Less and less Felarya stories/writers
Moderator: Karbo
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Re: Less and less Felarya stories/writers
Oh God, someone brought that old shit up again.
Without revealing my identity (not that it'd be particularly hard to figure out who I was in that community :V), I was in the middle of that whole thing—had my name on the letter and everything—and I didn't think that I'd ever see it brought back up, lol. At the time, it seemed to clear what we were doing, but time and distance have left me wondering just... what was even the point? What did we even want to accomplish? We were young, invested in the community, and I guess we had a certain idea of how things oughta be, and things kinda got out of hand from there. If I could go back and give myself advice, would tell myself not to take it so seriously and live and let live and all that. It was a silly little fetish community and if we didn't like the way it was going, we could've just gone and done our own thing—which a few of us ended up doing anyway.
But yeah, FS def has the right of it. Some harsh words were exchanged, but in hindsight I don't think it's fair to call them out for getting defensive. We've all moved on and it's better all of that nonsense stays in the past where it belongs. Felarya was always Karbo's thing and shame on us for overstepping :c
Without revealing my identity (not that it'd be particularly hard to figure out who I was in that community :V), I was in the middle of that whole thing—had my name on the letter and everything—and I didn't think that I'd ever see it brought back up, lol. At the time, it seemed to clear what we were doing, but time and distance have left me wondering just... what was even the point? What did we even want to accomplish? We were young, invested in the community, and I guess we had a certain idea of how things oughta be, and things kinda got out of hand from there. If I could go back and give myself advice, would tell myself not to take it so seriously and live and let live and all that. It was a silly little fetish community and if we didn't like the way it was going, we could've just gone and done our own thing—which a few of us ended up doing anyway.
But yeah, FS def has the right of it. Some harsh words were exchanged, but in hindsight I don't think it's fair to call them out for getting defensive. We've all moved on and it's better all of that nonsense stays in the past where it belongs. Felarya was always Karbo's thing and shame on us for overstepping :c
***Cuddlekins Vore Stories (May contain LOLI)
***FF14 GPose Vore Comics
(Mostly macro/micro F/f, some ?/F, some monster girl same-size.)
***FF14 GPose Vore Comics
(Mostly macro/micro F/f, some ?/F, some monster girl same-size.)
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Cuddlekins - Participator
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Re: Less and less Felarya stories/writers
Thanks, Cuddlekins. That seems like a good way to close that old chapter once and for all.
My short stories (210 so far, 211th coming when I have time to write it):
http://aryion.com/g3/showgallery.php?id=161506
http://aryion.com/g3/showgallery.php?id=161506
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French_snack - ???
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Re: Less and less Felarya stories/writers
BeGad wrote:A big division at the time was between people interested in worldbuilding Felarya, and those interested just in the fetish aspect. The thing is, there really should have been no conflict over this - its easy to have both. The problem is that two writers very much on the "fetish" side of things, FrenchSnack and timing2, were continuously condescending and abrasive towards the "worldbuilding" community. These two were also clearly very favoured by Karbo, forming an unhealthy hierarchy. Frenchsnack in particular is among the most prolific vore writers out there, and clearly felt that gave him a special role.
The thing with that though is that's... not quite what I've seen, going back a bit. Or at the very least that it wasn't a one-sided deal. I dunno who threw the first stone, but i’ve actually talked to some of the Felarya group members - current or former - and (in my experience at least) it's actually the “worldbuilding” community that seemed to be the more jaded one. In particular, four of the most prolific ex-members I reached out to were BlazBaros, Gregoyle, ShadyKnight and Tora044… and out of all of them, Tora was the only one I’d consider to have been cordial about why they left
ShadyKnight didn’t seem interested in a back-and-fourth, Greg apparently insta-blocks people just for MENTIONING the word “Felarya”, and Blaz disregarded my concerns about moderator-issues entirely to go on a borderline tangent about nuking the setting (despite the fact reboots and resets don’t automatically make for better quality content if the people in charge of standards are the same ones who let it sink the last time), seeming convinced that the two could not co-exist - heck, I’m tempted to say he outright ranted that it was all the "fetish" side's fault and that it'd have magically all worked out if that side were axed.
By contrast to those three, Tora was the only ex-community member who not only spoke amicably about the situation but actually articulated a reason for why the two sides were never able to find a middle-ground. Whether his assessment was true or not is up to the individual, but his reasoning (at least as I understand it) was that there were two very different directions people wanted to take Felarya - worldbuilding requires a world/setting that is willing and able to change as stories progress and at least some degree of serious plot, but the fetish side didn’t really want Felarya didn’t want to risk losing that campy, free-spirited vibe that made it so easy for them to have fun with, which was largely dependent on the preds always being the top-dogs with the food chain never shifting no matter who or what happened. I'm probably truncating that down a lot, though
Sure there’s examples of preds getting defeated, but they were generally considered exceptions to the rule rather than the status quo actually shifting and some people weren't satisfied with that - people like like lordmep with his Kadar or Tora’s own ideas for the Negavians getting more effective defending against or even besting preds as more groups, factions and tech came to their side. The other wanted things to stay same-y, not just to preserve the more "fun" side of things but the vore aspect - FrenchSnack's stories are a prime example; they deal with lotsa "slice of life" themes but not so much in the serious stuff like actual conflict and warfare. In the middle was Karbo, who didn't want to specifically exclude anyone from playing in his sandbox - though I think that might have been a problem in the long run; had there BEEN a sterner approach to that kinda thing, it might have been easer to head off a conflict.
