Furry Convention Drama - Because you can't have a couple thousand dog fucking enthusiasts under the same roof without shit hitting the fan

[Uncle Warren]

Furality is starting up for this year, and they're charging up to $100. One hundred dollars for a fucking VR con. And most people who are on VRC have spent thousands on their equipment.

Adding a bit more to this, their FAQ cites licensing, infrastructure costs, etc.

I can already tell you the licensing fee is a flat out lie. Worlds and Avatars in VRChat only require a professional license IF you are making a game for profit. VRChat's world building does not require anything more than a personal license, which is free. Their "VR Platform" they mention is also Unity, and unless VRChat devs are charging THEM to host a convention (which I find incredibly doubtful) then they're trying to pull some fucky shit rn.

 

[cykario]

I promised you a rabbithole... more ConFuzzled crap.

* Chairman this year (Rizzorat aka Colin McKay) has spent his time threatening and intimidating furs. "Do as I say or be banned from Confuzzled" is the most common. When any of the con staff stood up to him, he dismissed them or hounded them out. Threatened to drop all the con's documents into the public domain when he resigned (shame he didn't). Despite all this the con let him remain as chair right up until a few weeks ago.

* The con has had several waves of resignations - some in 2017, more in 2018 and a huge one in 2019 when Rizzo's appointment was announced. Many more staff have left or been forced out during his tenure. The con is currently short-staffed in many departments. ConOps, Theming, Events and Creative are all running with entirely new teams with almost zero practical experience.

* Many of the new-intake staff are extremely young. Ideal for the con's well known intimidation tactics. All the old heads of department are gone, nobody has a clue what to do.
Most of the older, experienced crowd don't want anything to do with CFz due to the well-known rampant abuse of power, skeletons in the closet, and blatant misbehaviour.


After ten years of some kind of transparency and honesty, the con's taken a whole new tack. All emails are now to be signed off as "Head of <X> department", "The Directors", etc. Almost like they're trying to hide something.

The con's Companies House findings list the names of some people involved... https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/06185967
Their registered address is a Mail Boxes Etc forwarding address linked to financial fraud: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/...ulti-million-pound-companies-into-liquidation

As of 2017 the List of Persons Involved is no longer public. Let's fix that...

With a nod to ConFuzzled Transparency (https://t.me/CFzTransparency) on Telegram .


PEOPLE INVOLVED... Toby Alexander "Crimson Nova" Watkin-Jones
ALIAS: Crimson, Crimson Nova
SOCIALS: https://www.facebook.com/tawatkin2000
LINKEDIN:
ADDRESS: Reading, England
EMPLOYER: Amazon Web Services (AWS Senior Program Manager)
ConFuzzled's current "man in charge" after Rizzo's departure.
Source describes him as "a right cunt, short tempered piece of shit and a shite landlord - a violent bastard and one to keep at least two counties away from. Former Plymouth fur (area well known for being the source of a lot of the UK's worst furs) with a rap sheet in that area a mile long. Another big fan of intimidation, cut from the same cloth as Rizzo.
Formerly Head of IS Delivery at AWE (Atomic Weapons Establishment), Defence Equipment and Support at the MoD, Project Manager at IRESS UK (military consultancy). Ex Military.
Publicly claims to have been involved in the development of the "Sea Ceptor" military weapons system.


PEOPLE INVOLVED... Luke "Fiox" Fenton
ALIAS: Fioxy, Fiox, Fioxyfluff
SOCIALS: twitter.com/fioxyfluff t.me/fioxy
LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lsfenton
ADDRESS: c/o C S Fenton & Co, The Old Rectory, Kirbyunderdale, York, England, YO41 1QY
EMPLOYER: C S Fenton & Co (family firm)
Former head of finance. Now a company director but still dabbles in the con's finances via his family. (can you say 'conflict of interest'?). From a very rich family of accountants. "Resident LionFox hybrid, Accountant and BMW Collector". ConFuzzled's newest Director.


PEOPLE INVOLVED... Ashley "Russet" Phillips
ALIAS: Russet, Rufellen, Seinu the Avali
SOCIALS: https://tw.tinf.io/Rufellen/ t.me/rufellen
LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashley-phillips-2864b3178/?originalSubdomain=uk
ADDRESS: "London"
EMPLOYER: King's College London (Admissions Officer). Royal Society of Medicine (Library Assistant).
Associate Director of Finance. Now a proper company director.
Oh look, announced on the con account too, with a photo... https://tw.tinf.io/cfconvention/status/1157600598545580032


And the ones who escaped... kinda...


