I've been online for about 20 years, too. Of course, I was a freshman in high school at the time. That was back when the Internet was really the Wild Wild West. I first got home internet in early 1995; I was in the Windows 95 preview program, and as such, an early adopter of MSN.

It's also the moderators' job to bonk people for that kind of thing. However, there's nothing wrong with providing new content to old threads. The only thing that's not allowed is a post that solely exists to bump a thread.

1980?!?! How old ARE you?!?!?!?!

Ferrets are 1000000 years old when they come of age.

Too bleeping old, but it's better than the alternative.

"Too old" is when you start answering "What's up?" with "Still looking at the green side of the grass."

Hey,
*I* was a freshman in 1979/1980... spent way too much time on a message system called Nooz, and another called Midlerth via 300 baud modem, acoustic coupled into a DECwriter 3 terminal at the local ISD. It ran on an IBM 370/158 with a school-developed timeshare operating system called MIS. We did pretty much the same thing we're doing now and everyone had a 'screen name' and persona, most of which were Tolkein, hobbit, wizard, dwarf and elf related. I had a dog character called ..ah, nevermind. That was a long time ago.

Then I grew up, got a job at the local community college and was hooked on BBS's, Commodore 64's, and of course, the local college PDP-11.

Why won't you tell us the name of your doggy fursona (a fursona before the fandom!)? Was it embarrasing? Or was it naughty? Was it naughty? It was naughty, wasn't it? Tell us, tell us, tell, tell us!
And, c'mon, say it: "I was a Tolkien fan before it was mainstream." C'mon! You know you want to!

1980 was hardly "before the fandom".

Dissension not typing in green, now THAT's creepy!

No, no, not creepy. Just... It's just well... When I was "in character" and writing under my dog screen name, it was intentionally very, very much like Bino. Only, with a personality as big as Duchess. Very over-the-top: So picture a Lassie collie who thinks he's as famous as Rin Tin Tin, but is more like Bino with the personality of Duchess. It even came with big fanfare introduction whenever I wrote under the name "Sparky the wonderdog". I had another friend who played along - "Tonto"; and we had all kinds of virtual dust-ups on the message boards to the great delight of many of the other message board regulars. O course, I write that with a memory which is tinted with Sparky's perspective, so in reality, maybe no one ever read what we wrote. Hmm. Hard to say. This was all written somewhere around 1981 - 1985 and thankfully its nowhere to be found on the internet. I even think I finally threw out the last of my printouts about three years ago, including backed-up electronic copies on 3M 16mm magnetic tape from the mainframe.

...and that's about all there is to that story - except for a few pencil drawings circa 1984 I have laying around here somewhere. They include Brent's Tonto character, Me as Wolvy, and a dragon whose name I've long since forgotten.

in case anyone is confused, I was not role playing with him a decade before I was born. different Brent.

I've used Argent since mid-'83. Though Argent was a wolf back then. I wasn't a werewolf-type wolf, like Hunter Rose's opponent, just an ordinary digital wolf with a habit of evaporating into silvery streamers and drifting on the wind.

Lies, you are a time traveler!

Wait, but Im wolvy!

hmm... wanna hop in my time machine and go make a new friend?

I actually did (and I still do some times) some research on this, (for fun and my own bored amusement) as far as I can tell the fandom dates back to the mid to late 70s or the Early to mid 60s depending on how you want to look at it. If you go the Underground Comix (which is how it was spelled) route its about the mid 60s. (I haven't really tied down a time for that its a bit hard) If you go with a organized fandom of some kind that met at conventions (which were scifi Conventions, Furry conventions didn't split off until 1989 with ConFurence 0) and stuff its about 1976-'78. Though I admit as I'm just doing this for fun my research is not super extensive.

Oh, Underground Comix, how I love you so. That being said, I seriously don't like most of them(*cough* Fritz the Cat *cough cough*).

Wow. Topic drift here is almost RHJ forums bad. *shot*

Anyway, yes, I'm a furry. Been a furry since about 2005. Oddly enough, I've had the smae fursona since then.

Am I a furry?