French_snack wrote:Thanks, Cuddlekins. That seems like a good way to close that old chapter once and for all.
Ah... not quite so sure 'bout that. The premise mighta been off, but... well, I can't really say BeGad was entirely off the mark about how Karbo favoring your type of stories helped push one side of the community out; it just wasn't a deliberate push-out like he seemed to think. Moreover, I get the whole "doing your own thing" bit, but... well, you're a moderator - maybe not back then, but you're one now AND the guy who currently oversees submissions to the gallery; if you didn't wanna be responsible for the direction the setting goes in, IDK why you accepted that role
And I get Karbo never expecting Felarya to get this big, but... well, it DID. It DID get that big, and once that happened Karbo either needed to take more charge of it or get someone who would - and if not then he needed to tighten his belt and shut people down, no matter how painful it'd be. Because he didn't, the community kinda caved in on itself when a divide between fetish and worldbuilding became more pronounced.
Case in point; the guy who revived the thread, ChristianBethel. From what I saw of his deviantart profile, he'd experimented with story ideas that could change Felarya and looks to have got shot down pretty hard for wanting the status-quo to shift away from the preds. a lot of critiques about canon-compliance got thrown around there... but I've seen stories get accepted to the group-page despite giving canonicity the finger; a lot of the problem seemed to be more from him wanting a group of non-preds who weren't doomed to fail
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MrMetroid - Somewhat familiar
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Re: Less and less Felarya stories/writers
MrMetroid wrote:BeGad wrote:A big division at the time was between people interested in worldbuilding Felarya, and those interested just in the fetish aspect. The thing is, there really should have been no conflict over this - its easy to have both. The problem is that two writers very much on the "fetish" side of things, FrenchSnack and timing2, were continuously condescending and abrasive towards the "worldbuilding" community. These two were also clearly very favoured by Karbo, forming an unhealthy hierarchy. Frenchsnack in particular is among the most prolific vore writers out there, and clearly felt that gave him a special role.
The thing with that though is that's... not quite what I've seen, going back a bit. Or at the very least that it wasn't a one-sided deal. I dunno who threw the first stone, but i’ve actually talked to some of the Felarya group members - current or former - and (in my experience at least) it's actually the “worldbuilding” community that seemed to be the more jaded one. In particular, four of the most prolific ex-members I reached out to were BlazBaros, Gregoyle, ShadyKnight and Tora044… and out of all of them, Tora was the only one I’d consider to have been cordial about why they left
ShadyKnight didn’t seem interested in a back-and-fourth, Greg apparently insta-blocks people just for MENTIONING the word “Felarya”, and Blaz disregarded my concerns about moderator-issues entirely to go on a borderline tangent about nuking the setting (despite the fact reboots and resets don’t automatically make for better quality content if the people in charge of standards are the same ones who let it sink the last time), seeming convinced that the two could not co-exist - heck, I’m tempted to say he outright ranted that it was all the "fetish" side's fault and that it'd have magically all worked out if that side were axed.
By contrast to those three, Tora was the only ex-community member who not only spoke amicably about the situation but actually articulated a reason for why the two sides were never able to find a middle-ground. Whether his assessment was true or not is up to the individual, but his reasoning (at least as I understand it) was that there were two very different directions people wanted to take Felarya - worldbuilding requires a world/setting that is willing and able to change as stories progress and at least some degree of serious plot, but the fetish side didn’t really want Felarya didn’t want to risk losing that campy, free-spirited vibe that made it so easy for them to have fun with, which was largely dependent on the preds always being the top-dogs with the food chain never shifting no matter who or what happened. I'm probably truncating that down a lot, though
Sure there’s examples of preds getting defeated, but they were generally considered exceptions to the rule rather than the status quo actually shifting and some people weren't satisfied with that - people like like lordmep with his Kadar or Tora’s own ideas for the Negavians getting more effective defending against or even besting preds as more groups, factions and tech came to their side. The other wanted things to stay same-y, not just to preserve the more "fun" side of things but the vore aspect - FrenchSnack's stories are a prime example; they deal with lotsa "slice of life" themes but not so much in the serious stuff like actual conflict and warfare. In the middle was Karbo, who didn't want to specifically exclude anyone from playing in his sandbox - though I think that might have been a problem in the long run; had there BEEN a sterner approach to that kinda thing, it might have been easer to head off a conflict.French_snack wrote:Thanks, Cuddlekins. That seems like a good way to close that old chapter once and for all.
Ah... not quite so sure 'bout that. The premise mighta been off, but... well, I can't really say BeGad was entirely off the mark about how Karbo favoring your type of stories helped push one side of the community out; it just wasn't a deliberate push-out like he seemed to think. Moreover, I get the whole "doing your own thing" bit, but... well, you're a moderator - maybe not back then, but you're one now AND the guy who currently oversees submissions to the gallery; if you didn't wanna be responsible for the direction the setting goes in, IDK why you accepted that role
And I get Karbo never expecting Felarya to get this big, but... well, it DID. It DID get that big, and once that happened Karbo either needed to take more charge of it or get someone who would - and if not then he needed to tighten his belt and shut people down, no matter how painful it'd be. Because he didn't, the community kinda caved in on itself when a divide between fetish and worldbuilding became more pronounced.
