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submitted by lastres0rt
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The world is headed in some pretty interesting directions when it comes to things like Augmented Reality.  From little things, like QR codes next to items to allow further investigation of them, Google Goggles, which overlays locations of restaurants or other map markers on a real-time video of your surroundings as taken by your phone’s camera to all of the concept videos coming out from various places around the ‘net.  One of the more important, if not the most important, uses of AR is the addition of a data layer over what we perceive around us.  Need to know more about someone from their business card?  Snap the QR code on it and find out all you need.  It’s that simple, and let me tell you, furries are totally prepared for this additional layer of information: we’re already pros.

We’re used to multi-layered channels of communication, in this fandom.  With the majority of our interaction taking place online, we talk, role play, and chat plenty, but we’re usually not doing only that.  There is still the base layer of our communication online, the words and ideas going from one person to another, or among several people, but there are several things that change the way we interact, and especially change first impressions.  When we meet someone for the first time online, we have plenty of subtle ways of extracting information from or about them, and several of them without the other person’s knowledge that we’re doing so.

When you’re interacting with others on a MUCK, such as FurryMUCK or Tapestries, you have several tools at your disposal to tell you more about the person than you could ever find out in real life without knowing them for years.  MUCKs are text-only, so one of the first commands you learn is ‘look’, which will provide you with a short description of how someone looks; an obvious addition for the primarily visually-oriented furry.  Beyond that, however, there are commands such as ‘wi’ or ‘wixxx’, WhatIsz, which will show you what a person is interested in (or not interested in) in areas both clean and dirty.  Some of these are specific enough that they would likely not even crop up between a couple with no online interaction for years.  Another tool that’s available is, depending on the muck ‘cinfo’ or ‘pinfo’ – character information or player information.  Even more free form than WhatIsz, these commands will let you know not only about the character, but about the person behind eFox or iWolf you’re chatting up, as much as they’ll let on.

It’s not just on MUCKs that we have these additional layers of subliminal conversation going on.  Even on IRC where such commands are much more limited, we still have the rest of the internet available to us, and by far, FurAffinity has changed and helped this the most.  As soon as you see someone’s name online, there’s a good chance that you’ll be able to just look them up on FA and find out a good deal about them, from where they live to the types of things they’re into judging by the art they favorite there.  FA isn’t the only site out there, of course, and you can also find out much more explicit detail on sites like F-List and The Rabbit Hole, not to mention other art sites like VCL, SoFurry, and e621.

These are so entrenched in the furry fandom that, writing this, I keep feeling like it’s not even worth mentioning.  Every time I think that, though I remember that it’s one of the things that helps to set us apart from other subcultures out there.  The fact that we can and will find out more about the people we’re interested in based on a few short commands or a quick search online sounds pretty sinister – it’s just not something people in general do, at least not to the same extent.  If you apply for a new job, you can expect to be Googled, Facebooked, and LinkedIn by your potential new employer, but that’s about as close as you’ll get to someone looking up personal information about you.  It’s so totally normal for us that we haven’t realized that it’s changed the way we make our first impressions of each other.  In an AR sense, this is roughly equivalent to walking down the street and seeing someone rather attractive, only to find out via a little thought-bubble above their head that they secretly really enjoy being spanked, bitten, and tied up when they have sex.

If you meet someone within the fandom now, it’s easy to find out more information on them than you would ever find out otherwise.  Friendships are formed more quickly than outside the subculture and are based on much more in-depth knowledge of each other.  Add in the benefit of sex without physical consequences through playing around online and you’ve got a strange basis for a culture that relies almost entirely on a multi-layered channel of communication.  The more I think about how different these first and lasting impressions are within the fandom, the more I think it stems from the previously mentioned difference between character and self that is inherent within furry: we are so eager to use any tools available to us to more completely represent our characters online that we’re willing to change the basics of personal interaction in order to accomplish it.  Add in the anonymity provided by the internet and you have a whole subculture that is far more willing to share personal details with those that they haven’t even met yet than most any group out there, online or offline.

