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a Gift for my hubby ;) (I meant me wearing it, not him using it lol ... although...)

submitted by cosmiccouple4u
[link] [11 comments]

submitted by Dominoko
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I'n my case it's prevented me from having a single successful date in over a year.

Also, It's made finding good online role play partners a living hell.

submitted by kooncds
[link] [81 comments]

Furry is not a fandom. At least, not any more.

We’re not a fandom because we aren’t fans of some specific piece of art. There is no furry canon.

Fandoms revolve around their canon. The canon provides a permanent reference point for all fandom-related activities. We furries have no such thing, and so furry is defined by whatever we, collectively, decide.

Furry is something that is constantly changing, something that is constantly being recreated by we furries. So, not surprisingly, what exactly makes us ‘furry’ is difficult to pin down.

The biggest common element among furries is the use of an animal-person avatar, our fursona. For most of us, our fursona is a representation of ourself, and we present as our fursona online and in real-world furry spaces.

So, if you meet me online or in a furry space, I’ll say “hello, I’m JM, and I’m a horse“. If you meet me in a non furry space, I’ll say “hello, I’m Matt” (and I’ll think to myself “I’m a horse, hahahaha awesome“).

JM and Matt are, physically, the same, but they are different identities. My furry identity, JM, is an imaginary creation but a personally important one. Lucky for me that all you other furries are have to accept the premise that I am a horse, which reinforces all those nice personal associations I feel about the horse. You make me feel good about being me. (Thanks.)

I think that this identity-play is at the heart of furry.

It wasn’t always this way of course. Furry grew from fandom groups in the late 20th century, and was still largely a fandom/geek phenomenon as late as the 1990s. Then the internet came along, we all found each other, and we created today’s community, of animal-people and art and conventions and everything else.

But I’m simplifying. There are still plenty of furs who consider themselves to be furry fans only, and there are furries who don’t interact through the lens of an animal-person avatar – like [adjective][species]‘s own Phil Geusz, or my old friend Paul Kidd.

Furry is still close to its fandom roots, and reference points like The Lion King or My Little Pony are important for many furs. It’s even evident in the most common term used to describe our community: ‘furry fandom’. I want to make this clear because our readership includes plenty of self-described ‘furry fans’, and I don’t want to imply that they are somehow excluded from our collective furry excellent adventure.

A furry fan named Perri challenged an article here I wrote for [a][s] last year titled The Second Wave of Furry. He said that the article ‘managed to dredge up feelings of being told I don’t belong here because I’m a fan‘. He charged me with ‘trying to paint the whole community with a wide brush, alienating everyone who doesn’t fit into their view‘.

As it turns out, Perri mentioned that he has produced a history of the furry fandom. His history, hosted here, is essentially a long, long list of comics, TV shows, movies, and other media that Perri considers to be ‘furry’. His list is not exhaustive, but it sure is exhausting*. He says that such furry media defines furry, because we are its fans.

* WORDPLAY!

I think that Perri’s history, which is a terrific resource, proves my point. None of his examples of furry media, which starts with Aesop’s Fables and ends with My Little Pony, are furry canon. Some of his examples are important to many furries, but none of them are important to ‘being’ furry today.

Any new furry entering the community today (and for the past decade or so) will find one implied requirement for entry: a fursona. Furry, today, is about identity—not fandom. With all respect for Perri (and Phil and Paul and whoever else), his approach to furry is an artefact of our fandom days. Furry has changed, and—lacking a canon or other point of reference—furry is going to continue to change.

For most of us, furry is an expression in identity. Collectively, we are experimenting with what it means to be a person, and we’re heading out for deeper waters. There are some groups in our wake:

• The fans. Fandoms have long experimented with identity, such as with cosplay. There has been some research on the value of such identity experimentation. One psychologist has likened cosplaying as ‘a form of self-administered mental health treatment‘.

• The catfish. Catfish are people who create a fake online alter-ego, and roleplay as that (human) character. It can go wrong when a catfish forms a close emotional bond with someone, as in the movie Catfish, or the Manti Te’o affair. On a less extreme level, it’s common for people to present a shifted version of themselves online: perhaps more outgoing, or in better physical shape.

