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Is your identity a stretch goal?

On Flayrah, Sonious wrote two articles about Artworktee, a popular furry t-shirt company with many happy customers. In May 2019, he wrote a positive story about their charity benefit campaign. Now in November 2019, a shirt selling campaign is not so positively covered. The difference — no charity this time.

• Flayrah: ArtWorkTee’s T-Shirt Campaign and the Selling of Identity.

After being asked to write, Sonious felt conflicted about giving them “blatant advertisement” as news. It could have been turned down, but wait; there’s more. He found reasons to criticize their campaign launched on October 22: “Furry and Proud Shirts! Show your furry pride with ArtworkTee’s new line of LGBT+ shirts!” On Kickstarter as I write, it has 396 backers pledging $24,758 — likely in the top few percent of furry crowdfunding.

The article digs into the ethics (and sincerity) of selling things to special communities, and who reaps the rewards. The problem is, the campaign sorts sexual identities into money tiers/stretch goals, letting popularity rule who is included. Demand gets more and more divisive the more obscure the identity is.

Imagine sorting by race, or other legally protected class (a specific list that excludes politics) and leaving out the least numerous. Many places in life need separation from market demand — what if this was dividing LGBT medical care by popularity? Luckily it’s just shirts, but it’s a jump-off point to bigger topics.

Of COURSE discrimination isn’t the intention of Artworktee (assume good faith). But arguably, it shows a profit motive that isn’t about identity or pride at all. They could be selling flavors of soup, or rare Pokemon cards just the same, and who likes being a token?

Fursona Pins: “Your identity is not a stretch goal.”

Sonious will be interested to see the angle he found has been taken seriously by other businesses.

That’s the case with Fursona Pins. In February 2019, I was asked to do a news article about the business; and I also avoided advertising by reposting their own story, and did an informative Q&A instead. (Business news is news.) Fursona Pins went on to launch an LGBT furry themed Kickstarter campaign in June 2019.

Pride Pins became “the #1 most funded enamel pin Kickstarter in history, and the most funded LGBT project live on Kickstarter right now.” During its open month, 5,304 backers pledged $249,610. Whoah!  (I’m shocked I hadn’t noticed this already when I talk about high fursuit auction prices being a sign of fandom activity.)

Notice: the campaign unlocked tiers for animal mascots, not identities. They just got recolored to represent whatever identity is wanted with no limits on 15 flags. It came with a repeated promise:

Now I’m wondering if Artworktee saw the huge pledges to Pride Pins with dollars in their eyes, and rushed to get in the same game, but missed the point of it. A mistake… or part of a history? Sonious only touched ONE Artworktee campaign, not even getting to a lot of extra context behind it. That’s why I made a ANOTHER response on Flayrah, with another article’s worth of info (read on).

There’s nothing wrong with shirts, cool art, furries, or being LGBT of course. Some of Artworktee’s supporters and shirt models are friends I really love. My response isn’t a “beware” to tell you to stop getting shirts or supporting the company now. Please don’t cancel anyone; it’s to just make you think and look ahead, and ask, what business will you support in the future? And why does it matter? You can ask them to improve, and vote with your dollars.

• On Flayrah, my other response covers a lot more than one sale campaign — read it here.
• This updates my August 2018 article, ArtworkTee issues and the heart of the furry economy.

In short:

1. Furries have a history of going independent from the mainstream to be a subculture that resists commercializing. Instead it acts like a collective project, and a real community (not just a consumer group) where people pitch in together, and capitalizing on it too much is kind of cheating.
2. Artworktee isn’t like other fandom projects, it uses aggressive tactics that look like bootstrapping, growth-hacking, or SEO targeting you’d expect from mainstream startups. Before it was Artworktee, it was “Drawponies,” an art operation involved in a scandal of tracing to crank up production. That was rediscovered and they did PR effort to fix things.
3. Then Artworktee kept using shady tactics to farm followers, boost traffic, and push merchandizing with other accounts (Furrymemes, Awoonews).
4. It’s a problem because of Part (1). This fandom isn’t just business, and what about hard work of small creators who don’t use those methods? Talking about commercialism can help them when there’s a market grab.

