So arguably "The Furry Community" can be divided into two segments: (1) What might be called "the inner circle"; those who organize the furry conventions, follow the furry newssites like Dogpatch Press, Flayrah, WikiFur, FurryFandom.es, etc., run the furry specialty publishers like FurPlanet Productions and Thurston Howl Publications, administer the furry literary awards, etc., and (2) "everybody else"; the fans who attend the furry conventions to wear fursuits or tails, party & dance, and have no interest in who puts on the furry events that they enjoy.
And the second segment is far larger than the first. That's what enables us to claim that there are 50,000 or 100,000 furry fans, when if you counted up all of those in "the inner circle", you'd be hard-pressed to get 1,000.
So arguably "The Furry Community" can be divided into two segments: (1) What might be called "the inner circle"; those who organize the furry conventions, follow the furry newssites like Dogpatch Press, Flayrah, WikiFur, FurryFandom.es, etc., run the furry specialty publishers like FurPlanet Productions and Thurston Howl Publications, administer the furry literary awards, etc., and (2) "everybody else"; the fans who attend the furry conventions to wear fursuits or tails, party & dance, and have no interest in who puts on the furry events that they enjoy.
And the second segment is far larger than the first. That's what enables us to claim that there are 50,000 or 100,000 furry fans, when if you counted up all of those in "the inner circle", you'd be hard-pressed to get 1,000.
That's harsh.
Fred Patten