Horcat
New Member
Nostalgic
Posts: 23
Occupation: Hobbyist Writer
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Post by Horcat on Nov 15, 2024 20:48:16 GMT -5
[...] Is that what this is? Like, a discord server in a different format? [...] How do you- dig yourself in and stay there? I've made a handful of irl friends over the years in different places but I'm so tired of being alone with my more niche/furry/etc interests, I want to try to get involved and invested. This for me has been especially hard bc of my interest in 18+ stuff[.]
Per the posted rules of the forum, this won't be the place to show your NSFW stuff, or ask others to show theirs, and discussions around the topic will need to stay politely euphemistic, I imagine. Per the strong tendencies of the fandom, I will be positively shocked if anyone here blames you for having those interests. I already know more than a few of us posting here have substantial NSFW content on other sites, for better or for worse. To call it "Discord with a different format" isn't entirely inaccurate, but unlike chat-rooms a forum lets you be a lot more selective about which conversations are put in front of you (pay attention to those thread topics), and the pace at which you digest them. Maybe not much less scrolling (especially if I'm the one replying), but fewer interruptions from the other corner of the room, so to speak.  As for how to dig in... you just read, and eventually participate. You've already got a jump-start on that. I must have lurked around those old boards for the better part of a year before I actually put my two cents into any thread. I could already tell who I'd like to have conversations with, if they'd give me the time of day, and who's threads I probably shouldn't even bother opening, before I ever engaged. Forums let you do that kind of thing, with better self-pacing. |
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wolp
New Member
who up howling at they moon
Posts: 40 
Pronouns: It / He
Occupation: meowing
Species: wolp
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Post by wolp on Nov 15, 2024 20:48:35 GMT -5
My question, as someone who has never used forums (until the last like two months when I discovered chickensmoothie for the first time and all I've said so far is "bump"), is that what this is? Like, a discord server in a different format? I've struggled so much in my life with this, I don't really understand how to get closer to people online. I join a server, I'm active for a bit and then it fades. How do you- dig yourself in and stay there? I've made a handful of irl friends over the years in different places but I'm so tired of being alone with my more niche/furry/etc interests, I want to try to get involved and invested This for me has been especially hard bc of my interest in 18+ stuff, like, I don't know what I'm doing here- I clicked a link on twitter bc I've always been curious about the idea of forums. but there's no discussion of 18+ stuff here and so maybe this isn't the right place for me to try to make friends ^^' Is this too off topic? Is it okay to reply like this? Idk what I'm doing sorry ^^' in a sense, forums are the OG discord server, but on the public internet instead of requiring an invite or specific link. the way many public servers are organized is reminiscent of a forum, with different channels (threads) for different topics. just that forums are a little slower on account of not being a "messaging platform", so most aren't usually constantly checking it, or have anything like a push notification. i'm in a similar boat in the way of wanting to meet more friends within the community, along with liking the 18+ side as well (unfortunately, its because of the site host its not allowed). it just takes a bit more time. but for me, posting on a forum feels less like interrupting a conversation (like many discords) or just shouting into a void (like many social medias tbh). it's personal preference for the most part, i think. |
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AsterFloofyDragon
New Member
Cheking out them hip and cool "Old Internet" vibes
Posts: 28
Pronouns: They/He
Occupation: Fantasy Character Artist
Species: Floof Dragon
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Post by AsterFloofyDragon on Nov 15, 2024 21:13:58 GMT -5
My question, as someone who has never used forums (until the last like two months when I discovered chickensmoothie for the first time and all I've said so far is "bump"), is that what this is? Like, a discord server in a different format? I've struggled so much in my life with this, I don't really understand how to get closer to people online. I join a server, I'm active for a bit and then it fades. How do you- dig yourself in and stay there? I've made a handful of irl friends over the years in different places but I'm so tired of being alone with my more niche/furry/etc interests, I want to try to get involved and invested This for me has been especially hard bc of my interest in 18+ stuff, like, I don't know what I'm doing here- I clicked a link on twitter bc I've always been curious about the idea of forums. but there's no discussion of 18+ stuff here and so maybe this isn't the right place for me to try to make friends ^^' Is this too off topic? Is it okay to reply like this? Idk what I'm doing sorry ^^' in a sense, forums are the OG discord server, but on the public internet instead of requiring an invite or specific link. the way many public servers are organized is reminiscent of a forum, with different channels (threads) for different topics. just that forums are a little slower on account of not being a "messaging platform", so most aren't usually constantly checking it, or have anything like a push notification. i'm in a similar boat in the way of wanting to meet more friends within the community, along with liking the 18+ side as well (unfortunately, its because of the site host its not allowed). it just takes a bit more time. but for me, posting on a forum feels less like interrupting a conversation (like many discords) or just shouting into a void (like many social medias tbh). it's personal preference for the