sorry all rif is leaving the group

[Kasuke]

So...So...

Rif is still leaving? :/

It's like he wants to but he just keeps comin' back for the replies. Ah forums, you are addictive.

I know right D:

I say we sue Al Gore. As the inventor of the Internet he should be held responsible xD

And then tie Rif in a closet so he can never leave? ^^

[Kesslan]

So...So...

Rif is still leaving? :/

It's like he wants to but he just keeps comin' back for the replies. Ah forums, you are addictive.

More like he wanted people to understand why before actually dissasociating himself entirely from the community he has been part of for a long time.

[Meer]

Yeah. I can understand why he'd reply.

He's pulling a reverse Heatley. Instead of just saying "I want out. Goodbye." and never really explaining it, he's actually backing up his actions with some reason.

[Featheredragon]

Wow... o_O

Seems all the stuff happens when I'm away.

Well, I'm not sure what started this thread as the thread linked to was deleted before I could read it but for the record I'll say that I'm sorry to see you go Rif.  :(  I'll ttyl on MSN when I get back.  

~ Feather ~

[Ironklaw]

i would never use the net at work ever!!
not thats not what i can say about others. i seen friends go in chat im's and games even at work.


and sadly a wrongful dismissal lawsuit costs money and know what you are up against the company will win over thier high priced layer..

so i play the save trail in getting out of this. until its all fixed... oh  wait it might never happen.. alot of my older friends said getting out of the fandom is the only way to really escape all this stuff.. it changed since 1997... it changed big time..

I agree and disagree. Much of what is off about the fandom these days was off in the 90's (I joined the fandom in '98). It's a combination of us changing and the fandom evolving at the same time. When I got into the fandom as a young teen, I was right up there with everyone else with the OMG LOL YIFFS! and as I grew older I remembered what got me into the fandom in the first place: anthropomorphic characters and the -tasteful- fanart of them.

Sure the fandom has changed. Even I have felt the urge to run for the hills. I don't really think of myself as a 'furry' per se anymore. More of a fur-fan. I don't identify with an animal anymore, I don't consider "Ironklaw" as an extension of myself but rather as a vehicle for myself on the internet. Most people who've met me in person know I prefer to be called by my real name. The fandom is different in that the odder members who used to be on the fringe of things have become somewhat of a focus. Just read Encyclopedia Dramatica's furries list, it's a delightful cross-section of all sorts of interesting people.

Anyway, I can totally dig the need to not be seen as a furry by your co-workers, particularly with how the fandom represents itself these days. Best of luck to you, man.

[Dan Skunk]

Yeah, it's been the same since the 90's. Actually, it seems furries were even more open and accepting about the more socially unacceptable interests.

It wasn't untill it started hitting the mainstream media, which of course focused on the most bizarre as representative of the whole, did people realize it could be really damaging to their careers and social life to be associated with it and try to encourage people to clean up furry's image and watch what they say in public.

I know one fur that lives near me that almost lost his job over someone finding out the kind of art he does.

It's unfortunate society is so judgemental and tries to focus on the worst aspects of things, but that's what we have to live with.

Really, it's being a fan that this should have always been what furry was about. That's what makes you a true furry. Not having a fursona. I find there are too many people in this fandom who really aren't fans. They're just looking for somewhere to belong.

[Ironklaw]

Unfortunately, the "most bizarre" are gaining in numbers. For everyone who tells me that only like, 1 in 100 furries are true-blue wierdos, I have to remind them that it's more than that. For every sane furry you'll find, you'll end up with 3 more furs who are just way out there.

Losing your job over it is a sad fact of life and a bit extreme, but companies are best represented by their employees and they don't want someone who is part of what they see as a sexual fetish representing them.

In conversations I've had with -rational- non-furries who are well versed with internet culture and the like, most, if not all of them I spoke to who were aware of furries (due to their presence on EVERY internet forum and MMORPG -Tauren players, much?) thought it was a sexual fetish. Not necessarily one tied to zoophilia or anything, but one tied to fantasizing about anthro cartoon characters getting down and dirty. While the more well-travelled internet people have a certain tolerance (and confusion) concerning furries, it still makes them uncomfortable and I dig that. 100%. Furries ARE weird. I mean, come on folks, you can't deny it.

[Kesslan]

Furries are an interesting bunch on the whole I suppose. But that said there are quite a few ones that are more or less 'normal'. Or at least as normal as anyone else in the world I've ever come across to be honest. Every single sexual fetish in the fandom that I've ever heard of exists outside of our fandom and did so well before furries came around with perhaps the exception of the whole fursuit sex thing.

What I'm wondering though is, how much larger the portion of 'wierdos' are found in the fandom vs other fandoms. I mean look at Anime, that attracts plenty of wierdos as it is too, and is readily accepted by and large by most people. Still some of those wierdos are the constant source of jokes in the fandom (Fat dude dressed up as a female character for example). Course you find those in the furry fandom too. Enough so that perhaps half of the female fursuits are actually guys, though I owuldnt actually put the percentage higher than that, and possibly lower since most female fursuits I've run into, to date, actually did have  a woman inside, as did a few of the male suits.

[GoldMatenes]

There are weird people everywhere.

Furries are just honest about it, to a fault.