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20 years on FA, and how it all started
a day ago
General
Yep. I lurked here for about a year before Sonderjen/Datonel finally convinced me to sign up for an account in December of 2005. Hard to believe I've spent about half my life visiting this place at least once a week.
For two decades, this site has still been the hub that holds all my furry contacts together. Lots of good memories, tons of comments from fans, and every now and then I'd actually draw something. Lots of people have come and gone, but there's still plenty of old greymuzzles like me still hanging around and I see them pop up every now and then, and it brings a smile to my face knowing that people still care to share their art for the pure fun of it. New people are still willing to brush off exclusivity on social media and sign up an account here, so there's always new things to see every day.
I've had my differences with the staff members (having chewed out Dragoneer and Yak quite a few times), but I try not to dwell too much on that. I'm grateful this place is still alive. All in all, this is still my second home on the web other than my own web site, and I sincerely hope it will stay that way as the rest of the Web seems to keep falling apart. For all its faults, this is still my favorite web site and I'm here almost every day, even if I don't do much and am not as visible as I used to be a decade ago.
Back in the 80's, I was visiting my grandma's trailer home and reading the newspaper when I came across Pogo. I was instantly hooked. I knew there were talking animals on TV and in movies, but there was something special and distinct about that comic that really made an impression on me. I started drawing my own comic strips immediately, even if they were merely smiley faces wearing hats and ties. As my artistic abilities grew, I always favored more anthropomorphic interpretations of animals over the silly rubber-hose characters in popular media. More or less, I naturally developed a "furry" style on my own.
I never watched much TV, so an early furry artistic influence was Eric Schwartz and his animations I used to watch on my Amiga computer. Andrew Powell and Leslie Dietz did similar work on the Amiga, though I still had no idea there was an entire fandom for this stuff. Pre-Internet, I don't think a lot of people did.
Officially, I've been in the fandom for 30 years. I found out about it in 1995 after my sister brought home an issue of Albedo by Steve Gallaci, and I saw an ad for Mailbox Books (later, Second Ed). I took a chance, sent a letter in the post requesting a catalog, and soon picked up a couple grand worth of comics and portfolios. Slowly the whole fandom moved online and in college I was a regular on FurNation. At that time, the limit to correspondence with other artists was guest books, or e-mail (for the bold). Sadly, I fell out of love collecting comics as I found it difficult to find space, and I stored all my comics at home, and I didn't want my parents to see such a vast collection of naughty art. On that note, Ed Zolna of Mailbox Books/Second Ed recently passed away, finally closing the book, so to speak, on that era of collecting comics. Thank you, Ed, you were a real trouper.
FurNation was a decent place to view art, but FurAffinity was my first major taste of a social web site. I had done oekaki for years and had frequented a few chan boards, but those were mostly like home pages and usually had only a handful of members per site. FurAffinity was the first truly BIG collection of artists out there that allowed you to post commentary on peoples' works. I'm loathe to call it social media, but, it's really a snapshot of what social media was back in the day before algorithms dictated every aspect of the online experience. Once I signed up FurAffinity, I was hooked. To this day, FurAffinity and Inkbunny (of which I've been a member for 15 years) are my two homes on the web.
Save for this place going offline for good (or I get suspended... again), I don't see myself leaving any time soon. Yes, I still have my gripes, as I am getting close to 50 and I'm certainly not getting more optimistic, but all in all, FA is still one of the best places on the Internet for furry folks to share their artistic works and love for the fandom. I'll continue to do so, too, assuming I can get my artistic drive going again.
I'm still in a serious funk and not doing well, but the 15 minutes-or-so a day I spend digging through submissions and leaving as many comments as I can is still a satisfying distraction and a much needed alternative to the toxicity and tiring games you get from social media. No place is perfect, but it really is stark how different this place is from the huge corporate sites. I don't use X, Bluesky, or any of the other big services at all. I'm happy here, and I'm happy this place is still alive and kicking.
Thanks to all of you people out there that make this place great, and supported me by just acknowledging that I still exist even when I don't post anything for months at a time. Don't worry about the numbers; don't worry about quality. Just participate. I'll try to do more of that, too. Let's all continue to have fun and enjoy this crazy fandom together for years to come.
Oh, and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 2025 was a real stinker. We can only hope 2026 will be better. 8)
For two decades, this site has still been the hub that holds all my furry contacts together. Lots of good memories, tons of comments from fans, and every now and then I'd actually draw something. Lots of people have come and gone, but there's still plenty of old greymuzzles like me still hanging around and I see them pop up every now and then, and it brings a smile to my face knowing that people still care to share their art for the pure fun of it. New people are still willing to brush off exclusivity on social media and sign up an account here, so there's always new things to see every day.
I've had my differences with the staff members (having chewed out Dragoneer and Yak quite a few times), but I try not to dwell too much on that. I'm grateful this place is still alive. All in all, this is still my second home on the web other than my own web site, and I sincerely hope it will stay that way as the rest of the Web seems to keep falling apart. For all its faults, this is still my favorite web site and I'm here almost every day, even if I don't do much and am not as visible as I used to be a decade ago.
