Friday 17 January 2014

So anipan is dead? edited

Long story short: The first thing i ever supported through crowd funding was a website for artist...  i felt it may be a good switch from DeviantArt because i'm finding the community from DeviantArt isn't giving me what i want.... so new site with the feature to support larger art pieces... sounds interesting.

I don't remember how much i gave... it wasn't a lot... but still i gave them money so i hoped it would be good.

Well... i don't know why i was thinking it would be better...

1st. they released the site to the public way before it was ready... after the campaign ended the announced that it would only take a few months which should have been a big red flag but at that point... they already had my money...
anyways the layout was okay, the front page was cluttered but hey.. it was a Alpha/Beta testing grounds.
viewing the artwork was very nice and having your account be determined by number meant you could make anything your user name... this was a feature i found very nice even if i never used it.
however, as all art sites end up, the only art that showed up on the front page was the popular stuff and there was no way to change it.

2nd. in the alpha/beta stages there was no real inbox or way to reply to people that made sense.... when they released the site to the public this was never fixed... for a community based website you NEED a way to communicate.... so yeah when this was still a problem 6 month and even a year after it 'launched' ... yeah another red flag.

3rd. Because it was made by the people who did mangabullet (another dead website though it died abotu a year after Anipan released) people thought it would be a site focusing on Anime-inspired art and when people of all art stiles started posting the entitled a-holes pretty much lost their shit... going as far as to ask that things like photography and literature be banned as it wasn't anime... despite the site never being called and anime only site.

4th. it took ages to load anything... sure it's nice to get details of large picks but 9/10 times it would time out.

5th. submitting to the site was a pain and half the time wouldn't work properly.

6th. never updated and now i think it's good to consider it dead.... everyone who gave them money was essentially ripped off and if you ever see another site being made by Eddz well just don't give them money, i'm not saying don't use the site just... yeah be careful about financing them.

Honestly, i would not be surprised if this was all a scam to start with, they had a thing where you could buy shares of the website (i don't remember if it was MB or AP but both are dead so the point stands) and the thinking being eventually it would be worth something? yeah... wouldn't be surprised if that was just an attempt to get more money before running cause it was implemented fairly late in whichever sites lifespan.

It also seems like a new site Inkr is poping up with a lot of similarities to MB and AP... yeah i hope no one gives it money, at least not until it has proven to be a stable site that wont vanish overnight... i don't know for sure if it's the same people but the locations match and more important the design aesthetics match.

but yeah this was something we could all see from a mile away and do nothing to stop it. This is why everything on crowdfunding sites is buyer beware... i would love to see some legal action against the creators but honestly i doubt a case would hold any water (the best i can hope is if they make another site that no one gives them money). they said they would make a site called anipan... and they did, it was nothing like they promised but thats tough shit.

edit: on Jan 20th they finally came out with a story on what happened, this does not mean i am okay with what happened. I am still annoyed about backing an ultimately failed project but hey...  it happens. 
long story short - unexpected stuff happened and eventually they ran out of money, the site was already such a failure there was no point it putting more money into it... i get it... still you can't blame people for considering it's a scam when not only does everyone involved go silent but another similar site starts showing signs of coming out.

oh well... eventually i'll find a different site to use instead of DA.
I don't hate DA but it does a few things that really piss me off... mostly it's stance on copyright... but also the community feels very entitled to have things their way, most of them are just too young to realize the world doesn't revolve around you.... and one word comments that honestly mean nothing and do nothing to help people grow... i just want a more creative space i guess... but i'll keep posting there till i get off my ass and code a personal website (*shudder*) but knowing me... it'll take forever so... yeah... DA is good enough for now... at least i don't feel cheated by them.

also this is not news... it apparently vanished some time in november... i just checked it today and i even remember a friend mentioning it was down a while back... but yeah... it's January now and still no news... so yeah it's dead
do not support Inkr financially until they are stable and working and a good community, it is his new site.
probably best to just avoid... too much headache

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