Historical debates
Shoe ad drops - gets furries to "converse" about marketing and fandom
Posted by Sonious on Sat 20 Jul 2019 - 18:42In Brazil in March 2019, a furry bowling event had gathered under the name Furboliche. In attendance was Crash Azarel, a popular fursuit performer who had been guest of honor at Brasil FurFest the previous year. At the bowling event there was also another group in attendance to take photos of the fursuiters, to show them wearing sneakers for an advertising campaign for Converse (a brand bought by Nike in 2003). These adverts have been recently released on their Argentinian and Australian sites. Crash shared the news of the marketing launch on his Twitter feed.
WELL CONVERSE-ALLSTARS's FURRY COMERCIAL IS OUT.
So far only in Australia and Argentina, but coming soon near you! XD on their site and on their shops! pic.twitter.com/TMdbVWmCkG— Crash Azarel (@Crash_Azarel) July 13, 2019
Afterwards, some furs began to be critical of the collaboration, concerned about using one's fursona for the profit of another, and fears of corporate culture and marketing infiltrating the fandom. True to its brand name, the shoe being worn by the furs of Brazil were starting a conversation on outside marketing within the fandom.
Update 7/27: Brasil FurFest has announced a sponsorship by Converse since this article was published.
The 2016 Ursa Major Award winners
Posted by Fred on Sat 1 Jul 2017 - 09:32
The 2016 Ursa Major Awards have been announced on Friday afternoon, June 30th at the Anthrocon convention in Pittsburgh. The Ursa Major Awards, for the best anthropomorphic fiction of the past calendar year, are presented in twelve categories by the Anthropomorphic Literature and Arts Association (ALAA), and are voted upon by the public on the Ursa Major Awards website.
2015 Ursa Major Award final ballot
Posted by Fred on Tue 15 Mar 2016 - 06:47
Voting for the 2015 Ursa Major Awards, for the Best Anthropomorphic Literature and Art of the 2015 calendar year in eleven categories, is now open. The voting is open from March 15 to April 30. The awards will be announced at a presentation ceremony at What the Fur 2016, in Montreal, Quebec, on May 20-22, 2016.
The eleven categories are: Best Anthropomorphic Motion Picture, Best Anthropomorphic Dramatic Short or Series, Best Anthropomorphic Novel, Best Anthropomorphic Short Fiction, Best Anthropomorphic Other Literary Work, Best Anthropomorphic Graphic Story, Best Anthropomorphic Comic Strip, Best Anthropomorphic Magazine, Best Anthropomorphic Published Illustration, Best Anthropomorphic Game and Best Anthropomorphic Website.
Voting is open to all! To vote, go to the Ursa Major Awards website and click on "Voting for 2015" at the left. You will receive instructions on how to register to vote. You do not have to vote in every category. Please vote in only those categories in which you feel knowledgeable.
This final ballot has been compiled from those works receiving the most nominations that were eligible. Please check the dates of publication next year to make sure that your nominations are only for works published during the calendar year (January through December) in question.
Update (22 May): The results have been announced.
Encyclopædia Dramatica lets Swiss office lapse, loses domain
Posted by GreenReaper on Thu 22 Mar 2012 - 02:53Internet drama website Encyclopædia Dramatica had its domain suspended late last week after letting its virtual office in Switzerland lapse, bureaucrat Zaiger reports:
I wish we could say there was an epic story regarding DDoS, hacking, doxing and pwnage, but the reality is we just didn't renew our virtual office in Switzerland, which was a prerequisite of having a .ch domain. We don't know when we will get it back, all we have gotten from the registrars office is that it has been frozen for legal reasons. This is not something that is generally vigorously enforced, but apparently the Swiss government has taken a shine to us.
The site, formed from a mirror of the original wiki, was hosted at encyclopediadramatica.ch. While it may be possible for operators to regain the original domain name, for now the site has moved to encyclopediadramatica.se.
Encyclopædia Dramatica hosts numerous articles about furry fans, activities and websites, typically focussing on dramatic incidents; however, their reliability is questionable, as editors often exaggerate or simply make up material in an effort to 'spice up' boring topics.
