I'm genuinely curious as to how many people on here who don't exactly identify as a furry, but genuinely like furry content.

I for one.. am not a furry, but I love furry content, I think it's superior to any other form of media when it comes to animation, accurate portrayal of anatomy and genuine and realistic connections when it comes to romance

And when it comes to the porn it's incredibly creative with how it handles it, real life porn and hentai can really become monotonous, because they don't like to take risks and they stick to whatever sells.

That is not to say hentai artists aren't different, they push the boundaries.. but there's just only a few great animators that only solely animate hentai, the rest are all furry.

Before this gets too long, I'm just curious are the majority of people here all furry? or is there a lot of people here who also appreciate the art and of course the porn as well, despite it being furry?

well, what's the criteria to qualify as 'a furry' ?

What is a furry?
I do enjoy some anthro content, but I've never called myself a furry, or a "skinny" for that matter. I know others here who feel the same.
If the criteria is to have an anthro OC or fursona then I think a lot of the people using this site probably aren't furries either.

bipface said:
well, what's the criteria to qualify as 'a furry' ?

The most generic term for it would be someone who just likes anthropomorphic art or the creatures themselves, but if that's the case then half the world are furries. And that's just not true

I think my rules would be, they go to conventions, they have fursuits, they have fursonas and are just generally active in the community, I'm aware that most furries don't even have fursuits all they have is a tail.

I was just curious if there are more people like me who have no connection in the actual fandom, but just an outside observer.

shadowstones said:
What is a furry?
I do enjoy some anthro content, but I've never called myself a furry, or a "skinny" for that matter. I know others here who feel the same.
If the criteria is to have an anthro OC or fursona then I think a lot of the people using this site probably aren't furries either.

I guess I'm not the only one then that's kind of a relief, because on the outside you just get labeled as a furry for liking any kind of animal/fantasy creature art in general.

WhatAreFurries.com

solemnangel said:
The most generic term for it would be someone who just likes anthropomorphic art or the creatures themselves, but if that's the case then half the world are furries. And that's just not true

I think my rules would be, they go to conventions, they have fursuits, they have fursonas and are just generally active in the community, I'm aware that most furries don't even have fursuits all they have is a tail.

I was just curious if there are more people like me who have no connection in the actual fandom, but just an outside observer.

That definition is too strict. There's plenty of furries that only interact online as that is the least expensive way to interact with the community. I think the term furry traditionally refers to the fursuiters that go to conventions, but this is because the furry fandom predates the Internet. Going to conventions was really the only way for the community to interact. A more modern interpretation should include people with virtual fursonas. They are just as much a furry as those with physical fursonas (fursuits).

Even if someone doesn't have a fursona, if you have an appreciation for the furry community, I don't want to leave those people excluded. I feel the community should be broadly inclusive to include anyone who wants to identify themselves as a furry. I think it is a toxic mindset to dictate who should or should not be part of a community. The debates over whether Pokémon and MLP enthusiasts should be considered furries were terrible, and condescending. I don't want to go down that road again.

As for the question at hand, I doubt most visitors on the site have a fursona. It would be difficult to gauge how furry the e621 community is, but it is probably safe to say that a large number incorrectly think e621 is a porn site instead of a furry archive site. If we factor that into the equation, we would have this simplified grouping.

• Furry enthusiasts
• Porn enthusiasts
• Monster girl, kemonomimi, humanoid enthusiasts (Not furry, barely furry enthusiasts)

In the middle there is an overlap of traffic of unknown size. A lot of the traffic is going to be from people who have a fetish for furry art in general or have an attraction towards one or more furry characters. I think most visitors would fall into this group. Also we have to take into consideration that we allow humanoid art as well. Any high quality kemonomimi, animal humanoid, monster girl art that would appear on any hentai gallery can also be uploaded here. People who like this kind of art may not necessarily associate as a furry or even care about the furry content on the site.

I can't answer this question accurately, but my opinion is that most visitors will not be traditional furries, and most come here for the porn. There are going to be a lot of furry enthusiasts that visit the site who appreciate the art more than the lifestyle.

solemnangel said:
The most generic term for it would be someone who just likes anthropomorphic art or the creatures themselves, but if that's the case then half the world are furries. And that's just not true

I think my rules would be, they go to conventions, they have fursuits, they have fursonas and are just generally active in the community, I'm aware that most furries don't even have fursuits all they have is a tail.

