Here’s one explanation.
So people are asking about an explanation, as to why all the Slash hate without explanations to back it up. I don’t know too many personal examples, such as someone earlier mentioning Slash ruining someone else’s life or whatever… But I’ve been there from BEFORE the beginning and here’s what I know.
Aywas started as threads on other game sites. Lured by promises of special goodies once the site opened, artists poured their time and efforts into early pet designs, only to receive nothing in return except for an account when it opened. Not to mention all the designs got trashed when the lines got updated - instead of asking the original artists’ permission for the pets to be redone by someone else, or for them to do it, it was just a free-for-all, and those artists redoing other artists’ work got rewarded.
2. When signing up for an account, you were REQUIRED to make up a feature for the site. I know of several that were then used, with no credit to those who came up with them: Scav, the story contest, etc.
3. Slash is a biological female, and goes by such in real life, even Facebook. However Slash decided one day that it’s stupid to be a girl on the internet, so Slash would be known as a guy - but only on the internet. (This is what Slash said, not what I’ve decided Slash meant.) This offended many - both feminists that were offended by the insult of it somehow being bad to be a girl on the internet, and true trans people. It’s insulting to us trans for someone to be like, hey I wanna be a cis-woman in real life, but I’m going to impersonate a trans-man online.
4. Slash is a bad manager. We all know all about this so I’m not going to extrapolate. If you really want to know, read some past Aywas Confessions.
5. Slash has repeatedly banned users for made up stuff, or just because Slash doesn’t like the person. Whereas Slash’s “favorites” get special treatment.
6. It’s super easy to find where Slash has spent THOUSANDS of dollars on frivolous stuff such as art for her RP characters, tons of contests on dA, exotic pets, traveling, etc. Slash even talks about it all the time. Slash also has a condo and lives quite the luxurious life. When Slash says she only gets a tiny little bit of the money from the site, I don’t believe it because it’s easy to see how much Slash spends. So to not pay staff, not pay to fix bugs, etc., and then try to tell us that Aywas doesn’t make enough money? BS.
7. The whole site makes money because Slash doesn’t really have to pay anyone. (Which seemed like a really great business model at the time, but it’s what’s caused the situation with the economy in the first place.) Slash gets content by just bribing users with site stuff. Really think about how much junk the site has, and compare it to how much you know actually goes out in cash. The coders get paid, sure. But artists? A select few artists get a couple dollars here and there for some breeding and some pet designs. Everything else gets submitted as contests or for some GP. Slash gets CONSTANT free art and labor, while dollars are pouring into the site from GP purchases. Did anyone notice how the Scav had some cleverly placed content recruitment? The “idea for a feature” - one even got immediately implemented! The iPod app - woo free Aywas apps on the market! Flash games for the site, etc. Way to go Slash, that’s real creative. But some of us are tired of being taken advantage of.
8. Like other users have mentioned, there have been some more personal issues that paint Slash in a very negative light. Petty things, serious things - but all of these things involve other people that might not want the old issues dragged up again so I will not give any details. But basically, Slash can be really mean, you guys. :(
This whole thing feels like what happened to Wajas with Estuko back in the day, if anyone was around then…
