Edit: Well, that was easier than I thought. I'm in the main hotel, see you there!

I left this ridiculously late, but seeing the prices as low as they ever get, I found myself booking a flight to Chicago. I'll be arriving Thursday afternoon, and it'd be nice to have a place to sleep.

I'm good for a full share for half a bed, and I'm open to other possibilities. I'll have one suitcase and a backpack, both small. Don't smoke, don't drink - but don't mind the latter, as long as I can rest.

This'll be my 50th furry convention, and my 10th MFF. In fact, it's the 10th anniversary of my first furry convention. Doesn't time fly?

I've been up all night, so I probably won't be around for the next eight hours. Sorry! PMs or comments with offers/suggestions are welcome; I'll get back ASAP when I wake.

Wow, has it been six months already? A lot happened over at IB:

* We had a relatively small release… followed two months later by the most humongous release ever, with a bunch of cool features such as notification filtering, account renaming (including @ mention updates), PNG usericons, prefetching of pooled/multi-file images, and pre-render on Chrome/Edge/IE11 - the latter makes the site so fast I can't tell it's not local sometimes.
* We went kinda crazy with the caches (I even tried out an ARM-based one).
* We celebrated Inktober… once we got a nice banner from pacopanda
* I got to do some SSD-squeezing. Always fun. :-D

Aside from that, WikiFur and Flayrah moved onto another server and had some significant-if-not-very-visible upgrades which made things that little bit better.

As for me, I went to a bunch of LondonFurs meets with my little friend, and a birthday party. Good times. (Sorry if you can't see any of those due to Facebook! My wah snuck onto Twitter…)

Oh, and I was on a podcast again - twice. I guess they were short on guests! (They had toumal the week before and kagemushi after, at least!)

I've been pretty quiet recently, because - well, you remember that secondary server that we were going to use as a cache for Inkbunny? We got it set up. And a sponsored virtual server from Bad Dragon, to serve most USAian/Canadian/South American furs. And one for Australia and New Zealand, because apparently some ISPs restrict downloads from the USA to 0.5MBit/sec, which is way too slow for our liking. Overall, access times should be vastly improved for most members.

That was a lot of work by itself, but we managed to sneak in a bunch of other features, too, including image tweet-posting and user profile/+fav restrictions. Check 'em out!

(Oh, and if anyone here is going to ConFuzzled, see you there, at our table or elsewhere!)

Just to give my watchers here an update on the Inkbunny donation drive - we exceeded our donation goal by 30% and managed to lease a new secondary server, as well as our main one. Full details in the journal!

On Monday I received a request from the Huffington Post to contribute to a story about furries. The piece seems to have been received positively - and I'm glad to see they took my advice to talk to Dr. Nuka ( nuka-kitty) of the Anthropomoprhic Research Project. The author even linked to both WikiFur and Inkbunny, which was a pleasant surprise!

In other news, the Inkbunny donation drive has been going well - we're almost down to the last $2000. I'd thought it would take until Christmas to raise the funds, but it looks like we might be done this weekend. Never underestimate the generosity of furries!

Hey fuzzies! I've been busy preparing the Inkbunny donation drive - we've already raised $2000 towards our goal! It has a monster Q+A section - if you're interested in the details of running and funding a large furry art site, it's worth a read.

Other than that, there's been the usual Christmas stuff, which . . . actually hasn't been all that usual in the last few years, but this time I'm spending it with family, so it exists. Oh, and I went to the LondonFurs Christmas party, which was pretty darn good, especially considering the rock-bottom entry fee. Nice music, a great dance-floor that goes all kinds of colours, old computer games; what's not to like? I fear the host may not have made their money back on the iced shots, but at least the ice sculpture that they used to cool them was nice to look at! And from what I saw we bought plenty of burgers (although to keep in character, I snuck off to Eat to grab a cheese sandwich and slice of carrot cake).

Hey everyone! As you might imagine, I've been busy with Inkbunny, especially given last month's shenanigans.

I wrote about our latest escapades, including cutting disk utilization in half and CPU time by 30%. Go see!

