#dragoneer

[xeansicemane]

I don't know how many of my followers are furries but we just lost one of ours.

He died because the medical industry in the US refused to help. He was murdered in a million little ways, with a million automated systems.

He was on bluesky no more than five hours ago, now he's gone.

Dragoneer ran FurAffinity, which is more or less the furry art site. It looks like its' from the early aughts, has no native pdf support, and has zero discoverability or algorithmic function. It's home to me, it's always been home.

No matter how often I moved or how often my life radically changed, there was FA. I met my husband on the forums. Through the majority of its' life, Dragoneer kept it running. He never sold us out, never tried to keep up with trends. It's a community.

And there is something bitter about losing someone who was key to keeping one of the relics of the internet before corporations took over.

We have our home, but it's lost its' keeper.

Good night, Neer. You kept the lights on.

[destielmemenews]

Dragoneer died of complications from a lung infection. His last social media posts detail a frustrating ordeal with his insurance and have ignited criticisms of the US healthcare system.

source 1

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[datharlequinoni]

RE: Dragoneer situation Fuck the united states healthcare system. Fuck this entire goddamn broken fucking mess. Fuck it in the ass sideways. Holy fucking shit. We just lost Furaffinity's owner because the system is so bloated, so incomprehensibly insufficient, so ass backwards and a financial black hole that it could not help them in time. They died without ever knowing what the hell was killing them, because the system could not do its most basic functions. This happens all the fucking time and it's goddamn barbaric. It's simultaneously dystopian and fucking medieval. They might as well have offered to bloodlet them with leeches for all the fucking good the healthcare system did them. I still cannot process how fucking abysmal this is. How it fails so many people like Dragoneer on a regular basis. How the fuck can anyone be okay with this? How? This is a fucking atrocity. This is fucking criminal. The system is killing the people its supposed to heal.

[palominodragon]

Went to his bluesky account to figure out how the owner of furaffinity died and it is so horrifying how his posts over the last month are just about waiting, waiting, waiting... finally getting a doctor's appointment only to be told he has to wait some more... (plus another insane medical bill) and repeat.

Because I remember how long I had to wait for surgery even after they'd confirmed my cancer diagnosis, wondering why they couldn't just get it done, since, ya know... the whole deal with cancer is that it gets worse the longer you leave it alone...

and just how hard it is to get scheduled to see a doctor in general. My endocrinologist is always fully booked months in advance. It is literally impossible to reschedule with her unless I want to wait two months. I've wondered before why there aren't enough other specialists locally to give her (and her patients) some breathing room.

If the issue is a shortage in medical professionals and it's a big enough issue that people regularly die just while waiting to be treated, then what the heck is being done about that? You'd think with how much money is in the medical industry, that particular problem wouldn't exist.

[snakegirllovehandles]

holy shit. dragoneer passed away.

I won't pretend for a second that FA was anything like an unalloyed good, but it's been a solid foundational furry website for nearly twenty years now. that's important.

rip.

[pupintransit]

ᵃʳᵗ ᵇʸ ˢⁱˡᵛᵉʳᶠᵒˣ⁵²¹³ ᵒⁿ ᵈᵉᵛⁱᵃⁿᵗᵃʳᵗ

Dragoneer is dead and I'm a little fucked up about it.

When I was a kid and thumbing my way through the furry community in the early-mid 2000s, I genuinely thought his fursona was public domain. I'd see it everywhere I went and drawn by so many different people. I suppose that goes to show how important of a figure he was.

We didn't know each other and never interacted personally, and I'm not writing this to be a eulogy. It would be wildly inappropriate to write such a document. What I can write about is that I'm part of the furry community because of FurAffinity. From when I was I kid absent mindedly browsing the site, to being a closeted teenage furry peeking in on it like it was a precious secret, to now as a out and proud queer adult and regular user of the site, it has been my omnipresent connection to the furry community.

I say furry community instead of furry fandom because I think the word fandom undersells what it means to us as a collective. I stopped lurking in the community maybe a year and a half ago, and in that time I have made lord only knows how many genuine friendships in that short span of time. When I had my bottom surgery and was in horrid pain during recovery, my furry friends were my most reliable support network outside of my husband, my doctors and my therapist. Heck, a friendship I've already had for a decade now is becoming stronger in part because we have this community in common.

You don't get this from other "fandoms." Sneakerheads aren't this overwhelming queer, weebs don't have community leaders the same way we do, and Star Wars nerds are more likely to question if you're a "true fan" than they are to celebrate with you. Furries are unique in how they build space for each other, and how they make time to listen to and support each other. I challenge you to find a self-described Jedi forum that treats its members with this level of dignity

Furries spaces are overwhelming kind and patient. Proclaiming yourself to be a proud furry gets you a predictable amount of cringing stares from folks outside of our spaces, but what other language is there is to sum up how we feel about ourselves? I scarcely feel more welcomed and included in this community than I do anywhere else, and for this era of our community we have Dragoneer to thank for giving us perhaps the most recognizable and accessible space for furries to connect with each other that we've ever had.

This community has warmth and kindness and empathy worth celebrating, and in all the words I've used in this mini-essay I still don't think I've properly expressed what it means to me that I've found a home here. Truthfully, I don't know that I can. I'm just happy to have a place here with all of you.

Anyway. Rest in peace Dragoneer. You deserved better than what you got. I hope to see you again in better times.

[handageddon]

Well shit, RIP furaffinity

[summerdragoness]

Dragoneer is gone.

I knew him before FA, then got to know him more when I became a moderator on FA many years ago. Dude was always someone who would go out of his way to help me when I was going through shit, he was always kind, and it wasn't just to me but to others, too.

In recent years we drifted and went our separate ways, as happens. So learning about his situation, why he is gone now when he was alive 4 hours ago, is infuriating. I am fucking furious.

[satyrradio]

I'm an alterhuman, not a furry, but our communities are woven together. I didn't know Dragoneer personally, but I do know that he helped a lot of people. He has left behind a legacy that will not be forgotten. Rest in piece.

[melody-of-forest]

Rest in piece Dragoneer

Rest in piece Dragoneer... 

[chaifootsteps]

Did you hear Dragoneer (creator of furaffinity) died?

I did. The guy had a deeply mixed reputation, but no one deserves to be murdered by the US healthcare system the way he was.

[thedenofravenpuff]

Hey there! Dragoneer's passing has left a huge gap in our community, and we're raising funds to support his legacy and help his mom with unexpected expenses. Any donation or share of the link can make a real difference

[eligecos]

A round Dragoneer doin' a little dance.

[faranae]

Neer

Found out about the death of someone I know (in passing) through a damn Reddit post scrolling through memes on /therewasanattempt; "To get treatment in USA".

A series of screenshots. Two of Neer's final posts on Bluesky complaining about health and insurance difficulties, and one of the announcement post on Furaffinity that he'd passed.

"Oh heeey it's 'Neer! This isn't a furry sub, it'll be funny when someone points out who it is." "Oh, fuck American healthcare. He's pretty sick, huh?" "Oh. Oh, what the fuck. No."

Emotional roller coaster over about 40 seconds.

Like, I know there was some shit over the years but it's weird having it be someone you've actually spoken and interacted with over a decade and a half or so, you know? And finding out through a Reddit post while looking at memes. Didn't expect this to be such a gut-punch.

Fuck.

[harpagornis]

RIP Dragoneer

So the owner of Fur Affinity just passed away. I've heard a lot about this guy, both positive and negative. I myself only interacted with him once, where he helped me with something, so I'm inclined to have a good view of him.

So many important figures in the fandom have passed away, and I linger with sorrow in my heart