ZA Furries

This forum is intended to bring the South African furry community together both on-line and off-line and it is great to see people being accepted here, making friends and learning they are not alone. However there is always the possibility that some people might exploit that trust. So with the intention of protecting the members of the site I ask that you bear some pointers in mind.

• -You can't trust everyone on the internet, even furs. The forum is meant to be a safe place but we get new people fairly regularly and it's not possible to check everyone out. It is important to bear this in mind as furs have committed crimes from theft (and that fur was also head of security for Morphicon) to conspiracy to commit murder.
  
  -Do not give out your real name, photo, telephone number or address until you can be confident that the person can be trusted. That will mean different things to different people but I'd consider important indicators to be how long you've chatted on-line and if other people on the forum have met or trust them. Ideally I'd suggest not giving anyone any of that information unless absolutely necessary.
  
  -Similarly to the above guideline do not post personal information on the public areas of the forum. To protect users both from spam and their privacy only post personal information in the areas that are accessible to members only, the yiffy forum and regional section, but remember that anyone can join and can then see what you have posted.
  
  -I'd also advise separating your furry identity from your real identity as far as possible. This has nothing to do with being ashamed about being a fur but because you don't want to give a random fur your Facebook information and then find out that s/he was a troll and now knows where you live and work.
  
  -If you're meeting someone from the forum, or anywhere on-line, don't go alone, meet in a public place and let someone know where you are going.

This isn't intended to create distrust or to make you exclude new people but to remind you to be cautious about strangers. We want the members of the forum to be safe but there is only so much that we can do, you need to help take responsibility for your own protection.

Good post.

And may I point out that those guidelines should be followed everywhere online, from forums to Social Media not just on this forum, as its easy for some one to find you here and track you down trough information els where.

People tend to forget about the world we live in when there behind a curtain of anonymity online.

Thanks for posting this Rakuen , Especially after recent events

Edit: Removed the last part to try and prevent problems

Thanks Rakuen, this is a very informative post and I believe more people should be careful online. However I don't regret that the first time I went to see the Jozi furs I also slept over there hehe, I'm a bad kitsune :/ don't follow my example!

Luckily for you CP, the Jozie furs are all a really nice bunch - most furries are!

The warning was with regards to obvious creeps like Psycowolf.

Ryall wrote:Luckily for you CP, the Jozie furs are all a really nice bunch - most furries are!

The warning was with regards to obvious creeps like Psycowolf.

They don't necessarily have to be obvious. Just a reminder to people to be cautious.

True that.

Yeah I know I've been in the community quite a while to distinguish the good from the bad and I got a good vibe from everybody I met ^.^

Especially after recent events

The warning was with regards to obvious creeps like Psycowolf.

Wait, what did I miss, I saw his intro thread was removed...... 0_0

Adagio wrote:

Especially after recent events

The warning was with regards to obvious creeps like Psycowolf.

Wait, what did I miss, I saw his intro thread was removed...... 0_0

He had way too many inconstancy, allways side stepped questions about himself,lots of fake social media accounts, but I think the biggest one had to be the fact that he showed a peculator(Unhealthy) interest in all the younger female members :/

You know…

People fall in love with each other very quickly on this forum.
That might be a concern.

How many couples are there now? Five?

Desperate for furry love <3

Splicer-Fox wrote:You know…

People fall in love with each other very quickly on this forum.
That might be a concern.

I dont really think it should be too much of a concern, its pretty normal on most furrie gathering places online, Furries just tend to want to be together I think,and this site being the only local furry gathering place I think its only fair that we see a lot of couples.

Unless your referring to love at first site on the forum, thats a no no,but I am sure most users on here are vigilant enough not to fall for that or to instantly trust some one who just signed up.

Splicer-Fox wrote:You know…

People fall in love with each other very quickly on this forum.
That might be a concern.

Arent we all ...

Wait what? Was that Psychowolf guy one of the bad guys?

Truth be told I did find his behavior very very suspicious! Especially at sidestepping basic questions like age and so on. WOW! This is close actually, was any action taken at this stage?

He's no longer in the list of members, so he must have been banned.

Yes he was banned and yes this post was as a direct result of his, well, concerning attraction and actions towards the younger female members.

terror wrote:Yes he was banned and yes this post was as a direct result of his, well, concerning attraction and actions towards the younger female members.

Well good then, if he did something bad, its good he got nailed quick enough before causing more issues. Truth be told, I was actually waiting for trolls and scum of the earth to come here to see what damage they can do >.>

Hats off to the admins then who made the call.

Yeah, I was suspicious of that guy right from the start. What a creep.

~TC

For me he doesnt look supicious, for me he is an stalker searching for attention. I noticed that since his introduction or in a comment (sorry Im always absentminded and I cant remember where I read it). I havent been in fandom for too long as other members but I have had some experiences and these are not mine but of my friends.
i.e. One our members from here was trying to have sex with other members (both male and female members), just playing bad with their feelings, the problem is no one could do anything for the other just give advice to them. Now he is not part of our group and everyone knows the kind of shit he is.

I think giving advice like this is helpful to members to be cautious.

It should also be warned that furs are actually not tolerant rational people.
Furries are still humans.

We will judge you.
We will spread rumors.
We will divide your fiends.
We will brake your hart and mind.

Take it slow and learn about the people you want to be friends with.

0_0

Foxxy I think you are a bit unfair about this stuff, which is kinda odd since no one attacked you personally.
While I do agree this stuff will happen, it is certainly not an everyday thing, it is just the minority who ruin it for everyone else, though i guess it could be argued that the other furs fuel this by reacting, that is expected, and we shouldn't really blame them for it unless they go out of their way to fuel it.

