~Wintech3112

It's been a strange day.

The loss of someone well known and arguably responsible for the fandom's early establishment was always going to be a sobering, introspective experience for all of us. It's a chance to reflect on just how on earth we got to where we are. It feels only right that we look at his project; a project vital to the fandom's beginnings and the backbone space of the community.

Dragoneer built this website with the express intention of giving like minded individuals a place to host and share their work; a place to build a community where we all shared our interests and met new people. For many years this was the go to place in the post VCLart and disparate forum era for furry work, and in many respects it still is.
Now, the site has never been perfect. Many of us have been around long enough to remember the spinning cat error message more than seeing the site proper, but it's survived. It's survived internal conflict, the drift of the fandom towards the instant dopamine hit of Twitter engagement, the purchase by IMVU and subsequent re-purchase back into furry hands, it's outlived all of it's would be site killers and it's thanks to Neer's commitment to the cause that it survives to this day.

There's a rather poignant post circulating on Twitter from Dragoneer himself discussing the importance of leaving a mark on the world. It goes as follows:

"So long as FA exists, a bit of them [an FA user that had passed on] will, too. They left their mark on the fandom, no matter how small. Sometimes the most important thing a person can ever say is "I was here."

That's all it's about folks. In the chaotic mess of the world, in the frantic scramble that is modern life - no-matter where you hail from; in the end it's building a legacy to leave behind. Whether that contribution is big or small isn't important. We all should be striving to leave something positive in the world.
In that vein i say this. To say the fandom has grown is to downplay just how vast and numerous we are as a collective now and in no small way is it thanks to the efforts of a certain purple digimon that we are as vast as we are today. He provided the bridge, and we all crossed it.

So long as the fandom exists, Neer's work for the fandom continues to live on. I sincerely hope the new stewards maintain the place with respect for his attitudes of understanding and empathy towards artists needing a place free of exploitation, and a space for non-artists to continue to reach out to a community that's historically been a bastion for love, care, inclusion and passion.

I never knew him well outside of passing interactions on various platforms, but I do know with certainty that i'd be in a much worse place if i didn't have the fandom in my life.

Rest well, Dragoneer.
You left your mark.