Chat of Dignified Respect or Unapologitic Cringe? Depends on your furry streamer
Many furries had left the platform formerly known as Twitter, and I myself had moved onto bluer skies. While not as active as I once was, I have hung around to keep an eye on things. Streamers typically use it as a simple content regurgitator, but it’s mostly very simple content. It’s rare that any content stirs conversation these days, probably bebcause the bot army with the blue checkmarks will come around and "um, actually" followed by a talking point for the site's owner. But sometimes the steamer stars align to create an unintentional talking point.
One day apart the stream recap clips of Gebbous and Wolfffff posted content when they were discussing with chat their expectations for decorum, which ended up in such a way on my timeline where these two people were almost having a debate they didn’t even know they were involved in. However, in the more active internet where fans engage with the creators in real time it shows how diverse the expectations are even within the furry fandom when it comes from the behaviors of those beyond the fourth wall.
Dignified Respect
While engaging his chat, Gebbous, a Filipino streamer who has a classily dressed dragon avatar discusses boundaries to his channel in response to a fan discussing their feeling for their previous avatar.
‘Are you still going to use that old avatar? I’d scratch or stroke— —’
See See, that’s the kind of weird comments, Godwin, that you should avoid because that’s what I see a lot on TikTok. “Ooh can I pet it? I would boop the snoot with my snoot. I will cross my legs across your neck and…”
Redacted, I can’t read the rest.
[…] Just because I am furry or an anthro doesn’t mean I’m like every other furry where you can bump your face into mine, or your body on mine, or wrap your arms around me without my consent. Treat me as any other human being, a stranger on the street.
-Gebbous; [formerly Twitter link]
He highlights the importance of getting to know people before crossing the line into physical touches and having consent. Though if I were to change any part of this it would be that this should mostly hold to “every other furry” as well and not just Gebbous.
Unless of course you do run into the exception.
Unapologetic and Cringe
On the other side of the spectrum comes a clip from Wolfffff_VT, whose mannerisms and dress are less reserved. He responds to a person in chat who is dipping their toe in the water when it comes to how weird they can get in chat. In response he lets it clearly be known that he’s all for skipping the formalities and just letting the intimacy flow and that the internet of his space is for people to explore more openly.
‘Is it wrong to admit I want to be hugged and given headpats?’
That is not only [not] wrong, that’s the most honest thing anyone’s ever said to me! That’s literally the goal of my stream is for people to come on here and be like ‘God Damn, I wanna be a dumb little pubby slut that people, like, treat like a pet— Or, like, whatever version that you want.
I-I’m trying to be the most myself I can be to inspire people that you can be ‘cringe and free’ like me! Be cringe as hell.
--Wolfffff’ [formerly Twitter link]
Reading the Room(s)
When it comes to engagement, and the variety of individuals in the fandom it could lead to confusion in how to interact. One of the rules that’s always good no matter the situation is to avoid exceeding the creator’s vibe when it comes to the broaching of adult topics. While everyone would like one set of rules for all places, the truth is we all are capable of understanding that different environments require different decorum.
Another example, which wasn’t brought up in the clips here, is that one should also not demand of a content creator that they meet you at your level of prude-ness if their more risqué channel is properly noted toward the kind of content they provide. A person demanding a PG-13 to R rated space caters to a G to PG minded chat member can be just as detrimental to the content as a generally safe for work being bombarded with PG-13 parasocial glomping. In the words of Robert Frost: Good fences make good neighbors.
One of the challenges of the internet is with millions of people talking to each other with many differing rules regarding boundaries, you may not find one of these boarders until you have already crossed it. If you did and you get called on it, don’t fret too much on it, in the grand waves of the internet it is a small mustard stain on a shirt that will only continually garner attention if you continually draw attention to it to others. There are many fish in the sea, so somewhere out there should be a furry content creator who hits your vibes.
And on the other side of the aisle, as a content creator you may have to begrudgingly reiterate the boundaries you do have every once in a while as new people come in and don’t know them. You could attempt to mitigate this by having some kind of terms spelled out for the audience, but that is of course no guarantee people will read them. Try to be patient, unless they clearly are acting with malicious intent or do so repeatedly despite warning.
