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submitted by Darkmayne
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Some things are better enjoyed alone.

Driving, for example!  That we even use the phrase “back-seat driver” points to it being an endeavor best carried out by oneself.  Typing, as well, and writing.  And programming for sure; I know that I certainly have a difficult time with paired programming (because I’m right, of course).  Exploring one’s own emotional state, plumbing the depths of one’s psyche, and working through one’s own problems are certainly meant to be solo adventures.  Sometimes we just have to be solipsistic, separating ourselves from those around us to figure out what’s going on within us.

Furry, however, has become something that goes beyond solo.  It has become a subculture, past even a simple fandom.  It’s something to be shared, to be experienced with others, and I imagine it would be difficult to find an individual who would identify as a furry solely in a solipsistic sense.  

I know that I’m being a little glib in my use of ‘solipsism’, here.  Solipsism is the idea that nothing really, truly can be sure to exist beyond one’s own mind.  It can be useful, to be sure, in the ways that I mentioned.  Part of the reason I took last week off is that I’ve been struggling through a bit of a tough spot, and I needed evenings and a weekend alone to help sort through some of the mixed up emotions that have been plaguing me.  I had to withdraw from a lot of friends, both online and off, in order to get my thoughts in order, even at the expense of spending time with a bunch of animal people I really enjoy being around, usually.

From a layman’s perspective, this is an inkling to the big difference between psychology and sociology.  Not simply that I was thinking about myself instead of others, but that in order to do so, I had to pull back from the society around me: work by myself, think through my own problems, and eschew the distractions of chatting online or even in person in order to get through this.  Now that I’m on my way back up, as it were, I’m doing my best to reintegrate with my friends and cohort, to become a member of my team at work, get back into dealing with my fiance and parents at home, and slip back into the fandom.

When I was a little younger and a lot more foolish, I spent some time writing on what I was calling the Manifesto Project (which still exists in a crippled form to this day; I won’t dignify it with a link), which was my attempt to explain what I believed and why.  The project wound up stalling out before I got very far with it due to the sheer broadness of the goal “write about what you believe”.  Before I sputtered to a stop, however, I had started to pull together some of my thoughts on what sociology was, what it meant to be part of a group.  Prior to that point, I had written primarily from a solipsistic point of view, pulling together ideas that had to do with me and me only.  And, as I’m sure you all are well aware, I have a habit of boiling things down to a pithy phrase that I can go off on for a few thousand words.  In this case, I chose “triangulation of self”.

I never claimed to not be a nerd.

I had been (and have been recently) thinking that a lot of what we do in our interactions with others was done in order to help define ourselves.  We surround ourselves with friends and embed ourselves in a society in order to define our own boundaries.  And here, by interactions, I don’t simply mean talking and touching and what not, but judging others’ reactions to us, and our reactions to others.  This helps us see the shape of ourselves similar to how a visual artist can depict a chair using only negative space.  The negative space is sociology, filling in the details is psychology.

Of course, this is a long way around back to furries, and I’m sure there’s some far better term to be used besides “triangulation of self”.  It is important though, given how robust a subculture furry has become due to this interconnectedness of its members.  We, as a group, rely on our social interactions to perpetuate our interest in anthropomorphics in art, in communication, and in self expression.  All of this, combined with our loose and varied definition of what we actually are leads to our strength through our plasticity.  That is, our strength comes from our ability to reshape the community, or even our views of the community, allowing us to thrive and grow over time.

It’s this assignment of importance to social interaction in furry that provides some of its greatest draw, I believe, especially during certain periods in one’s life.  It may even account for some of the skew in age seen in those within the fandom toward those in their teens and twenties, that time in life when defining oneself becomes so very important.  Add on top of that the common reliance on a constructed avatar specifically used for interacting with others, and we have this “triangulation of self” in spades.  Communicating and interacting with other furries, both online and off, provides this definition of character so many crave (“character” meaning both the character and the mental and moral qualities of the player, here).  This definition of self through interaction is perhaps part of the reason that conventions, furmeets, social communities online and off, and so on are all so successful.

This is also so highly visible due to the ways that we communicate online, where a record is left of our interactions.  Art sites such as FurAffinity, SoFurry, and Nabyn, not to mention intentionally social sites such as The Furry Agenda, the FA Forums, and the fluctuating community of furries on Twitter and other not-specifically-furry social sites are good examples.  Heck, even sites like this one are nothing without both contributors and readers.  [adjective][species] is its own little community, in a way.

This may just be one of those things that is too obvious to require stating.  I mean, of course we communicate with each other.  Of course we interact, and we feel that we need to interact in order to express our characters and show our animal selves.  What is interesting, though, and perhaps this is an artifact more of the fact that we’re a loose-knit online community than furries, is that a lot of these services are free, fan run, and contain only fan-provided advertisements, if any at all*.

