How to keep the Fourms active? (Please read)

Okay guys, i'm just going to throw this out there, we really need to get a plan together about how to keep this place active! I've written a very long comment to Karbo about this, and he said he would try to be more active, though I haven't seen it. I've been trying my best to try to come up with discussion ideas, but they never seem to go anywhere.

Also, i'm getting extremely concerned that even in Karbo's eyes, he has kinda given up on Felarya. All his most complex works (and the upcoming comic) are set in Hell. While Hell is a pretty interesting and fun place and gives itself to some cool visuals and fun vore, Felarya is much more than vore. It is a magical place of adventure, suspense, magic, mystery! I get that every time I read through any page on the wiki! That is what draws me to it, I find it so cool. The vore and giantess stuff certainly helps my interest, but the details and world building separates it from other vore worlds out there, that exist for vore and only vore.

*Sighs* I try my best to keep this place going, I really do. I would be very hurt if this place died, both physically and mentally. I know I'm probably the biggest Felarya fan out there, but I just don't know what to do. I just feel that Patreon has done to Karbo what it does to all good artists, makes them hide their best stuff behind paywalls and lets only the Patreons have all the fun and creativity! A year or so ago, Karbo was consistent, he uploaded once every other weekend approximately. Sure it wasn't always Felarya related-and thats fine, artists need diversity after all, but since then, the uploads have been much less frequent and every other work he does is something Purely for Patreon! I just feel that, while they can have some fun fan scenes, that Karbo has lost his originality to it. It feels like the mice are overrunning the cats, so to say. Karbo was always the final word on Felarya cannon, hell, I always get a little chill when he comments on any of my posts. That's how much respect I have for the guy. But lately, I just feel that something went really wrong, like patreon (and a few other things) have just sucked the soul out of him. Instead of joy checking his page, i'm just left with bitter frustration.

I don't know, maybe its because I'm just tired of how Felarya is running now, or maybe because I'd at least like to know how the Tome story ends up (or at least, what happens to Lea). I just really miss Felarya being about Felarya and not Hell. I hope someone here understands that. Hell is fine, yet its being overdone, and honestly, even as someone who likes that kind of place, its getting really boring. After all, i still have questions about the tome story (What happens to Lea? Does Lady Lesonia need to die for the curse to end? What was that strange gadget recovered in the first few pages of the comic, and why is it needed so badly? What is Lady Lesonia's plan? How many ray guns does Anna have? Will Thas survive? Will Fiona eat them?) But I have no questions at all about the vore-only Hell stories, even though A Princesses Duty was one of my all-time favorite vore works. My point is, Felarya had an awesome way to portray it's world, one where everything was in shades of gray, no one was really good or evil, which made it much more realistic than any other Fantasy world modernly (Middle-Earth somewhat being an exception to that). The only other story I've seen like this was the Anime Yugioh 5D's where in there each character has their flaws, and are never truly good or evil, and the characters feel very real. By the end of that, I felt as if the Protaginist Yusei and me were friends in a way, I even cheered and applauded and cried at the ending at how well it was done; and that's what good storytelling is all about! Even years after watching it, I can still recite the overall plot by heart! If you really look at it from the outside, Felarya (the tomes I mean) it follows the story of a serial killer (Crisis) her mentally-unstable friend (Lea) and their mutated friend (Anna), as they are hunted down by a cruel dictator who wants them dead (Lady Lesonia) in a magical world of adventure. And if I had to ever describe what Felarya was like to a non-vore person, that is how I would describe it. It is messed up, it is dark, but that's what makes it great, even without the vore!

Thank you all for reading this. I hope it teaches you all why I love this place, and don't want to see it die. I hope Karbo reads this and takes my message to heart. Please, feel free to leave a well-thought-out comment below if you have questions, and ways to save Felarya!

Thank you,
Tyler

Ive been here for 10 to 12 years now, first only as a spectator, later i made an account here. And while ive seen a ton of "this forum is getting inactive" threads come and go, i agree that this time is particularly bad.

