You know what I find amusing?

The difference between Doctor Steel and 'his' Toy Soldiers. I have had a chance to check out their forums lately, and while at first glance they seem rather benign, all you have to do is look at one of the rules lists. Particularly for the chatroom.

Now, I am of the firm belief that the "doctor" (His name is Ryan Vernon, get over it) is in it because he just wanted to have some fun while making money. The things he talks about are obvious spins on reality for his own amusement. The character talks about opening ones mind, questioning things, freedom of action and overall trying to find happiness. Not a bad thing, honestly.

Then you look at his following, and while I am sure the majority of the soldiers are pretty cool people, it seems that the people running their base of operations are nothing but the absolute opposite of "Doctor Steel" in every possible way. Take Prototype Madelchai for example. He was the one who wrote up the rules for the chatroom, and I didn't even need to hit up the chatroom to see how incredibly hypocritical this tyrant is.

First off, the list of rules for a chatroom is normally no more than two paragraphs. Three at most. This guy wrote an entire essay on what you can and cannot say to whom and when in vast detail:




For your viewing pleasure, it's that time again folks! Since we had multiple threads before that required looking through multiple pages to find all the newest and up to date rules, those have been done away with and I've consolidated everything to this one convenient thread, which I will be able to edit as appropriate, so ideally this first post will be your one stop spot for all the up to date rules regarding use of the chat.

-Language
Try to keep the language respectful. We're not here to crack down on every word you say, but do strive to express yourself as intelligently as possible. Don't use swearing as punctuation. Also, along the lines of expressing yourself intelligently, do try to avoid using single letters as words, i.e. "u" and "r" in place of "you" and "are."

-Civil conversation; No Flaming
There is no need for insults. There will be no slandering based on age, race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or any other matter.

Whenever there's a gathering of people through any medium there's always going too be people who don't get along, or who take things to far.

Luckily, most of the populace here is mature enough to deal with things properly, even if sometimes emotions can run high and tempers flare and otherwise properly behaving people slip up now and then... but for the people who consistently have to intentionally make a nuisance of themselves, it's not going to be tolerated.

-Respect Reasonable Topic Change Requests
If someone makes a reasonable request for a topic change, please honor that request and move on to something else. When a Mod asks for a topic change, we're not really asking. This is to be done immediately, not in a minute, when you've got a few more points across, or anything else that will otherwise drag things out to the point of our annoyance.

-PG-13* by U.S. standards as a general guideline for appropriateness. Mods have the final say in what is and isn't appropriate in any given situation.

We are not censoring your speech. We limit the swearing and content so that more people can enjoy chat. Can you imagine the flack we'd get if parents, while doing their duty, are watching chat and see little Billy or Susie chatting with all kinds of swearing and sex talk? We do not want Dr. Steel or the Army of Toy Soldiers to receive any undue ill will.

-No trolling. Yes, we get it. You're horribly clever and you like to show just how smart you are by getting into semantics and using your incredible mind bullets to get others riled up about the topic at hand and then try to tell us "that's not what I was doing!". We're not morons, and you're boring. Those conversations won't last long, as they're incredibly boring.

-No Threatening Other Members. This is straightforward enough. There are ways to disagree with a person and their ideas and opinions, but this isn't one of them. Any breaches of this rule will be taken rather seriously.

-No Pretending to be Dr. Steel. You're not fooling anyone and it will really just make you look stupid and annoy everyone.

-No Evading Bans. Doing this will only extend your ban, up to and including permanently if you annoy us enough. This includes but not limited to coming back in under a different name, IP, friend's computer, connecting to the internet via voodoo hoojinx, or anything else you might otherwise consider to be "clever."

-No Backseat Moderation/Compaining About the Rules
If you think the rules we have are "lame" and you're not enjoying the chat based on being asked to follow them, then you're free to not be there if you're not having fun. The chatroom is an extension of TSU. The rules are the rules, and they're in place for a reason. They are not up for debate or discussion. Whether you like them or not is irrelevant, you agree to abide by them by clicking the Live Chat link or connecting through your Client of choice. It's that simple.

