Has anyone felt like the BC furry community has been dying off?

[PogOtter]

I hope not! I'm moving there soon and I like a lively community!
At least the word I've heard from people out there is it's clique-ish, that's pretty common though.
No different in the Florida furry community

[spuug]

The BC furry community is still going strong, and growing (witness the 1,012 attendees of Vancoufur this year, up from last year), but the use of this forum system is down somewhat as other communication channels become more popular.   

I would suggest going to some of the more popular local events (games night, or wings & things) to meet some of the area furs, then branch out from there.

- Spuug -

[Kithop]

As my health's starting to improve, I'm looking to host more furmeets out at our place in Mission - case in point, this one I've posted for next month:

https://www.bcfurries.com/forum/index.php?topic=12246.0

There's an Abbotsford-Mission Furry Facebook group that we coordinate with, though I've just personally decided to ditch both Facebook (again; 2nd time's the charm?) and Telegram for a number of reasons, so at least for me, I'll be continuing to post events here on the forums as usual.

At one point we did get into a rhythm of having smaller, more intimate get-togethers at an apartment in Abbotsford one month, and the larger (by sheer floor space) ones at our place the next, and I'm hoping to get back into that now that I'm slowly getting my energy back.

They're not meant to be huge raving parties, but we'll bust out a Rock Band session before it gets too late, then switch to party games or random YouTube playlists towards the end of the night.  People love to bring their own food, potluck style, for the group.  (Bring me vegan goodies and I will love you forever! <3)  They're usually wet meets but with an emphasis on enjoyment and social lubrication over simply getting drunk, and sometimes we'll put on a dry meet once in a while for the younger furs to feel more welcome and for a different atmosphere.

People are welcome to bring card or board games, though I've found even with a bunch of games, video or not, available, people tend to simply want to catch up with friends or make new ones.

Our 'couch' is a fold-down futon, we have a spare bedroom with a Queen size bed, and two air mattresses that we can bring out (one Queen, one Double) for people who want to crash the night, especially if there's alcohol involved - no one drives drunk; all are welcome to stay if they need to stay the night and sober up before heading home in the morning (and I'll usually try and get everyone caffeinated up with some good french press coffee and maybe even a simple breakfast in that case!).

All we ask is that everyone treat each other with respect - we have a number of LGBTQ+ furs, particularly Trans people.  Please don't be upset if someone has to correct you on their pronouns - it's genuinely awkward for everyone involved, so just roll with it and everything'll work out fine. :)  Better yet, if you're not sure, you can ask them privately or default to something gender neutral like the singular 'they' until you know.  We do our best to try and be a respectful, caring bunch - by the same token, we have had to ban people from attending in the past due to behaviour issues, so if you notice anything out of line, please feel free to let us know privately to have it dealt with.

Other than that, personally I'm open to trying to host a computer/video gaming-themed event once in a while, but that one's proven a bit tougher to coordinate so if anyone has suggestions, we can start (or necro) a thread on that.

[Owl]

I would suggest going to some of the more popular local events (games night, or wings & things) to meet some of the area furs, then branch out from there.

What I was saying was that significantly less events get posted, it used to be there'd be several new events per month but now it's just the majority of them are old pruned events.

Vancoufur I'd say is less indicative of the community as a whole since conventions attract people from other places and people who don't normally go to events will go to conventions for a variety of reasons. (to meet up with foreign friends, to sell artwork etc)

[Gizmo]

What I was saying was that significantly less events get posted, it used to be there'd be several new events per month but now it's just the majority of them are old pruned events.

Vancoufur I'd say is less indicative of the community as a whole since conventions attract people from other places and people who don't normally go to events will go to conventions for a variety of reasons. (to meet up with foreign friends, to sell artwork etc)

I can only speak for myself but I used to host MANY events every month. I stopped for a couple reasons - one of which was because it usually came down to only me doing all the prep and all the clean up from these said events. I hosted CampFur and only got crapped on for it so am now taking a break. I hosted the 'Furries on the Beach', 'PotLucks' monthly, 'Swim Meets', Christmas Dinner ... to name a few.
Furries are our own worst enemies. We really to ruin everything!
Now, having said all of this, there are several events that take place still and - hey, more power to them! I just got tired of doing all the work with little or NO recognition for the effort being put into them. That doesn't mean that some of these events I have hosted in the past will not come back to life. I just needed a break.

[LynxStyle]

[from out of the woodworks]  Disclaimer: If any of this is just left-field/nonsensical please ignore.


