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Welcome to the July edition of Digging Up Positivity! Time flies when you are having fun and fruit flies like a banana. This episode is filled to the brink with charities, because boy, you lot have been busy! Our guest is one of the most known mice from the Netherlands: Miesdo Mouse.

We have a few announcements and if you like the British furs, you DEFINITELY want to watch till the end of the video. From now on you can become a member of this channel and usually you can see the episodes a wee bit earlier just like my other supporters. But of course, you know the deal: Like and subscribe. I would love to spread the positive goodness from this fandom a bit further thanks to your help!

And now, on with the charities, because boy, there are a lot of these this month:

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This weekend Anthrocon returns to the city of Pittsburgh, with furries from all around the world traveling into the area to enjoy the yearly jubilation. However this year's festivities are forecasted to be covered in a significant haze, even for the sober attendees. This is due to ongoing wildfires in Canadian provinces to the North.

Accuweather's forecast projects that the air quality index will remain above 200 for the early weekend, this is denoted in the lower "very unhealthy" range. In such conditions it is recommended that exertion is kept to a minimum and not prolonged as the lower quality air can impact and irritate lung function. Those with respiratory conditions need to be particularly cautious of the particulars.

Keep safe and have a wonderful convention.

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When Anthrocon returned to the city of Pittsburgh in 2022 after the two year pandemic hiatus, the celebrations in the streets were palpable. It had been a long lockdown, and the city was desperate for a return to some sense of normalcy. The irony being that these people in animal costumes and the chaotic atmosphere of the convention had provided this sense of normalcy since their first year in 2006.

When the time had come to close the doors for the renewed celebration though, a situation had started to cause anxiety amongst the furry population who only hours before were lost in the joys of seeing one another in this home away from home once again. After closing ceremonies had come to an end, unaware furries found themselves ushered from the convention spaces immediately by law enforcement in a manner that caused those on the ground to feel as if instead of welcomed guests, they were instead a group to be distrusted and pushed out as soon as the show was over.

This article will go over these reactions, the underlying causes of anxieties, and how future attendees can take steps to avoid the situation themselves should they seek to. Due to length, a keep it short summary has been added below the fold in order to break the summarize the points in the article without as many details.

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Furry conventions are inherently tied to the places people are, and thus can give us both context about furry history and perhaps a glimpse into the future. Plus, there are quite a few misconceptions about the world that annoy me; this may help break a stereotype or two.

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In October, Biggest Little Fur Con announced that its future 2023 convention will be held in the autumn season as opposed to its usual spring time schedule. This means that four of the largest furry conventions have now settled into time slots to correlate with the four seasons of the year.

The dates for these now include an early December gathering of Midwest Furfest in Chicago for winter, the spring event in Furry Weekend Atlanta, the summer with Anthrocon in Pittsburgh, and now the fall going to Biggest Little Fur Con in Reno. Given this chronological spacing there may be more ample room for these larger conventions to grow in attendance without stepping on one another’s toes.

Before 2022 these four conventions were the most attended furry conventions in the world. However, just this year Furry Fiesta was able to pass Biggest Little Fur Con sliding it back to be the 5th largest convention. The Texas convention having 5,494 this year and the Reno gathering at 5,234. Anthrocon, Midwest Furfest, and Furry Weekend Atlanta retain the top three positions.

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The Make a Wish Foundation is an institution that needs little introduction. Founded in the 1980s, this non-profit out of Phoenix, Arizona helps to bring joy toward youths suffering from critical illnesses by assisting them in fulfilling a dream. These usually can be trips to distant places, meet and greets with celebrities, or sometimes simple and interesting such as wanting to ride the whole New York subway line and collect model trains along the way.

The furry fandom found themselves blessed by one such eccentric wish maker who decided to use her wish to go to Anthrocon in Pittsburgh on its returning year of 2022. Shrimp, a young furry fan who suffers from cystic fibrosis, joined the furs during the festivities as her wish. Like most of the furry youth, most of her content can be found through Tiktok.

