# It's that time again folks, furry survey 2011-



## CannonFodder (Jan 21, 2011)

http://www.klisoura.com/furrypoll.php

By now everyone knows the drill, you fill out the information, and later on we find out the results.


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## Riavis (Jan 21, 2011)

CannonFodder said:


> http://www.klisoura.com/furrypoll.php
> 
> By now everyone knows the drill, you fill out the information, and later on we find out the results.



Thank you CF, these things are pretty interesting. Nice time killer while waiting for laundry to finish too lol.


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## Jude (Jan 21, 2011)

Awesome. I'll wait until I have fully developed my fursona before taking it.

EDIT: Took it. I'm not sure if it went through though because it keeps on giving me a blank page at the end.


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## RayO_ElGatubelo (Jan 21, 2011)

Just voted.


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## Waffles (Jan 21, 2011)

Took it, pretty cool.


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## CannonFodder (Jan 21, 2011)

Klisaoru said he'll put the preliminary results when a hundred people take it.


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## LizardKing (Jan 21, 2011)

Why do all of these always seem horribly skewed? I'm never sure what the hell kind of answer they're looking for


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## Riavis (Jan 21, 2011)

CannonFodder said:


> Klisaoru said he'll put the preliminary results when a hundred people take it.



Yay! Can't wait ^_^


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## Alstor (Jan 21, 2011)

I just finished it.

LEGITIMATELY


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## The DK (Jan 21, 2011)

Yep its that time again... yay


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## Commiecomrade (Jan 22, 2011)

Thanks for reminding me to do my annual test-taking.


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## LLiz (Jan 22, 2011)

Done. Now I've done the 'Annual Aussie Broadband Survey' and the 'Annual Furry Survey'... I'm 2 for 2!


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## Fenrari (Jan 22, 2011)

I really need to be in one of those academia fields that actually use these findings...


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## Bernad (Jan 22, 2011)

Done. Now back to doing nothing.


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## Armaetus (Jan 22, 2011)

Done.


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## Icky (Jan 22, 2011)

I can't even rouse myself to fuck with the results. These quizzes are old news :l


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## SilverBehemoth (Jan 22, 2011)

There, done with it. The results should be rather interesting.


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## CynicalCirno (Jan 22, 2011)

Would it be against the law if I vote as non furry and put everything on the lowest possible?
Closest animal to me is god.


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## ~secret~ (Jan 22, 2011)

Mildly interesting questions.

When do I find out if I won?


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## Steel the Wolf (Jan 22, 2011)

I was counted! Now I'll give myself a cookie.


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## arex (Jan 22, 2011)

Annnnnd filled.

Awesome, time to go back to doin nothin.


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## Tabasco (Jan 22, 2011)

Satellite One said:


> Would it be against the law if I vote as non furry and put everything on the lowest possible?
> Closest animal to me is god.


 
I will personally put the cuffs on you. ;>


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## Hakar Kerarmor (Jan 22, 2011)

Ker-filled.


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## ZackDag (Jan 22, 2011)

Done ... now what? Dont i get a prize or something?


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## Wyldfyre (Jan 22, 2011)

Done :3


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## Love! (Jan 22, 2011)

i did it


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## Willow (Jan 22, 2011)

Done and done


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## Rakuen Growlithe (Jan 22, 2011)

Finished it.


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## Verin Asper (Jan 22, 2011)

halfway thru the year it then proceeds to be fucked with....

sadly idola clan no longer exist, good news is, we'll still proceed to fuck it up for old times sakes :V


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## Oovie (Jan 22, 2011)

I wish this was a forced poll to use FurAffinity once a year. Just me wishing.


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## Xenke (Jan 22, 2011)

w/e.

Answer truthfully.


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## CannonFodder (Jan 22, 2011)

ZackDag said:


> Done ... now what? Dont i get a prize or something?








Better luck next year.

I wonder what this year's results will be, cause realistically you can only predict the outcome to a certain point and a +/- 5% guess isn't exactly accurate since the guess could go either way.


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## Greyscale (Jan 22, 2011)

Everytime I see a poll like this i'm sooooo tempted to fuck with it.

Sadly, I didn't.


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## Trpdwarf (Jan 22, 2011)

Done, and they finally added an option for Asexuality in the sexual orientation...sweet. :3


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## Kitsune_Morric (Jan 22, 2011)

~secret~ said:


> Mildly interesting questions.
> 
> When do I find out if I won?



you lost, sorry

and done!


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## ZombieMoth (Jan 22, 2011)

Alright, another year done.

Now to wait for the results.


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## Don (Jan 22, 2011)

Done, now I must find something else to waste time with.


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## CannonFodder (Jan 22, 2011)

Trpdwarf said:


> Done, and they finally added an option for Asexuality in the sexual orientation...sweet. :3


 I was wondering when he was going to put that up.
Also mods sticky this, cause the current furry survey thread stickied is for last years.


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## Sef Highwind (Jan 22, 2011)

Just finished taking it as well. Now to practice tearing film in case I become a loader in the film industry. XD


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## Remy (Jan 22, 2011)

Did it for kicks & giggles. was kind of hard to do as a non-furry but it was fun regardless.


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## Kitsune_Morric (Jan 22, 2011)

CannonFodder said:


> since the guess could go either way.



heehee like a bi-sexual :3


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## TrinityWolfess (Jan 22, 2011)

I voted ^_^


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## Vaelarsa (Jan 23, 2011)

Am I the only one who feels like they're inputting a Megaman 2 password during the "Rate from 1 - 10" blocks, on these things?

Or am I just an insufferably nostalgic dork?