Interacting in person with other furries, particularly at conventions, is a strange mix of “normal interactions” as well as some amount of this multi-layered communication. I’m sure that much of this has to do with how generally tech-literate furries, or at least the con-going crowd are.  If you meet someone at a convention, you’ll likely to do it by scanning their con-badges for images of their character or a recognizable name, rather than, say, looking at a face (the “con-greeting”).  With the information contained on a standard con-badge, one still has as much to go on as on IRC – namely, the ability to look someone up on FA and figure out more about them.  Maybe I’ll try an experiment with FC 2012 and make a QR code badge and see just who all interacts with it.

Beyond that, however, I wonder just how much of our in-depth first impressions translate outside of the fandom, but into other, tightly knit groups.  If, say, an academic winds up at SIGGRAPH or a designer winds up at TED, meets someone in the halls, and notices a convention badge with a name on it, chances are good that they’ll be able to go check on their work somewhere on the internet.  However, these examples are academic and professional, not social, and I haven’t had the opportunity to go to, say, an anime or comic convention to see if lasting personal or even sexual relationships are formed in quite the same way as they are within our own subculture.  Would I be able to go to Nan Desu Kan, a local anime convention, and expect to meet two or three people there whom I would be able to instantly look up on my intelligent telephone, know intimate details about, form lasting friendships with?

With this confused blur from total immersion in our characters to the unobstructed view of self that we provide glimpses of, our mixed-up concept of first impressions within the furry fandom is understandable.  These first impressions are based not only on the actions of a persona as we perceive them, but also the more static metadata left behind on the other layers of communication within the fandom, whether it’s information left on FA, attributes on f-list or within a command such as ‘wi’, or art, visual or otherwise, of a character doing whatever that character does, providing a glimpse of how that avatar moves within the larger arena of the whole subculture, or even reacts to the world at large.  Perhaps it really is no big surprise that the furry community is both incredibly tight knit and also renowned for the drama that it puts itself through.

Author: Higgs Raccoon

The Huffington Post reports on a 2012 calendar in the United Kingdom which features cats playing musical instruments. The images in the calendar, released by Maverick Arts, were created by digitally altering photographs of real pet cats.

An examination of the publisher’s website reveals several other calendars along similar lines, with such titles as Maverick Meerkats, Ferrets Go Fishing, Water Skiing Westies, and Ballroom Bunnies.

Find the full article here: flayrah – furry food for thought

Creative Commons: Full post may be available under a free license.

submitted by Lockra
[link] [19 comments]

A return to a more traditional werewolf story, with a few nasty twists and lots of gore thrown in of course. Ferals is a new full-color horror comic written by David Lapham (famous for his horror comic The Crossed) and illustrated by Gabriel Andrade. It’s due this January from Avatar Press.  *Sigh* Always the bad guys… BleedingCool.com has a nice write-up of the new series.

image c. 2011 by Gabriel Andrade

submitted by r3drocket
[link] [36 comments]

It is r/ayiffaday, and i will be primarily be posting gay furry porn at least once a day. Feel free to subscribe and post your own content. (link very NSFW)

submitted by darthcheesepuffs
[link] [7 comments]

This time i'd like some yiffy stories. m/m only plz. and nothing weird (scat,watersports,cub,etc.)

submitted by ZayneMeadows
[link] [7 comments]

submitted by kheetah
[link] [6 comments]

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/panda-researchers-dress-cubs-15043921

Panda Researchers dress up in Fursuits!

Author: Xiath

Hello once again!

*fanfare music plays* Here I am, once again, to deliver a new podcast to you!

This episode we talk about furries and scalies. The difference this time is it’s only myself, and two other guests this episode because Rain had to back out last minute. The two guests this time are Slade, and Tiel. So give them a warm FursonaPod welcome!

Hope you like the episode!

P.S. In case you didn’t catch it in the episode, we are changing our guest policy. We are no longer taking just anyone as a guest. We (as in Rain or myself) have to know you to some degree in order to become a guest on fursonapod. Unfortunately, that means most of our guest list is null and void as of now. So if you asked to be a guest you may not be on the list anymore. I’m sorry for this, but we are trying to really clean up the podcast because I let the quality slip drastically for a while there.

 Remember to send us listenermail! 

 ~Xiath

Have something you’d like to say?

Email: listenermail@fursonapod.com

Find the full article here: FURSONAPOD.COM

The contents of this Podcast may have adult language and adult themes. The content is not produced by Furry News Network, but is posted for your convenience.