Case in point; the guy who revived the thread, ChristianBethel. From what I saw of his deviantart profile, he'd experimented with story ideas that could change Felarya and looks to have got shot down pretty hard for wanting the status-quo to shift away from the preds. a lot of critiques about canon-compliance got thrown around there... but I've seen stories get accepted to the group-page despite giving canonicity the finger; a lot of the problem seemed to be more from him wanting a group of non-preds who weren't doomed to fail
True. For me, Felarya is just Karbo's thing, always will be. If I make a place like Felarya, and it gets to the point where I need to take more charge or shut people down, then I know I'll have to do it, even if I don't want to.
- VariousWriter
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Re: Less and less Felarya stories/writers
For me, its particulary a shame.
This universe has a lot of fabric to cut through and maybe yes, it would be good to create a line of stories that were cannon. It's just that with so many stories out there it would be good for the community to come together and consider what stories should be in that cannon and make a more united lore that without affecting the original reflects Felarya's past and is unique. Anyone who would like to join thereafter please respect the cannon and don't try to rephrase it (or change the stories that are part of the cannon universe). Above all, do a review of the stories and give rise to stories that remain on the sidelines and that have a good quality. I have a story focused on Felarya and some characters that are of my creation, although I have not published it in any medium for two fundamental reasons:
1- I would not like to publish it without the approval of Karbo. I would like him to review it first (at least chapter to see what he thinks). Because it certainly seems to me that it is an act of courtesy if at least you are going to use the characters of a creator to notify him and if you can ask him what he thinks about his character, what aspects he has, the purpose I have in his development and at least see if he likes how I expose his personality certain traits etc ...
2- The above applies to non-Karbo character creators such as French_Snack (believe me man I have a folder on my machine that has all your stories based on Felarya and those of Aenhue that I like this verse too) I have studied them by looking the traits of your characters, how they develop, their personalities and their situations, how they respond to certain emotions or situations and many times I think that personally I would not like to publish a story that does not "fit" those parameters. Same for other content creators. I think it is an act of decency and ethics to have the opinion of the person who creates a character and not change those parameters without first having them. A simple example is the first time I read the story of the first meeting between Milly and Isham. The emotions that manifested when the giantess ate Peana are very intense and well written ... so much that I cried in front of the cell phone xd. My mom asked me what was wrong with me and I told her that nothing was a story I was reading. I think it would be sacrilege to alter the personality of a character like that. But for that to not happen without a doubt you have to know the opinion of the creator.
3-Although I am a novice writer I would like you to criticize my story constructively. What is missing to be considered a Felarya story with "quality" and for this the community is needed. But when one begins to write for a verse there are always doubts (at least for me) What will others think of my story? Am I not pretending too much? Will I not screw up the verse with this story? Who can help me define whether my story is poorly written and does not match with this style of writing or with the style of story that is expected in the verse? These are doubts that I would like the community to clarify for me.
I think the work is for users who like this content and nothing else. If we create content that everyone enjoys we should feel good about ourselves after all there is no better feeling than when a user supports you, likes you, comments ... and honestly I did it thinking about that goal. That is what I think Felarya is going to be destined for as a means of entertainment, leisure, reflection ... and happiness.
This universe has a lot of fabric to cut through and maybe yes, it would be good to create a line of stories that were cannon. It's just that with so many stories out there it would be good for the community to come together and consider what stories should be in that cannon and make a more united lore that without affecting the original reflects Felarya's past and is unique. Anyone who would like to join thereafter please respect the cannon and don't try to rephrase it (or change the stories that are part of the cannon universe). Above all, do a review of the stories and give rise to stories that remain on the sidelines and that have a good quality. I have a story focused on Felarya and some characters that are of my creation, although I have not published it in any medium for two fundamental reasons:
1- I would not like to publish it without the approval of Karbo. I would like him to review it first (at least chapter to see what he thinks). Because it certainly seems to me that it is an act of courtesy if at least you are going to use the characters of a creator to notify him and if you can ask him what he thinks about his character, what aspects he has, the purpose I have in his development and at least see if he likes how I expose his personality certain traits etc ...
2- The above applies to non-Karbo character creators such as French_Snack (believe me man I have a folder on my machine that has all your stories based on Felarya and those of Aenhue that I like this verse too) I have studied them by looking the traits of your characters, how they develop, their personalities and their situations, how they respond to certain emotions or situations and many times I think that personally I would not like to publish a story that does not "fit" those parameters. Same for other content creators. I think it is an act of decency and ethics to have the opinion of the person who creates a character and not change those parameters without first having them. A simple example is the first time I read the story of the first meeting between Milly and Isham. The emotions that manifested when the giantess ate Peana are very intense and well written ... so much that I cried in front of the cell phone xd. My mom asked me what was wrong with me and I told her that nothing was a story I was reading. I think it would be sacrilege to alter the personality of a character like that. But for that to not happen without a doubt you have to know the opinion of the creator.
3-Although I am a novice writer I would like you to criticize my story constructively. What is missing to be considered a Felarya story with "quality" and for this the community is needed. But when one begins to write for a verse there are always doubts (at least for me) What will others think of my story? Am I not pretending too much? Will I not screw up the verse with this story? Who can help me define whether my story is poorly written and does not match with this style of writing or with the style of story that is expected in the verse? These are doubts that I would like the community to clarify for me.
I think the work is for users who like this content and nothing else. If we create content that everyone enjoys we should feel good about ourselves after all there is no better feeling than when a user supports you, likes you, comments ... and honestly I did it thinking about that goal. That is what I think Felarya is going to be destined for as a means of entertainment, leisure, reflection ... and happiness.
