Unofficial FRAF Survey

Lol I come here like everyday, so yeah that means I'm also always checking to see if I got new messages, and I usually don't rip. Probably because I don't make a lot of posts.

- I don't have a preference for certain boards, I just check what's new in the "Recent Topics" and the "Recent Replies" section and start reading.

- Probably because I mostly either lurk or post art, my experience is mostly a chill one so far.

- I don't really contribute to a lot of bug reports because I figured other people have already said the issues for me, especially because of the site's beta status. And I don't comment on any forumventures either, except for one (Chess Beyond Limit cus its funni)

- I really like this community because of the analysis posts. They are so thought provoking and reveal new angles on how to interpret Homestuck. I think everyone here is intelligent :]

i love it i love being @intermission on fraf.

kinda what matthew said. sometimes this place seems a little intimidating or annoying, but clearly that doesn't factor into shit because I've been going on here pretty much every day and posting at least once almost every day as well. shit's good, even when it fucking isn't. thats the fraf magic

I also check on here daily, although the frequency might drop once university starts on monday...but I'll see!! I mainly use the "main" boards, so Homestuck/General Discussion/Rumpus room. And I "use" them by just reading all the threads in there that seem interesting to me, lol. Despite being on the FRAF Forum, I haven't really read that many FRAF works (in fact, of the sub boards listed, I've only downloaded Befriendus) so I don't check in there much. (//~^)

The community here is really enjoyable!! I only really had contact with the Homestuck fandom on tumblr prior to joining the forum, and it gives off a very similar vibe so I feel right at home. I'm also glad that so many users posted transfeminist readings on various aspects of Homestuck/related material here, I eating so good. Really really hoping that the forum stays active and that the userbase won't change drastically in the long run!

@black_pine yeah! I love seeing all the transfem readings of homestuck. It’s valuable analysis, especially knowing how transfems are treated in the wider fandom space. So I appreciate that FRAF lets their voices be heard :]

I haven't seen any controversy yet personally? But anyways I find it fun sharing interpetations here!

The community is cool. Y'all are very kind :).

I like the use of ComicAd for advertisements. It allows for indie artists to easily get more eyes on their work, especially if they're looking for an audience that likes Homestuck. Plus, it's cheap!

Unfortunately I don't have very much else to say that's positive. Despite me just calling the community very kind, please let me sour the mood for just a moment by being the one annoying 8itch with nothing good to say...

The forum software is undercooked. Came out of the oven too early. Blue rare steak. Probably the most infuriating aspect is that they could've just gone out to the Free Software Store and bought a microwaveable phpBB frozen meal and thrown their own spice mix on it to make it taste different. I wish they'd have just kept working on it for a couple months or so. Hell, what's another year? The original forums went down in 2016. I'm sure we could've waited a bit longer.

The use of a custom forum software does open up more possibilities for customization, but it also means there can be tons of nasty vulnerabilities wriggling around in the code, which will take longer to find and fix as this proprietary forum does not - and never will - have the same backing, financial or developer-wise (open source ftw!), as larger projects like the aforementioned phpBB, Discourse, or paid software like XenForo.

Insert obligatory request for BBcode.

I won't say much about the frontend, because I like the idea of it and have already made my criticisms about it heard in another thread.

As for the support email, which is the intended communication method to use if one were to ask for their account to be deleted or if a vulnerability is found in the forum software, it doesn't seem to be checked all that often. It is also possible that it has been misconfigured and simply doesn't receive mail. I can personally attest to this - I sent an email on the 18th of August, and a month later, I have not received any response. This is a big issue considering one of the duties of the support email is to report critical vulnerabilities.

@a1m3v:

> I don't really contribute to a lot of bug reports because I figured other people have already said the issues for me, especially because of the site's beta status.

There's probably a significant enough amount of people who think like that, leading to bugs not being reported. It's probably better to accidentally report a bug twice than to leave it to fester. I don't know though, I don't work here.

i enjoy fraf a lot and tend to check most all of the boards daily! i do wish it was a bit more active but its such a nice change of pace in comparison to the homestuck discord, where it feels super difficult/daunting to jump into conversations. i also like that it seems like a large number of the users here are adults.

I uSED TO FREQuENT ALOT OF ALT-RIGHT FORuMS DuRING MIDDLE SCHOOL SO THIS HAS BEEN A VERY HEALING EXPERIENCE. ESPECIALLY SINCE ITS ABOuT MY SPECIAL INTEREST. I LIKE BEING ACTIVE AND ITS EVEN MORE FuN BEING ABLE TO RECOGNIZE MOST ACTIVE uSERS. EVERYONE HERE IS uSuALLY RESPECTFuL AND FuNNY. ITS ALSO VERY HELPFuL FOR INTERPRETING HOMESTUCK DIFFERENT WAYS AND LEARNING ABOuT HOMESTuCK EVEN MORE. ITS MAINLY WHERE I GET MY INFORMATION ABOuT HOMESTuCK NOWADAYS.

ITS PRETTY ACTIVE FOR A FORuM, AT LEAST COMPARED TO THE ONES I WAS ON WHEN I WAS A WEE LAD SO THAT IS A HuGE PLuS. ITS STILL SLOW ENOuGH TO BE ABLE TO DIGEST THE INFORMATION. I ALSO LIKE THAT ITS MOSTLY ADuLTS BECAuSE I HIGHKEY FIND SPEAKING WITH HOMESTuCK FANS MY AGE EXHAuSTING.

10/10 SO FAR MY FAVORITE PART OF BEING IN THIS FANDOM ARE THE FORuMS!

I find the atmosphere extremely relaxing and there's clearly safer, progressive moderation in place to make sure we're heading towards a positive culture.

Thank you for this space. :)