-For Any Questions About Bans, PM a Moderator. If someone is kicked and/or banned, and it's not you, there's no reason you need to discuss it, be a part in it, or otherwise "investigate" it. Complaining about it, spreading rumors, and general rabblerousing will result in action being taken against you as well. Mind your business and worry about yourself.

-Do be Constructive when at all possible. If there's some serious conversation going on, such as invasion planning or brainstorming about some creative endeavor, don't derail the chat by emoting that you're sliding across the floor naked on a block of cheese. In fact, just don't do that at all, ever.

-Don't spam the chat with nonsense, or if no one's responding decide to carry on with a long series of inanely talking to yourself.

-No Bots, Scripts, Auto-Away Messages. They're just annoying, and sometimes inappropriate. Our resident bot doesn't play well with others, and she was here first.

-No Panhandling in the chat. If there's a cause that you want to try and raise money for, then you're allowed to make a forum post. The Admin can decide if it's appropriate or not, and decide if they want to let it run.

-There is a word list that will auto-kick you from the chat on certain words. These are subject to change from time to time as we see necessary. Do not play with the auto-kick feature by trying to guess at the words, or intentionally saying the words you know are on there just to be able to go "hurr hurr lookit me I'm getting kicked," it's annoying, and quite unconstructive, and will result in non-automated action being taken.

-Do not try to impersonate other members, or try to fool us by coming in under another name or the default "yournick" to try and troll. It's not nearly as clever of a thing to do as you'd like to think. Another instance where you're not fooling anyone.

-Stickam and other third party chat/socialization sites:
Going forward we're not allowing the advertisement of any other chats. When you log onto the TSU chat, you're here for that, and it's supposed to be a place where we're all united, not as a pool to grab members from for another chat somewhere. We will allow one (1) Stickam chat to be linked, that will be moderator created/run, where everyone is allowed to join. The rules there will be the same as the chat/forums. Some people have created seperate chats for friends, and that's fine, but keep it privately to your truest and bluest; I don't want to hear about everyone who comes into the chat getting private messaged with something akin to "hey, come here instead." If I do, there will be problems. This rule is in place for the sake of unity, and to keep the chat a movin' and shakin' place. We're not here to run off into different segregated directions. For Division chats, use your appropriate forum thread for letting interested members know about your room.

-If you have an issue, or something you'd otherwise like to discuss regarding the chat, contact a Moderator. This is the OFFICIAL method to take an issue up with the staff. You must privately contact a Mod to discuss your complaint, do not contact a site Admin because they forward it to us anyway, and they're rarely present so don't know what's going on anyway. Do not ask your friend to talk to a Mod. Contact a chat mod with the issue. If it is about another Mod contact someone different on the Mod staff. Any complaints that are not brought up in this way will not be acknowledged or considered.

-Other specific Subjects Not Allowed in the Chat
Generally speaking these subjects have caused major issue most of the time resulting in an explosion in main chat, and lots of unnecessary work for us, so they're just going to be avoided. Currently these subjects include:
Politics - We're cool with how you voted but avoid pressing your beliefs.
Religion - See Politics minus the voting
Dr Horrible - Not so much anymore, but there is much bad blood. You can discuss whether you legitimately cared for it or not and why, but avoid the controversy surrounding it.
Furry Fandom and related phrases/actions - The main cause of Soldier to Soldier arguing in main chat. There is a sanctioned** room open for any who wish to discuss this topic. This has had at least a few chances, but due to the constant lack of maturity brought on from both sides of this issue, both past and recent, it's staying a banned topic.

-Please try to refrain from turning the chat into Hello Pity Adventure Island.
Everyone has their bad days, and if you need people to talk to about a particuarly exasperating day, we're happy to be here and listen. When every day is just another in the series of never ending bad days and problems in your life, you likely need more help than we can offer, so I ask that you don't unload the contents of your crazy caboose on us daily.

