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submitted by James9902
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Author: Diamond Man When I finally saw the plot synopsis and the box art for Alpha and Omega: The Legend of the Saw Tooth Cave, I was actually pretty upset. I feared that they just no longer care for the original characters of the very first movie. The box art only featured the wolf puppies […]

An all-in-one app for furry artists, fans, and community-builders…

Morham Technologies’ Fandom App

Indiegogo ending 1/26/15

Build a better mousetrap, and…and the metaphor breaks immediately, because some of the nicest people I know are mouses.

Furry social media space is pretty crowded, with perhaps 30 sites to serve something like 57,000 furries. A lot of websites and products have tried to be the Next Big Thing for furries. FA has the weight of numbers behind it, but is weak on community building and conversation–and tech-wise, isn’t part of the discussion anymore. 2005 was a hundred years ago.   In a tech-savvy fandom where the vast majority of us carry a powerful web browser in our pocket, there really isn’t a strong app to service the community (outside of a few find-a-fox hookup apps, which may be a little too single-use.)

Enter Morham Technologies (website under construction) and their upcoming fandom app, now on Indiegogo. On the one paw, the app is work-in-progress (the working title is Furry Fandom App, but rather than abbreviate it in the obvious way I’m going to shorten to “The Morham App.”) and a lot of the images available are, also, work-in-progress. On the other paw, the developer and spokeswolf Matthew Mooneyham (alias, Lokoti Wolf) has some success in app and site development (most relevantly the recent facebook-esque social media site, furspace.net).

In a crowded market, whatever’s scheduled to be the Next Big Thing had better be pretty awesome–able to take the best from FA, Facebook, Twitter, and build a one-stop shop for furry community (and furry art, I’m not sure you can separate the two.) Having a few extra features would be a plus. And, as proposed in its project page, the Morham App delivers in spades.

You have to break down the app’s features into chunks, this burger is too big to bite into. Let’s look at in terms of social, archival, and artist functionality. (If you’d like to see the demo version of the app itself whizzing through its features, here’s a link directly to the feature tour.

Social:
In my local community, we’re served mostly by facebook and twitter, good tools to communicate with friends but not great for finding new contacts. The Morham App’s social features have community-building functionality as well as the more standard IM tools:
»Direct messaging
»Group and Forum tools
»Event posting
»Integration with Facebook for microblog functionality
Long-term goals for social networking are location-based, such as a “nearby furries” locator and conversations that are geographically centered, like creating a conversation forum and events list restricted to the city blocks around Anthrocon (“Geofencing,” it’s called).

Archival:
No furry platform could compete if its user can’t share pictures of his/her avatar dressed as Bish?jo Senshi Sailor Moon in a compromising position with two dingos and the 10th Doctor. The Morham App has post-and-share functionality for music, art, and text, with simple layout for easy viewing on your device of choice, and commenting.
»Reposting is available, great for a commission-heavy community, so the same image and comment section can appear in an artist’s and commissioner’s separate art feeds…including some analytical features to merge “accidental” duplications together.
»Content Feeds: Down the road, the Morham App will be able to collect furry video and audio podcasts.  It doesn’t seem a long journey from “repository for furry sound files” to “basically it’s a furry radio,” I look forward to seeing how that technology develops!

(As one of the double handful of furry journalists out there, I’d love to see a furry news aggregator feature. Just saying. My birthday’s in March BTW.)

Artist:
Here’s where the app shines. A portable social media and art-browsing tool is useful on its own, but the Morham App’s strongest focus is on simplifying the artist’s experience and creating clear lines of communication between an artist and her fan base:
»Commission queue, commission status, and payment management
»”Currently accepting commissions” list for followers (I’m assuming this is just the artists the user follows, not all artists.)
»Groupon-style “flash sales” (say, an artist wants to work on a series of bookmarks, or wants to offer a one-day sale on reference sheets, this makes those short-term deals “pop”)
»Adspace (early adopters through the Indiegogo campaign get “free” ad space with their sponsorship).

Anyway, enough with the features! This isn’t a complete list, Lokoti Wolf has some features he hasn’t shared, and some more in the pipeline. It’s a nice long list for a free app!

There are of course a few hurdles in a project like this. One of the big bugaboos in the furry internet is long-term funding, which is challenging for a free app or other resource. Since the Morham App is largely about artist-fan relations, the two obvious routes are ad-driven revenue and transaction fees. There’s a delicate balance between cost and value of service, here. Transactional fees are a part of the world we live in, but it’s going to be a hard decimal point to place.