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## Mentova (Jan 23, 2011)

I filled it out because I was bored as hell. My answers were... a lot more positive this time. Furries are corrupting me and making me furfaggier. =[


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## TreacleFox (Jan 23, 2011)

Too many males in the fandom. =/


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## ArielMT (Jan 23, 2011)

Voted, unstickied old, stickied new.


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## Klisoura (Jan 23, 2011)

CannonFodder said:


> Klisaoru said he'll put the preliminary results when a hundred people take it.



That's now sort of a lie. I was hoping to have a bit of a respite, but as it's over 100 now anyway, what information do you folks want to see?


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## Drass (Jan 23, 2011)

I thought: "why the hell not"


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## sheila (Jan 23, 2011)

woot voted but i think i didn't get counted since it was only for the first 100.


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## Klisoura (Jan 23, 2011)

No, everybody counts (the survey had about 4900 respondents last year). I don't post live results until the numbers are high enough that the margin of error isn't ridiculous. That's what CannonFodder was referring to.


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## In_Abyss (Jan 23, 2011)

Done.


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## Bloodshot_Eyes (Jan 23, 2011)

Yay, I'm not as much of a raging furfag as I was when I first started. :V


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## CannonFodder (Jan 23, 2011)

Klisoura said:


> That's now sort of a lie. I was hoping to have a bit of a respite, but as it's over 100 now anyway, what information do you folks want to see?


 Oh my fault, misunderstood what you said.

Did the fandom get younger again, like I predicted it would?
Also did the sexual importance go down again?


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## ~secret~ (Jan 23, 2011)

CannonFodder said:


> Oh my fault, misunderstood what you said.
> 
> Did the fandom get younger again, like I predicted it would?
> Also did the sexual importance go down again?


 
Yep, nearly 40% of the fandom is 15-19 now. Interestingly, starting from the 20-24 range the number of people represented is reduced by half every 4 years.

Looks like this whole furry thing is something most of us will grow out of.


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## Heliophobic (Jan 23, 2011)

Challenge accepted.


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## Kitsune_Morric (Jan 23, 2011)

~secret~ said:


> Yep, nearly 40% of the fandom is 15-19 now. Interestingly, starting from the 20-24 range the number of people represented is reduced by half every 4 years.
> 
> Looks like this whole furry thing is something most of us will grow out of.



LIES!


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## ShadowEon (Jan 23, 2011)

I voted, last year it was too long but this time it was moderate enough.


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## Coyotez (Jan 23, 2011)

Nice poll. When are the results posted? End of 2011, eh?


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## Klisoura (Jan 23, 2011)

Provisional results are up at http://www.klisoura.com/ot_furrysurvey.php . Note a) the relatively high margin of error and b) the fact that most of the respondents are currently coming from FurAffinity. Both of these will change as the survey spreads further (so redistribute freely, my pretties :3 )

*CannonFodder*: Right now, the answer to both of your questions is "yes." Respondents falling into the 15-19 age group have increased by 10 points over last year. Respondents answering "1" to the question "on a scale of 1â€“10 how important is sex to you personally in the contexts of the furry fandom" are also up 9 points over last year. I would offhand guess that these are rather extreme changes, so I'm undecided on how to interpret them.

*Coyotez*: I post continually-updated live results at the link above. A full report happens... when I have the time, I guess. I'm going through the data from 2010 and when that's done I will publish the raw data so that other people can work their magical magickings with it (any text-based responses won't be included, just the objective numbers). 

*~secret~*: That's one way to look at it. The other is that there's a long tail thing going on, where the older tech-savvy core of people who used to make up the fandom are being swamped by an influx of new types as younger and younger people gain access to the Internet. My offhand guess is that the truth is between these poles, tending closer to yours.

*ShadowEon*: Yay, thank you! In fairness I should note that this survey is actually longer than last years and that, despite my efforts to streamline it, it appears to grow larger every year xD

*Grycho*: THE PRESIDENT HAS BEEN KIDNAPPED BY THE NINJAS >:[


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## Ratte (Jan 23, 2011)

Filled mine out and submitted.


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## SilverBehemoth (Jan 23, 2011)

Geeze, that's a lot of youngins O_O, also I'm not surprised by there being more males than females who responded.


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## CannonFodder (Jan 23, 2011)

Klisoura said:


> Provisional results are up at http://www.klisoura.com/ot_furrysurvey.php . Note a) the relatively high margin of error and b) the fact that most of the respondents are currently coming from FurAffinity. Both of these will change as the survey spreads further (so redistribute freely, my pretties :3 )
> 
> *CannonFodder*: Right now, the answer to both of your questions is "yes." Respondents falling into the 15-19 age group have increased by 10 points over last year. Respondents answering "1" to the question "on a scale of 1â€“10 how important is sex to you personally in the contexts of the furry fandom" are also up 9 points over last year. I would offhand guess that these are rather extreme changes, so I'm undecided on how to interpret them.
> 
> ...


 Oh hey it looks like my general predictions on the survey seem to be holding out.
And that is why staying is school is important folks.


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## Drass (Jan 23, 2011)

~secret~ said:


> Looks like this whole furry thing is something most of us will grow out of.



That's kind of a depressing thought.


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## CannonFodder (Jan 23, 2011)

~secret~ said:


> Looks like this whole furry thing is something most of us will grow out of.


 I kicked this general rule in the crotch and told it to shove off.
Btw folks year five of being a furry.


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## ~secret~ (Jan 24, 2011)

Drass said:


> That's kind of a depressing thought.


 
Why's that? People change a lot over their lives. You might find somewhere down the line that being a furry doesn't work for you anymore.