PEOPLE (NO LONGER-ISH) INVOLVED... Colin "Rizzo Rat" McKay
ALIAS: Rizzo Rat,
SOCIALS: twitter.com/rizzorattie
LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colin-m-77ab851b/ (hidden surname but not hard to find, bad job of DFE, D-)
PARTNER: Kokanee (ThievyKokanee) - often used by Rizzo to spy on people he doesn't like. (insecure fuck, isn't he?)
ADDRESS: Cannock (Staffordshire/Wolverhampton area), England
EMPLOYER: Veolia, UK IT Security Manager,
CFz's infamous former Chairman. See above. Ten people voted against him - his acceptance speech opened with a demand that those ten people "make themselves known" - one did and was dismissed on the spot.
Physically assaulted Snugglebunny at ConFuzzled 2017, with the help of Crimson.


PEOPLE (NO LONGER-ISH) INVOLVED... Dr. Matthew "Matt Lion" Hood
ALIAS: Matt Lion
SOCIALS: www.facebook.com/hmshood twitter.com/matt_lion https://tw.tinf.io/lionafterdark curiouscat.me/LionAfterDark
LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drmatthewhood
PARTNER: Resine / Reskun (twitter.com/reskun / https://tw.tinf.io/sexpard / curiouscat.me/sexpard )
ADDRESS: Coventry.
EMPLOYER: Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (Scientific Data Management Architect). 'Big Data' guy.
Former Chairman. Now "Master of Ceremonies". Habitual liar. Good at keeping people happy, until they figure out he's spent years saying "everything's fine" while the house burns down. Into just about every fetish going.
University of Bristol alumni, MSc and PhD in Chemistry.


PEOPLE (NO LONGER) INVOLVED... Matthew "Nall" Beswick
ALIAS: Nall (http://en.wikifur.com/wiki/Nall), Azimuth, Azibat
SOCIALS: https://www.furaffinity.net/user/azimuth https://azibat.sofurry.com/ https://inkbunny.net/azi https://lilacdragon.deviantart.com/ https://tw.tinf.io/nalldook
ADDRESS: ?
EMPLOYER: ?
Former head of Finance. Secretary Aug 2009-Jun 2017. Director 2010-2017. Left the con in protest over something according to my source, no more known. Now staff at Nordic Fuzzcon.


PEOPLE INVOLVED... David "Dingotush" Cooke
ALIAS: Dingotush
SOCIALS: twitter.com/dingotush en.wikifur.com/wiki/David_Cooke http://wolfnose.org/ https://dingotush.livejournal.com/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/dingotush/
ADDRESS: ?
EMPLOYER: ?, Engineer and silicon chip designer. see https://www.flickr.com/photos/dingotush/3112245483/in/dateposted/
Served as Vice Chairman 2009-2012 after Furble's departure. Preceded Bear.
Not a director any more, but secretly on the con Events staff, uncredited.


PEOPLE (NO LONGER) INVOLVED... Michael Peter Francis (Furble?)
ALIAS: Furble Fox, Furble Fawks, CaliHusky
SOCIALS: https://www.furaffinity.net/user/furblefawks (DFE) twitter.com/furblefawks (locked)
ADDRESS: 401 Wood Lane, Stannington, Sheffield, S6 5LR
EMPLOYER: ?, Customer Services Rep
ConFuzzled's first chairman. Thrown out ~2009 in a Vote of No Confidence described by one source as "a fucking coup".
Old LJ post about it: https://jaff-fox.livejournal.com/35106.html
Oh and he has an ED page too: https://encyclopediadramatica.wiki/index.php/CaliHusky
Zoofur, bestiality advocate, animal abuser. Had his pets taken off him by the RSPCA.
Started the "CFZoo" zoophilia meetup group, still active to this day with many current CFz staff counted as members. Said group also counts Elfasi as a member.
Used to have a now-purged LJ: https://calihusky.livejournal.com/


PEOPLE (NO LONGER?) INVOLVED... Barry "Southpaw" Salter
ALIAS: southpaw1805
SOCIALS: twitter.com/SouthPaw1805 (locked)
ADDRESS: ?, London.
EMPLOYER: Chiltern Railways. Railway Ticket Clerk.
Director 2007-2008. Fill-in position?


PEOPLE (NO LONGER?) INVOLVED... Tony "Anthropuppy" Vauden
ALIAS: Anthropuppy
SOCIALS: ?
ADDRESS: Clevedon, Avon (address on CH probably out of date)
Company Secretary 2007, for five months. ConFuzzled's shortest official appointment. Now Furcation's Vice Chairman


MYSTERIOUS SOMEONES... Sean Neave
ALIAS: ?
SOCIALS: ?
ADDRESS: 61 Scotland Hall Road, Newton Heath, Manchester M40 2RE
EMPLOYER: ?
2007-2009, like Furble. Possibly the 2007-2009 Vice Chairman.

