Type of business | Subsidiary |
---|---|
Type of site | Art display Social networking service |
Available in | English |
Founded | January 16, 2005 |
Area served | Worldwide |
Parent | Frost Dragon Art, LLC |
URL | www sfw |
Registration | Optional (Required when viewing adult content) |
Launched | December 10, 2005 |
Current status | Active |
FurAffinity is a furry-centric art community that hosts artwork, literature, photography, and audio recordings. It was officially launched on December 10, 2005 (although an older version existed from January to August) by Alkora, and is currently owned by Dragoneer and his company, Frost Dragon Art, as of 2021. [1]
FurAffinity is located in Terre Haute, Indiana and features both standard furry art and adult art, although registration of a free account is required to view the latter. The site has become the most well-known and used furry-based website since its launch, receiving around 20 million visits monthly, [2] although the site has also become notorious in the furry fandom for its numerous controversies. [3]
Prior to the launch of FurAffinity, the most well-known furry-centric website was an art site called SheezyArt. In 2004, it was announced that SheezyArt would be disallowing adult art. Alkora, a SheezyArt user, decided to launch FurAffinity in January 2005 as a site that was open to adult art, along with standard art.
The original version of FurAffinity was challenged with numerous security breaches and hacks. On August 1, 2005, due to a disagreement with the server provider and the lead coder, FurAffinity was shut down. After a brief fundraiser to support a new server, FurAffinity was relaunched on December 10.
FurAffinity would continue to face server issues for the next few years. In 2007, site-runner Dragoneer's account was breached, which caused the site as a whole to go down for 2 days. In 2008, the site was taken down for over a month due to a "server hardware fault", and another fundraiser was set up in order for servers to be replaced.
In 2011, FurAffinity merged with fellow furry-centric site, Furocity. In 2013, the site had achieved a total of 10 million posts. In 2015, FurAffinity was purchased by 3D software platform IMVU. [4]
In 2016, FurAffinity's source-code was leaked, causing many users' personal data to be compromised. The site was immediately taken down as a result, and users were ordered to reset their passwords. [5] In 2017, around 600 bot accounts posted graphic imagery of gore, once again causing the site to go down.
In January 2021, Dragoneer was fired from IMVU. In February, Dragoneer announced that he had regained ownership of the website, and formed the limited liability company Frost Dragon Art. In 2022 the site took a stand against artificial-intelligence generated artwork, stating that AI-generated works lacked "artistic merit" and were not welcome on the site. [6] In 2023, the site was banned in Russia due to "prohibited content". [7] In the same year, it was reported that Shanghai Disneyland had included a picture from the site in a new City of Zootopia attraction without the artist's permission. [8]
FurAffinity is an art community website, with a format similar to that of Newgrounds and DeviantArt. Newsweek described it as "the furry equivalent of Facebook." [9] Registered users are able to upload artwork, animations, literature, photography, and audio recordings (including music). Users can also comment on posts, like them, and follow artists. Much like DeviantArt, users are able to create folders of their media, and can categorize uploads as "scraps". FurAffinity also hosts Adobe Flash media and has integrated Ruffle into the site following the former's deprecation.
While FurAffinity is not necessarily an adult website, adult content is often posted. Posts marked as "not safe for work" are automatically restricted to registered users, which are required to be at least 18 years of age, although many artwork containing fetishes but not considered outright pornography have often gone unmarked by authors. FurAffinity has a toggleable all-"safe for work" version of the site that does not show art that has been tagged as "adult". Under the "adult" filter, only media depicting adult anthro-bodied characters are allowed, with pornographic/fetish content depicting underaged, non-anthro animals, and/or "feral"-bodied anthros strictly prohibited. FurAffinity also bans porn of "aged-up" characters (characters from established properties or from fellow creators that are canonically underaged, but are made into adults in fan media).
There has been some controversy regarding moderator conduct, often involving their moderation, or lack thereof, of certain posts (i.e., the aforementioned unmarked fetish art). In May 2023, FurAffinity announced new rules that would crack-down even harder on content fetishizing underaged characters, however several known fetishes, such as vore, would be allowed to continue with underaged characters if the content was "non-sexual". This caused heavy backlash towards the site, and a new rule was immediately posted to ban this content as well. [10]
FurAffinity is the most popular all-furry website and has become both well-known and controversial in the furry fandom. It is used by furry community artists to promote their work. [11] [12] Since 2016, the website has offered banner advertising space to artists on the site in addition to the free public profiles that artists may use for self-promotion. [13]
FurAffinity formerly held a convention called "FA: United". The first convention was held in 2007, and was held yearly until 2020, when it was discontinued as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. [14]
Several of the site's controversies have stemmed from infighting and conduct between the admins and staffers, including long-time owner Dragoneer. [15] Many users have migrated to other furry-centric websites, such as InkBunny, SoFurry, Weasyl, and Itaku as a result of the site's controversies. There have also been reports of alt-right furries, or "nazifurs" posting images on the website. [16] [17]
The furry fandom is a subculture interested in anthropomorphic animal characters. Some examples of anthropomorphic attributes include exhibiting human intelligence and facial expressions, speaking, walking on two legs, and wearing clothes. The term "furry fandom" is also used to refer to the community of people who gather on the Internet and at furry conventions.
