A Brief History

[Mr Barguzin]

Some of you will know this, but some will have no inkling of The Fur Den's history, or even reason for its existence, so:

 

"In the beginning, there were cave wall drawings, which when paper came along were transferred to there. Even original works were done and then paints were invented and so came pictures that still exist today. mId 19th Century and photos appear followed later on by motion pictures.... and so it was until 1980's when this thing called the Internet came into being, finally breaking thru to the general populace in the 1990s.

 

At that stage things got interesting. Folks who had images and a scanner could post those images online, at long departed sites (geociities etc) and then something else happened. Little sites appeared that catered for specific things, sitting silently out there if you had the time and patience to find them (Google wasn't all that good then... Alta Vista?? Ring any bells??)

 

One such site was set up by someone who went under the name Minkman, whilst another site was set up by a guy called Frank. That was called NTCweb, and to be honest, had I not seen this weird machine at my local video store that charged $1 per 15 mins to "go online" I would never have found it cause guess what came up on Alta Vista when I entered 'fur' into the rectangular thingy: NTCweb. My first incursion into the mysteries of fur was made in a public place, and I spent the next few weeks popping back in to visit that site and wonder at the pics and just .

 

Home computers became more popular when Intel released the DX266 ( I think that was the model name) cause I along with many others suddenly could get online and see the world at 24kps. Yes that's right folks 24000 BITS PER SECOND!!! It took Ages to get anywhere, Netscape ruled and windows 3.12 (group??) liked to do the DSOD regularly. But NTCweb was the reason for me and many others to persist viewing pics, chatting, forming friendships and acquaintances.

 

But Frank started to lose interest. He expanded the site to include all sorts of fetishistic things whilst some folks set up there own websites at geocities and through other hosts, notably FF and his beautifully scanned images from fashion mags. Oh and NTCweb didn't have to worry one little iota about censorship. It was a free-for-all in more ways than one *grin*.

 

When NTCweb was in its death-throws, up popped on the fur horizon a site that's name lives on on the Board Index of this forum : Melody O'Hair. At that time it was run by a Scandinavian who's name escapes me and he had a small fur section. Well, let's just say that that small section grew and grew. But as with everything else, it to came to pass that he lost interest and so FrBrGr (and I think a couple of others) threw Melody a lifeline, which became the Fur Den and Melody was sublimated to an off-shoot.

 

There have been some fun times here, and some real dozy of explosions, because the Fur Den is not without it's minor kerfuffles.... and no names no pack drills Mr B... oh bugger. Thus endeth the lesson."

 

Let's face it. The love of fur is a personal thing. Some like to just look, some to stroke, some to wear and some all the above and that's just the straight men So when you have a "congregation" that now comes from all places, all climates, dare I say all races, that has lasted, even if on just the efforts of three/four fine men.. nah Four White Fox, Coyote, Worker and last but by no means least, FrBrGr... even if at times they have been at odds with members over topics and what could or couldn't be linked or the thought processes that disagreed entirely with their personal belief system/ideas/ideals.

 

This place has survived for over 9 years, but for many it (this community) has been going and growing for over 19 years.

 

Members from FFG will see that whilst it is the same it isn't. A hosting company is a greatly different cup of coffee to a server stuck under the office desk, so somethings that could be done are now restricted, as I type. This does not mean that The Den won't find a way to allow FFG's freedom of expression. It just may take a while to seek and destroy the cables that entwine.

[fluffa]

Thanks Mr B.

 

I came on the scene in early 2001.

 

Think that was roughly the end of NTC and the beginning of melody.

 

Although my memory might be a bit patchy.

 

I tell you what these sites have been my savior over the years. Being a man in Australia has historically been a lonely old place for fur fetish.

 

Great to see a familiar name back!!!!

[Marcel]

Great story and now i feel old.

What did that "NTC" stand for anyway?

I can't remember.

[White Fox]

Mr B is being quite complimentary here while not mentioning one thing. He and "Mrs B" had a fantastic web site that every "Old Fart" around here will remember too. One of the best of those old sites. Wish that there were some screen shots of that one to save too.

 

Marcel I agree. I would also like to know what NTC stood for!

 

I believe that the person you are thinking of at Melody, Mr B, was FuzzyWol. Might be spelled wrong. Earendil can answer that one. I believe that part of the reason why that site went down was due to much of it's content being, shall we say, "Permanently Borrowed?" by someone else. WE won't get into that one. I so wish Janey would come back some time. She was a fantastic member of that site!

 

***One Important thing.

Way back, as mentioned, we were on another site. I became admin when this site began to exist. FrBrGr was busy after the move to this site and it was my duty to kill the old site after all had moved here.

 

I went that day thinking it would be a bit hard. I went to it. I looked around. No one there now as it was closed. Yet everything was still there. And it was up to me to go back and to pull the plug on it. To kill it. That was SO hard! So I can't believe what all of these other folks went through when their sites finally went down. Yep, the were getting on with their lives. But they were killing what almost seemed like a living and breathing entity. I will not forget that day when I had to kill the original Den, for a long, long while!