We life in a world that is cruel with us, tinies. But one day we will normal again and then we will be free of this nightmare.
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kenrios - New to the forum
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Re: Less and less Felarya stories/writers
I’d never heard of this world before reading this thread and the whole situation is fascinating to me. Seems like a good cautionary tale about parasocial relationships, if you are unaware what that is it is a perceived relationship between a real human and a fictional character or real world person they don’t have any connection to. People who go create an identity completely revolving around their perceived relationship are the most obvious examples where almost every post they makes talks about how (insert character) is their lover and there are photoshopped pictures of them and (insert character) laying in bed together. From what I can gather this may have played a major role in causing such a huge backlash, my guess is that a select few people had developed a parasocial relationship with this Calina character wether it be feeling like they were friends IRL because they knew so much about them or that they had become attracted to their character. With huge events like this, if we could see every message sent about it from the start, it’s likely that it could be traced back to a handful of individuals who made such an apocalyptic stink about it that a cataclysm is the inevitable outcome. It’s actually a tactic that is used by specific groups in the real world, you make an intensely emotionally charged response to something no matter how correct or genuine it may be and then when there is understandable public backlash they can easily play the victim card and sic their followers against their opponents with little to no effort. While I doubt these individuals who started the Calina-pocalypse intended for it to do as much damage as it did, there is always a possibility that people acting in bad faith because of jealousy of the universes success or distaste for the fandom or FrenchSnack were mixed in.
This is all purely speculation on my part as a total outside to the community but I feel like these things need to be taken into consideration when making accusations of fault. It is very easy to be swept up by highly emotional content and people who were simply upset that their favorite character died but who would have been ok with it were turned into similarly charged voices crying out in opposition because someone else basically signaled that it was acceptable to be outraged and likely demanded that they follow suit through a call to action. It is very easy to get carried away when emotionally compromised.
Just some food for thought. I hope time can heal the wound and that the community can carry on for those who really put their heart and soul into it.
This is all purely speculation on my part as a total outside to the community but I feel like these things need to be taken into consideration when making accusations of fault. It is very easy to be swept up by highly emotional content and people who were simply upset that their favorite character died but who would have been ok with it were turned into similarly charged voices crying out in opposition because someone else basically signaled that it was acceptable to be outraged and likely demanded that they follow suit through a call to action. It is very easy to get carried away when emotionally compromised.
Just some food for thought. I hope time can heal the wound and that the community can carry on for those who really put their heart and soul into it.
Last edited by TootLunch on Sat Dec 25, 2021 3:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
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TootLunch - Been posting for a bit
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Re: Less and less Felarya stories/writers
TootLunch wrote: From what I can gather this may have played a major role in causing such a huge backlash, my guess is that a select few people had developed a parasocial relationship with this Wem character wether it be feeling like they were friends IRL because they knew so much about them or that they had become attracted to their character. With huge events like this, if we could see every message sent about it from the start, it’s likely that it could be traced back to a handful of individuals who made such an apocalyptic stink about it that a cataclysm is the inevitable outcome.
Not trying to be mean, but “Wem” was the name of the story and actually referred to a character we hadn’t met yet — the character who got ate/the character people flipped out over the death of was a neko/catgirl called Calina, and it’s largely told from the perspective of her devourer Elli. Wem himself isn’t introduced till the very end of the story
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MrMetroid - Somewhat familiar
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Re: Less and less Felarya stories/writers
MrMetroid wrote:TootLunch wrote: From what I can gather this may have played a major role in causing such a huge backlash, my guess is that a select few people had developed a parasocial relationship with this Wem character wether it be feeling like they were friends IRL because they knew so much about them or that they had become attracted to their character. With huge events like this, if we could see every message sent about it from the start, it’s likely that it could be traced back to a handful of individuals who made such an apocalyptic stink about it that a cataclysm is the inevitable outcome.
Not trying to be mean, but “Wem” was the name of the story and actually referred to a character we hadn’t met yet — the character who got ate/the character people flipped out over the death of was a neko/catgirl called Calina, and it’s largely told from the perspective of her devourer Elli. Wem himself isn’t introduced till the very end of the story
Edited the name to be correct, I tried to follow this thread and piece things together and it just seemed like people were referring to Wem as the character in question. It works though because Calina-pocalypse works way better than Wem-pocalypse.
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TootLunch - Been posting for a bit
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Re: Less and less Felarya stories/writers
TootLunch wrote:Edited the name to be correct, I tried to follow this thread and piece things together and it just seemed like people were referring to Wem as the character in question. It works though because Calina-pocalypse works way better than Wem-pocalypse.
Again, not trying to be mean, dude... but that sounds like you're saying you didn't read the story yourself before you jumped into talking about it and the whole minefield it caused. IMHO, that's like talking about Iron Man without knowing who Tony Stark is or why he created the suit - it's hard to argue you've got an effective point if you didn't even read on what you're talking about first.
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MrMetroid - Somewhat familiar
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Re: Less and less Felarya stories/writers
MrMetroid wrote:TootLunch wrote:Edited the name to be correct, I tried to follow this thread and piece things together and it just seemed like people were referring to Wem as the character in question. It works though because Calina-pocalypse works way better than Wem-pocalypse.
Again, not trying to be mean, dude... but that sounds like you're saying you didn't read the story yourself before you jumped into talking about it and the whole minefield it caused. IMHO, that's like talking about Iron Man without knowing who Tony Stark is or why he created the suit - it's hard to argue you've got an effective point if you didn't even read on what you're talking about first.
