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submitted by Foxes281
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Below is my recounting of AC2015. I posted this elsewhere and it's tailored for a different community but I figured maybe it'd be welcome here too. Someone on twitter wanted me to post it here on reddit.

Also you better not upvote this cus if it goes over 50 I gotta eat Pink.

Anthrocon 2015 was a thing I attended. I had a lot of fun. I also had a lot of very jarring, strange to downright disgusting experiences. This is just me talking about what happened to try work out for myself where I belong in the furry community, if at all, and if the good of AC outweighed the negative. Input is appreciated.

AC2015 was always a litmus test for me. I've been on the outskirts of furry for about 8 years. My main interest has always been fursuiting. 3 years ago I made first contact with another furry. 1 year ago I attended a local meet up... Briefly before leaving and cutting ties. In the past few months I got my first fursuit to share with a few close friends and my boyfriend. At AC2015 I'd share it with the world. I was excited but also scared.

I'm going to make points about my experience in no particular order. Just as they come to me. Some positive, some neutral, some negative.

1: The community and quality of people at AC is far better than that of any local meet I've been to. Every single furry stereotype imaginable congregates at furmeets. From the obnoxiously loud underage kids to the unhygienic, possibly mentally handicapped man in animal ears playing his 3DS and refusing to socialize. The organizer lady of the event tried her best to rope things together but it was useless. I felt sorry for her. I offered my friend a ride home – 2 others overheard and demanded a ride. “Sorry, my car only has two seats. It's an S2000” I lied, walking outside and to the side of the cafe to get in my Subaru Forester.

Yet AC was a lot better. My theories to why follow;

One: Attending AC requires money. Money is acquired from jobs. If you're too unhygienic or generally socially awkward and unacceptable by societies most basic standards, you can't hold a job. If you can't hold a job, you can't go to AC. This cuts out MOST of the weirdos that attend local meets. Supporting this theory was a rather portly gentleman that sat next to me on the con shuttle. His smell pungent, fursuit scraggly and general aura unpleasant. “Where are you from?” I ask to change the subject from his attraction to Minerva Mink. “Right here in Pittsburgh baby!” he responds, attempting to put an arm around me which I promptly deny. Well then, no need to pay for a plane ticket or hotel for him.

Two: Uncle Kage runs a tight ship. If you can't follow simple rules, are an ultra negative image for furry or are simply batshit insane, you get banned. Case in point, [redacted1] and [redacted2]. While it's literally censoring the fandom, knowing characters like [redacted1] wouldn't be attending if Uncle Kage had a choice made me much more comfortable and safer. I hope uncle Kage learns about the antics of people like [redacted3] sooner rather than later.

Those two things limit how many, um... “Undesirables” get through. I imagine many will feel offended by what I just said. I know I'll get flak for it. But judging people by their impression on me and how they carry myself has kept me on a good track for over 20 years. It's a tried and true formula that shaves off crowds I want no part of.

2: On day one people looked at me and stared at me, a member of con security locking eyes with me for uncomfortably long. Later that day a man in an orange fox hoodie asked me if I was a furry. “Of course I am, why else would I be here?” I respond. “But you looks so posh! You sure you're not with NPR or something?” he laughs, trotting off. I thought about what he said when I got back to my hotel room, looking at myself in the mirror. Before me was an average-sized man wearing a short sleeve button up shirt, fitted jeans with no stains or holes, semi-formal slip on black shoes, a cleanly-shaven face and well kept haircut, with clean rectangular grey-metal glasses sitting on his nose. I considered what everyone else wore that day. In my usual dress I was odd, alien even. That night I purchased some brown sneakers and baggy jeans from downtown, wearing them and my con shirt to the next day. From then on I was invisible.

3: The convention is extremely two faced. “We're just a group of people that love cartoon animals!” Kage tells eager reporters, hours before running a panel where he tells furrys how to interact with the media. The next day I go around the dealers room – one of the few places I never saw a news team. The first thing I see directly ahead of me in the middle of the dealers room floor is a large stand for Furoticon – a furry Magic: The Gathering clone where everything is about sex. Nearby is a place to get fitted for a custom collar or bondage cuffs. Across the hall is a second collar store specializing in latex/rubber collars. There's also a place to get a full body harness. The majority of artists in the alley have 18+ binders – one has three 18+ binders on his table and nothing more apart from his artist name on a hastily made plaque.

