The End of an Era for Furaffinity
August 7, 2024 9:36 AM Subscribe
The owner of Furaffinity for most of its existence, the central hub for the Furry community, Dragoneer, has passed away. He has passed at 44 after struggling with an unknown unusual lung condition, possibly caused by A recalled CPAP machine known to cause deaths. He documented his months-long struggle to get medical treatment, Highlighting the financial burden and difficulty of coverage.
“ In regards to Fur Affinity:
- The existing staff and director team remains in place.
- There are some unknowns that will need to be worked out, but in the near term nothing regarding the website is changing.
- We are trying to remove Fender's global footer from the announcement journal, but our access is limited for some hours.
- This is not the time nor occasion to debate the healthcare system. Please be respectful.”
- moderator post on the Discord
posted by egypturnash at 9:44 AM on August 7 [4 favorites]
- The existing staff and director team remains in place.
- There are some unknowns that will need to be worked out, but in the near term nothing regarding the website is changing.
- We are trying to remove Fender's global footer from the announcement journal, but our access is limited for some hours.
- This is not the time nor occasion to debate the healthcare system. Please be respectful.”
- moderator post on the Discord
posted by egypturnash at 9:44 AM on August 7 [4 favorites]
Did he not have health insurance through his job?...And of not, why not...
posted by Czjewel at 9:48 AM on August 7
posted by Czjewel at 9:48 AM on August 7
humbug, that ProPublica expose is horrifying!
I am sorry for the furry community's loss, and I am so sorry for his family as the amount of money he was being charged for care is obscene.
posted by Kitteh at 9:50 AM on August 7 [2 favorites]
I am sorry for the furry community's loss, and I am so sorry for his family as the amount of money he was being charged for care is obscene.
posted by Kitteh at 9:50 AM on August 7 [2 favorites]
Memorial/discussion thread on /r/furry.
Worth pointing out that this literally just happened. As in, 17 hours ago Dragoneer was posting on his bluesky.
A real blow to the FA community.
posted by fight or flight at 9:51 AM on August 7 [2 favorites]
Worth pointing out that this literally just happened. As in, 17 hours ago Dragoneer was posting on his bluesky.
A real blow to the FA community.
posted by fight or flight at 9:51 AM on August 7 [2 favorites]
Did he not have health insurance through his job?...And of not, why not...
Running FA was his full time job
posted by wafehling at 9:51 AM on August 7 [4 favorites]
Running FA was his full time job
posted by wafehling at 9:51 AM on August 7 [4 favorites]
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posted by lalochezia at 9:56 AM on August 7
posted by lalochezia at 9:56 AM on August 7
I’m not into furry things, and, on some level, I don’t get it, but I have a lot of respect for the furry community. Despite the shit they get, they seem (mostly; they are people, after all) upbeat and positive, and they’ve been pretty successful at driving Nazis out and keeping them out and doing fundraising for good causes and basically being good citizens. So, I regret any blow or loss to the furry community, and this one seems especially cruel and avoidable — less capitalism, more fursuits!
posted by GenjiandProust at 10:02 AM on August 7 [14 favorites]
posted by GenjiandProust at 10:02 AM on August 7 [14 favorites]
Sympathies for your loss; it is always hard when this happens to community pillars like this who give of themselves selflessly.
posted by corb at 10:03 AM on August 7 [9 favorites]
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posted by May Kasahara at 10:17 AM on August 7
posted by May Kasahara at 10:17 AM on August 7
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posted by Going To Maine at 10:19 AM on August 7
posted by Going To Maine at 10:19 AM on August 7
Did he not have health insurance through his job?...And of not, why not...
I cannot think of a more American question.
posted by Nelson at 10:40 AM on August 7 [27 favorites]
I cannot think of a more American question.
posted by Nelson at 10:40 AM on August 7 [27 favorites]
/health insurance derail
I didn't have health insurance at ANY job until I was 27. No one offered it and no one was offering it to retail employees in the early 00s (at least not in Atlanta). And when I did get health insurance, it wasn't the best but it was something. So to me, having health insurance in the US is not a given.