There is an element of wish-fulfilment in all of this identity play, and that’s true for furry as well. Furry goes further because we are not constrained by a fandom canon (the cosplayers) or by the requirements of the real world (the catfish). We get to create a persona from scratch.

Not surprisingly, furry has proven attractive to those people who don’t fit into the mainstream world very easily. We have a lot of young people, who may be attracted to furry in those confusing years where they are no longer a child, but not yet an adult. And we have a lot of square pegs: the LGBT, the zoophiles, the fetishists, the borderline autistic, and so forth. All of these are people who might find special value in experimenting with an alternate identity—and so they may be drawn to the furry world.

A further part of the attraction of our community is that there are no rules about what ‘furry’ is, or isn’t. We have no formal structure, and nobody is in change. Those furries who act as leaders essentially do so on merit: they are people who are respected, or perhaps provide a service to the community, or otherwise stand out from the crowd. We don’t always collectively choose the most capable leaders, but it’s a nice change from the real world where people can rise to high positions for other reasons. The furry community is decentralized.

Our structure, then, is quite anarchic. Our community is made up of people engaging in a kind of extreme identity play, and our leaders are organically selected. It’s the sort of structure that is common on the internet on a smaller scale—a group grows around a small nucleus, before imploding and fracturing when it becomes too large.

Small furry groups grow and fracture all the time, but the wider community holds together because of a core, shared idea: we all identify as furries. It’s an environment that promotes wider togetherness, even while drama and chaos often reign on the smaller scale.

This structure—leaderless and decentralized, but strong—occurs in other internet-based communities. The only requirement is that the central idea is compelling enough to maintain continuity amidst the drama. Such groups are often called ‘loose collectives’, and the best example is Anonymous.

Furry and Anonymous share the same decentralized structure. But there is one big difference: Anonymous is driven by a central idea that might be defined as negative, in that it’s a reaction to a perceived wrong—in this case (and very roughly), disenfranchisement from society. Positive central ideas are rare, because it’s always easier for people to bond over a common enemy—Keynesian economics, say, or the Church of Scientology. Furry’s positive focus is rare.

This doesn’t mean that furry is ‘good’ and Anonymous is ‘bad’: there are elements of both in both communities. But it does mean that we act in fundamentally different ways. To generalize, furry is creative rather than destructive; proactive rather than reactive.

The structure of furry is driven by our shared interest in exploring identity as an animal-person. This is a personal exercise, but we are drawn together because we mutually reinforce each other’s animal-person identity. Furry is a self-fulfilling prophesy. Or to put it another way, we are having a voluntarily shared delusion.

Furry, then, is necessarily self-referential. New furries look to fit in, and so they adopt the community’s norms, such as creating an animal-person avatar. This helps settle and define furry culture, while simultaneously we challenge the status quo by exploring the edges of what it means to be a furry. Our growth and change as a community happens unpredictably, as successful furry ideas are embraced (YCH auctions) and anachronistic ideas are discarded (‘burned furs’).

[adjective][species], this website, can be seen as a microcosm of this natural growth and change. The site is subtly changing as we write new articles, and as the readers respond. Successful ideas take on more importance, as they provoke more content from either one of the regular writers or one our growing numbers of Guest Articles. The site has a life of its own, a life collectively defined by the consumers of the site itself. (Even this article was partly provoked by a yet-to-be-published Guest Article that I’m helping to edit. It’s about leadership and penguins and it’s terrific – look out for it.)

Furry will continue to grow and change. Soon enough, the furries of 2013 will find themselves perplexed, and possibly unwelcome, in whatever the new furry world brings, just as Perri-the-fan finds himself today. And some of us will hark back to the good old days of 2013, back when JM was engaging in awesome wordplay on [adjective][species].

