Hello, everyone!

When Furry Network was created, we wanted to help people throughout the fandom come together to bring worlds and characters to life. We’ve seen the wealth of imagination submitted through various media to the site’s gallery, and your creativity continues to amaze us.

One sore spot that has remained for many, though, is the commission process. We have seen cases where people on both sites of a commission have fallen through on commitments; at times, these are eventually resolved, but some disputes drag on for months or years. Many worry about the risks that have come with commissions.

We believe that bringing an idea to life should be a fun and exhilarating experience for buyers and sellers alike. Because of that, we have created Furry Network’s commission tool, and we are now accepting volunteers to help test the commission process.

How Is This More Reliable?

Traditionally, buyers and sellers commissioning art have discussed payment terms. People paying upfront have sometimes never received the final commission, and content creators accepting payment at the end of the commission risk not being paid at all.

Throughout the commission process, Furry Network will act as a third party, ensuring that payments are made, cancelled commissions have refunds processed, and disputes are resolved. Having a third party gives several benefits during the commission process:

• If a commission needs to be cancelled for warranted reasons, refunds are guaranteed to be available for the buyer
• Sellers are guaranteed that funds are available for payment once the commission is complete
• Any payment issues can be resolved if either party becomes responsive
• An unbiased staff member is available to assist with any disputes and ensure that matters are resolved according to commission rules

The commission tool also comes with space to upload reference sheets, a summary showing the scope of work, and statuses to easily sort through the progress on current commissions. In addition, a page showing accounts open for commission provides more visibility for both experienced and new content creators.

We will provide more information about the tool as well as the full rule list in the coming weeks.

Signing Up as a Volunteer

We are looking for 20 content creators to help test the commission tool for the website. Tests will begin either at the end of January or the beginning of February. Because this is a new tool, we expect for some problems to appear on occasion; we will have a staff member available to help whenever any issues arise.

If you are interested, please fill out our volunteer application. Note that you do not need to fill this out if you wish to purchase a commission through this system; any Furry Network users may purchase commissions during the testing process.

We are thrilled to begin testing this tool, and we hope all involved with commissions can find more excitement in the process of creation.

-Digby and the Furry Network team