The reason I bring up the free status of these services is to point out something unique within communities such as this.  Whereas in the larger community of, say, the western world, capitalism suggests that a company’s success is decided by tconsumers spending their cash with them: Wal-Mart and Target are as large as they are because so many people spend their money at those stores, voting with their wallets in a sense.  With our free services, however, the currency isn’t financial, but social.  Sites like FA and so on are popular and remain that way because they have earned our social currency.

The benefit for us as members of this culture is that we now have these treasure troves of as the basis our social standing.  The relationships and social dynamics within the fandom are very complex, and proof of this lies evident in the ways that we interact through the ‘net.  Not simply discussions taking place in public, nor even the text sent back and forth between two people, but in the ways we react and interact with each other, defining ourselves through others.  One can buy art of one’s character – a little, a lot, or none at all – and one can comport themselves in certain ways in order to shape the way they’re viewed, and identify themselves through the process.

As a bit of a personal anecdote, I wound up finding my current career through another fur, who wound up being my boss, in a way.  Almost every time we talk about the fandom, I’m surprised at just how many people we both know, how much of their stories and the fandom’s history we can recount to each other.  It was recently estimated that, on Facebook, rather than there being the oft-quoted “six degrees of separation” between you and any other individual, the gap is narrowing, now nearly down to 4.74 degrees of separation.  And that number is from the unintentional community of facebook users.  It’s no wonder that, with furry being a more intentional subculture and with our draw to interpersonal communication, that that number seems to drift even lower, especially keeping in mind that the average person can keep track of about 150 people in their heads, and that most furs seem to surround themselves with like-minded friends**.

I know that this article was rambling, and I hope you’ll forgive me as I get back into the swing of things.  Even so, it’s interesting that we are so reliant on our interconnectedness to help define ourselves within the fandom.  Doubly interesting that we draw so much of this definition from the social aspects of so many different sources, online and off.  Interesting and comforting.

* As I was asked previously, [a][s] is run without ads and doesn’t bring in any money – it’s all paid for out of pocket and contributors post for free under a non-restrictive license.  We aim to stick to this as best as possible, too!

** Taken from an informal twitter poll and eleven years in the fandom – don’t hit me!

submitted by DJRobotears
[link] [13 comments]

submitted by scottbob3
[link] [24 comments]

Black to the Moon is a 3D CGI animated feature film from Europe, which recently premiered at the Cartoon Movie event in Lyon, France. Originally known as Blackie & Kanuto, it was directed by Francis Nielsen and produced in France, Spain, Italy, and Belgium (!). Currently it’s looking for distribution in North America. Here’s the storyline according to the Internet Movie Database: “Blacky, a black sheep, is the terror of the farm. And she is obsessed with going to the Moon. Kanuto, the sheepdog, gets tangled up in her plans while failing to hide his love for her. They get swept away in an adventure where they meet an opera-singing cow, a fashion designer wolf, illegal sewing spiders, a weird couple of birds from some famous singing TV reality show contest, and a peculiar pack of dogs, the ‘Pastrinos’, who have a rocket ready to launch. And of course, Pinky, the Godzilla-sized sheep, with a bad attitude of lunar proportions.” Seriously.  Maybe it’ll make more sense when you see the English-language trailer on YouTube. But then again, maybe not.

image c. 2012 Art'Mell

submitted by kheetah
[link] [2 comments]

I'm talking specifically of the canine-feline-dragon matirx, but it extends to otters and bears and the like too I guess. What makes people gravitate to those creatures in large numbers?

submitted by terutt
[link] [23 comments]

Join us as we discuss what each of us do for hobbies in and outside of the anthropomorphic community and share our insider “secrets” on how to get started in your own new hobby. Come listen to the only podcast where “actually” is considered a bad word.

Metadata and Credits WagzTail Podcast 2.0 Episode 9
Runtime: 30m
Cast: Levi, Kail, Wolfin, Flechmen, Norzman, Carson
Editor: Silentpaw
Format: 128kbps ABR split-stereo MP3
Copyright: © 2012 WagzTail.com. Some Rights Reserved. This podcast is released by WagzTail.com as CC BY-ND 3.0. If distributed with a facility that has an existing agreement in place with a Professional Rights Organisation (PRO), file a cue sheet for 30:00 to Fabien Renoult (BMI) 1.67%, Josquin des Pres (BMI) 1.67%, WagzTail.com 96.67%. Rights have been acquired to all content for national and international broadcast and web release with no royalties due. Special thanks to Karen Andrews for the Podcast thumbnail for this episode, used by permission. Episode 9 - Join us as we discuss what each of us do for hobbies in and outside of the anthropomorphic community and share our insider "secrets" on how to get started in your own new hobby. Come listen to the only podcast where "actually" is considered a bad word.

