What's that, Furcadia?

I’m allowed to giggle deliriously at myself, right?

This is What’s That, Furcadia’s 100th article. (Mredria Lulz in Peace was the 100th post!)

So, I figured I’d pull out all the stops and throw a bunch of crap at all of you, my loyal readers, because hey, that’s what I do. I throw things at you. Don’t like it? Tough. Take some of this. And that. AND THIS!

…

I think My brain is still broke from getting everything ready for this.

To commemorate the situation, I did a podcast. (I know; stop your cryin’. Babies.) It has a lot of neat content in it.

I figured I’d also let you all know that there’s a new website up called Kasuria’s Really Awesome Paper. KRAP is a poor attempt at mimicking The Muskrat and Randomism. It’ll update every Monday so you can start your week off right with a good and healthy amount of KRAP.

If you’d like to help out and support Krap, you can send an e-mail to krap@entwinedstudios.com

For people who have a problem pasting DS Code into the Furcadia window, (I do!) I set up The DSBin for people to share and collaborate on DS Together. Hopefully Masons will find it helpful in getting Furres the help they need whenever they’re working on Tricky DS.

Anyone going to conventions, (at any time) might want to consider printing out several flyers or by perhaps taking a few of the conbadges Talzhemir cooked up. You could make your own based on Badge 5 and Badge 6 if you were wanting to, perhaps, hand out something similar to a business card so that people aren’t as likely to get rid of it. (Not as big or bulky).

Remember, if you’ve got any rumours or anything that you’d like debunked or supported, let me know. (Contact info is on the About Page.) I’ll go ahead and delve into any rumour you give me and let you know if it’s true, false, or similar to something else. If I get enough of them, I’ll turn it into a weekly thing.

FAB seems to be getting some decent use, which makes me happy. Make sure you swing by and take a look at the artwork that Mredria, Kotra, Sync and others have been doing!

Here’s a quick bit of information I picked up from Turquoise (Head Alt-Trading Guru) about Alt-Trading. She gave me valuable information about things like: why it’s done, how it’s done, prices, and other things.

Alt trading seems to be inspired by a general desire to be unique. Some people spend their time trading alts for the money. Others, however, do it for the unique names, and no amount of Dragon Scales, digos, or cold, hard cash would get those people to give up a specific alt name.

Alt trading started in rudimentary forms, (at least, in organized forms) in 2001. It started becoming popular in 2002. Now days, it seems that everyone is trying to get in on the Alt Trading Craze.

If you were looking to sell an alt, the first thing to remember is that it’s a buyer’s world, not a seller’s. Just because you want a certain price for an alt doesn’t mean you can demand it. If it’s not worth it to someone else, like everything else in life, you can’t sell it.

Most of the time it is unique, (or very special names) that go for the big money. Things such as IRL names, the names of Friends/Significant Others, Anime Characters, Colours and the like are where money tends to be.

Some of those names, (especially the really rare ones) come with a certain amount of prestige. They could also come with a certain amount of infamy, too.

There are lists of known scammers out there to avoid so that you don’t lose your money. In general, it’s a trust issue; after a while, you learn to pick out the ones you can trust and the ones you can’t . Much like police officers learn to do, I imagine.

A note of caution: Alt trading is still not supported by DEP. You cannot transfer ownership of characters at this time. Failure to use the system DEP is implementing at a later date will result in permanent loss of the character for both parties involved, plus whatever digos or scales were used in the purchase. Until then, it is a Buyer and Seller beware situation. Trade at your own risk.

And just for fun, I thought I’d let you all know that I can beat up a bunch of five year olds A bunch. Shayde En’Kiar can beat up more than me, though. Damn her.

22

Quick Edit: The Podcast is the purple and yellow thing just below this, alright? Click on it (the right side) and it’ll start to auto-play. You can also download the podcast to your computer using one of the links below. Thanks for listening/reading! Hope you’re here for article number 200!

Mredria laughed herself to death.

I blame these guys who entered her contest.

First Place
Author
Why do rednecks like Halloween? Because they like to pump kin!

Second Place
Daniel Drakenwolf
What’s the difference between a Northern fairytale and a Southern fairytale?
A Northern fairytale begins “Once upon a time.” A Southern fairytale begins “Y’all ain’t gonna believe this shit.”

Third Place
Teloran
You hear about the insomniac, dyslexic agnostic? He stayed up all night wondering if there was a dog.

That’s the order I blame them in and everything. Funnily enough, that’s the order in which they won her contest.

Hrmmmm. COINCIDENCE?

Investigation and charges pending.

So, I was paid to write this article by a guardian. Mredria, specifically. She gave me money so that I’d write a new article, so here goes.

Who’re the guardians, and what do they do?

We’ll start by leaving DEP staff members out of it. They get enough press coverage here. #SD

The top two guardians serving Furcadia are Kamose and Pwwka. They’re your heads. They help to take care of all the other little problems inside the guardian group. They handle lots of problems inside the Guardian Structure; schedule meetings, classes, etc.

