Dead as it may be...

[Alex Buie]

This is still pretty cool. I just got in (on?) to usenet, and it's
fantastic. Too bad web-based forums took over, I prefer this. :(

[Dan Skunk]

I do too, but it seems people want someone else to ban people for them
rather than just ignore what they don't like.

"Alex Buie" wrote in message
news:wL-dnU63hZjBixrS...@supernews.com...

[Farry]

Alex Buie <ab...@kwdservices.com> wrote:

>This is still pretty cool. I just got in (on?) to usenet, and it's
>fantastic. Too bad web-based forums took over, I prefer this. :(

Oh well, nothing lasts forever. IIRC, aff hit 300 posts/day at times, in
the year or two after 2000. I guess it was cool but flame wars regarding
the direction of the fandom were almost continuous, which got a bit
tiresome. The flame wars largely stopped in 2005, I think it was, but
then the posting rate declined steadily to hit residual rates about 2010.

Most web-users are probably unaware that there were Internet protocols
that preceded the World Wide Web, or that there is a difference between
the Internet and the WWW. "Usenet" is now an obscure term.

My own "furry" interest is anthropomorphic comics, and there's more of
those active than ever before, but of course every popular furry webcomic
has its own web-forum. And there's the whole bunch of websites related to
furry art, all with their own forums.

I understand that furry convention attendance still increases year-on-year
(never been to one, myself) so that implies that there's more "furries"
than ever before, but the nature of the web has fragmented _Internet_
participation in the fandom.

[coyo]

i became a furry fan recently, and while studying my history, i read about alt.fan.furry repeatedly. so i pulled it up on google groups and joined.

too bad people dont appreciate their history. this fandom has a very long history, and it's fascinating to read.

does anyone remember the furry days of compuserv?

apparently, there were chatrooms or forums or something via compuserv, which, as i understand it was kindof like aol, and furries really started organizing in those days, from our roots in the sci fi fandom.

i'll have to doublecheck that, though.

[Jeff Jonas]

>> does anyone remember the furry days of compuserv?

I don't REMEMBER a lot (it's all backed up on floppies!)
but I was somewhat active with the pre-Internet furry fandom.
I have some t-shirts to prove it (net.motss)
but mostly convention badges:
http://meep/badges/#coyotesden
http://meep/badges/#genie

Before "flag day", most email systems were isolated.
Usenet emails required manual "bang path" routing.
After "flag day", today's "user@system" syntax became universal.
I don't think I qualified for the "@" (at parties)
because I didn't have a fully qualified domain email
like the ARPA and BITNET folks.
Yes, sci fi cons had parties just for folks with email
since it was l33t back then.

>CompuServe, no... I came in via GEnie

I probably did too, in the late 80s.
I wasn't "clued in" yet so I mostly read the libraries & archives,
never using the real time chat.
Even then, it was EXPENSIVE since it was metered by the minute,
with a surcharge for 2400 bps (1200 bps was "regular service").

I never used CI$ (Compuserve) since it was EXTREMELY expensive,
even with discounts and a few-hours-free at best.

I was so desperate I even tried Prodigy
(originally an IBM & Sears joint venture) but that was too slow
with their useless teletext-style low-res graphics
and TEENY text screen.

I switched from GEnie to Delphi when they had a "new low price"
with their 20/20 plan: 20 hours for $20, but metered by the minute after that.
An internet bill of over $100 a month was typical,
in addition to the additional phone line for the dialup.
At least the phone bill was low as long as there was a local access number
and you had an unlimited local calling plan.

Just as folks use WiFi and hotel Internet access
as an ingress to "The Internet",
back in the dialup days, there were networks of modem pools
so it was a local call into the digital network.
"PC Pursuit" was one of the early hobbyist ones.
Most were limited to night & weekends since they charged
business rates during normal business hours.
That was used INDEPENDENT of your BBS/Internet provider.