To be honest, I have no idea. Part of me says I am, while another part of me screams I'm not. I guess I'm just undecided right now...

Well do you like animal people and the media that feature them, at least partially because they have animal people?That's just like a year or two longer than me, but I've had the same fursona the entire time too!

Hmmm... I'd say that you are neither AND both. It's difficult to tack a label on yourself when your not even fully aware of what that label defines.
I mean for example, i'm a 20 something year old guy who fancies gardening . No one ever comes up to me and says that i'm a "plant-y" or "garden-o-philiac" (heck not even gardener :3 ).
I'm simply a guy enjoying something that is relatively harmless and that makes me happy!
Put in a broad perspective I believe that everyone on this forum could loosely be defined as a "Furry" (or someone who likes anthropomorphic characteristics on animals and vice versa on people).
It's not a sin to be considered a furry any more than it is a sin for liking superheroes or vampires or spacemarines fighting alien robots.
At the end of the day you are who you are regardless of what others may think.

Some fandoms have names and others don't. *shrugs*

You're a firry.

He's a vegetarian! Or a gardener! Or Madam Pomfrey!

This message of love and tolerance will be inscribed as part of the book of Duster, which will in itself be part of the new testa-mony of the book of Rickyology. Lo and behold!

Whoops. I think *I* was time traveling, actually.

Back on topic: Here's a scanned sketch from 19 >cough!< eighty four:



There.

Vintage anthro art. January - March '84 or thereabouts.

Back on topic now?

Who is who in that picture (note: It's not a drawing.)?

I think I've technically been a furry since I was 9 years old, and, of course, I didn't know that there was an oficial fandom about humanoid animal characters and such.
Here's something interesting: In my country, primary and secondary schools have mandatory english courses (curses?), so I started learning english when I was 6. At first I couldn't understand anything, so I was always complaining: "English is stoopid! Why do we have to learn it at school?! It's useless!" and my mother responded "English is very important worldwide, you will be able to understand many things and get opportunities you would never achieve otherwise!" And I was like "Pffft. Whatever!" But after watchin, a few years later, Disney's Robin Hood movie, and learning it took place on england, I became more enthusiastic and thought to myself: "I'll learn english so one day I go to speak to everyone at the land of the awesome movie foxes!"
So here I am, writing nonsense in an english-speaking forum, all because I wanted to talk to Disney characters. Anyone was nearly as crazy as me when they were little? I hope not!

I was almost certainly that crazy but never with regards to cartoon animals. I did want to become a firefighter at one stage because I happened to see an episode of Barney which showed they had beds in the walls. I thought "It's a noble job, the hours are probably good and I GET A BED IN THE WALL!!!"

Fox and the Hound was probably my favourite Disney movies but mostly because I didn't see Robin Hood until later. If I had've seen it much younger, I'm sure I would have thought something similar (I want to go live in England where there are castles, and archery, and everyone is talking animals!).

I guess I'd say yes. I've always enjoyed watching shows with animals with human qualities the best when I was younger.

In that chase, the leprechaun of furryness lives within you, if only partially.

Do you still like stuff with animal people? Obviously not necessarily the same things (some children's shows, despite their cute characters, are still mind-numbing). If so, then I'd say you're probably a furry.

The leprechaun of furryness....

..... lives inside you.

Looks like I'm a furry then! :P.

A new convertee to swell our ranks, now come this way for your blood oath....

There, fixed it!

Also, that dog cracked me up! Oh sorry, I mean the leprechaun...

But... But then how is he supposed to acquire all the super powers that you obtain after the ritual? (the power of imagination, the ability to see pink elephants everywhere, being overly excited and happy all the time, shedding fur, coughing hairballs, barking at cars and chasing them, and many, many other wonderful other mut- superpowers!)

I personally believe I am not a furry, but I am a big fan of comics and friends with some really awesome ones. ^_^ even at my college I was glad to meet a few. If I was to have a fursona it would most likely be a fox, because I can be silly. Though, if I were to pick another, it would be a tiger. and haha to the ritual, that would be awesome to see. lol

Who's to say you couldn't be silly with a fursona that isn't a fox?

Rabbits are pretty silly!