fchan

1. Boredom + the Google.
2. Just art and having some furry friends.
3. Something you want nothing to do with beyond having the occasional friend who happens to be a furry. Trust me on this.
4. Wolf. I've always felt a kinship with them. None of that "wolf trapped in a human body" bullshit, though.
5. No.
6. It was okay. Mostly it consisted of not actually being at the convention, but going out to do stuff like play mini golf with friends.

1. The almightly Google and clicking links from anime sites.
2. I just like clean art.
3. People who originally like anthropomorphic fantasy creatures, but have since twisted it into a perverse fetish and lifestyle.
4. I really like cats, but I'm 100% human.
5. I don't have a fursona.
6. I've been to meets. Most of the people are pretty cool and easy to get along with, but there are definitely some creepers out there.

>>5
This is a survey, not an argument, there have already been countless threads about this. Most of the furry community would probably denounce *you* as the "vocal minority" that makes the rest of us look bad. What a hypocrite.

>>7
>Protip: If you don't want an argument, don't say anything bad about furries.

Fixed that for you.

>>9
You do realise that even though this site has a clean image section, it is still a predominantly adult site? (why else would they put the adult warning on first entering the site, as opposed to putting the warning when you enter the adult sections? Not to mention their Q&A: Q. What kind of board?
A. fchan is a heavily modified wakaba-based imageboard, for the posting of furry artwork (porn, mainly). )

Though I'll admit that furry in general relates to the adult lifestyle, the audience which considers themselves to "like" anthromorphic creatures is probably much larger than the "furry fandom". You can blame Disney for that. The only question is, how much do you need to like anthromorphic imagery to be considered part of the fandom?

1. More than 20 years ago. Art school, animation students, Anime fandom and comics fandom introduced me to other furry artists and APAzines.
2. Peripherally involved, but I've made art, attended cons and did some costuming; some people call it fursuiting.
3. "A furry" is a person harboring an interest in things with animal identities, usually cartoon art of fictional characters, but using such characters in a context that appeals to adults.
4. I associate with domestic animals when I have the opportunity, and when they're not scared of me. I don't feel any connection to any particular species like the question suggests.
5. Spirituality is a delusion in any and all instances. I don't have a fursona. I have a furry self-caricature instead; I draw myself as some kind of scruffy wolf/dog-headed thing.
6. Conventions are a good excuse to get away and hang out with some like-minded fanboys and girls. Many of them draw too! I appreciate the effort spent on many of the costumes I see there. Once in a while I run into some good-natured but tactless slobs who can't shut up, and I let them down gently but firmly.

>>4 "3. People who originally like anthropomorphic fantasy creatures, but have since twisted it into a perverse fetish and lifestyle."
That's a little harshly put, but also about half true.

>>5 "The sexual aspect of it has always been there."
True, it's always been a big facet of an otherwise multi-faceted interest.
"Furry is predominantly a fetish;"
Okay, for many people with a narrower view of the scene, this is true.
"deal with it. You never had your way in the past despite fantasies otherwise, and you never will have your way. You are a (vocal) minority, and you do not represent furry."
Angry much? Ran out of room for differing opinions?
"Splinter off into your own sub-community already, and stop trying to claim the whole pie for yourself."
I'd give the same advice to you too, fella.

>>13
FA is made as a furry "art" site, where any art of anthropomorphic subject can be posted. The fact that much of it is porn speaks volumes about furries.

I'm not a big fan of porn, furry or otherwise. I don't care what individual people wank it to, either. Here's my problem: there is NOWHERE on the internet to find clean furry art where you will not find porn along side. This is why I come to fchan. I stay on /c/ and /dis/.

I don't claim that "porn ruined furry" (that honor lies with idiots who take the whole idea of "furry" too far"), but it's tough to be in a fandom that revolves around porn (you admit it) when you don't even like it. I would manage, except when I even *mention* my distaste for porn or dissatisfaction with the abundance of it that I drown in, I get snapped at by self-righteous people who claim that I'm somehow against them.

>>14
On your main points, fair enough. If you're not one of the "porn ruined furry" people, I have no beef with you. I know there are people who don't dig porn, and there's nothing remotely wrong wit that.

Just to note, though, on FA, it seems you don't know its backstory. It was founded by and for furry porn fans. A while back, Deviant Art banned porn, so Sheezy Art was created to pick up the exodus from DA. Then Sheezy Art banned porn (turns out it was run by a minor who didn't have permission from his host) so a few furry porn fans got together and assembled FA. There's a reason the site is poorly coded: it was made hastily out of need. Suffice to say, the non-porn furries were still plenty welcome on DA and SA.