About the author
Sonious (Tantroo McNally) — read stories — contact (login required)a project coordinator and Kangaroo from CheektRoowaga, NY, interested in video games, current events, politics, writing and finance
Furry since 2001.
Flayrah contributor since 2010.
Flayrah editor since 2017.
Runner of Non-Fiction furry YouTube channel "World in Rooview" started in 2017.
Comments
Perhaps it does help to approach as if from off-campus. I recall seeing a non-furry respond to one of the quite legendary Tilt Longtail's more provocative videos on YouTube, writing into the comments the observation that he's "like the missing Banana Split".
Tilt called this the greatest compliment he's ever received.
Read the room, indeed.
StratoKasta
A Philippian streamer? I think you meant Filipino.
No, obviously, this is a streamer from the Greek city of Philippi, famous as the apostle Paul's "chat" (more traditionally translated as "brothers and sisters") in a couple epistles.
Correct, thanks for pointing that out.
Are there any other words like this where the plural causes the first letter of the word to change?
From my understanding, the Spanish-origin Filipino came before the English translation of The Philippines why English changed Filipinas to start with Ph, I do not know.
Gebbous is mostly right, but chatters to a streamer are not like "a stranger on the street" or two disparate patrons in a cafe. Rather, sociologically, the streamer and the chatter engage in an unbalanced relationship: one is the focus and expected to provide emotional labor as part of their duties, by nature of this form of live entertainment; the viewer watches to be entertained, and sometimes to interact with the streamer. This distinction doesn't change his expectation of boundaries, but provides a clearer foundation for understanding the dynamic. If the expectations of these interactions emulated true strangers in public, the messages be few and ephemeral: "Excuse me", "Pardon me", "Nice shirt". So there is a lower boundary for intimacy in a livestream.
On the upper end of the spectrum, the streamer is constantly regulating the appropriateness of interactions they are receiving to their level of comfort. But, importantly, this upper end is dependent on who the streamer understands the speaker to be. A close friend may be allowed to be more intimate, while a standard viewer is not granted that, similar to what Gebbous said. This complexity adds to the labor of the streamer, wherever they set their boundaries. And that labor may even include doing an explanation on the streamer's policy, as Gebbous did in response to an inappropriate remark. (This all, I'd argue, resides under the emotional labor of streaming.)
And one final thing I'd like to—sort of separately—expand on that he lightly touched was the appearance of approachability and the miscalculation of intimacy. A parasocial relationship is already a term to describe part of what happens, but it compounds with something unique in our fandom (and relevant to cosplayers). Being "friend-shaped" like an anthro tricks the brain into altering our perception of approachability. "Costumes are not consent" is a common rule at conventions to remind people of this, and should be a reminder for the viewer Gebbous responded to.
After reading this post, I first thought that its content was empty and meaningless, but then I decided to learn more about the furry streamers mentioned, and I realized even more that I was right. I can't imagine how someone could seriously discuss people with <100 viewers, especially in a community like this. Does someone not like having their personal boundaries crossed by others? Things happen. This is the internet, and dealing with such claims from streamers is like dealing with who insulted IShowSpeed again
I mean Flayrah has never really been about the numbers of a content creator and assigning that value to a topic.
(Because I'm sure Flayrah's numbers are also not that great in the grand scheme of the internet)
(You didn't have to add that last part roo)
The individuals involved are irrelevant. It's the topic that is brought up that is of interest and it's a topic which is played out daily in millions of chat rooms around the world.
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~
Not a bad discussion. And I like this: "One of the rules that’s always good no matter the situation is to avoid exceeding the creator’s vibe when it comes to the broaching of adult topics."
But really this just feels like people that have been poorly socialised. Read the room. Some places are more adult or more open. Some places are not. Observe what others are doing (and read the rules) and behave appropriately. This is the same in real life. The way you can behave in your friends house is different to how you behave at school or university and that's different to being in a library or an art gallery or in a train. Properly socialised humans should be able to adapt their behaviour to suit the norms of the environment. (And the relationship between themselves and the person with whom they are interacting.)
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~
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