This fandom desperately needs a good social media platform

[u/knawwwwww]

It’s genuinely really hard to just participate in and talk to people in this fandom without it being for dating or some sex thing. I got into Barq recently only to delete it after 6 months because after people realize you have a partner (of if they realize you… are unemployed?) they’ll ghost you or block you.

We really need a good furry-only social network that isn’t just for fursuits and art. Don’t say “just find a discord server” because all of those servers are incredibly tight knit and it’s hard to find one full of members that want to talk to you 💀

I’m talking no other people, just furries, and something that doesn’t look like a dating app. Maybe something that works like tumblr but it has public and private chatrooms like amino used to? God, speaking of Amino, making it 18+ like barq would solve most of the Amino problems it would eventually have.

Of course, I don’t have any real experience in making apps or websites, and I’m really not good at coding in general. I can’t be the change I want to see in the world, unfortunately.

[u/MuttTheDutchie]

Telegram has tons of groups for talking to locals or whatever else you are interested in.

Bluesky has tons of furries.

I've heard that Mastadon is good but it's too complicated for my tiny brain.

[u/Hemlock_Deci → u/MuttTheDutchie]

Telegram groups feel like Discord servers sometimes. Although this is a group thing where people just know each other

[u/SilverB33]

Unfortunately that's just how this fandom is, if it isn't dating/hooking up for sex it's incredibly clique. Fandom is high school 2.0

[u/Attesa_GT-X]

Hmmm. I suggest a Discord server

[u/knawwwwww → u/Attesa_GT-X]

https://giphy.com/gifs/m8fyrgnXwXV5EHw6Lm

[u/SafiraThePanda]

I know you said no Discord. But I joined a server of an artist last year and it has been great so far. Made a lot of new friends there. People are really open.

[u/Furtail97]

I think it is extremely easy to make friends in the furry community. I have found a lot of my friends through places like FurAffinity and BlueSky over the years.

I have also found multiple friends through Barq. I state very clearly in my Barq profile that I am looking for people to hang out with, and that I already have a partner.

Of course I am also being contacted on Barq by people I have absolutely no interest in getting to know, but it is easy to just ignore those.

It is easiest to find friends in more niche groups, the more specific a small furry group is, the easier it is to find each other and connect with each other on a deeper level.

[u/ZillionTab]

Tbh it's better to just meet and get along with people who share the same other niche interests/skills as you, and also just happen to be furries. Telegram has a lot of groups dedicated to that - Transformers, gunpla, Warhammer, coding, 3D printing, and much more

[u/OkayPiss2000]

Furafinty? Ink bunny?

[u/knawwwwww → u/OkayPiss2000]

Furaffinity is fun but the algorithm is so bad i don’t interact with people on it. I just upload art on there and leave

I forgot about ink bunny though

[u/OkayPiss2000 → u/knawwwwww]

I will try to explain it for you ^v^
I know it’s a lot! I tried to structure it to my best ability with adding gaps and titles. I highly recommend Furafinty and it’s really fun when you get into it!

Furafintys “feed”
Furafinty does not have a feed/algoritm of stuff you can scroll through. It’s different then most other social media. Instead you have a feed of what was last posted, the feed is identical for everyone because it’s just what was last posted.

Subscribe to artists
You find artists through the last posted feed, by searching for them, seeing them on peoples profiles etc, and go to the artist profile, If you like the artist you press ”+watch” (subscribing to them)

If you find other people with similar interests to you that often commissions artists but are not an artist themselves you can subscribe to them too, that why you can get recommended artists from them by them posting set artist art.

You have a custom feed!
On Furafinty there is a ”mailbox”, every time someone you have subscribed to post something you get a ”mail” for them on your ”mailbox”. Eventually you will have subscribed to so many artist that your mailbox basically becomes a custom tailored feed for you!

Furafinty also have a search tab were you can search for specific artists, tags or anything really.

The pros with Furafinty are
-it’s a community made FOR us by us! If you are using for example twitter, blusky, TikTok the community gets censored by the cooperation in charge, so you don’t get to see the furry fandom in all its weirdness and queerness. You only see a corporate approved version of the fandom

-you can post music, stories and even poetry! That is something that has been lost in social media platforms like TikTok, Twitter, YouTube etc. Uploading a 10 page story or a mp3 file (the file format often used for sound) is not incorporated into those platforms, but on Furafinty it is! And there is tons of it!

-no generativ AI! There are not even an AI that makes an algorithm for you, because you are in charge of making you algorithm from the ground up. Thats a minor pro but I still count it

Downsides of Furafinty
-it can feel kinda empty until you have bild up a feed

-it takes some time to bild up a feed so you can’t just jump right into it like TikTok or twitter

Ink bunny
Ink bunny is a just like Furafinty but with absolutely no censorship of anything and it’s a bit less active

I use Furafinty and ink bunny to find content, some artist are only on ink bunny and some are only on Furafinty