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Where Is the Fandom Going?
I'm wondering what, in your opinion, is in store for the future of furries as it is going right now. Will there be less hate and more members or the other way around? Parts of the world seem to be going in a direction that may benefit us and others not so much.
Staemwulf
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Hi, Staemwulf,
An interesting question. I don’t think anyfur really knows, but I can offer my speculations about the future of the fandom based on what has been happening over the last years.
To gain perspective on where we are going, it might be good to understand first where we have been. I’ve always felt this was a pretty good summary of furry history: http://www.furrydolphin.net/2009_files/furry-history.html.
As you can see from that article, derpiness and nasty arguments in the fandom are not something that is exactly new. Whenever you have more than one person involved in anything, you are going to have disagreements. In the fandom, it has been stuff like “Who is a real furry and who isn’t?” As you can see from the above, one of those issues was the whole furry “lifestyler” issue. Today, it is things like “Are Bronies furries?” and the stupid “popufur” nonsense. Such arguments will always be with us, and likely will increase as the fandom grows.
That growth in participation is definitely having an effect on the fandom. According to one graph I saw posted on the Furry Fandom Infocenter at http://www.furryfandom.info/conventions.htm attendance at furcons has grown from about 5,000 a year in 1990 to about 25,000 in 2011. This is not only because attendance at existing cons is rising, but also because new cons are opening their doors every year. Some of the more recent ones include The Biggest Little Furcon (Reno), Arizona Furcon (Scottsdale), Indyfurcon, Fur the ‘More (Baltimore), and Unthrocon (Salt Lake City).
As the fandom has grown exponentially, so has its diversity. There are more older “greymuzzles” than ever before, both because older people are starting to join in on the fun and because young furs are staying in the fandom long enough to be categorized as greymuzzles. I feel that’s a good thing because it should lend some maturity and experience to the furry gene pool. I think we are also seeing more women join in, and we will see more furries in Europe, Japan, Central and South America, and other parts of the world. Again, the more furries there are, the stronger we can be, but also we will need to be careful about the inevitable increase in arguments between different parts of the fandom, as well as between furries and mundanes.
From what I’ve seen in the last 10 years or so, I think that the media is getting a bit better in portraying furries fairly. Also, some furries have been grabbing cameras and shooting documentaries and other informational videos. However, there is still a huge stigma out there. I see it all the time with furries writing to me saying their parents won’t let them be furry because they think we’re all furverts.
What is needed now—and I know I’ve mentioned this before in my column—is a way to communicate better, both between furries in the fandom and between furries and the outside world. This is a big reason for the creation of the American Furry Association (www.americanfurryassociaiton.org), which is still in the organizational stages, but we hope to be up and running by the end of the year, early 2014 at the latest. Right now, there is a TON of furry stuff on the Web and elsewhere. Sometimes it is hard to find and people are not aware of the many resources at their disposal, so the AFA will help organize that information and get it out to people, furries and mundanes alike. The more we talk and communicate, the better informed we will be and the better able to dispel misinformation and mitigate unnecessary conflicts.
No one can accurately predict where the fandom is going, other than to say it looks like we will continue to grow for some time to come. Hopefully, we can do this without too many growing pains. Hopefully, too, stereotypes and false information about the fandom will decrease as we become harder and harder for mundanes to avoid and deny simply because we will be everywhere :-)
Hugs,
Papabear
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/11394177/
So my sister's a furry...
I recently found at that my sister identifies as a furry (just wanting a tail, ears, "fursona" being a grey fox) and is worried about the family finding out and assuming things. She's pretty young, not even in high school, and to be honest the whole idea is a little odd to me. I worry about her sometimes because she can be very socially awkward. That said, I feel a little awkward that she's a furry (only because I've never known one so it seems a little foreign to me, I'm sure you're all great). Should I tell her I know? Should I do anything? Or do I just forget about it for now...
submitted by sarhbear[link] [46 comments]
I don't know if the icon is there yet.... buuut.... today's my cake day... its a pretty damn have accomplishment for me c:
You Are Never Too Old to Be a Furry
any furs actively playing BF3 on PC (or want to?)
I'm looking for some new friends on the battlefield of the fur variety. So my question is simple; anyone still actively playing BF3 on PC and have a mic? I would like to play with and meet new people, my friends have all but stopped playing. My friend has a Ventrillo voice server that we could use, I also know of some TS and mumble servers we could use.
If you would like to play but don't have BF3 I have a few unused keys that I could give out, also it's available for $5 on the origin humble bundle. My only request is that your over or around 17 ( sorry, I don't want to play with a bunch of kiddos :P )
let me know! my battlelog name is Teh_bakedpotato and my steam name is akidinspace or a_bakedpotato
submitted by teh_bakedpotato[link] [2 comments]
Any Furries that are getting GTA V (PS3 mainly) join my Sergal crew (all furries are still welcome) Need other furs to play with!
Don't show your fursuit your browsing history.
FC-134 TransPlanet
How are requests received in /r/furry? :D
I'm in the mood to do some sketches, and I'm also testing myself to see how well I can draw what is asked of me. <:3 If you guys don't mind I'll post the drawing to my dA sta.sh? The art itself would be just sketches, unless you ask for some colour slapped on there. It can be either anthro or feral, doesn't matter.<3 I'll probably have to stop in an hour or so, because sleep and all.~ But I'll try to do them in the morning too.
submitted by Lunaboo[link] [15 comments]
Episode 55 – Elwyn Glovyou and the Rivfur Commander - G'day to all of you lovely listeners! It's time for episode 55 of Furballd! This episode, Rivfur CIC, Jet and 2IC, Spex join the cast to talk about the behind the scenes of Rivfur 2013! - This week in
G’day to all of you lovely listeners! It’s time for episode 55 of Furballd! This episode, Rivfur CIC, Jet and 2IC, Spex join the cast to talk about the behind the scenes of Rivfur 2013!
This week in the news: The EA/Origin Humble Bundle breaks $5 million. An Australian manga helps young soldiers deal with PTSD. And the Xbone will now initially be released in only 13 countries.
Want to send us some news stories you want our opinion on? Maybe a topic you’d like us to ramble on about? Or even just a good old question? Then all you gotta do is shoot an e-mail to us at furballdletters@gmail.com!
Bye for now, but not forever!
This week’s song is “Hey Jat” by the B& From Rivfur. Check out the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGOaHNilrKA
Other Stuff:Bad Taste Tee’s Facebook page and website.
Watch this video with Youtube automatic captions. Hilarious. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bWJu8DvFMk
Episode 55 – Elwyn Glovyou and the Rivfur Commander - G'day to all of you lovely listeners! It's time for episode 55 of Furballd! This episode, Rivfur CIC, Jet and 2IC, Spex join the cast to talk about the behind the scenes of Rivfur 2013! - This week in the news: The EA/Origin Humble Bundle breaks $5 mi...
An artist from Pixar illustrated fights between the mascots of various NFL teams... I want to know what led up to this one.
![[link]](http://d.facdn.net/art/smarticus/1376882082.smarticus_gkgtaml.png){kind=link}
![[link]](http://www.juanelway.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Pixar-Eagles-vs-Lions-420x700.jpg){kind=link}
Looking for rp sites.
Despite only being able to really rp at night, I am on the search for a more active rp foroum. I have been with sofurry since it's younger days as yiff star, but the people and quality of rps going on now is a bit boring. So I am looking for a more active and diverse site.
submitted by loki_the_sergal[link] [4 comments]