I've been her for six years now, and I realize that many of you have been here longer. I've seen various controversies and drama that have cropped up over the year. I've weathered through those storms along side many of you and remained.

I have never really been bothered that this site wasn't pretty, flashy, or had lots of shiny things. It *worked* and there was an established community which was the important thing. But this recent meltdown has been the final straw. While this site *worked* the current events have demonstrated to me that this place runs about as well as a $500 RV that burns to the ground on the side of the highway halfway between points A&B, while you stand helplessly on the shoulder with a spent fire extinguisher. What the management decides to do from here out I don't know. If all they are going to do is proverbially patch it up with duct tape and give it a wash and wax that's not enough. It will still be that fire damaged RV. It's time for a new one.

I think that there is only so much that this community is willing to endure here and I can see several possible outcomes. These outcomes include the eventual slow march to irrelevance if it continues as-is with more patches and quick fixes and the real possibility that the corporate owners may simply decided to shutter it completely.

That said, I will no longer be actively posting here, although at this point I will not be purging my account. I will be moving over to these three sites and my twitter, so feel free to follow me at one of them or all of them. I don't know where I will become most active, but for the foreseeable future I will be cross-posting future submissions and journals to those listed.

https://beta.furrynetwork.com/good_shepherd/
https://www.weasyl.com/~goodshepherd
https://good-shepherd.sofurry.com/
Twitter: shepcrafts

While I may be planning my exodus from here I don't expect all of you to follow suit. I do recommend that you at least consider joining me and all the others in at least setting up accounts with alternate services. If my second outcome listed above comes to fruition, some day you may go to login and find that everything is gone.

Feel free to respond to this journal with your preferred alternate account one either of the services listed above and I will give you a follow there.

Thank you and good night
~Good Shepherd

Thought I might post my convention list for 2016

Definitely
Fur The 'More (April 8-10)
Biggest Little Fur Con (May 12-16)
Anthrocon (June 30-July 3)
FangCon (Oct/Nov?)

Likely
FAU 2016 (Sept)
WPAFW (Oct)

Possible (probably only one)
Megaplex, Campfire Tails, or RMFC (Aug)
MWFF (Dec?)

See you around...

These last couple months have dragged me kicking and screaming into the 21st century. First I got a smartphone to replace my 7 year old Motorola RAZR, and today I just signed up for a twitter account. My twitter is shepcrafts.

Mostly I signed up because at Fur the More it seemed that people have moved from texting (which i just started doing) to twitter for arranging things on the fly. Don't expect tons of insightful posts throughout the day, I'm, mostly doing it to keep i touch with others and give them another way to contact me.

Next question is whether I should protect my tweets/twitter. Any thoughts?

Pre-reg closes May 1st, room block closes May 4th!

The convention, located in Rochester, NY, is open to all furs 21+, and we are lining up a great weekend for all our attendees.

Basic reg includes:
Thursday cocktail reception (cash bar?)
Dances! With free frozen rum-based drinks
Access to the con suite, run by  shymatsi
Sunday pool party and cookout
Many concerts
Table top and video game tournaments

Upper level registrations get additional perks- check out https://www.furrycon.com for more information.

Or at least that's what one of the building maintenance guys at work said when he saw my pair of divining rods in my cubicle (I use them for estimating the location of underground utilities- it seems to work).

I don't usually do signal boosts, but I saw this posted and felt it was worthy of one. Especially to any of my fursuiting watchers attending or planning to attend Fur The 'More.

From the link in the post (http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6579007/):

"It is unlawful in the state of Virginia to wear a mask that covers a substantial part of the wearers face with the intent to conceal their identity. Doing so is a Class 6 Felony."

Please go and read the link. (Short version is don't suit off hotel grounds without explicit permission)

VA Code for your reference: http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/leg.....0+cod+18.2-422

I've finally joined the 21st century today and got my first smartphone. My 7 year, 4 month on Motorola RAZR V3M started to die on me and has finally been replaced.

Check out the cool swag  furry-con has for the different registration levels! Early bird reg is still available and pre-reg is open until May 1st.

Knights and higher get the ceramic tankard: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/15716160/
Royalty and persons of title (in addition to the tankard): http://www.furaffinity.net/view/15716142/

After several years of work experience and a lengthy exam back in the fall, I finally got my PE license this week.

Just gauging general interest, would there be any interest in a woodworking panel at a fur con?

Just wrapped up booking plane tickets for Wild Nights. I hope to see as many of you there as I can!

I ended up in a discussion at work today where we ended up bitching about the 24/7 news media.

I was still quite young at the time, but I vaguely remember when over-the-air television broadcasts would sign off. Literally they would stop broadcasting. If you tuned in all you would get were test patterns or static.

I particularly remember a local AM radio station that we would listen to in the morning, especially in the winter, for school closings. Yes, there was a time before the internet, cell phones, and text messaging when this is how we got our information (sometimes it was even printed on paper that was delivered to our door and we had to read it!). This particular radio station would sign off in the evening and start back up around 6 in the morning with the national anthem.

In a sense, we've come a long way. I don't know if it is for better or for worse. All I know is that when I think about these things I start feeling old.

So Draconis is out of the hospital and I wish him a speedy recovery. Most of you have probably already heard that, so I likely won't be posting anything new on that subject. I am sure that Keefur will keep us all well informed and up to date on his progress.

My next planned convention will be New Year's Furry Ball in Delaware, but until then I probably won't be getting out to any more conventions until the spring, especially if I am going to do Wild Nights in Oklahoma. I need to rebuild my PTO balance as I burned through a lot of it this fall for various reasons. I wouldn't mind doing Anthro New England, but I'll have to see how things play out.

I hope of you headed out to MFF in a couple weeks have a great time. I'll get out there one of these days.

I learned earlier today from Soron that Draconis (aka  calamitycougar) had a heart attack and is in the hospital. Please take a minute and leave a shout wishing him a speedy recovery.

Thanks
~Shep

This year I'm planning on attending the Knoebels Meet in Elysburg, PA. Signup information is available here: https://www.surple.com/group/knoebels/474

Registration is finally open for Furrycon 2014: A Game of Con Chairs (http://www.furrycon.com) to be held May 8th-11th in Rochester, NY chaired/hosted by  soron1991

Registered yesterday and looking forward to May.