Congratulations to Blotch team for winning the number one comic spot over at tor.com for “Across Thin Ice” ! They over took “Girl Genius” on the final numbers, which goes to show again that furries make it big time when it comes to comics OR more like furries then really smart girls?  Buy Across Thin Ice here….you do nooowwww!

Think you have what it takes to voice act? Give it a shot over at BedFellows (a new online animated cartoon) they are looking for a few good fellows (pun…yeh you know I needed to work it in). Check out the link here for details.

Dear Papabear,

I’ve been a furry for a few years now, and I’m wondering if you can give me some advice. I was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome last year and was hoping you had advice on how I can overcome a problem I got. Whenever I’m at a furry convention, and in all honesty I don’t go to that many, I’m all open and ready to greet furs I don’t know and make new friends. But, when I’m someplace else, like church, I just sit there while others go and talk to their other friends. How can I take my energy that I have when I’m at a furry convention over to help me so I’m not just a guy who has no friends?

Sincerely,

Jake Otter

* * *

Dear Jake,

What an excellent question. I meet a lot of furries in the fandom suffering from Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism that makes social interaction difficult. It’s interesting to Papabear that furries with Asperger’s are able to interact with other furries, but, like you, have trouble outside the fandom.

You do not say whether or not you are receiving treatment for Asperger’s, but judging by your letter, it appears you are not getting any professional help or you probably would not be writing to Papabear. For some furries, paying for therapy or medication is not an option because they do not have much money and are not covered by insurance.

Depending on how extreme your AS is, you might be able to perform some self-help treatments. There is a wonderful woman in Canada named A. J. Mahari who has AS and has created as website called “Asperger’s Adults Differently Abled” at http://aspergeradults.ca/.  She has posted so much first-hand information here that I recommend this site to anyone with AS.  The site focuses a lot on self-help techniques, and there is an entire section offering advice on how to better form social relationships and relate to others when you have AS.

You should be able to find your answers there, Jake, which will help you with your situation in church.

Big Bear Hugs to You!

Papabear

Disclaimer
Opinions and advice expressed in the “Ask Papabear” column are not necessarily those of the Furry News Network, its staff, sponsors, or advertisers. Papabear is not a trained therapist, physician, or social worker, and the author of “Ask Papabear” will refer readers to licensed professionals in cases where such recommendations seem in order.

You have a question for Papabear? Ask right here!

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submitted by Enleat
[link] [33 comments]

I'm looking for some people to help me with a big mod. I am recreating the world of redwall and i can't do it alone. If anyone is interested or have any questions please let me know. I want to start with the abbey and work my way outwards.

update 1: got an artist working on the tapestry for the game

submitted by haladur
[link] [9 comments]

submitted by natranr
[link] [7 comments]

submitted by xandertheblue
[link] [8 comments]

Just Add Water is having a tough go at trying to get Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath onto the Xbox Live Marketplace. The studio has been pushing for the game to be published by Microsoft or self-published, but that route seems to have stymied:

“We’ve basically run everything dry in terms of going some kind of first-party route with Microsoft, be it them publishing it or be it us publishing it ourselves, so we’re now having to go down the third-party route...We’re speaking to two or three different publishers at the moment about taking it on for us. I think we’ll probably have some news on that by Easter, I hope.”

JAW's problems with getting the game onto XBLM come from the inability to get the game below the 2 GB limit. The PSN version of the game has been out since December.

Source

submitted by blueyoshi11
[link] [7 comments]

Here!

This is probably not such a big deal to the vast majority of you but after hanging out along the peripheral for so long I think it's worth making a little about noise :)

Anyway, give me a shout, let me know who you are and maybe I'll start to get to know the community a little better over the coming days. I'm pretty busy with real life at the moment but once I'm a bit more settled into my account I'll be openeing up a small handful of free commission slots to get the ball rolling there. Keep an eye open for journal and note updates if you think you'll be interested! I'll also be opening up a few low prices slots in the hope that some folks will still be interested even after the free slots are taken.

Hello all!

submitted by Art-Stew-Frou-Frou
[link] [3 comments]

Let's get another one of these things going and fill up our friend lists with more awesome furs!

http://steamcommunity.com/id/Akalic

submitted by akalic
[link] [31 comments]

Hey guys, so I was planning on going to ConFuzzled 2012 in May, it was going to be my first ever con, and I even saved up loads of money for my first fursuit too. The good new, my fursuit should be arriving before April....the bad news is me and my partner can't afford the tickets now. Well what I was wondering is, could anyone who is going there make as many videos as they can and post them on youtube or something so I can see how it went? I know it won't be anything like actually being there, but we got so excited I have to at least see as much as I can.

submitted by Konor
[link] [comment]