THE RECORD OF THE ARCHIVIST: Phil Geusz interviews GreenReaper

		an interview conducted by Phil Geusz Questions ©2010 Phil Geusz; answers & photos ©2010 GreenReaper

   George Santayana’s most famous quote: ‘Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.’ But how can you learn from history if you don’t have any records of what happened before? Science-fiction fandom has a number of historians, Sam Moskowitz, Frederik Pohl, and Fred Patten prominent among them. As for the furry community… well, once you pass over those fannish historians of whom it could be argued that they cover it mostly because it’s a subset of SF fandom (hi, Fred!), furdom hasn’t really had much in the way of historians to call its own. Fortunately, that lapse is rather a thing of the past, thanks to Laurence Parry, the expatriate Brit Michigander who started up WikiFur and is the current head honcho of the Flayrah furry news site .
   So sit back and enjoy, as Phil Geusz interviews Laurence Parry, aka…
   GreenReaper!

Geusz:	Tell us all about what Flayrah and WikiFur are, and why these resources are so important to the fandom.
GreenReaper:	I like to think of WikiFur as furry fandom’s collective memory. It’s an editable website containing articles about matters of interest to furs—everything that makes up our culture and our community, including people, works, events… you name it. Unlike actual memory, it doesn’t fade over time, but benefits from refinement over time. Like Wikipedia, it’s rarely the last word on any particular topic, but it’s great if you’re looking for a summary. If WikiFur is the fandom’s memory, Flayrah—containing news and features—is intended to be its eyes, ears and voice, identifying matters of interest and reporting on them. The ensuing discussion shapes the ‘first draft’ of history. Not all topics are of importance, but you never know; today’s featured event may attract a thousand people three years later. The comments can be quite enlightening, too. WikiFur was founded in 2005 and has over 12,000 articles in English, with editions in sixteen languages. It gets about 5,000 visitors a day. Flayrah has a smaller audience; it was founded in 2001, went quiet in 2006, and was recently relaunched. Many read it via RSS, LJ or Twitter.
Geusz:	How did you happen to become the furry fandom’s leading online archivist and news source?
GreenReaper:	I’m not sure whether I should be embarrassed at such a lofty appellation, or depressed that it might be true; if so, the fandom has a long way to go! It mostly comes down to being the right person in the right place at the right time. Take WikiFur; by mid-2005 I’d spent six months running and promoting the Creatures Wiki. At Wikipedia, I could see pent-up demand in the so-called ‘furrycruft’ getting deleted. There was a hole waiting to be filled, but only if you knew where to look. Most fandom insiders and most wiki experts were busy with other projects. It was the same with the news. I started off with a lengthy con report of my MFF ’05 experience, and an even longer one the year after. After that came actual news reports on Further Confusion and Anthrocon, published on Wikinews. WikiFur News opened in 2007, and we published over 100 articles over the next three years. When Frysco announced Flayrah’s closure, it was a no-brainer to take it on; it’s a better platform for news publication, but still has great synergy with WikiFur. Besides, the alternative of losing Flayrah’s archives was unacceptable. Part of it is persistence. It takes a while to learn how to run a wiki, or a news site; to write good copy while handling frustrated contributors and angry fans. You make mistakes and you roll with it. I’ve been doing this for half a decade, but there’s still plenty of room to improve, especially on the social side. Some tasks required specialized technical skills—Flayrah could not have been moved to Drupal without knowing SQL and PHP, and I had to write my own instructions to transfer a lot of it—but they’re not the most important part of running a site. Lastly, nobody else seemed interested in the job. It’s understandable: authors aren’t top dog in the fandom, and non-fiction writing has about as much appeal to most furs as non-fictional art. It’s a challenge to find stories and interpret sources, then produce an article that people want to read; most see it as more of a burden. As for news, well… for most of the last decade, reporters weren’t exactly welcome within the fandom. Everyone looks at you funny if you start asking questions.
Geusz:	You’re a relative newcomer to the fandom, yet already can be said to be one of the ‘big names’. How did you manage to become so well known so quickly?
GreenReaper:	By getting out there, both online and in real life. A lot of furs work behind the scenes. That’s great if you want to build something by yourself, or contribute to an existing project—WikiFur runs on the efforts of such people—but it doesn’t inspire others to action. You have to be willing to think big and execute on that. I spent my first convention (Midwest FurFest 2005) running around with a bunch of WikiFur flyers printed up by Duncan da Husky, inviting everyone to help out. A year later, an upgraded version was sent out in AC and FC conbags. In 2007 we had a table at AC displaying our featured articles, with JSharp, Markus and other volunteers handing out 400-odd conbadge holders that I’d stuffed with WikiFur contributor cards. Thanks to WikiFur, I’ve had cause to talk with some of the movers and shakers in the fandom, often just after they’ve moved or shaken something. If nothing else, you know they’re going to read the articles about their own activities.