I agree with you  about the Patreon thing. I was concerned about it from the very beginning, and ever since then, it made stuff for non paying people such as me aa LOT worse. I used to be able to comment on WIPs, give advice or just interact in general, but thats now a patreon feature. Alongside everything else that regards person to person interaction. I got a PM in my sent-box that hasnt been even READ in 2 weeks.

If things are to change, Karbo needs to change. Go back to the roots, and finally deliver on his patreon promises of actually spending more time on Felarya thanks to his ridiculously high income (patreon alone earns him 4 times as much as I earn for working at my REAL job, and i get paid in the saame currency in a similarly wealthy country) - and not just do his damn patreon comissions, then disappearing for another month or maybe add another vore/mouth picture that was suggested by the same people over and over.


Before that happens, my motivation to do Felarya stuff on the forum or the art tablet is rather limited, to be honest.

I mostly keep to my own work, but even I have to agree that this lack of activity from Karbo's part has made it hard for me to do anything here, because I know that, no matter how much heart I pour into an idea, it's unlikely he'll even glance at it.  If I can be perfectly blunt, I think we've long since past the point where diplomacy is an option.  I know it's physically impossible to do so, but now is the time where we need to grab him by the collar, get him to sit down, and listen for a change.

Now, I have a message for the man.  Karbo, I don't know when you'll get to read this message since you've inactive for quite some time already.  I warn you that this will be very blunt, but I feel it's for the best that these feelings be shared rather than done through private messaging.


Karbo, you approached me a while back to draw a portrait of one of my characters.  I was thrilled!  I gave you a detailed description and even asked you to take some liberties for some things here and there since I'm not artistically inclined.  That was nearly a year ago.  I haven't gotten a single sketch or word about it since.  I really don't want to be that annoying asshole who bugs you day in and day about until he gets one thing done, but I legit think you completely forgot about it.

I honestly feel insulted!  I would have been okay if you at least gave me a reason as to why it's taking so long, but I didn't even get that.  Is this what I'm really worth in your eyes, Karbo?  I stick with Felarya for all these years, I write stories in the setting you created which has helped me discover an interest in story-telling that I didn't know I had, I update articles in the wiki to give more depths to some location and creatures, and THIS is all I get?  I don't know about you, but I feel like if this scenario happened just a couple of years back, I would have already gotten that portrait.

We've been beating you over the head with the same thing for years, but it bears repeating.  Learn.  To.  Communicate.  This might be news to you, buddy, but we're not psychic.  We can't read your mind.  If there's a reason why you haven't been active in such a while, then you have to say it.  You can't keep quiet and just ignore the issue in the hopes that it will fix itself.  That's not how it works.

Karbo, whether you realize it or not, you are the thing that's keeping this place and setting alive.  We've contributed ideas in the past, sure, but you're the one who liked some of these ideas so much that you decided to add them into your universe.  Seeing this is what spurred us to create and try to expand the lore of Felarya, with varying degrees of results, admittedly.  If you're not showing any interest in the place anymore, then it's only natural that we won't either.

As of late, I get the impression that you're taking us for granted to keep this place and Felarya floating, and that's just wrong, man.  I know you're averse to drama; history has made that one fact abundantly clear.  However, all the drama happened because they all had one thing in common: an honest to goodness love for the setting.  If Cliff, AJ, Jaette and others really didn't give a rat's ass about Felarya, they never would have raised a stink in the first place.  Even me, the #1 problem child, makes a fuss because I care.  But you, Karbo, don't appear to care.  About us, about our contributions, about the forum and setting in general.  Your silence and long absence these past months communicate your true feelings louder and clearer than words ever could.

If you want my honest opinion, Karbo, it's time you pause for a moment and ask yourself if you're truly okay with the way things are now.  Because I sure as shit am not with how sporadic and scattershot your contributions have been around here these past months.  In my honest opinion, it's high time you re-think your hands off approach with the forum, because it can't go on like this anymore.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.  To be frank, I don't expects these words to move you in any significant capacity.  This same conversation happened multiple times in the past and they all failed to resonate with you.  But I try to stay optimistic that maybe, just maybe, when you read this message, you'll at least reflect on your current situation.

