Popular European conventions Eurofurence and ConFuzzled have announced their intent to form a combined body: EuroFuzzled.

The merger made a lot of sense, as slippery convention spokesotter Tungro explained:

Running a convention involves a lot of logistics and expertise, as well as time and commitment. In order to reduce costs and overlap, it is in the interests of both conventions to pool resources together.

The UK and DE editions of EuroFuzzled will still be lead by Matt Lion and Cheetah respectively; however, art show panels, registration systems, badge printers, regualar guests, hired entertainers and gophers will be shared between the conventions.

The news goes some way towards explaining the recent notice of ConFuzzled's cancellation.

Update: A new announcement from ConFuzzled suggests the merger will not go ahead.

Running a furry encyclopedia isn't all fun and barnstars. Over the past five years, WikiFur's administrators have been faced with edit wars, trolls, spam, exclusion requests, profit-seeking hosts, battles over WikiFur's service mark – and above all, constant legal threats, including the dreaded DMCA takedown request.

It all got too much for site founder GreenReaper, who moved WikiFur to Germany last weekend.

Editors hope the move will resolve the site's legal issues, as none of its law-loving detractors – all from the USA, UK or Canada - can use German.

Thousands of speechless furs stared in shock at their blog feeds early this morning as their favorite annual events bit the dust. All furry conventions worldwide are canceled.

"We are very sorry for the inconvenience and disappointment this will undoubtedly cause to our attendees," reads the parting message from Furry Weekend Atlanta chairman/CEO Tiger Paw, who cited a declining economy as the cause of the convention going under – despite apparent success and relatively favourable media coverage of this year's event just two weeks ago.

All other events are reporting that operations will cease immediately for one reason or another.

The furry community erupted with noise and excitement in response to the news. One long-term fan expressed his frustration: "What shocks the hell out of me," tweets SilverLemur, of Detroit, "is that all conventions threw in the towel at EXACTLY the same time."

Those entering Furcadia's Vinca got more than they bargained for today, swiftly falling prey to the transformational virus sweeping the dream.

Over 100 furres have been infected as of press time.

Furcadia has a history of problems after seemingly minor spring updates.

Long-running forum Furry to Furry is to cut several non-essential services, according to an announcement mailed to users thirty minutes ago.

New requirements imposed by forum provider Vbulletin call for positive identification of all adult members. Due to the size of F2F, all adult services are to be removed instead.

Online furry art community Fur Affinity took a step forward today, announcing a new way to fav posts, watch users and delete works.

Regular users welcomed the feature, which has been in testing for over a year:

Once, I actually had to get my friends to view my work. Now I just make a LiveJournal post, and *poof* – it's fav'd!

Those seeking friends may gain watchers in a similar way; those who feel a piece requires more work can just email its author to remove it.

Long-running Canadian nature/pet magazine The Beaver this week announced its imminent re-branding as North American Pussy. The change comes after a shift towards smaller, more manageable companions.

Many Canadian girls used to keep beavers in the 70s and 80s, but with today's busy lifestyles, they are now far more likely to have a fluffy tail on their lap than a wet beaver – if there's anything there at all.

The Onion News Network reports on a development in human-gorilla communication:

2, The Ranting Gryphon

Furry stand-up comedian 2, The Ranting Gryphon, has announced he is to retire from comedy.

The American comedian, whose real name is Matthew Davis, first began contemplating his retirement after the failed assassination attempt on his life. During a visit to a London furmeet, someone tried to kill 2 by excessive alcohol poisoning.

In a statement published on his website, 2 said that the botched murder attempt was a sign from God that he should quit the profession and relax. He said: "I have spent most of my career ranting and complaining for virtually no reason. I have now seen the light and have decided to devote the rest of my life to the Lord. I have therefore taken the decision to become a monk and move into a monastery."

As a way of making penance, 2 has agreed to pay back double his usual appearance fee to all the conventions he now will not be attending.

Ch'marr, administrator of the popular VCL art archive has resigned, citing burnout, and other personal reasons. According to him, Ross Reddick--also known as Sibe--will be taking over the administrative duties of the archive. The full details are available here.

April Fools Day is over, but ToonZone had a wildly elaborate parody website set up, headlined by Cheney Boo. You can still view it here:

http://follies.toonzone.net/

Google is arguably the best web search engine out there, so how do they do it?
With pigeons! Thousands of pigeons!
With PigeonRank™, you don't have to look at pages ranked by birds of prey, brooding hens or slow-moving waterfowl, like those other search engines.