Not a dude.
I didn’t make any claims about the specific story or even Felarya, only my thoughts on the events in the community surrounding it based on what has been said in this thread. You’re welcome address specific points of my post if you wish to but it’s kinda obvious that you don’t care about anything I said and are only interested in shutting me down. So if you think I’m not qualified to speak on the matter, even as a possible outside perspective, then you’ve made your point and there’s no reason to respond further. If nobody engages with my message then I have no reason to say anymore on subject and this thread can go back to being quiet.
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TootLunch - Been posting for a bit
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Re: Less and less Felarya stories/writers
TootLunch wrote:Not a dude.
I'll be honest; I didn't think anyone still considered that a gender-spicific term anymore Heck, I've got female coworkers who call each-other "dude" without issue - just figured in this day and age that nobody really sweat that sorta stuff anymore.
TootLunch wrote:I didn’t make any claims about the specific story or even Felarya, only my thoughts on the events in the community surrounding it based on what has been said in this thread
Those are kinda one and the same, though; you can't really talk about the events in the community without talking about Felarya and the story since, well, those are the whole reasons why that happened - that's like talking about car having engine trouble and not talking about the engine. IMHO, how much of the response was unfair or toxic and how much wasn't would kinda have to depend on what it was in response to.
TootLunch wrote:You’re welcome address specific points of my post if you wish to
But that right there's half the problem; it doesn't feel like you really connected any of those points to spicific parts of the story - you didn't actually establish any cause-and-effect to justify the "parasocial relationships" points like, say, arguing the manner of how Calina's death was portrayed or how her death was or was not treated by the narrative in relation to how people responded. If you didn't read something - if you don't have that context about what happened and how to view the response in - than it just seems like it'd naturally be more difficult to make an effective point to others.
When you make sweeping arguments like that but don't make a case for exact causation, it can come across like it's taking from a very disconnected perspective - like you see fit to talk about what people felt and why, but don't see fit to actually see what they saw before judging for it (and this is coming from someone who *does* actually hold the blame to a select few over-reacting in a toxic way).
TootLunch wrote:but it’s kinda obvious that you don’t care about anything I said and are only interested in shutting me down.
Nope; it's just a friendly "check yourself", nothing more and nothing less - or at least it wasn't meant to be anything more or less - and I wouldn't have responded at all if I did't care about what you'd said. Personal experience simply taught me first-hand that people can be less receptive of your observations if you, well, haven't actually observed the subject you're talking about (like, say, talking about flaws and strengths for The Lord of the Rings when your only source of info was the wikipedia page on the series - an old shame from my younger days that I will never live down ).
My commenting on it was basically just advising to actually see the material you're talking about so that you have a full context - even just on premise of making sure there's nothing in it that would make you reconsider your views after you already said them (cause trust me; nothing sucks worse than to say something and then have your view change after you actually look at the thing you talked about - or when you can't adequately respond to someone's rebukes 'cause you didn't watch or read the stuff they're getting full quotes or explicit notes from).
Long story short; it was just a suggestion that talking about something might be better serviced by reading it beforehand, especially since your post already started off with an inaccuracy as big as who's death caused the backlash. At the very least, I certainly wasn't expecting you to take such offense to it - much less misinterpret it as being an outright attack.
TootLunch wrote:So if you think I’m not qualified to speak on the matter, even as a possible outside perspective, then you’ve made your point and there’s no reason to respond further. If nobody engages with my message then I have no reason to say anymore on subject and this thread can go back to being quiet.
Nobody called you unqualified, though - heck, you were the one just talking about how people shouldn't let themselves get carried away; it was just saying that it can only help the effectiveness of an observation if you actually read the material before you talk about it. It was meant to be some advice from someone who's been there and got burned for it themselves - it wasn't meant to be a diss, and I'm sorry if that's the way you took it.
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MrMetroid - Somewhat familiar
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Re: Less and less Felarya stories/writers
Link me the story and I’ll read it then and see if it changes anything.
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TootLunch - Been posting for a bit
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Re: Less and less Felarya stories/writers
TootLunch wrote:Link me the story and I’ll read it then and see if it changes anything.
This is the story FrenchSnack wrote; https://aryion.com/g4/view/299360
On the page itself, there's also a link to what I think is his deviantart journal detailing how things led to his taking it down/removing it from his series' canon.
Like I said, though; it's not that I'm trying to change your opinion. Heck, like I said before, I actually agree with the idea that people took Calina's death too seriously or personally - I just think it can only ever help to see the source of the hubbub first hand.
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MrMetroid - Somewhat familiar
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Re: Less and less Felarya stories/writers
Read the story, seems like the kind of thing that would happen in Felarya to me but the opinions there are obviously mixed. I don’t quite understand the people who think Felarya is supposed to be some fun lighthearted setting when reading the wiki there’s basically no way to be safe or die in a non-horrific manner without being an apex predator but without reading the rest of the cannon to analyze the overall tone it will just stay my assumption on the matter. I appreciate the link, I’ve now read the story and I feel like my initial reaction has been confirmed based on the journal comments and your own admission of being one of the few who helped fuel the toxic backlash.
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TootLunch - Been posting for a bit
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Re: Less and less Felarya stories/writers
TootLunch wrote:I appreciate the link, I’ve now read the story and I feel like my initial reaction has been confirmed based on the journal comments
No problem.
TootLunch wrote:and your own admission of being one of the few who helped fuel the toxic backlash.
