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Hey, so I recently posted that I was newer to the fandom and asked some general questions. The responses I got were super friendly and hugely helpful, and I'm feeling more confident in exploring deeoer. If that's the plan, I'd like to get myself a sona, so I'm looking for an artist to help me. Thanks!

submitted by electriclove225
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Fandom Image (Pawsome! #5)
Bandit, Flash and Clockie talk about their views on the fandom image, how the media portrays it, and the various factors supporting the controversy of our community. ***NEW EPISODES BIWEEKLY... From: The Raccoon's Den Views: 1014 18 ratings Time: 10:05 More in Entertainment

Does anyone know where I can find a good price full size wolf tail?

submitted by BlueWolf77
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I hadn't really seen many posts on this, but I just wanted to see how many of us there are. c:

Whether you're still questioning, in the middle of transition, or at a point you're happy with; whether you're still in the closet, out and proud, or stealth; I just wanted to say hi to all of you! <3

How are things for you all? Hopefully very lovely. :)

submitted by cloppyhooves
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So I have this art tablet now. Huion 610. I've never used a tablet before. I have no art program to use with it and not a lot of extra money to spend on them.

Any advice on what most people use?
Also what programs might be cheap or free?

Thanks.

submitted by Dehklen
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Does anyone know of any good art tutorial videos/ websites that would teach me how to draw anthro charecters better? SO far, this is the best that I have been able to create:

http://i.imgur.com/EUF69Le.jpg

submitted by Cosmondico
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To celebrate my 10,000+ pageview milestone on DA, I'll be doing a request steam starting at 5pm today (est). I'll be sketching requests made in the live chat for the duration of the stream and might play some games.

Link to the stream

Link to my Deviant Art

submitted by SnippyTheDeliveryFox
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Dear Papabear,

I once told you my fursona problem, which kind of still hovers in the room as I am finding not a solid answer, yet to it and am still young to the fandom itself even though it has been a few years until today of joining. The bigger thing is that I suffer severe depression, am pretty anxious, lack self-confidence and often am indecisive as well. Hard I know, but it is why I am feeling the fandom locks up on me for being one who doesn't contribute enough of matter nor being much of a speaker (noted my English not being the best of course). Regardless of this it does bother me a lot.

I decided over and over what I should be with no answer to be found, trying to meet furs on FurAffinity effortless as none often answer. Kind of saddens me that the fursona would help me reflect myself and how I'd want to be in the end as much as drawing and writing from there on with him. I just lack the decision making and the confidence to work on it.

Long have I been staying strong and growing stronger, thanks to the few friends who hold me so dear. For them of the Fandom I'd like to fully take part and shape as Furry and make much more presence, just unsure how.

Regardless in Time you'll get a proper thank you for all this help.

Thank you,
Lyah (age 24)

* * *

Dear Lyah,

It’s become a bit of a fascination for this bear that I get a lot of letters from people like you who are fretting that they don’t contribute enough to the fandom or are seen by other furries as not being involved enough. Yet there are many, many furries like you who are very shy and have trouble socializing (which is why, frankly, you don’t get a lot of response from other furries you try to contact—they are like you!), which is really one reason they become furries: they feel shy about mundane society and find a safe haven in the fandom as something set apart from it.

Another phenomenon is that many furries feel bad if they don’t have a lot of followers or friends on Facebook. My question to them—and you—is what would you rather have? A pawful of good, loyal, true friends or a massive following of fair-weather acquaintances calling themselves friends? You’re better off with 5 really good friends whom you love than 10,000 Facebook followers, trust me. So, as the goombahs say, fergetabowdit (er, pardons, that American dialect might escape a German speaker, so what I mean is be Zen, be mellow, relax, and don’t worry about things that are of no real consequence).

Another word of advice: FurAffinity is not really a good place to socialize. While you can make friends there, the main purpose of FA is to share and view art. Socializing is better done on a site such as Furry4Life or on Facebook and other more social media. You should also see if you can find some local German furries. Too, have you ever attended Eurofurence in Berlin? Best furcon in Europe and right in your neighborhood. Even if you’re not in Berlin, you are fortunate to live in a country with outstanding train transportation, unlike America.