The desire for things to stay static is a natural conservative instinct. It’s easy to stay fixed, and to look back on the past with rose-tinted glasses, while the world has moved on. Most furries are young and so will not have experienced this, but all of us will be able to think of someone who refuses to engage with today’s world on today’s terms. It requires effort to look to the future with optimism, not just back at the past with fondness. I, for one, am looking forwards to where furry will take us next.

I am beginning a project, to write a book about the Furry fandom.

Now, this book is going to be broken up into 3 sections: Those who know a Furry and want to understand the community, new furries, and old furries (Long time Furry community members).

What I would like, is some folks who have been in the community for 10 years or more to answer some questions. None of your answers will be used in the book, but I just want to get some varied opinions on a few topics to flesh them out. I am picking on the longer term members, since they have seen more of the community than someone just falling into it.

If you are interested, PM me here.

Edit I wanted to add a quick edit here, for those who are reading this: I am not writing this book because I feel I am A.) An expert in the Furry community or B.) Some sort of spokesperson for the community. I am writing this because I want to try and help people understand Furries, and hopefully help kill some of the less than great stereotypes that we have attached to us. In fact, in the Preface, I make it very clear that I only speak for myself in writing the book, and my experiences in the community over the past 23 years.

Final Edit So, one more quick edit: 1.) If you are an IRC user, drop by irc.anthrochat.com #furryinstructionmanual 2.) I will be selling this book, however the only portion of the money I will keep is to keep the website up, and any expenses that I have to pay for the sales of the book, the rest will go into several charities, so I will make absolutely no money on this project. I will publicly post all sales figures, and post images of the checks I am writing out to the charities.

submitted by MindajaCat
[link] [41 comments]

submitted by HappyWulf
[link] [6 comments]

We're back with the topic of Role Playing coming into the Festive-Season of 2013 Future Toilet technology, a bigger apex dino-predator, get arms deep into massaging elephants and push back the Jelly-Invasion~! ActFur Season 5 Ep 6 – Playing up the Role! - We're back with the topic of Role Playing coming into the Festive-Season of 2013 Future Toilet technology, a bigger apex dino-predator, get arms deep into massaging elephants and push back the Jelly-Invasion~!

Anyone else out there into diesel?

This is my truck, a 1985 Ford F350 with a 6.9 Diesel. Mostly stock except for the following:

Gear Vendors Overdrive

Hypermax Turbo (50% more power. no lie on this)

Step Plates

Here's a photo of the truck shortly after I bought it (yes that's me)

http://imageshack.us/a/img801/5293/9gsc.jpg

Currently awaiting new injectors, a injection pump and tires. Hope to then haul him back to the outskirts of Amaragosa and do a fursuit photo shoot at a old (2000 or so when it closed) gas station with diesel pumps. What I wouldn't give to suck those tanks down if they didn't have algae in em/no fuel! (my truck, like all pre LSD/ULSD trucks prefers high sulfur diesel fuel)

Ford/IH Diesels are my favorite in particular, but I do have a soft spot for the ear splitting din of detroit diesels also. If it has diesel, i'm probably somewhere around it!

For a while, I did repair work for a dog rescues ex school bus (1994) as seen here:

http://imageshack.us/a/img717/9986/dsc0157aw.jpg

Since the photos so far are just of me posing, here are some actual working photos, the one above was taken after this:

http://imageshack.us/a/img600/6413/dsc0138svy.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img833/8986/dsc0136tl.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img204/3372/img2012071400063.jpg

This was changing the oil and replacing a fuel/water seperator filter on the bus. It's a 6.5 NA (Naturally Aspirated, aka no turbo)

Sadly it's stranded in a amargosa repair shop currently, developed some engine problems and I don't have the time/money to take a crack at it myself. Heaven knows if a storage bill is being run up!

So chime in! Love diesels? Repair em? I await your reply!

submitted by mohavewolfpup
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submitted by evilsibe
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I've always really liked all things furry (it stemmed from my love of beani babies as a kid). I want to get into fan art, can you reccomend some good artists.