Then you’ve got your elders. I’m not really sure what they do, except that they’ve got, you know, experience.

Then you have your boring run-of-the-mill guardian. They’ve got blue badges. We walk on them because they have no real authority.

(If you believe that, you probably shouldn’t be reading this article.)

In reality, Guardians do a lot for the community; Procyon, (I did an article on him once,) regularly clears out the spammers that harass me when I sit in Naia. They help out groups/guilds with chartered spots; they deal with the ultra-taboo words that Furcadia has, and they’re there to keep kids out of FurN.

Oh, and this article totally was written because I was paid to write it, and not because "My other self", Pwwka, is a guardian. Or because I have Guardian Friends. (Like Mredria and Shayde En’Kiar.)

So is Mredria.

“A slump has come to Furcadia,” she stated at one of her Political rallies around Naia Green. “There isn’t enough funny to be found anymore; our Funnyconomy has fallen on hard times, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I have a plan that will lead us out of these drama-infested cities and dreams!” The message seems to be resonating with citizens of Furcadia.

Mredria’s plan:

1. Get players to invest their time and energy in making with the funny.
2. Reward the players who have the funniest funny to offer.
3. Offer incentives to players who make things fly out of her nose with their funny.

What are the rewards?

A Ferian Fox for the funniest of the funny.

A seasonal digo for the secondary funny-maker.

The player who’s funnier than almost all the others will get a fittingly ironic third place consolation prize of… 3 GDs. Mredria, it seems, is still tryin’ to make with the Irony.

If you’d like to enter, (and see some of the other people who entered,) you can view this thread. That thread also has information on how to enter, what all is being accepted, and whether or not Mredria likes you. (Okay, that’s not true.)

Mredria warns that posting jokes/funny in that thread will, however, get you stabbed. (That is true.)

Beekins are Furcadia’s volunteer group. Their (volunteer) job is to help the players of Furcadia out when they’ve got questions, bugs, or just need a helping hand.

One of the big problems with the Beekin Group, however, is that most people don’t know which group does what, and who should be handling what kinds of situations.

Even inside the Beekins it isn’t always obvious what a person should and should not do, so consider this a review of the program and a cheat-sheet.

Helpers – Generally knowledgeable about most everything on Furcadia, they can give general help to just about everyone about everything. Their downside is that a lot of them don’t know specifics. When you type, “Help <whatever>” in Furcadia, you’re sent directly to the Helpers Channel. You can also find helpers in the Naia Green Help Center; they’re the only ones allowed to help there. (I’m pretty sure you can’t actually sit there on the pillows unless you’re a helper anyway.)

Teachers – They teach our Beekins; their interaction with the public doesn’t actually extend very far, and they don’t answer questions. Generally, you need to be in another beekin group to join up with the teachers, so any time you interact with a teacher, you’re probably also interacting with another kind of Beekin.

Mentors – These beekins are all about talkin’ things over with other beekins. If you’re a beekin and you’ve got something you want to talk about, these are the guys to turn to.

Pixels – These guys do a lot of the artwork you see in festival dreams and on the Furcadia website. They’re the little fairy-furres that hang out on the Dream Channel and give out snarky comments to you if your pixel-art is shameful. Or, alternatively, they give out a helpful hand and teach you how to shade that portrait better. To be a pixel, you have to be good at art. Good to someone else’s standards, by the way, not your own. Sorry.

Masons – These guys help you out with dreams. That’s anything from patches to maps, DS to PS, anything and everything you do in a dream is their domain. (Unless they’re being cranky and claiming that their badge means they don’t have to help, which never happens in the Masons!) Anywho, if you’re lookin’ for help with somethin’ dream related, these’re the guys to go to.

Bugges – These guys make Furcadia break. A lot. That’s what they do when they’re not trying to avoid being squished. (Sometimes they do it while they’re being squished, just for giggles.) Found a bug? Think Furcadia’s broken? These are the guys to talk to. Unfortunately they can’t help you out much if you don’t give them clear instructions on what you did to make Furcadia break, so make sure you pay attention and can repeat the break that you’ve done.

Guardians – Power hungry sociopaths! No, not really. What they are is a small-ish group of volunteers who do a lot of work to resolve player-created conflicts. They’re not ‘ban happy’ as a lot of people predict, and they’re (mostly) easy-goin’ people. They do have their bad days though when pestering them and asking them to be your girlfriend will annoy them. (It’s true, it will.)

Remember, beekins are there to make your life easier, so don’t harass the hell out of them. It annoys them and makes them want to beat you across the face with a rubber mallet. (Or worse.)

Edit: Oops, I forgot the welcomers. (And believe me, I’ve been hearing about it!) Welcomers are the people who say, “Howdy!” whenever you enter Furcadia. They used to be the most popular group, (because everyone was allowed to join.) but now, that’s not the case anymore, though! However, if you need to be shown where a main map is, or shown around one, these are the furres you’ll want to talk to.