Alas, all good things must come to an end. I'm moving back to the UK early next month, and I'm holding a farewell dinner as a furmeet that you can read about on Lone Star Furs. I figured some of you might not be regular readers, so I'd drop a note here. Forum registration is required; but if you're in DFW, you should be a member to keep up with the furmeets, anyway. ;)

I also mention some stuff there that I'm looking to distribute for highly reasonable prices before I go. If you're interested but can't be around on Sunday, you're welcome to contact me and pick it up some time next week. A few items (particularly the double-size scanner) would be suitable for shipping.

To forestall the inevitable question: no, I probably won't be at IFC/MFF this year. By the time I leave, I'll have used up all my permitted visitor days for 2014. I do, however, have a ticket for Eurofurence.

When I'm not working on Inkbunny or Flayrah, I'm usually spending time at WikiFur. Over the last month or so I've been giving the wiki server and software some TLC - read up on what's been updated and give it a go!

Some of you may have seen  Mix around the con (also known as Moon Moon; the guy with the satyr head-mask). An acquaintance of mine at Furry Fiesta gave him a room for Saturday night. Mix left his jacket there.

Unfortunately neither Mix nor I can remember exactly who gave him a room, and Mix doesn't remember the room number, so there was no help available from hotel staff. He asked me to ask here in case the person was watching.

If anyone here knows more about this, please let Mix know through the contact methods listed on his account.

Just to keep everyone here up to date: I've been working with Starling to identify and implement various database-shrinking changes as well as other performance optimizations.

It's been fun learning the ins and outs of PostgreSQL. I had no experience with this particular system, but the documentation is excellent (which is good; like all high-performance database systems, it has many subtle details).

Inkbunny's database is rather complex - an schema diagram excluding the sales system takes up 3000x13300px (no, that's not a typo) - so it's taking time to implement all the changes. However, like any site, most queries revolve around a few large tables, and focusing on those has made a big difference already. It's a good feeling to cut its size by 10% in a day!

For those of you unaware: I'm now owner and lead administrator of a major furry art website.

This has been coming for about three months; it'll probably take another three until things are completely settled. There's a lot to do, and I have some big shoes to fill, but it's quite exciting, no?

Apologies if I'm a little more absent-minded than usual - I have a lot on my plate right now!

Reposted auction ads have been bugging me for a while now, but today was exceptionally egregious, so you get a journal post.

Just now I encountered it on the first page - I saw an interesting YCH auction, clicked the link to their previous submission, and . . . saw the very same post, just four hours earlier. It didn't get any replies then, so clearly they decided to try again. This is far from the only artist I've seen this from, although most tend to wait at least a day or so - but this is still way too soon! (I'm not talking about slightly different auctions a month later.)

This kind of reposting is against FA's acceptable upload policy (non-original works, multiple simultaneous advertising posts), and with good reason: each repost takes resources - both server-wise, and in terms of staff and user attention - that an original submission deserved. I doubt FA has de-duplication, so it's doubling the disk space - and even if you delete the old one, the database entry remains. (That's assuming FA removes deleted images; I could see it hanging around.)

It's obvious why people do it; they think they'll get more responses. They may even be right. But it's a tragedy of the commons - an individual may benefit, but others then feel pressure to do the same - and if everyone does it, we all lose. FA gets slower and has to upgrade, and new art gets less time on the front page. Plus, as much as I have a thing for YCHs (there's nothing quite like translucent, gel-like generic furs . . . murr), it's not fun seeing the same art twice.

There's technical solutions - for a start, FA could discourage such posts by recognizing duplicates - but part of the issue is that people tolerate it. So please: if you see this behaviour, report it.

I've seen a few journals about people wondering what to do while FA is read-only, so I thought I'd note that the FA to IB script is still up and running, and should continue to work.

If you've got a gallery on Inkbunny already, you can use the migration tool to update it with works that you've uploaded recently, or do so manually. If you have lots of files and don't want to use the script, you can use a bulk upload or just bundle related works into multi-file uploads (especially useful for comics or add sketches to finished work).

