ArtPlz

ArtPlz was a proposed art gallery that purported to allow a wide range of subjects from illustrations, photography, stories and music, of any age rating or topic.


 * Addresses:
 * Website: www.artplz.com (currently a squatter page)
 * LiveJournal: http://community.livejournal.com/artplz/
 * Founder: Arcturus
 * Administrators: nrr, Arshes, Nobuyuki
 * Operational dates: Never operational

History
This site was Arcturus' response to the administration split at Fur Affinity between herself and Jheryn Lightfoot. The separation was caused by a power-struggle between Arcturus and Jheryn over which user should be an administrator. Arcturus felt it necessary to de-admin Oz Kangaroo because, through his purported immaturity toward other users, Oz was not fulfilling his job of public relations and 'damage control' for Fur Affinity.

Jheryn's response was it was his site and he should be able to do what he wants with it. Arcturus, then owner of the server, officially terminated Fur Affinity on 1 August 2005, the domain re-pointed to another server to host discussion forums during its downtime. The old Fur Affinity server was meanwhile connected to the ArtFu.net domain and Arcturus posted that she would soon be opening a new art site herself.

The change from ArtFu
ArtFu was quickly supported by many of Fur Affinity's ex-user base, hoping for a resume to service as soon as possible. However ArtFu just posted a forum and a LiveJournal and it was announced that the site would be coded from scratch with a brand new team of programmers.

One of the first pieces of controversy over the new site was its name. Artfu.com did exist and was also an small online art gallery. Both fans and opponents of ArtFu were quick to point out how this could easily destroy the other site or cause issues for both parties. Arcturus falsely assured users that she had asked for permission from the other site if it was acceptable for them to coexist, however users were still unhappy with the stubbornness of the administration team. Following the extensive outpouring, consultations and advice from other gallery administrators (such as the VCL's Ch'marr which can be seen here in the form of an open letter), it was announced a name change would take place.

On 9th August, the new name ArtPlz was announced on the forums and LiveJournal, over the next day a quick re-branding took place with the launch of a new LiveJournal of the same name, the site was moved to artplz.com with the old address forwarding to it. The new logo as well was also applied to the two LiveJournals and forum, and a new front page animation was made. The name was widely accepted by most users as an ironic phrase, the name referring to the common internet phenomenon of people requesting 'art plz' (art please) of characters in art and primarily adult art exchanges. Some users however felt it was a little degrading as a name for a place to show off good artwork, though these were considered a minority and the name has been finalised for launch.

The present site
As of 30 July 2006, ArtPlz.com returned errors suggesting that it was under construction, but unlike the previous pages, it contained no links.

There is no current time frame for the site launch. The programming team have been selected and are at work, however Arcturus will not be holding nominations for 'moderators' or 'staff' to run the site until close to the launch date. There is also no word on the expected design of the site, however it is expected to reflect Fur Affinity in terms of feature set if not more and promises to be faster and more secure than the previous site.

On 2 April 2006, Arcturus announced that she would no longer be involved in development of ArtPlz.com due to irreconcilable differences between herself and her staff. As of July 2008, www.artplz.com displays a domain parking page (fake search engine), and states at the top that the domain is up for sale, so it is doubtful that ArtPlz will ever return.