#dragoneer

[xeansicemane]

I don't know how many of my followers are furries but we just lost one of ours.

He died because the medical industry in the US refused to help. He was murdered in a million little ways, with a million automated systems.

He was on bluesky no more than five hours ago, now he's gone.

Dragoneer ran FurAffinity, which is more or less the furry art site. It looks like its' from the early aughts, has no native pdf support, and has zero discoverability or algorithmic function. It's home to me, it's always been home.

No matter how often I moved or how often my life radically changed, there was FA. I met my husband on the forums. Through the majority of its' life, Dragoneer kept it running. He never sold us out, never tried to keep up with trends. It's a community.

And there is something bitter about losing someone who was key to keeping one of the relics of the internet before corporations took over.

We have our home, but it's lost its' keeper.

Good night, Neer. You kept the lights on.

[destielmemenews]

Dragoneer died of complications from a lung infection. His last social media posts detail a frustrating ordeal with his insurance and have ignited criticisms of the US healthcare system.

source 1

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[datharlequinoni]

RE: Dragoneer situation Fuck the united states healthcare system. Fuck this entire goddamn broken fucking mess. Fuck it in the ass sideways. Holy fucking shit. We just lost Furaffinity's owner because the system is so bloated, so incomprehensibly insufficient, so ass backwards and a financial black hole that it could not help them in time. They died without ever knowing what the hell was killing them, because the system could not do its most basic functions. This happens all the fucking time and it's goddamn barbaric. It's simultaneously dystopian and fucking medieval. They might as well have offered to bloodlet them with leeches for all the fucking good the healthcare system did them. I still cannot process how fucking abysmal this is. How it fails so many people like Dragoneer on a regular basis. How the fuck can anyone be okay with this? How? This is a fucking atrocity. This is fucking criminal. The system is killing the people its supposed to heal.

[palominodragon]

Went to his bluesky account to figure out how the owner of furaffinity died and it is so horrifying how his posts over the last month are just about waiting, waiting, waiting... finally getting a doctor's appointment only to be told he has to wait some more... (plus another insane medical bill) and repeat.

Because I remember how long I had to wait for surgery even after they'd confirmed my cancer diagnosis, wondering why they couldn't just get it done, since, ya know... the whole deal with cancer is that it gets worse the longer you leave it alone...

and just how hard it is to get scheduled to see a doctor in general. My endocrinologist is always fully booked months in advance. It is literally impossible to reschedule with her unless I want to wait two months. I've wondered before why there aren't enough other specialists locally to give her (and her patients) some breathing room.

If the issue is a shortage in medical professionals and it's a big enough issue that people regularly die just while waiting to be treated, then what the heck is being done about that? You'd think with how much money is in the medical industry, that particular problem wouldn't exist.

[snakegirllovehandles]

holy shit. dragoneer passed away.

I won't pretend for a second that FA was anything like an unalloyed good, but it's been a solid foundational furry website for nearly twenty years now. that's important.

rip.

[pupintransit]

ᵃʳᵗ ᵇʸ ˢⁱˡᵛᵉʳᶠᵒˣ⁵²¹³ ᵒⁿ ᵈᵉᵛⁱᵃⁿᵗᵃʳᵗ

Dragoneer is dead and I'm a little fucked up about it.

When I was a kid and thumbing my way through the furry community in the early-mid 2000s, I genuinely thought his fursona was public domain. I'd see it everywhere I went and drawn by so many different people. I suppose that goes to show how important of a figure he was.

We didn't know each other and never interacted personally, and I'm not writing this to be a eulogy. It would be wildly inappropriate to write such a document. What I can write about is that I'm part of the furry community because of FurAffinity. From when I was I kid absent mindedly browsing the site, to being a closeted teenage furry peeking in on it like it was a precious secret, to now as a out and proud queer adult and regular user of the site, it has been my omnipresent connection to the furry community.

I say furry community instead of furry fandom because I think the word fandom undersells what it means to us as a collective. I stopped lurking in the community maybe a year and a half ago, and in that time I have made lord only knows how many genuine friendships in that short span of time. When I had my bottom surgery and was in horrid pain during recovery, my furry friends were my most reliable support network outside of my husband, my doctors and my therapist. Heck, a friendship I've already had for a decade now is becoming stronger in part because we have this community in common.

