Animation Source Forums

Nicely put, there. My first impressions from my first con back in February generally affirms what you said, there, but, then again, it's so far my only one (but I'll be going to another one soon enough). I haven't the long-term experience you do, but, like I said, this quote above me is how I perceived the fandom after my first con. Heck, if I could put the people of the fandom into one word, it'd probably be "Accepting." New to the furry fandom? They're all cool with it, and... well, hey, they love what they love and what they do and they're not afraid to say it!

And yeah, surprisingly they are putting together a PAFCON for 2011... though the organizer of Furry Fiesta tells me that he thinks it'll crash and burn as a convention. I have a feeling that it will, but... eh, we'll have to wait and see.


Eh, don't mind me. Let's not get this thread too far off topic.

Well I can see there are varied opinions here (which I expected, actually)


If you could be more precise...

It's logical to think you that you should gear your site towards the same target audience the movie [Balto] tries to appeal to, but the sole truth of the matter is that we have such a varied age range of members on this site that encompasses a lot of older individuals as well. If we always have to maintain a "kid-friendly" environment, well, that limits thing severely.

I mean, in the past you've made a few changes to acknowledge the senior members of this site, and, although appreciated, didn't quite work out well in the long run.

I suppose what I'm trying to get at is that there are too many restrictions here. For one, 22 rules for a site [specially when one pretty much states, "there are unmentioned rules too you ought to respect] is kinda much. I mean, I go on the shoutbox and every other day, the dominant topic is either Pokémon or what kinds of dog everyone has. It's lame. Contrarily, In much of these furry sites, let's face it... if you can post a picture of your favorite fetish, you'd be quite allowed to talk about pretty much anything. In this manner, in the rare case someone steps over the line, it's not as big a deal to anyone. Here, entire flame wars have been started over such trivial matters like proper grammar and spelling.

Hence another point I'd like to compare between those sites and this: an efficient modding system.

Steet, I'm REEEEEEALLY hoping that by now, you've at least contrived a way to incorporate in some way, the features of your external mod forum into this site. Namely the part where everyone's warnings are recorded in a simple post mods have to update manually [and often times forget to] whenever they deal out warnings. Because with all the features AnimationSource has to offer, that's kinda taking it a step backwards, wouldn't you say? I mean, correct me if I'm wrong... this is only your MODDING system you're trying to improve here. There's got to be a better way to do this. And it's pretty important you do so.

Thrice, here's a tip you might want to keep in mind... and this is pretty crucial as well...

Steet, it is my observation that you rely too heavily on your members to keep this site alive. Granted, no site is anything without its members, but the admins [at least on the english mirror] simply aren't too integrated enough on any aspect of the site. On SoFurry, the webmaster, Toumal, is active on both the forums and the main site; answering questions, acknowledging suggestions, and even commenting on members' works. People love him for it. Answer me this, steet: do you at least have your own favorites list for any of the submissions that were sent on this site? Hmm. On that same note, it's also come to my attention that your mods are bored. Yes, bored. In case you haven't noticed, they hate their jobs. Why? It's monotonous. I'm pretty sure they'll all agree with me that being a mod on here used to be something special, but now it just feels like you're just a member with a green name and extra responsibilities. I can understand if you don't want to mingle with your members, steet, but you NEED to at least keep your mods in the loop. This means alerting them to upcoming updates, ask them what they think about any changes, maybe give them a few more extra privileges on the site. You appointed them for a reason; because you believed they were apt enough. So utilize them!!

The whole point of this is to make it feel like there's someone running the site and to stop letting things just run by themselves. Come on, a little divine intervention would be nice, is all I'm saying... among other things.

I am a true furry YAY !

Well most of the rules shouldn't have to be written, actually, because they are very logical. But many people here are kids and are not aware of that.
On the opposite, I don't see many kids coming on furry sites (with good reasons...) so it's not just possible to compare.
I don't want to alienate the main public coming here by allowing extreme sexual, gay, violent or religious content, only for pleasing a few older people. Still, I'm not against any of this, as long as they're treated in a good way, and in small quantity.