/end of derail
posted by Kitteh at 10:43 AM on August 7 [11 favorites]
I didn't have health insurance at ANY job until I was 27. No one offered it and no one was offering it to retail employees in the early 00s (at least not in Atlanta). And when I did get health insurance, it wasn't the best but it was something. So to me, having health insurance in the US is not a given.
/end of derail
posted by Kitteh at 10:43 AM on August 7 [11 favorites]
Fur Affinity is a high-output user generated content community with better than typical community organization. It is not owned by a corporation, and people who do FA tend to be supporters of good values and interesting subculture/counterculture activist issues.
I am sorry for the loss of their advocate and I wish the best for turnover of whatever governance keeps the community going. I used to feel like the Internet had countless specialized community organizations but now I feel like whenever one disbands, then there will be no replacement. It is really special to have online meeting spaces that are not run by large corporations and this is one that works.
posted by bluerasberry at 10:49 AM on August 7 [5 favorites]
I am sorry for the loss of their advocate and I wish the best for turnover of whatever governance keeps the community going. I used to feel like the Internet had countless specialized community organizations but now I feel like whenever one disbands, then there will be no replacement. It is really special to have online meeting spaces that are not run by large corporations and this is one that works.
posted by bluerasberry at 10:49 AM on August 7 [5 favorites]
Those screenshots in the last link of the post ... Jesus. What a horrific, incomprehensible tragedy.
posted by penduluum at 11:17 AM on August 7 [4 favorites]
posted by penduluum at 11:17 AM on August 7 [4 favorites]
I had that Philips CPAP machine that got recalled. Philips did jack diddly squat to make up for the defective machine they peddled. I got nothing back from Philips & my insurance company just found it easier to get me a new machine from a different company. Philips has acted with such impunity here that I think some executives of that company should get thrown in jail.
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posted by jonp72 at 11:44 AM on August 7 [17 favorites]
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posted by jonp72 at 11:44 AM on August 7 [17 favorites]
An appropriate quote for insurance companies and Phillips from Pratchett:
"Your Actions Have Taken Money From Those Who had Little Enough To Begin With. In A Myriad Of Small Ways You Have Hastened The Deaths Of Many. You Do Not Know Them. You Did Not See Them Bleed. But You Snatched Bread From Their Mouths And Tore Clothes From Their Backs. For Sport, Mr. Lipvig. For Sport. For The Love Of The Game." - the Golem, Going Postal
posted by Slackermagee at 12:29 PM on August 7 [12 favorites]
"Your Actions Have Taken Money From Those Who had Little Enough To Begin With. In A Myriad Of Small Ways You Have Hastened The Deaths Of Many. You Do Not Know Them. You Did Not See Them Bleed. But You Snatched Bread From Their Mouths And Tore Clothes From Their Backs. For Sport, Mr. Lipvig. For Sport. For The Love Of The Game." - the Golem, Going Postal
posted by Slackermagee at 12:29 PM on August 7 [12 favorites]
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posted by Lawn Beaver at 1:17 PM on August 7
posted by Lawn Beaver at 1:17 PM on August 7
I would pay so much for a complete archive of that magazine.
Good news, everyone!
posted by Gorgik at 3:15 PM on August 7
Good news, everyone!
posted by Gorgik at 3:15 PM on August 7
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We've lost someone who made his corner of the Internet and - by extension - the much-beloved non-FAANG-driven Weird Internet a better place.
posted by rmd1023 at 5:03 PM on August 7
We've lost someone who made his corner of the Internet and - by extension - the much-beloved non-FAANG-driven Weird Internet a better place.
posted by rmd1023 at 5:03 PM on August 7
♾️
I am unexpectedly heartbroken over this. I am merely furry adjacent but shit, I feel like FA is on par with Mefi in terms of user based community driven non-corporate internet, like on the tier list in my head. What a tragedy.
posted by Mizu at 6:35 PM on August 7 [4 favorites]
I am unexpectedly heartbroken over this. I am merely furry adjacent but shit, I feel like FA is on par with Mefi in terms of user based community driven non-corporate internet, like on the tier list in my head. What a tragedy.
posted by Mizu at 6:35 PM on August 7 [4 favorites]
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posted by tranquility at 6:45 PM on August 7
posted by tranquility at 6:45 PM on August 7
.
