Feed aggregator

I just got back from Further Confusion 2013, and have a few notes to share.  It’s a little meta, and I’ll try to make it quick, but I wanted to get these out there while they’re fresh in my mind from the convention.  I’ll try to stay away from making this much of a con-report, as well, as [a][s] isn’t really the place for that, but if you’re interested on some of the directions we’d like to head in moving forward, read on!

That was…a lot of furries in one place.  There were 3232 registered attendees, and I know that several people also wound up “ghosting” the convention, which probably pushes the numbers up higher.  It was quite the crowd there, which had both its ups and downs, but it was a positive experience, overall, to see that many people interested in such neat things all gathered in one spot.  On observation, one unique aspect of the whole thing was the communication media used to coordinate between individuals at the convention.  Twitter has, and continued to be, an excellent way to coordinate activities among groups of generally diverse furries, and it was quite common to see people walking blind or standing still in the hallways, fixated on their phones, especially before mealtimes.

[adjective][species] hosted a panel this year, titled Exploring the Fandom Through Data. Unfortunately, I set the camera up on the stage, aimed it at where I’d be standing, and turned it off to save battery, only to forget to turn it back on again once the panel started.  For that, I apologize, as the panel did wind up going quite well.  However, the panel materials are available on GitHub here.  We were given the second stage, which seated about 120, and we wound up with about 50-60 attendees* over the course of the 90 minute panel.  The presentation itself lasted about half an hour, and the remaining hour was devoted to questions and discussion.  Lots and lots of good points were raised about the data, the visualizations, and the idea of taking a step back to look at furry, and I’m just pleased as peach that there are so many out there interested in doing so.

I’d like to give another thank you to GreenReaper for helping so much with the discussion and with answering questions for which I didn’t have a ready response.  Thanks as well to the [a][s] readers, old and new, who stopped by the panel to talk through so many neat ideas.  Additionally, I’d like to apologize for being so twitchy up on stage; I was not able to control that as well as I thought I would.

So, what directions do we have to head in, given all that discussion?

• Visualizations – the visualizations for the Furry Survey were completed late in 2010 and are now, honestly, starting to show their age.  They were originally a project that I’d picked up to teach myself the Protovis library, and I think that my novice status on those is doing the data a disservice.  They sorely need to be redone, and now that Protovis is deprecated in favor of D3 (which I work with in my job), this might just be the time to do it.  Additionally, other visualizations might be shifted away from Protovis, or at least cleaned up and locked down (yes, we know about the spammers on the FA Stats visualizer, and that’s a high-priority item, right there!).
• Data – along with the visualization improvements, we’d like to update and help maintain our data-stores.  With [a][s] taking over some of the responsibility for the Furry Survey, we’d like to make sure that we have as much of that data as possible for a few reasons.  First, it’s good to have a lot of that data warehoused in one place, but in addition, we’d like to be able to expand the information that we share with the community, both in terms of visualizations (such as expanding the survey series to recent years) and in terms of openness.  We’d like to set up an explorer for simple queries of the data, as well as be able to provide expanded sets to other researchers out there.
• Surveys – there was quite a bit of discussion after the panel on what information was collected on the various surveys and how.  The Furry Survey was intentionally kept much as it had been in previous years in order to make it easier to track various points of data through time – that’s part of why we ask that people take it year after year.  Even with that, however, it came up several times that there are questions that are easy to ask in such a way as not to prime an answer, and there are many, many more questions where that’s much more difficult.  These are still things we’d like to know about ourselves, though, and so working to find a way that would eliminate any self selection bias and priming as much as possible is key.  We’ll keep working on those to make sure that they get out there as best as possible!

There really is a lot to be done when it comes to information about furry, and I think that there’s a lot of momentum in that arena.  There are several good resources out there, and many, many excellent fuzzies (and so on) working on various projects that are pushing forward our knowledge of ourselves, our past, and, of course, our future.  It’s all very exciting, and I do hope that people will stick around and keep asking all the interesting questions.  Cheers, and thanks again to everyone out there, both panel attendees and our readership: keep on being awesome!

* Edit: Apparently, a reporter from Kotaku visited the [a][s] panel!  Whoa!  Check out their write-up here.

I've noticed at the conventions and meets I go to, the demographic seems to be 16-26 years old. Does something happen in the fandom that makes people over 30 disinterested in it?

I'm in my 40s and I still enjoy the fandom very much (and only discovered it at age 34), but it's difficult to find people my age still in it. What makes people leave as they get older? Or are the older furs just not going to meets and cons as much?