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## CannonFodder (Jan 24, 2011)

~secret~ said:


> Why's that? People change a lot over their lives. You might find somewhere down the line that being a furry doesn't work for you anymore.


 I've known for a while that furries for the most part don't stay in it for more than 4 years, it's kinda old info.


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## PenningtontheSkunk (Jan 26, 2011)

Done, now do I get a cookie?


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## CannonFodder (Jan 26, 2011)

PenelopeSkunk4 said:


> Done, now do I get a cookie?


 No cookie for you! *eats cookie* *drops dead* (guess they were right about Iowa)



Also I totally predicted these outcomes a year ago, the only thing I'm finding surprising is the fact that heterosexuality hasn't broken 50%.  Oh well it was within margin for error.


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## Klisoura (Jan 27, 2011)

CannonFodder said:


> I've known for a while that furries for the most part don't stay in it for more than 4 years, it's kinda old info.



For reference's sake.

2009
Average time in fandom: 5.26 years
Modal time in fandom: 1 year
Median time in fandom: 4 years
Distribution: http://www.klisoura.com/images/survey/timeinfandom2009.png

2010
Average time in fandom: 5.48 years
Modal time in fandom: 1 year
Median time in fandom: 4 years
Distribution: http://www.klisoura.com/images/survey/timeinfandom2010.png


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## CannonFodder (Jan 27, 2011)

Klisoura said:


> For reference's sake.
> 
> 2009
> Average time in fandom: 5.26 years
> ...


 Ah thanks.


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## Catilda Lily (Jan 27, 2011)

I have input my information.


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## Kitsune_Morric (Feb 10, 2011)

so when do we find out this year's results?  or has it come out already?

i've been in the hospital for a little bit, so need some updating


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## Taralack (Feb 10, 2011)

CannonFodder said:


> I kicked this general rule in the crotch and told it to shove off.
> Btw folks year five of being a furry.


 
High five bro.
Then again I am mostly here to leech your monies by making you arts. 

I wasn't really sure how to answer a few of the questions, since I don't really consider myself fully "furry" like most people on this forum seem to be. Even if my friends knew I was furry (they know I draw furry art, but I'm not sure how much they know about the notoriety of the fandom) it would make no difference.


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## Klisoura (Feb 10, 2011)

Kitsune_Morric said:


> so when do we find out this year's results?  or has it come out already?


 
Live results are up at http://klisoura.com/ot_furrysurvey.php and are current as of today. 

If you have other, specific questions let me know. I'll answer them to the best of my ability. That goes for everybody; if you want to know something that's not covered in the live results, just ask.


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## Istanbul (Feb 14, 2011)

Got this at the end:

Warning: mysql_close(): 1 is not a valid MySQL-Link resource in /home/klisoura/klisoura.com/pollsql2011.php on line 755

Hope things went through okay.


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## Klisoura (Feb 14, 2011)

Istanbul said:


> Got this at the end:
> 
> Warning: mysql_close(): 1 is not a valid MySQL-Link resource in /home/klisoura/klisoura.com/pollsql2011.php on line 755
> 
> Hope things went through okay.


 
You're fine. The back-end code had some problems as the result of a PEBCAK error in its creation. Thanks for the heads-up, and thanks for taking the survey.


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## Kai. (Feb 15, 2011)

There is no result for sexual orientation = asexual in the preliminary results? Not even 0.01 or something??

Also, this fandom contains twice as many plushophiles as vegetarians. What the hell. Stay classy, furries.


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## Klisoura (Feb 15, 2011)

Very sorry about that â€“ that's an oversight on my part. I added it into the survey options, but I didn't rebuild the code that generates the graphs (I'll try to remember to do that tonight when I have access to the code). For the record, at 1150 respondents the number answering "asexual" is just over 5.1%.


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## Kai. (Feb 15, 2011)

Ooh, 5.1! That seems like quite a lot.


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## Klisoura (Feb 15, 2011)

If that number holds, it is probably statistically above the expected baseline of ~1% (and flies in the face of the established "furry as fetish" trope). It is not clear to me exactly what other differences are implied; small number statistics also implies a large margin of error at this juncture, but at the moment asexuals are slightly older than others in the fandom, slightly more likely to be women, and... that's about it. They are no more likely to think that sex is especially important for other furries; they also consider themselves part of the fandom to the same degree as everyone else.


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## Spatel (Feb 15, 2011)

A higher number of asexuals would make sense for a fetish, I'd think.


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## Ley (Feb 15, 2011)

Did eet...
 I also found that most furries are guys, white, and between the ages of 15-19. 
/has no relevance, but wanted to share


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## CannonFodder (Feb 15, 2011)

Spatel said:


> A higher number of asexuals would make sense for a fetish*-*


 Imma not gonna let you finish, but thinking asexuality is a fetish is a contradiction and you should feel bad for posting this.


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## chompskey (Feb 16, 2011)

Voted! 

This is actually a pretty cool thing to do every year. Think you would ever post a link to it on other furry forums, CF?


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## Sarcastic Coffeecup (Feb 17, 2011)

Aaand done. pretty cool


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## Spatel (Feb 18, 2011)

CannonFodder said:


> Imma not gonna let you finish, but thinking  asexuality is a fetish is a contradiction and you should feel bad for  posting this.


 
Asexuality isn't a fetish. It's a sexual orientation.... 

If you're cruising for an argument I'll indulge.


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## CannonFodder (Feb 18, 2011)

Spatel said:


> Asexuality isn't a fetish. It's a sexual orientation....
> 
> If you're cruising for an argument I'll indulge.