-TSU, and by proxy the chat, is not a dating service. While it's certainly possible to find love on here and find people with quite similar interests, don't let coming on here just to hit on members of the opposite sex be practically your only reason for being here. This will henceforth be refered to as the "No Creeper Rule." We will be encouraging folks who spend most of their time in chat flirting with anyone who comes in to find something more constructive to do with their time.

-Spoilers
It's quite exciting that you've seen the newest latest and greatest movie or read the newest book. However, there are some that well may not have been to that midnight screening or release. Please avoid revealing spoiling plots, twists, and anything else that is better left discovered in by someone first hand. If it's been released in the last 3 months, avoid specific content that isn't general knowledge/can be seen in a trailer. For all else 3+ months old, use common sense. If someone's mentioned they haven't seen something yet but want to, try to avoid spoiling that for them.

-There are designated areas outside to tie your drama llama to prior to entering the chat for your convenience. This is expected protocol.

* PG-13 - Parents Strongly Cautioned
Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13. Films given this rating may contain sexual content, brief or partial nudity, some strong language and innuendo, humor, mature themes, political themes, terror and/or intense action violence. However, bloodshed is rarely present. This is the minimum rating at which drug content is present; with the exception of Austin Powers and Click, marijuana smoking is the only illegal drug use that can be depicted in a PG-13 movie, with the exception of Forrest Gump, in which a brief scene depicts Jenny snorting cocaine. While PG-13 films usually have more profanity than PG films, this is not necessarily the case. A film that is given a PG-13 rating due to profane language and/or racial insults is given this rating because it contains more of these elements than a PG rating would permit, or the film contains uses of stronger profanities than a PG would permit. A film rated PG-13 for "intense violence" is given this rating if blood is present in a violent way. In recent years, this rating has been used for the majority of American films released.
Additions: Sexual content is not allowed. By sexual content we mean overtly talking about it, pictures that are NSFW, or anything that could be considered "R" rated. Fully clothed pictures are ok.

** Sanctioned vs Unsanctioned
The major difference is moderation. In order for a room to be sanctioned, an approved moderator must be present, have agreed to Moderate the room, and be given Operator Status. Sanctioned Chat Rooms are allowed to have TS TSU etc in the name. Keep in mind only the TSUChat main room is approved by the TSU site admins, they cannot and will not be able to help with issues outside that room.




Okay, so this mile high crock of shit I thought was ridiculous. However I actually fell out of my seat laughing when I read this:

"We are not censoring your speech"

LOL! Seriously, I had to reread it a few times to make sure I wasn't hallucinating or something! I got a pretty damned good laugh out of that :D There are a few other pieces that get me all kinds of giggly:

"No Pretending to be Dr. Steel."

"No Backseat Moderation/Compaining About the Rules" (lol mispell)

"Other specific Subjects Not Allowed in the Chat...
-Politics
-Religion
-Dr Horrible (?)
-Furry Fandom and related phrases/actions"

"TSU, and by proxy the chat, is not a dating service."

"Spoilers"

So, apparently furries are too much drama for these guys. I don't blame them. Same with politics and religion. That stuff really gets people heated. Violently so. Yet then this guy goes off on movie/book spoilers, trying to find a little romance, and maybe a joke or two posing as a character that to date has never been in that chatroom once... and as far as I can tell distances himself from the website as much as he possibly can.

I don't blame him. Everything that I have seen in the forums of this group tells a tale of an oppressed people who smile as their masters crack their whips. With a little digging, I find that people who think too much are not only banned but their posts removed. Those who asked questions are excommunicated. People with a different sense of what is amusing that the rest of the herd are weened out.

Censorship and thought control, everything that Ryan talks about when he is in character; the people who are running the largest dedicated fansite to him are doing it in the exact opposite manner. There is no freedom of expression allowed on that site unless it's uber disney-fied and lacking any opinion. It's fake.

The sad thing is I think I understand the entire satire better than most of the fail soldiers. He's parading around pretending to be a doctor who is openly mad and wants to take over the world through spreading joy. Everything that he says in does is an obvious satire of the corporation and government. All the double talk, of saying one thing and meaning another, propaganda to "brainwash" people, and army of "toy soldiers". Everything about this screams that it's a mockery of how the world is currently run. Rather ingenious if I do say so.

