Briar Nexus - The SJW Friendly Pet Site I Worked For

[Bugaboo]

A while ago in the Random Tumblr Posts thread I saw this:

I was intrigued, I looked into it to see how much it was probably going to fail because it's made by SJWs, now the concept of an SJW friendly pet site could theoretically work... as long as it wasn't made by SJWs, I mean the market is there.
What they don't say in this, is that Briar (sic) Nexus is basically supposed to be Facebook Neopets, you're supposed to be able to put in that you're in a relationship with another member and other facebook stuff and then still have that Neopet side thingy of pets.
Now, biggest problem right off the bat
NO ADS
Even if they get their money (which to this date, they have not) they're gonna run out real fast.

SO, I really wanted to see what their deal was, to a degree I was interested to see how they would do this/fail to do this. I applied for an artist position and I got it within 3 seconds, no peer review no vote. I just showed my art and I'm like, yo let me join. Let me tell you how the process of art making went.
1. Go to a spread sheet and call dibs on a species
2. Do it and then make it in a billion different colors
3. No peer review, no critique
4. ???
5. PROFIT
After this train wreck I got a legit graphic artist job and let me tell you that is just not how you do it. Every tiny thing must be reviewed by other artists on the project and then reviewed by the client, if you give a character a different shaped eyeball that shit needs to be reviewed. Here is an assortment of pets that was done

Look at that consistency. I honestly feel bad bashing the art because we had some great artists working on this project, the person who did the Eastern Dragon's art is fantastic and they actually worked on a previous pet site, the person who did the sharkcat, snake, beetle and chameleon is actually pretty cool honestly. Try and guess which ones I made! (The Dimetrodon and the Forest Sprite, I also did a stingray and a baku)
The biggest problem was probably the leader of the project, granted they have ambition and a potentially good idea, but they don't know how to be a good leader.
Here's some highlights of some weird shit that went down:
- Made a suggestion about like having a joint livestream account or something and having a schedule where we do art or take questions about the site, you know, being a little more professional. Now I thought I was pretty polite and came across my point ok. Dear leader absolutely started tearing me a new asshole when I said this. I literally had to consult Meowthkip on wtf to say to avoid incurring dear leader's wrath further. I could have told them to fuck off and left but I tried to calm them down, after that I stopped talking in casual conversation to the rest of the team and just kept to myself and made more pets.
-They had a color called albino, this is pretty standard for most pet sites. Now one day dear leader comes in and says "We need to change the name of the albino color, it's offensive." We changed it to champagne even though that could be offensive to people with a drinking problem, my God how insensitive.
-I had to tell dear leader how to effectively advertise on the internet's biggest pet site forum where all the pet sites start their life. They barely had any art the first time and just a very basic outline of features. Even on their most recent kickstarter they still didn't showcase much art!
That's all I can remember, I can't say I regret it and I kind of look fondly on my time there but that might have been Stockholm syndrome.
Questions? Comments? TL;DR?

 

[Gentleburd]

OMG I remember seeing the ads for that site! I don't recall where though. Was it VPL? You didn't have a Kickstarter, did you?
Some friends and I had a pretty good laugh over all the 'pronouns' that they had listed. All the nounself ones. How did they choose which nouns to use? Don't they realize they are excluding all the other nouns by not having them as pronouns as well?
My friends are actually pretty SJ-inclined, and even they thought the site was nuts. A site too crazy for Tumblr. Impressive.

A few questions, so I can fill in my friends. They will love this drama.
What made the leader quit? And do you know what they are doing now? Are they still in the pet site business?

 

[Bungleboy]

I want that sharkcat.

His name will be Spaghetti Joe

 

[Avocado]

I love how "functional private messaging and blocking systems" is advertised as a major feature. They know their audience I guess.

 

[autisticdragonkin]

A while ago in the Random Tumblr Posts thread I saw this:

I was intrigued, I looked into it to see how much it was probably going to fail because it's made by SJWs, now the concept of an SJW friendly pet site could theoretically work... as long as it wasn't made by SJWs, I mean the market is there.
What they don't say in this, is that Briar (sic) Nexus is basically supposed to be Facebook Neopets, you're supposed to be able to put in that you're in a relationship with another member and other facebook stuff and then still have that Neopet side thingy of pets.
Now, biggest problem right off the bat
NO ADS
Even if they get their money (which to this date, they have not) they're gonna run out real fast.

