Furry Network (art archive)


 * This article is about Furry Network, the website created and operated by Bad Dragon. For the defunct 2011 Furry Network news site, see Furry Network (news).

Furry Network is an online community focused on the promotion of art and creative works within the furry fandom.

History
Furry Network was created in 2015 by Varka and the Bad Dragon team in response to the sale of Fur Affinity to IMVU. Varka Enterprises attempted to purchase FurAffinity in 2011, but Dragoneer declined. By late 2015, the project was a closed beta, by invite only.

On Valentine's Day, February 14, 2019, Furry Network announced on Twitter that the site has developed enough to leave beta, becoming officially established on that date and removing the beta prefix from their URL.

Features

 * The site allows for users to "promote" and/or "favorite" submissions. "Promoting" a submission results in the selected submission being shown publicly on the promoting user's profile, while "favoriting" adds the submission to a gallery private to the favoriting user's account.
 * The site also allows for one to import submissions, avatars and watches from one's Fur Affinity account.
 * The site allows a user to create multiple "character" profiles under one account.
 * Users can group their submissions under folders, but they currently don't allow for subscriptions.

Statistics

 * 143,594 Submissions as of November 7, 2015.

Controversy
The site faced controversy for allowing erotic cub imagery. On May 26, a feature request thread was opened by Tartii requesting that "cub pornography" be removed from the site, citing that it made many users uncomfortable. By the afternoon the thread received a total of 1389 votes in favor and 620 votes against before voting and comments were locked. The validity of the votes were however questioned when it was discovered that users could vote unlimited times by exploiting proxy services. Varka acknowledged the exploit on the same day and changed the software to require account logins. Users on both sides called for a re-vote, but the compromised vote tallies remained unchanged.

Users suggested additional bans and/or alternative solutions which were marked as "duplicates", including:
 * banning porn involving dog penises, feral and bestiality, My Little Pony, homosexuality, and rape
 * banning pornography altogether
 * adding a blacklist opt-in feature for "squicky content"
 * adding a clause into the Terms of Service to protect artists from censorship, exclusion or harassment

The following day, the ban was enacted. In a blog post, Varka thanked those who spoke up "including those who voted on the support request thread." The new Acceptable Upload Policy prohibits "Content that contains minors in sexual situations or who are suggestive in appearance" which defines minors as "human or animal characters who are younger than 18 years old, or whose body is prepubescent in appearance."

Varka stated that since the cub porn ban had already been enacted, the blacklist opt-in feature would be considered for future updates on remaining content. He also stated that an alternative medium would be worked on to encourage and facilitate "policy-type stuff."