There'll be additional traffic while the migration is going on (though there's 15,000 members daily as it is), so it's a good time to update. We just upgraded to a shiny new server - it should be able to handle the load!

Don't worry: These guys did it for you. Right down to how many times men and women look at porn a month (hint: guys do it more).

The best part is the theory that women leave furry fandom (or stay out) because they think other furs - including other women - are more positive about all the porn they see floating around than they really are. Makes a lot of sense. (Also the brony findings were amusing.)

Whew. Every time I write one of those research summaries, they get a little bit longer!

As I mentioned earlier, several cool projects have been nominated for the 2012 Ursa Major Award. Well, today (May 15) is your last chance to vote. Check out the nominees, then have your say!

I was almost resigned to paying American $440 to get to AC this year, then up pops my Kayak alert - DFW-PIT return via Delta, for just $301! . . . sure, it's via Minneapolis, but that just means more miles, right?

I actually have enough miles to book the flight with them (legacy of flying out of Detroit for six years), but at this price (deep-discount V-fare on all segments) it doesn't make much sense. Better to save them for a later - hopefully more direct - flight. Departs at 7AM, but it wouldn't be the first time; it gets me there before registration opens on Thursday, and I'll have plenty of time to say goodbye on Monday with a 5:25PM return.

Fun fact: Spirit have just started flying to Pennsylvania from DFW; unfortunately, their flights land at an airport over an hour's drive from Pittsburgh. Add in a taxi and a train ride (if you can fit the schedule) and it's just not worth it. Was an interesting option to investigate, though.

Next up: Hotel room. Anyone got a slot free? (Thursday night-Monday morning, obviously. Not that picky about location.)

It's that time, again. Both WikiFur and its affiliated news service, Flayrah, have been nominated for the 2012 Ursa Major Awards. (As has Inkbunny, where I moderate!)

Flayrah won last time, while WikiFur came second to dark horse candidate Equestria Daily - beating both FA and Inkbunny.

EQD is not in the running this year, and we have an excellent chance of winning both awards - so please vote! (While you're there, check out the other nominees, and those on the recommended list.)

Need some justification? WikiFur's reasons for winning are still valid - our English edition recently topped 16,500 articles (including over 9000 people), while Russian editors are approaching 3,000. Flayrah has doubled its output over the past year, with many great stories.

Whew. Just got done publishing Fred Patten's revised (and now illustrated) Chronology of Furry Fandom, 1966–1996 on Flayrah.

This is the same document that was http://yarf.furry.com/chronology.html" rel="nofollow ugc noreferrer noopener">published all those years ago (1997) in Yarf!, but with many updates and additions from Fred - and, of course, lots and lots of images, both linked and embedded.

Oh yeah, and those wondering about the Ursa Majors - Flayrah won! But WikiFur lost to ponies. Ah, well, we still beat FA into third place.

The nominations for this year's Ursa Major Awards are up, and three projects which I am involved with - WikiFur, Flayrah, and Inkbunny - have made it onto the ballot.

If you've not already voted, please drop by and see what's on offer. There's some good stuff, and judging by the two MLP-based nominations, we'll need all the help we can get defending against the brony menace.

For those of you not reading Flayrah (and why not?), there's a real life public furry art show running concurrently with Further Confusion in a couple of galleries in San Jose next month.

They're asking for scanned/digital conbadges to exhibit as well as regular furry pieces, so if you have something worth showing, do send it in by Dec 31. The artist's permission is required, but they'll probably try and get it as long as you provide contact information.

In case anyone here's watching for them, here's my IFC 2011 photos (view in slideshow).

For full sizes, click "Actions/View all sizes", then original. Available under CC-BY-SA.

This is one meme I can actually do . . . at least with other people's art:

1. Post a link to your entry with the most views: if there is a tie, just post the top most one.
2. Post a link to your entry with the most favourites: if there is a tie, just post the top most one.
GreenReaper conbadge by Marci McAdam - it's a really good badge, though I suspect the reason it got a lot of attention was that I posted it under the theme "Baby fur - Tame" (as it's a younger version of the character).