FurryMUCK is one of the oldest and largest non-combat MUD-style games in existence. It was founded in 1990 as an online gathering place for furry fans to meet and socialize in a virtual role-playing environment. Over time, FurryMUCK has become one of the central focal points for furry fandom, with a user base consisting of several thousand, with over 150 users regularly signed on simultaneously.
ConFurence was the first exclusively furry convention, held annually in southern California from 1989 to 2003. The large furry presence at the BayCon science fiction conventions instigated Mark Merlino and Rod O'Riley to throw "furry parties" at Westercon, Baycon, and other west coast sci-fi conventions in the late 80's. This led to the test gathering in 1989, ConFurence Zero.
Fursuits are custom-made animal costumes owned and worn by cosplayers and members of the furry fandom, commonly known as "furries"; a furry who wears a fursuit is called a fursuiter. The term is believed to have been coined in 1993 by Robert King. Unlike mascot suits, which are usually affiliated with a team or organization, fursuits represent an original character created by their wearer, and are often better-fitting and more intricately crafted, with features such as a moving jaw. Fursuits are made in a wide range of styles, from cartoonish to highly realistic.
Furcadia is a free-to-play MMOSG/MMORPG or graphical MUD, set in a fantasy world inhabited by magical creatures. The game is based on user-created content with emphasis on world building tools, exploring, socializing, and free-form roleplaying. Furcadia hosts a large volunteer program called the Beekin Helpers, allowing players to help with community moderation, welcoming new players, handling in-game technical support, running in game events, creating art for the game itself, accessing and updating the game's website, and bug hunting. Furcadia holds the Guinness World Records title for the longest continuously running social MMORPG and, in addition to being one of the first games to heavily encourage modding and let users build virtual worlds for themselves, it was also one of the first freemium online games. In 2008, Furcadia was reported as having over 60,000 players.
The Transformation Story Archive (TSA) was a website archiving amateur fiction featuring a personal physical transformation or its aftermath. The archive was created by Austrian web designer Thomas Hassan, who intended it to be a premier showcase for transformation-themed fiction and a showcase for amateur authors. The TSA was operating at least as early as May 1995, leading to claims of being the earliest Internet archive for fiction of this genre.
Flickr is an image hosting and video hosting service, as well as an online community, founded in Canada and headquartered in the United States. It was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and was previously a common way for amateur and professional photographers to host high-resolution photos. It has changed ownership several times and has been owned by SmugMug since April 20, 2018.
FanFiction.Net is an automated fan fiction archive site. It was first launched in 1998 by software designer Xing Li, and currently has over 12 million registered users.
A furry convention is a formal gathering of members of the furry fandom – people who are interested in the concept of fictional non-human animal characters with human characteristics. These conventions provide a place for fans to meet, exchange ideas, transact business and engage in entertainment and recreation centered on this concept. Originating in California, United States, during the mid-1980s, as of 2016 there are over 50 furry conventions worldwide each year.
Tumblr is a microblogging and social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and currently owned by American company Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a short-form blog.
DeviantArt, historically stylized as deviantART, is an American online art community that features artwork, videography, and photography, launched on August 7, 2000, by Angelo Sotira, Scott Jarkoff, and Matthew Stephens among others.
FetLife is a social networking website that serves people interested in BDSM, fetishism, and kink. On its homepage, FetLife describes itself as "Like Facebook, but run by kinksters like you and me." The "Fet" in the name refers to "fetish". FetLife distinguishes itself from competitors by emphasizing itself as a social network rather than a dating site. It is on principle supportive of fringe sexual practices.
Xtube was a Canadian pornographic video hosting service and social networking site based in Toronto, Ontario. It was established in 2006 and is notable for being the first adult community site to allow users to upload and share adult videos. Xtube was not a producer of pornography, instead it provided a platform for content uploaded by users. User-submitted content included pornographic videos, webcam models, pornographic photographs, and erotic literature, and incorporated social networking features.
DMM.com, formally Hokuto Corporation, is a Japanese joint stock company involved in the distribution of adult videos (AV) and adult toys. The firm, founded in March 1990, is headquartered in Tokyo at the Ebisu Garden Place Tower. By late 2008, DMM was handling products from more than 150 different adult video studios, making it one of the largest AV distributors in Japan. The company interfaces with the public for sales and information as Outvision.
Pornhub is a Canadian-owned internet pornography video-sharing website, one of several owned by adult entertainment conglomerate Aylo. As of March 2024, Pornhub is the 14th-most-visited website in the world and the second-most-visited adult website, after XVideos.
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Anthro New England (ANE) is a furry convention that is held in the Greater Boston area of the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It was first held in 2015 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, but moved to the Boston Park Plaza in 2018 and has been held in Boston annually since then. For 2023, Anthro New England is now being held at the Westin Boston Seaport Hotel. The 2021 event was held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The latest event in 2023 reached a new attendance record of 3,548 attendees.
uwu, also stylized UwU, is an emoticon representing a cute face. The u characters represent closed eyes, while the w represents a mouth. It is used to express various warm, happy, or affectionate feelings.
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Yiff is a slang term used in the furry fandom to refer to pornographic content. It is considered a tongue-in-cheek term in the furry fandom. The term is also used as a way to insult members of the furry fandom, such as in the phrase "yiff in hell". The term is also used in the plushie fetish community.