I hear a new convention is already forming up to succeed FurFright. Their initial post left me with a few concerns, but if they can create a convention as good as what came before, more power to them. They'll have some pretty big shoes to fill.

FurFright came into my life at a point when I was having a bit of a crisis of faith with regards to the furry fandom. I'd been going to a different con off and on for several years, and the best I could say was that it was an...inconsistent...experience. I never knew going in whether I was going to have a good or bad time, and often I was left feeling I'd had significant doses of both. That convention had also increasingly moved farther away from me and was about to move much, much farther away. I figured at that point I should cut my losses.

Then a couple of local furry friends asked if I'd be interested in driving down to FurFright with them and sharing a room. I was pretty nervous about this for all of the reasons I'd outlined above, but figured I'd go, and if I had a shitty time, I'd learn from my mistake. Hell, this time I was sharing both car and roomspace with friends, so I figured I'd stacked the deck in my favor a fair bit.

Well, I had a pretty decent time indeed, and left with no question in my mind that I'd want to go back the next year.

Three years later I found myself nervous about FurFright again. My friendship with the two people I'd been going to the con with had disintegrated, and I wasn't entirely sure that there was anyone going to the con who I could really consider friends of mine as opposed to friends of ours (we all know how that mutual friends thing tends to pan out). I really did worry that I'd have a crappy con, and wouldn't know what I wanted to do with regards to the fandom afterward.

I had such a good time at that FurFright that for the first time in my life I came down with Post-Con Depression. Knowing that I had friends there, that even after I lost other people there were folks at the con who were happy to spend time with -me-...for the first time in a long time I felt like the words "furry community" actually meant something a bit positive again. It was such a welcome and saddening and surprising feeling to find that I didn't want to leave the con at the end of it all.

FurFright has been great to me ever since. It had a stronger sense of community and family to it than I think a lot of other cons offer, and I met people there who I count among my closest friends now. This con made me care enough about the fandom to start running a yearly panel which was more about helping others than doing anything for me, and this year it became the first convention to publish a story of mine...in other words, the first time my writing was ever published.

To hear that FurFright will cease to exist is heartbreaking. It's not just the death of a con, it's the death of a place I could go to every year and be with my friends doing things I enjoyed and having great times with people who all really seemed to care about each other.

FurFright may be succeeded, but it will never be replaced.

Sleep well, FurFright. I hope one day you'll wake up again.

I welcome any memories of FurFright that people would like to share here.

Do yourselves a favor, and until you hear information regarding conventions from -confirmed- sources, don't go believing it, and -definitely- don't go running around with it.

So if I watch you and you haven't reciprocated, and we rarely communicate, and I'm not actually sure why I'm watching you at that point, I'm fixing that.

If you want to stay in touch, you know how to do so.

Now that I have money I can spend on furry art, I'm having a hell of a time finding an artist open to commissions who's doing the kind of art I want.

What kind of art do I want? I'd love another good Iago or Siph badge. Failing that I have some rather smutty ideas involving lesser-known characters I've played with...pun intended.

Anyone who knows me knows I can talk about the con.

Not going to do that here.

FurFright's an awesome con, and if you're able to attend at some point, you very much should.

My personal con experiences aren't for sharing on an open channel. I'm pretty sure the folks who made it a great time for me know they made it a great time for me. Everyone else - knows how to get in contact with me.

Yep.

I'll be there for anyone who wants to meet a newt-coyote editor-writer. Contact Info in my profile or available upon request. Say hi!

Free raffle for anyone who would like a copy of Pokemon X here - http://www.furaffinity.net/view/11818365/

I'm pretty sure this will be all I have to say about this.

It has been alleged that, last FurFright, certain members of the Dorsai allegedly may have treated certain congoers in ways which were, shall we say, dubious. Before you say -anything- to me about this, consider the vast number of conditionals I threw into that sentence. Also consider that I was at the convention and personally did not witness any of it.

I wouldn't be saying anything about this at all given that it happened last October, but certain individuals on the fringes of my social network won't let the damn thing die, and one downside of Assuming Good Faith about people is that I didn't feel entirely inclined to completely dismiss their concerns out of hand...just mostly inclined.

why?