With permission from their parents, Shrimp was able to answer questions in regards to her experiences at one of the largest furry conventions in the world. As a bonus, an interview with the parents is also provided in the margin.

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Hello and welcome to another episode of Digging Up Positivity! The summer is in full swing. And we have many amazing conventions and fundraisers out there! A lot of furs amongst us have shown that their generosity knows no bounds! But otter than that, we have some cool animation news and our special guest for this month is Keenora. A friendly German wolf known for not just his crazy antics in fursuit but for some lovely charity initiatives as well. And of course, at the end of this episode I will tell you who won last month's raffle: A license for Clip Studio Paint, the software I, together with many artists use for my art. But first, the latest charities!

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It can feel a kind of madness when the memory of the world has moved on without you and you are left unsmothered. It is not madness, however. The feeling is called injustice, and what I aim to show in this account of events, beginning in May of 2020 and ending with Megaplex of 2021, is that this injustice is a cultural issue in furry, produced from west coast to east by figures as disparate as Samuel Conway, the Megaplex convention board, and the British Columbia Anthropomorphic Events Association (BCAEA). I take these as case studies because they involve prolific figures, because they are current, or—with the BCAEA—because they are well-known to me even if they are not well known in general.

I could have chosen other case studies. There’s no scarcity of them—every few months there is a new bad story about a furry-run community group, a fursuit maker, a popular furry personality, or, most recently, a furry convention. This account, in its intention, is both to attempt a brief history of furry spaces since May of 2020 and to explain them as a part of a larger, overarching, and cultural issue. I do this in part because when there is a bad story every few months—one which often involves trauma of some kind—and numerous smaller pains arrive in the weeks in between, it can feel as though you have walked into a numbing fog.

The details become fuzzy and their dates more distant in memory, although they may have only happened months or weeks ago. For others, however, those bad stories aren’t just stories—they are real things that happened to a person and the numbing fog is not always so kind to them. It can feel a kind of madness, and historicizing them, putting them into context and connecting them with other, similar events, is my choice of remedy.

I grew up a nerdy theatre kid who wanted to be a punk. It taught me that I loathe the spotlight (I was compelled by an editor to add this section on myself). I get stage fright, with only the shakiest of legs, and, while I have an excellent memory—as this account may demonstrate—my perpetually flat affect made me unsuitable for serious acting. After that, I turned to writing, first stage plays, then later and with much more enjoyment, fanfiction. Furry as a subculture was a short leap away. While doing what amounts to queer/feminist studies at university, I joined a small poetry community on FurAffinity in 2016, and, unexpectedly, encountered a few poets who were upset whenever my poems mentioned punching Nazis.

My furry experience has continued in that general fashion ever since.

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A few weeks ago, con chairman Samuel Conway wrote a Twitter thread about how a customer was stiffed by a seller in the Dealer's Den at Anthrocon.

OK, I just deleted a long thread where I detailed how an unscrupulous fursuit maker made Anthrocon look bad in the eyes of our friends in Pittsburgh. I intended to demonstrate that the whole "well, that's just how furries do business" affects ALL of us, not just one or two.

— Uncle Kage (@Unclekage) June 18, 2021

Bad business practices have been an ongoing issue in furry fandom. Taking the money and running is not only detrimental from a financial angle; it erodes trust in our fellow fans, and embitters the dreams of getting fursuits and art commissions. Since this frustrating problem has now reached a level where it's occurring within our Dealer's Dens, it also threatens to harm the reputations of the entrepreneurs who call those marketplaces home. If the fandom wants to secure the economic integrity of its spaces, new solutions will need to be developed to protect the honest exchange of goods and services.

Today we go over the harm that these situations cause, the extent and mitigation that furry fandom has committed already, and finally present a baseline of discussion for solutions to bring a sense of security back to the furry buyer.

As governments restrict gatherings of people, furry conventions are being postponed or canceled. Here's a quick run down of events and their status as of December 27th 2021 20:30 EDT (UTC-4) in response to the COVID-19 pandemic - updates to come.