SO, I really wanted to see what their deal was, to a degree I was interested to see how they would do this/fail to do this. I applied for an artist position and I got it within 3 seconds, no peer review no vote. I just showed my art and I'm like, yo let me join. Let me tell you how the process of art making went.
1. Go to a spread sheet and call dibs on a species
2. Do it and then make it in a billion different colors
3. No peer review, no critique
4. ???
5. PROFIT
After this train wreck I got a legit graphic artist job and let me tell you that is just not how you do it. Every tiny thing must be reviewed by other artists on the project and then reviewed by the client, if you give a character a different shaped eyeball that shit needs to be reviewed. Here is an assortment of pets that was done

Look at that consistency. I honestly feel bad bashing the art because we had some great artists working on this project, the person who did the Eastern Dragon's art is fantastic and they actually worked on a previous pet site, the person who did the sharkcat, snake, beetle and chameleon is actually pretty cool honestly. Try and guess which ones I made! (The Dimetrodon and the Forest Sprite, I also did a stingray and a baku)
The biggest problem was probably the leader of the project, granted they have ambition and a potentially good idea, but they don't know how to be a good leader.
Here's some highlights of some weird shit that went down:
- Made a suggestion about like having a joint livestream account or something and having a schedule where we do art or take questions about the site, you know, being a little more professional. Now I thought I was pretty polite and came across my point ok. Dear leader absolutely started tearing me a new asshole when I said this. I literally had to consult Meowthkip on wtf to say to avoid incurring dear leader's wrath further. I could have told them to fuck off and left but I tried to calm them down, after that I stopped talking in casual conversation to the rest of the team and just kept to myself and made more pets.
-They had a color called albino, this is pretty standard for most pet sites. Now one day dear leader comes in and says "We need to change the name of the albino color, it's offensive." We changed it to champagne even though that could be offensive to people with a drinking problem, my God how insensitive.
-I had to tell dear leader how to effectively advertise on the internet's biggest pet site forum where all the pet sites start their life. They barely had any art the first time and just a very basic outline of features. Even on their most recent kickstarter they still didn't showcase much art!
That's all I can remember, I can't say I regret it and I kind of look fondly on my time there but that might have been Stockholm syndrome.
Questions? Comments? TL;DR?

what is MOGAI and why is sexuality present in this game

 

[Magpie]

what is MOGAI and why is sexuality present in this game

"Marginalized Orientations, Gender Aligments, and Intersex" - basically it's a silly alternative to LGBT+ in an attempt to be "less problematic" and apparently got railed against for being more problematic. It basically translates to not straight, not cis, not dyadic (non-intersex). The only edge it has over LGBT+ is being a bit more concise, I guess.

 

[Bugaboo]

OMG I remember seeing the ads for that site! I don't recall where though. Was it VPL? You didn't have a Kickstarter, did you?
Some friends and I had a pretty good laugh over all the 'pronouns' that they had listed. All the nounself ones. How did they choose which nouns to use? Don't they realize they are excluding all the other nouns by not having them as pronouns as well?
My friends are actually pretty SJ-inclined, and even they thought the site was nuts. A site too crazy for Tumblr. Impressive.

A few questions, so I can fill in my friends. They will love this drama.
What made the leader quit? And do you know what they are doing now? Are they still in the pet site business?

The leader didn't quit as far as I know I was the one who quit, I'll link you to their official tumblr
http://briarnexus.tumblr.com/
Last post was a week ago so they're still at it! Notice they have had no art previews since I left, this is a bad idea for a pet site since the big selling point should be pets and then they can stay for the other stuff. Every time they finish a new species they should offer a small preview for the interested people.
They did have a kickstarter and a very small ad on VPL (Virtual Pet List for the uninitiated) they only showed one pet which was a little dragon. The one artist who worked for another pet site made an incredible bird thing whose name escapes me, they should be showcasing that thing.