BUT I do agree that the mods are most often overreacting over very little things, not giving advice, or just won't give warnings to people before banning. And that's probably the thing that need the most work.


Yes, I agree that there is a lot to improve when it comes to this. Currently I had been working on what was the most "urgent" to run the site, and that was giving permissions / tasks to members. Now I'll probably look into this, to improve the visitors "experience".


I try to participate here and there, but I admit that I have given up on some of the sections of BS (namely : fanarts, images, characters...the most popular ones, actually)

I'm pretty active on Talespin Source now. Especially on our "Virtual Season" project. Sorry to say this, but after 6 years of work on BS, it was bound to happen - and also one of the reasons I started looking for admins to take care of the site(s). Still there are some sections that interest me on BS, such as the articles, a bit of fanfics and the Balto 1/2/3 forums. I think a huge "cleaning" of the other sections would be needed...


Then they should ask for NEW tasks, and there's a LOT to do actually : from webranking to editing the site pages, to posting articles, news, screenshots, managing the music player, posting a poll, writing official characters pages, etc...All this can ALREADY be done with the current permissions system.
Managing a site is a lot more than just updating the fan stuff, banning and closing reports, and I'm sorry if the current mods do not have more interesting tasks currently - if they want to do such things, then they should just ask the site admin to give them the tasks they want.

I have posted very complete instructions for site admins, but currently, apart from Togo, none of them seem to follow them...(or understand?)

Well, as I can say, I'm not consider myself as a furry. I'm considered as "anthro" because it sounds more better. lt's like saying an animal walking on two legs and do what the humans do lol.

Shoving my own opinion to the OT discussion above, I don't think you should change this site just to suit older members (I consider myself 'older' by the way), theres nothing wrong with change if it is needed but at least make sure to measure it out and not to completely differ from what BaltoSource originally began as. Whilst yes Shoutbox can make you want to put a gun to your head, this site for me still remains a great oasis in a desert full of.... I'll let you find the next word

---

'Are you a "furry"?'

I didn't know what a "furry" was until 3 years ago, somehow I had navigated the interwebz without ever hearing the term xD
Only after I had joined Balto Source did I find out what it meant.

Personally I don't think I'm a furry as since discovering what a furry is I haven't changed in any way towards being one. When I was young I enjoyed anthropomorphic movies and games and TV shows more than ones based on human characters, however I'm not sure that's what makes a furry but I've never really put much thought into the matter. I had a look at FurAffinity once and I'm quite content to not go back to that site again. I guess some people could view me as a furry, especially as I finally caved in and made a fursona a short while ago
I have no problem being thought as one but I believe I'm not a full on furry as the level on being a furry can go pretty high up, fursuits, anthrocon etc. So I'm happy just to carry on where I'm at, at the moment still liking the movies, cartoons, games and drawing anthro art and such

Camel turd?

Yeah, thats pretty much a good general description for most of the net

It's moreso to fit with the "oasis" and "desert" parts

^^ furry? I generally am not an obsesseive furry, because some of the furry material can get, deviant,but I guess I'm somewhat furry

I'm not sure if I'd be a furry or not but I guess I sort of am. I can watch either animal or people movies, but I love movies where the animals have human-like personalities. I love to draw and make images of my characters who seem to have personalities very muc like humans. Although I love "real" movies where there are actors and such (but depends on movie)

Edited

Well really now i just cant call myself a furry.. its just pointless. i dont match the describtion that others give and if i do call myself one i either get offered to rp.. and it aint nice rp -.- or get flamed.. so i dont even bother with the whole fact. im just a human who loves animals,his love. and his life. with a fursona i love to draw =3 thats all i am.

I'm a human, thank you very much. Sure, I have fursona that's a wolf, but that does not make me a wolf. I also draw myself anthro, but truthfully, I'm not big on anthros. They creep me out sometimes. o.o most furries I have met seem...okay...but I have met too many that were extremely....strange.....
now don't get me wrong, i love movies with anthromorphic animals that talk and such, but...furry is one thing I will NEVER call myself.