FurIRC

The FurIRC IRC system is a small, privately-operated IRC network run by Klisoura (Alex Osaki) and Vulpecula.

History
The server functions primarily as a host of #FoxtailTavern, and it has served this role since August, 2004. It has resided at its current location for nearly a year, having moved servers in mid-December, 2005, and having added a second server in mid-November, 2007. With minor exceptions caused by unavoidable problems, it has been online nearly continuously since its inception.

#FoxtailTavern


The Foxtail Tavern is FurIRC's primary and by far most populous channel; all server administrators are commonly or exclusively found there. It is characterised by a small, cohesive group of around 50 individuals (around 20 of which may be online at any one time) marked by their sense of community and varying degrees of sanity.

The Tavern itself was originally conceived as an AIM chatroom spun-off from popular furry writing website Yiffstar in early May, 2004. Within the first two weeks, it developed the character--and characters--that continue to define its existence.

When the original founder of the AIM chatroom removed herself on sabbatical, the room fell into a period of decline, marked by its change from friendly chatter to flagrant sexual content. Responding to this, current owner Alex Osaki (Klisoura) and Vulpecula drew up a plan to move the Tavern to a moderated IRC format. The move was completed by the end of July and announced publicly on August 18th.

The chatroom is loosely moderated and adheres to a "don't step too hard on other people's toes" mentality, with oversight directed by its three-person operating staff. It is geared towards text-based roleplay, though the physical properties of the Tavern itself, and the world surrounding it, are only loosely defined and open to wide interpretation.

Although the room owes its existence to Yiffstar, and many of its chatters are either current or former contributors or members of that site, the room, having been burned by past experience, sticks to a policy explicitly prohibiting public sexual acts. That's what the back rooms are for, after all.