I told them as I quit they were free to use my art that I made for them because someone may as well use it, I put enough time into it.
As for how those chose their batshit insane pronouns, it seems they're mostly put in by suggestion so some of them are probably people trying to pull their leg. They said they'll also have a kin type option to fill in.
Here's a mockup they made for the site layout, I'm not too good with site design so I don't know how good it is, but it kind of makes me feel chill

Here are two of the pets I made they didn't officially release

Tapir and Rave colors respectively

People constantly ask and comment of how this is gonna get trolled into oblivion and they just say "It's OK, we got mods" Um ok no you don't all they have are artists and dear leader just tells them to work on whatever the fuck they want so it is chaos . We had people working on backgrounds one day and pets the next day on a whim there was no structure. They have enough artists to assign them to one thing and start pumping out art which they should be showing people because the art ain't too bad.
Also there seems to be a bit of drama as they said they would tolerate MRAs as long as "they follow the rules" so seems this has gotten a lot of SJWs against them. Quote in point:

"briar nexus said that they were okay with MRAs idk where the post is but you could probably find it if you looked…don’t support them

We are not ‘okay’ with MRAs. We will tolerate them on the site as long as they do not break any of the rules, which are very tightly closed in regards to harassment along these lines. (Rules that are linked on our blog and can be read over at any time here.)

All of our replies are tagged as ask and the post you are referring to is here. To quote;

“I did not read it as [MRAs/meninism] - it is true that men cannot be oppressed for being men, but it is also true that there are things that need to be addressed for men; the fact that rape among men is often ignored, toxic masculinity - though these strike me as feminist issues, I know that some may not believe that wording. MRAs as they have come to be known (as more anti-feminist than actually pro-men’s rights) will of course be required to keep their actions within the rules defined on the site - that is, not attacking others.“

We cannot force others to change what they align themselves with, even if it conflicts with the beliefs of the staff themselves. Please do not say “you could probably find [the post] if you looked” and then not look yourself. We would prefer if you did not take our words out of context. If you have any further concerns, please direct them to our ask. Thank you, and have a nice day."

Also I think if they google their site name enough, they're gonna end up here real soon, this is at the end of the first page. If you guys are reading this, hi guys! I've purposely gone out of my way to not totally bash your project because the idea can work, I just think you guys aren't going at it super well.

 

[Meowthkip]

I can't wait until this trainwreck explodes in a fiery ball.

 

[AnOminous]

"Marginalized Orientations, Gender Aligments, and Intersex" - basically it's a silly alternative to LGBT+ in an attempt to be "less problematic" and apparently got railed against for being more problematic. It basically translates to not straight, not cis, not dyadic (non-intersex). The only edge it has over LGBT+ is being a bit more concise, I guess.

Plus nobody has any clue what it means so you can get mad at them for that, too.

 

[autisticdragonkin]

do pedosexuals count as mogai

 

[Dilbertmann]

So it's Neopets for social justice warriors? Just the blend of two dumb things being turned into one uroboros of autism makes my brain squelch.

 

[Erica]

do pedosexuals count as mogai

Apparently a lot of people on tumblr don't like MOGAI because technically it includes pedophiles (or was coined by a pedophile, I can't quite remember).

 

[Gentleburd]

@Philly Cheese Steak
Hahaha! Oh man, this is better drama than I thought it would be. Especially the MRA stuff. There's no way they will be allowed to stay on-site. They'll be banned for so much as saying they aren't feminist, because that will 'trigger' some poor, delicate, SJW flower.

And you are right about the art as well. Pet sites run on art. Good art. And this site has it. But if they don't show it, no one will know. They need to be showing off all the different colors of pets they have, because it looks like a lot! And that would be a huge draw for a lot of people. Hell, I'm a collecting freak, so even I would be tempted to sign up. (I blame Pokemon. It has made me want to catch 'em all on every game I play.)

Though...from the looks of it, the site doesn't have much more to do besides collecting pets and chatting. It's going to get dull really quick. Like, even Flight Rising has more stuff and players are leaving it in droves because they are bored to death of breeding dragons and building puzzles. (FR could have a thread on here. That site's main export is drama. So many tears over rainbow dragons. I'm so happy I got out before the economy completely collapsed.)