I wasn't ever a member of the community, much less fueling the backlash. plus, i actually didn't get the hate for the story and disliked the toxic backlash (I've said as much to EnderDracolic in this thread - heck, i think i said that in my last comment). what i said was that i'd been guilty of talking without knowing what i was talking about before when i was younger (about The Lord of the Rings).
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MrMetroid - Somewhat familiar
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Re: Less and less Felarya stories/writers
MrMetroid wrote:TootLunch wrote:I appreciate the link, I’ve now read the story and I feel like my initial reaction has been confirmed based on the journal comments
No problem.TootLunch wrote:and your own admission of being one of the few who helped fuel the toxic backlash.
I wasn't ever a member of the community, much less fueling the backlash. plus, i actually didn't get the hate for the story and disliked the toxic backlash (I've said as much to EnderDracolic in this thread - heck, i think i said that in my last comment). what i said was that i'd been guilty of talking without knowing what i was talking about before when i was younger (about The Lord of the Rings).
My mistake, when you said “ (and this is coming from someone who *does* actually hold the blame to a select few over-reacting in a toxic way).” I thought it was in reference to the Calina drama.
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TootLunch - Been posting for a bit
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Re: Less and less Felarya stories/writers
TootLunch wrote:My mistake, when you said “ (and this is coming from someone who *does* actually hold the blame to a select few over-reacting in a toxic way).” I thought it was in reference to the Calina drama.
Well, "hold the blame to a select few" just means "I have a spicific group in mind that I consider most culpable" - and I still do feel that way.
Actually, to be honest, seeing people smear and attack FrenchSnack like that was one of the reasons (if not THE reason) I never joined the Felarya community myself. As others mentioned earlier, it wasn't the first time a schism happened - A few posts back you might see someone mention the way the community tends to have two distinct sides (a pro-worldbuilding side that wants more serious consequence-heavy stories, and a pro-fetish side that wants more lighthearted soft-core stuff). The way I see it, both sides suffered from the very kind of thing you talked about regarding personal investment - that a key few got too attached to what they personally wanted Felarya to be (be it their own fun little backyard playground or a story they wanted to build a serious ambitious narrative out of) and it swept up everyone else as it snowballed from there, even in cases where they likely never intended their actions to have such apocalyptic consequences (Cuddlekins talks about this earlier in the thread, I think, in how a group of writers who'd made an open letter to Karbo pushing for revisions in places hadn't intended it to become what looked to be a literary cold war).
For me, the worldbuilding side first suffered this when a number of them pushed for more change (like a "smarter society" that would start getting the upper hand on preds) and left 'cause of the constant headbutting getting nowhere - then the fetish side suffered it when the "Wem" story came out and made people feel like Felarya just wasn't fun to be in anymore. And while the community still exists, it doesn't seem as big or as active as it used to be and a lot of it looks like "new blood" with much of the old guard looking either gone or defunct.
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MrMetroid - Somewhat familiar
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Re: Less and less Felarya stories/writers
I'm currently in the semester break and have a surprising amount of time because I only have to study for a few exams. I am a very creative mind myself and I also like to write, but unfortunately I have no idea about the tools that are used to program the stories that I then write, for example, in the sense of text adventures.
I already wrote a prolog for a story and would like to share it here for free, maybe that picks up your interest for more to come:
I don't know the Felarya stories fully either, but I'm really excited about what I've read and the project on the Vore Game Forums and would love to contribute content in the form of text, but I have no idea about programming (or rather just java -programs from the school) or which tools are used for this here.
There is probably a forum for this which I haven't found yet, it would be cool if someone could help me with that
LG Klyen2000
I already wrote a prolog for a story and would like to share it here for free, maybe that picks up your interest for more to come:
Spoiler: show
I don't know the Felarya stories fully either, but I'm really excited about what I've read and the project on the Vore Game Forums and would love to contribute content in the form of text, but I have no idea about programming (or rather just java -programs from the school) or which tools are used for this here.
There is probably a forum for this which I haven't found yet, it would be cool if someone could help me with that
LG Klyen2000
- Klyen2000
- Been posting for a bit
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Re: Less and less Felarya stories/writers
Cuddlekins wrote:Oh God, someone brought that old shit up again.
Without revealing my identity (not that it'd be particularly hard to figure out who I was in that community :V), I was in the middle of that whole thing—had my name on the letter and everything—and I didn't think that I'd ever see it brought back up, lol. At the time, it seemed to clear what we were doing, but time and distance have left me wondering just... what was even the point? What did we even want to accomplish? We were young, invested in the community, and I guess we had a certain idea of how things oughta be, and things kinda got out of hand from there. If I could go back and give myself advice, would tell myself not to take it so seriously and live and let live and all that. It was a silly little fetish community and if we didn't like the way it was going, we could've just gone and done our own thing—which a few of us ended up doing anyway.
But yeah, FS def has the right of it. Some harsh words were exchanged, but in hindsight I don't think it's fair to call them out for getting defensive. We've all moved on and it's better all of that nonsense stays in the past where it belongs. Felarya was always Karbo's thing and shame on us for overstepping :c
Man, you hit the nail on the head. But for me, it was a matter of respect and people not taking inspiration from my ideas without acknowledging me and undermining what I was doing in the process. The day that finally broke me is when Karbo uploaded a picture of a harpy with a headband and a hairstyle just like my OC Helia. I felt like the rug was pulled out from under me. While a person has to be credited for ideas, they apparently don't have to be credited when someone clearly takes inspiration from their ideas, leaving them holding an idea that will now never be canon in the way they envisioned. And I never asked for my ideas to be removed from the wiki (which ended up happening). I rage quit in 2013 and deactivated my DA account, losing a lot of work that I had put into Felarya. But like you said, shame on me for not understanding from the start that we were merely providing ideas, not collaborating.