But still, there is the overall message behind everything: Think for yourself, question everything, and try to be happy. The fansite fails so hard at such a simple creed that I can't help but giggle at every single toy soldier I see.

I was thinking about people and their silly antics. In particular, the indignant feelings and anger I have seen thrown at those who are considered "lapdogs" for the sake of them being a "lapdog".

Now, as I was thinking about this, I decided to play a little mind game and put myself in the shoes of said lapdog. I imagined that, keeping in mind that hell had frozen over and the moon had crashed into the earth, there was someone out there whom I simply had the same opinions on just about everything and for the same exact reasons. In my mind, I played this guy as some other person came up to me and tried to start shit over the fact that I am now a "lapdog".

---

Defendent: I feel that Dr. Cuminginyourshoes has a very valid point about shpadoinkalisms being the source of enlightening phrases such as "go fuck your mother again, don't want to leave your goldfish waiting,"

Aggressor: Dude, you are only saying that because you are riding the doctors cock.

Defendent: Excuse me?

Aggressor: You have no opinion of your own, you are just spouting off whatever this asshole says.

Defendent: Well, I am truly sorry that I just so happen to share the same opinion as this fine asshole, whom can articulate said opinion much more skillfully than I ever could. He also treats me a lot better than you do. If I were to suddenly disagree with everything this asshole says, will you suddenly turn into a beautiful man and bend over for me? Because until that happens, I feel no guilt in agreeing with my own opinion or something damned close to it.

I know it's nothing or real importance... but I would very much like to see more art of my favorite toons, the Toon Patrol from Roger Rabbit.

Especially Psycho Weasel....

... maybe some yiffy stuff.

I grew up in a christian home, mostly. My parents never were strongly practicing so religion was never a huge part of my life, specifically christianity. I know a few stories in the bible, can pull a dozen quotes out of my ass, even know one of the ten commandments, at the very least.

In high school, I heard of wicca. When I first heard of it, I was (wrongly) under the impression that is was the religion of witchcraft. However that was quickly cleared up when, being who I am, I first researched the history of wicca before the actual religion itself. After my research into the history (though not as complete as I want it to be, it's better than nothing) I did delve into the practice.

While this is nice and dandy, through my research and practice I have noticed that as much as christians tend to have a bone to pick with non-believers, wiccans are flying the same colors yet are most strongly against christians that it is a fad for wiccan practitioners to bash on christians left and right. They spend hours and hours reading and researching everything they can about christianity specifically so they can be more knowledgeable than a christian about their own religion.

But why? While yes, I have always held a strong belief that people should research and even participate in other religions to broaden their worldly knowledge (I am still waiting for the day I am asked to celebrate Hanukkah with a friend!) such knowledge shouldn't be used just so a couple disgruntled and jaded pagans can spread the seeds of hatred among the impressionable and gullible. Which is exactly what ends up happening

There is another place this happens: in the christian church. In KKK rallies. In neo-nazi biker bars, or wherever there is an extreme feeling of malice towards others unlike.

Yet in the end, this very mindset and practice, shared by us equally, hurts us equally as well, and blinds us.

On the internet and in the bookstore are many sources of information mutilated by the media and our own stupidity. Because of this, like christianity there is a schism a mile wide in wicca that pits very 'traditional' wiccans against the truly 'new-age'. The younger, more liberal crowd of the wiccan people are vast and growing exponentially. And it's true, they are extremely uninformed and just as stubborn. The older, more traditional crowd has tried to teach the youth properly but are speaking to closed ears.

However, the youth are not all that are at fault. The traditional wiccans have such a fiery, blind hatred towards any who "desecrate" wicca that they wind up patronizing, belittling and attacking their own youth for not following a specific tradition perfectly.