I still think the furry community, at least here, is still a very friendly one and isn't that bad at all when it comes to assholes.
But you are still correct about taking it slow, a lot of people can seem very nice and loving at first and then turn on you later, so don't just trust people because they didn't threaten to kill you after knowing you after a week.

My view on this: dont trust someone 100% just cause they're a fur. In general, I think we are less judging etc. But it does and will happen

The reason I am upset about is because potential furries avoid us,
Remember when we were at Icon and we were talking to a few of them.

They Saw shit coming and avoided us.
OR
These guys and girls all got harmed indirectly by the people here on ZAfur.

It upsets me that we are all painted under the same brush.

Splicer, I don't know what happened at Icon but a lot of furries don't like to associate in public because they are embarrassed about being a fur, and may also not want their friends to know. I know when VoxLupus was still new to the forum, he avoided you at RAGE, not because he, "saw shit coming," but because he was embarrassed and was there with his friends, whom he didn't want finding out.

They were probably just a bit shy. Heck I myself have shied away from lots of furmeets.

That aside, I think we have a nice community here. People rarely fight on the forums (yeah there are some fights between members who know each other off the forums but that's besides the point), there is no bullying, and the only person we've ever had to ban was that Psychowolf guys and his aliases, but he was never really a member in the first place.

Which reminds me...

Wolfie-DMX wrote:Hats off to the admins then who made the call.

Credit also to myself, Fluke, Gothic Collie, Terror and Flaxney who noticed the behavior and did the investigation, and to Rakuen Growlithe, whom we all reported and discussed the issue with, and whom actually took action to ban that guy.

I am sure there would have been more names to mention had more people been online at the time of this event. We are all protective of our forum, which we hold dear.

Ryall wrote:Splicer, I don't know what happened at Icon but a lot of furries don't like to associate in public because they are embarrassed about being a fur, and may also not want their friends to know.

The 4 were openly talking to us and they said specifically that they are not interested in the furry community here because of its problems.
I know two of them I have seen role playing as their fersonas at events.

Ryall wrote:I know when VoxLupus was still new to the forum, he avoided you at RAGE, not because he, "saw shit coming," but because he was embarrassed and was there with his friends, whom he didn't want finding out.
They were probably just a bit shy. Heck I myself have shied away from lots of furmeets.

I pointed out a PC-hardware booth called Fox-con.
And I mentioned other people by their by their LAN names. (some of which happen to be furries)
I am guessing his friends don't know that he is gay and with you as well.

Ryall wrote:There is no bullying,

Not much on the forum no, but slandering has happened here before.

Splicer-Fox wrote:I pointed out a PC-hardware booth called Fox-con.
And I mentioned other people by their by their LAN names. (some of which happen to be furries)
I am guessing his friends don't know that he is gay and with you as well.

I'm not here to debate what you said to him; the point is you embarrassed him in front of his friends, and so he shied away from you for the rest of RAGE. If I recall correctly, this was two years ago so no his friends didn't know he is gay and with me.

These days all his friends know about me and him, but only his close friends know about him being a furry. This is because it's something that is difficult to explain, and seemingly unnecessary to bring up (unless the other person is a furry).

Splicer-Fox wrote:Not much on the forum no, but slandering has happened here before.

And it was probably between those few Gauteng furs who like to bring their personal vendettas onto the forum.

Ryall wrote: I'm not here to debate what you said to him; the point is you embarrassed him in front of his friends, and so he shied away from you for the rest of RAGE. If I recall correctly, this was two years ago so no his friends didn't know he is gay and with me.

Embarrassing him how?
Was I not cool enough to hang out with him and his friends?
Would they really reject someone, if they suspect anything weird about them?

Why the hell did he invite me to eat Mcdonalds with his cool fiends if he was avoiding me?

Perhaps you should move this conversation into a PM as it has limited relevance to the rest of the forum.

Rakuen Growlithe wrote:Perhaps you should move this conversation into a PM as it has limited relevance to the rest of the forum.

Yes please!

My 2 cents.

When dealing with communities such as this I would recommend creating some sort of internet identity completely unlinked to your personal life, real friends and career.

Never shout out your personal adress directly even on the map thing. Pointing to a suburb should be good enough. If you want people to know you on a forum or something it is just like building a normal friendship and requires trust before you share private details in general.

Remember, even if secret forum sections exists it still doesn't mean you personally know everyone registered and browsing around in those areas. None of you personally know me and vica versa. In fact I could be a serial killer or something terrible.

Rakuen Growlithe wrote:Perhaps you should move this conversation into a PM as it has limited relevance to the rest of the forum.

Alright, just one more comment so that this doesn't end with me looking like an ass.

Splicer-Fox wrote:Embarrassing him how?
Was I not cool enough to hang out with him and his friends?
Would they really reject someone, if they suspect anything weird about them?

Why the hell did he invite me to eat Mcdonalds with his cool fiends if he was avoiding me?

Splicer, don't act like a victim alright? This is not about you. Vox likes to keep his furry life and his normal life separate, so when he likes to hang out with you, he doesn't like to hang out with his varsity friends, and when he likes to hang out with his varsity friends, he doesn't like to hang out with you, or at least, that's how it was 2 years ago.
He invited you to McDonald's because even though he didn't like mixing his varsity friends with his fur friends, he's not spineless, and he wouldn't desert a friend.

The only point I was trying to make in the first place, was that not everybody is comfortable with flaunting their fur in public, and that that is maybe why the furs you mentioned earlier didn't want to associate. That's all I was saying.