Furry auction site FurBuy remains offline, a month after it was abruptly taken down, leading to severe corruption of the 19-year-old site's database.

Site owners say May 23's emergency shutdown was intended to recover from a freeze triggered by a self-styled security researcher's access, and announced a months-long renovation.

The researcher revealed their involvement, claiming to have been blocked by FurBuy after contacting them on Twitter. They said they did not access the database, but that someone using the vulnerability they found would be able to do so - which is disputed by the site owners.

Modern database systems and server hardware are meant to cope with unanticipated downtime by writing to disk in such a way that the data can always be recovered to a consistent state; however, this requires appropriate configuration, and tends to decrease overall performance. It is also possible for hardware to fail under stress.

The last successful backup of the site was made in October 2017, but this remained unnoticed after the death of long-time system administrator Mordrul last August, from thyroid cancer.

Furry auction site FurBuy has added a classified listings service, among other updates, positioning it as a "furry Craigslist". Listings so far include furry identification badges, a skunk suit for sale, and a request for a sewing partner. However, ongoing competition from social art sites has lead to a threat of closure later this year, reminiscent of those made over a decade ago.

A copy of My Little Pony-themed erotica magazine Hoof Beat created by "popular furry artists" has been bid up to four figures at auction, with one day to go.

Two regular FurBuy users ran the price up to $826 over two days before new bidders joined in.

Another copy was recently sold for $150 on eBay, where the creators are listed as Sunshy, Wind Driven, Leche, Flanks and Don't Ask Spike.

The 58-page 10 5/8"x7 3/4" softcover colour work, produced in a print run of 200, was originally sold for $25 at Anthrocon 2012 via the Club Stripes table.

Three comics are included, plus a number of pin-ups.

The demand has caused other fans to put their copies up on FurBuy, with one selling for $305.

FurBuy site owner Jurann today announced a change in site leadership, having previously indicated his intention to resign from public-facing activities.

The new community manager, Mordrul, is to be responsible for leading and marketing FurBuy, as well as general administrative duties, while Jurann continues to handle feature requests.

The furry marketplace heated up today as FurBuy owner Jurann was "permanently banned" from Fur Affinity for "false threats against users holding auctions on FA instead of furbuy" and "disruption of the community, drama starting and interference with user transactions."

FA's Dragoneer gave his opinion of Jurann's attempts to pressure artists into using FurBuy:

Frankly, I'm sick of Jurann constantly threatening users, encouraging them to "Go to Furbuy...or else!"

In response, Jurann said Dragoneer "[took his] legal advice as a threat," while maintaining that FTC auction guidelines apply to Fur Affinity:

It's a simple fact that there ARE rules and guidelines, and they are quite clearly not being followed on FA at present.

FurBuy has proposed changes to their paid membership system, introduced last November.

The proposals include a 'feral' membership level for those with annual auction turnover between $500 and $2000, and the ability to pay for just a 3- or 6-month term.

Furry auction site FurBuy has resumed service after going offline for the best part of a day.

FurBuy went down around 9PM EST Wednesday, due to what site owner Jurann called a "massive DDoS attack that exploited a vulnerability in the DNS hosting".

FurBuy has implemented a $18 annual fee for those making significant income via the site. The fee also affects those who wish to post four concurrent auctions, or seven in a month.

Initially, the fee was implemented after $400 of sales – chosen as the amount above which self-employment tax must be paid in the USA. Advance notice of the proposed changes were posted on FurBuy's LiveJournal community and FA journal.

Clearly not all users were watching, as a user backlash ensued. After a week, site owner Jurann raised the limit to $900, but noted that it is likely to include current and opening bids in the future, to prevent listing a number of high-value auctions at once.

Furry auction site The Dealers Den is running a sweepstakes to promote increased activity.

Auctions, bids, referrals and invites earn varying numbers of points, which are to be totaled to calculate a user's proportionate chance of winning.

The competition is to end June 16, with the three winners receiving a $50 Amazon.com gift card, a ClawGFX t-shirt, or a Dealers Den t-shirt.

Founded last October by Sinabu, The Dealers Den is offering free advertising, but faces an uphill battle against decade-old competitors FurBid and FurBuy.

Hi furfolk! The FurBuy system at
http://www.furbuy.com is now open for business once again - this time under
new management. This is the place to post new auctions, place bids, and use the message boards. As always FurBuy is 100%
free and loaded with great features, and more features are being developed all
the time. Any questions and comments are welcome, but please address them to
the message boards or in e-mail to furbuy-admin@furbuy.com

Hope to see you there!

==Teeka Fox/DJ Vix-N, Admin and PR of FurBuy

Stopped by the FurBuy website lately? After a hiatus of over seven months (see Furbuy to cease operations..... again) and a tentative feeler in June, it looks like FurBuy -- the former competitor to reigning champion furry auctionhouse FurBid -- is making a bid to return. The FurBuy News Page is announcing that FurBuy is under new management and will be reopening soon. It's rather light on details about who will be taking over the operation, promising that "more information will be posted as it becomes available." The news page further goes on to ask users to support the site by donating to help renew the furbuy.com domain and offset costs.

Poking around the web today, I happened to stop by the old Fur Buy website. Interestingly enough, I saw that their "News" section had been updated on May 27th, replacing the offer to sell the domain and software to any interested buyers. It seems that the proprietor of Fur Buy is considering making a comeback -- again -- and is soliciting feedback to see if there is any interest and support within the community for such a move.

A link for the mail address to respond to is provided off the Fur Buy news page.

I'm not sure if anyone saying they are going out of business or leaving the fandom is news, as 90% of the time it is a very temporary situation, with the person or business returning after "a flood of support" - but I just got a message from FurBuy saying that they are going out of business effective December 1, with the domain name and auction software up for sale.

No, I don't know if they really mean it this time, that's just the email they sent out.

Most of you probably already knew FurBuy was online again, but I was reminded that sending a message might be helpful for those who don't check in on the website every day. We turned everything online as normal again this morning. We will be trying this again for two to three months to see how well it does. If you'd like to see FurBuy remain online and continue to grow, please support us in any way possible.

Owner of FurBuy states, "We are baffled and amazed, even schocked, that the continued support of the fandom goes to a piece-mail auction system hacked together by an underage individual using a bug-ridden, featureless auction script freely available from the internet. "