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A brand new and modern FurAffinity! Right here, right now!
Posted 11 years agoFAStyle! It's a browser extension available for Chrome and Firefox* that restyles and enhances FurAffinity using Bootstrap and jQuery! We're building a team up and getting lots and lots done. Get it here!
That being said, FAStyle is still in development and has its fair share of bugs and missing parts, but we're working very hard and very quickly to get everything taken care of :)
(Screenshot)
What will you get?
* Infinite Scrolling on all your galleries, favorites, submission lists, searches-- every list of images will automatically load more as you scroll!
* Asynchronous Actions for watching, favoriting, commenting, and more. That means that when you click a "Watch" button or post a shout, it happens right there, with no page reload (visual feedback for these doesn't currently work on Firefox).
* 16 Beautiful Themes, including dark / "nightmode" and FA-like themes! All of the awesome and free Bootswatch themes are compatible with FAStyle, and you can switch between them at any moment you are browsing.
* Much more!
Give it a try today! Don't forget to watch our FA Account for updates! And if you're on GitHub, don't forget to watch and star us!
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*At the moment, the Firefox Add-On is subject to stubborn Mozilla software and won't have as up-to-date features as the Chrome extension. That won't always be the case though!
That being said, FAStyle is still in development and has its fair share of bugs and missing parts, but we're working very hard and very quickly to get everything taken care of :)
(Screenshot)
What will you get?
* Infinite Scrolling on all your galleries, favorites, submission lists, searches-- every list of images will automatically load more as you scroll!
* Asynchronous Actions for watching, favoriting, commenting, and more. That means that when you click a "Watch" button or post a shout, it happens right there, with no page reload (visual feedback for these doesn't currently work on Firefox).
* 16 Beautiful Themes, including dark / "nightmode" and FA-like themes! All of the awesome and free Bootswatch themes are compatible with FAStyle, and you can switch between them at any moment you are browsing.
* Much more!
Give it a try today! Don't forget to watch our FA Account for updates! And if you're on GitHub, don't forget to watch and star us!
---
*At the moment, the Firefox Add-On is subject to stubborn Mozilla software and won't have as up-to-date features as the Chrome extension. That won't always be the case though!
One Year of Being a Furry!
Posted 11 years agoOne year ago, I was a normal person. Well... not really. But probably a lot more normal than I am now. I was really into drawing random stuff-- kitchenettes, windows, and my feelings about the dominant narrative. Visions of Bombay Bicycle Club, Vampire Weekend, Rogue Wave and Minecraft-- despite the deep snow, it was a really great time to be alive in my life. When I wasn't struggling with heartache and relationship insanity, at least, sitting around Lake Ontario Hall for half the day working on writing Minesweeper in Pharo Smalltalk. I crawled my way home from Allendale one particularly miserable night and happened to watch a badger and a deer making puppy chow. I started watching more and more videos, and scraggly anthro creatures started making their way into my drawings. The transformation had begun.
"The furries" changed from a group of people that I only knew existed to the object of my fascination. Slowly becoming one of them was one of the coolest feelings ever. First, I changed my DeviantART avatar to Copper, a new character I had just created. Then I made a Facebook page to show off my art, and before too long I made my original FA account. For the first time, I didn't want to be an outsider. I had finally found a place where I actually belonged. It empowered me in a way that nothing since my youth ever has: every time I thought about it, I felt warm and fuzzy and excited. Even on shitty days, remembering that I was a furry kept me eager to be fully alive!
Around that same time, I had had exactly one session of this bullshit self-contradicting, individuality-destroying "internship preparation" course which made me so incensed that I told my parents that I would be alright with moving to Florida a year earlier than we were already planning, and finishing my degree at UCF. They asked if I was sure a million times. I said yes, and we sold our house and moved into my Grandpa's basement.
Summer rolled around, I got a job as a web developer for my school. I noticed that an old acquaintance from my freshman year in marching band (WolfTailz) also liked Uncle Kage on Facebook and nervously sent him a message. He invited me to the local furmeet a couple of weeks later, and though I was thoroughly terrified at the idea, I said yes. I'll never forget the amazing time I had-- I met Lee and Vexser, who would later become two of my very best friends.
My conception of the furry fandom changed after that crazy night of dancing and Steak and Shake. Being a furry wasn't just an online thing anymore. It was real and it was even more awesome than I had originally thought! I was a part of it! I felt like I had finally found my real family, and couldn't remember a time when I had ever been so consistently happy.
So naturally, I was pretty bummed the days leading up to Anthrocon that all of my friends were going and I wasn't. Just as I had about made peace with not going, I got a message from Lee. The very next morning I was in a car with a fox that smelled like dryer sheets and two Kansas furries on my way to the biggest furry convention in the damn world! The trip was a three-day-long adrenaline rush, seeing all the fursuiters who, to me, had only until then existed on the Internet, getting pictures with them, going to my first rave, meeting new people and just being completely in it for the first time. I had no PCD when it was all over because it didn't feel like anything was over-- it felt like just the beginning of something really, really great. The way I saw the fandom changed again.
My parents made the move to Florida the day I left for Anthrocon. I spent the rest of the summer by myself in the basement, free to wear my new tail all I wanted. I met more great people (I won't list you all because I'm sure I'll forget someone).