1) Because they came off as going right for the torches and pitchforks. You know how they expressed their concerns? By bitching on Twitter. By starting a damn half-assed petition to have the Dorsai banned from the con. By complaining about the whole thing on FA. You know what I didn't see them doing, or even claiming that they did? Contacting the FurFright staff or the Dorsai themselves. Because that would be rational.

2) Because the people who I directly know who were involved this are, in my experience, a bit impulsive/hot-headed and prone to jumping to and acting on jumped-to conclusions. Mind you, that's not always a bad thing...I can be a bit impulsive myself. But if I'm going to sound a war cry, I'd like to make sure I have ample justification for doing so.

3) Because, apparently unlike these people, I actually talked with people involved with the con and got their story, which basically amounted to, "Nobody's contacted us through official channels, and the people complaining the loudest are also the ones who violated the convention's Code of Conduct".

4) Because, in my opinion of course, even if certain members of the Dorsai did behave unprofessionally, it's retarded to jump from that to "Ban the Dorsai from FurFright!!!" If you really want me to support that type of radical action, you better make a damn persuasive argument to substantiate your case. Oddly, nobody who I've heard complaining has offered to do so.

Anyway, I tire of even talking about this. I've had one person on Twitter going back and forth with me about the whole thing and claiming that they tried to talk with the FF staff, but thus far they've not responded to my offers to talk with them more directly (i.e. not on Twitter) about the whole thing.

So yeah, if you've got a good argument to make about this whole thing, then make it. If you just want to stir the pot, I've got little use for your drama-llamaing.

Just submitted a short story here that I'm hoping to have included in the FurFright conbook. Feedback welcome, especially before the end of the month!

Thanks!

If anyone's reading this and wants to meet me at AC, I've got contact info in my profile here. I've got more info available upon request. Meeting people is cool, and stuff. :p

Is anyone who's reading this journal (besides Alclave) going to the meet tomorrow? There seems to be very little discussion of it.

Also - so much fun to hear that a meet that you thought went pretty well, in an anonymous party's words, "kinda sucked".

Surprise, I'm going to start off by veering off-topic and saying I'm slightly disappointed that my last two posts haven't elicited more of a response. Probably also a little relieved. Anyway, if you found either of those particularly enlightening you are welcome to share them. This isn't a private journal.

That out of the way, can anyone recommend a good artist for reference sheets? These days it seems like a lot of artists won't do art without them, which is kind of paradoxical, but... An artist who stays away from toony or anime'ish would be preferred. In short, I like my characters realistic-looking, whatever that means. Check my main page for examples of art I've enjoyed (and yeah, I'm being lazy and not going through each of them myself before making this post...or I'm diversifying!).

Hope everyone's having a good week!

http://fishslayer.net/VTF/
If you'd like to register, it would be kind of cool if you'd use this link instead - http://fishslayer.net/VTF/member.ph.....amp;referrer=1

As I discussed in my prior post, I think a forum may help with some of the issues that have confronted/confounded the Vermont_Furs FA group and the meet planning group that's...well...organized a lot of the meets.

The forum is by no stretch of the imagine much to look at right now. Think of this as an opportunity for you to shape it by telling me what you'd like to see. I'll implement whatever I reasonably can, and the forum will (hopefully) improve.

At best this could be a valuable supplement to the communication systems we've got in place. At worst, you'll have wasted a few minutes of your life (hey, no more than I wasted setting the thing up...and at that, it didn't take long).

I'd prefer that all actual discussion of the site take place there, but I won't say no to comments here.

Disclaimer #1 – Just so we're clear, this wasn't my idea. I was asked to make a post by a member of the planning group regarding my experiences interacting with them (more on that later), though I most assuredly wasn't asked to pimp them out per se. I was also asked to be completely honest, which arguably means they have no idea who they're talking to, since I typically temper Honesty with Diplomacy (and consider that a good way to go through life in general). J

Disclaimer #2 – I principally write in Livejournal, where I can monitor who has access to my posts, as opposed to here, where such control doesn't exist. I'm not planning to pull any punches.