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HeavenlessStar - New to the forum
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Re: Less and less Felarya stories/writers
Dang, it’s been quite a long time since I’ve actually made any post on the Eka’s forums; last one was probably in the Vore Game category. I felt I should make a post here because it is an important topic to me and I have written a number of (never published anywhere) stories myself. I apologize for the wall of text, but I have a bit to get off my chest regarding this matter.
Felarya has a very special place in my heart because it was what introduced me to giantess vore and was the first vore community I had ever heard of. When I first started realizing I had this fetish (vore broadly) and I found out what it was called, I was only into large animals eating people, like in MercilessNature’s old early 2010s animations on YT. When I discovered Karbo’s work it instantly clicked with me.
After looking through his entire DA gallery and wanting more, I looked at the wiki and read every single entry, eagerly searching for more information. I found it utterly fascinating. Like, there’s pages and pages of unique plant and animal life with enough detail and description for people to use them in their stories. I immediately fell wholly in love with the world and started writing my own stories, not really thinking of ever uploading them anywhere for the most part. I believe this would have been around 2015, early 2016. Karbo made that fun little joke piece called “Menyssan For President” and I took the concept and wrote a very very long story based on it. My ASD hyperfixation had found its target for the time, and I thought of little else. The story was not well written or well thought out, took significant liberties with the personalities and behaviors of Karbo’s characters and the physics and principles of the world (eg Anna using her electric powers to zap open a portal/rift to wherever specifically she wanted on a specific other world), and was poorly organized, with new ideas being added to the future plot so often that after writing probably almost a hundred pages worth I had covered less than a third of what I wanted to include. I eventually gave up as I realized I would never finish it and it was not anything close to good enough quality to ever share anywhere with anyone.
I was a huge fan of the Felarya Park concept and particularly Timing2s entries with the orchid mantoid girl. I quite enjoyed DaiYoukai-Sama’s work as well, especially My Wife is a Fairy. By around 2017 however, I began to notice that there was less and less Felarya content coming out, on DA or on Eka’s. The forum is largely dead. The wiki has not been meaningfully updated in years. The felarya tag here on Eka’s is sparsely used on new work. Most artists who are or were involved in the community don’t upload very often, and most of it isn’t Felarya related.
With the exception of a select few authors such as FrenchSnack, and a handful of artists like Vaderaz, the world of Felarya and its characters seem to be in limbo. Even looking at this whole “Karbo’s City” section of the forum, of 53 threads 38 of them haven’t had a reply within the past decade. Only a total of 6 were replied to within the past 5 years and only 2 were made in that time. Even during 2020 when half the developed world was on lockdown there was no real resurgence of interest, at least not one that precipitated community engagement. Karbo’s Eka’s gallery has 15 uploads within the past year. Not bad! But his patreon has nearly 100 posts, most images, within the past 365 days. Of them, about 37 are individual unique works rather than WIPs or variations. Most of these are Felarya pieces and all or almost all of the reward sketch sets include at least one related request. I think it’s clear that Karbo himself still cares for the world he started and the characters he made. The few remaining content creators that still make Felarya content like FrenchSnack or Prinny clearly still care enough at least about their own OCs within the world to share their related work online. It is my belief that interest in the concept still exists and there are likely many creators who left after the Wem debacle or just petered out and stopped making things over time who still appreciate the concept of Felarya and what the community once was.
The question is, how to rekindle the interest? How can those of us who still care enough to keep appraised of updates and fondly remember the days of massive community collaboration create in others that same sense of wonder and excitement that I felt when I first started reading through the wiki? Felarya isn’t dead, but sometimes it feels like it’s in a coma and on life support in the form of its loving parents (Karbo) and close friends (the handful of remaining creators). I’m sure there are a lot of talented up-and-coming or just-starting-to-create GTS vore authors and artists who would find the setting right up their alley but simply haven’t heard of it. We may never get some of the old writers back. Daiyoukaisama may be gone from the community forever, but “Anko’s Secret” and “My Wife is a Fairy” can continue to inspire new works or get newcomers interested in Felarya. There must be some way to restart the passion, lure back some of the old greats, and bring in new ideas and creators. The major issues brought up in that one google drive letter to Karbo, namely quality control and better coordination between DA, the Wiki, and the Forums, as well as serious community issues mentioned here in this thread like the rift between the “Felarya is about fantasy worldbuilding in a vore oriented setting” and the “Felarya is about vore in a unique setting” factions, will still need to be addressed in one way or another. We can discuss how FrenchSnack killing off a beloved character in a story that felt out of place was in hindsight a mistake or how artists require criticism in order to improve effectively all day long but assigning blame and pointing out what went wrong won’t help the situation unless we use those lessons to get back on our feet with a more stable foundation.
The crumbling of this unique and special community was a tragedy, but it doesn’t have to be the thing that essentially ended all potential for this concept. I’m tired of wondering if Felarya will ever be restored to its former creative and engaging glory.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
I apologize for the novel, but as mentioned in the first paragraph I really felt the need to get this off my chest after reading through this thread. If anyone has thoughts on how the community could rebuild, please share.