 I understand, but your wording was off.


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## Kai. (Feb 27, 2011)

I could see how that would work, though. Asexuality is defined as not having sexual attraction to either/any gender. Technically, that says nothing about being sexually attracted to non-human things. It seems like cheating to label yourself as asexual when you really _are_ attracted to something, though.


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## BigHoof (Mar 19, 2011)

Pickenprod said:


> Technically, that says nothing about being sexually attracted to non-human things. It seems like cheating to label yourself as asexual when you really _are_ attracted to something, though.


Then what would the correct label be if that's the case?  Loneliness?


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## Rydel (Apr 7, 2011)

I didn't stand because my chair is comfy, but I was counted.


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## Kitsuneki22 (Apr 7, 2011)

Done. First furry survey I've done too... Woot~ ^^


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## Bitatsu (Apr 8, 2011)

VOTE OR DIE


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## paradox954 (Apr 10, 2011)

Interesting survey.

What do they do with the results?


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## Bitatsu (Apr 10, 2011)

paradox954 said:


> Interesting survey.
> 
> What do they do with the results?


they troll science


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## Dreaming (Apr 12, 2011)

Done!



> Added an "asexual" option to the Kinsey-derived sexual orientation scale.


:3 Seems I'm not the only one


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## Thou Dog (Apr 14, 2011)

All right. Let's see where this goes.


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## Tun (Apr 14, 2011)

Ley said:


> Did eet...
> I also found that most furries are guys, white, and between the ages of 15-19.
> /has no relevance, but wanted to share


 
I always assumed that anyways.


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## Stealthy (Apr 23, 2011)

I did it a while back.

Now I gotta go take it again, because as things turned out two of my besties are furries.


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## Wiskey-Wolf (May 6, 2011)

Riavis said:


> Thank you CF, these things are pretty interesting. Nice time killer while waiting for laundry to finish too lol.



Weird I am doing this to kill time while waiting for the washer.


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## Myrkrvaldyr (May 6, 2011)

I took it as well.


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## RattleCan (May 16, 2011)

Survey Completed


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## Kitsune_Morric (May 16, 2011)

the sad part is i am fairly certain the results are smeared by people not truthfully answering or just plucking around with it


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## Moggy (May 18, 2011)

Completed ^^


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## Attaman (May 18, 2011)

Kitsune_Morric said:


> the sad part is i am fairly certain the results are smeared by people not truthfully answering or just plucking around with it


What was your first clue?

Mine was when I saw about 76% more points in Fursuit importance, on average, than sex importance.  Not that bad... but only about 20% of the survey takers were Fursuiters.  Or, in other words, removing fursuits from the fandom would only directly influence about 20% of the survey takers.  More humorous insofar as the "art" on average is just shy of 1.6 points more important (out of a ten point scale) than Fursuits, and - as Lizardking and others have proven in the last few weeks - there is a _very_ lopsided percentage of views toward mature / adult art as opposed to "clean".

Or, basically, some furries on there are lying out of their ass.  The majority of people voted it (the art) at 10 points (the only way you could have an average of greater than 9 on a ten-point chart), and yet the majority (at the same time) voted under five points for the average importance of sex.  Considering the major Furry art sites (FurAffinity, Inkbunny, SoFurry), the majority of the page views on (at least) FA, the main topic of about 90% of Furry Art Boards, Furry-based avatars, and so on... it just doesn't add up.  

It doesn't help that anyone who answered truthfully (or, in this case, any one of the 80% who don't Fursuit that might consider something they directly participate in as more important than something they don't), an amazing (if you consider that anyone who voted eight points or higher, and one third the people who voted seven) 340 people of a possible 1868 (or 20%!), will probably be seen as either "sex addict" if they acknowledged as a fandom member (See:  Too big to just label troll), or, well... be labeled "troll" / "purposeful poll skewer!".

Basically, while it helps in some areas (such as information that wouldn't be considered compromising, like economic views, sex demographics, and so on), when it comes to stuff like that it's a bunch of furries just covering their ass with "I consider the art of the fandom to be MAJORLY important, and sex / porn so little that I'm going to give it only HALF the points!"


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## Tycho (May 18, 2011)

Definite discrepancies.  One should not take polls about furries conducted by a furry terribly seriously in the first place, though.

To get a decent poll result you'd need to run a much tighter ship than the average amateur pollster.

Remember, this fandom is both overly ashamed of itself and overly proud of itself, at the same time.  Put that in your poll and smoke it.  You've got people swearing up and down "I'M NOT A SEX FIEND, TOTALLY NOT A SEX FIEND" and fibbing on their result, ranking sex lower than it should be.  And they do this because they are convinced that the rest of the world thinks they are depraved sex fiends, which (surprisingly) really isn't that true.  Hence the number for "outsiders think the fandom is about sex" being so high.  In reality, the person filling out the poll isn't a depraved sex-mad lunatic, nor is he a chaste paragon of celibacy and prudence.  He's in between.  And most of us are, honestly.


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## Kitsune_Morric (May 18, 2011)

well i didn't actually believe this would be accurate in the first place, i was just amazed by how MUCH lying there was


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## Klisoura (May 20, 2011)

Attaman said:


> Mine was when I saw about 76% more points in Fursuit importance, on average, than sex importance.



Strictly speaking, the numbers you're quoting are apples to oranges, in the sense that while I do ask "How important do you think sex is to the furry fandom," that number isn't the one you're reporting (presumably, that is, since it's not part of the results page). Actually, because of the design of the survey, I don't think they can actually be accurately compared (this isn't a wholly trivial point, because it appears to inform a sizeable objection on your part); for that matter, they weren't intended to be. 