Commercializing of the fandom worries some because of the risk of outsiders coming to make a quick buck, while not caring what it’s about, grabbing market from those who do. It’s a good idea to watch out for the tactics here if you see them again.

WHO COULD HAVE PREDICTED THIS? Artworktee/Furrymemes/Awoonews ripoff issue.

Background: in 2015, an artist who aggressively monetized brony fandom was caught tracing. https://t.co/pw94VgnfKI

In 2018, furries learned the artist was aggressively monetizing them as Artworktee. 1/ pic.twitter.com/PFYHsY8boC

— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) March 23, 2019

Good news sites are welcome, the more the better. Mine has years of sharing original content no matter what size of audience. Isn't news for reporting, not building audience by shady methods? There will be promises to do better, but why multiple times? @EquestriaDaily

— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) March 24, 2019

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, please follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon.

So how did we miss this one… And, what is it?? It’s the first black & white issue of Cerebus Woman, that’s what. “Epic-length all-in-one 24-page issue! Ever wonder what the illegitimate daughter of Batvark and the Whore of Babylon would be like? Gosh! Who hasn’t? Get ready for Cerebus Woman, the tyrannical queen of Real Amazon.com Island and her legion of Mason-Dixon Greek Man O’Horsies! First appearance of her invisible robot bulldozer! First appearance of the ancient Greek Real Amazon.com national anthem! Jingles, everyone’s favorite CGC-dog comic collector, as Cerebus Woman’s interspecies love interest! Don’t miss Cerebus Woman tied up with her own magic lasso!” Have you… got all that? It’s written by Dave Sim (of course) with art by Mr. Sim and Gustave Dore. Published by Aardvark-Vanaheim (also of course), it’s available now.

image c. 2019 Aardvark-Vanaheim

For those unaware, the FWG forums have been successfully transferred to their new home (thank you Sean and Makyo!). While there remains work to be done to restore their former functionality, they are operational and open to use.

 

For security reasons, passwords were not transferred over; you will need to log in with your email, then set a new password. To do so, once you have logged in, click your avatar in the upper right-hand portion of the screen, then click your name in the drop-down menu and select “preferences.” The password-setting process can be a little tedious, so please be patient.

 

A consequence of the move/merger is that many accounts were automatically deleted by the system. This was more likely to occur if you had not used the forum for some time. If that is the case, you will need to make a new account. We apologize for the inconvenience.

 

The link to the new forums will follow. Note that we plan to change the URL in the future.

 

https://fwg.makyo.io/

 

A thread for suggestions regarding the forums is here: https://fwg.makyo.io/t/discourse-ideas-tips-and-questions/2168

Dogpatch Press is commissioning regular new banners — check out a gallery from past months. Along with the art, each artist gets an article with a goal to promote ones outside the USA. Last month, Magferret from the UK was featured with a spooky Halloween banner. Now, Mexican cartoonist Glasses Gator is here with an homage to Disney’s Frozen 2 to coincide with the movie’s wide release later in November. (We could have an American Thanksgiving theme, but this is for fandom. The only colonizing here is by love for talking animals that has no borders.)

(Staff:) Hi Glasses, can you give a little intro about yourself, where you live, and where to find you on social media?

Hi, I’m GlassesGator, I’m 25 years old, I’m Mexican but also 1/4 Chinese. I live around Sonora, and normally you can find me on Twitter as @Glasses Gator. I also have a DeviantArt and FA account but I kind of stopped using those for a while, been wanting to update but it will take me lots of posts.

On your personal profile, I found at least four different alligators* that look like your fursonas or original characters (OC). Do you consider yourself a scalie or a furry?