FursonaPod Ep. 36 – Furries and Scalies - Author: Xiath Hello once again! *fanfare music plays* Here I am, once again, to deliver a new podcast to you! This episode we talk about furries and scalies. The difference this time is it’s only myself, and two other guests this episode becau[...]

Lets say you wind up with some spare time on the weekend or after work (or, hell, at work) and you’re a little pent up.  If you want to have some fun on the Internet, there’s a few simple guide-lines you can follow to find some… er… release.  It all depends on where you’re looking.

FurryMUCK

Hang out around a bunch of people and single one person out.  After a while, the sexual tension will reach the breaking point and things will just happen in a whisper, right there in the WCotP or the Purple Nurple.  Who knows if it will happen again, and it may be awkward next time you inevitably run into them at FC, but hey, it was fun!

SPR (SocioPolitical Ramifications MUCK)

Don’t. Instead, hang around for a while, and chances are good that what will happen is you’ll run into someone, meet someone through them, chat for a while only semi in-character, then boom!  It’ll happen!  It may take months to get to this point, but by then, you’ll have a super friend and, potentially, a relationship.

Tapestries

Easy-peasy, lemon squeezy.  Simply follow this flow chart:

Finding a partner on Taps

IRC

Just start going, if everything’s okay, the other person will go along with you.  Depending on the room, you can even do it in-channel.

Have any more suggestions?  Leave them in the comments.

Author: banrai

Experts from Wolong National Nature Reserve believe interaction with researchers in these goofy looking costumes may increase a panda cub’s chance of survival once introduced to the wild.

“Well, it’s funny looking but hey, whatever works!” said one employee when asked of the outfits.

In 2006, the research team introduced a captive-born male cub into the wild, only to have it tragically rejected and killed by its free-roaming brethren, according to the Washington Post.

read more

Find the full article here: flayrah – furry food for thought

Creative Commons: Full post may be available under a free license.

The cast a reunited for tonight's show as Eeve3 returns to bring things back to what could be considered a normal show. If you call annoying Eeve3 with sound boards and utterly failing at Done and Dusted normal. For Done and Dusted Eeve3 talks up the new Tin Tin film (in IMAX 3D). Felis reviews Castle Crashers on the XBox 360, and Werewolfe reviews the film The Fall. Starring TK, Xavier, and Eeve3. TigerTails Radio - Season 6 - Episode 14 - You Call This Normal?

In this episode we talk about furries and scalies FursonaPod Ep. 36 - Furries and Scalies

Hi guys,

My name is LE, and the production company I work for is currently looking for Furries to interview on "Check it Out!," the cable show we're currently producing. As members of the community who are interested in how Furry fandom is represented in the media, I thought I might find an ideal candidate here.

This would be a fairly brief interview, and we'd of course compensate you for your time. You don't have to be an actor or performer... just someone who's willing to talk about the Furry community in an honest, straightforward way.

Please email me if you're local to LA, and you might be interested! I'll be happy to answer any questions you have. My email address is ledotcom@yahoo.com.

Thanks very much.

I'm writing a Stafox comic, plain and simple. A Starfox AU in webcomic form. I have enough written out to get started, and I need someone to illustrate it. I'm open to all styles of art, color, no color, what have you. You must be able to draw Anthro (duh) as well as vehicles. Action scenes are a must. Experience drawing comics preferred. DON'T BE FLAKY. This comic could end up being as much as 300 Pages. Its a big task, but it could just be your big break as an Anthro Artist. If you are interested in being involved please Email Hemms3@gmail.com and attatch some of your art, or direct me to your FA. One more thing. This isn't a porn comic. I will happily take your Yiff art into consideration for your drawing style, but in the comic you will not be drawing Fox and Krystal banging. Sorry to disappoint.

submitted by Hemms3
[link] [11 comments]

I've been glued to this site for the past day, but it's surprising how many people have never actually heard of this community. Anyone buying and selling artwork should take a glance over -everything-, especially the archive, to shop smarter and avoid making mistakes.

They've recently helped me out, so I'm doing some pimping for em'.

artists-beware.livejournal.com

submitted by xReklaw
[link] [11 comments]

submitted by Benjadumb
[link] [6 comments]

Give me prompts and I'll get through them eventually. I'll TRY porn, but I can't promise anything. :3

submitted by Jakooboo
[link] [17 comments]