Origin of SL subcultures?

Well, the Victorian subculture has its roots documented well enough...

Dr Jeckyll / Mr Hyde was arguably furry, too!

Isn't that what you did with your religion? I mean, you aren't a Hindu, or Buddhist, or Jew, so you must have chosen what 'made sense' to you.

Are you living out some strangeness in RL because of your religion?

Briana Dawson

Do you own a disco and have a 'fro in real life?

The correct phrase is "being a furry", I suppose, in this context. Furdom is sometimes used, although I don't like it anymore than "furson" or "fursecution"... I hate words like that.

Even less of a jump than that, considering that lthough nowhere near as ubiquitous as MU*s, Furcadia had a visual MU*-style setup going for years (though for more than generic avatars and for some specific species you had to pay money).

(For anyone who may give a damn about it, I started with FurryMUCK, and peek in there from time to time under the name of "CT", as well as having a mostly-unused character on SPR.)



Oh, good, I'm not the only one that thinks that's stupid.

(Admittedly I have a bit of tolerance for feline types who work "purr" into words in a similar manner, though. Comes from a decade of being owned by several cats, all of whom have since passed on due to old age.)

No, but that isn't the point I'm trying to make. I'm not here living out some fantasy with others, I'm just here doing something I enjoy. If others want to come along and dance to a seventies radio stream then that's no different than a club playing one of the half a dozen other regular streams that they all share. I'm not recruiting or helping anyone else 'fulfil a lifestyle'.

Religion... doesn't even come into the discussion. I happen to mix more with people who share the same values as I, but more often than not we find out after a while through an unrelated conversation that we happen to share a faith.

As for the hair.... well aged 7 it was a bit out of control.


Stop laughing. Now.

Lewis

The amount of furries and goreans make since in sl since both groups became what they are after the invention of the internet. Realy what I don't get about the goreans is Gor. Domination and enslavement of women has been around since the begaining of time. Why they base their subculture on a set of poorly writen pulp fantasy books. I tried reading one of the books and I just gave up. I know there much beter books about slavery out there then Gor. There are even better fan fictions on the internet the Gor. I don't get it.

No, the Internet merely enabled groups like Goreans and Furries to communicate more readily. They both pre-date the Internet.

Thinking back, I know I heard of people at sci-fi conventions back in the 70's who liked to at least do costume play on a Gor theme. And John Norman was a guest speaker more than once at a sci fi con, talking about Gor as if it was something to emulate. I remember some feminist friends of mine saying they once were considering attending a sci fi con where Norman was to speak, to do some sort of protest-type encounter. They never did it, because they didn't think it was worth disrupting the con for. That particular con was before I had even heard of Usenet, let alone the Internet or the web.

I saw my first furry art well before the Internet had a name. Again, at a sci fi convention.

Both groups have been around. They were just harder to find.

Hello from Caledon's resident 'daughter' of Doctor Moreau! (He was delicious.)

I said became what they are now not where started with the internet. Before the internet both where little known and fragmented groups with little communication between them. When the internet came around they both got to join all the various groups into a single subculture and grow from there and a much much faster rate.

And the worst part of it is, their arrogance (and you see this in furs too, but I will get to that in a moment). Goreans seem to lack role-playing skill though they claim they are roleplaying Gor (or many of them do). Go in there as anything but a human and expect to be caged, pushed, punted, etc. Seems they CANNOT overlook appearances, it breaks their 'immersion' Now as a long time RPer from text through MMO's (where its hard to do due to all the doods), I don't give a damn WHAT the other person looks like....if they stay in character that's all the immersion I need. Sure, itd be nice if they looked like the theme, but if you can't rise above that, you're a fairly poor RPer.

Furs are much the same, go in as a human they do not know (and this happens to newb furs who aren't names in the text based worlds or IRC) and I can damn near GUARANTEE some dork will yell 'Hyooman' (spelling is not many online players strong point, apparently) and begin making disparaging comments or other rudeness, usually claiming to be in character (guess what, my furry friends, you CAN RP something besides being a dick). Only difference betwee furs and Gor is the abuse will be verbal, not pushed, caged, sim-banned. Furs tend to be bipolar....either the sim is sickeningly PG (I got bitched at for a taur form being 'naked' once in a sim that will remain nameless) or there is an adult club on every corner. No happy medium....

