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May 2023

Newsbytes archive for April 2023

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Quiet month! Contributors include dronon, earthfurst, and GreenReaper.

IndyFurCon defrocks their 2023 guest of honor before convention

Your rating: None Average: 4 (3 votes)

IndyFurCon.jpgA brief press release made by IndyFurCon on April 27th announced that Cassidy Civet would no longer be their Guest of Honor at their 2023 gathering slated to happen at the end of August this year. No reasoning was given by the board for the decision in their press release.

Cassidy, in response, took to social media to express her shock at the announcement:

I feel completely blindsided. Being asked was such a rush, I canceled my Furrydelphia 22 to attend and be announced at closing ceremonies at IFC 2022. Then complete silence from the con for months, I reached out, then today the rug got pulled out from under me.

I’m in shock.
-Cassidy Civet - April 27, 2023 7:03 PM

Winners of the 5th Annual Good Furry Award to Be Announced Saturday, May 13

Your rating: None Average: 2.7 (3 votes)

The votes have been cast and the winners of the 5th Annual Good Furry Awards have been selected by the furry community!

Grubbs Grizzly, the awards' administrator, will go live on Facebook this May 13 at 5:00 PM Pacific Time to make the announcements. The grand prize is a handsome trophy and a check for $500. There will also be 3 honorable mentions who receive trophies, too!

This will also be the second year for the Lifetime Achievement Award, which last year went jointly to Mark Merlino and Rod O'Reilly (founders of Confurence). While the Good Furry Awards are selected by the general furry community, the Lifetime award is picked by a select committee of greymuzzles. The winner receives a handsome trophy.
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For those who are not on Facebook or cannot watch at that time, announcements will be made on the www.AskPapabear.com website, and a video will be presented on YouTube.

Review: 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3'

Your rating: None Average: 3.2 (5 votes)

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3Previously on Guardians of the Galaxy ...

Only your letters, and, mostly, your support can bring it back for a third try ... now somewhere in the black holes of Sirius Major there lived a young boy by the name of Rocket Raccoon ... the fact that it really doesn’t make a lot of sense is part of its charm ... it basically retcons Rocket’s original mini-series out of existence, positing it as a false memory ... it’s a good time to be a fan of raccoons with rocket launchers ... Blam! Murdered you! ... I couldn’t find a picture of Rocket Raccoon wearing a party hat ... ooga chaka, ooga chaka, ooga ooga ooga chaka ... we just get a glimpse of his scarred bare back, which implies that his transformation was painful ... I am the fox you've been waiting for ... Rocket is fine. He's fine. He'll be fine. It's fine ... oh, I'm definitely putting copyrighted Avengers music in this ... at one point, the "snap" apparently reached out into the real world and even claimed their director, but it's okay, he got better ... now you’re just making it sad.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is the third and final instalment of the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy of movies, featuring the adventures of the titular group of spacefaring superheroes. James Gunn returns to direct, and the movie stars Chris Pratt as Peter Quill (a.k.a. Star Lord), Zoe Saldana as Gamora, Dave Bautista as Drax, Karen Gillan as Nebula, Pom Klementieff as Mantis, Vin Diesel as the voice of Groot, and, last but certainly not least, Bradley Cooper as the voice of Rocket.

2023 Good Furry Award Winners Announced

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small_WEB - Gold.pngGrubbs Grizzly has announced the winners of the 2023 Good Furry Awards, sponsored by Ask Papabear and Uncle Bear Publishing.

Winner of the 2023 Award

The winner of the 2023 award is Kite's Windswept Wanderings!

This furry has provided high quality videos of fursuits and convention experiences that inform and entertain with clear videography and narration. Highlighted in these show the care and dedication furries take with their costuming and gatherings to make memorable characters and experiences.

Honorable Mentions go to others who came close to winning this year including:

  • Chise
  • Christopher "Papa Woof" Roth
  • Beeton Nukicoon

The Lifetime Achievement Award

This year's Lifetime Achievement Award goes to Reed Waller. Reed Waller founded the publication of an APA [Amateur Press Association] furry comic, Vootie, in 1976. Working along side with his wife, the late Kate Wooley, they would later contribute their own comic, Omaha the Cat Dancer. This comic would gather renowned as being foundational in setting the tone of furry to be more mature and adult themes in their artistic settings than their the stereotyped perceptions of their funny animal counterparts which were typically seen as being for younger audiences.

