Furry sinks to an all-new low

[bladespark]

This wikifur article is totally, utterly, and completely disgusting. It's bad enough that the perception of such a heirarchy exists in the first place, but to attempt to codify it into some sort of official ranking is so abhorrent to me that I want to tear down the whole site just to get rid of this one article!

Gah!

This is disgusting in so many ways I don't even know where to being ranting about it! *froths and raves*

Comments

[wulfsbane.livejournal.com]

The main glaring error I see is that bad furry artists are ranked above normal furry artist? So merely by drawing bad art, you elevate yourself two notches?

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Looks like someone with extreme pretensions has been allowed to belet loose on wiki. A good smacking is in order, methinks

[scribe-of-stars.livejournal.com]

Oh for...gah. You know that if this isn't edited, it will mutate the entire community into a system of furry feudalism. Most everyone will be peasants, forced to kneel before their artisically-gifted rulers without hope of advancement. Armored furry knights will ride about on the shoulders of anthropomorphic steeds, challenging each other to honorable combat. And when the king shows up, everyone will have to kiss the rings on his fursuit's fingers.

This is a wiki, right? Can it be edited?

[dexam.livejournal.com]

Quote from the site: "Most levels are fairly vague and ill-defined..."

It makes me wonder... if this is the case, then why did they even bother going to the effort of defining a hierarchy in the first place?

[graydown.livejournal.com]

Gotta love how they put "all other writers" below "writers of bad adult stories."

Also, I think someone forgot that the geek hierarchy (http://www.brunching.com/geekhierarchy.html) was supposed to be a joke.

[graydown.livejournal.com]

It can be edited (http://furry.wikia.com/index.php?title=Social_order&action=edit). By anyone. I'm looking at the edit screen right now. There's a note from the page's author hidden in the HTML:

!-- Please don't add any examples - no bad ones, as that could be a personal attack (and is a matter of opinion) and no good ones because it encourages bad ones (and is also a matter of opinion :-) -- GreenReaper --

How thoughtful of him.

[rimspace.livejournal.com]

Probably because his head is so far up his own arse he can count his teeth?

[draggo.livejournal.com]

Time to edit it, menton that and correct the other errors.

[catwoman69y2k.livejournal.com]

It is true that every community,organization can develop a hierarchy. In highschool the jocks and cheerleaders were on top and the geeks were on bottom. It was silly back then and it is still silly now even when applied to our fandom.

Bah...I dont take any notice of it. Anyone who uses that to determine who is cool and who is not are probably not worth knowing.

[errickfoxy.livejournal.com]

I'm gonna have to talk to Greenie once the IRC server I usually run into her comes back up, cause that's.. just.. I dunno. Weird.

[errickfoxy.livejournal.com]

Though I just woke up and forgot to look at the edit history for who actually made the article in the first place. So don't blame Greenie for it, hehe. My real issue with it is probably just how subjective that sort of thing is. It implies that everyone views the "heirarchy" the same way, and that's jsut not true.

[jordanis.livejournal.com]

Ugh. There's a reason I hang around on the SA forums as opposed to some furry board somewhere.

[silveradept]

Ickpth. That's definitely not going to help anybody's cause. Makes me wonder why someone put it up there in the first place - if there is some sort of heirarchy, then someone should wait to spell it out in something citable.

[gungho-squirrel.livejournal.com]

I think you are forgetting that the majority of the furry fandom is made out of teenagers and slobbering, socially-inept retards that live in their mum's basements. It's full of so much drama, and I do agree that there is a level of hierchy already, but not into the depth that douche tried to go. Popular and famous artists and furries are usually looked up to by all the others. And the horribly socially depraved are definitely on the bottom of the ladder. (Mix Hyenataur, anyone?)

[gungho-squirrel.livejournal.com]

I take it you've never heard of the horrors communities that used to exist and be run by bigbadmod?

[wulfsbane.livejournal.com]

oh, I was a member of a few of those communities. But drawing bad art doesn't make you more of a ranked furry.

[greenreaper.livejournal.com]

I'm not the page's author. I'm just one of the editors. Read the talk (http://furry.wikia.com/wiki/Talk:Social_order) for more information.

[greenreaper.livejournal.com]

So what are you saying - that the ranking doesn't exist, or that you don't want the fact that it exists it recorded? We're not trying to impose it, nor are we saying that it is a good thing. We're reporting on a phenomenom.

The article is not a particularly good one. However, it does point out something that is, I think, true - that some people are considered higher up than others in the furry fandom. This is true in any fandom, and indeed in just about any grouping of people.

[greenreaper.livejournal.com]

It stated that bad furry artists were above regular furry fans. There has been some disagreement with that, but I'd say it's true that people who make art are seen as higher because they can provide something - even if it isn't all that good of a something. "Bad" is, of course, subjective.

[greenreaper.livejournal.com]

Just because it was supposed to be a joke doesn't mean it's not true. It was funny because it was seen as being close to the truth. :-)

[greenreaper.livejournal.com]

It is indeed silly. I think it's part of the fandom, though, and so there's an argument that it should be recorded, although perhaps not in the rather absolute ordering that there is now.

[streakthetiger.livejournal.com]

Meh, lame, but some people believe it i guess.

[sharpsight.livejournal.com]

N) *notes* Small Internet. *bows* (Reference: AGC.)

[greenreaper.livejournal.com]

Indeed it is! Alas, I've not seen many norns around the fandom. :-)

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

I'm saying that the fact that the ranking exists is a nasty, awful, icky thing that should be fought. People are not "better" or "worse" because they can draw, or because they wear fursuits, and I HATE the perception that they are. We should be working to break down such artificial barriers, not to reinforce them.

[greenreaper.livejournal.com]

If people are no better than other people due to their abilities or accomplishments, then why do we have Guests of Honor? Is it not a good thing to praise those who do things that other community members enjoy?

[2dlife.livejournal.com]

I think one problem is it implies that respect is transitive. (Which is that if A respects B and B respects C then A MUST respect C and C CANNOT respect A.) Respect can be and is often a two way street. Sure, some people may garner more than others but it's not an intrinsic property of the person but a result of their actions. Everyone in any community should have people in the community he respects and who also respect him.

[greenreaper.livejournal.com]

Most of the things mentioned in the article are in reference to their actions - making art, writing stories, performing in fursuit, etc. Even when someone nominally gets respect for being something, it's usually because being that thing requires that they do other things (for example, if you run Anthrocon you need to do a lot of running around).

I just don't see that transitivity - I think of it as more of a points thing. Some people get a lot of respect, but only from a few close friends, so they overall have a lower reputation score than those who get a lesser amount of respect from a greater number of people (probably due to more prominent actions).

Of course, you then get into some points being worth more in some circles than others. Some people might even respect you less if you draw certain types of art, while others might respect you more.

[sharpsight.livejournal.com]

N) Markus is (perhaps unfortunately) missing, presumed dead, but we retain his memories.