Disclaimer #3 – You're welcome to disagree with anything I've got to say. In fact, I encourage debate if there's the potential for something good to come out of it. If your principal interest is in making a snarky response though, I'd ask that you at least have the balls to admit whether you would have even seen this post if someone hadn't pointed you to it. Which is to say, based on my activity levels here I'm not anticipating a lot of first-hand interest.

As I mention in Disclaimer #1 (you read that, right?), a member of what I'll call the Vermont Furmeet Planning Group (VFPG) asked that I write about my dealings with them, in the hopes of persuading others that they're not all a bunch of ogres or what-not and can be talked to and reasoned with. I suppose I could simply say, "Just so y'all know, I've dealt with all of the members of the VFPG and they've all seemed pretty darned reasonable to me, so unless you've got hard evidence that you can't deal with them, I'm not all that interested in hearing about it," but a topic that's caused this much rancor within the local group seems to require a more thoughtful response. So…

Back in 1995 or so I joined the Society for Creative Anachronism, a group that does medieval reenactment stuff. I was pretty active in that across both a college and non-college group, in two different states. During that time I was often a treasurer for the group, occasionally also on a regional level. In the end I left partly because I'd gone from caring about the group to caring about my friends…and then I realized that most of the people I was dealing with in the group weren't real friends either (hint – if I only deal with you during things directly related to the underlying group? We're not real friends. Real friends don't need a reason to get together).

What's that got to do with the furry fandom? Bluntly? Not all that different. There will –always- be drama. There's nothing you can do about it. People will always complain, and the best you can do is change the nature of the complaint (which may or may not be an improvement). You can do everything possible to please everyone, and there will still be complaints. If you're not prepared to deal with unhappy people, don't put yourself in a position of authority. Of course, if you're not willing to put yourself in a position of authority, you should also be asking whether it's fair of you to want anyone else to do what you won't. The good news? Most drama is petty, stupid crap, where it will flare-up and be very exciting for about two days…and then it will implode on itself and people won't even remember it later…at least, not in a way that makes them have fond feelings for whoever stirred up said drama. If drama does last more than two days? Pay some attention to it, because it could be about something that actually matters. That said – don't confuse the person who raises the initial issue with the person who makes it into a drama, either. They aren't always the same person.

Anyway…for reasons that I haven't figured out myself, people from within and without the VFPG have seemed to find value in me as a sounding board. Additionally I've wandered into some discussions concerning it in a more general sense. Like I said, it's the SCA all over again. Let's review-

1) There's a Vermont_Furs FA group that's controlled by members of the VFPG and is primarily used by the VFPG either to announce meets or get community input to improve the events they're planning. This has led to, at best, some confusion regarding what the FA group was for and who could use it, and at worst a feeling that the FA group is little more than the VFPG's mouthpiece. Bluntly – I don't find this very surprising. I don't think it was intentional at all, but it's not a good system, especially the part where if someone who wants to post something that isn't inherently linked to the VFPG they still have to go through VFPG members in order to get their stuff posted. This means stuff could fail to be announced for reasons ranging from emails getting lost to the VFPG member(s) in question being unavailable to unscrupulous members of the VFPG "losing" such requests were they so inclined. I don't believe the latter has happened, but it's a troubling scenario. What can be done? When time permits, I'll be working on a forum (thoughts on that welcome), which at best may be a worthwhile supplement to the FA group and at worst will be an exercise in time-wasting on my part. Advantages – anyone can post to it without moderation (to a point – moderation will still be in place on some level) and as I'm not a member of the VFPG there will be a clear separation point. Disadvantages – most likely someone will try to turn this into drama points. Also it is unfortunate that people may need to go to two separate locations (three if you include Facebook as an active location for Vermont_Fur activity).

2) "The VFPG are responsible for planning all Vermont meets? I didn't vote for them!" No, they're not. They're a group of people who get together and plan meets. Others are welcome to do so and have their plans posted to the Vermont_Furs group. There was some confusion regarding the unfortunately ill-chosen word "sponsored" a while ago, but I think that's been resolved. Hopefully.