I get exhausted from work quite a bit, come home, and then just dont really feel like typing a whole bunch of stuff. I'd rather relax my hands. Still, I love this place, and try to visit every day, or at least every other day. The forum is a big part of the community for me. Of course, when I post something, I don't feel like there are a lot of readers.

I have to agree though, even as a patreon supporter, its killing the forum. If all the people over there knew they could go over to the forum here and contribute? I wonder if the fans who support know that there's even a forum in the first place? Despite that, people just sit and watch to see what you/Karbo will come up with next.

I also miss the tomes. I've been waiting for the next installment for a while, hoping to see it at some point haha.

We need a way to get these isolated communities together.

I don't like putting Karbo in the hot seat, I know he doesn't respond well to pressure, but I think its time to do so. I feel like unless Karbo communicates, he's going to lose the forum entirely, and the world which everybody loves...will just remain stagnant forever. (Nobody posts ideas on patreon they go there to look at pretty pictures)

Now that sounds dramatic, and it is, but I think that is part of the underlying point here. I feel very concerned about Karbo's nature not helping him deal with the problem. As a community though, we all need to understand, this started out as his hobby, and we, the fans have no right to think of ourselves as owning it. We don't have stock in felarya, we simply participate in it because we love it - but that part is something Karbo needs to understand too.

This means Karbo indeed has the right to just abandon the forum completely if his interests no longer hold there. However, I really don't think that's the case here. I will bet 110% that Shady Knight's comment about his lack of ability to communicate clearly to this huge community, and his determination to avoid conflict altogether is what's causing the problem, combined with how much success he's had on patreon. We need to show him we care in a way he can respect, but unfortunately, that's not entirely possible without Karbo being willing to face some of his fears here.

I'd write more, but I feel like I'd be repeating Shady Knight and Amaroq.

PS -

I think if he put more focus on here and not just Patreon, it might help. It would require Karbo communicating with his Pateron fans that he has a large forum that demands his attention too, and they can go there and participate on a deeper level with the community as well. Those on Patreon could come here, find new friends, share their ideas, and learn about other artists and creators. Though, a forum seems boring to a lot of people. People want the instant gratification of Twitter accounts.

As much as I want to say you guys are over reacting and this happens all the time on Forums...You are right this go around, about some things anyway.

Patreon is a wonderful tool but it does make artists ignore the majority of their community, and yet it also allows them to directly hear their words believe it or not! You say no ideas have been pitched there and you are quite wrong. Lots of little ideas and posted on there that slowly eek out into the rest of the community and even better patrons talk amongst themselves in an art thread and Karbo swoops down and gives feedback!

In fact Karbo's response time, particularly if you are on when he uploads a new picture, or three, is almost instantaneous. I usually have to wait no more than a few days at most to hear back from him. Instead the weeks or months I have to wait in the Forum.  Now this being said I actually think the forum churns out more big, earth shaking ideas usually than Patreon. The problem is thus: Hardly anybody knows about their being a forum and when they do? All I hear is 'I don't want to go there cause somebody told me all they do is bicker and never get anything done'. I try to reassure them this ain't true but it does seem to be a recursive loop with us. Like Kelerm? Ideas, ideas, discussion, ideas....... s i l e n c e. For months.

Now if we wabtbthings to change and to bring in more new blood and get our activity up then we need to make changes and Impliement them stat. What kinda changes? Well for one nobody talk about convincing Karbo to give up Patreon. I can think of about 3,000 reasons he isn't going to do that. No you want real change then I think it's finally high time we have more Admins with power to affect changes and canonize stuff!

I know Karbo meant to keep this place pure and controlled with the "One Admin to rule them them all" strategy but lets face it he had to give a position of minor power out before on the DA Group and the Wiki and for a while it actually worked! But most shared universes cannot be managed by two people alone. it takes a team and not just of old guys with nostalgia in their bones but young blood too! So I say we need to make more admins/people with REAL POWAH TO AFFECT WORLDSCAPE WIDE CHANGE But I've been saying this off and on again for a while now. And therein lays another set of problems but lets focus on the last one: Promotion of Felarya and the Forum.

