So, for "Grey-Muzzle" I'm going with the people that are 30-35 and above, even though I usually consider someone a grey-muzzle in the 90s and early 2000s sense, which was usually about 40-45 and up.
So, the question(s) for you is:
Has the furry fandom, in general, gotten better or worse over the years? Got any stories to share?
Are you connecting with more people in the fandom, or are you finding it harder and harder?
Do you feel like you can talk about pretty much anything with randoms in the fandom, such as just "hanging out", or do you feel you have to be a lot more "guarded"?
Have you noticed, in general, if people have been more or less social? And I mean holding conversations and chatting or posting journals and comments, not just the occasional "hi" or "buy my YCH" or favoriting and such?
Do you think there is a lack of new "anthro cartoon fans" in the fandom, and more "I'm doing it because it seems strange (in a good way)" types?
Personally, I think it has become worse as it has become bigger and more spread out.
Hear me out...
I've been in it since the late 1990s, and it was very "live and let live" and "agree to disagree" and had very diverse people in it, race, religions, creeds, politics, and so on... sure, it's always had cliques and drama, but that drama was usually some local garbage in real life.
Furry was very "libertarian" and even "punk".
Then, around the advent of social media like 2005 or so, it exploded in popularity, but then with the advent of Patreon and the likes, got more and more cordoned off and "exclusive" with a lot of little pay-2-play furry "clubs", then it got more "political"... not as in like "left vs right" but more "with-us-or-against-us" type mindset instead of "agree to disagree", people started embracing "cancel culture" and "censorship" ((Left AND Right)), and now "furry" seems to be treated more like a business in many places.
What I mean is, things like personal journals and blogs and the likes with people sharing thoughts and opinions and such started vanishing and getting replaced by "BUY MY YCH!" and "I'M TAKING COMMISSIONS!" and "PAY ME A MONTHLY FEE FOR ART YOU HAVE NO CHOICE OF" or the "furry scammers" that promise to deliver something like a game or animation if you subscribe to them only to milk their fans for every dollar possible and deliver constant excuses as to why they can't.
It's like the personality of furry got replaced with people trying to make money from furry because of the internet stereotype that furries are "SUSPICIOUSLY RICH" or "All working in tech". *chuckles*
I see people have gotten more "quiet" about any sort of opinions, and a lot of art has become more tame/homogeneous for the "fear" of "possibly offending" someone, even if that thing is harmless...
Hell, maybe that could even come from the lack of good ANTHRO-CARTOONS for people to grow up with these days?
And then the usual whatever-flavor-of-the-week "furry drama" happening that makes people "virtue signal about leaving" or their apparent "want" to be on the "ground floor" of whatever "new" social media or furry site pops up, thinking "there won't be furry drama at NEW PLACE, right?" before that new thing ultimately fails or becomes overly dramatic, then fractures the fandom more and more as people burn bridges or change personas or never come back.
The fandom is also getting A LOT "younger", like it was "almost" unheard of to see anyone under 16 in person at furry meetups the 90s and early 2000s, now you've got people bringing their single-digit-aged kids to conventions with people in full-on fetish gear and kink shit at the same time, and it just got uncomfortable for me when a lot of conventions went for the "all ages" approach to try and make "the most money", when a rather big portion of people going there are doing it for sex, drugs, and booze ((and don't pretend like it isn't, this has been one of the only constants of the furry fandom ^_^)).
I LOVE the adult side of the fandom, I just don't think kids should be around that, and that cons need to strictly be family-friendly or adult-only (and I don't mean fucking on the dance floor, I just mean only people 18-21+ depending on if there is a bar or not).
I think the worst thing for furry, in general, has been furs jumping onto mainstream "normie" social media to "chase the likes and followers" ((which are often bots)), it's been so toxic for the fandom when those social media sites are just not set up to be "art friendly" let alone "furry friendly" and made more for emotional manipulation and giving people that psychologically addictive "slot machine" feeling of "scrolling for gold".
So, what I am saying is: over the years, between cancel culture ((From the LEFT and RIGHT)), censorship ((be it from within the fandom or outside forces like social media or stupid laws)), monetizing the fandom, pushing it into "normie" spaces, and people constantly fracturing off and leaving the bigger furry spaces, it has definitely become a lot less diverse, less open, and less accepting and is starting to get what I'm calling "human-washed" as the censorship often comes after things like adult art, digitigrade characters, sheaths, quads, toony characters, so on and so forth.
I still love the fandom, but to me, it has felt less social and less "free" as more time goes on.
Also, as a funny side note.... With "The Bad Guys 2" and "Zootopia 2" coming out this year, we are about to see a massive influx of new-furs. *chuckles*
