Hey all, I had a bit of a spontaneous idea and wanted to throw it out there for discussion:
Wouldn’t it be interesting if there was a federated, decentralized platform specifically tailored for the furry community—something that could serve as an alternative to centralized spaces like FurAffinity, WikiFur, etc.?
Let me explain a bit:
FurAffinity (FA) – Probably the largest and longest-running furry art and content platform. It’s where most people host their art, stories, and fursonas. But it’s fully centralized—one site, one set of rules, one point of failure. Moderation controversies and outdated features have led to a lot of frustration in the community over the years.
WikiFur – A community-run encyclopedia that’s been around forever. It’s super informative and has a ton of historical/cultural content, but again, it’s centralized. It’s also not very interactive or accessible for casual users who just want quick slang lookups or term definitions.
•SoFurry - Focused on written content (furry stories and erotica), plus art and music.
Has social features, groups, and forums.
More modern features than FA, but smaller audience.
•FurryNetwork - /Social-media style layout (more like Twitter or Facebook).
Focus on art portfolios and NSFW-friendly.
Centralized and not very actively maintained anymore.
•FurVilla - MMO/forum hybrid with virtual pets and community events.
Strong community element, although it leans more toward a furry-themed game.
•Weasyl - A community art site launched as a modern FA competitor.
Open-source, more advanced features, but never caught on at scale.
Development is slow, community is small but loyal.
etc.
Now obviously, Pawb.Social is already a furry-run Lemmy instance, and I love that we’re carving out furry space(s) in the broader Fediverse.
But I was imagining something a bit more purpose-built—a platform that’s:
Fully federated and decentralized
Designed by, and exclusively for, furries
Combines elements of:
A Lemmy-style discussion space (but specifically furry-centric)
A Furry Dictionary/Encyclopedia, similar in function to Urban Dictionary or Merriam-Webster, but focused on furry terms, slang, lore, species archetypes, cultural norms, history, etc.
Think: a living, community-maintained knowledge base—exclusively furry in focus.
Something truly ours.
Ideally this would be its own standalone federated platform—not just a Lemmy instance, not just another Mastodon server—something unique that could still interoperate with the Fediverse, but serve a more tailored role for our niche.
Unfortunately, I personally don’t have the coding ability or the time to take on something like this, but I wanted to throw it out into the aether and see if:
Anyone else has thought about something similar?
Something like this already exists?
Or maybe someone here has the chops (or interest) to explore it?
Would love to hear your thoughts, even if it’s just “cool but impractical” or “here’s a tool that already does part of that.” or "that sounds like shite. "
On the surface, I don't disagree with anything you're saying. But...
Once a single product or service reaches the "everyone's using it" status, it's very hard to compete against that. This is especially true for social media. People will use whatever platform their friends and interests are on. FurAffinity has that status. The website isn't very nice to use, and it has had its fair share of controversies and even security issues, but users are still there. Because "everyone" is. We are seeing this live right now with how hard it is to actually get people to leave Reddit.
What features would this "furry-centric" discussion space have that Lemmy doesn't, for example? I have a long list of things I'd like to see improved in Lemmy and in the Fediverse in general, but none of them are things only furries would want. Could you give some concrete examples of what you would like this new platform to have?
And finally, people actually use WikiFur? It's been years since my last visit... What kinds of things you all are looking up there? I'm genuinely curious.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_effect