Well one is an iguana, and no, they aren’t my fursonas. The aqua colored alligator I consider it my mascot, I use him freely for anything and it pretty much represents my gallery and myself in situations (It’s more fun to me than humans in my opinion, making anthro animals expressive are easier than humans for me).

As for the other three reptiles, they are characters for three stories I’ve been working for years, they have slow development but still progress as much as I can. And no, I don’t consider myself a scalie. I simply have fun drawing cartoon animals, it’s easier for me than humans, and of course fun, pretty much it’s what works for me. Reptiles are my favorites of course but I also like other species.

Do you mostly do art in furry fandom, or somewhere else for non-furries? Do you do it for a living, or just sometimes for money, or for fun?

I can draw humans but I still need more practice on those, when I get time. So I don’t do art for any specific Fandom, it’s just art I choose to work on, and most of my commission clients happens to be furries, it doesn’t bother me though.

And it’s a mix of fun and money, and to show stuff I like and my original ideas. Drawing can be fun (and tiring at times). But I also need the money for expenses, and games of course. “For a living” — it’s hard to say honestly, I still don’t know what I wanna aim for exactly with my art.

I've been in a superhero mood for a while so here I drew some doodles of my Superhero OC, Victor!
These took me a while but I had fun doing these, nice warm up to return to art too!
Included a few special guests OCs from friends. pic.twitter.com/uPdP1qgjgn

— Alegator (@GlassesGator) July 29, 2019

Do you think we might have a chance to see you at any furry conventions? Are you interested in such events? Maybe as an artist/dealer?

Well I would like to go to some con someday, always been wanting to go to one, but they’re never nearby to where I live, so it would require expenses to go to a far one. As for me as an artist dealer, I don’t know, the idea sounds nice. But I probably feel too embarrassed to do it since I’ve never done such things, so of course I’d be reluctant. I wouldn’t mind going to a fur con as a regular goer because I might find some good art and other interesting stuff.

Do you have local friends who like cartoon animals like yourself?

I do have a local friend who likes the concept of cartoon animals, but they live in another city not so far from where I am.

About the banner you made for the site, it’s clearly a furry parody of Frozen 2. Is there any other ‘furry’ parody you could imagine?

That pretty much depends, in my opinion. Like, if you’d tell me to imagine an anthro animal parody of the Legend of Zelda, then the obvious choice for Link is a wolf, and a boar for Ganondorf, and for Zelda herself any graceful animal.

So thinking of furry parodies can depend for sure. Some would be easy and some would be hard.

Is there anything you want to add?

Nothing I can think of, but thanks for the interview, I’ve never been interviewed in art related stuff, so it feels nice.

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, please follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon.

Today we have the honor of hosting author Kyell Gold, talking about his new book, Titles, as well as covering the stories behind the Out of Position series, the political climate of the new book and what's next for Kyell and his writings. Follow Kyell! https://twitter.com/KyellGold Pre-order the book! https://furplanet.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=1066 Find us on Twitter: @South-Afrifur, https://twitter.com/southafrifur, on Tumblr, http://south-afrifur.tumblr.com/, and on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/southafrifur Also, for more local news, check out the Zafur forums! http://forum.zafur.co.za/

Bags (or a story thereof) is a new full color graphic novel from Boom! Studios. We’ll let them tell you about it: “This is the tale of John Motts. He is a man who had a dog, but now that dog is gone. John searches his house, his street, and his town, but the dog is nowhere to be found. John soon realizes that he must travel further, past the road and into the trees if he’s ever to find out the truth of what happened to his dog. BAGS (or a story thereof) is a journey of love and suspense as John Motts searches through the world he knows, and a world he doesn’t, weaved together beautifully by Pat McHale, creator of the Emmy Award-winning Cartoon Network series, Over The Garden Wall, and Gavin Fullerton (Disney’s Space Chickens in Space).” Look for it now — and check out the free preview over at Boom! as well.

image c. 2019 Boom! Studios

The fandom’s very first international film festival, Furry Film Festival, F3 for short, has recently started and ended on a bold furry note, as various films from participants were showcased, and 3 winners were announced. The awards are divided into 4 categories: Best Overall Picture Best Story Best Character Best Visuals The winners are as […]

A short one this week, some roundup and discussion.