What it comes down to is a very much shared problem within all religions, and I have yet to see an exception: Holding tradition in an ever changing world. Tradition, in religion or otherwise, gives us structure, gives us a starting point in which to grow. The very foundations of our central beliefs. It is something that has already happened, it is our past, and because of this tradition is a great place to start learning about who we are. Who are we as a people, what is our culture, why are we the way we are today?

But despite how many answers can be gathered by looking into the past and adhering to tradition, there is one thing that it will teach us and is so commonly ignored: everything changes. Cultures change, climates change, powers change, atoms change, records change, your clothes change, opinions change, ideals change, beliefs change, the lands change; everything that exists will never be exactly the same now as it was a few moments ago, or months, years, decades, millenia. Thus, the very act of keeping all that will be as it once was is a rat race of ridiculous proportions.

I believe this is what religion in itself is about. Finding not only morals and lifestyles, but a means to find balance in everything. Even christianity talks about balance somewhere. There needs to be compromise.

These things Wicca and Christianity share. Each is under great amounts of internal struggle and outside attacks, and all for exactly the same reasons. The traditional practitioners who refuse to accept change, and the new-age practitioners who refuse to accept their very roots.

Which begs the question: why do we not accept the change? Why do we not try to open our minds and accept the teachings from those who follow a traditional path? Why must we be at odds with one another, when neither is right without the other?

Christians and Wiccans are brothers in arms against the same exact enemy, which is corruption. Corruption from the infighting, corruption from the maliciously faithless. Wicca, Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism, Judaism, Satanism, Islam... all are on the same battlefield fighting the same enemy. I wish that the war would stop, because everybody is at fault. Everybody is a casualty, believer and non-believer alike.

DESCRIPTION:

Before you stands a lithe, borderline thin white ferret who could be no
older than twelve. All over his natural fur is white with no real
distinct markings. Or it would be quite ordinary but for the swirling,
almost smoking patterns of fur dyed in vibrant neon colors.

The edges of both his ears have three studs and two rings running
through them, each one either an acid green, electric blue or neon
pink. On the top of his head sits a mop of semi-short untamed hair dyed
the same acid green as a couple of his ear studs, A single forelock
runs down just past his eye is dyed a hot-rod red.

Which brings your attention to his eyes, which the fur around them is
dyed a midnight blue, which is sharply contrasted against his bright
red eyes, the same color as his forelock. The blue around one eye is
further surrounded by more fur dyed black to appear in a spiderweb
fashion.

To compliment his extravegant hair and fur-dying are extremely
expressive features, conveying every emotion he feels at any point in
time. Luckily most times he is smiling a smile almost too wide, showing
off well-kept teeth.

Most the rest of his body is dyed in the swirling patterns which look
very similar to tribal tattoos, though from what tribe in what part of
the world is not quite clear. The only exception is his back, where a
large black pentacle is dyed in exquisite detail. Running around the
edge of the northern, eastern, southern and western part of the star
are the words "EARTH", "AIR", "FIRE", and "WATER" respectively, while
running through the middle reads the word "SPIRIT".

His chest, arms and legs are thin and toned, with virtually no body fat
to be seen. Looking down further down his lengthy ferrety front one
would see his small sac and sheathe, not quite developed as of yet, and
around the otherside lay a soft, fuzzy white tail that dances around
constantly. His legs are a little on the short side, but on him it
appears natural, seemingly to fit perfectly with him.

CINFO:

Character: A 12-year-old raver ferret who loves to dance and any other physical activity, is a bit absent-minded and whimsical, enjoys experimenting with drugs and drinking, and is happy almost all the time with a smile that's almost too wide plastered to his face. Has no shame when it comes to clothes, enjoys cuddling but needs some slight coercion to get intimate with. WARNING: Tends to be passionate and very expressive with his emotions. Enjoys dabbling in magick, so make sure he doesn't put anything on you if you are not sure of what it is/does. Enjoys practical jokes that sometimes only makes sense to himself/only he enjoys. While not malicious, ferret is not quite in touch with reality. Hypothesized to be in a permanent yet minor mushroom or acid trip... or he's just really weird.

