Good afternoon, Charles Vane.
I'll be the first to break out the welcome wagon, along with sharing a similar outlook when initially finding this fandom, and this forum community as well.
I to let my curiosity get the best of me, about 5years or so ago. I had a buddy that took every opportunity to insult "furries". At that time, I was unaware of what furries even were or what they did. This led me to do a bit of my own google research, and what I found was absolutely horrifying. I thought to myself, "there is no way these people can be THIS bad. It must just be a bunch of biased and uneducated opinions, so I'll check it out for myself".
That led to me google searching "Furry forums". The top result led me to this exact group on January 1st, ...2012? Eh date doesn't matter, but my account was made right after watchimg the new years ball drop on tv. I lurked for the most part in the begining of my stay here at TFF, but soon realized that if I truely wanted to know who these people were, I'd have to immerse myself into their culture with them. Once I did this, the welcoming I received was extremely friendly. Over the course of my first year in this place, I met many peoole who were well mannered, well versed, and just fun to chat with in general. Some of these people I still talk to, even today 5ish years since meeting them.
As in any setting where you get a bunch of people together on the Internet, there will be "drama". Its not just limited to us furs, every fandom has it to some degree. Our awsome staff here at TFF are great people. You might not always see them on, but they always get back to you with answers to your concerns. This helps keep the drama to a dull roar at its worst. Introductions such as the "rants and advice" thread have also helped to contain potential drama to one spot, along with giving people an outlet for their frustrations, anxieties, and even success stories of our day to day lives.
Most of, if not all of our current active members are very well behaved when it comes to "exotic role playing". Most of these people will get to know someone before they even think of such a thing. This means that you just have to politely decline if someone asks. If you see explicit roll play hapening in our standard forum boards, you just have to click the report button, and our great staff will take care of it. If its in the "Adult section" then its generally allowed as long as all parties are willing, the thread is properly taged as containing explicit material, and everyone respects those who wish to not participate and those who do.
I cant quite remember where the post is, but one of our mods, WingedZypher, has an old post she started titled "what is a furry?". It is one of the first threads I ever read here, and combined with actually interacting with these people whom are now refered to by me as my "fellow furs", I have found what I was so curious about many years ago, "what are furries, and why do they have such a bad rap". Now I'm a furry, just like the furs who accepted me in when I was in a similar position to yours.
Sorry for the long post, I tried to keep it short but that didnt work.
Anywho, I hope you enjoy your stay. And once again, I welcome you to TFF.
P.S. Don't get discouraged by the lack of response to you're introduction post. Some of the furs here are shy, we have members from all over the world so time zones are a factor, and lots of the active members have responsibilities out side of the Internet, school, work, family.