Kage deflects all accusations that Anthrocon is a sex thing whenever asked he says in his aforementioned panel, but never denies. You should too, he says. Yet most dealer tables have something sex related for sale, whether it be books, collars or otherwise. Its clear that he knows about this stuff, and denying it for the sake of the con. Pittsburgh is shockingly Christian – numerous churches, preachers in the street, and on Sunday everything is closed. While I appreciate Kages efforts for the facade, I can clearly see why he does it, but it made the experience utterly jarring. I'd be more comfortable if he was more honest with the city about why furries attend, but we all know that would terminate ACs stay in Pittsburgh permanently.

4: The obsession with the famous was astounding. I briefly got to see 2 the Ranting Gryphon. We stayed in the same hotel, we did nothing more then glance at each other. I told someone about this and they pressured me on why I didn't ask for a autograph, or even say “hi”. “I don't really care for him. Never seen any of his material” I say, their jaw dropping. “But he's so big! I'm so jealous, you just wasted a huge opportunity!” I shrugged it off.

Every time I saw Kage he had an entourage of people, some obviously his friends, others orbiting the group, eager to become his friends. They sweat and breath heavily, waiting for the perfect moment to spring their rehearsed joke or comment that'll surely win his heart and their own seat in the world of furry fame. I interacted with Kage briefly once, threatening him with an umbrella.

My other instance with a famous furry was in the headless lounge. I sat on a chair, fursuit head on a fan to air it out. The lounge has around 6~ people total, casually talking about everything from their suits to the weather. Telephone walks in, removing her suit head and setting it down. Conversation stops, everyone looks, some look at me and each other as if assessing whether they should make a move. Seconds later conversation returns, quieter this time, the topic obvious.

5: People are there to fuck. And that's OK. My fursuit it cute, feminine and attracted a lot of unwanted attention of people that wanted to fuck it. That's not OK. On the day before As in the Westin Lobby someone placed their palm on the suits chest, I swat it away. “Whats wrong? I thought you'd like that sort of thing... Did I so something wrong?” the tall man says, getting quieter with each utterance before blushing deep red and going away. He avoids eye contact with me from then on.

On the final day I emerged from the headless lounge, and as I adjusted my head a man in his 40s puts an arm around me. “Hey there, lets get a picture!” I oblige. “Doing anything? Me and my buddies are going to my room for drinks, if you dig.” His inflection and hand slipping from my hip to my rear reveals his intentions go far beyond just drinks. “Want in?” I refuse, shaking my head as I jog away quickly. I wonder what he was going to do with my picture.

Other than those two instances, numerous referenced to my suit as “sexy”. Not cute, not pretty, but “sexy”. It made me wary of them. Their first instance upon seeing me was not “cute dog!” but “wow, they're sexy!” and they didn’t even try to hide it. It really made me feel gross and put me off suiting.

6: Some panels were good. Some were kinda bad. My least favourite was “whos lion is it anyway”. While the comedy was good the presenter spent a LOT of time promoting himself, the convention he runs and his friends. The first round was nearly exclusively his friends. It took at least half an hour to set up party quirks, and the actual time spent on it far less. The round after was a logistical nightmare, at least 50 people on stage in 3 rows. For someone that runs a con, he should consider how to streamline his panel a bit more to be more comedy, and less promotion and rules-explanation.

7: The best experiences were the out of panel ones. Playing Joust for 2 hours with friends and random folk. Posing for hundreds and hundreds of pictures with not only con attendees but the people of Pittsburgh. Picking up and carrying midget fursuiters (while in suit myself) for 20 minutes at a time because why not. Hugging fursuiters. Highfiving them. Causing mischief like a 10 yearold with his first water pistol. Meeting some great people in the headless lounge and exchanging fursuiting tips and care guides. Sampling local brews out and about or in peoples rooms. Meeting with a group of fellow misfits and becoming best friends. If you go to AC for the panels, you're doing it wrong.

