What's that, Furcadia?

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.

Ever just been sitting there minding your own business?

If not, you’re probably doing something wrong.

Most of us, however, do sit around chatting with friends about stuff that interests us when:

BAM. OUT OF NOWHERE YOU GET ATTACKED!

This attack leaves you reeling at first. You’re thinking to yourself, “What the hell? Did Furcadia implement a combat system? Was I just hit by a random Monster that suddenly appeared like in Final Fantasy?”

No, my dear readers, that is not what has happened.

You’ve been subjected to a beggar.

Beggars, insofar as Furcadia is concerned, are people that go around asking others to buy them Furcadia related items; give them Dragon Scales or the like. A lot of times these people will whisper-spam a large group of people.

Over the past few years, (and specifically around heavily-promoted Digo-related seasons,) the beggars fire up their words and put on their best sob-stories. This seems particularly dense around Naia Green, The forums, and AI.

Things they look for?

People who have Digos are their primary target. They’re hoping that you’ll “Share The wealth” as it were. The same goes for people who give out a lot of digos to people randomly; they’re hoping that you’ll be ‘nice’ and give them one.

What can you do about it?

The thing is, these are usually young kids. (Or people pretending to be young kids.) Giving in to their wishes doesn’t help the matter. They go away temporarily, but they’ll tell their friends, and they’ll all start asking you for free handouts.

Don’t stop buying Digos, that’s just denying yourself a treat. If/when they ask, refer them to this article. If you want Digos, work to get them yourselves. Dream contests, patchwork, dreamweaving and the like are all good ways to get Dragon Scales.

In fact, earning the Digos makes the Digo that much more special and that much more meaningful. If you beg for it, it won’t be as ‘special’ to you; you’ve basically gotten charity and hand-outs aren’t as nice as getting something you deserve.

If you don’t have any skills, develop some. You may find a way to make spare cash in real life. Speaking of cash…

If you’re under 18, and don’t make your own money, and your parents don’t give you money, then it’s understandable to be upset. But that doesn’t mean you should beg, (Or demand) that other people give you their hard earned money. Digos are nice, but they aren’t necessary for playing Furcadia.

Trying to take advantage of people who have been nice and handed out lots of digos to other people is a bit rude. You shouldn’t demand ‘presents’ of someone who hasn’t decided to give you one. The more you ask, the less likely you are to receive from someone who does that.

All in all, show some decorum and don’t beg for things you can get on your own.

Merry Christmas!

Or, whatever else it is that you celebrate around this time of year, whether it be Festivus, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or something I am not aware of, I hope you’re having a damn good time about it. For those that don’t celebrate, I hope you’re at least feeling a bit better than normal right now!

I wanted to take a bit of time to make mention of some people who were really getting into the spirit of the season that I noticed; these individuals are part of the reason a lot of people love this time of year. (Probably why some people hate it, too.) They deserve, (in my opinion,) at the very least a “thank you”; that’s what this is. If someone has been nice to you, remember to say thank you!

SnowyThing was gallivanting around Naia Green all night trying to spread the “Holiday Spirit”. He gave out all sorts of presents to people. Flaming swords, cake, Snugs, and many other desctags were handed out to a lot of the people just sitting around. He also bought me 18 liters of Mountain Dew!

Procyon, (Guardian Extraordinare) also was seen getting caught up in the spirit. He gave out, at the last updated count, 41 Snugs to various friends and strangers that he saw regularly. He also managed to get himself caught up in a snowball fight of epic proportions with Decline; resident alt-trader and an artist.

Over at the DEP house the Holiday’s weren’t going quietly into the night. Youlanda, Xool, Cassiel and other friends showed up on Christmas Eve for a night of movies, singing, and much snacking. Felorin’s sister was there banging out songs on the piano while the shenanigans of present wrapping, and Nintendo DSing went on. Things ended up winding down around five am Christmas morning.

Speaking of DEP, Seley, a regular player, wanted to make it a point to thank DEP for allowing us to use Furcadia. She put together a simple dream to thank the creators. This was a collaborative and community effort by the Furcadia populace; there was a lot of time and energy put into making this dream as nice as possible for the Creators. It’s well done; the statues of the staff are done in gold, and every statue has something nice to say about the game.

If you stop by, take a look at Furonda, and place an order in her cafe; you’ll be glad you did!

Emerald Flame said, “It’s really cool!” when talking about the dream; it seems that this was a gift that hit DEP right where it was supposed to: The Heart.

There were a lot of people who did a lot for others this time of year; Narnia set up FaZ, a resource for players to put up their artwork after members of the portrait-making community encountered issues with DeviantArt.

Narnia also felt the need to apologize to us for possibly encroaching on the space of the Furcadia Art Repository, which I thought was a decent, if unnecessary thing to do.

It’s good to take a step back and realize that the world isn’t a bad place, and that there are people out there who deserve a “Thank you” or a “Job well done” every once and a while.

That said, I’m going to wish you all the very best Holiday Season you can have, and leave you with that.

~Damadar.