, development and beta-testing by actual artists was performed; the entire pre-launch process took approximately 10 months to complete.

On November 3, 2001, FurBuy announced in the News section of the website that "FurBuy will be closing permanently on December 1st, 2001", with "Thanks to everyone for an exciting 15-month project".[1] As of late June 2003, FurBuy had "re-opened as a free website and auction system".[2] Even though the system was no longer maintained and administrated, it remained online and operational during the period from December 4, 2001 through June 2003.

Initially FurBuy was based on a system that charged small fees for listing and closing auctions as well as enhanced features offered to sellers. After a couple of weeks of live service, it was decided that all fees would be dropped for use of the system due to a lack of users' desire to pay for such features. Since then the system has been completely free. FurBuy's features include image management/hosting, live auction status on foreign websites, co-branding capability and SMS/text-messaging.

PorterSml.jpg

In 2007, K'sharra joined the FurBuy administration team and took over as Lead Admin. Shortly after, a completely revamped version of FurBuy's site layout was rolled out on July 2, 2007, including a new logo and various additional features.[3] Since then, the site has undergone many improvements, several of which have been a direct result of user suggestions and feedback.

In November of 2007, FurBuy held a mascot contest (which was later separated into a mascot contest and a T-shirt design contest) which resulted in FurBuy's first mascot: Porter the Packrat[4] as designed by FurryVenus. As of 2008, the mascot had not been incorporated into the site design.

In June of 2009, what was formerly FurBuy became one portion of a new, larger partnership called Pan-Dimensional Marketplace, LLC (PanDimMar). The new company was formed in order to branch out the existing software and administrators into new genres and fandoms such as Renaissance/Medieval, Steampunk, Anime, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, World of Darkness and the like. At this time, K'sharra stepped down as FurBuy Community Lead in order to become the community lead for the new Merchants' Guild site under the PanDimMar flag. Jurann became the FurBuy Community Lead Pro-Tem at that time and is at this time still seeking a replacement community lead for the FurBuy site.

As of November 26, 2011 the main site administrator is now Mordrul according to an official post in the FurBuy LJ community.[5] Mordrul is now the Community Lead and site administrator taking over nearly all day to day tasks and responsibilities for the site. Jurann is stepping back to doing maintenance, new code development and management of the overall business.

Current Status

FurBuy and it's parent entity PanDimMar are currently fully operational and continuing to provide active service and administration for all member projects. The FurBuy site is currently looking for a long-term replacement Community Lead who is tasked with public relations and promotion of the site, as well as dealing with users and responding to issues arising from activity on the site. PanDimMar operates on user and community contributions, see the Support section below for details.

Partnerships and links

In mid-2006 FurBuy announced its partnership with Fur Affinity and since then has been working with FurAffinity to develop crossover features.[6]

In May 2007, Jurann posted that FurBuy had "added the beginning of the FurAffinity linkages, allowing new and existing users both to set their FA username. [...] I'm also working with the folks at FA about getting linkages on their side setup".[7]

In July 2007, FurBuy announced the addition of a feature to "add your VCL username to your account", which "adds a little icon after your name that links back to your VCL gallery".[8] In an added comment on the same post, Jurann stated that the addition of VCL links "actually precedes a deeper VCL integration that we were able to discuss with Ch'marr at AnthroCon."[8]

In February 2008, FurBuy announced its partnership with FURiends to provide non-adult auction listings on their website. Along with this partnership came the ability to "add your FURiends name to your profile under your My Account - Prefs page and a pawprint will appear by your name."[9]

Records

The record auction on FurBuy stands at US$4025.00 for a digital commission by seller Orange04 that closed successfully on Mar 6, 2008.[10] The successful completion of the sale was not confirmed by staff in 2008.

The previous confirmed record auction was US$3025.00 for a digital commission by seller Dark Nek0gami that closed successfully on Feb 23, 2008 and is confirmed by staff that the transaction completed smoothly between the buyer and seller.[11]

Annual sales records for the 2010 calendar year totaled just over US$247,000 while the 2011 calendar year showed a marked improvement with over US$335,000 in total sales volume. These values are not adjusted for actual prices paid by bidders, however, and may include sales which were never completed or reported as incomplete by sellers. These figures were posted both in the FurBuy LJ community and on it's official Twitter feed.

Support

A FurBuy news post on April 8, 2009, titled "End of the Road for FurBuy?" stated "The primary financier of FurBuy for the last ten years can no longer afford to continue paying for the site out of their own pocket. FurBuy will officially close on May 15th, 2009 unless the funds can be generated to convert FurBuy into a self-supporting company able to generate the money necessary each month for full hosting. [...] If the $1,000 is not raised by April 30, 2009 (or very, very close to that amount with a clear indicator that more will be coming in May) we will be shutting down the system on May 15, 2009. This site was built by the community, for the community, and will now live or die based on community support."[12]

A "new page for the current FurBuy Support Project" was created the following day.[12] Options include support auctions and direct support (pledges).[13] Since then, donators and fans have been able to raise over $1,258 for FurBuy, saving the site from shutting down. Based on the success of the support project, FurBuy was able to convert the business from a sole proprietorship to a partnership-based company called Pan-Dimensional Marketplace, LLC. The funds raised also allowed for the purchase of newer rack-mount server hardware and installation into a dedicated co-location facility with much improved bandwidth and server stability.

FurBuy, along with other PanDimMar sites, now operates on a user contribution system. The monthly goals along with the current donation levels are now prominently posted at the top of every page on the FurBuy site. Users may contribute money in return for annual memberships or for ad banners to be rotated on the site of their choice. To date, no user contributions have achieved the goal of paying for 100% of the posted $400 monthly server fees, though it has come close. The difference is made up for by PanDimMar partners as out of pocket contributions to the company.

References

  1. ↑ Ghost Sites: furbuy.jpg on disobey.com. Last updated December 4, 2001. Retrieved July 4, 2007.
  2. ↑ Album: furbuy.com on 1134.org. Retrieved July 4, 2007.
  3. ↑ The New FurBuy is Launched! LiveJournal post by K'sharra. Retrieved March 2, 2008.
  4. ↑ FurBuy Mascot Contest on FurBuy.com. Retrieved March 2, 2008.
  5. ↑ FurBuy Officially Changing Management November 26, 2011 on LiveJournal.com - Retrieved Feb 8, 2012.
  6. ↑ It's Official. July 20, 2006 LiveJournal post by Jurann. Retrieved May 4, 2007.
  7. ↑ FurBuy Taking Off! May 17, 2007 LiveJournal post by Jurann. Retrieved May 18, 2007.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 VCL Integration! July 12, 2007 LiveJournal post by K'sharra. Retrieved July 13, 2007.
  9. ↑ FURiends and Email Verification February 28, 2008 LiveJournal post by K'sharra. Retrieved March 2, 2008.
  10. ↑ FurBuy - View Auction #1003433 Mar 6, 2008 FurBuy. Retrieved Mar 6, 2008.
  11. ↑ FurBuy - View Auction #1003273 Feb 23, 2008 FurBuy. Retrieved Feb 25, 2008.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 http://www.furbuy.com/news.shtml Retrieved April 15, 2009.
  13. ↑ http://www.furbuy.com/support.shtml Retrieved April 15, 2009.
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