 

White Fox

[neoJaguar]

I remember browsing Mr. B's site as a teenager. Loved that site!!

[ew19975]

Great story and now i feel old.

What did that "NTC" stand for anyway?

I can't remember.

 

 

Dredging back into the memory files from a long while back... I think I remember seeing the header saying it stood for 'nails, talons, & claws' if I'm remembering correctly. Then again, it's been a few years since then (I do remember using the computer lab during college to access NTC in the mid 90's without using dial-up...)

[auzmink]

Interesting post Mr B, and I too remember all your early efforts and contributions.....

I wonder if we could put together a brief history of all the fur sites that have been in existence since the dawn of binary?

 

Auzmink

[grouchomg]

I remember NTCWeb well back in the days of telephone dial-up and those awful squeaky tones while the modem connected to the server. I built up a collection of pics from there, only to have my then wife toss them in the trash she considered my fur fetish to be weird. (I've since changed wives.)

 

It's a blessing to have The Fur Den and my appreciation goes out to all who support and manage it!

[White Fox]

Auz, I REALLY like your idea there. If someone wants to pursue this, we could make a temporary forum to do it. In fact temp 1 already exists and could be used for that. Use the forum to collect the data. Then maybe somehow store it in our Library so it could be easily and quickly found instead of being buried under thousands of message threads on top of it.

 

Again, if someone wants to do this, it is easy to do. Only takes a few minutes to open temp 1 so people can see and post in it and move it up into position. We just need someone to co-ordinate any messages that come in. Then, either they or some of our staff could move information collected into the Library for instant access later.

 

***Grouchomg, I am always so glad to hear from you here. You have such fantastic memories and experiences in fur. Such a terrific resource here for us!

[Marcel]

those awful squeaky tones while the modem connected to the server.

 

[Ravens8]

I wonder if we could put together a brief history of all the fur sites that have been in existence since the dawn of binary?

 

Don't forget this job is half done already in The Wiki Library link at the top under "Table of Contents" then "fur Den information and History.

 

Like many I guess, I can remember when the Library was set up, but no one seems to mention it now even if there is still some good stuff in it.

 

For all those members that have come here from FFG and are programmed just to post, read posts, look at galleries and that is all, for those people I suggest you explore the Wiki Library and get an appreciation of just how much information has been collated, and how much work was originally done in setting up the Fur Den site.

 

I know some of the links are dead now or contain old info, but that doesn't matter because the skeleton is there to update. The Library is in place, so dont just post and oggle on the forums go in and do some reading, and if you have some new books to add get in touch with a mod. (Sorry mods, I guess you might have enough on your hands at the present time, but there you go. Not sure how much I will add, but I do believe this site has the potential to become vibrant and buzzing.)

[Worker 11811]

Sorry mods, I guess you might have enough on your hands at the present time, but there you go. Not sure how much I will add, but I do believe this site has the potential to become vibrant and buzzing.

 

Nothing to feel sorry about. You speak the truth.

 

There is a lot of stuff here and you are right. The forum and the gallery are only part of what is available. A lot of the site goes unused. The parts of the site that are built on wiki might take a bit of practice to get used to but wiki isn't hard to learn if you try. Most of using a wiki is as easy as typing text and putting tags in the right places. There are a few tricks to it but the documentation is all on-line and anybody can read it. It is my guess that anybody with average computer abilities can learn to make basic wiki pages in an afternoon's session. I am always willing to help people if they have questions or problems.

 

I imagine this website like a giant box of Lego blocks. We have a box of hundreds of different types and colors of bricks waiting to be put together in any configuration we want. We could build a house or a spaceship or almost anything we can envision. The only limit is our collective imagination.

 

I see my job as much as a facilitator as I see it as a keeper. Of course, I want to make sure everything works and I need to see to it that people follow the rules but I also want to encourage and help people to do the things they want to do using this site.

 

Some people like photography. There could be a group of people who specialize in fur photography.

Fur isn't always easy to photograph. There are some tricks to getting fur to look really good in a photograph. People could form a group to discuss how to make good photographs of fur and people wearing fur.

 

Some people like making things out of fur. There is potential for a group, there.

 

I like making digital art. As many of you know, using computers to render fur can be really difficult. It takes a LOT of processor power! I would like to see a group of people get together to make "digital fur."

 

It is my hope that the Fur Den will grow into a place where there is something for everybody.

[White Fox]

Great to see you Ravens! You folks described things so well that there is little to add.

 

As for wiki only one thing to add. If you do not want to learn wiki and want to post something just contact a staff member and we will post it in there for you. But remember, if you learn wiki here you can also post into wikipedia and other such sites using that knowledge you learned here in just an hour or two. It really IS very simple as Worker mentioned. Probably the trickiest part is links but we can do those for you if you wish.