The two sections graph substantially different aspects of the fandom. The grouping of sex questions is designed to address what I would describe as a relatively common view of the fandom as being sex-driven or fetishistic in scope; in that case, the four questions "How importance is sex to the fandom?", "How important is it to you personally?", "How important do you believe it is to others?" and "How important do you think the public perceives it to be" can only be compared amongst themselves. 

With that caveat noted, I do suspect that, if "adult content" were listed alongside "writing," "fursuiting," &c it would be rated somewhat lower. This is trivially unsurprising. I think, though, that you are giving very short shrift to the idea that this might be an accurate statement. There are, fundamentally, two currents in play. The first is a putative desire on the part of individual furries to misrepresent themselves favorably; the second, your belief that the reality is substantially darker than it is. 

Probably, the answer lies somewhere in the middle. Consider that there are at least three possible interpretations of what it means to be "important," which would naturally result in different scoring (and which I call out in the survey question guide). The first is entirely personal. I'm not a fursuiter and I'm not an artist; if I were to vote entirely personally, I would rate conventions and writing extremely highly, and toss a "1" at fursuiting and artistry. Of course, this is transparently silly; you would have to be a fool to think that art was completely unimportant to the fandom. So set that one aside. 

The second, then, considers the relative degree to which the fandom _would not be the same_ without any given element. And, of course, nobody is saying that sex is _un_important to the fandom. Properly phrased, the contention would go something like this: "if fursuiting were removed from the fandom, the fandom would be _more different_ than if sexual content were removed from it." 

Perhaps you disagree with this notion, and you are well within your rights to do so, but I don't think it's ridiculous on its face. I think people could quite reasonably argue that, in terms of core elements to the fandom, fursuiting _is_ more important. That is to say, if when I think of the fandom I think of someone breakdancing in a wolf suit, and you think of two dragons getting it on... that's on you, not on the fandom â€” isn't it? 

In a sense, you can think about this view as a formulation of the following statement: "if someone is a furry, they are more likely to ________ than if they were not a furry". If I were to tell you that "if someone is a furry, they are more likely to play MUDs than if they were not a furry," or "if someone is a furry, they are more likely to dress up in costume than if they were not a furry," I don't think I'd really get much disagreement. Sex? "If someone is a furry, they are more likely to be interested in sex than if they were not a furry"? _Maybe_ that's accurate â€” but would you really make the claim that furriness is a better predictor of pornographic consumption than it is a predictor of dressing up as an animal? _Really_?

Similarly with the third view of importance: the relative degree to which something defines the fandom in comparison to other elements. Fursuiting is uniquely furry. The prodigious quantity of user-generated furry art, and the consumption thereof, is something that definitely separates furry from other activities like, say, being a Browncoat. Writing? Well, I dunno. A lot of Trekkies write, too. Again, very few people would argue that sex is, on a broad spectrum, unimportant to furrydom â€” but is it really _more important to defining furry_ than other things? 

This view of importance translates into the following statement: "if someone _______, they are more likely to be a furry than someone who does not ______". And again: "If someone dresses up in costume, they are more likely to be a furry than someone who does not dress up in costume." "If someone goes to conventions, they are more likely to be a furry than someone who does not go to conventions." "If someone consumes a staggering quantity of pornography, they are more likely to be a furry than someone who does not"? _Even stipulating that this is true_, again, are you really going to argue that this is a _better_ predictor of furriness than suiting is? 



Attaman said:


> Or, basically, some furries on there are lying out of their ass.



Oh, come off it. Lying implies disingenuousness or a deliberate attempt at deception. There are at least two other explanations, one of which is at least as plausible and the other of which is substantially more so. The first is that people genuinely believe that sexual content does not define the furry fandom and is not important to it any more than it is important to the human race as a whole. I just covered that and, given the raw amount of pornography out on the Internet, I don't actually think this is an unsustainable assumption. But perhaps you do.

The second explanation is that people genuinely underestimate the degree to which sex is important to them in the contexts of the fandom. That wouldn't be particularly surprising, since that general trend is true in virtually all surveys that ask loaded questions. I don't think it's a conscious effort on people's behalf to choose to be more noble than they actually are; nor do I think it's a desire to avoid being stigmatized. 

For example, I'd argue that the otherkin community is relatively _outrÃ©_; if it's purely a desire to avoid being seen as strange, you'd expect anyone willing to fess up to that to also be willing to own up to being a right horndog. In fact, we do find that the average response to the question "How important is sex to you, personally, in the context of the furry fandom" to be higher. 

On the other hand, that question is also positively correlated to other questions that naturally influence the importance of sex in the context of fandom (chiefly, plushophilia and zoophilia). Cut those out, and the difference in average response between otherkin and non-otherkin in terms of how important they personally view sex drops to .1, from 3.88 to 3.98. Top three box response (A >= 8 ) percentage to the question differs by .5%, which is not statistically significant at any confidence level not brought on by heavy drinking.

Now, I could be missing out on something about the otherkin community that makes them perplexingly and singularly asexual. Otherwise, your contention has to be that for some reason, people are _more unwilling to admit to thinking sex is important than to admit that they don't believe themselves to be human beings_. I guess it's possible â€” people can be pretty prudish â€” but color me skeptical.



Tycho said:


> In reality, the person filling out the poll isn't a depraved sex-mad lunatic, nor is he a chaste paragon of celibacy and prudence.  He's in between.  And most of us are, honestly.



In other words, you'd expect the average to center around, say, 5? 