A new section has been added for past events impacted for historical purposes. More information will be added to deal with virtual versions of a physical gathering if applicable.

Links go to statements if available, or to their Twitter feed or site. See also: Furry Fandom and the Internet forced back to roots by viral outbreak

Update 2021 Year End - As conventions start to open again, the overall list of cancellations and delays is becoming clunky. The final update will be today December 27th, 2021. Any future cancelations or delays will be their own newsbytes or articles in the future.

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The cockroach upon the Pittsburgh-themed horse sees the Chicago Raccoon off as it takes the lead, while special friends look on. (Art by SelkieGal)
A closing ceremony for the fandom's history books took place on December 3rd, 2017. In the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Rosemont, Illinois, uproarious cheers and howls could be heard. With the utterance of a simple number, the convention's attendance was revealed to the expectant furries and made waves. Around 8,700 people had attended the gathering in Chicago this year, and in that moment it became the largest furry convention in the world, surpassing Pittsburgh's furry convention, Anthrocon, whose attendance was 7,544 this year.

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Philly Metro's "Inside Philly's first furries convention" offers a compelling summary of our fandom's latest (and quite successful) convention. But its title betrays a lack of research. While Drayne and his team are to be congratulated for bringing a new furry convention to the City of Brotherly Love, it is by no means the first… nor even the largest furry con held there.

The first honour belongs to Furtasticon, chaired in November 1994 by Trish Ny – which was also furry fandom's second convention, spun up in the space of a few months, allegedly after perceived anti-furry sentiment at Philcon. [Drayne was being born at the time, but was aware of prior events.]

Then there's Furstivus, which drew 238 – organized by SkippyFox and friends on short notice to replace 2012's New Year's Furry Ball. One must also consider the giant next door, Anthrocon.

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Those attending Anthrocon this year that have an interest in non-fiction works about our little fandom will not want to miss the session I am hosting on Sunday, July 2nd to preview my book looking at the history of furries, Furry Nation. The book gives this "greymuzzle" freelance writer's perspective, having been in the fandom since 1988; a journey which all began with a surprise invitation in the mail to something called a 'furry party' being held at a Philadelphia Sci-Fi convention.

Furry Nation tells the story of the fandom’s birth and growth, from the earliest “funny animal” comic book fans and convention organizers to the worldwide fandom it is today. Artists, fursuit builders, and fans of all stripes are profiled, and of course our rocky relationship with the Hollywood animation community is also examined. In the book’s final chapter a genetic scientist discusses the possibility that genetic therapy will someday transform humans into actual anthropomorphic animals. Furry has indeed transformed many lives, including my own in ways I never expected— personal experiences that became a part of Furry Nation.

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When Anthrocon started in Albany in 1997, the humble gathering went by the name of “Albany Anthrocon”. Two years later the convention found itself moving out of New York State and into Pennsylvania. Through that was learned the first major mistake a fledgling convention could make. Naming your new convention after the city it is hosted in is like someone getting their lover’s name tattooed to their arm. Ironically, it’s a mistake that other conventions still make to this day.
 
But living through mistakes is what makes one stronger in the end. It has now been about one decade since the largest furry convention had made its home in Pittsburgh. At this point I think it’s a much safer bet to commit to being inked.
 
As there were 6,389 recorded attendees to this convention, there are just as many stories and perspectives on the convention. So this review will focus on three sections I focused my experiences around: fursuiting, performances, and writing. It is essential to note that reviewing a convention is unlike reviewing any other medium where you can experience a full package. Many panels run concurrently so one has to make a choice, usually based upon one’s preferences.
 

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Anthrocon is exceptionally supportive of furry music. The following performances – by Amadhia, Bucktown Tiger, Fox Amoore, "Bandthro", Matthew Ebel, Pepper Coyote and Rhubarb & Cosmik – can be seen at this year's event, running July 9–12 in Pittsburgh, PA.