To learn more about the awards, winners, and nominees, go to https://www.askpapabear.com/2023-winners.html

Furries and internet worry of history erasure as Twitter and Google announce plans to close inactive accounts

Your rating: None Average: 3.9 (7 votes)

Google has recently announced its intention to deactivate accounts if the user is inactive after two years of time. This comes only a week after Twitter had announced that they too will be looking to liquidate accounts that lack activity. Soon after this announcement the accounts of deceased on Twitter were found to be suspended for “Terms of Use Violations”, in a similar vein to someone who used the site to spam or harass others.

Dying, as it turns out, is against the rules.

Fur Affinity expands rules against "youthful appearing" characters in adult works to Pokemon and Digimon characters

Your rating: None Average: 3.8 (9 votes)

On May 19th Fur Affinity had announced that it will expand the rules toward banning portrayals of youthful appearing characters, even if the character is addressed as being older in universe, engaging in sexual situations to include digimon and pokemon characters. While situations that portrayed actual young anthro characters in sex (known colloquially as cub porn) had been banned 13 years ago, there were elements of gray area on characters that are determined as mature in age, but younger in appearance that were later expanded upon. This update is a furthering of that expansion.

In the announcement Fur Affinity had noted that there is a method for artists who have posted works that may be in this gray area to discover how they would be handled by submitting trouble tickets against it.

If you have questions as to whether this may apply to your content, please feel free to open a ticket under “NSFW Underage Content” with links to the content in question, and we can verify if the content is in violation or not.

Artists have been informed that the amendment will start to be enforced on July 1st.

Ursa Major Awards - The 2022 Winners Announced!

Your rating: None Average: 4.3 (4 votes)

Ursa Majors Awards.jpgThe winners of the 2022 Ursa Major Awards have been announced! There were 1350 voters this year! (The voting tallies can be viewed here.)

Also a reminder that the Ursas are run voluntarily, and are accepting PayPal donations to help continue running things in the future. Check their website for details!

And now, the 2022 Awards go to... (Drum roll please)...

Digging up Positivity - May 2023

Your rating: None Average: 3.7 (3 votes)

This week[sic] in Digging Up Positivty:

  • Pawperty Damage came out on the 24th and we are having an interview with the critter behind it all: Marig. And that is not all! We will be giving away one key of this smashing game so you can stomp around as well. Stay with us till the end for more info!
  • Two huge Australian icons working together in a most adorable dance off!
  • The Good Furry Award winners are announced
  • And of course we are starting this episode of Digging Up Positivity with various charities all over the world

Megaplex coerced by new Florida state law to make furry convention 18+

Your rating: None Average: 3.4 (8 votes)

On May 24th, Megaplex, a furry convention that has taken place in Florida for two decades, had announced that for the first time restricted attendance to those 18 and over only. This was done in response to a recently passed law, SB 1438, which expands the authority of the government to revoke business licenses and impose fines in response to situations where children are exposed to live performances deemed “problematic for general consumption”.

Many have raised concerns about recent changes in Florida legislation. After reviewing Florida SB 1438 it has been decided that for legal reasons and protection of our attendees, our venue, and the overall convention, Megaplex 2023 attendees must be 18 years of age at the time of registration pickup.

Megaplex has welcomed younger fandom members and their families since its inception and making this change was very difficult. The Code of Conduct has been updated to reflect this change and emails are going out to those affected.

While this change impacts the 2023 convention, it is unsure if this will have to continue for future years. It is our hope that this change is temporary and that we can welcome members of all ages back next year. With this in mind, the public decorum portion of the Code of Conduct as well as standards for programming, attire, and behavior in convention space will not be changing and will continue to be enforced as it has been in the past.

This decision has been a difficult one, but Megaplex has not forgotten about or abandoned our younger fandom members and is looking into options for events and activities to include all age ranges and their family members.

Many have also voiced concerns regarding CS/HB 1521. After legal review, it has been concluded that this does not affect us as our convention is held in a private venue. We are talking with the hotel about the possibility of offering gender neutral restrooms in the convention space. If we are able to offer this we will have them clearly marked on our convention map.

If you have any additional questions regarding any cancellations requested, please feel free to contact us at [our registration team email].
Megaplex; May 2023