Path: newsstand.cit.cornell.edu!news.kei.com!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!howland.reston.ans.n et!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!newsrelay.iastate.edu!cobra.uni.edu!peacoct6503 From: peacoct6503@cobra.uni.edu (Greywolf) Newsgroups: alt.fan.furry Subject: Sort-of-FAQ Message-ID: <1993Nov16.092524.19418@cobra.uni.edu> Date: 16 Nov 93 09:25:24 -0500 Organization: University of Northern Iowa Lines: 194 Well, it's well into November, so here goes... * Greywolf's Version of an Alt.Fan.Furry Frequently-Asked-Questions Sheet * Last update: 16 Nov 93 The following is my latest draft at an "FAQ" regarding furry fandom, and reflects my personal observations and opinions though I've tried to fairly cover some other perspectives I've seen as well. Commentary, corrections, suggestions for revision and the like are welcome (unless, of course, somebody decides to be *nasty* about it). Take anything disagreeable with a grain of salt. After all, a fandom is defined by the fans, and it's awfully hard for such a diverse group to agree on a concise definition of much of anything. * WHAT IS "ALT.FAN.FURRY"? Alt.fan.furry is a newsgroup devoted to the discussion of all things "furry" and/or of interest to "furry fans". Of course, tangential discussions occasionally get into things that are very far from being distinctly "furry", such as copyrights, cellular radios, mecha... =) * WHAT IS A "FURRY"? "Furry" when used as a noun seems to refer to one of two things: a) An animal-like character known as a "furry" b) A person who is a "furry fan" The latter is easy enough (knock on wood) to define: A person who particularly enjoys stories, pictures, dolls, video games or whatever concerning "furry" creatures. Defining a "furry" creature is somewhat harder, though. There are several definitions depending upon which "camp" in furrydom, for lack of a better term, you might be in. The basic definition for a "furry" is an anthropomorphized animal character. In other words, an animal character given human-like attributes, such as sapience and often a humanoid form. The term "furry" is a misnomer, as a creature does not need to have fur to be "furry" in this sense. Other terms sometimes interchangeable with a "furry" in this sense are "zoomorph", "morph", "anthropomorph" or (debatably) "funny animal". The core definition of a "furry" seems to include basically humanoid-formed creatures with animal faces, fur/scale/feathers/whatever, and often appropriate tails, wings, claws, etc., able to speak, and with a human-like personality, though quite often with "quirks" hinting at the real-life animal upon which the character is based. A broader definition will sometimes include other odd creatures that simply have some sort of animal features in their makeup. Such would include mythical creatures such as centaurs, manticores, satyrs or harpies, all of which have human faces though more-or-less animal-like bodies. This broader definition might also include the human-like characters that appear in some Japanese animation that have an animal tail and ears, but otherwise look about as human as any other anime character. One of the narrower definitions held by some is that in order for a character to be truly considered "furry", the character must exhibit animal-like characteristics in behavior. Optionally, the fact that the character is an "animal" must be a major ingredient to the story. This is exhibited in a frequent criticism of "furry" stories by those who hold this view: Many stories, while featuring characters fitting the core definition of "furry" given earlier are criticized as being "humans in animal suits" if their behavior isn't distinctly animal-like in some way. * WHAT IS "FURRYDOM"? Furrydom is a rather vague term, usually used to refer to "furry fandom". "Furry fandom" is an abstraction of the loose collection of people who are fans of various "furry" publications. In a broader sense, the term may be used to refer to the general "furry scene", such as the collection of publications (particularly small-press or amateur "fanzines") devoted to them, and the assortment of "furry" conventions. * WHAT IS A "FANZINE"? A fanzine is a publication, usually home-brewed, catering to fans of a particular genre. In "furrydom", one can find several "furry fanzines", which usually publish an assortment of stories and pieces of artwork drawn by fans and submitted to the 'zine. Other publications that may pop up in "furry" discussion are APAs: These are limited-circulation publications meant largely for a collection of artists/writers to share their work with other artists and writers. Usually each contributor pays his share of the production costs depending upon how much of each "issue" consists of his work, and copies of the collected publication are only sent out to each contributor. A variation, the APA'zine, is an APA which non-contributors can also subscribe to. At this writing, some of these furry fanzines and APA'zines include such titles as "Yarf!", "Gallery", "Zoomorphica", "Bestiary" and a ton of fanzines that come and go, often with