What I think about, well it's the character you play as in the community. That's basically it really, well to me it is.

Other people see it differently or take it differently.

would you say an avatar like roleplay?
thanks for sharing!

I personally feel a fursona (a take on persona for furries) is you, since persona means what and who you are. It is you, and is what you like, who you are, how you act.

hmmmm simple enough! thanks for sharing

You know, I'd love to know. Currently, my persona is a character I created that somewhat was a less drastic, better accepted into society version of me. He was the kind of guy I wish I could eventually become.

Then a few years later, I have a character that basically litterly is a draconic me. I don't consider him my true persona though. Maybe I should. Idunno.

I've encountered your thoughts, I FEEL THE RELATION! I have a bunch of characters and they're alike me somehow, so...should I call all of them as my fursonas? hmmmm tough X-) there might or might not be a boundary between the spiritual or visual preference for us

I'm guessing it's a character made to represent them.

I believe it to be character that represents yourself. Otherwise I would just consider them to be a character.

I view fursonas as a mascot used to represent you. It can either be very similar to you, or have traits you wish you could have or exhibit. They also tend to display some of your favorite things such as animals, colors, etc. In short: they're a visual representation of yourself in a way that can either be symbolic or simply just fun.

a mascot is a legit definition, i see i see. thanks for sharing!

For me, it's a character you use as a representation of yourself. Like a mask, an avatar.

Its the player you create for the "INTERNET" MMO Game.

youre not even a furry, you're a cat disguise as a human.

I thought you asked this question before boru xD are you going through a phase?

I MISS THE FURRY OK

For me it's a character that represents myself

For me my primary fursona is, a character, an extension of myself, and online avatar.

Yknow for the longest time i had made so many fursonas that i was just never happy with them. I loved them as they were, but they were just designs in my head, and not the real me. And weirdly enough from that i started to show some signs of a tiny case of identity crisis. Or however you want to pronounce that term lol
But after a while of abandoning the idea of having sonas and only have ocs, it just hit me so damn hard that i am so much happier without a face/icon/avatar/etc. Weird right?

But to give my other more relatable two cents for this journal, is that a fursona is pretty much a persona of a piece or whole part of one's self point of view's personality/lifestyle/etc fitted in a preferred physical form, or a visual reference, all in a furbutt body. Its somewhat a way to "get yourself out there" without actually going anywhere in a near anonymous fashion in both online and irl situations

my twin from the other side of the world. yes you. *sobs*

SOB WITH ME BROTHER, SOB DAMNIT

I only ever refer to Ty as my character, tbh. I think a fursona is a term for somebody who identifies as their character, right? Who knows.

A character used to represent oneself in furry artwork?

im sure thats one of many ways to describe it :D

Well, that obviously depends on a person. For some it's a character to play (that can be completely different form the "player"), for some it's an avatar, for some it's their mental projection of themselves. I see myself as a coyote, but I don't have a designed coyote character, for example.

thats a new perspective for me :0 to both create furries character but not relate to them, WHILE seeing yourself as an animal too :D
thanks for sharing

All of my characters are made for story purposes. Though the closest thing I have to a "fursona" is a Gnoll character I played as in Dungeons and Dragons for years. Representing myself as a specific anthropomorphic animal has simply become less important to me as I've grown older. Maybe I'm just "Furry Lite" or something. =p

FURSONA IS ME AS DOG

MORE COMFORTABLE SHOWING PICTURES OF DOG INSTEAD OF SELF

LIKE AVATAR ON INTERWEBZ 4 ME

INTERNET PERSONA WITH FUR

WHAT IF YOURE A REALY DOG BEHIND THIS SCREEN
*SCREAMSS*

Stigmata explains it pretty well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-D3ZzBj2K0

a character made to represent yourself in the community, and in artwork.

Usually people see themselves as a particular species and design a character based on it. I have about 40+ characters I've designed (or adopted) for me, only one of them fits me as a fursona.

a miserable pile of furry secretes??

Some refer to my main character as my sona, but he was designed by someone else first
I just felt he was a really cool character, and kind of an alter ego (we have a few things in common, but are very different)

XD no doubt, he has more visual presentation than you hehe
your character is really cool btw!

haha thanks so much! x3

Well, I have two "fursonas"

One is what I am physically, and want to be emotionally/mentally
The other is representative of how I am mentally, but would like to be physically.