Back in the 80's, I was visiting my grandma's trailer home and reading the newspaper when I came across Pogo. I was instantly hooked. I knew there were talking animals on TV and in movies, but there was something special and distinct about that comic that really made an impression on me. I started drawing my own comic strips immediately, even if they were merely smiley faces wearing hats and ties. As my artistic abilities grew, I always favored more anthropomorphic interpretations of animals over the silly rubber-hose characters in popular media. More or less, I naturally developed a "furry" style on my own.
I never watched much TV, so an early furry artistic influence was Eric Schwartz and his animations I used to watch on my Amiga computer. Andrew Powell and Leslie Dietz did similar work on the Amiga, though I still had no idea there was an entire fandom for this stuff. Pre-Internet, I don't think a lot of people did.
Officially, I've been in the fandom for 30 years. I found out about it in 1995 after my sister brought home an issue of Albedo by Steve Gallaci, and I saw an ad for Mailbox Books (later, Second Ed). I took a chance, sent a letter in the post requesting a catalog, and soon picked up a couple grand worth of comics and portfolios. Slowly the whole fandom moved online and in college I was a regular on FurNation. At that time, the limit to correspondence with other artists was guest books, or e-mail (for the bold). Sadly, I fell out of love collecting comics as I found it difficult to find space, and I stored all my comics at home, and I didn't want my parents to see such a vast collection of naughty art. On that note, Ed Zolna of Mailbox Books/Second Ed recently passed away, finally closing the book, so to speak, on that era of collecting comics. Thank you, Ed, you were a real trouper.
FurNation was a decent place to view art, but FurAffinity was my first major taste of a social web site. I had done oekaki for years and had frequented a few chan boards, but those were mostly like home pages and usually had only a handful of members per site. FurAffinity was the first truly BIG collection of artists out there that allowed you to post commentary on peoples' works. I'm loathe to call it social media, but, it's really a snapshot of what social media was back in the day before algorithms dictated every aspect of the online experience. Once I signed up FurAffinity, I was hooked. To this day, FurAffinity and Inkbunny (of which I've been a member for 15 years) are my two homes on the web.
Save for this place going offline for good (or I get suspended... again), I don't see myself leaving any time soon. Yes, I still have my gripes, as I am getting close to 50 and I'm certainly not getting more optimistic, but all in all, FA is still one of the best places on the Internet for furry folks to share their artistic works and love for the fandom. I'll continue to do so, too, assuming I can get my artistic drive going again.
I'm still in a serious funk and not doing well, but the 15 minutes-or-so a day I spend digging through submissions and leaving as many comments as I can is still a satisfying distraction and a much needed alternative to the toxicity and tiring games you get from social media. No place is perfect, but it really is stark how different this place is from the huge corporate sites. I don't use X, Bluesky, or any of the other big services at all. I'm happy here, and I'm happy this place is still alive and kicking.
Thanks to all of you people out there that make this place great, and supported me by just acknowledging that I still exist even when I don't post anything for months at a time. Don't worry about the numbers; don't worry about quality. Just participate. I'll try to do more of that, too. Let's all continue to have fun and enjoy this crazy fandom together for years to come.
Oh, and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 2025 was a real stinker. We can only hope 2026 will be better. 8)
And yes, let us hope '26 is better.
I, too, remember the early days of FA, but since I'm not an artist, I won't consider myself a greymuzzle, just an old-time lurker. I'm happy FA has kept on running so far and it's a nice, interesting spot for me, in comparison to other social meeting points (much more fur here ;).
I'm pretty sure you were one of my early watches here. I can't pinpoint the date precisely, but you should have been in my bookmarks before FA, my guess would be on the good old "Backing Out" comics.
I've been struggling to put my own thoughts into words about these sorts of milestone moments as I've come across them over the years, but this brought a lot of my own thoughts and memories into the forefront of my mind.
Hell, I've had such a hard time thinking of what to say, if anything, that I'd forgotten my OWN 20th anniversary of using this site. Amazing that we both joined within a week of one another!
Again, thank you for posting this. It's been a while since I read something where I devoured each and every word with this level of remembering and knowing, a sharing of common experience, and it made me smile
Here's to a lovely end of 2025 to you and an even better 2026! ❤
Whoever coined the term, "The Internet never forgets" clearly didn't consider how much more expensive web hosting has gotten over the years. A lot of my favorite non-social sites, especially technical resources, have closed. I'm glad I downloaded so much stuff over the decades.
https://www.n-sane.net/effects.php
Where'd all the time go?
Then one day I got an email from you asking if you'd been put on an email list. I don't remember how your email got on the list. Maybe I'd written some fan mail to you and it somehow got included when I was writing an email and not paying attention, but I'll always remember that.
Just a dumb little story since we're reminiscing. Thanks for all you do.