BD Forum Shutdown & Follow-Up [debate]

[QUOTE="Packagedgore, post: 11907, member:
There's no more off topic as far I'm aware.[/QUOTE]
Nope, it's still there

 

So it is! I don't know how I managed to find a page that looked like it wasn't. I didn't question it too much since they kept going on about getting rid of it.

 

To be honest, I don't know that the person working with e621 and F-List has much to bring to the table other than experience, in which case, I'm sure there are many other forum members that would have more of it. The two websites he assisted with aren't particularly optimized for users above and beyond BD's forums. Neither are really examples of impressive websites.

 

Idunno, though. I am sure that Dave won't do much because most of the staff around BD are quite lazy with doing anything, honestly. However, I do like the fact that has HAS addressed some of the issues with the off-topic forum--actually, he's addressed most of and quite honestly the biggest problems with the off-topic thread.

Most forums eventually slow down and die out, but BD has been going on a downward spiral for a long time. Lots of people loved the member community there because EVERYONE helped each other out. However lately, there have been a few elitests running around the forum because: "Wow I have the most friend base and more toys and I am more popular and know people." There's been a lot of drama in the off-topic that HASN'T been dealt with because Audax would turn a blind eye to most of it, or just downright ban people for doing something completely ridiculous.

I am not going to name anyone here, but anyone remember a member that called out the staff on the bullshit they were doing and ended up outright BANNED the same day? Yeah, I do too. Anyone recall any members that have gotten away with harassing multiple people in off-topic and other different parts of the forum and getting away with it because Audax just turned a blind eye all the time? I do too.

TL;DR Dave could bring some stuff to the table, as I think he's got quite a bit of experience. I think E621 and F-List are both pretty complicated sites to manage, as they're not your typical forum board. He seems like he's coming from the right place, but I don't know if he can actually do everything he says he will. It would suck if he didn't, because a lot of the stuff he says are gonna be changing are awesome because those problems have scared away numerous people and ruined things. Audax needs to step up her game because she hasn't been doing much AT ALL. I mean, I'm still waiting to hear back on a report (that myself AND a few other members have reported) but ya'know. It's Audax and I don't think she'll be doing much about it. :B If Dave could actually do something, I would praise the high heavens.

EXTRA TL;DR Dave might not be some fancy moderator who can promise everything and do everything he might want to. But at least he knows what's wrong with the boards unlike most of the staff around there??? We actually need an admin/staff/mod/whatever who can recognize right from wrong and do something about it instead of picking favorites and banning people for downright stupid things.


WOW </rant>

 

Somehow, I managed to completely miss all of the drama on the old forums. I still don't know how, given that it was clearly a big deal to a lot of people, but they always seemed great to me. Wrong place wrong time? Who knows. Feel like I can't offer an opinion on things I never saw. Judging by Dave's comments, it sounds like the problems are ongoing, and I STILL haven't seen them. Does anyone know what's going on? Harassment via pms? Disputes over toy purchases?

I was glad to see this thread finally point out something that I always had a hard time putting my finger on: I do not like Duke's character, nor the way Janine is often portrayed in reference to him. I thought I was weird, or repressed, or just had different tastes than most people, but the fact is, if I were to walk into a brick and mortar sex toy store and the person who greeted me had his attitude, it would skeeve me out. He's overbearing and full of himself. He feels like someone who would ogle me, use me, and discard me, all the while bragging about how he gave me "a good time". I understand that everyone has different tastes--this form of assertiveness might be attractive to some, and I don't begrudge anyone that--but it seems an odd choice for a mascot. Many of their other characters strike me as perfectly likable.

