The biggest thing in the fandom, the Convention

The convention is the biggest, and the best place to find out about all the furry. Why? because of how much it is an integral part of the fandom, besides the internet. Nearly all of the scientific research done about the furry fandom is done through the conventions, which range all over the US. A particular study which I'll be referencing follows the Rainfurrest Convention, prior to 2015's shameful display,(More on that later) in Oregon.
The Essay: digital.lib.uidaho.edu/cdm/ref/collection/etd/id/1046.
“You Take My Paw and I'll Take Your Hand: An Exploration of the Furry Community.”
The sixth chapter of this essay is dedicated to the convention and i'll give you the base idea of how a furry convention goes before bringing up the more interesting stories and controversies.

The beginning of your time at a convention is marked with the registration/check-in, during this check-in process you may be approached by researchers asking your opinion or input on the fandom as what became common during Rainfurrest as long as the researcher in the essay has been collecting information.
The next step during your time at the convention involves you exploring the Dealer's Den, a place of art and commerce, like any number of shops on a promenade. You can get the taste for what makes the furry fandom so unique here.
The third step would be the panels or completions, which I'm going to pull from our own Rocky Mountain Fur Con for examples. The theme that would be the last ever convention of the Rocky Mountain Fur Con, was "B-list Movies" which is only a guideline if any person wanted to theme themselves. There is not much information about the panels, but here's some of them that I found;
Write Now!; Writing with Technology; Adult Furry writing; and a Dutch Angel Dragon workshop.

Now that you know how the convention works, we'll discuss some of the interesting controversies of some conventions, The Midwest Furfest Gas Incident, The Rainfurrest 2015 Disaster, and the Rock Mountain Fur Con cancelling over the "Furry Raiders."

The Gas Incident:
At the Midwest Furfest in Illinois, an accident had occurred in one of the hotel stairways which released chlorine gas and forced an evacuation in the late night. There isn't much controversy currently as the police have ruled it as an accident, but during the first few hours of the incident there were many concerns that it was a directed attack against furries or as a terrorist act. There are still people who don't like the police's answer and believe that there was an ulterior motive behind the incident.
The Rocky Mountain Fur Con Collapse:
The Rocky Mountain Fur Con has had a bag time this year, first off there was on twitter.
A politically enshrined individual threatened to assault anyone who she considered a "Nazi," to which another twitter user stated, "it's going to be entertaining to watch you get shot because of unprovoked assault," to which the other user assumed, "You gonna bring a gun to a con?" there was no further conversation. The first user who started the thread, proceeded to file a threat with Denver Police and the Hotel Security, which in turn caused the Hotel Marriot to demand an increase in security through Denver Police for a price of a new car at $22,000, which the Fur Con could not provide, so in turn the Board of the furcon formed a lawsuit against the twitter user to try a recomensate the value of the security. The lawsuit did not make any progress, and to counter the costs of the security the Convention Board decided that it would not be worth the cost of security and decided to cancel the convention and dissolve the Rock Mountain Fur Con.
A perfect video that covers the incident is from Colorado's own furry comedian,

RainFurrest 2015 Disaster:
The most violate disaster to hit the furry community sense the CSI Episode and Dr. Phil, the Rainfurrest Con was once a respectable convention which focused on writing workshops and writers skills, took a turn for the worst and "opened the doors," for the furry fringes, which include the fetishists.
I think a Video about what happened would help you understand this better than I can and want to write.

But in short, individual/s people decided to ruin a convention and cancel it much like RMFC.
Questionaire
Would you say that furry individual is responsible for the communities image?
If given the chance to visit a furry convention, acknowledging that the examples that I've shown are fringe examples of controversy, would you? Explain your reasoning?

The furry lifestylers

There is a particular subset of the furry fandom who consider the furry style much more than a hobby, they live and breathe the furry fandom and their characters. These people are the kind that you see on Doctor Phil, and actually that is one of our subject characters of today's blog post.

Who are lifestylers and how do they compare to regular furries within the fandom?

Lifestylers are the people who have an affinity for the furry fandom and are much more committed to the fandom, than a regular hobbyist, and certain ideas within the fandom. These certain ideas are, while not exclusive to every lifestyler;
Spiritual Therianthropy,

The idea that you are not human yet stuck in a human body, this is considerably different from what most hobbyist and regular people consider normal.

