Burned Fur Ring
The Burned Fur Ring was a webring that consisted of websites that aligned themselves with the furry ideological group, the Burned Furs. The ring was founded on September 1, 1998 by Burned Furs co-founder Eric Blumrich, who also took on the role as its ringmaster. Though the webring's complete index has been lost, by September 17, 2000 the Burned Fur Ring linked to as many as 91 websites, making it the furry fandom's second largest webring behind only the FurRing.[1][2]
History[edit]
The Burned Fur Ring had its roots at the beginning of the Burned Furs movement itself. In what became known as the Burned Furs Manifesto, the group's other co-founder, Squee Rat, suggested that members display their alignment with the Burned Furs movement on their "web pages... so that everyone immediately identifies you with the saner faction of furrydom."[3] In September 1998, almost immediately after Squee Rat's manifesto was published to the Usenet newsgroup alt.lifestyle.furry, the Burned Fur Ring came online and began accepting webpages' applications to join the ring.
Conditions[edit]
To be permitted entry into the Burned Fur Ring, websites had to abide by five "regulations" set by Eric Blumrich himself:[4]
- Member webpages must have been owned or operated by fans of the "funny animal genre of comic art and popular culture." While the content of the webpages was not required to be exclusively furry-related, Blumrich would not allow websites with no "funny animal content" into the webring. He stated that " This ring is dedicated to the rehabilitation of the genre of funny animals and it's[sic] associated fan community- and member sites must reflect this."
- Websites that contained adult artwork were required to attach warnings to their website stating that material of an adult nature was present on the page. Websites with adult artwork were permitted entry into the ring so long as the page owners followed what Blumrich described as "common sense rules of decency."
- Member websites were required to include the Burned Fur Ring's navigation buttons and HTML code on their pages to ensure the smooth operation and flow of the webring.
- Member websites or applicants' sites were not allowed to include or be operated by individuals that engaged in any of the following content: Bestiality, Zoophilia, Plushophilia, Pedophilia, or Incest.
- Any website that did not follow these rules would be denied entry into the Burned Fur Ring. Any websites engaging in content that was not allowed after being accepted into the ring would be given three warnings sent by e-mail before being removed from the ring.
Fate[edit]
By the middle of 2001, the Burned Furs movement had all but ceased to exist with most members either moving on or leaving the furry fandom entirely. After Eric Blumrich's own departure from the furry community, the fate of the ring was sealed as he was the only individual that maintained it. Between April and August of 2001, the Burned Fur Ring's webpage went offline and by May 30, 2002 membership in the webring had plummeted to just 16 webpages—the majority of which were themselves abandoned.[5] There were also enough broken links scattered throughout the Burned Fur Ring's index that it was no longer navigable and thus, no longer a "ring".
References[edit]
- ↑ Neda Djeric's Artwork and Stuff. via the Wayback Machine. Last Updated September 17, 2000. Retrieved March 31, 2024.
- ↑ Hangdog's Post on alt.fan.furry. Dated September 8, 1999. Retrieved April 1, 2024.
- ↑ Burned Fur Manifesto via the Wayback Machine. Retrieved March 31, 2024.
- ↑ WEBRING REGULATIONS via the Wayback Machine. Dated October 10, 1999.Retrieved March 31, 2024.
- ↑ Burned Fur Ring Hub on Webring.com via the Wayback Machine. Dated May 30, 2002. Retrieved March 31, 2024.
External Links[edit]
- Burned Fur Ring Homepage (Archived)
- Burned Fur Ring Partial Index on Webring.com (Archived)