Well, on one hand, I do think maybe the "zoomers" are a bit more annoying this time around, but I don't think that's entirely their fault. Like, there was a movement for quite a few years to just straight up ban minors from furry conventions, and obviously this targeted "zoomers". I mean, I was against this because "we're not sex perverts" and also "we are sex perverts, no kids allowed" were common stances held by a lot of furries who just apparently did not see the very obvious contradiction here (obvious caveat that Megaplex in Florida gets a pass because their hand was forced), but it also turned out to have the, in hindsight, obvious consequence of telling a lot of kids that "we don't like you and want you to go away", and now we're surprised when these kids internalized this message and don't like us now. Like, they're kind of being assholes about it, but we were kind of assholes to them first, so, like, I mean, to fold the other subthread into it, is really that surprising they're one-starring all of our comments, metaphorically speaking? (This is not an apology to Colin or whoever it is, by the way; that guy's an asshole.)
We're all so worried about gatekeeping, but failed to notice we were gatekeeping an entire generation. It's understandable they're a bit pissy about it.
That is a strong ending to this comment, and I should stop there, but, yeah, right, I'd also like to say their is a bit of stigma around kids "growing out" of the fandom. Like, the Juggalo's daughter is a prime example; I think she got bored with it and got out, and I think that's okay. Like, I think the vast majority of furries are just kids who are experimenting with a fun hobby, and, yeah, they often take it too seriously because they're kids, and then they grow up and realize, eh, it's not that important or fun for them anymore, and maybe they wasted a bit too much of their parents' money and/or time on that partial fursuit, but, oh, well. I think a problem is that a lot of adults still take it a bit too seriously; I mean, if you're making furry part of your identity, that's fine, but I think we need a bit more understanding of people who don't.
I do feel there is a lot of gatekeeping in furry against "casual" fans. And I think one thing that the younger generation doesn't understand is how nasty the Internet in general was to furries just a generation ago. I think a lot of furries of our generation are still kind of on a war footing, never mind that war's both mostly over and we mostly won. I mean, the Megaplex thing kind of tells us, okay, it's not over over, but actually most people are okay with furry, maybe even kind of like us and/or it now, and the loud annoying assholes who don't are, sure, loud and annoying assholes, but not actually existential threats. Like, a decade ago, the reaction from most non-furries who were aware of furries to, say, the fucking litterbox thing would've been, "haha, that's funny because fuck furries" but the reaction at the time from people who were aware of furries was "haha, that's funny because furries don't do that". I mean, there was still a danger there, because there are still a lot of people who don't know what furries are, but once again, that's a smaller and smaller group people as time goes on. And I think this is part of the "everyone not a furry hates furries" mindset, but there is still a need to remind people you can have non-furry friends. In fact it's probably a good idea to have them, because you kind of get tunnel vision without it.
Anyway, so I guess to the kids, bear with the olds, it kind of sounds stupid to say out loud they're suffering PTSD from some old Internet slapfights, but, actually, kind of yeah, also they don't get to town very often. To the adults, bear with the kids, they're kids, also we haven't actually been that nice and welcoming to them as we think we have.
Well, on one hand, I do think maybe the "zoomers" are a bit more annoying this time around, but I don't think that's entirely their fault. Like, there was a movement for quite a few years to just straight up ban minors from furry conventions, and obviously this targeted "zoomers". I mean, I was against this because "we're not sex perverts" and also "we are sex perverts, no kids allowed" were common stances held by a lot of furries who just apparently did not see the very obvious contradiction here (obvious caveat that Megaplex in Florida gets a pass because their hand was forced), but it also turned out to have the, in hindsight, obvious consequence of telling a lot of kids that "we don't like you and want you to go away", and now we're surprised when these kids internalized this message and don't like us now. Like, they're kind of being assholes about it, but we were kind of assholes to them first, so, like, I mean, to fold the other subthread into it, is really that surprising they're one-starring all of our comments, metaphorically speaking? (This is not an apology to Colin or whoever it is, by the way; that guy's an asshole.)
We're all so worried about gatekeeping, but failed to notice we were gatekeeping an entire generation. It's understandable they're a bit pissy about it.
That is a strong ending to this comment, and I should stop there, but, yeah, right, I'd also like to say their is a bit of stigma around kids "growing out" of the fandom. Like, the Juggalo's daughter is a prime example; I think she got bored with it and got out, and I think that's okay. Like, I think the vast majority of furries are just kids who are experimenting with a fun hobby, and, yeah, they often take it too seriously because they're kids, and then they grow up and realize, eh, it's not that important or fun for them anymore, and maybe they wasted a bit too much of their parents' money and/or time on that partial fursuit, but, oh, well. I think a problem is that a lot of adults still take it a bit too seriously; I mean, if you're making furry part of your identity, that's fine, but I think we need a bit more understanding of people who don't.
I do feel there is a lot of gatekeeping in furry against "casual" fans. And I think one thing that the younger generation doesn't understand is how nasty the Internet in general was to furries just a generation ago. I think a lot of furries of our generation are still kind of on a war footing, never mind that war's both mostly over and we mostly won. I mean, the Megaplex thing kind of tells us, okay, it's not over over, but actually most people are okay with furry, maybe even kind of like us and/or it now, and the loud annoying assholes who don't are, sure, loud and annoying assholes, but not actually existential threats. Like, a decade ago, the reaction from most non-furries who were aware of furries to, say, the fucking litterbox thing would've been, "haha, that's funny because fuck furries" but the reaction at the time from people who were aware of furries was "haha, that's funny because furries don't do that". I mean, there was still a danger there, because there are still a lot of people who don't know what furries are, but once again, that's a smaller and smaller group people as time goes on. And I think this is part of the "everyone not a furry hates furries" mindset, but there is still a need to remind people you can have non-furry friends. In fact it's probably a good idea to have them, because you kind of get tunnel vision without it.
Anyway, so I guess to the kids, bear with the olds, it kind of sounds stupid to say out loud they're suffering PTSD from some old Internet slapfights, but, actually, kind of yeah, also they don't get to town very often. To the adults, bear with the kids, they're kids, also we haven't actually been that nice and welcoming to them as we think we have.