Another example of something that seems to be common to lifestylers is totemic beliefs, such as tribal spirit animals and other mysticism ideals especially revolving around animals.

A notable lifestyler is a Canadian who wishes to be called Boomer the Dog. He possesses a number of interesting characteristics, especially his commitment to his character. His major selling point that he and Dr. Phil, used was his paper-mache dog suit.

He is very committed to the furry fandom aside from his exploits with public television, and is a great character study if your looking for the niche within the furry fandom that is lifestylers.

The many flavors of fur

There are many different types of furries, whether we talk about the different types of animals or characteristics that people use for their fursonas, we find an interesting amount of diversity and very intriguing reasons for peoples choices.

We'll start by talking about the fursona, an combination of the word fur and persona, these are the characters that the people of the furry fandom create to project themselves into the community at large.
As for the usage of a fursona, the essay “You Take My Paw and I'll Take Your Hand: An Exploration of the Furry Community.” covers the what the term is used for within the furry community.
"I asked the furries I interviewed their opinion on fursonas and how they felt they others utilized fursonas as part of their interactions with the furry community and they had these observations to share. Abe said: “…it always seemed to me that your fursona is your alter ego. It’s how you connect with the world. It’s the way that you see yourself.”

While there is no set standard for what a furry would need to put into their fursona, most furry's use them to exemplify a specific characteristic that they either have or wish they have, for example a person may choose a canine species because they value loyalty, or a feline to symbolize their independence, but the animals, that they choose are chosen solely because of the traits that are specific to the animal's species, the furry who's making their fursona could have other reasons to choose a different animal, this could stem from a "spirit" animal or a personal preference.

Another quote from the essay, that fits in with this topic is, from a person named John, who was interviewed, "To some people, a fursona is an animistic version of themselves. To others a fursona could be who they want to be. To some people a fursona could just be a character they wanted to have and have to real relationship with the character… My fursona is a mix of who I am mixed with who I want to be. His appearance goes along with my interests and personality."

Questions to the reader,

What would you design and use a character as a personal alter-ego?
Why would someone within the furry fandom have a fursona besides the art that is offered within the community?

The very furry world of the term "furry"

A very important part of any exploratory research is being able to familiarize yourself with the terms that are used in your subject. There are a great number of terms that exist inside of the furry community ranging from nicknames and large-scale inside jokes. The term that I decided that would make for a good questioning is the term that most furries use...the word furry.

First of all I'm going to give you the dictionary definition, as quoted from, Joe Strikes's book, Furry Nation;

Furry [fur-ee]

Noun: 1. a fan of anthropomorphic animal characters 2. A self-identified member of the "furry" subculture.
Adjective: 1. favorably inclined towards the concept of anthropomorphic animals. 2. covered in fur,

An interesting thing about the term furry is that it is also an adjective form as marked by Adj. 1.

Would you say that this is a proper adaption of the term or should the more scientific, Anthropomorphism, be used?

The next subtopic next is how the term fur is used e.g. "hey fellow fur," versus furry e.g. "hello furry" is the subject of a short paragraph that again Joe Strike brings up in the preface.

"I'll be calling furry fans from now on "furs" as often as possible to reserve the term, furries to refer to the characters themselves, and the occasional anthro. Apart from avoiding confusion between the people and characters, "-ie" is a diminutive; "furs" sounds more sophisticated."

 Fur is the common term that many furries use as it is informal and an easier avenue for making communication without a first name basis. In short a nickname that everyone within this fandom has. 
Fur is also used in a playful manner which is common to the conventions, it can refer to a single person or a group. 

Would the use of the term fur be appropriate term to use when addressing a known member of the furry subculture that you do not know? 

The most scientific of the terms is Anthromorphic, this term refers to the anthropomorphism, the science/psychology of adding human characteristics to non-human things. 

an·thro·po·mor·phic 

anTHrəpəˈmôrfik/adjective 

anthropomorphic 

relating to or characterized by anthropomorphism.
having human characteristics.
"anthropomorphic bears and monkeys"

Which term do you prefer anthromorph verses furry, and why?

Should Anthromorph be used when referring to furry characters or should Anthromorph only be used when referring to a non-human character with human characteristics in a science paper or research?

System Familarization post

Testing all the functions

Does this work?