Download MP3

Link Roundup:

• ArcticSkyWolf furry con dances
• Sonic Fixed
  • New Sonic Trailer
  • Sonic Comparison Tweet
  • Sonic’s New Look on Conan
• Can I Pet Your Werewolf Review
• RCS Rollout begins on Android
• EFF tweets ruling about US border crossing privacy
• How Shere Kahn ousted a furry tiger from the Jeopardy champion’s tournament
• Furry Film Festival is going on now
• Furry Film Festival 2019 Playlist
• WowNow – A whole bunch of animated films to avoid

[Live] StallCast

The group shares advice for artists on how to tackle creative block, featuring special guest Ace of Hearts Fox! ACE'S CHANNEL: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdrogTpVkwZdhRXtqSxv5lQ ACE'S FULL VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VC2ggNMQHY SEE MORE AT: http://www.TheRaccoonsDen.com FACEBOOK: http://www.Facebook.com/TheRaccoonsDen TWITTER: http://www.Twitter.com/TheRaccoonsDen FURAFFINITY: http://www.FurAffinity.net/user/TheRaccoonsDen INSTAGRAM: http://www.Instagram.com/TheRaccoonsDen #TRDs8 #CreatorsBlock #AceOfHeartsFox

After a 3-year break, Bandit forms a new group with Abbey’s help. Who’s the new five? SEE MORE AT: http://www.TheRaccoonsDen.com FACEBOOK: http://www.Facebook.com/TheRaccoonsDen TWITTER: http://www.Twitter.com/TheRaccoonsDen FURAFFINITY: http://www.FurAffinity.net/user/TheRaccoonsDen INSTAGRAM: http://www.Instagram.com/TheRaccoonsDen #TheRaccoonsDen #TRDs8 #FurryFandom

A recap of the side story that was implemented for the 7th season of the series. In the previous season, a new group was formed and split up within a year, Flash's life was turned upside down, Bandit's camera was destroyed and Switch had to move out of state. What comes next? SEE MORE AT: http://www.TheRaccoonsDen.com FACEBOOK: http://www.Facebook.com/TheRaccoonsDen TWITTER: http://www.Twitter.com/TheRaccoonsDen FURAFFINITY: http://www.FurAffinity.net/user/TheRaccoonsDen INSTAGRAM: http://www.Instagram.com/TheRaccoonsDen NOTE: Only written for season 7, the side story does not continue in season 8. The side story loosely based on true events was developed to explore deeper into the personal lives of the new group and select previous members, this was an experiment for us. We took the feedback into serious consideration and the next season steers the focus of our series back towards the community itself and it's events. #TheRaccoonsDen #TRDs8 #FurryFandom

Where can a researcher start to invite furries for a survey? Well, it’s happened here before. Sometimes it means walking on eggshells about tricky topics. In this case, a researcher has requested to announce a survey not just looking at fandom, but sexual behavior in it. This comes with a message that “the furry fandom itself is not explicitly sexual,” and the research is inclusive for members who aren’t.

Experience says that it might get flak from furries who feel like it creates stereotypes. For them I encourage thinking about the point of sex ed in school. I like science, and know that studying or testing isn’t pushing something. If you want less stereotypes, this is how to replace them with facts. Of course it should be done professionally. For that reason, I got permission from the researcher to consult Furscience in case there was any reason to worry. Now I’m happy to help.

Researcher Ashley Brown sent this info, with a general FAQ to be as open as possible and address some of the more common questions about it.