The other problem is the classic “video phone” dilemma, the critical adoption mass. Until the time when everybody carried a camera in their pocket, video chats just weren’t a thing–you could buy a video phone, but unless your SO, mom, or co-workers had them, what was the point? A project like this will become progressively more amazing as  it is adopted by more users and artists, but until then, it’s a long road to success. A huge advantage the Morham App has is there simply isn’t any competition in the field of furry apps–it’s a largely empty playing field. Hopefully I’ll see Lokoti on the con circuit soon, giving it away. Sounds like a fun vendor table. “Here, have a thing! It’s free and awesome!” Nice work if you can get it :)

From a crowdfunding perspective, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Morham App comes back for a second round of funding after the software’s alpha test and feedback (I’ll be getting my own copy soon, and will add comments to this post.) A strong project would probably help it out there. There’s also some rocky issues with premiums and pledge points–there’s lots of rewards for artists, but not much incentive for casual fans to donate–or for businesses and websites that don’t fit well into a content stream. A springtime marketing makeover (tighten the video a bit, take out the 30 seconds of login screen, less talking head and more chrome, in-line graphics for the page itself, maybe lose the flexible funding…) might help launch the app to the general public during a round two campaign in the summer.

Now, on to play with my new reviewer’s copy!

Follow @Furstarter on Twitter for dailyish updates from the world of fur-funding!

Images above are used for review purposes with permission. Please link to this article or the app’s Indiegogo page if you re-use!

 

submitted by Luna_Wolf
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submitted by The_Ninja_Nero
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submitted by NoahGoldFox
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Author: crossaffliction Contributors this month included bastett, crossaffliction, dronon, earthfurst, Fred, GreenReaper, InkyCrow, Patch Packrat, Poetigress and Rakuen Growlithe. read more Find the full article here: flayrah – furry food for thought Creative Commons: Full post may be available under a free license.

submitted by Jumbojet777
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submitted by 1NiteFang1
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submitted by TehWhitehart
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submitted by Austrum
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I have been reluctant to show the finished article because my teacher claimed that it was funny. I notified him and he seemed to not care and still thought it was funny for people in an emergency. I'm now making the decision to share with you the finished article.

Trouble at a Convention

Imagine being at a convention enjoying your time when suddenly, you’re forced to evacuate outside the building along with thousands of other people. That is how the guests of Midwest FurFest felt on the early morning of December 7th 2014. During the weekend of December 5th to December 7th 2014, a convention held annually at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Rosemont Illinois named Midwest FurFest was underway. The convention consists of the celebration of anthropomorphic characters, also known as Furries. Their art, literature, and music are demonstrated and appreciated at the convention as well as the common sight of dressed fursuiters. These conventions are held all over the world and are quite popular. The worlds largest furry convention, Anthrocon, had an attendance of 5,861 the summer of 2014. Specifically, MFF is the second largest furcon in the world. It reached an attendance of 3,904 in 2013. Anything can go wrong at these conventions with this large amount of people. Sometimes the case is just a simple pull of the fire alarm. But on the early morning of December 7th, a complaint of an odor of chlorine gas was filed to the hotel. Rosemont firefighters and paramedics responded to the hotel at 12:47am to the complaint of a broken bottle emitting a strong chemical, chlorine like smell in the ninth floor of the hotel. Reddit user mwishosimba said, “People started shouting at us to get outside. I automatically assume that it’s just some idiot pulling the alarm again. Someone mentions that the air smells weird, I agree.” The Hyatt engaged an immediate response of evacuating all personnel from the building. Thousands of people and fursuiters flooded the streets in the evacuation. ”I was in a fursuit and just took a few steps off the escalator when people were trying to keep a clear path for the EMT. The EMT reappeared with a stretcher in tow and someone yelled out, “Everyone needs to leave the building.” Within a second or two the fire alarm went off and the crowd was pivoted and headed towards the door,” Said reddit user zortech. Reddit user stylishg33k said, “People were being carried out of the hotel in stretchers; most people didn’t have proper clothing and it was freezing.” Inside the hotel, hazardous materials technicians found a broken bottle with white powder in a stairwell at the ninth floor that had a heavy chlorine scent emitting from it. Firefighters contacted the EMS Box Alarm and HazMat alarm. User mwishosimba also goes on to say,” I saw an uncountable number of ambulances, police cruisers, firetrucks and most alarming of all, hazmat vehicles; it is then everyone knew that this was no joke, especially when there were vehicles from many towns over.” The EMS Box Alarm was raised to a third alarm, which calls over 15 ambulances to the scene. The news of the situation reached far outside the hotel space. #MWFF2014 was trending on twitter in the number 6 spot in the world. According to mwishosimba, “Around 3am, word gets around that the attack was intentional. Everyone is pretty quiet at the point as they discuss recent events. Nobody is certain of the injuries at the point, it was rumored around 20.” In total, 19 people were transported to hospitals with complaints of nausea, some people coughing up blood, and other problems from the chlorine. User zortech also said, "I ended up acting like a living blanket to a fur that didn't have a coat and had a very thin shirt for at least a half an hour. Eventually actual blankets arrived." Some people retreated to other buildings to get away from the cold and some stayed outside the Hyatt. At one point, people were allowed to enter back into the dance area and lower convention space, but the dance room was deemed unsafe at that moment so people were evacuated back out of the dance room. User SikeRed said, “My job was to listen to the EMS dispatch and relay information. Thanks to that, we were able to get a lot of information out and available (And especially because we were able to have HAMs help do crowd control, get EMS where needed, and get those ETAs out).” HazMat teams measured the air quality after the chlorine was cleaned up and an all clear was given at 4:21am for all staff and guests of the hotel to return back inside. There were no casualties that morning and the convention resumed to normal that day. On behalf of MFF’s statement on the evacuation, “We ask you to continue to be patient, and remember that the volunteers who make Midwest FurFest happen intend to give 110% to make sure that the fun, friendship, and good times of Midwest FurFest 2014 overshadow last night’s unfortunate incident.” User deathbyrats said, “In the end, I have to give credit to everyone involved, con goers, staff, and emergency workers as everything was handled calmly. Directions were loud and clear, and there was no pushing or shoving.” Clearly, this was a large event but because of the mishap, no one’s spirits were brought down, people stayed focused and in result, no one died. It is unfortunate for this to happen to innocent people but, Midwest FurFest will continue to strive every year it starts and ends.