>>14
"There is NOWHERE on the internet to find clean furry art where you will not find porn along side"

Have you checked; http://www.artspots.com

 

>>1

1. Whenever I think of "jock", this grinning wolfman-dude appears in my brain. We've made friends.

2. Hard to say, really. I like a lot of furry porn, but not so much so that I am blinded to non-erotic artistic visions. Starting with pubes at age 8, chest/back hair by 10, able to grow a full mustache at age 12, and a beard at age 14, I was a very early-bloomer in regard to puberty. I always saw myself as a human-animal person. I DO NOT ACTUALLY BELIEVE I AM A NAMED ANIMAL -- but it is fun and ego-building to knowingly enter into self-deception and pretend that I am more than a human being, and I can convincingly intimidate some willing others swimmingly. I don't use fursuits (lol, don't need them), and I don't plan on attending a furry convention.

3. I would explain "furry" to any close friends considering entering the fandom like this:

"Once upon a time, way back when the Internet was young, there were a bunch of people whom society didn't like for various reasons. Either they were gay or fat or nerdy or BDSM enthusiasts or pedophiles... Anyway! Frustrated by the lack of power in their own lives, they became artists who invented a bunch of power animals to get themselves through each day. They shared these power animals given humanish form and highly individualistic personalities secretly with each other over UseNET (long before Google or Mozilla Thunderbird existed, when only the computer geeks knew how to access UseNET way back then). The furries took a liking to each other. They created a little, secret community online that no one would ever be able to penetrate (or so they originally thought), and formed a support network and tried to help each other make it in life.

They even started forming little groups, and began to hang out with each other basking in the social support of each others' power animals. They started putting on shows to entertain people, dressing up as their favorite power animal, and when one of their own would be kicked out of his parent's house because he was gay -- at least the furries took comfort in knowing they wouldn't have to be put out on the streets. Some of the gay furries even started drawing their power animals engaging in romantic relationships that they felt they didn't have the strength to obtain for themselves amidst a frowning society. It was admirable they way they cared for and admired each other.

Then came Eternal September, precipitated by some stupid retarded furries talking about all their deeply-disturbed sexual fetishes to the media, which brought a whole passel of deeply-disturbed people who were interested in said extreme fetishes to furry fandom. This was the start of a phenomenon known as FURRY DRAMA -- and may God help you if you're ever caught in the crossfire of it. All these new EXTREME perverts to the fandom started copying off everyone else's characters because they didn't want to have to exert the minimal amount of effort to come up with their own because they were just here for the freaky sex. The artists started screaming and threatening to sue, and those who took their sacred characters as fap-material laughed, because the socially-unacceptable furries were powerless to do anything. Then 12-year-olds started making stories about Bowser anally-devouring the Tasmanian Devil, and we sort of lost track of all the shit that happened from that point onward in a whirlwind blur of epic fail.

So, eventually, everyone surrendered the idealism of transforming their social-awkwardness and abundant geekery into something that could have increased the quality of their lives. In absence of the dreams they originally desired out of anthropomorphics, furries started drawing Sonic porn, and Lion King porn, and Pokemon porn, and other copyrighted character porn (in copious quantities) as a sort of passive-aggressive maneuver emanating from deep within their collective subconsciouses.

Not to mention taking art commissions from deeply disturbed people who are equally deeply spiritually-wounded for being denied their true triple-breasted herm-taur Mormon-Buddhist transsexual nazi-eskimo-with-penises-for-eyes Winnie-the-Pooh form. Take that, society!

And that is how furry fandom came to be the retarded lollercaust cancer it is today."

4. My brother says I'd be closest to a ferret. I think he's trying to piss me off.

5. None.

6. No convention experience.

>>21

Exactly. WHAAAAAAATT?! The same guy who wrote >>20 in this thread is the same guy who wrote >>9 in the "What is a furry lifestyler" thread. I've and a lot of other furs) have put up with a lot of, "Wow, I'm glad I' not involved in that", from the sidelines.

Some people are rejected by society for bad reasons (gay, nerdy, shy, fat, introverted, etc.), and some are rejected by society for good reasons (pedophiles, bestialists, 20-year-old-in-diapers-because-he-likes-the-feeling-of-shit-on-his-tush, lycanthropy (a listed psychological disease), and other outright nauseating psychopaths (Google "Bart Bervoets" and "Pochi raccoon" as examples -- and guard your sanity).

Thankfully, in this fandom, the people who are rejected by society for the wrong reasons outnumber those who are rejected for the right reasons by 50 to 1. There is still time to do something about this mess!

All us misfits, whether rejected by society for the right reasons or the wrong reasons, who turn to anthropomophics fandom for therapy, try to find the social support from each other that no one else in life will give us. Sadly, there exist the few of us -- and thankfully only a few of us -- who are beyond the scope of casual passive group therapy and clearly need admission to a mental hospital. These individuals tend to be from the camp of pedos and bestialists and psychopaths earlier mentioned.