THIS IS ONLY FOR PARTICIPANTS IN THE UK — but anyone can access the participant information sheet on the first page of the survey. It introduces the focus of the research, with advice about comfort, confidentiality, and where to go for assistance about it.

– Patch

Are you part of the furry fandom and have related sexual interests? Would you like to be involved in research? By taking a survey, you’ll be entered to win one of two £50 Amazon gift vouchers!

The link is here: https://kcliop.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5AyABQ3KByh95IN

A bit about me and this research:

My name is Ashley and I’m currently a PhD researcher at King’s College London conducting a study on a number of different interest groups, including furries. I’m looking at these groups in relation to experiences of discrimination, mental health, and sexual interests. While a good bit of the study asks about sexuality, we understand that not everyone who participates in the furry fandom do so for sexual reasons. There is no prerequisite for being interested in yiff/other sexual aspects of the furry fandom. However, the survey will still have questions that ask about arousal levels in relation to this, as we are trying to get a more detailed picture of the contexts in and extent to which people view this as being sexual, if at all. This was designed to investigate those with furry related sexual interests, but the questions are designed to accommodate/be relevant to furries without related sexual interests.

Other sexual interest groups included here are pet players, BDSM, age players and balloon fetishists.

My goal is to create a study that is all inclusive of people of different gender identities, sexual orientations, age, and backgrounds. This study takes about 30-45 minutes to complete, but I have it set up so you can come back and finish it within a week of starting it- just use the same device as you did when you began taking it.

This involves answering questions about your sexual fantasies, behavior, mental health, personality, experiences of discrimination, and demographic info. All responses are anonymous and we’re not collecting any identifiable info. I need you to help make this research as strong as possible!

What are the eligibility requirements?

You must:

• • Be a current resident of the United Kingdom
  • Be over 18 years of age
  • Have an interest or participate in one or more of the following: furries/fursuiting/murrsuiting, balloon fetishism, pet play, BDSM, age play, age regression, or adult baby/diaper wearing.

Why only the United Kingdom? I want to participate!

This is primarily due to legal reasons. We’re asking about sensitive material and not all countries would give ethical approval for this (especially about topics related to age play). Thus, our ethics board only approved this research in the UK. We hope one day we can make a study that’s inclusive of more countries!

I’m asexual- can I still take it?

Yes! if you read the instructions during the portion asking about fantasies and behavior, it asks you to indicate level of interests instead of level of arousal from a scale of very interested to very disinterested. This study recognizes that many asexuals enjoy participating in behaviors sometimes usually associated with these interests. Other portions of the survey may be less relevant to you, but please do your best to finish what you can.

My involvement in these behaviours isn’t sexual, is that okay?

Also yes! This survey is designed to include those who do this for both sexual or non-sexual reasons

I feel like some of the questions you asked here are a little vague or odd, why did you make them like this?

I didn’t make all of the questions! The only one’s written by us are the sexual fantasies and behaviours and the interest-specific questions. If some of these questions seem uncomfortable or odd, know that they were designed that way. It’s useful in data analysis later, so please respond as honestly as possible.

Part of research is ensuring the validity and reliability of your data- we do this by using previously tested and validated measures, like for anxiety and depression. These measures are sometimes a little vague, but just answer them to the best of your abilities. This is common and an unavoidable drawback of research in every subject. If the questions seem odd, trust me, they’re there for a reason! If you have issues with later parts of the survey, it’s probably not something I can address- they were created by other researchers and I can’t touch them!

Can I share this with other people?

Yes, I would love that! Feel free to share this with anyone- the more participants, the better.

Will you show us the results?

Yes! However, it may take awhile. This is a very large sample that I’ll be doing quite a bit of data analysis with, and it’s going to break down into multiple publications. I can come back and give preliminary results when I have them, but if you want the full results, please email me (ashley.brown@kcl.ac.uk) and I’ll put you on a spreadsheet as someone who will receive copies of the publications when I have them!

