Re: Communication Platforms

On 2025-04-06, FrigidFoxtrot <[email protected]> wrote:
> Furry has spread out a lot since the days of IRC, MUCKs, and AFF.
>
> Where are you seeing folks congregate nowadays?
>
> Here's the landscape as I see it.
>
> +--------------+
>| Chat clients |
> +--------------+
> - Discord, but seems to mostly be popular with the gaming-oriented 
> crowd. This makes sense, considering it got started as a superior 
> alternative to teamspeak / mumble.
> - Telegram, killer feature is the stickers. Killed Skype because it 
> wasn't neglected by its developers. Feels like almost everyone has a 
> telegram nowadays.
> - Signal. Trying to replace telegram, but adoption rates have been 
> rather slow. The main advantage is the E2E encryption, so the only folks 
> migrating are the ones who care about this in particular.
>
> +--------+
>| Forums |
> +--------+
> - Reddit's /r/furry, mostly images. Doesn't seem to have much if any 
> discussion nowadays.
> - Reddit's /r/furry_irl, mostly memes. Seems more lively than /r/furry.
> - AFF is, of course, still clinging to life.
>
> +------+
>| MU*s |
> +------+
> - FurryMuck still exists. Logged in last summer and saw a few hundred 
> folks online.
> - Tapestries seems to be lively as well. Saw 500 accounts online when I 
> hopped on this evening.
> - Secondlife exists, though I only know one person who still logs in.
> - VRChat is the clear successor in all of this, utterly massive platform 
> with lots to do. Seemed to come into its own when the pandemic forced 
> everyone to get their social energy from the internet.