Furry fandom seems to be unable, totally blind, in fact, to make very critical social decisions. As a bunch of nerds who got stuffed in lockers in high school, we hate rejecting others -- even when it's obviously necessary. We NEED to learn that we cannot help everybody.

Furry fandom is failing to learn the lesson that it takes just one teaspoon of excrement to ruin a pot of soup, hence my reluctance to participate fully in it (as well as many others). The sordid brief cross-section of furry history I've posted above is just a shocking primer of the consequences of furries failing to be the "bad guy" and police their own fandom where needed.

The average furry recognizes the problems of the fandom, but because of the total overall lack of structure to the fandom, there is no way to police it to keep it free of some very atrocious behavior. Atrocious behaviors that furries should be very concerned about if they care about the freedom to express their power animals in public without being instantly falsely identified as the type of people who sexually violate kids and beasts and kids' toys.


Examples? Ha! As if you needed any here on Fchan. Very well, without further ado, I present to you --

The Top 10 Furry Fandom Faux Pas (and damn are they seriously fucked up to everyone looking in on this sordid mess).

Furry fandom, on a macro level (no pun intended), has failed to:

1. Distinguish between one guy who's trying to recapture his own innocence and another guy who's gets his rocks off by destroying a child's innocence.

2. Distinguish between one sexually adventurous guy who thinks that women in leather cat suits are sexy, and another guy who's way out of the ballpark and has centered his whole life on owning his own animal farm -- just so he can sexually gratify himself on the unfortunate sub-sapient beasts entrusted to his care.

3. Distinguish the appropriate time and place to engage in certain activities. Ergo, some of you will take as news that an INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, where Memphis FurMeet -- a large furry convention -- is held, is NOT the appropriate time to break out the leather bondage gear for the cameras (as if any time were a good time to tell the media your SEXUAL fantasies). An INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT is a good time for furries to be on their BEST behavior. Have fun, but make certain you are aware you are being watched by people making invaluable first impressions of your scene.

4. (This one is like number 3, but is important enough to earn its own number.) Recognize that a good time to keep your safe, sane, and with informed consent fetishes private is all the time -- except in the privacy of your own home or hotel room or online venues with adult material disclaimers in place. Do not post furry porn where people do not want to see it. The random people you play first-person-shooter video games with DO NOT want to see the mod you made to your saccharine-cute pastel-colored faggot wolf character to give him a 50-inch throbbing cock. Do not make your nasty type-fuck sessions publicly available on LiveJournal. You exhibitionists disrespecting the boundaries, choices, and freedoms of others are the cancer killing this fandom.

5. Respect the artists who provide you fap material. Even an artist who accepts money to draw your crazy x-rated character is still doing you a favor. Don't steal. Better yet, stop making requests for artists to draw you free pictures in the first place -- unless they offer first. If you do decide to screw proper manners and prod an artist into doing your ego a favor, have the decency to keep erotica discreet unless the artist is cool being known as an erotica artist.

6. Understand that it is never open season to post on the Internet children's cartoon characters being sexually violated in every way conceivable. You disrespect the original artist who created the characters to entertain children, and you risk exposing children to sexually explicit material by putting that shit on the Internet. This example definitely falls under the "keep your disgusting fetishes private" clause if ever there was one.

7. Set a good example for young people interested in anthropomorphic characters by providing an exclusive non-erotic venue for them to attend. There are few, if any, open art archives on the net that cater exclusively to non-erotic furry art (Yerf is dead -- it no longer exists).

8. Set minimal and necessary standards of conduct for the mature side of furry fandom that are currently missing. The rules of engagement that apply to a single's bar should also apply to adult furry fandom.

9. Understand that furry fandom is not an appropriate babysitter service for your tots! Some of you very young mothers and fathers let them tag along behind you at conventions in an atmosphere were both you and other people might be looking for sexual encounters. This is why the minimal standards commonly adopted by single's bars applied to furry fandom would do wonders to clear up a lot of disrespected boundaries.

10. Recognize the basic natures of different social engagement. Just because chemical "a" reacts well with chemicals "b" and "c" separately, doesn't mean that "b" and "c" go well together, nor that "a", "b", and "c" work well when thrown together at once. Even Homer Simpson knows to separate work from home from the boys down at the pub.

>>23
Seconded.  I agree completely: it always pisses me off when furries basically act like they (we) can display whatever perversion they want, and it's other people's problem (and fault) if they have a problem with it.  A public place - like a mall or cafeteria or store - is not really an appropriate place to air your sexual fetishes, and if people think it's odd or react negatively to it, it's not their fault.
Not that we don't have every right to our odd little fetishes, just that, if we want to not be judged for them, we should probably show reasonable restraint.