What keeps you in the community?

Started by Neox, December 11, 2011, 10:26:37 PM

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Neox

Quote from: Temrin on December 12, 2011, 06:09:52 PM
For me, the reason why I'm here is because i honestly hate being solely part of 'normal society'. Its so... boring? (its why i dont make a habbit of drawing humans. I just find them boring. -shrugs- Not that people are mind you. Just the aspect of drawing humans.)
I love interacting with people, furries and non furries alike but the fandom (and some other fandoms) just seem a lot more interesting, open, and just. Exciting?
I love the art and the people. I love how i feel like i can really be me here. Sure, theres been tons of ups and downs but honestly thats life and you learn to live with it. I know i'll be in this fandom for many many years, if not the rest of my life. I love the culture and community here and I've learned a lot about where i stand with myself, relationships and even just with life in general. Its also given me a great freelancing job opportunity that i absolutely love :3 I love fantasy creatures so this really gives me an outlet to release stress, have fun, and interact with people from all over the world.

There have been some HUGE downs, but the positive things and what i take out of my experiences definitely beats those downs. Regardless of if my family and some friends understand it or not. They still like me for me and the fandom has given me some really interesting perspectives. I hate the drama with a passion, but that too you learn to deal with and realistically avoid with logic :3 (not all of course)

Aaaaanywas i'm rambling. I love the fandom. Nuff said. XD

Hmmm... I don't disagree with you about furry fandom being hugely fun and that it's great to be a part of such an eccentric group, but as for "normal" society being boring, I guess it's what you make of it really.  I have absolutely no issue in integrating with normal social activity and having a blast with it.  Maybe it's the excitement I get out of secretly being a furry among "normal" people?  Like a furry in disguise? *chuckles*

I also agree on your comment on "taking the good with the bad."  Over my time here, I've learned to simply take what I want from the majority of the fandom and leave the garbage in the garbage.  I've made some amazing friends who I will have for the rest of my life.  I learned to shut-out the annoyances and the people who aim to mar relationships by keeping all my ducks in order and being assertive. =)

As a side note: I find it funny that furries often complain of furry drama.

It's drama.  Not "furry" drama.  You find it everywhere, every day, regardless of where you work, who you hang out with and what you do in your free time.  I think we all get lured into the belief that, since this is our own coveted little community of people who understand other people for their "abnormal" practices and beliefs, that we are protected in our own little anti-drama shell there should be no drama at all.

Fact: we are a community of people.  Where there are people (especially youth, and people with otherwise underdeveloped social skills, which are predominantly found here), there will be drama.  I've certainly seen plenty of it, and I know I'm going to see a lot more of it, therefore it becomes an irrelevant detail to me.
NaEthOliX.

Call me Naetholix, Neox, Neo or Steve, I respond to all of them. =)

My Weasyl Gallery

Temrin

I dont 'have a problem' with it per-se. I involve myself with it just fine. I just find people are very close minded and stuffy a lot of the time. Though thats not to say that i don't know some really awesome people outside of the fandom. I'm not exclusively furry or anything. I just find that i spend a lot of my time integrated into the fandom because i find more enjoyment out of it. Hehe furry in disguise :P I'm pretty open about it. My view is, if people arent willing to get to know the -real me- they arent worth my time. I don't feel that its really worth the awkwardness of having to explain about it later. I openly draw fantasy and anthropomorphism in public and have done class projects with anthro subjects because i thought it would be cool. I see a lot of video game designers/3D modelers in my school using them as well~ :3 So its pretty open in the school.

Oh exactyl! You just learn to let it go and not include it in the kind of life you want :3 Makes things a lot easier. I deal with the problems and move on with the rest of my life :3

Ahaha, theres drama everywhere. People on both sides need to learn to either a) remove the sticks from their butts, or b) Deal with it and let it go. XD

Yup! Drama will forever exist unfortunately. You just have to learn to adapt and go with the flow of things. Taking things so seriously all the time really ruins your life :/ Drama-lama-ing just takes too much effort. XD Better to enjoy what you have then worry about the things you don't or people who cause grief when there doesnt need to be :3

Drake Wingfire

Quote from: Naetholix on December 12, 2011, 05:12:21 AM
Good good!  This is good!  So we've got the fur-meets, fur-suiting, and certainly the people and friends you make here... more people with otherkin/therian beliefs (yeah Drake, I knew you'd pipe up--you're maybe the single person here with beliefs as parallel to mine =P), and... boredom?  Seriously?  I think if someone was really that bored, they'd opt to join a poker group or play videogames all day, not choose to be a member of one of the most socially rejected communities on our planet. XD