Just curious what people's thoughts are!

submitted by Jaycatt
[link] [44 comments]

submitted by evilsibe
[link] [comment]

http://dailyfurblog.com/wp-content/uploads/1358888641.foxamoore_rock_at_the_hop.mp3 omg!! *dances up and down like a 50′s school girl to a band*  This is a amazinggggg song one of the best for furry fandom mixes to date. I mean this song comes from pure made up lyrics sung by  Rhubarbthebear  and the talented Foxamoore on the music. All this to benefit the MegaPlex con located in Florida and coming up in July 26-28th in which the talents of these great musicians will bless the furry stage in a concert. Poster seen below was done by AlectorFencer I of course had to post it so you can see that awesome talent of drawing.

 

 

MEGAPLEX SITE HERE

 

 

 

ORIGINAL MUSIC LINK HERE

 

You Rock My Hop

What’s the biggest goldfish you’ve ever seen? A man in the northern US caught a three pound fish a while back and showed it off to the news media. Also in this episode: Canada’s money uses the wrong maple leaf, and Red Bull sued for not having enough caffeine.

Hosts: Crimson X, Levi, Wolfin

Podcast image by Daniel Baker

Daily Show: January 23, 2013 - What's the biggest goldfish you've ever seen? A man in the northern US caught a three pound fish a while back and showed it off to the news media. Also in this episode: Canada's money uses the wrong maple leaf,

submitted by Geek143
[link] [comment]

submitted by StubbornClaws
[link] [2 comments]

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/9748025/

submitted by Ninja1017
[link] [comment]

submitted by wild-lion
[link] [1 comment]

submitted by Streuhund
[link] [2 comments]

submitted by QueasyDolphin
[link] [comment]

I'm in a little bit of a pickle I guess. And I know no one but myself put me here.

Around few years ago I fell head over heels for my mate. At this same time said mate was getting into a relationship with their now married partner. I lived on the other side of the states so I was ok with being their online mate and their partner didn't seem to mind either. So all happy right?

Well I was asked to move out there and after I while I did. It had a rough start but seems to be doing ok now but my mate has told me more then once that they would like to leave their partner. I am very torn here. Their partner has become somewhat of a friend of mine but I also want my mate all to myself.


There is also an issue of a cub. I don't want to get in the middle of that or mess up any kind of family.

But when I’m asked if we could make it and take care of the cub on our own it makes my heart jump for joy but also scares the sh*t out of me. I've never wanted cubs and well....it's a sweet little thing but just not my cup of tea.

Plus it's kind of like holding a treat in front of my face. I don't think my mate will ever really leave their partner but at the same time they wont really let me go.

I'm at a loss of what to do and really want to be able to move on with my mate or....just on I guess?

The Listener

* * *

Hi, Listener,

In your letter the part that pops out most to me as a warning is “I’ve never wanted cubs and ... it’s a sweet little thing but just not my cup of tea.” If you are going to be in a relationship with someone who has a cub and you don’t like cubs that is a big stop sign in Papabear’s book. Time to take a closer look at the situation....

Since the cub isn’t yours but, rather, your mate’s and your mate’s other partner (I wish I knew what genders y’all were, because this makes it difficult to write a reply—pronoun trouble), you will never really be able to go off into the sunset with your mate and the cub because the kid’s other parent deserves to be involved in the child’s life. Even if your mate does break it off with the other person, there is no way that tie can be broken without being extremely cruel to the child and its other parent. You aren’t really clear in your letter whether these two people are married, but if they are then the courts might have something to say about this, too—the whole child custody mess.

Then you also intimate that your mate might just sort of be leading you on; even though he (she?) has said they want to break it off, you don’t feel they actually will.

You have, as far as I can see here, two choices: 1) you can try and keep the current situation together because it sort of works in a weird way, and encourage your mate to work out whatever problems they are having; or 2) you can get out of the situation entirely and let this family try and make a go of it without you complicating the equation. The third option you seem to hope for is not workable. You are not going to go off with your mate and their cub and leave the other person out of the picture. It just won’t work. You might shift the dynamic more in your favor; that is, you and your mate being together with the other adult as kind of a third wheel, but those bonds can’t be broken entirely. This mate you love will never belong 100% to you.

Papabear suggests you talk to your mate and to their mate—who you say is a friend—and try to find out what is causing their relationship difficulties and try and help them work it all out. This is the right thing to do for them, for the cub, and for you. The four of you, in this way, may create an even stronger bond and become a closer family if you show yourself to be loving and giving and unselfishly work to help the other people in your life.

I hope that makes sense.

Hugs,

Papabear

submitted by RaverNeko
[link] [9 comments]

submitted by PancakeScootaloo
[link] [comment]

submitted by alchemicReagent
[link] [10 comments]

submitted by b1gl0s3r
[link] [comment]

submitted by Mou5beat515
[link] [58 comments]

submitted by thisisthehook
[link] [2 comments]

submitted by Crimson-V
[link] [9 comments]

submitted by Likonium
[link] [35 comments]