Thanks,

-Giraffe :)

submitted by QuantumGiraffe
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submitted by sojahawk
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submitted by pheonixbat
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submitted by ProfessorNope
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submitted by HappyWulf
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Thank you to Julian Bynoe, who wedged this illustration in between his current portfolio kickstarter and his several web projects. Good luck, Julian! Cropped from original for image ratio.

Furfunding Week in Review 12-8-13

A bit of a slow week in furry crowdfunding this time around, with a few gems coming in on Saturday and Sunday–in particular, Rizzo Michelle’s art doll ponies, and Zodion, a sci-fantasy reimagining of the Zodiac.

To fill the aching void left by sudden appearances of wolf-people on Offbeatr, the staff at Furstarter spent some time fleshing out a Resource page, with suggestions for new crowdfunding campaigns and “unbiased” (hah) comparisons of the various crowdfunding platforms. Hope someone finds these useful, and feedback is appreciated!

Reviews New Projects

For a “complete” list of furry/fur-friendly crowdfunding projects, check out the Project Page!

Art

Zodion prints and stickers
Colorful sci-fi/fantasy illustrations inspired by the Zodiac
More illustrations on Meader’s Blog.

Books/Print

Alice in Wonderland Books, Prints
Lavishly illustrated and anthro-intensive Alice books and prints.

Clothing/Costumes

Fire and Bone
Tiny, digitally captured, metal animal skulls–sculpture and jewelry.

Comics/Graphic Novels

Ferrin Webcomic/Roleplaying Space
“Ferrin” webcomic with roleplaying community/forums, artwork (and Ferrin) by Demu Ferrin.

Film/Animation/Theater

“Walk, Talk, Wolf” music video
Music and storyboard for music video loosely based on ‘Boy Who Cried Wolf,’ lots of animal themese throughout.

Toys

MLP Customizations and Art Dolls
Pop culture makeovers for vintage MLP dolls.
The Darth Vader is kind of amazing!

…Also By Furs

The Dancing Emu’s Fantasy Postcard Set (Ends: 12/26/2013): Fantasy watercolor cards by Teal Newcomb.

…Coming Soon?

Beast’s Fury Arcade Sticks ((Not yet launched)): For the many furry fans of the Beast’s Fury campaign on Indiegogo, matching joysticks!

…Meh

Foxy/Quilly (Ends: 1/8/2014): IGG Relaunch of trailer campaign for Foxy & Quilly animated trailers, educational children’s series. Low goal+Flexible Funding and so-so conception, this doesn’t look like it’s going to happen

Can anyone tell me, where I can buy a husky tail for a good price? Help me, since I want to build a fursuit soon :3

submitted by ThatoneStalker25
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submitted by R3ddFox
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Maybe I'm just having horrible luck, but Amazon and even Google aren't showing the results I want. Where on earth can I find those big jinglebell-type bells that clip onto collars that I've seen for neko girl cosplay? I have one as a keychain, and one of my friends wants one for Christmas, and as I cannot spawn the vendors' hall at Anime Expo into existence on a mere whim, I desperately need your help!

submitted by Jade_Orange
[link] [5 comments]

It doesn't matter if you joined in 2012 or in 1992, I'm curious what changes you've noticed. If possible, focus on the positive!

For me, I joined in the mid 90s. Obviously it's bigger, there's less of a 'small community' feel where everyone knows everyone, and I've noticed that regional communities have taken on their own local customs and opinions on what the fandom 'is' where it used to seem that no matter where you lived most people had a similar idea of what being furry is.

Also...I get that for many it's a hobby and that there is no 'community.' Your opinion matters too, but I'm mostly curious about those who consider furry a big part of their lives.

One more interesting thing I noticed. Many of the 'growing pains' (cliques, drama, importance of art or fursuiting, etc.) seem similar whether it's new to the area or old. ie. many of the things that happened in my local community I saw happening in Brazil when I visited furs there, only I first saw them in the 90s, and the relatively young community in Brazil experienced them in the 2010s

TL:DR - I find the changes people see over their time in the fandom interesting and am curious what people have noticed themselves since they joined.

submitted by Roogoyle
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submitted by anthroguy101
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