Are furries supposed to be rude?

Some of them are very friendly.

Others will do this... thing. They see your dot on the map and fly in to check you out. If some of the members of your party have furry avs, they will stop and say hi, flirt, whatever. (With the ones in furry avs; anyone else is usually ignored.) If they check you out and no one in your party is wearing a furry av, they leave immediately. Perhaps this all seems like a bit of a generalization, but I have seen it happen MANY times.

Try not to take it personally. Right of free association and all that. I pretty much never stop and talk to people I happen to see, unless I know them. (And even if I do, I tend to be a bit reclusive...)

To try to put this in a little more perspective (And because I'm bored and feel like most likely wasting my time), I thought I would point out a few issues here... Who knows, maybe it will help someone else.

The biggest issue, and mistake your making, is assuming that there are "the furries" and then the "non furries". It doesn't work like that. The furry 'culture' as such is more diverse than most people realise: Much like Second Life, furries come from all walks in life, all age groups, sexualities, religions, political background, social background, you name it. Yes, you can point out a few generalities in both... For example, most SLers are somewhat techno-savy, and most furries like nature/wildlife in some way... But even on those loose generalities exceptions abound. The furry culture is actually split on a great many issues - Relations with non-furries being one of only a bajillion issues, each of which can devolve into a rash of holy-war level intollerance on each side.

This is the single biggest mistake 'outsiders' seem to make, to assume that there is one form of furry. There isn't. There are a number of major 'metatypes' in furrydom... You have the artistic furs, the childlike-innocent furs, the spiritualist neo-shamanism type furs, teh technofurs, the roleplayer furs, the otherkin furs, the casual furs, the furverts, the alternate-persona furs, the furs-by-tangental-interest, etc(tons more)... And then a few subgroups/hangers-on that even furrydom doesn't like to acknowldge as a rule. And anyone can be a member of any, all, or none of these metatype groups... Then you have subgroups within those metagroups... And this isn't even talking about *interests* mind you, simply reasons why the person is assosiated with the furry community at large. And the metatype groups dont always get along very well despite the fact that sometimes people are members of two 'opposed' metatype groups.

Now throw in your usual fun assortment of cliques, outcast groups, pariahs, pot-stirrers, wanna-be revolutionaries, ego maniacs, and simple nutcases...

Furry politics are pretty complex. To assume that anything furries do is 'typical' or 'tradition' is almost comicly wrong - Almost an intrinsic part of being a furry is a slight tendancy to buck tradition... 'tradition' dictates that we grow out of our interest in anthro animals after 6 and mickey mouse is 'silly'. Even if that weren't the case, we're far too disorginised to have traditions or rules or any such nonsense.

Now, all of these politics, mind, have pretty much transfered lock, stock, and barrel to SL.

Now, add to this the fact that many furries, particularly 'older' ones (in terms of assosiation with furrydom, not biological age) tend to have a sort of earned persecution complex issue to deal with that has built up over years of asshats like the SA crowd and PoE crowd and all sorts of other groups/individuals antagonising us, and you can start to understand why being accused of having a 'tradition of rudeness' is a little annoying and we tend to snap at people who say things like that.

Now, I'm not defending being rude, but honestly I don't know enough about your situation to comment... The signs are odd, but like I say, I don't really have any firsthand knowledge... As far as being ignored... Well, that happens alot accidently here... People are often busy, either with other conversations in IM, or building, scripting, etc. It happens. I've done it. Not proud of it, but it happens.

Furries aren't anything in particular, we certainly aren't an orginised group... We just are, just like anyone else. A collection of individuals.

To sum up what I think Jillian's biggest beef here is, 'cuz it's sorta what I'm getting at too, in a way...

Had this been a group of people dressed up like superheros, or hippies, or alien-AVs... There would probably not have been a message "Are superheros/hippies/aliens in SL supposed to be rude?". It jus twoulda been wrote off as a bunch of people acting rude. But because it's furries...

Thanks Reit for the reply but again I want to repeat I was asking a general question about some kind of furry creedo and it has been answered. The bunch that moved into the area around me are all very new to SL and like many other new citizens they don't seem to have good verbal skills and it probably has nothing to do with their fur.

But it still seems kind of odd...

Please read the last two paragraphs of my last response.. I added them on a bit later, you may have missed them. it kinda gets at the heart of why I think a lot of people are so riled up.

It's my impression that most SAers don't give a shit about furries. The ones that do are pretty loud though

What is PoE?

SO IT WAS YOU! Gimmie that back, you!

Portal of Evil... This site that has daily links to its "most evil" sites on the net, and about once a week or so an (At least tangentaly) furry site seems to make the list. A lot of their stuff *is* very strange/creepy/etc, but a lot of it is about as mature as making fun of the people in middle school who weren't in the 'in' crowd. The mentality at the site tends to be around the same level as those who pushed geeks and wierdos into the mud and thought it was hillarious because they were 'different'.

I can't speak for "most SAers" since I don't visit the site, it may be as you say that most don't care. But, as you say, the ones that do are very vocal, and are quite willing to go out of their way to make sure we know it, and for some reason are all too happy to cling to the SA-crowd while they do it... So forgive us if the impression is that its an SA thing.

No, just ugly.

Just out of curiosity, do furries cyber each other? Do they have 'furry' bits? :-b

In my very limited, outsider experience, for many furries, cyber "yiffing" is a large part of the appeal, but as Reitsuki noted so well above, generalizing about furries is sorta like generalizing about Americans, or Christrians, or Rotarians, or Rotifers

Don't forget the Rosicrucians!

this is not an unusual observation. furries, by and large, are an introvertive and hegemonic group. their intentions are not completely understood but i'm sure it is malevolent. they take the guise of cute harmless animals to hide their secret agenda.

i have a few furriy friends but they are of the 1% who don't spend all their time plotting and scheming against regular avs in their numerous furry enclaves. perhaps my friends are vegetarian, as schwanson mentioned. conversely, they might be spies. it's tough to tell with furries because they have really good poker faces. besides blinking and backflipping occasionally they don't convey much with body language.

if you are really worried about your furry infestation, you can always take protection in larsen

These words... they hurt =[

XD - I'm not PoE or SA, I'm YTMND =]

Anyhoot, I had nothing against furries until I saw Furcadia, and now I keep my distance.

People. Furries are people. By enlarge, good people. There is no culture of rude that I know of but there is a sort of clannishness among some of them. If you have a furry avatar you are a member of the club sort of mentality is quite common. I don't prescribe to that at all but some do. Others have said it better than I have in this thread so there is no need to repeat it.

I will say I sometimes run into being ignored, either furry or not but it envariably results from them being AFK, deep in IM's, having a box covering the chat or otherwise not noticing you. Many times it stems from them not realizing you are speaking to them, this happens to me a lot.


Also, where is this land located?

Yes.

Welcome to the internet!