Some people seem to think I was talking specifically about your LOCAL community.  Well... that can certainly be included in your reasons, but that wasn't what I was aiming for.  I only discovered we even HAVE an active furry presence in the lower-mainland last year, so to use that in my reasons for staying furry isn't exactly relevant. =P

Aye! Of course man ^.=.^ You know I cannot stay away from such a juicy topic, I live for in-depth discussions and controversial topics! As for spiritual beliefs, well im sure there gotta be a few others around here. Probably just not very vocal about it, I wasn't for a long time but these days I simply don't really care who thinks or says what, wont stop me from being who I am :)

Roffo

Quote from: Gizmo on December 12, 2011, 10:54:41 AM
I would be really curious as to what YOU would like to see in a furry community that isn't already there? If there is NO community here in your eyes, what would you like to see?

I'm not particularly active in the community because theres not many furries where I live. I love fursuits yet don't know of anyone in my area who does fursuiting. If I lived in a place where there were more furries then I would be more active within the furry community.

I believe you took my answer completely backwards. Quite frankly when I think of community I think of one that isn't online but rather local, as in, the furries I know locally and in real life. There isn't any community here because there aren't many furries that live in my city.

Nhyra

I happened across the furry subculture on the internet 12 years ago. Woah, 12 years went by quickly! Anyway, I was 14 and I happened across some furry art and I think it was around that moment something just clicked and I was like 'Oh. Yeah, this is where I fit'.

Like many of us, I identified with animals from a young age. I also found that I was drawn to the creative aspects of the subculture, the art and stories and making things like tails. I also like the interaction with others that share similar interests, although for me growing up in a small rural community this was done entirely on the internet.

What keeps me here? It just feels like a part of my identity. It's just another part of what makes me, well, 'me'.


Icey Dominus

I am in it for allot of things really. It is a great way to meet new people explore myself learn new things about people. But also ever since I can remember I have been drawn to animals no matter what. I have been bitten by dogs my sister has been stomped by horses but this hasnt fased me in loving them and respecting them. I have grown up around them crazy different things I feel I have a connection sure that sounds stupid but we are still part of nature we are animals at the core. I also use my fursona to drive me, Icey is better than me in every way he is what I strive to I suppose that is not totally healthy but I just have never been happy with myself and I can sculpt Icey anyway I want. I am not spiritual in the sense that Icey is me or I was a bear in my former life things like that, I do know allot of people like that and thats cool I totally get it. I like also like to disappear into a story written in my mind where I am Icey, I have actually written allot more than anyone knows just never saved it or printed it. You will know I am in my own world on those few times I am quiet haha. I love getting together with people and doing things bowling, skating what have you. If anything I say makes no sense thats cool I am not sure what I am thinking it just sorta flows out the way it wants to.
Thanks for taking the time to read
To love is to try, so die trying

Icey Dominus

Ahhh yes I had forgotten I do love the art and stories even if most of them are smut but whatever. As for me being a furrie in disguise I suppose I am but I do tell the people who I think are worth telling the people I am close to or want to be so I make sure they are cool with it first, however never told my family they are still dealing with me being gay I dont think telling them I am a furrie would help me. I really like that in the furrie community they are willing to help like a safety net that you can go to when you cant go to family theres always a shoulder to cry on and someone to ask for a pep talk or to get advice.

On the drama subject, like my father says "water off the ducks back buddy" Drama will be with you no matter where you go heck there is drama in the animal kingdom lol it dosnt go away.
I try to help but most of the time if you ask me I will tell you what I think and leave it at that, that is only if you ask me what I think.
To love is to try, so die trying

Neox

Quote from: Icey Dominus on December 13, 2011, 12:25:44 AM
I am in it for allot of things really. It is a great way to meet new people explore myself learn new things about people. But also ever since I can remember I have been drawn to animals no matter what. I have been bitten by dogs my sister has been stomped by horses but this hasnt fased me in loving them and respecting them. I have grown up around them crazy different things I feel I have a connection sure that sounds stupid but we are still part of nature we are animals at the core. I also use my fursona to drive me, Icey is better than me in every way he is what I strive to I suppose that is not totally healthy but I just have never been happy with myself and I can sculpt Icey anyway I want. I am not spiritual in the sense that Icey is me or I was a bear in my former life things like that, I do know allot of people like that and thats cool I totally get it. I like also like to disappear into a story written in my mind where I am Icey, I have actually written allot more than anyone knows just never saved it or printed it. You will know I am in my own world on those few times I am quiet haha. I love getting together with people and doing things bowling, skating what have you. If anything I say makes no sense thats cool I am not sure what I am thinking it just sorta flows out the way it wants to.
Thanks for taking the time to read

You say that you are not spiritual in the sense that Icey is you.  (We can leave the whole past-life thing out of it because I don't really abide by that crap anyway.)  Yet you describe so many ways that you try to emulate him and strive to be like him... I'd call that a sense of spiritual connection with your character, much in the same way I am with mine.

