Date: Sun, 20 Dec 2009 20:28:14 -0500
To: CarolinaFurs
From: Matthew Henry <badjahsensei@...>
Subject: Re: [CarolinaFurs] Re: moving...

You're between Tampa and Orlando. I know a lot about the Orlando (I lived
there until August--there 15 years), but not a lot about Tampa. Last I
heard, there was no organized Tampa group.

There's a mailing list for the Florida area: http://floridafurs.com/ I'm
not a fan. Simba, the moderator's a notorious dick about formatting and
micromanaging things there. If you don't cut the footers out of the
replies, he'll essentially suspend you from the list until you "prove"
yourself. Mostly, the list is just chatter and trolling between about five
or six people.

There are LJ communities for the Orlando groups. Orlando essentially has
two feuding groups--each trying to one-up the other. Wolfpac and Chase
Rocket run each one. Very high school. Look for a guy named Kryphos. He
coordinated meet ups in the Orlando area. Heartwood is also good folk who
makes events--his next one is a new year's event. Both Kryphos and
Heartwood are sane and drama free.

There's a group in Jacksonville as well, and I also think they have a LJ
community.

2009/12/20 sonicbjcli <shadowsfollower@...>

>
>
> Thonotosassa
>
>=20=20
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

---- My response ----

To: carolinafurs
From: Scott Garron <>
Date: Tue, 19 Jan 2010 22:34:11 -0500
Subject: [CarolinaFurs] Re: moving...

      Hey sonicbjcli.  I've also lived in Central Florida for over a
decade and I'd like to supplement Matt's information with some
clarifying details and a few more places that you can look.

      If in-person meet-ups are what you're looking for, in order to meet
new people and socialize, there are a few, regular events that I've
found to be fun and worth attending.  Every Tuesday evening, folks get
together at the "Best of British Pub" on International Drive in Orlando
for food and socializing.  There's also a convention, called Megaplex,
every July and quarterly parties, called Elliott's Live Events.  Three
of the four Elliott's events are basically "house" parties, geared more
toward the local crowd but are often attended by folks from out of
state.  The fourth one, Elliott's Spring Gathering, is a hotel party and
is more equipped for accommodating a larger, more widespread attendance.

      Tuesday night at the pub doesn't have an organized web site, but
gets mentioned on the Florida Furs Mailing List, occasionally.
As for the others, you can get more information about them here:

http://megaplexcon.org/
https://ele.furryhost.com/

      In addition to the on-line venues which Matt mentioned, there is
also a "#FloridaFurs" channel on AnthroChat IRC if you're more
interested in real-time chat.  XoaGray is the channel founder.  It is
moderated by default, so you need to be given voice by a moderator in
order to start chatting there.  Just send a private message to any of
the users whose nicknames appear with any of the following characters
before them:  % @ & ~ and ask for voice.  You can find information about
AnthroChat at http://www.anthrochat.net/


Matthew Henry wrote:

> There's a mailing list for the Florida area: http://floridafurs.com/ 
> I'm not a fan. Simba, the moderator's a notorious dick about 
> formatting and micromanaging things there.

      If enforcing etiquette rules of e-mail mailing lists, rules that
are as old as the Internet and should therefore be second nature and not
need enforcement, makes me a "notorious dick", then I'm guilty as
charged.  There are quite a number of people who appreciate my efforts
to keep posts legible and only a select few who get overly, vocally
butthurt about it:  http://www.livejournal.com/poll/?id=1297299

> If you don't cut the footers out of the replies, he'll essentially 
> suspend you from the list until you "prove" yourself.

      "If quoted text from prior posts aren't trimmed to only include the
minimum required to establish context in reply posts, the sender gets a
very detailed warning message explaining exactly how to properly format
replies that even includes a reformatted version of their post as an
example.  If a subsequent reply-based post, from that person, isn't
trimmed in the manner clearly specified in the rules, in countless
mailing list etiquette sites across the Internet, and in the warning
message, their subscription gets moderated.  This is only a hold queue -
not a suspension or a ban.  It just means that subsequent posts from
that individual are held for moderator approval.  If they're formatted
as specified in the rules, they're released by a moderator and
distributed by the list.  If they're not formatted correctly, they're
rejected with a very detailed rejection message stating exactly what
needs to be corrected about it.  After it's clear that the person has a
firm grasp on the established etiquette rules, their subscription is
unmoderated."

(Fixed "Matt's Spin Zone" statement by stating the facts)

> Mostly, the list is just chatter and trolling between about five or 
> six people.

      "The mailing list consists of 315 subscribers who have a variety of
reasons for posting.  If you'd like to have an idea of what gets talked
about before joining, it is publicly archived at:
http://lists.floridafurs.com/pipermail/flafurs/"  (Fixed another Spin
Zone statement)

> There are LJ communities for the Orlando groups. Orlando essentially 
> has two feuding groups--each trying to one-up the other. Wolfpac and 
> Chase Rocket run each one. Very high school.

      Chase and Wolfpac have "feuding groups"?  I guess I've been out of
that loop.

> Heartwood is also good folk who makes events

      True that.  Heartwood is <3

-- 
Scott "Simba" Garron