Preference: http://f-list.fur-gallery.net/chara......php?name=zer0 for list of what I will/will not do. Or check out me wixxxe.

Roleplay: Always IC, but willing to interject an OOC whisper or page to get things moving along. Any kind of RP acceptable and enjoyed minus non-con.


SQUEE!

http://f-list.fur-gallery.net/

This is a pretty rad site for all you RPers out there. It has a pretty comprehensive list of fetish's and is fairly dynamic. Has a few bugs to work out, but hell it's still awsome!

http://f-list.fur-gallery.net/chara......php?name=zer0

This be my char! Have fun!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rCkALrtD0k&feature=channel

I had always been debating whether or not to go snake or rodent, and this made up my mind

Ferret Powers! <3

I had no idea what the hell a "sparkledog" or "sparklefur" was until today, and hell I am still unsure what it is other than a furry who likes bright colors and raver stuff... which I like bright colors and raver stuff. Yet I am not so naive to think that these things are gods gift to mankind. Dark and moody things also can be very artistic in their own way and I generally enjoy it as much as the polar-opposite. Not so much the emo stuff, too whiny, but the honest-to-god 'OMFG THAT'S FUCKED UP!' dark and moody, like the webcomic Jack.

What upsets me and makes me take pause for a moment or two is the fact that I found out about Sparkledogs by a picture I thought looked really cool, but the poster and all the following comments were a bit suggestive and using cryptic, "I am not pointing fingers at anybody in particular with this picture..." bullshit. I looked through several other pictures with "sparkledogs" and the ones I liked the most, the ones with the most skill and artistic value in them were drawn and colored by the very people who don't like sparkledogs at all.

Okay, fine, it's funny objectively how this winds up happening. I appreciate the irony immensely.

What I don't appreciate is how these people, who are furry, are actively bashing on other furries who just so happen to like bright and happy colors instead of bland or dark colors; furries who are not afraid to experiment with patterns and designs and colors that normally do not compliment one-another, furries who enjoy the different variations of EDM, Hardcore, Trance and House. If it has a bright neon purple with black checkered pants and a radical neon green or blue or rainbow/tie dye shirt and you can find it dancing around with glowsticks, these apparent anti-sparkledog peeps find reason to patronize, belittle, insult, bash, flame, and anything along those lines.

Which I find funny, but only because it's so pathetic as well: You are furries... Bashing on people who are a little odd...

It's not like it's babyfurs or cubfurs or furs who enjoy snuff/rape or anything of extreme deviant sexual nature. These are furs who like colors and patterns to match/clash in ways that are not normal. They dance to music that almost everybody enjoys at least one variation thereof. You give me somebody who says they don't like rave crap, and I bet that they would enjoy Prodigy/Maddonna/Devo/NIN/KMFDM/Gorillaz, all of whom have made a few songs which are electro in nature.

So you'll have to excuse me when, whenever I see one fur bashing on another fur for some asinine reason like "oh, bright colors are too much for my dark soul to handle!" I cannot help but smiles and shake my head in shame that such idiocracy is infecting our community, which is already having a hard enough time as is getting along with one-another or even agreeing on what the term "furry" really means.

I am not a sparkledog. Hell, I am not a dog. I like bright vibrant colors, and I like going to raves to dance and interact with my peers, sometimes sober sometimes balling rawls. I want a pair of phat pants, I have a few pieces of kandi. But in the end, I am just a punk-kid at heart. Most of the time I show up at a rave wearing torn-up pants with patches on them, my worn heavy leather jacket, a band shirt and my steel-toes.

And you know what? Most ravers think that's pretty fucking cool. I have never seen (though I don't doubt there are) any ravers who would get angry because someone shows up at a party wearing only gray colors. Show me a raver who does and I'll personally bitch-slap them and tell them to stop pretending to be a raver.

In conclusion: Honestly, it's just pathetic. Sparkledogs are just color- and music-loving mutts. There are much worse things that are a lot more embarrassing and insulting than having a rainbow tattooed to your ass. Get over it.