Now I wear a Furry AV, but after years in the fandom, staff on a couple text based games, etc...I don't really like being considered a fur anymore. It has too many connotations (Sleeze, cliques, insulting to humans, usually piss-poor RP being the biggies). So I started looking for a new place to hang out.

I found a victorian sim. When I first arrived there, I expected to be asked to go for 'breaking immersion'. Instead, folks started talking to me...we had a wonderful discussion of the world (from their viewpoint) with me adapting to the speech mannerisms of the area and switching to a suit that was closer to the male form of dress in that land. And I kept coming back...finally I moved in...now I build either victorian or steampunk items for my store there. There are no adult clubs on every corner, yet its not sickeningly sweet PG. There are good RPers there but RPers who don't care what my AV looks like. I am not judged by what I appear but by how I interact.

So there are those of us who USED to highly identify with a community (furry myself) that have drifted away and while we maintain the external hallmarks of the group, are more outsiders than insiders, if that makes sense.

Really? I wondered about that.

And you are flawlessly charming, Mister Deckard, and have always made me feel quite welcome.

Must I?

Victorians discovered in Darlington!

If shopkeepers in the suburbs of Darlington had been wondering why they were selling out of top hats, ankle boots and pocket watches, they need wonder no longer.

Residents living in the town - famous, until now, for railways and Quakers - have developed an unlikely penchant for a strange form of polite, civilised manner described in history books written over one hundred years ago.

The practice has come to light after Durham police confirmed they had raided an address in Darlington after receiving a tip-off that a 29-year-old Canadian woman was being treated as "the fairer sex" inside a house. They had also received a complaint from a man in Essex concerned that his 18-year-old son had become involved in dreams of Empire, and ushering in a future with steam technology.

When police called at the house they found those participating in such arcane practices were doing so willingly, and dropped the case. The Canadian woman had been trapped in the past, it transpired, because she had burned all of her modern microfiber clothing.

No one is quite sure exactly why the Darlington Victorian Society, as the sect calls itself, has taken root in a pebbledash street in the north east. An offshoot of the Victorians, a larger group with huge numbers of British followers, they live their life according to the philosophies of the former Queen herself.

I am in much the same boat. I used to be big into furry stuff of all kinds and ever read every furry webcomic I found. Now I am just some kind of generalized furvert. It's just another thing that like. As for the bipolarness, it seems to be ingrained into furry culture. The best example of it is that two of the bigest furry art sites are VCL and Yerf. Two more different sites would be hard to find. My belif is that this is because the furry fandom is still going through its growing phase and has hit the point where it looks around and wonders what all these various groups under the name of furry have to do with each other. Trekkers when through this before, just look at the old Spock/Kirk slash fiction that was so popular in the early days of the fandom. I belive it will eventaly cull parts of the fandom to the edges and stablized with one definition of what is a furry. Also I belive the Hyoomans thing comes from somewhere on portal of evil and spread.

Glad to see I am not the only one that feels marginalized in the fandom. Ingame we have the dichotomy of the ultra PG Lusk and Taco (where everthing seems an offense to someone and will get you nasty IMs from the locals), and on the other hand you have the ultramature Furnation (with folks setting up adult pics in the sandbox when they are not making hyperendowed statues, adult gallery and sex club). I'm not adverse to hanging out in the adult lands upon occasion...but it seems the fandom expects you to behave like your six, or like you're a teen in heat. I am old enough RL that neither of these appeal to me 24/7 and neither is very intellectually stimulating for more than a short time.

Be wonderful if the fandom ever finds a happy medium, rather than what it is now. As it stands, I had to look outside the fandom for intelligent and balanced forms of interaction and intellectual conversation.


On the upside, at least the fandom is NOT based 100% on sex and misogyny like Gor.