> You have to remember that, in those days, a 4800bps modem was FAST

wikipedia's "GEnie" entry notes original prices:
$5-6 per hour for 300-1200 bps (evenings & weekends), higher for 2400

> When one of the "cheap" on-line services suddenly raised their
> rates, we had a mass influx to GEnie

I recall a mass EXODUS from GEnie (or was it Delphi?)
when they tried to claim copyright over all content.
They never recovered from that shot in the foot,
particularly with the writers & artists in sci fi & furry fandom.

It was fun while it lasted.

-- meJeep deMeep ferret! ~~)=====(:">

[Caged Horse]

Alt.fan.furry? It's DEAD!

http://www.comics.org/issue/44302/cover/4/

[coyo]

On Friday, July 6, 2012 4:27:29 PM UTC-5, Jeff Jonas wrote:
>
> It was fun while it lasted.
>

> -- meJeep deMeep ferret! ~~)=====(:&quot;&gt;

Makes me feel really spoiled to have 300 Mb/s down, 65 Mb/s up, <12ms ping to most servers in the United States.. especially on a residential connection.

To servers within 200 miles, i often get <6ms ping latency.

Compared with halcyon days of yore, it's perversely fast.

I could easily bump up my plan to a "business plan" which means i get publically-routable INETv4 addresses, and permission to use them.

That means I could run a full usenet server and not really notice any sluggishness in a bittorrent download.

I just cannot imagine what life would have been like with 2400 baud dialup connections. Downloading images must have been infuriating, if that was supported at all.

[KaiAdin]

On Monday, 16 April 2012 02:48:46 UTC+10, Farry wrote:

>
> My own "furry" interest is anthropomorphic comics, and there's more of
>
> those active than ever before, but of course every popular furry webcomic
>
> has its own web-forum. And there's the whole bunch of websites related to
>
> furry art, all with their own forums.
>
>
>
> I understand that furry convention attendance still increases year-on-year
>
> (never been to one, myself) so that implies that there's more "furries"
>
> than ever before, but the nature of the web has fragmented _Internet_
>
> participation in the fandom.

You've pretty much nailed it on the head there, and not just web forums, but the rise of social media has further fragmented the fandom, I keep joining things and finding more furs local to me that Ive never seen anywhere else!

From my own diggings around in the Australian Furry fandom, For a long while the Ozfurry mailing list and the #ozfurs channel on IRC we're the primary means of communication, that eventually shifted to the Furstralia (and other) forum type things, but thesedays the best way to stay in contact is through Furaffintiy, Facebook and twitter (and the numerious sub groups/pages etc they contain) as well as Second life, Steam , the list goes on.

It's actually kinda interesting seeing the generational breakdown on things this.. IRC and the mailing list are a pretty good way of finding the older guard in the local fandom, but nothing serious is ever really organised or posted there (mostly).

[Dan Skunk]

Hmm.... We should have some conversations here that aren't about how dead
the group is some time. :3 :3

"KaiAdin" wrote in message
news:8469932f-aa9d-40e3...@googlegroups.com...

[§ñühwö£f]

Dan Skunk wrote:
> Hmm.... We should have some conversations here that aren't about how
> dead the group is some time. :3 :3
>

You go first. No? Ok, then...you gonna dress up fer halloween?


--
http://howlingforjustice.wordpress.com
www.snuhwolf.9f.com|www.savewolves.org
_____ ____ ____ __ /\_/\ __ _ ______ _____
/ __/ |/ / / / / // // . . \\ \ |\ | / __ \ \ \ __\
_\ \/ / /_/ / _ / \ / \ \| \| \ \_\ \ \__\ _\
/___/_/|_/\____/_//_/ \_@_/ \__|\__|\____/\____\_\

[Jeff Jonas]

>You go first. No? Ok, then...you gonna dress up fer halloween?

Funny you should ask: my oldest letter is from a friend
who moved away around the 3rd grade
where he writes he's wearing a LION COSTUME for halloween!

A were-wolf friend is going to be ... himself,
scaring the *** out of the kids.
The survivors get candy :-)

[§ñühwö£f]

Scaring kids is fun and helps thin out the herd.

<nods>