Furgasmic.com

Furgasmic.com was an adult furry Role-playing website. The website closed in February 2008, and the only part of Furgasmic still running are the #furgasmic and #furgasmicyiff chat rooms on the FurNet IRC network.

Since its conception in 2006, it underwent several changes both in the software used and in the way the forum was run. In February 2007, Furgasmic included forums, a shoutbox, user image galleries and a chat function plus an offsite IRC chatroom.

• Addresses:
  • Website: http://www.furgasmic.com/
  • IRC:
    • irc://irc.furnet.org/furgasmic
    • irc://irc.furnet.org/furgasmicyiff
• Founder: Rhianna Ravenclaw
• Administrators: Rhianna Ravenclaw, Taryn
• Ran from/to: 4th July, 2006 - 18th February, 2008

History

The creation of Furgasmic.com was not a snap decision but rather an attempt to fill a void left, in the opinion of many of the site's members, by other furry websites. Heavy-handed moderation and various controversial decisions on other sites caused the future administrators to strive to create a new community wherein intimidation and favoritism would not take place.

The first incarnation of Furgasmic - essentially still in place as it formed the basis upon which the other features have been built upon - was created on 4th July, 2006 within the space of one afternoon. Within 24 hours of the forum being opened, nearly 75 new users had registered accounts with most of those users still active as of February 2007.

Furgasmic.com attracted over 600 members in the first seven months it was active with new users joining on a daily basis. The forum started with news of its creation only being passed on through word of mouth.

As of February 18th, 2008, Furgasmic closed its website and everything therein was lost, however the chat-rooms remain and are still active with many of the old regulars. There are rumors of former users raising a new board to re-gather themselves, but nothing is known yet.

Features

Forums

The General Discussion section of the site was arguably also the most active with discussion of various topical issues happening on a daily basis. Unlike many other sites of its type, Furgasmic.com did not consider discussion of potentially controversial issues as taboo and this made the site more popular with its users.

In spite of this relaxed approach to forum topics, the moderation team opted to take a zero-tolerance policy on underage users, after concerns were raised about members. Any user reported to the admin team as potentially being underage was required to submit proof that they were legally of age within their country. This proof can include, but is not limited to; passports, driving licenses, etc. Any user who refused or was unable to submit viable evidence within a 24 hour period was subjected to an immediate ban. In addition there was a cautionary warning before guests can view the index page that warns of the adult content in advance.

Profile pages

Besides the forums themselves, Furgasmic.com's adult theme had spurred on its creators to include various profile fields to help their users identify traits they find agreeable in a roleplaying counterpart. Some have jokingly argued that the profiles are so concise that it makes the forum's Character Information section slightly unnecessary.

IRC

While the site had a new chat system, the FurNet-based IRC chatroom still remained by far the most popular way for the forum users to chat in realtime. Currently there are several in-chat ops and the main room for Furgasmic is - surprisingly to some - PG-13. For those who wish to roleplay in a more adult environment, there is another room specifically for that.

Shoutbox

The shoutbox was the latest addition to the site. There were concerns about potential abuse of this feature and it was pointed out by admin that this will be removed at the first sign of trouble.

Forum staff

Several new moderators were added to help both Rhianna and Taryn manage the ever growing number of users. The moderation team, excluding admin, included:

• Kobura - General Discussion
• Thalassa - Member Creations
• Vulpes Proeliator - Non-Yiffy Roleplaying
• Neco Kat - Public Yiffy Roleplaying/Private Yiffy Roleplaying
• Dark Claw - Other Yiffy Roleplaying

Users

Within seven months of Furgasmic.com's creation, over 600 users registered. Unlike other furry forums, Furgasmic.com generally did not encourage the creation of multiple user accounts and a unique feature of the site was a user's ability to list various alternate fursonas played within a single profile. This feature greatly cut the number of problems that manifest on forums where alternate accounts are more prolific and allowed roleplayers to more easily identify characters and their counterparts.

As a forum that didn't overly advertise itself, Furgasmic.com was originally created to be a close, tight-knit group of dedicated roleplayers, since many of the early members were invited with this goal in mind. Due to this, a lot of the site and the features within were created through both Rhianna and Taryn working closely with the users to utilize the knowledge and talents they possess. It was a small surprise that the site administrators and moderators are seasoned roleplayers themselves and frequently participated in topics within the board.