Hey everyone,
As you may have heard, Art Fight is currently undergoing a change in leadership. Takaia, who has been the owner of Art Fight for the last nine years, has made the decision to step down from this role and take on a support role behind the scenes. In her place, former admins Axel and classicturtle, will be stepping up as co-owners, alongside a third co-owner who will be introduced later on in the newspost.
Due to the ownership shift, Art Fight will be undergoing a series of changes in the upcoming months. Art Fight will be filed as an LLC, and will no longer be operating as a sole proprietorship. We have always been an entity that requires money to operate, but we will expand into focusing on things such as merch, sponsorships, and more site perks, to relieve the pressure for individual users to contribute financially.
Additionally, any monetary support provided to the site has been labeled as a donation up to now, and we apologize for the confusion this previous wording has caused. Art Fight is neither a charity nor is it legally classified as a non-profit entity. From this point onwards, what we previously called “donations” will instead be referred to as “contributions” to clear up and avoid any further confusion. The current donation page will be updated to reflect this in the coming weeks.
We understand this change is a considerable one, and we’d like to address a few different aspects of the changes being made below.
Why did the administrators resign from staff during the fight?
On July 22nd, former admins Turtle and Axel resigned from the Art Fight team. Their reasons for doing so are as follows:
We would also like to thank and apologize to the staff, especially those who continued to work during the end of the fight after the admins resigned, as we recognize the difficult position they were put into. Additionally, we would like to reiterate that harassment towards any involved individual is unwarranted and will not be tolerated. This includes the previous admins who stepped up to their positions after the current co-owners resigned as admins. They did so with the intent to help keep the site running, and they just did their best in a complicated situation. Please be understanding and respectful to all involved parties.
Any further harassment towards any involved individual for any reason will result in a ban.
Third Co-Owner✨
Our first big step in ensuring Art Fight’s stability is re-introducing Rainy back onto the team as the third Co-Owner. She has been an invaluable member of the Art Fight staff since 2015 and previously held the role of head admin, so we hope the community is as excited as we are to bring her back! Together we will be overseeing the site, its finances, and ensuring Art Fight’s growth safely as an equal entity.
Financials
Going forwards, we want to make an active effort to ensure there is transparency regarding Art Fight’s finances. With this in mind, we want to address some concerns regarding the past and present financial states of Art Fight as a whole. First and foremost, we do want to reiterate that Art Fight was a sole proprietorship. Takaia, as the owner, worked under this sole proprietorship for approximately $12/hr, which is far below living wage. As confirmed after review by the current co-owners, taxes (which we are unable to share publicly due to security and privacy concerns) were paid and accounted for on all of Art Fight’s income. While Art Fight will no longer be a sole proprietorship, we will still operate as an official business under an LLC.
All staff, at the time of applying and at the time of hiring, were aware of and agreed to the fact that their position was as a volunteer, and that they were not going to be receiving monetary compensation for their work. As of now, this will still be the case for all site and chat moderators, though we are open to exploring paid positions (both for moderators and for site developers, such as coders) sometime in the future.
Budget 2023 - 2024
While we begin planning for the site’s future years, we are taking into account the expected budget for 2023 and 2024.
We hope to release a news post specifically about this sometime in the coming months. This news post will include more information about Art Fight’s past and future financials, and details on our goals for the rest of 2023 and 2024. In addition to this, the financial goal bar will also return!
In the past, Art Fight has functioned entirely off of the generosity of volunteer site developers. But volunteer developers obviously cannot devote all their energy to fixing and updating the site for us. We plan to rely less on volunteer developers in the future, and allocate as much of our budget as we can to lowering server-side costs, which we can use to re-invest into additional, paid developer contracts. On that note, please give a warm welcome to stokori! Originally a volunteer developer, Stokori has rejoined the team, and will be transitioning into a paid developer role.
Here are some of the things we want to implement this year and the coming year:
*This is by no means an exhaustive list, and is subject to change.