 

There was a lot of harassment going on on the old forums. It wasn't very apparent, but it happened in a few places by multiple people. They were rude and very attention seeking. I've even gotten harassed via PMs because of some stupid shit I've pointed out on the forums. None of the cases were solved because the people I always found extremely rude and very arrogant that harassed around the forums were BFFs with the admin. I'm still waiting on a reply from Audax for harassment against myself and a few other members on the forum shutdown announcement thread. I don't hope for anything to happen, though. It has never been solved, and Audax herself once told me: "I can't do anything about your personal dispute with another member." It wasn't a personal dispute? They harassed me and MULTIPLE people on the forums. Nothing happened, though. :c

But yeah, I hate Duke and the whole story behind Janine. Lots of people have expressed problems with the rape story, but Audax flat out ignored the people who said they were very uncomfortable with the stories. It was ridicuous. A lot of the characters with stories on BD make me uncomfortable, as a lot of them have rape or some other creepy shit that squicks me out. But no matter how often people told the staff it was very... Uncomfortable, they didn't listen. They would even lock the threads. I don't remember if they got archived, though. :I

 

I haven't really been around the forums long enough to see anything bad happen really. But having read through part of this thread and just participating here I'll definitely be hanging around here more than there. I don't have any ill will or personal issue with the official forums. I was in the know when they were thinking of shutting the forums down and all I could think is: why? From my knowledge there are now only 2 forums dedicated to furry silicone penises, and at the time they were the only one (I'm probably wrong). I just don't really get what they would gain, other than more money from not having to run a server.

As far as the entire stories I see why people could be offended/upset with them but I haven't read them so I don't really care. Also I have a few toys that have stories but I don't even vaguely pay attention to them. I would just come up with my own stories anyway if I were going to of course.

Also when it comes to the amount of admin abuse I've been reading about that's just ridiculous on their part. I own a TF2 and Mumble server and I never abuse my powers. I will say that there is a difference though between admin abuse and admin aboose. From what I've read none of the stories of incidents were aboose. Now to actually explain aboose, an example of aboose would be changing everyone's profile picture to dickbutt or making the default color scheme of the website pink. Silly stuff that's harmless and fun is aboose. And if your curious, yes, I do commit admin aboose a lot.

When it comes to the new admin guy I don't really have a positive or negative opinion. He was an admin for e621 (not a forum) and F-list (I don't know what that is) so while he has experience and can be trusted with the power (talking from an owner's perspective), I don't really see how he could be anymore useful than making really active members mods. One of the main things that made me want to get active in the forums was that I saw Varka, the admins, and the mods being active in the community which just makes me feel welcomed and like they actually care about their community. But it seems like they decide to only ever post in the news subforum now, which while important isn't really that attractive as someone looking to interact with a caring staff.

I also sort of feel intimidated to make a new thread over there for some weird reason. I think that was more of me expecting no one to participate in the thread than the mods removing it though. But here I feel like I could start a thread asking people to post pictures of their favorite lampshade color and everyone would have something witty and funny to say.

I will still buy toys from them just because from what I've seen the quality is great, I am deadset on some custom colors that I want, and I don't like the look of any other silicone horsecock on the market.

So yeah words words words... I always type way more than I expect. Anyway I'll be way more active over here and I'll save any future pics of my butt for you guys <3

 

It's a (mostly furry) sex rp chatroom site.

 

Still gunna be hanging out around here mostly, simply because the community over on the official BD forums has gotten quite ridiculous and cliquey in my opinion, and that's not really a fun environment.
Everyone here is super chill

 

I haven't been on there enough anymore to see the clique behavior, but I can definitely believe it would happen. Mostly from what I saw the couple times I went there was that people seem to be very yes-men like with any official posts. Just seemed weird and kinda false or desperate.

 

I joined the bd right around that time it all went down. I wanted to get a feel for the company before making any purchases, and that's exactly what I got. So sadly I do not own any Bad Dragon toys, and most likely never will. (Though I guess second hand is still an option). On the plus side, I wouldn't have made my way here without them, though I doubt that matters to anyone besides me XD

 

I think they should have stuck by their decision horrible as it may be, now they just like indecisive people that are bad at PR rather than just the latter. Looks worse.