most part, i think. That's just how I'm feeling about all this. Discord is my most used socializing app by far. Though I'll admit that I mostly lurk in the bigger servers while I'm more active in the smaller ones. Heck, I find that I much prefer servers if they are focused on a topic, even if they are big. The biggest server that I'm somewhat active on is the protogen server but it helps that is focused on the protogen species so its not overwhelming for me despite its large size. Second biggest is for a TTRPG secret santa event but it's in waves for me as I'm most active during the events and take a break in between. But otherwise I tend to stick to smaller places since they tend to be slower and more chill. And I do agree with how forums seem to function similarly to discord servers and channels with the key difference being the messaging board nature of forums vs Discord's instant messaging. I have said this many times in separate threads, but I will again say that I have never used a forum before. All my time on the internet I've been accustomed to traditional social media and Discord being my main socializing platform. And yet despite this, I feel like I'm at home here each time I read through posts and type up my responses. How relaxing it feels that I can stop to think and be able to type out my thoughts without worrying over character limits, the pace of a conversation, no longer feeling the need to have to reply ASAP. And while I do have a tab open on my phone for this forum, I may remove it since I feel that its running contrary to the reason for me wanting to engage with a forum in the first place; the idea that I can disconnect at any time and not have to check on it frequently, have it be PC exclusive (plus it kinda feels clunky for me on mobile lol). But at the end of the day, everyone has their preferences for how they engage with people online. For me it happens to mostly be from smaller, more focused places. |
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novasquirrel
New Member
Posts: 15
Pronouns: she/her
Occupation: programmer
Species: platformer squirrel/SNES mouse
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Post by novasquirrel on Nov 17, 2024 0:10:04 GMT -5
IRC was my whole social world in like 2009, though a lot of the places I hung out in back then weren't good for me (I was on AnthroChat and I have since learned that intentionally minimal moderation attracts very toxic people). But there were some good social dynamics that I miss; you could find out what channels your friends were in and decide to check them out for yourself, and it wasn't a big deal to just hop in and out of channels whenever, whereas now leaving a Discord server seems like a big disruptive action people will make a big deal out of. Plus having presence actually matter and have meaning is nice!
Discoverability seems like something that's changed over time, and it looks like people have been pushing more toward private closed-off spaces where you had to have known the right people at the right time and that makes me sad. I appreciate stuff like this forum that puts everything out there in the open.
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simoskunk
New Member
stinky
Posts: 29
Pronouns: He, him, skunk
Occupation: Watermelon Farmer
Species: Skunk
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Post by simoskunk on Nov 17, 2024 1:05:20 GMT -5
Anyone here who used to be on the Furry to Furry forums, of the FA forums? I feel like I'll cross paths with a few of you, eventually!
Those were my first online furry spaces, especially loved Furry to Furry. The lively RP section, silly forum games,even the crazy dramas are kinda nostalgic to me now.
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Valyce Negative
Junior Member
The Average Toony Woof!
Posts: 57 
Pronouns: She/her
Occupation: Freelance Illustrator
Species: Toon
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Post by Valyce Negative on Nov 17, 2024 1:37:32 GMT -5
Anyone here who used to be on the Furry to Furry forums, of the FA forums? I feel like I'll cross paths with a few of you, eventually! Those were my first online furry spaces, especially loved Furry to Furry. The lively RP section, silly forum games,even the crazy dramas are kinda nostalgic to me now. I was on FAF! The Black Market was my main turf. When staff closed the forums it seemed clear that they ignored how much it impacted the site's economy side: there were some recurring customers that I haven't seen since, nor artists that I was planning to buy from. All nuked. ._. |
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dante
New Member
Posts: 12
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Post by dante on Nov 19, 2024 1:17:12 GMT -5
Forums were such a big memory for me, I used to RP a ton - I had some great friends online through forums like this and often would play corrupted wish games. Our RPs spanned something like reams of paper of paper, with 20 pages at a shot for post on occasion. We also would chat for hours on Pidgeon and then eventually over on Skype. I remember waiting with anticipation for each new remix to come out, surfing website link pages to see peoples art galleries, and being so proud of my own little HTML website way back when. There were also a bunch of games people would make, either via flash or just small games from klick and play ect.
Nostalgia is a heck of a drug - I know everyone has their own things in their own time, I did have a lot of fun way back when with this kind of technology, though.
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transmanticore
New Member
Posts: 20
Pronouns: They/Them or He/Him
Occupation: Wolf with Computer Access
Species: White Atlas Lion/Black Timber Wolf/Red Dragon/Orange Tabby Cat
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Post by transmanticore on Nov 19, 2024 1:46:23 GMT -5
I miss the extensive roleplay forums and groups that existed on every platform imaginable. I also miss how customizable individual web profiles used to be, my favorite thing was seeing the way people would broadcast their interests or personality in every corner they could!
