Talk:Mark Merlino

I'm thinking maybe the link to FurryStuff.com should be deleted. Not because there's anything wrong with the idea, but because there's just not much there. IN particular, the "What do we Do" and "Stuff to See and Hear" links lead to pages that are completely blank except for a nice shaded background.

If this were Wikipedia, I'd just delete the link on my own because it's not very useful. THe rules may be somewhat looser here on wikifur, so I'm just putting this here on the discussion page.

--Barry Gold


 * I would disagree. First off, there are pages with content on the site, even a (half-assed) online store. Second, sometimes what is not present speaks just as loudly as what is; I don't know any of the people involved, but it apppears that this was an abortive attempt at a bigger-scale project that ultimately never took off. The fact that the half-finished project is still accessible on the web can lead a reader to draw conclusions about the effort and/or the people involved, for good or for ill. On that basis, I think that justifies leaving the link in place.DuncanDaHusky(talk) 19:33, 15 April 2006 (UTC)

Usenet thread about Mark Merlino's influence on fandom
Excuse the long URL, but I wandered across a thread from 2003 about Mark Merlino. http://groups.google.ca/group/alt.fan.furry/browse_frm/thread/f7ef5797f092a37e/d1a4b4461ba1c6dd?tvc=1&q=shaterri&hl=en#d1a4b4461ba1c6dd There might be some quotations of use, perhaps even something worth citing, tucked in there. -- Sine 23:28, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

CrushYiffDestroy article about Merlino
Because there is a stigma about CYD, I don't know if I should add this link to the article. I would like to know how much of the CYD article is true.

http://www.crushyiffdestroy.com/show/merlino


 * One reason CYD has a "stigma" is that it is hard to tell whether or not their information is at all reliable. Even where they do give some references, they pad out the actual facts with conjecture, opinion and rumour, because that is what will attract attention.
 * Mark has stated that the rumour about free memberships is not true (although to be fair we could do with a reference there). There is a denial elsewhere from Darrel Exline regarding the elevator incident. One of the items of research that was neglected was looking up the advertisement for CF8 in a "gay-themed magazine", information about which is here and here. It's remarkably less interesting than you might think.
 * As for the rest, on the whole the facts do not seem particularly contentious:
 * Mark is considered among the founders of furry fandom, and took deliberate actions aimed towards increasing its size; it would probably have grown without his help, but perhaps not as fast,
 * Mark was a co-founder of the Cartoon/Fantasy Organization
 * Mark is gay and in a long-term relationship with Rod O'Reily
 * Mark played some part in obtaining some artwork later used within Other Suns
 * Mark created Skiltaire
 * Mark and Rod have a house called The Prancing Skiltaire
 * Mark has used MUCKs, possibly even for TinySex (unlike the vast majority of the fandom, which use them for non-sexual My Little Pony roleplaying)
 * Mark and Rod ran furry parties and subsequently were the heads of ConFurence for nine years, decided to give it up amid controversy over its management, yet still continued to help fund it to some unspecified level until it folded
 * Naturally, since CYD has a negative view of the fandom, Computolio's conjectures for Mark's motives regarding all of the above are also negative. Frankly, I don't think he has any authority on the subject. He makes no claims to have been in the fandom at the time; his cited sources are "many furries (especially the disgruntled ones)". --GreenReaper(talk) 23:49, 19 December 2007 (UTC)