A lot of your perceptions of the fandom are likely influenced by your emotional issues. Because you suffer from depression, anxiety, and low self-confidence, you see other furries in a more negative light than what is actually the truth. If you work on alleviating these feelings, you will, at the same time, feel better about the fandom, as well. That’s what was occurring in your previous letter http://www.askpapabear.com/letters/german-fur-having-fursona-trouble and what you still need to work on. As I often note, if you have difficulty surmounting your fears by yourself, a professional counselor may help.

Hugs,

Papabear

submitted by SyncR3d
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submitted by Cerko
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Particularly with regards to cartoons. These two things are my weakest points, and I was hoping some artists here could help me. I feel like I'm falling into the trap of hiding/overabstracting these parts. Link 1 Link 2

submitted by Polaric
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For a moment I decided to go full on anthro here.     In a film that Pixar could have done we have a road picture with Houses.    The animation is downright stunning, every frame is a painting.

Hey! This would be legit at Anthrocon!

 

 

It’s the video they LOVE to hate.  They can’t tear their eyes away while they stare.  There must be some German word for that emotion – something that means spellbound horror.  I shared it without comment, shortly after it was posted on August 31.  Now, it wormed it’s way back to my attention. It’s attracting special antipathy, with […]

I am writing an article for my Journalism class and I chose the topic of the incident at MFF. So to whoever was there,

What was your initial reaction to the evacuation? Where were you in the Hyatt when the alarms went off? What were you feeling when outside the Hyatt?

Please don't give one or two word answers. The more detail is best. If you want, I can post my article after it is finished.

submitted by ShadowFur17
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I'm not quite sure how to start this post, but man I'm incredibly socially awkward. This isn't what I've realized I'm just stating it to inform you of what kind of person I am. Now I'm a relatively young furry at the age of 16. Have been a furry for about 3 years but never really cared until a few days ago. But man I'm not that social in a shy type of way. I really only talk if spoken to outside of my group of 4-5 friends and my boyscout troop. But there's something I've finally realized. Being a furry is sort of my life. I feel at home when I'm on the subreddit, talking to you other furries way more than any of my actual friends. (not saying I hate talking to them, they're awesome people) This place is so kind and inviting and hell I taught myself how to draw my fursona which is pretty neat. Funny thing is, sadly due to the Internet and trolls I always thought furries were just some only gay community and that being straight I wouldn't fit In. (That was obviously a lie for my stupid young brain to almost believe). Either way it doesn't matter your sexuality or sexuality preferences we're all family. It's like the family I've never had and always wanted. I don't feel afraid to talk to you guys, I don't feel afraid to talk to other furries in real life. More and more I'm realizing that I want to be apart of this fandom. I want to go to a convention one day! Wear my own fursuit! Etc. What I'm saying is I guess I found out who I really am, who the people I relate to most with and am comfortable being around. I plan to make Eagle Scout by the age of 17 - 18 and once I've finally achieved that goal I'll start making my first arrangements to go to a furry con where I can just be myself and hang out with others. Anyway thanks for reading my really long post, I'm sure some of you have seen me around the subreddit and I hope to stay for a long time. You guys have a wonderful day.

submitted by Foxes281
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What Can Goodreads Do For Me?

by Huskyteer

What it is

Launched in 2007 and acquired by Amazon in 2013, Goodreads is a social network for readers and writers. Like Facebook, but for books. Bookbook, if you will. Users can search for books in the extensive database, for the most part user-created, and add them to their ‘shelves’. If the book you’re after isn’t listed, you can do your part by adding it. There are three default bookshelves, ‘Want to Read’, ‘Currently Reading’, and ‘Read’, but you can add as many custom shelves as you like; ‘Crime’, for example, or ‘Non-fiction’, or perhaps ‘Comfort Reads’ or ‘Really Bad Books’.