Of Lindsay Lohan, Canine Cartels, and NFTs
Posted by Sonious on Sat 2 Oct 2021 - 11:18
Celebrities, gang references, and questionable measures of affluence are not the typical fare for a furry fandom news site. However, this trifecta from the underworld rose from the earth on the 30th of September in the year of 2021.
It all started when a celebrity known as Lindsay Lohan made a tweet prompting a pack of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) called the Canine Cartel, using a dog character designed for her which is being put within this 10,000 token pack. With each of the individual tokens being put up for auction, including her own.
Reception by the fandom has mostly been negative. Some pointing out the lack of ears on the character's art, some showing agitation on having anthro characters being used to promote NFTs, others indicating that this was just a celebrity doing some arms-reach appreciation of the fandom while avoiding actually working with those in the fandom.
Today we’ll go over this event, furries' relationship with NFTs and crypto, and why this event may not be as furry as people in the fandom and media are making it out to be.
Profile: Upcoming art site Weasyl seeks $5000 by July 31
Posted by GreenReaper on Sat 28 Jul 2012 - 20:32
A new site is to open this year: Weasyl, for "artists of all kinds". But they need money to do so…and the countdown ends Tuesday.
If funding falls short, the group will still be paid, but must forfeit an additional 5% - up to $250 - as well as the regular fee of up to 7%.
Update (30 Jul): The goal is met; funding is still open until Aug 1.
Update 2: The total raised was $6015.
A variety of artists are offering services to donors, who can also receive paid site access, ad space, and merchandise.
Staff plan to use cloud hosting (Amazon S3 and EC2), rather than purchase their own servers. The site is being organized by a team of eighteen, headed by co-owners Benchilla and Kihari, and lead admin Taw Echo.
Three staff gave an hour-long presentation at Anthrocon 2012. Members also promoted the site at this year's FWA.
Weasyl links: Tumblr, Twitter and Facebook accounts — Screenshots — Forums
Editorial: For the love of Flayrah; please keep it furry!
Posted by Sonious on Fri 6 Jul 2012 - 00:14Yesterday, Flayrah published the first article tagged as opinion where the topic's relation to the furry fandom was particularly light. Many might even say non-existent. It was a topic of personal interest to the author, who happens to be the main editor at this site.
In the past, when other furry sites made major decisions or policy changes, Flayrah would report on them, and people would give their opinions. In this tradition, I feel it necessary to examine these articles and why they could have been so poorly received, and consider Flayrah's future.
Opinion: What 'Star Fox' needs to survive
Posted by crossaffliction on Mon 25 Jul 2011 - 17:20
I may be the only one in the world to say this, but I hope the next Star Fox – assuming there is one – has less flying.
Let me explain.
Dragoneer buys back Fur Affinity from IMVU
Posted by Sonious on Thu 11 Feb 2021 - 07:40
Fur Affinity is now independent once again after five years under the management of social gaming company IMVU. This comes as IMVU is looking to restructure their company to be called Together Labs, and take on major investment from Chinese company NetEase. Dragoneer repurchased Fur Affinity, for more than he originally sold it for, and now owns it under his own company (Frost Dragon Art LLC) once again.
They also made a new logo for the occasion.
FCN bans minors over parental consent headaches
Posted by GreenReaper on Tue 6 Nov 2012 - 02:10Michigan convention Furry Connection North has banned minors from registering, a year after restricting them to pre-registration, due to the hassle in obtaining parental consent forms:
Overall registering 10 minors took us as long as the other roughly 400 preregistrations. Considering the total attendance for FCN 2012 was 1127 this meant that the total minor registrations constituted less than 1% of total attendees.
It became obvious to us at that point that Furry Connection North does not appeal to the under 18 demographic. That combined with the serious burden that minor registration placed on our registration department compelled our board of directors to decide to eliminate minor registration from FCN.
While those under 18 will now be excluded, con-chair Gir Tygrin hastened to add that the event will not be changing in "rating" as a result, perhaps to avoid the spectre of FOXmas.