this post was submitted on 03 Apr 2026
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Posting from pawb.social, I don't want this to come off as too self-aggrandizing, but there are two communities people should start watching and learning from for the post-corporate internet: furries and speedrunners.
Furries: If you've ever wondered why there seem to be so many furries in tech and cyber security, there's a good reason. They were some of the first digital natives to colonize the early internet; use it to connect distant weirdos into an online community. The core pillar of the fandom is simple and non-commercial: be a silly animal. This is an important distinction to the Bronies and Juggalos (no shade, much respect, but I gotta call out what's true). The overt horniness and subversiveness of the culture makes it impossible for marketing and outside interests to take hold. We chased Tony the Tiger off Twitter (RIP). I'm not saying things have always been perfect, I think in the earlier days of the 90's and 00's the push towards extreme inclusiveness prevented pushing out a lot of the worse elements, but the community has been much better about calling these things out these days. Extremely queer, socialist, and anti-fascist - these are the elements that build that strong sense of support.
Speedrunners: While it does break a bit from the core pillar of not being centered around commercialized products, I do think there's still a great amount of leeway with how those products are used in the context and also good integration with the indie community. There is no one central product. And out of that has sprung an extremely organized, self-policing, self-motivated group. These people invest hours meticulously tearing code apart by the seams just because they can and if there's anyone I believe can save us from AI through the shear brute force terror of human cognition, it's the speedrunners. It's no coincidence that the largest organization and charitable event is also very queer and inclusive with significant furry overlap.
I know furries are weird and not for everyone (although I do think it's odd you don't know what animal you'd be ... come on, you don't have one in mind?) but I think it's very much worth taking a look at the community from a higher perspective and figuring out why it has succeeded and will continue to succeed and how you can bring those things to your communities, whatever they may be: climbing, cycling, coffee, crochet, DIY, etc.
There are some animals that I like more than others, and if I were forced to pick a fursona I would probably pick one of those. But I don't think that any of them particularly reflect me in any way.
Is yours just your favourite animal? Or is there something else behind your choice? Or do you feel perhaps that your favourite animal(s) do reflect something about you?
Ask a dozen people, get a dozen answers. I think the main tenet is just acceptance: if someone says they're X species, then it's true because they say it. And by that grace when I say I'm Y, so be it. I think most people realize it's a silly game, but in that respect it's a bit of a litmus test in that can you just play along or do you gotta be a dick about it?
Personally I used to take it a lot more seriously when I was younger. Staunchly a no-nonsense red fox with a back story etc. etc. I thought mythicals and hybrids were goofy, but it's tiring to be so uptight. Tried to identify heavily with one thing because I thought that's how you built a sense of self but eventually learned you can just do whatever you want, there are no rules. Cringe is dead, sparkledogs are unironically back in style.
Now I'm a sea slug. I don't know if I think that reflects who I am or maybe just more what I want to be: stoic, cute, utterly devoid of bones. It doesn't really matter so much as it's just a thing I like. A little character to pour some of my creativity into. Whenever I'm having a bad day I can just go online and look at pictures of sea slugs and cheer myself up because it's that simple. Sometimes I get a message from a friend with a picture of slug in it that says, "look it's you" and it makes me smile. It's a little bridge that keeps me anchored to the world when I got nothing else going on.
That's nice! I recently went to the British Wildlife Centre. I went into it thinking pine martens were the primary draw, but I went to the owl display and since then I have been a certified owl enjoyer. The long-eared owls were particularly majestic.
Owls are adorable. They always look so stern and serious and then you see these videos of them on youtube taking a bath and realize they're just little goofs, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA2Iyw6V9gk
I'd ad challenge runners for the same reasons as speed running. See how little you can use to beat a game and such. I really liked your explanation though.