 

[Bugaboo]

@Philly Cheese Steak
Hahaha! Oh man, this is better drama than I thought it would be. Especially the MRA stuff. There's no way they will be allowed to stay on-site. They'll be banned for so much as saying they aren't feminist, because that will 'trigger' some poor, delicate, SJW flower.

And you are right about the art as well. Pet sites run on art. Good art. And this site has it. But if they don't show it, no one will know. They need to be showing off all the different colors of pets they have, because it looks like a lot! And that would be a huge draw for a lot of people. Hell, I'm a collecting freak, so even I would be tempted to sign up. (I blame Pokemon. It has made me want to catch 'em all on every game I play.)

Though...from the looks of it, the site doesn't have much more to do besides collecting pets and chatting. It's going to get dull really quick. Like, even Flight Rising has more stuff and players are leaving it in droves because they are bored to death of breeding dragons and building puzzles. (FR could have a thread on here. That site's main export is drama. So many tears over rainbow dragons. I'm so happy I got out before the economy completely collapsed.)

They should reel the people in with the art and keep them with fun features like I dunno maybe hire a guy to make some cute flash games that don't suck *cough* Flight Rising *cough* battles, quests, guilds I dunno fun stuff. Like Neopets had/has a ton of games, a rich lore spanning like a decade, dailies, an economy, dress up (in later years) lots of fun things to keep the masses coming back.

 

[D.Angus]

The webdesign looks like an early web 2.0 site.. Not terrible looking, but not great looking..

The over all ascetic is pretty chill, which is good. However, a lot of the smaller text is hard to read. You don't do light on light, without making the text bigger.

It honestly looks boring.. With the only features being forums and polls and what not.. They need a real good gimmick to keep people on the website, rather than just checking it on their lunch breaks.

All the pets have a snowflakey feel to them. Though I like the Ginger Snake and your Rave Stingray the best.

With the SJW bullshit behind the scenes.. This site aint going to last.. If you were to pitch this to me as an investor.. I'd probably laugh my ass of and give you a twenty, telling you to go buy a dildo and go fuck yourself. The market is still filled with other virtual pet sites, and most of them slowly dying/going to a mobile market.. This doesn't offer anything new to the Virtual Pet Genre and that's what hurts it the most..

 

[Meowthkip]

(FR could have a thread on here. That site's main export is drama. So many tears over rainbow dragons. I'm so happy I got out before the economy completely collapsed.)

I've contemplated just making a thread on the threads that show up on the General Discussion board. Didn't think it was worth the effort, though.

If you were to pitch this to me as an investor.. I'd probably laugh my ass of and give you a twenty, telling you to go buy a dildo and go fuck yourself.

Where are you able to find a good dildo that costs $20?

 

[D.Angus]

Where are you able to find a good dildo that costs $20?

Who said it had to be good?

 

[Funnybone]

Why launch a pet site and add weird gender-wars drama into it? WHY?
Also who the hell is the targeted demographic??

 

[Bugaboo]

I'm actually super interested in pet sites and also creature concept design (which is what I'm kind of doing now) so making the little animals was fun and see everyone else's art. A lot of people have already pointed out; most non Neopet virtual pet sites fail in time and a lot of them are in development hell, Flight Rising was one of the lucky ones having got a great artist on their team.
I'm just waiting for them to show up here, when you guys do get here, take this criticism and don't get angry instead use it to better your project and yourselves.

 

[Funnybone]

I'm actually super interested in pet sites and also creature concept design (which is what I'm kind of doing now) so making the little animals was fun and see everyone else's art. A lot of people have already pointed out; most non Neopet virtual pet sites fail in time and a lot of them are in development hell, Flight Rising was one of the lucky ones having got a great artist on their team.
I'm just waiting for them to show up here, when you guys do get here, take this criticism and don't get angry instead use it to better your project and yourselves.

Pet sites can be rad (Old neopets was fun back in the day) but for some reason every pet site I've run into has been run by assholes. ((I want to make my own petsite someday though so then I CAN HAVE ALL THE NEOPOINTS.. err)) Also fuck flight rising I keep missing open registration times and am butthurt by them not letting me in their inner circle.