Before we get too critical of our furry friends, let's take a look at something interesting. The survey tracks, among other things, the following four questions:

"How important do you think sex is to the fandom?"
"How important is sex to you personally, in the context of the furry fandom?"
"How important do you believe sex is to other furries?"

and

"How strongly do you consider yourself a part of the furry fandom?" 

So, let's put together a quick table showing the average scores for those first three questions, matched up against the degree to which the respondent considered him or herself a member of the fandom. 


```
Important to You | Important to Others | Important to Fandom
1     3.60              7.04 (3.44)          6.15 (2.55) 
2     3.49              6.45 (2.96)          5.68 (2.19) 
3     3.74              6.45 (2.71)          5.82 (2.08) 
4     3.71              6.32 (2.61)          5.32 (1.61) 
5     3.73              6.26 (2.53)          5.39 (1.66) 
6     4.12              6.38 (2.26)          5.42 (1.3) 
7     4.36              6.29 (1.93)          5.35 (0.99) 
8     4.57              6.27 (1.70)          5.66 (1.09) 
9     4.84              6.36 (1.52)          5.39 (0.55) 
10    4.76              6.05 (1.29)          5.40 (0.64)
```

The numbers in parentheses represent the difference between that column and the first â€” that is, how different, on average, people feel their views are from the perceptions of others and to the fandom as a whole. From this, we can take a note of several things. 

Firstly, as respondents become more immersed in the fandom, the degree to which they consider sex important to their experience in the fandom increases, by greater than 1 point. This is self-evidently logical: somebody who is just coming into the fandom from _Robin Hood_ or _Watership Down_ is probably going to be less stoked at the prospect of Tod and Copper going at it than someone who has been around for awhile. 

At the same time, however, their perception of how radically sexualized the fandom is also drops, to the point that the _difference_ between the two converges steadily over time. By the time people consider themselves extremely strong members of the fandom, the perception that there _is_ a difference between "me" and "those other guys" remains, but it has dropped sharply â€” from "I'm pretty puritanical, and those guys are hanging out in Babylon" to "We're both about average, me on the lower side and them on the higher side.

This is marked, as well, by (with the exception of a slight outlier at the low end of the scale) the relatively constant scoring of "how important is sex to the fandom" of around 5.5, hanging out as sort of the midpoint between "me" and "those other guys." The general consensus appears to be that the fandom is concerned with sex to a more or less average degree, possibly on the slightly higher side. People view themselves as being slightly less sexualized, and others as being slightly more, but... not to put too fine a point on it, so what?

At its core, I agree with your basic assumption that most people are relatively average. Indeed, people who are well immersed in the fandom appear to agree as well. I'd consider a score of 5 or 6 to be average. For people who are strongly part of the fandom â€” say, a score of 8 or more â€” this appears to be the case; the average response to the question of "how important is sex to you, personally," is 4.7.

Now. If you'd like, you can view a difference of .3 on a 10 point scale to be evidence of massive collusion in an attempt to overrepresent the virtues of the fandom. Me, I think that's taking it a bit far.


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## Valdin (May 29, 2011)

Oooh, this looks intriguing...


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## ~Maelstrom~ (Jun 2, 2011)

My clicks have been tallied!


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## skinwalker3 (Jun 2, 2011)

I voted! Yay ^^


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## Krystal Harmonia (Jun 10, 2011)

I feel important... I voted!!!


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## Sar (Jun 13, 2011)

*Finshes survery. Scrolls down*



CannonFodder said:


> Better luck next year.
> 
> I wonder what this year's results will be, cause realistically you can only predict the outcome to a certain point and a +/- 5% guess isn't exactly accurate since the guess could go either way.



NNNNOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!
I wanted a cookie


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## Fat Bunny (Jun 16, 2011)

Webcomic folks do tend to be a fairly sarcastic bunch........



--------
Love,
theFatBunny.com


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## ZucaiFox (Jun 30, 2011)

Took the survey. I kinda liked taking it.


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## Koray (Jul 1, 2011)

I've already taken this 2 times, first in 2009 and the second in 2010. 

I feel old


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## jaggedjester (Jul 1, 2011)

I filled it out honestly and left my email. I like answering questions and I think the survey is pretty neato.


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## wolfystar (Jul 10, 2011)

Not to bad, really wish I could have checked more of the conventions


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## General-jwj (Jul 16, 2011)

My first furry survey ... I wonder what the results will look like ?


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## Winkuru (Jul 16, 2011)

Done and done. Answered honestly like i always do.


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## Bandy (Jul 18, 2011)

This was my second time taking it.


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## Tiger In A Tie (Jul 18, 2011)

Finished it! I look forward to taking another one in the future.


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## Obtuse tail (Jul 29, 2011)

Taken.


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## Azflip (Jul 30, 2011)

Finished it!


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## TechnoGypsy (Jul 30, 2011)

I've only got halfway before I got shooed off


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## Brotherwolven (Sep 4, 2011)

Hoorah for surveys!  Do I get a dollar?


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## RyantheJanitor (Sep 22, 2011)

I just gave out everything I've never told anyone before...I feel great!


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## Aktosh (Sep 27, 2011)

Done.

EDIT: Must... resist... the temptation of putting this on 4chan...


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## XSEAN 115 (Oct 12, 2011)

Finish enjoy


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## emikochan (Oct 17, 2011)

Done and Done, interesting results on the older surveys 

btw Aktosh, that opens up a whole new can of semantic worms


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## Heliophobic (Oct 20, 2011)

> 10 - anarchistic280 _(7.35%)
> _



Fucking bullshit. Carrying a lighter in your pocket and listening to retarded metal music doesn't make you an anarchist.

Kids these days...