3) The VFPG only plans events in Burlington. First, this is patently false. The group has run meets outside of Burlington and is continuing to run meets outside of Burlington, They've also, of late, made a point of asking for meet suggestions at meets, so anyone who really feels this way can certainly suggest a meet outside of Burlington. Anyone with this complaint should consider my above point though…the VFPG isn't –obligated- to run meets outside of Burlington, or indeed any meets they're not interested in running…the fact that they're willing to do so I think sometimes goes overlooked.

I've heard from some people that they're dissatisfied with the VFPG's efforts but aren't comfortable organizing meets themselves. I can respect this in theory; I don't know how I'd feel about running one either. However, if you're not willing to run one, is it really kosher for you to blame the group for not doing what you want? In any case, if you're not willing to run a meet, ask yourself what you are willing to do. Or ask the VFPG whether there's some way you can help them out with organizing meets. But don't just sit on your ass complaining that the group isn't meeting your desires when you won't do anything to help them help you.

I'm not sure there's anything left for me to say about all this. So many of the complaints seem to originate from people who come across as being more interested in complaining than in seeking positive solutions to having their complaints addressed, and as I said, I'm left feeling that even if the VFPG was doing everything they possibly could to make everyone happy, people would still be complaining. That they're complaining about a group that isn't even obligated to serve their desires in the first place is…irksome.

Look, I'm not some VFPG fanboy. They've done things in the past that I feel were mishandled (among other things, the survey wasn't handled as well as I feel it could or should have been, and using the word "sponsored" was a tactical error…but they're hardly the first furs to commit PR snafus), but I do believe they're trying, and I believe they've earned the chance to try, and I don't believe anyone else would be organizing meets if they weren't.

If you've got issues with the VFPG's actions, then in my experience, if you can show some tact, they're pretty approachable and willing to listen to concerns. If you -can't- show some tact, then IMO you don't deserve to have your concerns listened to. And if you can show tact, just not to them…I'm willing to hear what you've got to say and try to help out where I can. I just don't want to hear unsubstantiated and pointless venting that's not ultimately intended to bring about any productive outcome.

I do have one question for my readers though – after reading this, and knowing whatever you do about me – do you believe that, if asked, I should be willing to join this group? I haven't been asked, and I can't honestly see myself volunteering (I'm not that much of a sucker ;)), but I ask you – do you believe I can do more good as a member of this group, or do you believe that presently I can do more good by continuing to be the kind of middleman that I seem to have become?

Anyway, I think that's all I've got to say. As mentioned, I was asked to give my impressions of this group and how approachable I've found them, but I felt more was required. We now return you to your regular me-not-talking (if you want more of this sort of thing, there's a Livejournal for that).

You know, I originally thought about making a post advising folks that sometime between now and the end of the year I'm likely to check into folks I'm watching but who aren't watching me and consider whether I'm feeling that I'm getting anything from continuing to watch them, or whether I should be taking a hint.

Then I figured that if they're not watching me they probably wouldn't see said post anyhow.

But yeah, if you're someone I watch and have interacted with directly more than a couple of times...why not do the watch back thing?

Oh well.

Anyway, I hope everyone's having an awesome Thanksgiving!

If you are in any way a writer/editor/reader, we would love to have you at http://furever-writing.livejournal.com

Everyone knows I'm going, right? And knows how to track me down when I'm there?

Yep, I thought so.

Have art. Need it badgified.

If interested, please provide email address. Willing to throw a few bucks your way if desired.

Someone else posted this, and it's not a bad idea.

Is there anyone who doesn't have alternate contact info for me and wants it?

...didn't think so. :p

Man, I get so embarrassed when someone starts Watching me here and I don't know who they are, but I feel like I should. :p It's only about half a step removed from seeing someone RL who you know you're supposed to know.

So, if any artsy types who are sufficiently motivated are reading this, I've got at least two ideas I'd like to pursue-

1) I'm in need of a new con-badge for Iago.

2) I've got an idea that requires some knowledge of the story I posted, "Serve and Protect". If you'd care to read that and get in touch, maybe we can talk artz. It would be something in the style of  junkersquawker, FWIW. And yes, we're talking about smut.

If anyone's up for roomsharing with a writer-editor, please let me know!!! My RL self is a lot less intimidating(?) than my avatar!

If you want my journal, it's here- doniago.livejournal.com.

That is all.