 

http://cannedcowboy.tumblr.com/post/100369483616/finally-opening-up-about-my-time-with-bad-dragon

Has anyone had the chance to see this post about working under BD? I dunno, it is pretty disheartening to see. I want to like the company still, and I sure as heck did when they first started. But hearing about experiences like this makes it hard for me to enjoy their products or even enjoy the art of their associated artists, such as Narse or etc. It just nags at me, because I know they are/were involved on varying levels.

 

Wow, that's a little damning. The only two points I would urge caution over judging BD on are the possible use of pirated software (it's a crappy thing to do, but it's astonishingly common), and the limitations placed on a new employee (it's unsurprising that a company specializing in furry sex toys is going to be cautious, and we can't know how normal this is or if it's standard procedure for all new employees). I don't suppose there are similar articles out there on Exotic Erotics or Frisky Beast (or other similar companies)? I'm curious if these practices are specific to BD, or if these problems apply to the industry as a whole.

On a slightly different note, I urge people to remember that when you've had a bad experience with any customer service representative, keep in mind how many people they deal with over the course of a single day, and while you may be polite and perfectly reasonable, this representative may have just had to sit through 10 other customers calling them names and demanding stupid things. Not to mention, these people may be bearing the brunt of anti-furry, anti-LGTB, and anti-sex toy verbal attacks. (Like I've said before, I haven't witnessed inappropriate behavior from staff, so I can't defend or attack them; it just makes me cringe to see a service rep criticized without knowing the full context.)

I'm sure the gender-identification issue has been discussed to death (I haven't read through this entire thread), but it's still so weird to see the company spell it out like they did in the transcribed convo in the blog post. I get that there's a gap between "tagging/organizing so that browsing users find what they're looking for" vs. "tagging/organizing to correctly match the posting user's intent"; it's a difficult situation that requires a lot of tact and you're probably never going to find a solution that makes everyone happy...but it's like they aren't even trying. Maybe they just receive so much hate mail no matter what they do that they've given up?! Do other furry or LGTB-inclusive porn companies have this problem, or is BD worse?

 

Yeah, I'm still taking it all of it in with a grain of salt. I personally have never had a bad experience with BD customer service or staff, but for other customers I see how it is not handled superbly to say the least. I totally understand the extreme amount of patience you need in customer service in any company! I do wonder if this type of activity is the norm in our "furry industry." Though, I'd like to think that furry companies are usually better at gender inclusion / LGBT issues than most porn companies.

 

People still use the original forums?

 

Honestly, it just sounds like someone bitching about their job to me and wanting to jump on this "hate on bd" bandwagon. "Oh no, I thought my job was gonna be cool but it actually sucked, I'm so depressed poor me"

What irritates me is a lotta these anti-bd people are basing everything on the word-of-mouth that someone had a bad experience. There are sooo many post I've read "Oh this person had a bad experience that must mean the company is evil. I mean I've always had a good experience but this person's time sucked" Like seriously, you can't form your own opinions by yourself? You have to be a goddamn sheep and follow the flock? And from what I've read a lot of these people with bad experiences are friggen' overreacting to something stupid. I've kept quiet for a long time, but good God people I can only take so much of this bitching. If you're gonna hate on a company, at least do it for the right reasons. Fucking tumblr.
(Note: This isn't directed at you Dizzy, I was just quoting your link.)

And yes, Snow, people still use bd's forums...

 

Awww, we've got our first cool guy.

 

I'm not following your logic mate.
If you're like 99.9% of people, you do a bit of research before buying anything from a company that you'd consider "expensive".
Most people don't want to find out themselves (with their money) that a company is prone to consistently making huge mistakes on custom orders, so of course they're going to go online and check the ratio of satisfied vs unsatisfied customers.

Now me personally, I've never had a problem with BD, but that's because I've only bought their in stock toys. Most of the "oopsies" seem to occur with their customs. All this to say, its not about being sheep or hating on the company, its about using the information you have to decide if you really should drop major dollars with BD or someone else