And then I moved to a swamp over 1200 miles away.
Left my friends, left the only home I had ever known, and left a lot of stuff in my real life to chance, really. The Florida summer was very hot and sticky. I was particularly paranoid about falling victim to violent crime. I went to all the furmeets I could find in the surrounding areas, but I couldn't relate to anyone in the same way-- it wasn't the same. I knew very well that things would be different, but being a furry seems to have a different meaning down here. It feels like it's not much more than an exotic way to go drinking, meet people, party, or hook up. And that's perfectly fine if that's what you like! I would never tell anyone what their meaning of fandom should be...
... but that isn't the meaning that I fell in love with.
Nowadays, every time I think about being a furry, it isn't special. It feels as mundane as my human life. When I think of being a furry in central Florida, I don't feel warm and fuzzy or excited anymore. It doesn't recharge or empower me-- doesn't make me eager to be alive. When I think of being a furry in central Florida, it doesn't remind me of all the things it used to. Sometimes it even makes me feel bad...
But! I'm still a furry. And maybe some of that stuff is just inevitable after being one for a year, or side-effects of the many other changes. Or just me being a whiny little bitch-- who the hell knows. There's no denying that I wouldn't be the person I am now because of the furry fandom-- it has changed me down the very core philosophy of my life this year. And even though things aren't that great right now, I know that the future holds some pretty exciting stuff for this badgerdog :)
"The furries" changed from a group of people that I only knew existed to the object of my fascination. Slowly becoming one of them was one of the coolest feelings ever. First, I changed my DeviantART avatar to Copper, a new character I had just created. Then I made a Facebook page to show off my art, and before too long I made my original FA account. For the first time, I didn't want to be an outsider. I had finally found a place where I actually belonged. It empowered me in a way that nothing since my youth ever has: every time I thought about it, I felt warm and fuzzy and excited. Even on shitty days, remembering that I was a furry kept me eager to be fully alive!
Around that same time, I had had exactly one session of this bullshit self-contradicting, individuality-destroying "internship preparation" course which made me so incensed that I told my parents that I would be alright with moving to Florida a year earlier than we were already planning, and finishing my degree at UCF. They asked if I was sure a million times. I said yes, and we sold our house and moved into my Grandpa's basement.
Summer rolled around, I got a job as a web developer for my school. I noticed that an old acquaintance from my freshman year in marching band (WolfTailz) also liked Uncle Kage on Facebook and nervously sent him a message. He invited me to the local furmeet a couple of weeks later, and though I was thoroughly terrified at the idea, I said yes. I'll never forget the amazing time I had-- I met Lee and Vexser, who would later become two of my very best friends.
My conception of the furry fandom changed after that crazy night of dancing and Steak and Shake. Being a furry wasn't just an online thing anymore. It was real and it was even more awesome than I had originally thought! I was a part of it! I felt like I had finally found my real family, and couldn't remember a time when I had ever been so consistently happy.
So naturally, I was pretty bummed the days leading up to Anthrocon that all of my friends were going and I wasn't. Just as I had about made peace with not going, I got a message from Lee. The very next morning I was in a car with a fox that smelled like dryer sheets and two Kansas furries on my way to the biggest furry convention in the damn world! The trip was a three-day-long adrenaline rush, seeing all the fursuiters who, to me, had only until then existed on the Internet, getting pictures with them, going to my first rave, meeting new people and just being completely in it for the first time. I had no PCD when it was all over because it didn't feel like anything was over-- it felt like just the beginning of something really, really great. The way I saw the fandom changed again.
My parents made the move to Florida the day I left for Anthrocon. I spent the rest of the summer by myself in the basement, free to wear my new tail all I wanted. I met more great people (I won't list you all because I'm sure I'll forget someone).
And then I moved to a swamp over 1200 miles away.
Left my friends, left the only home I had ever known, and left a lot of stuff in my real life to chance, really. The Florida summer was very hot and sticky. I was particularly paranoid about falling victim to violent crime. I went to all the furmeets I could find in the surrounding areas, but I couldn't relate to anyone in the same way-- it wasn't the same. I knew very well that things would be different, but being a furry seems to have a different meaning down here. It feels like it's not much more than an exotic way to go drinking, meet people, party, or hook up. And that's perfectly fine if that's what you like! I would never tell anyone what their meaning of fandom should be...
... but that isn't the meaning that I fell in love with.
Nowadays, every time I think about being a furry, it isn't special. It feels as mundane as my human life. When I think of being a furry in central Florida, I don't feel warm and fuzzy or excited anymore. It doesn't recharge or empower me-- doesn't make me eager to be alive. When I think of being a furry in central Florida, it doesn't remind me of all the things it used to. Sometimes it even makes me feel bad...
But! I'm still a furry. And maybe some of that stuff is just inevitable after being one for a year, or side-effects of the many other changes. Or just me being a whiny little bitch-- who the hell knows. There's no denying that I wouldn't be the person I am now because of the furry fandom-- it has changed me down the very core philosophy of my life this year. And even though things aren't that great right now, I know that the future holds some pretty exciting stuff for this badgerdog :)