-------------------------

So we have many people saying they're here for the people, and that is so entirely true.  All our lives, we search for like-minded individuals to befriend and feel accepted with and this place is hugely where that happens.  I've never been part of a more accepting group of people anywhere, and that in itself is something quite special.  You don't find such a copious amount of open-mindedness anywhere else.

And a lot of people are indicating an animal connection that started in their youth.  I think everyone, regardless whether or not you're a furry, has once had a connection with an animal that they liked to pretend when they were young.  Many people grow out of it in exchange for the mundane, socially-conditioned lifestyle that society wants us to have; some of us few retain our precious imaginations and, in a way (as I like to think), transcend into something greater than the everyday, boring person.  I mean, when you think about it, we all evolved from previously being savage creatures millions of years ago.  We already are animals, but we like to think we're more sophisticated and self-important.  I think being able to tap into the animal within each of us and learn its secrets makes us better as people, when used correctly.  It gives you a different perspective of the world, and if there's anything I've learned to being successful in this life, it is to keep an open mind and look at things from every angle.  (This is extending slightly into otherkinism, so I'll cap it there.  Maybe I'll make a new thread for the discussion of what being an otherkin means.)

I'm really enjoying this discussion!  Keep 'em comin' folks!
NaEthOliX.

Call me Naetholix, Neox, Neo or Steve, I respond to all of them. =)

My Weasyl Gallery

Icey Dominus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otherkin


Otherkin are a community of people who identify themselves as non-human in all but outward form, contending that they are, in spirit if not in body, non-human animals or creatures traditionally associated with mythology or folklore. Belief in otherkin is related to the changeling concept

. . . . i thought that would be funny
To love is to try, so die trying

Tef

A minor part that kept me in the community is the few times that my two of my professors talked about furries as examples in Media Studies (on SecondLife) and Creative Writing (on Journalism) respectively. Despite the fact that I tried to keep myself in a low profile (I am both relieved and anxious that the professors didn't ask for a hands up poll regarding "How many of you guys in the class are furries?"), the informal threads of reference keeps me going in my community.

And this was before I found out about BC Furries!
Yipper yapper yip yap!
Living above the influence and proud.

Aeturnus

As a writer, I have to say the fandom offers me a lot of inspiration. Whether it be from pictures, fur meets and/or conventions. Fur meets and conventions offer the most inspiration. Seeing those in suit hanging out and talking to those out of suit is pretty damn close to how I see things in my head.

Icey Dominus

If thats what the world looks like in your mind now imagine if you where on ACID!!
To love is to try, so die trying

Neox

#27
I've met more kickass people that I now call my friends in the last 3 months here in the local community than I have for 10 years up to now.  It's so easy to meet awesome and interesting people in this community! <3

+1 reason for remaining a furry for me.  10 years and counting!
NaEthOliX.

Call me Naetholix, Neox, Neo or Steve, I respond to all of them. =)

My Weasyl Gallery

Fables

Well, I'm still awful new here (still got that new-furry smell, mm) but I
can tell you what's attracted me to the community both here and
in general - and that has to be, the community. For as the few who've
met me know I'm really kinda shy and getting involved here was an effort
to try and make some friends by exploiting a common interest, haha.
Besides that though, the art, and the fursuits and just all the creativity
and imagination some of the furries I've met seem to have.

Oh, and I'm an otherkin too! Not necessarily settled, mostly feline, maybe
a bit draconic, but perhaps I'm just a wishful thinker, hehe. Strangely
I've never used my 'kinside as 'sona though - it seems too.. integral a part
of me, perhaps, to be given its own face and name.

FurryJackman

For me, what kept me was I felt a sense of belonging where other social settings felt alien. Even better, after meeting a few supportive friends, I can see staying in it for the long run would help myself become better as well.

It started out when I was young as an immature attempt to find a mate, but now it's evolved into how I can better myself.