This is oddly easy to solve macroscopically. Let's go by the systems we have to do it. Old goats like me stopping along the metaphorical sidewalk on DA and interviewing candidates to join the forum. Oddly easy to do and yet nobody does it. Second means of free advertising: the DA Journal should always mention the forum in some part, beginning, middle or end words. Just freaking get it on there and tell people in a positive light why it's immportant to support the forum for free by talking. Next distribution of ideas using the DA Journal: again free and easy to do. Open topics like Kelerm and other stalled out WIPs and world building ideas. Will you get dumb, sex driven responses? Yes ofcourse as this world was founded on fetish, but believe it or not there's Youngbloods out there who also like the world building factor too! We need to recruit them.

Thank you for reading my WOT and acting on my words.

The wiki and forum have become stagnant. Nothing happens on the forum, and the wiki only gets minor edits every few months. At this point nothing is being devloped in Felarya. It would be nice to have karbo dedicate some time to development. Let's say he puts in an hour a day, that is alot of work that can be done as forum users can put their minds to work, and admins could fully write out the ideas karbo likes. If nothing changes though, I don't really see Felarya remaining afloat.

jedi-explorer wrote:

In fact Karbo's response time, particularly if you are on when he uploads a new picture, or three, is almost instantaneous. I usually have to wait no more than a few days at most to hear back from him. Instead the weeks or months I have to wait in the Forum.

Patreon favorism at its finest. Its great you can talk to him, because he respects you as a paying customer. How about you use that easy access to actually tell him on patreon that he abandoned his core community for this crap, instead of telling us that theres no problem with communication BEHIND A PAYWALL.

Amaroq wrote:

jedi-explorer wrote:

In fact Karbo's response time, particularly if you are on when he uploads a new picture, or three, is almost instantaneous. I usually have to wait no more than a few days at most to hear back from him. Instead the weeks or months I have to wait in the Forum.

Patreon favorism at its finest. Its great you can talk to him, because he respects you as a paying customer. How about you use that easy access to actually tell him on patreon that he abandoned his core community for this crap, instead of telling us that theres no problem with communication BEHIND A PAYWALL.

I would but I don't believe it. He who sits near the top of the mountain is heard most often but not necessarily clearly. Patreon is the current top of the mountain because Karbo is active on it more often. You could tell him to stop but again it is now his career and a profitable one. Hence why we need more people to affect real changes.

You seem to be working under the delusion that that change will come naturally, when the simple truth of the matter is that we need Karbo to get his ass off of that proverbial mountaintop you're talking about because he is currently the only person who can enact said changes.

Shady Knight wrote:

You seem to be working under the delusion that that change will come naturally, when the simple truth of the matter is that we need Karbo to get his ass off of that proverbial mountaintop you're talking about because he is currently the only person who can enact said changes.

That is the point of making a change to the system. So that we don't have to worry if Karbo becomes inactive.

And we can't make those changes BECAUSE he is currently inactive. What part of that is so hard for you to grasp? If those changes are to happen in the future, first, he needs to start being active here for a little while because, as been said again and again, he is the only admin we have, meaning he's the only person who can nominate and elevate people to admins. Without Karbo, who I repeat, is the ONLY admin we have now, and therefore the ONLY person who can enact those changes, all those changes you wish to do, jedi, cannot and will not happen. You are putting the cart before the horse.

I hear you and I agree with many of your points. 

First thing : yes I remain very attached to Felarya and fully committed to it. My love for that world hasn't changed a single bit. I don't want a gap to be forming between Patreon and the community either..
To be honest there are problems on patreon as well with me just getting too many things started and few things done... Jumping from a thing to another.
I have been having a problem of focus for the past few month in my work in general ( patreon or not ) and even in my life. It's a new things for me and I'm not happy with it. it created a certain numbers of problems for myself and others. I'm trying to fight it and forcing myself to refocus, to not chase butterflies so to speak.