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## Cearulwolf (Oct 23, 2011)

Just finished taking the poll


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## Dogflow (Nov 28, 2011)

Thanks for posting!


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## Wakboth (Dec 9, 2011)

Answered the poll. No harm in doing so, and it was sort of interesting.


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## Grae Sparrowkin (Dec 9, 2011)

Taken


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## Gillie (Dec 13, 2011)

I was just wondering, when are the results published? They will be interesting, I think.


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## Klisoura (Dec 16, 2011)

Gillie said:


> I was just wondering, when are the results published? They will be interesting, I think.



Well. I'm glad you asked! 

(sort of >.>)

I'm working with the fandom's own Makyo (editor of [adjective][species]) to try and figure out a way to bring the survey data to more people. In a practical sense, I don't know the best way to visualize it all, and I don't know how to make the data accessible to people in the most straightforward way. This has been a perennial issue for me. I make the (objective) data available to researchers, students, writers and journalists on request, so I presume that sometimes some of it makes its way out into the world. Beyond that, I just don't know. The first year I did the survey, I wrote a booklet around it, but that took just about three weeks longer than forever and since I run the survey by myself these days it's hard to stay committed, I have to admit.

However, to throw you a bone (as a fellow Border collie you're surely deserving)... 

I asked people who took the survey if I could contact them for additional questions. In this case, I created a brief psychographic survey to try to investigate fandom values and behaviors (y'all are welcome to take this, by the way!). In this case, the results are live:

http://klisoura.com/ms2011-12-5results.php

A prettier version with some conclusions and some correlations (in a past life I did segmentation analysis) is forthcoming, but there are already some insights into your fellow critters. So I'm not _completely_ shiftless, only mostly.

I hope to have a final version of those results (they will not be in that format, of course!) up within the next two weeks. 

+k


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## rosewolf13 (Dec 16, 2011)

finished :3 can't wait to see the results


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## Blondegoth (Dec 17, 2011)

Done and done, I hope it is useful to you.


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## Gillie (Dec 18, 2011)

Klisoura said:


> I asked people who took the survey if I could contact them for additional questions. In this case, I created a brief psychographic survey to try to investigate fandom values and behaviors (y'all are welcome to take this, by the way!). In this case, the results are live:
> 
> http://klisoura.com/ms2011-12-5results.php
> 
> +k



A question about these results, are they from strongly agreeing on the left to strongly disagreeing on the right as the questions are, or the opposite way around? Because if they are read the same direction as the questions are answered, I find some of the results quite shocking ..


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## Klisoura (Dec 18, 2011)

... No. Sorry. That would be a weird decision on my part, apparently, to reorder them, but they are read with "strongly disagree" on the left or "strongly agree" on the right.


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## Gillie (Dec 19, 2011)

Ah thank you for clarifying that, the results are significantly less shocking to me now!


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## Klisoura (Jan 14, 2012)

Alright folknoodles, two pieces of news-ish news to report.

First of all, I'm going to be closing out the 2011 Furry Survey in the very near future and building the 2012 version. This is your chance to tell me about all the questions you wish I would ask, so that I can talk to my crack team of survey ninjas and see whether or not that ought to happen.

Secondly, I know I have been a bad dog, as far as publishing data from the survey is concerned. I know I have been a bad dog, and I'm sorry. Put the rolled-up newspapers away (please?), and have some penance: 

http://klisoura.com/fs2011v.html

These are the responses from the entire Furry Survey 2011 data set, with the following exceptions (I learned D3 especially for this, and it was time-consuming. You will not be surprised to learn how quickly "publish all the data!!! : D" becomes "publish ALL the data? :<"):


I haven't yet formatted the datasets for the questions "How long have you been a furry" and "how many other furries do you know?"
I haven't yet figured out how to represent the geographic information (country level globally, state/province level US / CA)
No idea how I want to do the websites or conventions information
Species \D:/ lordy. There's a bucket of worms.

That sounds like a lot, I know, but this is the fullest accounting of the Furry Survey I have made available in three years. Nearly all of the questions are covered; where possible / interesting I have included some of my additional notes on them.

The graphs are built in JavaScript using the D3 SVG library, and while they ought to be cross-platform compliant I can't guarantee that. If you want to build your own graphs, let me know and I can give you the source material I used to make them. 

The page, the data and my notes are all released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license. 

Thanks so much, folks, for all your time <3


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## Bornes (Jan 15, 2012)

I just took this without thinking. I hope I didn't just unintentionally fuck your results up, Kili =(


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## Acetyl (Jan 24, 2012)

Just took it. Good way to spend time while waiting for things to load on this piss-poor internet.


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## Kaibunny94 (Jan 25, 2012)

Yay, thought id fill it in even though I'm new. good set of questions.


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## Kayla (Jan 25, 2012)

à² _à²  only 21% female. lol


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## chewycuticle (Jan 26, 2012)

so there are nearly double the amount of zoophiles over plushophiles, almost non of us are vegetarians, and most everyone says the sex is not important to them at all but think it's fairly important to all the other furries.

very interesting


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## Kayla (Jan 26, 2012)

chewycuticle said:


> so there are nearly double the amount of zoophiles over plushophiles, almost non of us are vegetarians, and most everyone says the sex is not important to them at all but think it's fairly important to all the other furries.
> 
> very interesting



psh. xD


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## Andy Dingo Wolf (Feb 15, 2012)

Very interesting survey, but don't let the media anywhere near the results.


