I'm surprised to hear that...

In my well over ten years as just chiefly a lurky member of the fandom I've seen so much drama - painful drama, the kind of stuff that've made very good artists and other OC creators leave the fandom in disgust, rage or tears.

Hell, to this day I personally have a guilty pleasure in keeping tabs on the illustrious Jay Naylor and his ilk, via "The Goddamned Furry Board". Dude has a dedicated 'hatedom' he's so far out.

I remember the huge debacle here on FA about banning cub porn, or diaper furs and their behavior (I recall one story about how diaper furs had to be escorted by con security away from the main area due to... welll, diapers)

This isn't to say that I haven't socialized with furries IRL - I was briefly part of the Virginia Tech furry club, although I found it kinda creepy (I can only handle so much openly practiced plushophilia in my presence...) Plus the fact that people there actively refused to call me by name, insisting on using online aliases or OC names when addressing people... and I just think its kinda silly to call a 20-something engineering student "Fuzzysnake" or something like that... but I guess that depends on your relationship with your characters, with me having chiefly expressed myself via my webcomic I think of my characters as just that, characters - not personal avatars or spirit animals or something.

Plus I still find sparkledogs really lame and tiresome.

But ya, trust me, the furry fandom has tons of really nasty ego problem-children. The general hug-box nature of much of the fandom actually fosters that kind of mentalities IMO, since any kind of even polite and constructive criticism can be stonewalled by shrieking "Fursekution!"

but hey, if you've managed to dodge all those bullets: Go you - seriously - that's an achievement!

I suppose I generally surround myself with artists and good people. I've not had too much to do with open meets or groups. Very intentionally. None of them are into the drama, but the creative side. I guess the folks I always seem to roll with are interested in garnishing furry fandom fame (being outspoken), of any sort.

I have had run ins with a snotty poppy fur or two, but by far the worlds are far apart in their own regards.

Careful what you wish for