Please feel free to leave questions/comments! You will also be able to provide feedback on the survey itself.

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, please follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon.

Furry Tales is now available here from McFarland Books.

Fred Patten, a fandom historian and one of the best supporters that furry literature ever had, passed away one year ago at age 78. Here’s a rememberance post for Fred. But he left more than good memories and a lot of his news and reviews here at Dogpatch Press. His last book is finally here.

From McFarland Books:

Tales featuring anthropomorphic animals have been around as long as there have been storytellers to spin them, from Aesop’s Fables to Reynard the Fox to Alice in Wonderland. The genre really took off following the explosion of furry fandom in the 21st century, with talking animals featuring in everything from science fiction to fantasy to LGBTQ coming-out stories.

In his lifetime, Fred Patten (1940–2018)—one of the founders of furry fandom and a scholar of anthropomorphic animal literature—authored hundreds of book reviews that comprise a comprehensive critical survey of the genre. This selected compilation provides an overview from 1784 through the 2010s, covering such popular novels as Watership Down and Redwall, along with forgotten gems like The Stray Lamb and Where the Blue Begins, and science fiction works like Sundiver and Decision at Doona.

Inside is a Foreword by Kyell Gold, almost 200 pages about the books, and lists of Nonfiction Works, Author and Chronological Lists, Awards, and Furry Specialty Publishers.

If you plan to get any furry gifts this season, put this on top of your list. Go get a great gift for yourself. Get one for that curious friend in your life. Get one for your mom. Get one for your dog. Get one for your bathroom. Get one for your guest room, waiting room, cloakroom, mud room, rumpus room, glove compartment, first aid kit, time capsule, library, study, conservatory, observatory, vestibule, boudoir, garret, grotto, dungeon, keep, and all the other rooms in the castle you’ll soon rule if you have the great taste to own this fine literature. Get one and hollow it out to hide contraband squirt guns or BD toys from the busybodies at church. Get 20 copies and bundle them into a festive Yule Log to spread warmth and cheer to your loved ones who are too busy to read.

Oh yeah, and read it! It has what this fandom is all about, from classic storytelling for the ages to the indie creativity of fans themselves. You’ll grow whiskers and a tail within an hour of cracking it open. (*Results may vary, if it doesn’t work try buying more.)

Fred’s sister, Sherry Patten, wrote in:

Can’t believe this Tuesday, Nov. 12th, will be the anniversary of Fred’s unexpected death.  I seem to have devoted most all of 2019 to “Fred activities”… packing up all his additional books, printed reviews, DVDs, framed pictures, awards and misc… to bring it all to the UCR librarians to add to The Fred Patten Collection there, and, replying to some correspondence re Fred.

Since FURRY TALES was officially published by McFarland Books, I don’t have any idea “how well” it is selling… but… I hope fans of Fred’s… will eventually learn about the book… and, purchase a copy.  A McFarland editor had told me that Furry Tales would be sold in printed book form and also in an e-book version. [Not sure if/when there will be an ebook! – Patch]

Would you like to say anything else about Fred or the book?

Fred never cared much for celebrating specific holidays…but, he did like me to drive him around neighborhoods at night to see the colorful XMAS LIGHTS each December. Per the recent email sent to me, you might want to POST the 20% book sale they are offering at Mcfarlandbooks.com.

Through Cyber Monday (December 2), use coupon code HOLIDAY19 to receive 20% off your entire purchase. Get it here.

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, please follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon.

They fixed the Sonic design ... now the real question is about the quality of the story. I guess they have nailed that 90s xtreme attitude right? At the very least this is less nightmare fuel.
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It's a brand new CGI based Scooby Doo origin movie and I'm sure it will in no way break the long consistent Scooby Doo canon. It looks also looks like it will contain Blue Falcon for ... reasons. Now, if you will excuse me I'll looking around to see if somebody obsessively tried to figure out the timeline of Scooby Doo.
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