You don't get this from other "fandoms." Sneakerheads aren't this overwhelming queer, weebs don't have community leaders the same way we do, and Star Wars nerds are more likely to question if you're a "true fan" than they are to celebrate with you. Furries are unique in how they build space for each other, and how they make time to listen to and support each other. I challenge you to find a self-described Jedi forum that treats its members with this level of dignity

Furries spaces are overwhelming kind and patient. Proclaiming yourself to be a proud furry gets you a predictable amount of cringing stares from folks outside of our spaces, but what other language is there is to sum up how we feel about ourselves? I scarcely feel more welcomed and included in this community than I do anywhere else, and for this era of our community we have Dragoneer to thank for giving us perhaps the most recognizable and accessible space for furries to connect with each other that we've ever had.

This community has warmth and kindness and empathy worth celebrating, and in all the words I've used in this mini-essay I still don't think I've properly expressed what it means to me that I've found a home here. Truthfully, I don't know that I can. I'm just happy to have a place here with all of you.

Anyway. Rest in peace Dragoneer. You deserved better than what you got. I hope to see you again in better times.

[handageddon]

Well shit, RIP furaffinity

[melody-of-forest]

Rest in piece Dragoneer

Rest in piece Dragoneer... 

[chaifootsteps]

Did you hear Dragoneer (creator of furaffinity) died?

I did. The guy had a deeply mixed reputation, but no one deserves to be murdered by the US healthcare system the way he was.

[thedenofravenpuff]

Hey there! Dragoneer's passing has left a huge gap in our community, and we're raising funds to support his legacy and help his mom with unexpected expenses. Any donation or share of the link can make a real difference

[eligecos]

A round Dragoneer doin' a little dance.

[harpagornis]

RIP Dragoneer

So the owner of Fur Affinity just passed away. I've heard a lot about this guy, both positive and negative. I myself only interacted with him once, where he helped me with something, so I'm inclined to have a good view of him.

So many important figures in the fandom have passed away, and I linger with sorrow in my heart

[xxmashaalibekxx]

Dragoneer has passed away

Hello everyone. I thought I’d let you all know as he was very beloved here in the furry community in general. We lost someone. Dragoneer, the founder and owner of Fur Affinity, has passed away.

I'm profoundly sad about this news. He was kind, enthusiastic, genuine, respectful to the people around him, and a pillar in the furry community.

Fur Affinity is more than just an art website. At one time, it was the place to be. The place that many of us stumbled across on day, which showed us there's a whole world of people out there just like us, who share our love for everything anthropomorphic. FA is somewhat unique in how it was built around making people's creations easy to host, and easy to find, which made it an excellent platform for not only finding what you wanted to find and launching art careers, but finding meaningful, lasting friendships built on common interest.

FA was how I discovered this fandom, and it kickstarted countless friendships for me, and even my career. More recently, if it wasn't for Dragoneer, I wouldn't have discovered FA, and I therefore would likely never have delved this far into furry culture at all. I wouldn't be me, certainly not as you know me, at the very least. I certainly wouldn't have met all the wonderful people I am privileged to still have in my life today. Usually, friends come and go, but in a fandom like this one, it really feels like friends are for life.

Dragoneer had lived a good life and I’ll miss him a whole lot. Thank you, Dragoneer. I wish I had told you how much you meant the world to the furry fandom before you were gone. Rest in peace.

I’ll still be active, doing art, and posting stuff here and there. I'mma need a good distraction for sure.

[foxwayart]

I never knew Dragoneer. We never interacted at all. But to say that his loss hurts is still an understatement. I might joke about it a lot, but I have some great memories on FA. Met some of my best friends there.

Rest in Peace Dragoneer. And thank you.

[jerk-jock]

with dragoneer passing away it really brings into question whats gonna happen to the site. if there was no one to pass the business onto then more than likely well see a degradation or complete closer soon. the website hosts files as old as its original conception, so if a considerable amount was coming from him I imagine it'll be tough to get whats needed for site fees.

its better for everyone to start archiving their accounts now so they don't lose anything.