Starting off with the Negative:
Can't speak to many of this (never been a social/public facing fur) but life has changed a lot for a lot of people, and have watched a general lack of thought in general as to how people compose themselves or present themselves.  That is something sadly common across the board (fur, non fur, adult, child, general sense/feel).  Doesn't help that there is a lot of "I think I am, I do dumb shit, I disassociate but blame who I was" in this day and age (shit I just old-man dated myself).  On a whole though I have done event organization before and having people who just "use an event" without being respectful to it is a 1-way trip to death of a community (sadly watched 2 music festivals that were wonderful events die out due to the next generation being unable to uphold any form of decency).  The public outwards vs personal reasons for being who one is sadly does come with the abrasiveness of the actions of others 'akin'.

Positive sandwhich:
But that doesn't mean its something people should give up on, more so understanding the culture of who you are and whom you represent.  There is as much responsibility for newer/emerging groups to be decent beings (what ever being they are), as there is for existing individuals to take them young'ns under wing and lead by example.

From personal experience:
Life/Work/Relationship became more important in a personal life then social aspect or need to interact, that's a me thing and I can speak to that.  I know I went awol about 2 years ago now to really double down on a relationship with a non-fur (which has seen an ending) and work (which only continues to grow).  Also helped that through work I was able to sniff out and interact with other furs, and thus didn't require interaction outside of a comfortable circle.  But this speaks a bit to the need for those to take others under-wing/paw/arm and 'guide them respectfully, as any person would another'.

Again, very un-educated to the actual social side of things, I always disassociated myself from groups and from a personal side actually fear public interaction on the fear that one-or-more individuals will be overly overbearing/out there (just an edge introvert I guess).


-rambles of an :oldmanyellsatcloud:
Linx

[drewdle]

I just walked back in the door after two or more years away. Hello everyone.  :birdy:

I think others have mentioned the forum activity does go up and down, but things like other technologies (Telegram, Facebook Groups, Reddit) are replacing forums for a lot of folks. Which is sad news, because this is where I found literally everyone and everything. Or if you really want to date my presence here, I started out on Fur4you, and Furry.ca, both of which have bit the dust.

Maybe we just need to point more folks in this general direction. Some young furs may even consider this retro. Always a selling point.

[Kithop]

To be fair, it isn't just furries - I've seen a lot of various community forums go pretty quiet as e.g. gaming clans/guilds move to Discord, development goes to Slack, that sort of thing.

I'm not entirely sure that 'bringing people back to using forums' is a fight we're going to be able to win.  I'm lucky enough that I've managed to keep in touch with our local group out in the Fraser Valley and continue to coordinate events out here.  (I love you Metro Vancouver furs, but driving 2-3 hours each way, more in rush hour, to come say 'hi' at a dinner meet is a bit rough. ;) ).  I'll be posting something Soon(tm) to that effect to our Calendar here.

[LynxStyle]

from one 2-year awol to another: welcome back drewdle!

more rambl'ns:
Good points with the tech, I know one of the big ones for me 2 years ago was people wanted me to use telegram but couldn't verify that it wouldn't nuke data from constant chatting or gif/img/w.e sending.  Again, a personal decision not to use there.  2 years later, telegram and discord are used, but only because of constant re-direction to those.  Another personal reason is the desire to not give others easy access to my contact or have to create multiple contact/emails to keep things separate, things that were mostly just fears but a lack of guidance from others in this domain made it /abrasive/ /scary/ /undesired/.


Perchance (just a crazy idea) the promotion of fluid back/forth between other rapid.communicators for rapid communication and forum for hard planning/sharing/organization, may be a possible solution.  The concept of a landing pad/page has never changed, and a community hub can still be a good hub even if mostly used for re-direction.  Perchance a hub of "this is BC's core forums, BC's core telegram, BC's core discord etc. etc." may help people redirect to the method they are most comfortable with and educate them to the other avenues that exist. Just nice ideas at this point, but I know from personal experience that the forums here are my only contact at this point. (saying that, I do have discord/telegram but don't partake in communities).

Another thing is lack of access/knowledge, I've told 2 people about this forum in the last week who never heard of it, or knew one existed (they figured something somewhere had to exist, but had no idea what or where).


In any case, if any guests/silent others are reading this and are the shyer/less outwards facing type, but don't know how to reach out: My inbox is open to those who are needing a chat, or don't know where to start.  I still fight with these things personally (ability to reach out, fear, shyness around others), and being comfortable with who ones self is or just having someone to chat to is usually a good starting point.