I haven't been to a convention in over 10 years (and when I did go, it was only a few times mainly to see what it was like). Never had nor care to have a fursuit, nor have a "fursona". I don't even had a consistent avatar I use for myself. I'm also quite introverted, so I'm not terribly active in any community. But I definitely consider myself a furry. I quite like the art and designs, and find the creatures themselves to be interest-grabbing (if something has anthros and/or fantasy animals in it, I generally take a bit more interest in it because of that).

thevileone said:
That definition is too strict. There's plenty of furries that only interact online as that is the least expensive way to interact with the community. I think the term furry traditionally refers to the fursuiters that go to conventions, but this is because the furry fandom predates the Internet. Going to conventions was really the only way for the community to interact. A more modern interpretation should include people with virtual fursonas. They are just as much a furry as those with physical fursonas (fursuits).

Even if someone doesn't have a fursona, if you have an appreciation for the furry community, I don't want to leave those people excluded. I feel the community should be broadly inclusive to include anyone who wants to identify themselves as a furry. I think it is a toxic mindset to dictate who should or should not be part of a community. The debates over whether Pokémon and MLP enthusiasts should be considered furries were terrible, and condescending. I don't want to go down that road again.

As for the question at hand, I doubt most visitors on the site have a fursona. It would be difficult to gauge how furry the e621 community is, but it is probably safe to say that a large number incorrectly think e621 is a porn site instead of a furry archive site. If we factor that into the equation, we would have this simplified grouping.

• Furry enthusiasts
• Porn enthusiasts
• Monster girl, kemonomimi, humanoid enthusiasts (Not furry, barely furry enthusiasts)

In the middle there is an overlap of traffic of unknown size. A lot of the traffic is going to be from people who have a fetish for furry art in general or have an attraction towards one or more furry characters. I think most visitors would fall into this group. Also we have to take into consideration that we allow humanoid art as well. Any high quality kemonomimi, animal humanoid, monster girl art that would appear on any hentai gallery can also be uploaded here. People who like this kind of art may not necessarily associate as a furry or even care about the furry content on the site.

I can't answer this question accurately, but my opinion is that most visitors will not be traditional furries, and most come here for the porn. There are going to be a lot of furry enthusiasts that visit the site who appreciate the art more than the lifestyle.

Thanks for clearing up a lot of this confusion for me I wasn't insinuating really anything, or trying to dictate anything, I was just curious as to how many people on here identified as actual furries.

I made this thread when I had zero sleep, so it's not as accurate as it should be, because I am aware that furries generally interact online and only a handful go to conventions, or even have fur suits because it's so expensive.

I was also mainly talking about virtual fursonas, having the physical one was kind of unnecessary to be a true furry.

Everything you said makes a lot of sense I didn't take a lot of that into consideration, because you just get labeled as a furry just for liking furry content on the outside.

I mean I personally don't like looking at the kemonomimi art on here, I mainly go to Danbooru for that.

Thank you for your long and detailed reply, I'm glad that there are more people on here that share just the appreciation for furry art and porn, but are not exactly furries.

I was beginning to think I didn't belong here because I wasn't exactly a furry, all the comments sometimes get extremely furry and and I don't know how to join it really.

watsit said:
I haven't been to a convention in over 10 years (and when I did go, it was only a few times mainly to see what it was like). Never had nor care to have a fursuit, nor have a "fursona". I don't even had a consistent avatar I use for myself. I'm also quite introverted, so I'm not terribly active in any community. But I definitely consider myself a furry. I quite like the art and designs, and find the creatures themselves to be interest-grabbing (if something has anthros and/or fantasy animals in it, I generally take a bit more interest in it because of that).

I guess they're just truly is too much misinformation when it comes to the fandom then, I honestly thought I was well-educated in it.. then again I did make this when I had no sleep

It gets kind of lonely cause I'm the only one that seems to understand the fandom.. or at least I'm one of the few.

I guess I've been cultured by too much popular people in the fandom that is giving me a broad perspective of the entire fandom, that is not entirely accurate

I honestly thought a lot of furries even if they didn't have fursonas identified with certain animal traits and match them to their personalities, like 2 the ranting gryphon, but I guess I was wrong about that too.

solemnangel said:
I honestly thought a lot of furries even if they didn't have fursonas identified with certain animal traits and match them to their personalities, like 2 the ranting gryphon, but I guess I was wrong about that too.

It's possible a lot, many, if not most furries do have a fursona or identify with certain animal traits. I just wouldn't say it was necessary to have for someone to be a furry, it's just an expression of their furriness.

I use it because it's a porn site that isn't flowing viruses and ads.

A whole bunch I'm sure, and a whole lot more who are in denial ;)

I don't think of myself as a furry but i mostly visit this site because comics are ordered, easy to find and uploads are frequent and well tagged(unlike r34). Also the site search engine is something i have never seen anywhere else.