TL;DR: Felarya has a lot of emotional importance to me as it got me into the vore community and into writing, and it filled me with wonder. It is sad that the community has fallen apart so much and it’s very much barely alive. But interest still exists and enough people still care about it that it’s possible to resurrect it by rekindling the sense of wonder and excitement it brought when it was brand new.
Felarya has a very special place in my heart because it was what introduced me to giantess vore and was the first vore community I had ever heard of. When I first started realizing I had this fetish (vore broadly) and I found out what it was called, I was only into large animals eating people, like in MercilessNature’s old early 2010s animations on YT. When I discovered Karbo’s work it instantly clicked with me.
After looking through his entire DA gallery and wanting more, I looked at the wiki and read every single entry, eagerly searching for more information. I found it utterly fascinating. Like, there’s pages and pages of unique plant and animal life with enough detail and description for people to use them in their stories. I immediately fell wholly in love with the world and started writing my own stories, not really thinking of ever uploading them anywhere for the most part. I believe this would have been around 2015, early 2016. Karbo made that fun little joke piece called “Menyssan For President” and I took the concept and wrote a very very long story based on it. My ASD hyperfixation had found its target for the time, and I thought of little else. The story was not well written or well thought out, took significant liberties with the personalities and behaviors of Karbo’s characters and the physics and principles of the world (eg Anna using her electric powers to zap open a portal/rift to wherever specifically she wanted on a specific other world), and was poorly organized, with new ideas being added to the future plot so often that after writing probably almost a hundred pages worth I had covered less than a third of what I wanted to include. I eventually gave up as I realized I would never finish it and it was not anything close to good enough quality to ever share anywhere with anyone.
I was a huge fan of the Felarya Park concept and particularly Timing2s entries with the orchid mantoid girl. I quite enjoyed DaiYoukai-Sama’s work as well, especially My Wife is a Fairy. By around 2017 however, I began to notice that there was less and less Felarya content coming out, on DA or on Eka’s. The forum is largely dead. The wiki has not been meaningfully updated in years. The felarya tag here on Eka’s is sparsely used on new work. Most artists who are or were involved in the community don’t upload very often, and most of it isn’t Felarya related.
With the exception of a select few authors such as FrenchSnack, and a handful of artists like Vaderaz, the world of Felarya and its characters seem to be in limbo. Even looking at this whole “Karbo’s City” section of the forum, of 53 threads 38 of them haven’t had a reply within the past decade. Only a total of 6 were replied to within the past 5 years and only 2 were made in that time. Even during 2020 when half the developed world was on lockdown there was no real resurgence of interest, at least not one that precipitated community engagement. Karbo’s Eka’s gallery has 15 uploads within the past year. Not bad! But his patreon has nearly 100 posts, most images, within the past 365 days. Of them, about 37 are individual unique works rather than WIPs or variations. Most of these are Felarya pieces and all or almost all of the reward sketch sets include at least one related request. I think it’s clear that Karbo himself still cares for the world he started and the characters he made. The few remaining content creators that still make Felarya content like FrenchSnack or Prinny clearly still care enough at least about their own OCs within the world to share their related work online. It is my belief that interest in the concept still exists and there are likely many creators who left after the Wem debacle or just petered out and stopped making things over time who still appreciate the concept of Felarya and what the community once was.
The question is, how to rekindle the interest? How can those of us who still care enough to keep appraised of updates and fondly remember the days of massive community collaboration create in others that same sense of wonder and excitement that I felt when I first started reading through the wiki? Felarya isn’t dead, but sometimes it feels like it’s in a coma and on life support in the form of its loving parents (Karbo) and close friends (the handful of remaining creators). I’m sure there are a lot of talented up-and-coming or just-starting-to-create GTS vore authors and artists who would find the setting right up their alley but simply haven’t heard of it. We may never get some of the old writers back. Daiyoukaisama may be gone from the community forever, but “Anko’s Secret” and “My Wife is a Fairy” can continue to inspire new works or get newcomers interested in Felarya. There must be some way to restart the passion, lure back some of the old greats, and bring in new ideas and creators. The major issues brought up in that one google drive letter to Karbo, namely quality control and better coordination between DA, the Wiki, and the Forums, as well as serious community issues mentioned here in this thread like the rift between the “Felarya is about fantasy worldbuilding in a vore oriented setting” and the “Felarya is about vore in a unique setting” factions, will still need to be addressed in one way or another. We can discuss how FrenchSnack killing off a beloved character in a story that felt out of place was in hindsight a mistake or how artists require criticism in order to improve effectively all day long but assigning blame and pointing out what went wrong won’t help the situation unless we use those lessons to get back on our feet with a more stable foundation.
The crumbling of this unique and special community was a tragedy, but it doesn’t have to be the thing that essentially ended all potential for this concept. I’m tired of wondering if Felarya will ever be restored to its former creative and engaging glory.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
I apologize for the novel, but as mentioned in the first paragraph I really felt the need to get this off my chest after reading through this thread. If anyone has thoughts on how the community could rebuild, please share.
TL;DR: Felarya has a lot of emotional importance to me as it got me into the vore community and into writing, and it filled me with wonder. It is sad that the community has fallen apart so much and it’s very much barely alive. But interest still exists and enough people still care about it that it’s possible to resurrect it by rekindling the sense of wonder and excitement it brought when it was brand new.
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Jaybeezy - Been posting for a bit
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- Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2016 2:53 pm
64 posts
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