some sort of "fur" pun in the title. =) * WHAT MAKES A STORY (or MOVIE/SHOW/GAME, whatever) "FURRY"? This is a matter of debate, varying as much as the definition of what a "furry" is in the first place. The definition that seems to be most applicable is that in order for a story, movie or show to be considered "furry", the primary character (or a significant number of the primary characters) must be a "furry". Another definition is that simply whatever stories tend to be popular among furfen (furry fans) that they consider to be "furry" are furry. But that's hardly helpful, is it? =) Cartoons with animal characters are often accepted as being "furry", for one thing. Steve Gallacci's "Albedo" is usually considered "furry", unless you're from the group that believes that his characters are merely "humans in animal suits". Many Disney movies might be considered "furry", such as their animated "Robin Hood". Even though "Bambi" isn't an anthropomorph in shape, the characters in the movie talk with each other and have human-like emotions, and thus are considered "furry" by some. In a more recent Disney movie with a prominent "furry", "Beauty and the Beast", this is particularly a grey area, since some consider it NOT to be furry, since the "Beast" was just a human changed into an animal-like form for most of the movie. "The Little Mermaid" is another one of those fringe "furry" films if you want to use the broadest definition (since Ariel's body is part fish? =. ) Movies where "furry" creatures are merely the villains which the humans must fight are almost certainly not considered "furry". =, Also, stories where an animal-like character may appear but is not the primary or one of the primary characters are usually not considered "furry", either. For instance, Gnort doesn't make the Green Lantern comics "furry". * WHAT'S "CONFURENCE"? ConFurence is a furry conference that takes place yearly in California, where "furry" fans get together, watch movies, play RPGs, have art shows, costume contests, and other stuff. When it gets close to that time of the year when ConFurence is coming up, you'll most likely see details posted on the alt.fan.furry newsgroup, so I won't bother including it here. * WHAT'S "ALBEDO"? Albedo is one of the most popular titles in furry fandom, a comic book that features stories from several different writers and artists, but most notably being "Erma Felna of the EDF", a science fiction story set in a "furry" universe, drawn and written by Steve Gallacci. It is my understanding that this newsgroup used to be "alt.fan.albedo" some time ago. {any confirmation or denial of this contention for future drafts would be appreciated} * WHAT'S FURRYMUCK? FurryMUCK is a phenomenon found on the 'net, which is a MUCK devoted to furry fans. If you want a definition of a MUCK, check out the FAQ on rec.games.muds.misc. =) Basically, it's a multi-player text adventure game where the "game" element has been pretty much removed, and the setting is largely a social environment instead (even though there are smaller games- within-a-game on the MUCK). If you have telnet, you can connect to FurryMUCK at 138.74.0.10, port 8888. * WHAT'S AVATAR? Avatar.snc.edu is an ftp site where there are several "furry" gifs (digitized picture files) available for downloading. Once connecting to avatar, you can login as "anonymous" and give your email address as your password. The gifs are available in the "pub/furry/images/downloads" directory, divided into further subdirectories organized alphabetically. These are pictures of "furry" characters or of scenes and characters related somehow to "furry" settings or FurryMUCK. If you hear about the "Tezuka" site, that *used* to be the furry ftp site, but that is no longer the case as of this writing. * WHAT DOES "IMHO" MEAN? There are a few different acronyms that will pop up frequently. IMHO: In My Humble Opinion IMNSHO: In My Not-So-Humble Opinion RL: Real-Life IC: In Character [referring to roleplaying] LOL: Laughs Out Loud ROTFL: Rolls On The Floor Laughing {g}: {grin} -- Another system of expressing emotion involves abbreviations like this... {g,d,r}:{grin, duck and run} * WHAT DOES =) MEAN? This is a 'net smiley face. Turn it sideways. =) See? Of course, furfen often get creative with animal smileys, such as: ^_^ {alternative smiley} =, {smirky face} =. {unsure smiley face} =( {frowny face} -=) {unicorn} -=*) {unicorn with root beer foam on his nose} =3 {otter smiley} =:) {rabbit} }=) {miscellaneous critter with ears} (=3 {mouse, facing other direction} >=X) {cat, complete with whiskers} =} {friendly dragon} S=) {smiley with one ear flopping down} d=> {pigeon wearing a baseball cap} >Bo) {furry with big nose wearing shades} Okay, so this section wasn't COMPLETELY serious. =D -- -Jordan .. PEACOCT6503@cobra.uni.edu "Nothing is so permanent as .OO. Jordan Greywolf (Jordan Peacock) a temporary government O/\O 1610 Parker program." ~~ Cedar Falls, IA 50613 -- Milton Friedman Radical right-winger fundamentalist ultra-conservative religious fanatic student/programmer/doodler/writer/SwordTagger/mecha & old car enthusiast