They just happen to be furry characters cuz I made them after joining FA to kinda have a sort of thing people could associate me with.

A fursona, as far as I'm concerned, is a representation of your inner self.

Some people identify themselves with multiple characters, others with a single character and others struggle to identify themselves with any particular characters.
I'm the type that identifies myself with a single character, but it does evolve from time to time. I was originally a wolf and now I'm a Dragolf (Wolf/dragon hybrid). A lot of it is symbolism, representing the better parts of yourself or sometimes emphasising parts that you feel your lacking, but either way it just boils down to how you view yourself or how you want to be.

my sona, spettrale, is me in a nutshell. i don't think i am her, i use her as a mask so i don't have to reveal my real appearance online. not counting this website of course :P
on other websites i find using my sona protects me from real creeps. just like my pseudonym, millie lemieu. i still use my real first name, millie, but i use spettrale as my face, if that makes sense.

hmmm I have the same exact reason like yours: to not reveal my true self on the internet XD but then ive become too attached to my characters and it feels like they have a life and grow with me as well, all happens in my head :P
thanks for sharing!

I ,like yourself, have many characters and they all share a bit with myself. I agree with a lot of the comments above that our fursonas are nothing more then a way for us to give others an idea of what we're like. I enjoy having a fursona because ,in a community like this, it's just easier to associate with one another through furries the IRL identification of a person. You know i never stopped to think about that type of question until today. It's amazing how deep something like this can get.

When I was first introduced to the Furry community I decided on a timber wolf. I chose this because I love canines, especially wolves, and felt I had a lot in common with the animal. Years later, during a very dark patch in my life I felt that a wolf wasn't me...and in accordance with the anger and depression i was feeling, I changed my fursona to a demon...it just felt right. I later came to realize that both aspects were me. The wolf was everything good about me, the demon everything bad. When the wolf lost its strength, the demon aspect came forward to take it's place while the wolf rested and recovered. When it did, it reasserted it's dominance.

It is why I'm a demonwolf, not a wolfdemon, since the wolf is primary and the demon is an aspect of it (like red apple - it's an apple that is red.)

Later my inner child asserted itself as a playful colt in a very very vivid dream that I can still perfectly recreate in my mind.

So technically coltdemonwolf...though that sounds just weird and I don't view myself as a chimera, so the colt is an inner spirit, while the wolf and demon are the physical representations.

sorry for such a late reponse, but thank you so much for sharing. I think it's really awesome that people have such a deep connection with the fursonas/characters that they created like you. Its a good practice to transfer mental energy in between fursonas and the real human you, really

To be honest that last statement "I wish people would see me as the creator..." is indeed how I see you and several other artist here! I think some of us start with a character that we want to represent us and thus say that we "are" this character. Over time this might change though so that the character becomes someone we can relate to but not necessarily "us" anymore. Other people simply like to make characters out of interest like you mentioned earlier.

I know for myself that "Kins" has always been a sort of character that, while I wouldn't in some ways mind being him, he isn't actually me. Kins is a character in my head that represents some of my aspirations but at the same time he is not "me". So that is my quick little view of him :p. I have another friend that I've met in real life whose character is more of a spirit guardian to him. So for him, he draws the character to give some more tangible meaning to his feeling that he is being looked over by this spirit. I believe there is a good and broad array of fursonas and personas out there and each one is taken in slightly different context =).

hey thats interesting about the fact that a fursona is a guardian :D now I would like to imagine a spiritual anthro god that watches all over us heheheh XD
And yeaah, I guess I would feel connectd with my characters like "I want to be friend with this rabbit" more than "I'm the rabbit, thats me" XD
I wish people would recognize about the furry community in this way (how ppl connect with their fursona/character/inner beast) rather than those weird sex fetish and stuffs :/

With that last sentence I agree greatly. I have some friends that, while not into anthros, are totally understanding that it is just something that is enjoyed rather than all of the negative connotations with it. Otherwise I totally have related you and Byo as two separate individuals with awesome personalities XD. Admittedly though, for a good while I always miss-pronounced Byo in my head as "Bee-oh" until you made a post about it being "Bai-o" all those years ago 8P . Anyway, hope all is well for you!