Yah, you are prime example how fast weird cults can suck one in.

Some people pretend to be covered with fur and have tails, others pretend to have an invisible skydaddy <shrug>

I'd rather you didn't drag my faith into this argument and insult me or it. What you think of it or me doesn't change anything.

Lewis

Malkin, we aren't "ultra PG" in any sense of the word. If some random moron on the platform IMs you that they don't like the fact that your shirt is showing ribcage, take it with a grain of salt.

I've been 'yelled at' by people I don't even know for wearing a human avatar in my own sim. (Lusk). Some people are stupid. Sometimes you'll run into them.

I know damn well that we've (as in the admins of Lusk and Taco) haven't reprimanded you for anything. Now, if you're blowing people out of the sim, that's another story. But we are not "G" rated, and never have been.

I'd rather people -not- act like they were "six" in Luskwood. But if you're *breaking the TOS*, then yeah, that's gonna get you some heat.

All too often one person's idea of "lol, take a joke" means "I should be able to blast you with C4".

I really have to wonder what your experiences were.

Things there are hardly "g rated". For three years we've had one rule: don't be an ass to other people. And we certainly don't bark that or any other rule at people.

I'd really like to know what incidents you're talking about. If you got bitched at in Luskwood for a taur form being "naked", it wasn't from one of the administrators. Anyone in SL can "bitch at" whoever they want to. Sometimes they feel like they're speaking for others.

They aren't.

And unless you had some huge schlong hanging out, none of us would even pay it a second notice. If anything, I'd like to know who in Luskwood is getting on people's cases for that kind of crap, because it's just as damaging as any other sort of harrassment.

It's pretty obvious that we can't "control" what visitors say.

But if someone in Luskwood tries to tell you what to do - if it isn't one of the four (4) of us who wear a "Founder" tag, they aren't speaking for Luskwood. So if someone's on your case for an avatar in that way, tell us, and we'll take care of it.

LW is spoken for and by its 4 founders- anyone else who claims they are, is causing a problem, and we need to know about it.

Up untill reading this topic I never heard of Goreans before, is it simple BDSM slaveplay (or perhaps a lifestyle?)? I'm a little bit curious after reading this all.

Michi, I may give it another shot, don't know

Since you wanted details, I'll give what I am comfortable with... The person made the biggest deal out of the taur was someone I'm told is a friend of an admin, so I am DEFINITELY not naming names....I do not want to cause problems between the person and his friend...that would just come back to haunt me in the end the way the fandom works. I will say it was presented to me with the heavily implied subtext of 'or I'll make it difficult for you with X'.

I'm not interested on getting on anyone's bad side over there...hell, you pay for the land, its yours to run as you please...so I vacated the area since I didn't feel like shifting AV's at the time. The Taur form was, IMO, about as racy as seeing a lion in the zoo, that is, not at all. No schlongs were extended, but one on the platform was giving me a lot of grief!

I wish you guys luck. I think I may just stick around my home in Caledon Highlands. I'm kinda purposely reducing my contact with the fandom due to incidents like I have described. Bitching at others seems a hallmark of the furry fandom (for such a supposedly accepting group, there is a lot of bitching at others going on)...I just don't see that happening where I hang out now...the residents are just...nicer than what I am used to in the fandom.

BTW, feel free to drop by anytime, I'm at my store or my estate 90% of the time I am logged. Always glad to talk!

I haven't met the Gorean community here. It is on my list of things to do. I do have some experience with it other places though.

It is a type of BDSM slaveplay based on a series of Sci-fi books. It focuses heavily on tradition, style, and ritual. What a slave wears, how they kneel, how they dance, how they serve all have meaning.

I have also found it to be heavily male dominated. Females often having a hard time being taken seriously as free person. It can sometimes attract the worse most egocentric kind of man.

As a submissive women I have found the fantasy and the grace to be very lovely. Some of the harsher aspects and intolernce reported are kind of deterents. It will be interesting to take a look here in SL and see for myself. IM me in world if you want to take a field trip sometime and check it out. *grin*