 

[Blue_Snow]

Furality is starting up for this year, and they're charging up to $100. https://archive.vn/D618D

One hundred dollars for a fucking VR con. And most people who are on VRC have spent thousands on their equipment.

there are a lot of online cons that are charging like 60 usd for it.

 

[Uncle Warren]

there are a lot of online cons that are charging like 60 usd for it.

On the same platform? Unless they're giving money to some charity then it sounds really fucky. Though unfortunately VR cons are hard to track to get any good autistic drama for obvious reasons, I still wonder if there's gonna be a hard fuckup later that gets out there.

 

[Blue_Snow]

On the same platform? Unless they're giving money to some charity then it sounds really fucky. Though unfortunately VR cons are hard to track to get any good autistic drama for obvious reasons, I still wonder if there's gonna be a hard fuckup later that gets out there.

no, it's the same as buying a ticket for a real con. I've seen a lot of anime cons selling tickets for 60 dollars each (some of these cons are real cons but they are just having streams)

 

[Uncle Warren]

no, it's the same as buying a ticket for a real con. I've seen a lot of anime cons selling tickets for 60 dollars each (some of these cons are real cons but they are just having streams)

$60 to watch a stream for an anime convention? That's hilarious.

 

[Blue_Snow]

$60 to watch a stream for an anime convention? That's hilarious.

I know. it's fuckin sad, but you also get access to their discord server. lol also, they had hardly and panels that were about anime. well, one was and it was about black women in anime. you know, japan, full of black people, so this makes sense. a lot of con sites have been giving warnings about people not to pay for online cons since they are mostly scams

 

[Grapefruct]

Furality is starting up for this year, and they're charging up to $100. One hundred dollars for a fucking VR con. And most people who are on VRC have spent thousands on their equipment.

Adding a bit more to this, their FAQ cites licensing, infrastructure costs, etc.

View attachment 1679218

I can already tell you the licensing fee is a flat out lie. Worlds and Avatars in VRChat only require a professional license IF you are making a game for profit. VRChat's world building does not require anything more than a personal license, which is free. Their "VR Platform" they mention is also Unity, and unless VRChat devs are charging THEM to host a convention (which I find incredibly doubtful) then they're trying to pull some fucky shit rn.

Vrchat does charge for use of it's services like that. They went after the virtualfurence people over their event and they had to pay them some undisclosed amount. The vrchat staff probably deserve their own thread on of for some of the shit I have heard about them

 

[Uncle Warren]

Vrchat does charge for use of it's services like that. They went after the virtualfurence people over their event and they had to pay them some undisclosed amount. The vrchat staff probably deserve their own thread on of for some of the shit I have heard about them

I have never heard of such a thing. Any source on this?

 

[Cable]

spent thousands

mind you, I have also seen furries spend upwards of $700 AUD ($499 USD) on a model of their fursona.

I can already tell you the licensing fee is a flat out lie. Worlds and Avatars in VRChat only require a professional license IF you are making a game for profit. VRChat's world building does not require anything more than a personal license, which is free. Their "VR Platform" they mention is also Unity, and unless VRChat devs are charging THEM to host a convention (which I find incredibly doubtful) then they're trying to pull some fucky shit rn.

Could that licensing fee to pay for copyright or royalties to the creators by chance? I highly doubt this is related to space considering VR Chat worlds are free to upload if you're the right rank, and I have seen screenshots of a few game models and maps straight up ripped from the source, like several Pokemon models some Halo maps.

 

[Uncle Warren]

Could that licensing fee to pay for copyright or royalties to the creators by chance? I highly doubt this is related to space considering VR Chat worlds are free to upload if you're the right rank, and I have seen screenshots of a few game models and maps straight up ripped from the source, like several Pokemon models some Halo maps.

The most I know is they pay the artist for the map, the art, but beyond that and what was mentioned with the VRC devs charging for hosting this shit I have no idea what the fuck is happening. What I DO know is that the last Furality they threw a guy who likes sexually harassing people on the platform and a known crasher onto the fucking GOH list so all I can say is wait and see for now.

 

[Rukario]

I know. it's fuckin sad, but you also get access to their discord server. lol also, they had hardly and panels that were about anime. well, one was and it was about black women in anime. you know, japan, full of black people, so this makes sense. a lot of con sites have been giving warnings about people not to pay for online cons since they are mostly scams

Having visited some anime cons myself (slight powerlevel here) a lot of the panels don't have much to do with anime but more with the culture around it and behind it. So you'll see stuff about cosplay and japanese festivals, but none which analyse the shows like multiple Youtube channels do. I figure if they did focus on anime series, the entire chat will blow up into an argument over if Dubs are better than Subs or not.