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roo
New Member
Posts: 23
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Post by roo on Nov 19, 2024 9:10:31 GMT -5
this isn't an internet memory but i do kinda miss the time before cons were all room party culture. the lobby at AC and other cons used to be The Place To Be until way early in the morning and if you went out late at night the con would just be going in the open all the time
room parties are fun! but it was great just being able to be like "ah, let's go suit in the lobby" and there'd be tons to do at 2am.
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novasquirrel
New Member
Posts: 15
Pronouns: she/her
Occupation: programmer
Species: platformer squirrel/SNES mouse
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Post by novasquirrel on Nov 19, 2024 13:49:18 GMT -5
I wish furry roleplay groups were still common and public, since 15+ years ago I was trying really hard to find one that was interested in anything SFW and didn't know where to look, and now it kind of feels like I missed my chance since barely anyone is interested anymore (or they just pushed all their stuff into private invite-only spaces where you had to be in the right place at the right time a decade ago). I'm hoping that if there's more interest in forums then maybe I'll be able to find something because there will be more stuff that isn't hidden away.
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Railyn
New Member
awawawa
Posts: 24
Pronouns: she/her
Occupation: slingin' cardboard
Species: fox
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Post by Railyn on Nov 19, 2024 15:02:00 GMT -5
this isn't an internet memory but i do kinda miss the time before cons were all room party culture. the lobby at AC and other cons used to be The Place To Be until way early in the morning and if you went out late at night the con would just be going in the open all the time room parties are fun! but it was great just being able to be like "ah, let's go suit in the lobby" and there'd be tons to do at 2am. Aw man, furry cons aren't like that? That's been one of my favorite things about going to FGC events; you can pretty much always find people in the lobby hanging out and running games on their laptop or whatever. My fondest memory of Combo Breaker this year was just getting bored, heading down to the lobby at like 1am, and chatting with people while getting my ass kicked in UNI2.
Anyway, on the main topic of the thread, I spent a lot of time in the chatrooms in old DeviantArt. The main chatroom I hung out in was a dragon-themed one with a lot of roleplaying going on. There's a part of me that wishes I could go back; I have some very fond memories of that place. I actually wound up running into someone from that room recently, though we both mutually agreed that we didn't really want to know who the other had been back then. Leave the past in the past, y'know.
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Wicker
Junior Member
I am not a fan of this cold...
Posts: 75
Occupation: Writer and Magician
Species: Mole
Member is Online
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Post by Wicker on Nov 19, 2024 15:59:47 GMT -5
It's not so much a place, but a really specific time. Back when broadband and high-speed internet became widespread, but the internet itself was still built around dial up, and everything was lightning fast. Personal sites, web rings, shrines, etc. were still around and active. Same with when WinXP was getting to the end of its life and you could have a system that totally tapped out its resources for a comparatively low price, and storage suddenly became basically infinite overnight... Then everything went backwards to where you need something 5x as powerful as that computer to do even half as much...  |
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wolp
New Member
who up howling at they moon
Posts: 40
Pronouns: It / He
Occupation: meowing
Species: wolp
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Post by wolp on Nov 19, 2024 16:27:31 GMT -5
Then everything went backwards to where you need something 5x as powerful as that computer to do even half as much... :( this specific bit is something that's been exhausting me lately too. it feels like i need a spaceship computer to play any of the new games nowadays, to do nothing nearly as interesting. the file sizes of them too, i know i don't have the best internet out there but i still have to leave things downloading overnight sometimes :''D i at least have basically no interest in AAA games, but if i did idk how i'd afford what they consider minimum LOL as well as websites frequently feeling slow and unresponsive because they pile so much stuff on it. because what we needed was to return to waiting forever for images to load, apparently LOL... |
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Horcat
New Member
Nostalgic
Posts: 23
Occupation: Hobbyist Writer
Mini-Profile Background: {"image":"https://file.garden/ZzqLcHqmGxo04yLS/SFBanner.png","color":""}
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Post by Horcat on Nov 19, 2024 21:04:51 GMT -5
because what we needed was to return to waiting forever for images to load, apparently LOL... LOL! Right?! And so many ads in the "margins" that I can't read the article between them. I haven't seen a site that bad in a while, admittedly, but I also use an adblocker these days. I hear YouTube's getting pretty heinous with it. I used to wonder how the folks buying the ads would feel if they knew the over-saturation of ads was the reason I (and, I presume, at lot of other people) would not visit a website a second time, and therefor would not see their ads again. Seems self-destructive to the business model... |
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Talis Brandywine
New Member
Yotes rock!
Posts: 13
Pronouns: It/She
Occupation: Hobbyist Streamer
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Post by Talis Brandywine on Nov 19, 2024 21:55:54 GMT -5
Anyone remember webkins? That was a lot of fun! I collected a lot of those plushies.
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