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A guide to the furry fandom

Incomplete, may never be complete. To be added to when I feel bored. This is just a hoard of links and suggestions I wish I had when I was new to the fandom and wanted to get involved, but had no idea “what furries did all day”. It’s dedicated to the guy who told me they wished there was such a guide while walking past me near some escalators at some con. No clue when and where that happened.

Online hangouts

The /r/furry subreddit is pretty active, and there’s lots of links in the sidebar and wiki, such as related subreddits and chatrooms. /r/furry_irl has good memes (including some NSFW ones, but they’re generally tagged). There are a lot of chatrooms — I don’t think I can specifically recommend any, just look for whatever interests you.

Art websites

The biggest, most popular furry artwork sharing side is FurAffinity. It’s still going strong, although I cannot in good conscience link to it without some acknowledgement of its tumultuous past (see e.g. eevee’s FurAffinity timeline; after FA was sold to IMVU in 2015, it was sold back to Dragoneer in 2021). There is a long tail (haha) of other furry art websites, including Weasyl, Inkbunny, SoFurry, and FurryNetwork. There’s also a lot of art on DeviantArt and Twitter. Furry Amino is somewhere between a subcommunity and a standalone app.

There’s a certain popular and frequently memed-about imageboard for adult artwork, but for the sake of steering clear of any acceptable use policies, I don’t know if I want to directly link to. Instead I’ll mention its underappreciated SFW cousin e926 and trust that you know how to do your own research if you so choose. Visit whichever of these you like.

Commissioning art

Some general tips:

If you’re interested in making/publishing/selling art, I have no idea. Let me know if you find out.

For both sides, Soatok has a post about commission prices that also has tips near the end. I am not sure if the algorithm for price-finding as presented (a doubling exponential search) is a good idea in the real world, for fear of making commissioners feel cheated (justifiably or not) if they commissioned you at the highest price before you reduce it substantially, and would probably suggest a smaller exponential factor, particularly if you think you’re close to the right price point. But this is all evidence-free armchair analysis.

IRL

Furry conventions are cool places to meet people and hang out. WikiFur appears to have a pretty well-maintained list. There’s also an interactive map.

For people in the same age range and general life situation as my past self, there is often a college/university thread around when the (U.S.) school year starts, which could help you meet people. General small gatherings may be found by looking for “furmeets” online.

Note

You do not have to do any of these things to call yourself a furry. Lurking and keeping a low profile is totally valid.

If you are a minor, stay out of adult spaces and please do not lie about your age to other people. This can cause massive issues for everybody involved, legal and otherwise. Everything will still be here when you turn 18.