It's quite difficult to write this, especially since it's my first (and most likely last) post on Furaffinity. But I need to do this.
To begin with I am not an artist, musician, programmer or any other interesting profession that even the lesser known members of the community may have. I'm just a faceless user who, since 2007 at the age of 10 (don't look at me strangely, I was a child with a lot of free time on the Internet), ended up finding this site and becoming a frequent visitor.
In these 17 years I have witnessed the evolution of the page (its change of style, the massive downtime of servers, improvements in the search engine and user pages, etc.) and most importantly: ITS USERS.
Corro7, Vorelord, Mandarax, Dragozard, Pippuri, Saixyuniz-xynz, Ilbv, Fidchellvore, Malus22, Segremores, Agroantirrophus, Hectorthewolf, SamagthraV2, ASaneMan, Voodoogator, Azathura, Coyote71, Hungothenomster, Kitora, Gruine, Aaron, Reclamon, Charem, Shorty, Xianos, Deaconchaos, Guilmonboy, Grinex, Colin, Tastytales, Talonblaze, Flint, BNA_V5, Yui-hii, A-side, Drake123, Juriaen, Livinlovindude; among many, many more.
I have seen many appear out of nowhere, timidly begin to publish their work, obtain companions who will support and advise them, perfect their drawing (or writing) style and establish themselves as part of the site.
And they probably wouldn't be what they are now without this site, and that's thanks to Dragoneer and his team. I never interacted with Dragoneer directly, but I knew who he was and located his iconic Musaradramon. On August 7, 2024 at 1:10 AM I found out about his death, and I simply couldn't believe it. I won't say I cried uncontrollably, but I couldn't process that HE was no longer with us. I feared for the future of the site, of this place that I have been visiting for almost 2/3 of my life and whether I would be able to follow those I mentioned above (and those I couldn't) wherever they went.
But when I saw what As quickly as everyone reacted to the news, those concerns disappeared as the hours passed. Co-workers, close friends, artists he commissioned and even people I only talk to on Twitter (X), all sharing the pain of his departure, remembering how they met him and giving him the most sincere goodbye. This is the community that he helped create and that will always remember him with love, this same community is the heart and soul of this site. As long as this community exists, it doesn't matter what happens to the site itself, because we are the ones who are here (and those who are no longer here) the legacy of Dragoneer.
As I said, this will possibly be my only post for Furaffinity, but no After 17 years I could not say goodbye properly to the man who owned this site.
So I thank you with all my heart and I hope you can rest in peace knowing that everyone here at Furaffinity will remember you.
Thank you for everything Dragoneer and until we meet again.