submitted by ShadowFur17
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submitted by evilsibe
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submitted by IchyDog
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Hello fellow furries this is kind of weird but I'm a 16 year old guy looking for a furry friend I've got steam, facebook and my phone to message through. I know that's kind of vague so ask me anything you'd like to.

submitted by Samfiller
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submitted by richikitsune
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Five Fortunes
Edited by Fred Patten
Cover Art by Terrie Smith
415 pp., $19.95
FurPlanet Productions, January 2014

This anthology is a collection of five furry novellas, each about 80 pages long. The theme? All the main characters are taking steps forward to choose and shape their own futures. I’ve read work by all of the contributing authors before, but for most of them it’s been a while, so I was curious to see what their recent output would be like.

“Chosen People” by Phil Geusz:

This is set in a universe previously established in Geusz’s story collection, The First Book of Lapism, which I haven’t read, but there’s enough exposition here that it’s not a problem. Lapism is a new religion in the U.S. in which people can have themselves bio-engineered into anthropomorphic rabbits, as a statement of peace, kindness, and striving for personal betterment. The procedure is expensive, and has been mostly limited to people with very high incomes. (Supporters who can’t afford it wear ears and tails.) Still, enough people have made the transition that they’ve started their own upscale town in Nevada called Oaktree Village.

The protagonist is Juniper, a world-champion marksman who’s made the change to Lapism and has been hired as the Village’s new sheriff. While still being relatively new to this level of responsibility, he’s professional, approachable, and outgoing. (Small nit-pick, I never got an impression of his age.)

Part of the story involves character- and universe-building, plus a crime to be solved. Juniper is also faced with a more long-term problem: the surrounding communities resent the Lapists’ higher economic bracket, and many Lapists are starting to feel superior and isolationist. So the sheriff makes a dedicated effort to integrate himself not just into the local community, but into the surrounding communities as well.

The main excitement, however, comes from having to deal with an unexpected, local emergency. With a lot of people’s lives threatened, I was very much caught up with how Juniper managed his situation. Nicely tense! There’s a lot going on in this story. While the crime-solving element was a bit underplayed, Geusz still balances everything pretty well. And furry? Definitely; there are lots of references to how Juniper’s form affects his daily routines, right down to a discussion of shoes, or lack thereof.

“Huntress” by Renee Carter Hall:

This is my top pick from the book! Imagine a more primitive Africa with anthropomorphic lions and wild dogs, engaged in hunting and trading. What impressed me the most was the amount of depth and scope squeezed into this novella – not just establishing the details of the lions’ tribal culture, but how it follows the life of a young lioness, Leya, from her teenage years all the way into adulthood. It covers quite a long period of choices and personal growth.

More than anything else, Leya wants to join the nakaranja, a special caste of nomadic huntresses. But this new way of life also requires sacrifices, and Leya questions whether her choices were sometimes the right ones. Has she lost the chance to fall in love? What happens if she loses those few people to whom she’s gotten close? In a society where the kinds of roles a person can fit into are limited, Leya never quite fits, and the main arc of this story is how she tries to find her place in the world.