Geusz:	Both WikiFur and Flayrah look like very large and time-consuming operations. I know you have a lot of help, but where do you find the hours?
GreenReaper:	First, you have to focus on your passions. When I’m not at work, relaxing with a game, or playing music, I’m probably doing something furry-related. If I go out, it’s to a furry con. It’s not the life for everyone, but I enjoy it. After that, procrastination is key to success, as long as you’re productive about it. This interview was interleaved with news posts about FursuitTV and various new conventions, the opening of the Dutch and Estonian WikiFur projects, a journal entry about the Russian WikiFur, and a contribution to Drupal’s fivestar rating module… among a dozen other things. The idea is to fill your time with tasks, then figure out which are important and bump them up the list. Often I don’t find enough hours in the day, and certain things get left behind; usually personal projects. Delegation’s important, too. As you say, I have lots of help with WikiFur—I don’t handle every article myself! Over 230 people have 50 edits or more, and there’s fifteen with over a thousand. Our administrators keep the wheels turning, while Timduru maintains the underlying server, leaving me to fit together the open-source applications and make tweaks around the edges.
Geusz:	All work and no play makes GreenReaper a dull… whatever. So, what other aspects of the furry fandom do you enjoy? Art? Fursuiting? Literature? And what is GreenReaper, anyway? More importantly, who is he? And why does he like cheese and carrots?
GreenReaper:	While I enjoy furry artwork in all its forms, I’m content to leave its execution to the pros. The closest thing I do is photography. This plays into documenting the fandom, but it’s a lot of fun, too. Alas, it can take months before I get around to processing the digital negatives; I’m only halfway through last year. Still, I’ve seen my work in a few magazines—including UK teen magazine Sugar, which led to an interesting email from my cousins back home… I’ve got copies of Furry (aka. Best In Show), World Tree and its Marriage of Insects, A Whisper of Wings, and Ironclaw/Jadeclaw on my shelf, and of course I read Anthro regularly. But aside from a box of 600 old DMFA originals, I’m not a big collector. I have no great experience in print comics—just a few copies of Maus, Omaha and Albedo for historic interest, as well as my Ozy and Millie collection. You can largely thank D.C. Simpson’s work for bringing me to the fandom. As for fursuits, while I adore photographing them—and dancing poorly with them!—I’ve not yet set foot in one. I’d love to give it a go, and I’ve thought about commissioning my own, but the price always made me hesitate. I do have a small raccoon who accompanies me to events—he’s a charity case from MFF. My character is a norn—a genetically engineered life-form from the artificial life series Creatures, known for their curiosity and love of walking off cliffs and into walls. He’s played by a 27-year-old British long-haired software developer who’s lived in Michigan for the last five years. Cheese and carrots are part of every norn’s staple diet, and we’re both big fans of them.
Geusz:	I’ve seen you comment elsewhere that you feel you know more about the overseas fandom than that in the USA. What do you think are the key differences?
GreenReaper:	I feel fursuiting has greater prominence in foreign lands. Some may have been seduced by the media concept of furry, but most just seem to think it’s cool. There’s perhaps less of an overlap with science fiction fandom, and more of a connection with anime—though that could be more to do with when they joined the fandom. Most are in their twenties. Many overseas events are of the outdoor variety—and, of course, they’re much smaller. Even Eurofurence hasn’t broken four digits yet, and it’s been going on for 15 years; though I suspect the 16th might be the charm. Are the furs themselves different? It’s hard to tell. Online I tend to end up talking to the most active, community-driven individuals. In real life, it’s a mixed bag of artists, fursuiters, event organizers and all-round fans. I think there are cultural differences, but not as many as you might expect. When you remove the masks of race, color and creed, furs seem much the same the world over. Still, a large number of WikiFur admins and a disproportionate number of news sources appear to be based outside the United States. I doubt that’s a coincidence. Perhaps they care more about the worldwide furry community because they don’t have as much of one where they live. Most North American furs don’t appreciate how lucky they are. I really feel for the handful of fans in places like Hungary and Israel. Imagine going to a meet, and seeing the same people you talk to online every day, because they’re the only furs in your country, and the only ones who speak your language. Imagine you can only go to one con a year—if that—because the others are thousands of miles away and cost more than you earn in a month just to get there. It’s like the 1980s all over again, only this time they know what they’re missing. At least they have the net.
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Geusz:	Do you think there’s still more that needs to be done in terms of chronicling/recording/reporting the news of the fandom?
