ZA Furries growth

[Rakuen Growlithe]

A sneak peek from something that I put together for my talk. It's a graph that shows the growth of the forum, counting total users at the end of each year. The numbers differ from the "official" number at the bottom of the forum for various reasons but the actual numbers are not so important. They are roughly accurate and the important part is the trend. We've gone from fewer than 100 in 2008, and it took us 3 years to break past 100 users, to over 500 today!

zafurgrowth.png (7.74 KiB) Viewed 2846 times

The most growth happened in 2011, when we doubled over the year, and the least happened in 2014 where we only had an 8% increase.

Edit: Just imagine "user" is actually "users."

[Galahad]

Most interesting! What do you suspect contributed to the immense growth in 2011? Or was it likely just random?

[Rakuen Growlithe]

Probably impossible to say. That was the year we held the 2010 furmeet (it happened in January 2011) but it could also just be that we had enough of a web presence to start showing up more. We also shut down registrations at some point because we couldn't prevent the bots. Maybe that was 2011 and those are a lot of fake accounts.

[Sev]

Wow, look at the ever increasing number of inactive accounts! Very impressive.

I'm sure that the number of active users has remained fairly consistent.

It certainly didn't feel much different two years ago.

[Rakuen Growlithe]

Active posters on the forum has not increased as much but it has increased. We get a lot more activity than we used to, although that's fairly subjective. But activity is not restricted to the forum. There are other groups where South African furs gather after coming here. Forums are not to everyone's taste and the forum was meant to build a community and let South African furs. I think it is doing that well. If you look back two years ago there were only a handful of people with suits, now that number is growing quite well. And suits are not something you just get on a whim. We have all sorts of projects going on and there are multiple, fairly regular meet ups in both Joburg and now Cape Town. These are attended and organised by different furs than the ones that were doing it a few years ago. Maybe not everyone spends all their time on the forum but the community is expanding.

[Adagio]

Wow, look at the ever increasing number of inactive accounts! Very impressive.

I'm sure that the number of active users has remained fairly consistent.

It certainly didn't feel much different two years ago.

Sev. This was not nice...

[YoteFox]

I've said this before and I'm going to say this again. The community in South Africa is not based upon the forums. The forums is a gateway for communication among furs. As Rakuen said the forum is not in everyone's taste. It gives quite a good representation of how many possible members we have.

The first furmeet I went to was small, now we have quite large meets and the amount of new members constantly joining, I can't keep up.

Personally I switch between mostly all types of platforms we have for communication. Because this is the way I can reach and talk to the most furs.

[Randall]

If you want to grow the fandom more, you will need to heal some of the rifts that exist.

[Valerion]

If you want to grow the fandom more, you will need to heal some of the rifts that exist.

I've discussed some ideas in that regard with Ivic. Let's see where things go, although it won't be fast.

[Randall]

Okay good, well I am really pleased to hear that. That's moving forward.

[YoteFox]

If you want to grow the fandom more, you will need to heal some of the rifts that exist.

I've discussed some ideas in that regard with Ivic. Let's see where things go, although it won't be fast.

I'm quite pleased that the issue was noticed and is being attended too, gives me a sense of activity and makes me feel like there is progress.

[Sev]

Wow, look at the ever increasing number of inactive accounts! Very impressive.

I'm sure that the number of active users has remained fairly consistent.

It certainly didn't feel much different two years ago.

Sev. This was not nice...

Just because it's not nice doesn't make it untrue.

[Randall]

Doesn't matter if it is true, or not.
That is irrelevant in this context.

What is relevant, is we're trying to grow the fandom. Would you mind doing us a small favour please? Just put the sarcasm aside and help us. That's all. I am not going to to criticize you, all i want is your help please.

[Sev]

It's not irrelevant.

The title of this thread is "ZA Furries Growth", and the OP contains a graph of the forum's membership count as a function of time.

Had we been talking about growth in the local fandom, it would have been another matter entirely.

[Randall]

I read beyond the title, and took it to mean the entire fandom as it pertains to South Africa. Because I am sure that is what Rakuen is going to talk about.
The forum is busier now, this last week, than since when I joined last year. Things are getting better Sev. You cannot deny that.

[Leeward]

Sev, the statement may be true, and relevant, but that doesn't make the sarcastic phrasing necessary.

Can we please move on now?

[Sev]

Things are getting better Sev. You cannot deny that.

I can, and I will. We've lost some really active members as time has gone by.

Things are not better, they're merely different .

[Galahad]

You once told me, Sev, that you respond to direction only by authority. A community representative has just requested us to move on.

Back on-topic: I believe that the Furry Convention planned in 2017 will be a massive opportunity for growth in the fandom, if done correctly (and if done at all ). The newsletter currently being developed will also help in reducing the rate of leavers (though I suppose that is only in theory).

[Sev]

Technically, a CR does not have the same authority that an administrator does in the context of the forum, but I'm done.

I'll see you guys later.

[Galahad]

Regarding forum activity and growth, I have a question: Why do members leave or become inactive? I joined in March, and hence my experience here spans only a few months - hence, I have not been here long enough to have an accurate answer.