Runner-up for favourites: GreenReaper conbadge by Korrok - it's a good depiction of the character and I wear it regularly at conventions.
Runner-up for views: GreenReaper and Immelmann at the Ursa Majors (original) - follows Concession's success at that year's Ursa Majors. Immy didn't know who ran them, but figured since I made a lot of noise about them, I'd be a suitable target . . . so I got a cameo!

3. Post a link to an entry you can't understand why so many people favourited, because in your own opinion, it doesn't deserve them.
Derpy Shaymin by SenayDragon - I guess people are just desperate for Pokémon art. Shaymin isn't that popular a topic, and the land forme is even less so. Still, before Simisage came out, it was one of the closest to my character, in personality at least.

4. Post a link to an entry that got the most comments.
GreenReaper (Nov 2010) - a recent photograph. Naturally, all the comments are about the hair! One of the few times I've used my tripod and remote timer.

5. Post a link to an entry of your OWN personal favourite drawing (post up to five).
GreenReaper by Astolpho - it's cute!
GreenReaper by angel51431 - the one piece not done by a furry, and probably the most realistic norn (even more so than the original).
My Favorite Norn, by Nyx - greeeeeeen. And heavily detailed!
GreenReaper conbadge by vantid - immediately recognizable. The mohawk is awesome.
GreenReaper statuette by fenris_lorsrai - I see it every day on my desk.

As noted, my current coding project is a mutli-gallery management tool called Metapix. Its primary goal is to help creative members of the furry fandom upload their work to multiple sites.

Part of developing software is identifying requirements - and one key question is which sites it needs to support in order to be useful. The fewer plugins I have to develop, the more time I can spend on each, and on the rest of the program.

To this end, I asked 101 dealers and artists at Further Confusion 2011 what sites they use to host their work, what sites they might use if it were easier (including inactive accounts), and what other sites they used to tell people about their work. The results might surprise you . . .

They're also quite fortunate for me - it looks like I could launch with 6-7 gallery plugins and a couple of notification plugins and satisfy the vast majority of users. Even four plugins would be enough for an alpha version.

Response to the basic concept was extremely positive. Almost all artists had more than one gallery, and most were irritated by having to repeat the process of posting work and journals in multiple locations. Many liked the idea of a global message center, and some wanted notifications on events like notes/messages and sometimes shouts/comments - though generally not watches or +favs.

Here's my attempt at making one of those meme things . . .
----
List your last ten +favs and why you picked it/what it says about you:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

----

And here's mine:
1. Muffin Ship by  neoneon
I have a weakness for inane comics. And who doesn't like muffins?

2. Nepeta Icon by  Irrisorie
Nepeta (of Homestuck/MS Paint Adventures) is pretty cute - and she uses my favourite colour! I wrote an article about her at Flayrah.

3. Encounter in the Abyss by  steamfox
Odd-coloured detailed alien creatures are neat! I own this one, won it at a con a few years back (it's amazing what you can find cheap at furry art auctions).

4. Gosh, Terezi! by  Irrisorie
. . . and Nepeta's just as cute on all fours . . . what? o_o

5. Get Over Here by  FELLARTS (NSFW)
Tentacles x Pokemon = Win. Actually, Tentacles x just about anything = Win.

6. Special delivery to fight hunger by  skrimpf
More overly detailed drawings of incredibly inane situations, which this artist is all too eager to provide.

7. HX - Fox Commercialized by  hyper
I have a weakness for comics with jokes about foxes' promiscuous nature. See also Nauv's Life in Furry Hell - The Furries.

8. Sek-Ratkaa: Part 3 (now with stories!) by  Fortuna (NSFW)
. . . OK, so I might just be a tad submissive. See also part 1, part 2 and part 4.

9. Minthe - Traditional by  wyngaed
This was just cute. Chubby paws! Rounded tail spikes! And like me they have several shades of green on them. I guess I'd be a cute dragon if I wasn't a norn.

10. AT: I can has one too! by  Mutant-Serpentina
This one made me laugh. :) And yay, assertive unclothed mutant female squirrel! I really like the look.

See the rest!