Thanks for everybody's responses, I feel like I understand this community a little bit more now.

I'm glad it's not all furries and has a bit more variety than I thought, and I do agree this site objectively has the best tagging and searching tools.

When it comes to other image boards/archives, they can't hold a candle to e621.

I'd like to just say that a lot of zoophiles also use this site, and while some of them consider themselves furries, many don't. Of those who don't, most have an interest primarily in feral art over anthropomorphic art. While there's a lot of overlap in what the two groups like, and perhaps some interesting conversations to be had about the links between the two, both zoos and furries tend to consider the distinction between them to be important.

It's a pretty substantial group worth keeping in mind when discussing these sorts of topics.

clawdragons said:
I'd like to just say that a lot of zoophiles also use this site, and while some of them consider themselves furries, many don't. Of those who don't, most have an interest primarily in feral art over anthropomorphic art. While there's a lot of overlap in what the two groups like, and perhaps some interesting conversations to be had about the links between the two, both zoos and furries tend to consider the distinction between them to be important.

It's a pretty substantial group worth keeping in mind when discussing these sorts of topics.

Noted, thanks I honestly kind of forgot about that group.. because I can't really associate zoophiles with like.. cartoonized ferals or even Pokemon.

I mean would you consider feral Pokemon to be zoophile like?

I just see them as a kind of fantasy creature, I would only see it that way with realistic animals.

So if you're talking about the realistic 3D rendered animals, that would be the only zoophile like content right?

Common sense would assume people wouldn't take interest into anthropomorphic centric websites if they have no interest in anthropomorphic centric websites. So it would be a very safe risk to bet that anyone who bothered creating an account here for anything outside of trolling is a participant of the anthropomorphic fandom.

solemnangel said:
Noted, thanks I honestly kind of forgot about that group.. because I can't really associate zoophiles with like.. cartoonized ferals or even Pokemon.

I mean would you consider feral Pokemon to be zoophile like?

I just see them as a kind of fantasy creature, I would only see it that way with realistic animals.

So if you're talking about the realistic 3D rendered animals, that would be the only zoophile like content right?

Most of the zoophiles I like are definitely fans of drawn feral artwork. Feral Pokemon are a subset of that, but another fairly popular one all the same.

Think about it like this. If someone finds themselves looking at drawn art of humans (hentai or whatever), does that mean they suddenly aren't attracted to actual humans? No, someone who looks at that stuff can be (and usually is) attracted to humans. It's no different here.

I can't really speak for most other zoophiles on this point, but I'm not much a fan of 3d rendered art and generally avoid it.

Hopefully that clears some stuff up.

I'm essentially what you'd call a "closetted furry". I may not have things like fursuits (shit's expensive to make), or go to conventions, but I have what is essentially a fursona, though I also have a robosona that I've used for longer, so make of that what you will. I very much consume furry content frequently, whether that be SFW art or porn. Most of the artists I follow are furries, or draw furry content.

The reason I don't come out as a furry publicly is due to the negative stigma the fandom has, like the whole "savages who fuck real animals" stereotype, mostly due to all the zoophiles who are a part of it. Rule of cautious commenting judgment dictates that I cannot go into detail about my opinions on the group, at least not without potentially causing a fight to take place, and thus derailing the thread.

Anyway, so personally: Not a true furry, but I very much have an extended interest in furry content, and thus this site.

variabley said:
I'm essentially what you'd call a "closetted furry". I may not have things like fursuits (shit's expensive to make), or go to conventions, but I have what is essentially a fursona, though I also have a robosona that I've used for longer, so make of that what you will. I very much consume furry content frequently, whether that be SFW art or porn. Most of the artists I follow are furries, or draw furry content.

The reason I don't come out as a furry publicly is due to the negative stigma the fandom has, like the whole "savages who fuck real animals" stereotype, mostly due to all the zoophiles who are a part of it. Rule of cautious commenting judgment dictates that I cannot go into detail about my opinions on the group, at least not without potentially causing a fight to take place, and thus derailing the thread.

Anyway, so personally: Not a true furry, but I very much have an extended interest in furry content, and thus this site.

I can understand your fear to be honest, the public eye loves to put a magnifying glass over anything that's even remotely different, and try to come up with anything to make them look bad.