1. Hiring a paid developer, to help us do the following:
3. Preparing for a certain surprise to be released sometime during the winter season 👀
Feedback Forms
Like in the previous years, we want your feedback! There will be a general feedback form, as well as a UX feedback form. It isn’t required to fill these out, but we would definitely appreciate your input!
Art Fight 2023 Feedback Form
UX Feedback Form
* The Art Fight 2024 Theme Poll will be released at a later date.
Before we conclude our news post however, we wanted to give you all a message from Art Fight’s former owner and founder:
- classicturtle, Rainy, Axel
Edit (10/06/23): Hello! We noticed there were some questions about Takaia's future involvement with Art Fight, so we wanted to provide some clarification:
As you may have heard, Art Fight is currently undergoing a change in leadership. Takaia, who has been the owner of Art Fight for the last nine years, has made the decision to step down from this role and take on a support role behind the scenes. In her place, former admins Axel and classicturtle, will be stepping up as co-owners, alongside a third co-owner who will be introduced later on in the newspost.
Due to the ownership shift, Art Fight will be undergoing a series of changes in the upcoming months. Art Fight will be filed as an LLC, and will no longer be operating as a sole proprietorship. We have always been an entity that requires money to operate, but we will expand into focusing on things such as merch, sponsorships, and more site perks, to relieve the pressure for individual users to contribute financially.
Additionally, any monetary support provided to the site has been labeled as a donation up to now, and we apologize for the confusion this previous wording has caused. Art Fight is neither a charity nor is it legally classified as a non-profit entity. From this point onwards, what we previously called “donations” will instead be referred to as “contributions” to clear up and avoid any further confusion. The current donation page will be updated to reflect this in the coming weeks.
We understand this change is a considerable one, and we’d like to address a few different aspects of the changes being made below.
Why did the administrators resign from staff during the fight?
On July 22nd, former admins Turtle and Axel resigned from the Art Fight team. Their reasons for doing so are as follows:
The site remained stagnant for years, and we were frustrated with the lack of paid, forward development. Although some smaller changes were made, we did not feel these changes were enough.As stated at the start, Takaia will be stepping back from her role as owner and will take on a support role for the site behind the scenes. We will all continue to work together to support Art Fight and let it grow to its fullest potential.
Financial transparency had broken down over the years. The lack of communication to the staff team regarding financials attributed to this - even if it wasn’t done intentionally or maliciously.
As a result of this, we wanted to help the owner make the finances more transparent, oversee further expenses, and make sure that more of the money went into developing the site, rather than allowing the site to continue to stagnate. We weren’t given this opportunity, and this combined with the previous issues in communication led to feelings of frustration. Because of this, we no longer felt that we could continue working as volunteers with Art Fight unless there were considerable changes made, and we made the difficult decision to leave the team.
As admins, we did NOT have an issue with Takaia paying themself as the owner of Art Fight, and we sincerely believe people should be fairly compensated for the work that they do. While we understand there wasn’t ill intent behind anyone’s actions, the lack of transparency regarding financial issues and a lack of site development made us feel disjointed as a team and made it hard to perform our admin duties.
After multiple conversations about Art Fight and the future of the site, we have rejoined Art Fight staff upon reaching an agreement with Takaia to become two of the three new co-owners. We are excited for this opportunity to move forwards together and help Art Fight thrive!
We would also like to thank and apologize to the staff, especially those who continued to work during the end of the fight after the admins resigned, as we recognize the difficult position they were put into. Additionally, we would like to reiterate that harassment towards any involved individual is unwarranted and will not be tolerated. This includes the previous admins who stepped up to their positions after the current co-owners resigned as admins. They did so with the intent to help keep the site running, and they just did their best in a complicated situation. Please be understanding and respectful to all involved parties.
Any further harassment towards any involved individual for any reason will result in a ban.