On FA, there is a feature that allows them to memorialize a profile for accounts belonging to the deceased, marking them with an infinity symbol (∞). Never in a million years did I ever imagine Dragoneer would end up with one on his own profile. The furry community owes so much to him.
posted by Aleyn at 7:28 PM on August 7 [3 favorites]
On FA, there is a feature that allows them to memorialize a profile for accounts belonging to the deceased, marking them with an infinity symbol (∞). Never in a million years did I ever imagine Dragoneer would end up with one on his own profile. The furry community owes so much to him.
posted by Aleyn at 7:28 PM on August 7 [3 favorites]
♾️
Gods, what an awful thing; if there were any justice in the world, or in the USA, he'd still be with us. The impact that he had in the furry community is significant, undeniable, and enduring. I can't say I thought he was always on the side of the saints in discourse that swirled around FA, but I think he left the world better than he found it; may his memory be for a blessing.
posted by hackwolf at 9:11 PM on August 7 [1 favorite]
Gods, what an awful thing; if there were any justice in the world, or in the USA, he'd still be with us. The impact that he had in the furry community is significant, undeniable, and enduring. I can't say I thought he was always on the side of the saints in discourse that swirled around FA, but I think he left the world better than he found it; may his memory be for a blessing.
posted by hackwolf at 9:11 PM on August 7 [1 favorite]
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posted by spinifex23 at 9:38 AM on August 8
posted by spinifex23 at 9:38 AM on August 8
Did he not have health insurance through his job?
Tell me you truly do not understand American health care without telling me you truly do not understand American health care. Tl;dr: it DOES NOT MATTER if you have health insurance, what matter is WHAT KIND of insurance you have and even then it might not matter.
.
posted by cooker girl at 9:58 AM on August 8 [3 favorites]
Tell me you truly do not understand American health care without telling me you truly do not understand American health care. Tl;dr: it DOES NOT MATTER if you have health insurance, what matter is WHAT KIND of insurance you have and even then it might not matter.
.
posted by cooker girl at 9:58 AM on August 8 [3 favorites]
∞
I never knew Dragoneer in person, and we exchanged maybe two online messages over boring administrivia, but I'm surprised how intensely I feel this loss.
My life -- and the lives of just a whole bunch of people I care about -- are objectively better in a lot of ways because of him.
(I'm also ten years older than Dragoneer, and a former user of the recalled model of Philips Respironics "Dreamstation" CPAP machine mentioned upthread. So that's super fun to think about.)
posted by sourcequench at 11:27 AM on August 8 [2 favorites]
I never knew Dragoneer in person, and we exchanged maybe two online messages over boring administrivia, but I'm surprised how intensely I feel this loss.
My life -- and the lives of just a whole bunch of people I care about -- are objectively better in a lot of ways because of him.
(I'm also ten years older than Dragoneer, and a former user of the recalled model of Philips Respironics "Dreamstation" CPAP machine mentioned upthread. So that's super fun to think about.)
posted by sourcequench at 11:27 AM on August 8 [2 favorites]
No connection with him whatsoever, but it's so awful to imagine struggling to breathe while panicking over absurd medical bills for an undiagnosed condition. There's no one I'd wish that on. Horrible. Condolences to his family, friends, and community.
(Maybe link to his actual Bluesky, though, rather than screencaps from the other place?)
posted by praemunire at 5:17 PM on August 8
(Maybe link to his actual Bluesky, though, rather than screencaps from the other place?)
posted by praemunire at 5:17 PM on August 8
.
posted by Mutant Lobsters from Riverhead at 5:43 PM on August 9
posted by Mutant Lobsters from Riverhead at 5:43 PM on August 9
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(Also viscerally shuddering because I have a sleep apnea test coming up. For those who want more of the sordid story of Phillips's CPAPs, see the ProPublica exposé.)
posted by humbug at 9:41 AM on August 7 [12 favorites]