At the actual conventions, the most popular events were always the karaoke and gaming tournaments, as well as hanging round posing for group photos. All stuff you can't do easily through a Discord server without a lot of effort and use of multiple websites. You just cannot capture the carnival atmosphere of a geeky convention with webcams, talking heads, and twitch ads.

 

[Blue_Snow]

Having visited some anime cons myself (slight powerlevel here) a lot of the panels don't have much to do with anime but more with the culture around it and behind it. So you'll see stuff about cosplay and japanese festivals, but none which analyse the shows like multiple Youtube channels do. I figure if they did focus on anime series, the entire chat will blow up into an argument over if Dubs are better than Subs or not.

At the actual conventions, the most popular events were always the karaoke and gaming tournaments, as well as hanging round posing for group photos. All stuff you can't do easily through a Discord server without a lot of effort and use of multiple websites. You just cannot capture the carnival atmosphere of a geeky convention with webcams, talking heads, and twitch ads.

Yes, anime cons now have nothing to do with anime anymore. It’s sad. the only time I see a panel about anime it’s usually political like “ LGBT and anime“ “black women of anime”

 

[MyMumBeatsMe]

So what's the news with BlacksonlyCon?

Haven't seen a thing on the internet for a little while, I hope it hasn't fizzled out just yet.

 

[LurkerDog]

Related to the fee of $100 to attend Furality... Megaplex Online charged for tickets but if you cried hard enough about how poor you are, you could attend free. Vendors had to pay. CozyCon charged sponsor vendors $$ to have their own channel. (Did no use for most of the vendors.) RamCon charged for tickets as far as I know as well as charged vendors.. The online cons quite literally run off of Discord, I can't see why they're getting away with charging furries to... use discord.

 

[Corn Flakes]

So what's the news with BlacksonlyCon?

Haven't seen a thing on the internet for a little while, I hope it hasn't fizzled out just yet.

It's still about two years away so things are going slow. There was some front-loaded drama right at the start, but if they stick with it we should be seeing more staff and mismanagement-related bullshit drip-feeding back into the public soon enough.

 

[Pinball 2000]

It's still about two years away so things are going slow. There was some front-loaded drama right at the start, but if they stick with it we should be seeing more staff and mismanagement-related bullshit drip-feeding back into the public soon enough.

I'm glad most furries lack object permanence because the same people who are decrying the CCFC shitshow are the same idiots praising HowlFest for simply existing. I honestly hope the event happens solely for the drama it's likely to bring.

 

[cykario]

More shit from the Brexit Isle...

someone finally called JFTW's hotel to ask if they were refunding due to COVID19... turns out they were (JFTW said they weren't). JFTW's offer was to carry bookings forward from 2020 to 2021 - a stupid as fuck idea because they'd lose the taxes on any money they took in... their attendance has been static at 200 since the shit they pulled stealing from their charity a few years ago.

https://tw.tinf.io/DanzaDragon/status/1321053473564184578 arc: https://archive.vn/FwvEc

Moar. 2 deleted tweets, boo.
https://tw.tinf.io/DanzaDragon/status/1321056077547556864 arc: https://archive.vn/BM4tp

Updated JFTW statement: https://jftw.org/covid19/ arc: https://archive.vn/1lzeP (5 months ago) https://archive.vn/2UgLr (tonight)

And if it hadn't been for those meddling furries they might have had a way to make a payment on the £17k of debt they've run up...

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/09668582/filing-history

£17k "falling due within a year", oh dear.


Another reshuffle too, in the past few days... same day as Danza's tweets in fact.

27 Oct 2020	Change of details for Mr Gino Salvatore Baldacchino as a person with significant control on 26 October 2020	View PDF Change of details for Mr Gino Salvatore Baldacchino as a person with significant control on 26 October 2020 - link opens in a new window - 2 pages (2 pages)
27 Oct 2020	Termination of appointment of Carl Heslop as a director on 7 July 2020	View PDF Termination of appointment of Carl Heslop as a director on 7 July 2020 - link opens in a new window - 1 page (1 page)
27 Oct 2020	Termination of appointment of Carl Heslop as a secretary on 21 October 2020	View PDF Termination of appointment of Carl Heslop as a secretary on 21 October 2020 - link opens in a new window - 1 page (1 page)
27 Oct 2020	Cessation of Carl Heslop as a person with significant control on 7 June 2020	View PDF Cessation of Carl Heslop as a person with significant control on 7 June 2020 - link opens in a new window - 1 page (1 page)
03 Jul 2020	Confirmation statement made on 1 July 2020 with no updates	View PDF Confirmation statement made on 1 July 2020 with no updates - link opens in a new window - 3 pages (3 pages)

Alexander Kelly if Cueball, founder / ex chairman forced out by Bristol/Richard Clark

Richard Clark is "Bristol Bigglesworth"

Gino Salvatore Baldacchino is Tokala Fox.