GreenReaper:	There’s always more that could be done. The fandom has tens of thousands of people in it. Many worthy stories will never be told; if I could dedicate my life to it, it would not be enough. That’s why I started a wiki, so that everyone could help out. Wikis are great, but only if people bother to edit them. The world doesn’t stand still, and—as recent sad events have shown—we risk losing parts of our history as fans depart. Some things just can’t be captured in an encyclopedia article, either. Flayrah’s an attempt to improve on that, but it won’t reach its potential unless others join in. I’d love to see a few interviews and reviews on there; I just don’t have time to do it all myself. > Winners of the 2008 Iron Artist competition Of course, most people are—quite reasonably—more interested in doing their own thing than recording the words and deeds of others. Still, I live in hope of attracting more contributors; or, failing that, more competitors! The fandom needs them. Over time, we’ve built up organizations and online service providers accountable only to themselves. It’s our job to watch over them, and the more, the merrier. A strong press is more likely to spot things, and less susceptible to internal pressure.
Geusz:	If you could make one unilateral change in WikiFur, what would it be?
GreenReaper:	That’s a tough one. I set the site on a path I was comfortable with, and it’s not moved too far from that. It’d be tempting to do away with personal exclusion. I don’t think it materially helps most of the people who choose it. But it fills a perceived need, and makes the life of administrators easier—we have to spend less of our lives settling arguments over personal articles. Little of value is lost; most excluded people are inactive, have withdrawn from the fandom, and just want to be forgotten. There are many things I’d like to do as an editor if I had the time; but I don’t. We have a lot of good material, but there’s gaps, and what we have could always be better-presented. If there’s one thing I’d change, it would be for it to have a more cohesive community that could handle some of these long-term improvement projects.
Geusz:	What do you see as the future of the furry fandom? Is there still more room to grow?
GreenReaper:	To me, the question is not if we’ll grow, but whether we’ll like where we end up. There are people trying to influence that, but I think the fandom’s beyond any one person’s ability to control. Last time I ran the figures, the entire population of the Earth will be furry… by 2168. Clearly, we can’t grow at our current rate forever, but we’ve still got a way to go. Anime conventions are ten times the size of Anthrocon; it probably won’t catch up until 2030. The issue is management. There’s only so many with the skill, time and inclination to run conventions, websites, and the like—especially as they grow from hundreds to thousands of participants. I don’t think we should fear the future; so far, things seem to have changed for the better. Instead, we should be excited by the possibilities. Full-immersion virtual life? Prosthetic tails? Avatar-style body-swaps? I can’t wait to see what the future holds. Of course, today’s furs have it pretty good. Want a fursuit? Once you’d have to make it yourself, if you could find someone to tell you how. Now you just need a reference, a few measurements or a duct-tape dummy, and a wad of cash. Want porn? No need to engage in awkward correspondence with an artist for a black-and-white print; you can commission any number of artists and have full-colour custom work back in a fortnight. They’d probably sketch it live, too. And don’t get me started on the number of free comics out there. It’s a golden age!
Geusz:	Some have criticized you for airing the fandom’s dirty laundry in Flayrah. How do you respond to these charges?
GreenReaper:	As a far better journalist than I once said, you can’t be a good reporter and not regularly be involved in some kind of controversy. There are always going to be sensitive topics—hard truths, inconvenient facts, contrasting opinions, mistakes, and difficult choices made by people trying to do the right thing. Deciding how to report on these, if at all, is one of the toughest tasks of a news writer. It’s even tougher when you’re a member of the community you’re covering. I draw the line at purely personal issues. But many straddle the border of personal and public interest. A squabble between two MUCK users is one thing… but if the result is, say, the deletion of a popular location, that’s quite another. When the actions of individuals affect others, they become news, and demand attention.

	At the end of the day, my job is not to make the fandom look good, or bad. It’s to find news that matters to my audience and report on it. Some news may be controversial among readers, but that’s usually because it matters a lot to them, and I think they understand that. As one said recently: “Flayrah is supposed to be about fandom news. How is this not fandom news? Or are we all just supposed to Not Talk About certain things?” That’s what Flayrah is. A place to discuss the topics of the day, from the tedious to the taboo; the mundane to the monumental. The coverage we provide is just the starting point for that discussion. Now, there’s a difference between covering a topic, and covering it well. There’s always room for improvement. To critics, all I can offer is to work harder—or, failing that, suggest they do it better themselves. Neglecting topics of interest to the fandom is not an option, nor will choosing to say nothing result in nothing being said. This goes for both Flayrah and WikiFur.
Geusz:	What do you think is the most unreported, least-known important aspect of the fandom?
GreenReaper:	If I knew, I’d be reporting on it! [laughs] Actually, that’s one reason I like to cover international events; the effort involved deserves recognition, even if it only affects a small number of people. Furmeets tend not to make the news, but keep your eye out—you might just see a long-haired norn with a camera at the next one. I’d like to see a good treatment of why furry fandom works as it does; what drives people to run conventions and websites, draw gift art, perform, etc. Sure, there’s money changing hands, but it often feels like a gift economy; at other times, it’s like an extended family. There’s plenty of interesting questions for the sociologists to explore once they get over the idea that we’re all suffering from a species identity disorder.