8: People in murrsuits posing with children for photos. People in fursuits with dick holes in them that they have had sex in. Posing for photos. With children that are like, 8. Wearing con badges with their internet handles on, that Googling will result in fursuit porn. The kids and parents may find the shorts or y-fronts cute, but we the con attendees all know whats under there. And we're all silently judging you and gossiping about you. Seriously, its gross. Just say “no thanks” jeeze. If you're reading this know who you are.

9: Fursuiting is a great anonymity experience. I'm very shy about my face and identity around furries – becoming my fursuits character for a solid 4 days around strangers was intriguing. Great. Amazing even. People see you as an exciting, multi-dimensional bouncy character, and not the slouching human hiding behind the suit.

So that's that. All major things that happened to me at AC. Other things were comparatively inconsequential or unrelated. I'm still unsure what to make of AC. Did I enjoy it? What do I make of my experiences? If I go again, what will I do differently? I think about that a lot lately, slouched on my deck, thinking about my fursuit and what it means to me, what it means to furries and how those two ideologies differed. To me it's a disguise, a character I become to attend furry functions without anyone knowing who I am, but it's a character I love being. One that's outgoing, playful and sassy, yet at times shy. Shy like me, my own personality bleeding in to the fur and foam facade that I once differentiated from myself, but now compare myself to. I wonder if fursuiting affects my own character, and if so if its a positive or negative one. I wonder how the furry fandom molds my personality, and if that's a good thing at all.

EDIT: Removed names.

EDIT 2: I appreciate the thought behind gold but I'll never use it. If you really, -really- want to give me something for this post then paypal me.

submitted by Stupid_Pink_Dog
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Mark your calendars and set your alarms! Thanks to one of our members, we’re going to be having a special chat in our forums this Saturday, July 25, at 6 PM Eastern with Jennifer Tait, a senior production editor at one of the Big Five publishers.

As a senior production editor, Ms. Tait deals with the book after it’s been accepted, so she doesn’t have anything to do with reviewing submissions. That said, this is a great opportunity to get a bit of a behind-the-scenes look at the traditional publishing world and the aspects of the publishing process that she handles, and I’m very grateful that she’s agreed to come chat with us.

Many thanks to FWG member Bill “Greyflank” Kieffer for suggesting and arranging this. I’m hoping this will be the first of many guest chats we’ll have in future months and years.

Again, the chat will be Saturday, July 25 at 6 PM Eastern, in the forum shoutbox as usual. (If you’re not registered on the forums, you’ll need to register in order to see the shoutbox.) With Ms. Tait’s permission, I’ll also see about posting a transcript in the forums afterward, for the benefit of those who aren’t able to be on at the time. And if you can’t be there and want to leave a question for her, you can ask it here.

See you in the shoutbox on Saturday!

Hello and welcome to the 5th Art Prompt thread! I hope you're all having a good Summer so far - Anyone got any exciting things planned?

Thanks to the scorching weather recently, this week our theme will be a furry beach party!

Also, we'll be trying something new this week: Our friends over at /r/furryartschool are running a companion thread that offers lots of useful tips and feedback about the prompt. Check it out!

Week 4

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submitted by DragonsAreReal96
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Stronk! Getting more comfortable with coloring now. Baby steps. :P

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/17154643

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Like what do you post mainly :p and that you are a expert in.

my expertise is of course pooltoys and latex and some inflation.

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I'm an Eclectic Witch. And no, I can't turn you into your frogsona. (There was an incident with a newtsona, but he got better humaner).

Given that some religions have beliefs about animal spirit guides, totems, reincarnating as a non-human, et cetera, I'm curious to see what kinds of beliefs we have here.

submitted by WriterOfAlicrow
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submitted by Pepper-Fox
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Hope everyone had a nice fun weekend. Nothing special about this weekend in particular but hopefully it was still fun. Guess I should share what I did.

I was able to get a new vehicle to replace my Subaru that exploded, it's an 80s gmc farm truck but I like it. I also got to go do some exploring in the woods nearby. There not the nice manicured woods you find in parks but rather the creepy horror movie woods. I found a area where everything was dead too, but you guys probably don't want to hear a NOPE story.

So what did you guys do?

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