Carl Heslop is Widor

Ashley Stone - based in Northern Ireland. Not many dogfuckers out that way...

 

[Pinball 2000]

Alright, who's ready for CCFC 2.0? I just got tipped off to the existence of Amish Country Fur Con, which is supposedly planned for Lancaster, PA for 2022. Their official Twitter account started spamming follows at hundreds of random furries. Anyways, there's already some funky stuff going on so I wanted to make sure I archived this shit asap.

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Roughly two hours after I made this post, all their social media mysteriously went DFE without warning. Fortunately, everything hotlinked here was archived.

(archive)

First off, there's the main website, which was clearly made using a free WordPress theme. The background pic slideshow doesn't work properly in the archived copy, but I wanna highlight the four background pictures it cycles through. The first picture is clearly stolen from a photographer who was at Anthrocon because the tunnel of the David L. Lawrence Convention Center is visible in the background. For reference, here's the same spot in Street View:


The second picture is just stolen from a google search for "Amish Country". Amusingly, it depicts Amish from Ohio, not Lancaster, Pennsylvania.


I'm too lazy to look up the other two pictures but if anyone wants to do that, go ahead. I'm sure they're stolen too.


Anyways, photography isn't the only thing they plagiarized; the only other link on their website is to their code of conduct, which is very well-written. And by well-written, I mean they stole the one from Anthrocon's website. Like not even referenced, just outright copy/pasted it and changed the names where needed. They did add a disclaimer at the beginning admitting they stole it, but that doesn't really make it any better.

UPDATE: @Sintharia also pointed out that a passage in the terms says "The name 'Capital City Fur Con' and the ACFC logo..."

Also with noting is that there's a volunteer signup form on the front page that when clicked, links you to a private Google Drive. Even if you wanted to sign up for this thing, you can't.

Finally, it's very important to take a look at the people who are running this:

Let's just go through these in reverse order:
-Mr. Nygma, "Head Of IT". Either they don't have someone yet, or they are keeping their identity a secret.
-Max Nightember, "Head Of Events/ Programming". I don't know anything about this guy as his Twitter is locked and only has 15 followers, but while I was researching, several furries mentioned they were blocked by him despite none of them knowing who he is. UPDATE: someone informed me that Max is actually the roommate of CCFC's Nitro.
-Mixxup, "Head Of Design". There's nothing about their profiles that sets off any immediate warning signs, they just appear to be your typical furry artist who takes commissions.
-Yuki The Fox, "Co Chairman". Taken directly from their Twitter: I am a 18 year old guy who goes to school like every other child. I am also a starting photographer and a video game player. Because if anyone knows how to run a convention, it's an 18-year-old who is presumably still in high school.
-Briggs The Fox, Chairman/Owner. Take a look at that blue fox fursuit in his picture. It looks very familiar...

Briggs was dating Nitro at some point between CCFC's original DFE and the introduction of Nitro's "Cyder" alt. Briggs has claimed they broke up roughly a week before Nitro's Nitro's "cousin" had his insane meltdown.

So given all this information and Briggs association, I have a few theories about what the fuck is going on here:
-Nitro is secretly running this convention as the "Mr. Nygma" because he still wants his own event, but he knows his name is basically blackface among furries now and nobody would go if they knew he was involved.
-Briggs got the idea to run his own convention from Nitro and seriously thinks he's not going to fuck it up as bad (despite having even less experience than Nitro did).
-Briggs has discovered some obscure loophole in the convention contract that will allow him to profit enormously if Amish Country Fur Con bombs (Producers-style).

 

[Sintharia]

Anyways, photography isn't the only thing they plagiarized; the only other link on their website is to their code of conduct, which is very well-written. And by well-written, I mean they stole the one from Anthrocon's website. Like not even referenced, just outright copy/pasted it and changed the names where needed. They did add a disclaimer at the beginning admitting they stole it, but that doesn't really make it any better.
View attachment 1717923

Very interesting tidbit hidden in their code of conduct (bonus archive):

"The name 'Capital City Fur Con' and the ACFC logo..."