ZA Furries

ZA Furries (also known as ZAFur) is a South African furry regional group. The group has a website that was established in March 2008 and an associated IRC channel. The website is effectively a combination of two websites that originally used two different methods to unify the South African furry community. The elder of the sites, which was called ZAFur, comprised a community blog and IRC channel. The younger of the sites was a forum. By themselves, neither site was very successful.


 * Addresses:
 * Web site: https://www.zafur.co.za
 * Twitter: https://twitter.com/ZAFur
 * IRC: irc://irc.furnet.org/zafur

History
The original ZAFur site was established a number of years ago and went through numerous ownerships, finally ending up in the paws of Anoyomouse. The site focussed on community blogging, but didn't attract much active participation. The associated IRC channel, #ZAFur on the Furnet IRC network, was established by TigerTael and was quite popular at one point. It is still associated with the ZA Furries/ZAFur site.

In 2007, Rakuen Growlithe and Keita Haruka established another South African furry site independent of Anoyomouse in partnership with Dracius and Spike. This site was plagued with technical difficulties and was almost abandoned before even officially launching. The persistence of Rakuen Growlithe and the intervention of Kad Foxwolf opened lines of communication between Keita and Anoyomouse and a new site using the registered domains of both original sites was born. Where the original ZAfur site tried a blog approach, Rakuen Growlithe originally suggested a simple page with contact details while Keita was in favour of a forum. At present, the forum is the main part of the site with additions planned for launch at a later stage.

The site: Reason for being
ZAFur was established to unify South African furs, who have traditionally tended not to keep in touch with each other. ZA Furries aims to rectify this by offering as many options for staying in touch as possible, from IRC, through blogging to forum interaction and instant messaging, serving as a centralised hub for arranging furmeets and networking.

Administration and ownership
Anoyomouse is the main site benefactor, although Keita and Dracius both contribute to expenses. The forum itself is administered by Anoyomouse, Keita, Dracius and Kad Foxwolf, with Rakuen Growlithe as Super Moderator. Although neither Rakuen Growlithe nor Kad Foxwolf contributes to the site finances, they each assist with the site, with Kad as Admin to facilitate and arrange furmeets.

Membership
As of October 8, 2013, the site is home to over 200 furs, with some participation from as far afield as Canada, Poland and Australia. Although the site is South African, and most members are South African, the site is open to any that wish to join, in accordance with the South African tradition of hospitality.