I really have to praise the detail that went into this, like the tribes’ spiritual beliefs and mythology. (Although I never figured out what social role an “aumah” held.) I especially liked how the many secondary characters all got more development and depth added to them along the way, with some honest surprises. Leya’s life and her difficulties were very touching and believable, and I say this as someone with a background in anthropology. The ending felt a little too ideal in terms of being able to easily break from societal norms, but wow, her story was really hard to put down.

“Going Concerns” by Watts Martin:

Gibson Scava is a cat with disposable income, who works as a detective for the Ranean Guard. He’s good at his job, but his forthright, independent and (most of all) eccentric nature don’t endear him to his superiors, especially when he’s willing to take matters into his own hands. Annie Swift is a professional accountant who’s recently moved to the city to find work, but her wolf stature and no-nonsense attitude intimidates people during her job interviews. Together, they’re going to fight crime!

Not that they have a choice. Annie was hoping to leave her past behind her (she accused her former employers of illegal activity), but now someone wants her dead. Gibson is working her case, to the detriment of Annie’s patience and sanity. This is essentially a buddy-cop story, two opposing personalities being forced to cooperate to solve a crime. Gibson encourages Annie to participate in his detective work, while also making use of her forensic accounting skills.

Gibson is also constantly flirting with her. On one hand he appears to be serious; on the other it seems to be part of an effort to break down Annie’s walls and make her laugh. For a buddy-cop story this feels typical; in this furry story it feels cliché. I don’t know why… I’ve read other furry stories with one character pursuing another romantically, and I haven’t minded, but in this case there’s something… commonplace about it. I’ve got some kind of subconscious bias here that I don’t know how to articulate. But honestly, I don’t think anyone else will have a problem with it. Regardless of my brain, to remove this element from the narrative would cause serious damage, and vastly reduce the tale’s charm.

Seriously, this is the most downright fun story to read in this anthology. Gibson is entertaining and quite the character, but he’s no clown. He’s deeply concerned with stopping criminals and keeping Annie alive. Underneath the comical elements, there’s genuine danger and tension at a whole bunch of points. The combination works really well. I feel kind of sorry for the Ranean Guard; the law and bureaucracy are more of a hindrance than help, at least when it comes to organized criminals who know what they’re doing. This is what propels Gibson and Annie into taking unexpected risks, and it really fuels the story.

When it’s all over and settled, there’s the potential for Gibson and Annie to have future adventures together. I definitely look forward to that, if more should appear! Also, I should mention that Watts Martin’s writing in the fandom goes all the way back to the early 1990s, a time when furry fiction was much scarcer. His stories were certainly among the better ones at the time, and his skills haven’t diminished since. So if you’re interested in reading more of his work set in the world of Ranea, I can definitely recommend one that was very popular during the fandom’s early years: A Gift of Fire, A Gift of Blood (revised in 2013).

“When a Cat Loves a Dog” by Mary E. Lowd:

This is set in the same world as Lowd’s earlier Otters in Space novels, in which Earth is inhabited by anthropomorphic cats, dogs, and a few other intelligent species. Cats are still second-class citizens who are slowly gaining more civil rights. The main character in this story is a cat named Lashonda, who works in a university research lab. Going against social taboos, she legally marries Topher, a dog and stand-up comedian. Both of them have to deal with the resulting prejudice. Topher’s stand-up career takes off, but at the expense of making depreciating jokes about cats. Lashonda’s job suffers due to extreme discrimination by the dog members of the research team she works with.

Despite initially not wanting children, Lashonda changes her mind and begins researching the possibility of adopting puppies or kittens, only to be turned down on all fronts. Finally a long-shot possibility presents itself, involving experimental medical reseach. Lashonda manages to become pregnant, but there’s a high risk of failure, and the stress is increasingly difficult. (Biology fail: the fertility of her offspring is never discussed.) The last third of the story is an emotional rollercoaster about having to deal with unknown pregnancy complications.

Things take an unexpected, dangerous turn when a betrayal by the one of the medical staff puts the whole operation in danger from protests and riots, requiring everyone to flee to the more technologically advanced and more progressive space station run by the otters. Regardless of the changes to the legal system for cats, dog society simply isn’t prepared to deal with new social boundaries.

In fact, I’m amazed this society manages to progress at all. The main cat character (both in this story and in Otters in Space) gets constantly distracted by emotional speculations and daydreams. Dogs seem prone to 180-degree prejudicial mood swings that completely override any intelligence or logical reasoning. The betrayal I mentioned earlier literally comes out of nowhere: a huge wrench given almost no context, caused by a minor character who was barely described, and only occasionally seen. The final conflict feels artificially imposed, with otter society as a sort of Deus ex machina.