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## Attaman (Mar 10, 2012)

A question: Might later versions of this Survey ask takers as to whether they identify themselves as a Misanthrope? As, thinking about it, I notice a rather large number of misanthropes in the community. If it can be included, I'd also like you to ask (on the 1-10 scale) whether takers consider Humanity to be "natural", since it's another point that seems to be spouted frequently but may just be a case of "The Vocal Ones".


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## Htedomsa (Mar 23, 2012)

but what if we don't know the drill?
what if we are buzz on the moon ......should we find a ball point pen I guess?

nah I'll figure it out ;p


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## Aldino (Apr 5, 2012)

The S.A.T. of furry fandom right there. Do I get college credit and scholarships for this?


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## regit27 (Apr 8, 2012)

that was interesting...... useless comment is useless


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## Klisoura (Apr 10, 2012)

Attaman said:


> A question: Might later versions of this Survey ask takers as to whether they identify themselves as a Misanthrope? As, thinking about it, I notice a rather large number of misanthropes in the community. If it can be included, I'd also like you to ask (on the 1-10 scale) whether takers consider Humanity to be "natural", since it's another point that seems to be spouted frequently but may just be a case of "The Vocal Ones".



I'm a little curious about that myself, now. I may not include it in the full survey next year, but I might send out a microsurvey bulletin that covers this question â€” probably cross-correlated with age, gender, and degree of affiliation with the furry fandom... Back in 2004 I wrote a short essay about misanthropy in the fandom, and even then other furries were remarking on it. I thought it had ebbed somewhat, but... perhaps not.

Other than that: *Hi guys!* Thanks once again for the remarkable turnout for the survey. I love you guys, and you folks taking it has already been a huge help. I know some of you who take it every year probably find it needlessly repetitive, but being able to compare year on year results helps me (and, increasingly, others) to understand the fandom better, and it's proving to become a really cool, useful resource for people. That makes me happy.

I've been a bad dog in 2012, and it's taken me until now to get the provisional results up. They're now available at http://www.klisoura.com/ot_furrysurvey.php and update with every 5 or 10 new responses to the survey. When I can, I'll also start providing a full objective breakdown, although that will probably update on a biweekly or slower basis, depending on how much work it takes me to put together (for some reason, my boss thinks I should spend my time working?).

Once again, you guys are amazing. Thanks!


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## I Am That Is (Apr 10, 2012)

That's all well and good, but where are the polls on religion? I'd be interested to see what we have going in that department.


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## Klisoura (Apr 11, 2012)

I Am That Is said:


> That's all well and good, but where are the polls on religion? I'd be interested to see what we have going in that department.



I haven't put this together for 2012 yet, because I suspect small-number statistics for some religions. Here are the results for 2011, or in tabular form:

Christian, Catholic: 9.19%
Christian, Protestant: 7.11%
Christian, Other: 13.77% *
Muslim: .63%
Hindu: .14%
Jewish: .68%
Pagan: 6.86%
Buddhist: 1.85%
Shinto: 1.85%
Agnostic: 25.44%
Atheist: 33.84%

* Formally, the Orthodox churches and nontrinitarian groups as the Church of Latter-Day Saints and Jehovah's Witnesses, although for furries it may also represent general, nondenominational spiritualism that nonetheless presumes the divinity of Christ.

A fair number of people said "other"; many of these actually fall into the other bins, such as people saying they "weren't sure" or "don't believe in god." The rest is a motley crew of mixed personal spiritual beliefs, occasionally representing combinations of other religions. Deism is a popular write-in choice; there are a few Unitarians, in addition to some Taoists and Satanists.


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## Furryjones (Apr 24, 2012)

All done, I'd like to see the results.


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## DaedolonX (May 4, 2012)

^.=.^


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## quyennb (May 23, 2012)

thanks every one

--------------
cubefiedflash |


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## FubidoKlaws (Jun 9, 2012)

Submitted ^__^


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## I Am That Is (Jun 19, 2012)

Klisoura said:


> I haven't put this together for 2012 yet, because I suspect small-number statistics for some religions. Here are the results for 2011, or in tabular form:
> 
> Christian, Catholic: 9.19%
> Christian, Protestant: 7.11%
> ...



Thanks. Very interesting!


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## Mentova (Jun 19, 2012)

I unstuck this as it is over a year old. If a 2012 one pops up report it and request for it to be stickied.


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## Klisoura (Jun 19, 2012)

Mentova said:


> I unstuck this as it is over a year old. If a 2012 one pops up report it and request for it to be stickied.



Heyo â€”

Your call, naturally, but the link in the title goes to the 2012 version, which cycled over in January this year. I wasn't the one who posted this thread originally, but, just noting that for the record.

And an obligatory thanks to everyone who has taken it. You guys should also all read Makyo, et al.'s [adjective][species]; Makyo does his own surveys, but he's also visualised key components of the Furry Survey for easy digestibility an' stuff.


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## Mentova (Jun 19, 2012)

Klisoura said:


> Heyo â€”
> 
> Your call, naturally, but the link in the title goes to the 2012 version, which cycled over in January this year. I wasn't the one who posted this thread originally, but, just noting that for the record.
> 
> And an obligatory thanks to everyone who has taken it. You guys should also all read Makyo, et al.'s [adjective][species]; Makyo does his own surveys, but he's also visualised key components of the Furry Survey for easy digestibility an' stuff.


I'd prefer someone made a new thread for the 2012 version however since the thread itself is over a year old.


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## Randolph (Jun 19, 2012)

Klisoura said:


> Here are the results for 2011





			
				Occupation said:
			
		

> _Note that whilst most furries are creative to some degree or another (writing, drawing, etc.) just under 3.5% are actually able to make a living at it._


_

_*PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFT*_
_


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