I feel like I'm in the minority though, I just don't see the point in making people who are different feel like they're "freaks" I better stop right now before I actually get riled up though.. haha

(I'm also aware that sick fucks who hurt animals masquerade in the fandom, like you said. Which would probably make anybody want to stay quiet about even the word furry itself.)

variabley said:
I'm essentially what you'd call a "closetted furry". I may not have things like fursuits (shit's expensive to make), or go to conventions, but I have what is essentially a fursona, though I also have a robosona that I've used for longer, so make of that what you will. I very much consume furry content frequently, whether that be SFW art or porn. Most of the artists I follow are furries, or draw furry content.

The reason I don't come out as a furry publicly is due to the negative stigma the fandom has, like the whole "savages who fuck real animals" stereotype, mostly due to all the zoophiles who are a part of it. Rule of cautious commenting judgment dictates that I cannot go into detail about my opinions on the group, at least not without potentially causing a fight to take place, and thus derailing the thread.

Anyway, so personally: Not a true furry, but I very much have an extended interest in furry content, and thus this site.

I can understand your fear to be honest, the public eye loves to put a magnifying glass over anything that's even remotely different, and try to come up with anything to make them look bad.

I feel like I'm in the minority though, I just don't see the point in making people who are different feel like they're "freaks" I better stop right now before I actually get riled up though.. haha

(I'm also aware that sick fucks who hurt animals masquerade in the fandom, like you said. Which would probably make anybody want to stay quiet about even the word furry itself.)

clawdragons said:
Most of the zoophiles I like are definitely fans of drawn feral artwork. Feral Pokemon are a subset of that, but another fairly popular one all the same.

Think about it like this. If someone finds themselves looking at drawn art of humans (hentai or whatever), does that mean they suddenly aren't attracted to actual humans? No, someone who looks at that stuff can be (and usually is) attracted to humans. It's no different here.

I can't really speak for most other zoophiles on this point, but I'm not much a fan of 3d rendered art and generally avoid it.

Hopefully that clears some stuff up.

It definitely clears up a lot of stuff thank you, I've got no problem with drawn Feral, my philosophy is: if you can't distinguish it from a real life animal, then it's fine most drawn feral look like Pokemon to me.

I also dislike 3D animated realistic beastiality porn, but I won't hate on it it's just not my thing.

I come here for porn. In fact I have only one non explicit favorite and it's still pretty good fap material.
I have some interests that aren't possible in real life and not that common in hentai either, at least presented in a way that I enjoy.
So I guess that makes me a degenerate, not a furry.

hexen said:
I come here for porn. In fact I have only one non explicit favorite and it's still pretty good fap material.
I have some interests that aren't possible in real life and not that common in hentai either, at least presented in a way that I enjoy.
So I guess that makes me a degenerate, not a furry.

Hope your joking about the degenerate label, I personally think that's stupid.

You are only a degenerate if you hurt someone or some thing.

Having a strange fetish does not make you a degenerate.

The public is a hypocrite, they probably have strange fetishes too, they just won't admit it.

So by that logic everyone is a degenerate.. Lol no.

I'm just here because I can. I prefer real stuff.

solemnangel said:
Hope your joking about the degenerate label, I personally think that's stupid.

You are only a degenerate if you hurt someone or some thing.

Having a strange fetish does not make you a degenerate.

The public is a hypocrite, they probably have strange fetishes too, they just won't admit it.

So by that logic everyone is a degenerate.. Lol no.

Well, I was kind of joking and some people enjoy being "degenerates" anyway.
Still, it's a complex question to me when I think about it. Why do I enjoy things I enjoy? Can it get "worse"? Hell if I know.

only ones in denial

Fursuiters are irrelevant. Genetic engineering is the future.

hexen said:
Well, I was kind of joking and some people enjoy being "degenerates" anyway.
Still, it's a complex question to me when I think about it. Why do I enjoy things I enjoy? Can it get "worse"? Hell if I know.

I'm sure there is a perfectly valid reason for why you do, but I still stand by what I said, degeneracy is an act, not a thought.

Once you touch a child, rape someone, kill someone, physically hurt someone and get off to it, only THEN will you be a true degenerate.

Edit: And no that doesn't mean murrsuiters are ones either, because it's still consensual regardless how strange it might be to others.

lance_armstrong said:
Fursuiters are irrelevant. Genetic engineering is the future.

Amen to that.

solemnangel said:
I'm sure there is a perfectly valid reason for why you do, but I still stand by what I said, degeneracy is an act, not a thought.

Once you touch a child, rape someone, kill someone, physically hurt someone and get off to it, only THEN will you be a true degenerate.

Edit: And no that doesn't mean murrsuiters are ones either, because it's still consensual regardless how strange it might be to others.

Well, I suppose you're right.
I still have my own thoughts on that term (it's kind of a shifting spectrum to me) but that's not a very exciting forum discussion.