That sounds pretty harsh, but if you can forgive the weirdness of this story universe, what this novella really has going for it are two things: an exploration of how prejudice can effect people’s lives, and the psychological stresses of getting pregnant for the first time. For everything else, you need to suspend a certain amount of disbelief. I’m no longer fond of this story universe, but I really liked how the conflict gradually built itself up over the course of the narrative; I felt very sympathetic for Lashonda’s situation from start to finish.

“Piece of Mind” by Bernard Doove:

Reviewer honesty: I’ve never especially liked Chakats or the Chakona Space story universe. Now that I’ve compromised my objectivity here, this story is still a good contribution to this anthology, regardless of my own biases.

Arrak is a young Caitian who’s immigrating to the Chakat homeworld and taking on a new job as a geologist. For safety purposes he’s teamed up with a Chakat named Windrunner in case there’s an emergency in the wilderness. Aside from Arrak finding out that a number of assumptions about his new life were wrong, there’s not much character development.

I made some assumptions too, that Windrunner would have no significant negative character traits, that Arrak would fall into a relationship with them by the end of the story, and that Arrak’s integration into Chakat society would solve all his problems. I was right; although the way that the latter occurred wasn’t quite what I’d guessed. Good curve-ball, Doove! Also, thanks for only one reference to the characters’ breasts; I appreciate that.

The driving force of the story, the part that held my interest the most, was an extended flashback explaining how Arrak ended up immigrating in the first place. There’s a nice bit of world-building going on here, and Arrak is truly the victim of the universe dealing him a bad hand.

Growing up on the Caitian homeworld, Arrak discovers he’s a natural telepath. However due to an earlier brain injury, he’s unable to tune out the thoughts of other people around him. To make things worse, Caitian society despises telepaths, to the point of ostracism and violence. Arrak gets some help, except he retains an emotional flaw which gives him away on multiple occasions – despite having years during which he could have practiced more self-control. Suspension of disbelief is necessary for this, because without this flaw, there’d be even less plot conflict.

Still, due to his situation it’s best if he immigrates to an established colony of fellow Caitians who’ve given up on their close-minded homeworld. A Caitian news article describes the colony as being populated by the “bizarre and perverted”, however Arrak “discovered that the colonists were basically people whose lifestyles clashed with the hidebound morals and prejudices of Caitian society”, such as openly gay couples. As a reader, I couldn’t help myself from thinking that the Chakonan settlement sounded more like an escapist utopia for furry fans than a haven for Caitian pariahs.

It’s not essential to have a working knowledge of Chakona Space to enjoy this story, although knowing a little in advance can bring out some extra details. (For example, I’m not sure if the story explicitly mentions that Caitians are a kind of feline.) Doesn’t matter; Doove is a very clear, descriptive writer and I never felt left out. Although between my first and second read-throughs, I went and refreshed my memory as to how he ranks the different levels of empathy and telepathy.

I found most of the story to be rather simplistic; well-written if slightly predictable. Although it didn’t do anything to change my attitudes towards Chakats, I enjoyed reading about a hidden layer within Caitian society, and the tale of Arrak’s tragic background.

There are some notable similarities between Doove’s Piece of Mind and Geusz’s Chosen People. Both involve people entering into a new line of work. Both protagonists show a slightly exagerrated lack of self-confidence, an angsty trope that’s fairly common in furry fiction. Both involve moving into a self-made, partially separate and idealized furry society. But while Doove’s story ends with an incredibly convenient and almost-perfect solution to the protagonist’s problem (if initially a bit awkward), Geusz’s story doesn’t have an easy fix to its underlying conflict. The Lapist society’s relationship with its larger, surrounding non-furry community still looms, and there’s no simple solution. It felt all the more realistic because of it.

Overall:

Five interesting story universes, five very different writing styles, all commendable and engaging in multiple ways, with my favorites definitely being the first three, especially Renee Carter Hall’s Huntress. Good long reads all around; I think the novella format really suits what the authors wanted to express. I don’t have any problems recommending this book as a whole; I really enjoyed the variety, and the positives definitely outweighed any of my quirky personal preferences. Definitely check it out!

(Disclosure: Watts Martin, one of the contributors to Five Fortunes, is Claw & Quill’s head editor.)

submitted by PedigreeTheHusky
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submitted by Trevor_Fox
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Just made Life Scout. I'm currently at an Order Of The Arrow camp to get into brother hood.

submitted by Foxes281
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