[Rakuen Growlithe]

I made the post both about the forum's growth and the growth of the furry fandom in South Africa. It is specific to the forum but I believe that the forum is probably the best proxy for the actual size of the South African fandom. Yes, people have left but I think only a few have really left the fandom and as far as I know there are only a few furs that are known in South Africa but have never registered here. There are Whatsapp and Facebook groups but I think most of those people found the forum first and this was how they connected to the other furs.

Regarding forum activity and growth, I have a question: Why do members leave or become inactive? I joined in March, and hence my experience here spans only a few months - hence, I have not been here long enough to have an accurate answer.

For various reasons. Some people just don't like forums and once they have connected to others they stop coming here. Others leave because of fights with other forum users. Some leave because it's easier to just join a Facebook group or Whatsapp group than to come to a specific site. I imagine others join partly from curiosity but do not have any particular interest in finding other South African furs. For them international furry sites are more attractive. Some people have even left because they got too involved in the forum and felt it was interfering in the rest of their life.

[Randall]

Technically, a CR does not have the same authority that an administrator does in the context of the forum, but I'm done.

I'll see you guys later.

Honestly dude, do we have to derail this thread into a ball-size comparison contest?

[Valerion]

Technically, a CR does not have the same authority that an administrator does in the context of the forum, but I'm done.

Authority is what is delegated. The IT Manager or the Security Officer of a company doesn't have the same authority as the CEO or a BoD member. However, they are in their own way more powerful, as some authority about day-to-day stuff gets delegated down to them, and they excersize that power as they see fit. And they can likely walk into the CEO's office when they see fit and address any issue with him. Not everywhere in the world runs in a hierarchical fashion, and I certainly don't run the forums that way. Or at least attempt not to.

I've been here since the forums started, and I saw many furs come and go. Some simply lost interest in the fandom, some decided to be furs but not be actively part of the community. Some came here and then found other places that suits them better. The forums isn't a media or a venue that suits everyone. Some like instant comms (WhatsApp), some like IRC, some like to just attend events, some like the structure of a forum. I believe that each of these groups (and many more) can have space under the larger umbrella of the SA fandom. Very often the forum acts as a stepping stone into the fandom. They come here, find like-minded people and form groupings. While people leaving here is a loss for the forum, yes, it may very well be a gain for the fandom in general.

I think that what we should promote is not to try and keep people in a venue they don't feel comfortable in, but instead to help them become what they want to be in the fandom at large. Help them be contributing members.

Some things that I would not have expected when this all started:
1) Artists supporting themselves. So far I know about Electrocat (former member and con organiser) that supports herself drawing furry art, in SA. Same with Contrast. While not a furry author, he also seems to enjoy what he's doing. It's a very good thing that in a country like this a pure artist can actually support themselves. Granted, part of this is internationalization, but that is the case across the fandom. This is also why I let artists advertise here.

2) Meets of the size we now see. We now have city meets that reaches 20 or 30 people. This exceeds the size of the first cons we had. Regular meets are a good thing to keep the community together, and the growth in size has been encouraging.

3) An active fursuit maker? Offering commissions? In SA? Really? Good luck to all the makers of fursuits, whether it's a personal project just for yourself, or whether you want to do this on a commercial basis. While you don't need a suit to be a fur and it is a really personal decision, it is one of the things that advertise the community, put us aside from others and allow us to be ourselves. Look at the amount of fursuit videos for one. It defines us as much as cosplay defines the otaku community, or how dice, pizza, chips and coke define the tabletop roleplayer.

Just for the record, I am not saying you're not a fur if you don't have a suit, I am saying that it can be a useful expression of yourself, if you are inclined that way. It's not for everyone, or even the majority of furs. If you can't afford it, don't get one. Period. You shouldn't spend your food money on artwork, and you shouldn't spend your food and rent money on a fursuit.

4) The amount of community projects now ongoing. I don't know about them all, but there's a radio station, a podcast, a newsletter, regular meets, all started without any direction by members that wanted to contribute in their own way, using their own talents to benefit the community.

These are the most important things, there are more than I can mention here though. Conversation have changed over the years, but overall I think the quality of what gets discussed here has improved. Yes, we have drama, but so does every subculture, and the worldwide furry community is known for it. People misunderstanding each other happens. But speaking overall, I enjoy some of the conversations here.

Ultimately a community, whether it's the fandom at large, or a forum like this, can't be better than its members. So enjoy posting here, if that's what you like. Enjoy reading threads, if that's what you like. Enjoy being a part of the community, if that's what you enjoy. But just like there won't be anything to read without people posting, there won't be any fun activities to do without people starting community projects. Get active in the community, contribute your talents (whatever they may be), and you may just become someone the community in future years will look up to. Or you may be one of the many, many people that keep the fandom relevant and fun, without ever becoming a popufur. Do what you like, because you like it. And even if your project is only ever appreciated by one person that's too shy to tell you about it, you have at the very least changed that one person's life, made it better, even if only for a moment. That's how communities gets built.

[Adagio]

Very well said Val!