Third Co-Owner✨
Our first big step in ensuring Art Fight’s stability is re-introducing Rainy back onto the team as the third Co-Owner. She has been an invaluable member of the Art Fight staff since 2015 and previously held the role of head admin, so we hope the community is as excited as we are to bring her back! Together we will be overseeing the site, its finances, and ensuring Art Fight’s growth safely as an equal entity.
Financials
Going forwards, we want to make an active effort to ensure there is transparency regarding Art Fight’s finances. With this in mind, we want to address some concerns regarding the past and present financial states of Art Fight as a whole. First and foremost, we do want to reiterate that Art Fight was a sole proprietorship. Takaia, as the owner, worked under this sole proprietorship for approximately $12/hr, which is far below living wage. As confirmed after review by the current co-owners, taxes (which we are unable to share publicly due to security and privacy concerns) were paid and accounted for on all of Art Fight’s income. While Art Fight will no longer be a sole proprietorship, we will still operate as an official business under an LLC.
All staff, at the time of applying and at the time of hiring, were aware of and agreed to the fact that their position was as a volunteer, and that they were not going to be receiving monetary compensation for their work. As of now, this will still be the case for all site and chat moderators, though we are open to exploring paid positions (both for moderators and for site developers, such as coders) sometime in the future.
Budget 2023 - 2024
While we begin planning for the site’s future years, we are taking into account the expected budget for 2023 and 2024.
We hope to release a news post specifically about this sometime in the coming months. This news post will include more information about Art Fight’s past and future financials, and details on our goals for the rest of 2023 and 2024. In addition to this, the financial goal bar will also return!
In the past, Art Fight has functioned entirely off of the generosity of volunteer site developers. But volunteer developers obviously cannot devote all their energy to fixing and updating the site for us. We plan to rely less on volunteer developers in the future, and allocate as much of our budget as we can to lowering server-side costs, which we can use to re-invest into additional, paid developer contracts. On that note, please give a warm welcome to stokori! Originally a volunteer developer, Stokori has rejoined the team, and will be transitioning into a paid developer role.
Here are some of the things we want to implement this year and the coming year:
*This is by no means an exhaustive list, and is subject to change.
1. Hiring a paid developer, to help us do the following:
- Improving overall site performance
- Overhaul/improve current moderation tools
- Implement new features for users and staff alike
3. Preparing for a certain surprise to be released sometime during the winter season 👀
Feedback Forms
Like in the previous years, we want your feedback! There will be a general feedback form, as well as a UX feedback form. It isn’t required to fill these out, but we would definitely appreciate your input!
Art Fight 2023 Feedback Form
UX Feedback Form
* The Art Fight 2024 Theme Poll will be released at a later date.
Before we conclude our news post however, we wanted to give you all a message from Art Fight’s former owner and founder:
I wanted to take a quick moment to apologize for communication deteriorating within the team towards the end of my time as owner of Art Fight. I never intended to let it break down like that, but good intentions don’t really excuse the fact that I let the team down. I also wanted to sincerely thank the staff who stayed behind to hold down the fort while things were sorted out at the end of the 2023 fight. You kept Art Fight alive, and I’m very grateful for that. I am, however, deeply sorry I put you in that position because I know how hard it was and I wish I hadn't put you through that.With that, we also wanted to thank you all for being patient with us as big changes happen behind the scenes. We’re confident that Art Fight will continue to grow and we’re excited to see where things will go!
As I’m stepping back and passing the helm to Rainy, Axel, and Turtle, I’m glad to be here to support them as they carry Art Fight into the future. I am endlessly grateful to ALL of the staff and users who supported myself and Art Fight through my time here. Thank you, everyone, for going on this adventure with me these past 9 years!
- classicturtle, Rainy, Axel
Edit (10/06/23): Hello! We noticed there were some questions about Takaia's future involvement with Art Fight, so we wanted to provide some clarification:
- Takaia's role as a staff member will exclusively be as a developer/coder for site features.