It’s strangely satisfying to have a record of what you’ve read, with statistics and word clouds for your shelves. If you feel the need to gameify your reading experience, you can sign up for a challenge like ‘read 50 books in a year’. Every time you log in, Goodreads will tell you how many books you’ve got through and how far behind or ahead of schedule you are. Other bits of fun include literary trivia questions, polls, and daily quotes from writers.

As well as keeping track of what you’ve read, you can follow your friends to see what they’re reading and reviewing, and leave comments. I’ve had many a Goodreads discussion over books I might otherwise never have suspected someone I know had also read.

Looking at your friends’ shelves is one way to find new reading matter, but there are also communities for fans of particular genres, as well as for readers from one particular area or with a common interest. There’s a reasonably active furry community, Furries!, as well as the more general Anthro Fiction group. Goodreads also offers recommendations based on what you’ve read, and lists of the top books in a particular category, which can be as broad as ‘Best Young Adult Books’ or as specific as ‘M/M Cat-Shifters, Feline Aliens, and Other Feline Humanoids’.

When you finish a book, you can add a star rating and a review, tweet the fact that you’ve finished it, and recommend it to friends (Goodreads even suggests friends who might like it, given their tastes). All of this is optional, of course, but if you loved a book, this sort of thing can really benefit the author. Which brings me on to:

Goodreads for writers

Here’s where things get interesting. Once you’re signed up as a Goodreads Author, you have a number of options for promoting your works and interacting with your readership, most of which will cost you nothing but time.

Learn more about your readers and how your books are doing by visiting the page for one of your books. Here you can see who’s read it, who’s marked it as To Read, and any ratings and reviews. Who are those people? What else are they reading? These could be valuable clues to help your marketing strategy. See whether your book is featured on any lists, and what else is on there. Add it to some lists yourself (sneaky!).

Goodreads offers a number of configurable widgets, so you can show off your reviews on your own website, or add a button next to your book so passers-by can add it to their To Read list. They even provide the API if you really want to get down and dirty. And if you don’t mind giving away something for nothing, it doesn’t take much more effort to upload a free sample of your work as an ebook.

Medium-level effort, now. If you already have a blog, you can hook it up to your Goodreads account quickly and easily (mine feeds off my LiveJournal). If not, you can blog straight to Goodreads. Blog posts keep your page looking new, and pop up on your followers’ homepages to remind them you exist.

As an author with a Goodreads account, whenever you’re listed as the author of a publications, you’ll get ‘Goodreads Author’ in brackets after your name. This tells readers than they can come and bother you right there on the site, declare themselves your Fans, interact, and ask questions. If you activate the ‘Ask the Author’ option, users can ask you questions through the site, which you can then answer and display on your page. Or not, if it’s a question like ‘why is ur riting so rubbish’. No fans yet? Goodreads provides several preset questions for you to answer and post. Kyell Gold-esque levels of popularity? Announce that you’ll be open for questions on a specific topic, like your soon-to-be-released next book, for a limited period only. That should ‘generate buzz’, as Goodreads is so irritatingly fond of saying.

If you’re prepared to invest money, you can pay to advertise on the site. With the ability to target a specific audience, and stats to look at, this might be an interesting route to pursue, although I haven’t tried it myself. You can also give away copies of your book. Everyone loves a freebie, so a listing on the Giveaways page is a good way to familiarise a lot of readers, albeit cheapskate ones, with your name and cover. You will have to pack and post the books yourself, and hope your winners enjoy their prizes enough to write a review and spread the word.

See the Goodreads Author Program page for more information and ideas.

How to join

Joining Goodreads as a reader is as simple as registering a name, email address and password, and you can also sign in using Facebook, Twitter, Google, or your Amazon account. For authors, it’s a little more complicated, and takes slightly longer.

You’ll need to sign up for a reader account, if you haven’t already. Then find a book that gives your name as the author (co-author, editor, contributor and so on are all fine too) and click on your name. You’ll see an almost empty profile page with a link near the bottom: ‘Is this you? Let us know’. Click the link  and a verification request will be sent to the Goodreads team. Within a few days – often hours – your reader account will be merged with your shiny new author account, which you can then update. If your book hasn’t been added yet, just add it yourself.

And when you’ve signed up, come and be my friend!