Shady, your portrait of Sean is in my list and I have not forgotten about it. It's just that I have been swimming in a ton of projects. But eventually I will do it, rest assured of that.

I'm sorry for my lack of activity here and I'm open to the idea of giving more decision power to the forum community and naming more publishers for the wiki. As well as being more present myself too.
But yes, please be assured I remain very attached to all the world-building aspect of Felarya, that much is clear. I want to see it thrive and I'm not arrogant enough to take it for granted in anyway...

Karbo wrote:

I hear you and I agree with many of your points. 

First thing : yes I remain very attached to Felarya and fully committed to it. My love for that world hasn't changed a single bit. I don't want a gap to be forming between Patreon and the community either..
To be honest there are problems on patreon as well with me just getting too many things started and few things done... Jumping from a thing to another.
I have been having a problem of focus for the past few month in my work in general ( patreon or not ) and even in my life. It's a new things for me and I'm not happy with it. it created a certain numbers of problems for myself and others. I'm trying to fight it and forcing myself to refocus, to not chase butterflies so to speak.

Shady, your portrait of Sean is in my list and I have not forgotten about it. It's just that I have been swimming in a ton of projects. But eventually I will do it, rest assured of that.

I'm sorry for my lack of activity here and I'm open to the idea of giving more decision power to the forum community and naming more publishers for the wiki. As well as being more present myself too.
But yes, please be assured I remain very attached to all the world-building aspect of Felarya, that much is clear. I want to see it thrive and I'm not arrogant enough to take it for granted in anyway...

Hopefully there will be more updates to the wiki/felaryan universe. At the current time minor edits are a monthly occurrence, at the most. I was wondering how long does it take you to draw on average one of your pictures?

I mean I haven't posted on here in multiple years, but why not try using a discord server? Keep this forum as a archive of sorts. I have seen and worked with a multitude of discords with similar community size and they definitely can be used for world building. I'd imagine you could probably lure more of the old guard back with it and it allows for a more consistent flow of data.
Its not just a problem for Felarya, can you really name any forum like this that has kept its head above the water? People like to keep data in one central place and using a discord would make more sense for that.

Though saying that i really am a nobody from times gone by, I joined this community when I was like 12 because vore was the first porn I found on the internet lol

Ha! This is amusingly ironic. I was just at a kinky site where a person was trying to get us all to use Discord for like a month and he shut it down due to limited attendance. ^_^; But then again the upside was Discord is free so why not try an experiment with Felarya? I will still post my ideas, stories and such here first though.

jedi-explorer wrote:

Ha! This is amusingly ironic. I was just at a kinky site where a person was trying to get us all to use Discord for like a month and he shut it down due to limited attendance. ^_^; But then again the upside was Discord is free so why not try an experiment with Felarya? I will still post my ideas, stories and such here first though.

I am on multiple discord servers and use it all the time now, despite not wanting to add another chat program aside from steam, skype, etc to my list. XD Discord also has programmable commands, I believe. Though I am not used to those.

Also you lads need to look at what boards are still relevant, Inus and Reynkes have 4 posts in a year, that's just not enough to be a board

Discord might be a good idea; I will say that the current forum chatbox most definitely is not. I know some of the better world-building I've done here was done in realtime chat, but we need a better one.

Moving to a new chat also brings up an opportunity: merge the community fragments. We have the forum, the dA community, and now the Patreons (and maybe even a few Pixiv followers; did you know Karbo has a Pixiv?). Felarya probably has a much larger fanbase than it seems...but we can't make use of it with it fragmented as it is now. While I'm not that familiar with Patreon, it doesn't strike me as all that useful for worldbuilding discussions, but a good place for art comments; dA is the same. And, of course, there's also the wiki, which is even more completely separate. What I think would really help is a centralized platform; an art stream, wiki, forum, and chatbox all in one. I, unfortunately, do not know of any such platform, but I expect something close exists. Migration would be a pain and a half, but I think it would be worth it to just get the community all in one spot.

If we're still needed, that is.