- She is no longer involved in financials, staff decisions, or moderator actions.
- As mentioned in the original newspost, we as now co-owners have access to Artfight's funds and can verify that the money from Art Fight's donations were not embezzled. More information regarding Art Fight's budget/financial situation will be provided in our upcoming budget newspost.
Comments (369)
sawarinekosawarinekosaid:3ptych
edit: $12/hour, damn. i sincerely hope artfight wasn't the only income source, b/c that's unsustainable
DemonicIntegrity
I don't know fully to what extent Takaia's misdoings were. But I do understand the confusion as to why Takaia would still be on staff based on the bits I do know.
It's probably a courtesy thing, considering Takaia created this site and thus would be knowledgeable on the code. The important part being no longer having access to the money.
That being said, I'm not placing any blame on the new leaders or any of the former and current mod team. They're probably doing their best given what they were handed. And remember, Artfight has been a solid part of the artist internet for a few years now, everybody wants it to stay up and running. These things are just legitimately difficult to do especially the larger it gets.
That being said: Hire an accountant. Money is difficult it would probably be easier and better in the long run to invest in someone who knows about money to help manage it. Especially with amounts getting to be this large.
northernarts08
AnamayCat
For context as to why i'm NOT surprised about the counter being broken: We have always had issues on this site with numbers not being shown correctly with comments, characters, attacks, etc. - They fixed the character counter by REMOVING it entirely. Instead of saying Characters (#) View All... ( or something like that ) it now just says "View All..." without any number counter. It's highly likely that these comments are bugged for the same reason as that, though I could be wrong.
don't assume comments are being deleted, unless someone is breaking TOS/Rules with their comment - why would the new leadership want to cause more problems? Please don't spread this rumor unless you are 100% certain and can prove that you had a comment down that is now gone!
I want art fight to thrive, it's no good blaming it on something you heard from someone who heard it from someone, etc.
Plushpawbs
Including this one now
So unless they update it its stuck at 122 comments LMAOOOO
masureii
Wardrobe
I'm pretty sure they were, some comments I saw before are gone including one of mine. I think they calmed down on doing it. Unless they are still there and its just glitched it still does not help what they are doing.
EDIT: Counter wise I think people are thinking that because looking at it now its the only post I see with this issue. It could be a glitch but its also kinda odd
masureii
(In reference to the comment counter above) I’m 99% sure they AREN’T deleting comments. If you go back far enough, you’ll still see comments from about a week ago (when this was initially posted). I’m assuming the comment counter is just glitching because on the news tab, it says there are (as of writing this) 302 comments.
PawzTheDrFoxFan
Moonlantica
I hope things continue to be alright moving forwards for all of you
s0ybeansss
Merioux
Aliupus
(For those still complaining about the whole issue with Takaia, you do realise that even when you donate to charities, especially big ones, that not all of it is actually used to help the very thing you donated for. Yes this isn't a charity, but based under the same implications there's nothing unlawful about not using it all for the site if you can prove where else it went was legal. If it was illegal, then the charities would be sued)
Unless you have the exact finance and tax records for the account of this site and can see exactly where it was spent, stop just throwing random stuff out there based loosely one someone's accusation of someone's accusation, etc. Only the former owner and new co-owners have the finance evidence
I do not support Takaia or in no ways agree with the fact there wasn't something noted or at least in the T&C of donating to notify people that only a percentage would go to the site.
They tried to make a living off a site they founded, much like you will find other sites, like OviPets do. Which I was extremely annoyed when I found out that my contributions just so I can enjoy it in spare time went towards a couple living a luxury life. But you did get something out of this money which is better. So hopefully with things such as actual merch and perks, it may put people at ease
EfraimCreations
I'm not against anyone or saying anyone is in the wrong, I am just incredibly confused. I will remain neutral until I feel I have enough details to come to a conclusion.