Hello there, welcome to hiFur!

I suppose all of this might look... a little overwhelming, or perhaps even silly at first. It isn't either of those two things!

There is a real problem with getting in touch with other furries. Especially, if you happen to have the bad luck of having been born in a small town! The internet has helped vastly, allowing every single furry to contribute to the fandom. What's still missing, however, is a realistic way for furries to get in touch with others. Hifur, is a non-profit project created by a Furry (Steampunk Tigress, to be precise!), designed to address this need.

This isn't the usual social networking site designed to track you, and sell you to the highest bidder. We're here to actually provide something back to the furry community. We won't keep detailed records of what you do here, or sell your e-mail out. We don't lease out our database or claim any rights over your intelectual property. What you post here, is yours. We're just helping you share it. Sure... we have adverts. But the cold fact's... we gotta pay the bills somehow.

We're a social network without censorship (except for what the law demands of us), where everyone may be him, her, or hir self! We're all furries in here. And we're very happy being a bunch of crazy, weird people. If you're here... you're probably just as weird as us. So... since that's probably true. Stick around, and we promise you won't regret it!

"... Well, stepping into this new world of furry social networking has proven pretty rewarding after only a day. :) I've already made a friend who actually lives close by - and who shall forever be known as the first South Carolina fur I've met besides myself.

I've browsed a few interesting topics and introduced myself on the forums, and now I feel a tad more normal than I usually do - which is just a whisker shy of completely, outrageously eccentric and odd. I'm new to this whole blogging thing, but I like to write - as most can probably note from my tendency to be excessively wordy - so I guess I can't really do anything too wrong..."

-Kitsuko, Male Kitsune

How to get started in the hiFur community:

Oh. That's simple. (but I was enjoying my rant, mind you!)

As part of the official hiFur welcome wagon, we've put together this small, snappy list for the new furs that join us!:

1. Set up your profile and avatar. Your profile holds interesting, weird, or just plain funky information about yourself. And it's the public face of all content you create on hiFur, so make sure it's cool! Your avatar is your visual representation (your fursona!). it will be shown, well... everywhere. Make sure you set it up! To do both of these things, after you've logged in, click My account. All of our profiles are fully customisable. To change your profile, make sure to click Edit Profile from your main profile page. You can drag, delete, and add widgets. If you feel like contributing a widget of your own, well... stay tuned! Luxchia's working on that!
2. Find your friends! Our PawHunter lets you find your friends inside hiFur and IM networks! You can access the pawhunter by clicking "Find furs!" or by clicking here
   
3. Double-check your City information: hiFur's using a cities database to help furs that live in the same town get in touch easy. When you have set up a city, you may find furs in your city, or find personal adverts in your city. So, make sure it's right! If your town is not listed, do not fret. You can add your town by going to http://hifur.net/tools/city.php Still, before you add your city, please make sure it's not there first! Do not add it if it's already in with a different spelling! (Hey. It's the way the world will see your city, so make sure you spell it decently!)
   
4. Introduce yourself in the forums: Come on, kitties. We don't bite... hard. :3 This is the best way to get to know the hiFur community. Tell us a little about yourself, and feel free to browse around the forums and post in any of the threads. Or join in a poll.  Even, make a poll or a topic of your own! We welcome newcomers! Don't be shy: speak your mind. We're all furries in here.
5. If you're looking for that special someone in your life, go to the personals section, and browse to your heart's content. Or, if you're feeling adventorous, make an advert of your own. We have two types of personal services: That's right. Two. The personal Adverts, which are a huge bill-board, which you can browse by gender, preferences, relationship sought, city, country, state, age, species, and, coming soon, interests and bdsm profile matching. The other service is the personals forum. In the personals forum, you may post a far more free-form request. Which can be as detailed or as vague as you wish. Both services are fully searchable using our built-in search.
6. Join a group or make one! Yeah. Okay. This is a bit obvious. But the best way to find other furs to interact with, (or, of course, to get personal with), is to use our groups system. Feel free to create as many groups as you wish or join all of the ones you're interested in!
   
7. Make new friends! To get the most out of hiFur, you need to add friends! When you're friends with someone, you get notified of whatever new content they create. So, you'll get first hand notice of new blogs, artwork, posts, and messages! So... when you find a fur that writes about stuff that interests you, add him to your friends! A great way to meet furs in your town is to go into Explore. Then into the City search. And when you find furs from your town, add them! Or... explore for members of your species and add them! Finally. Friends get notified of whatever you create. So having friends is the best way to interact with everyone!
   
8. Create. There's no such thing as a free lunch! This is a great place to make furry friends from all over the world. But to get people to know you, and to get to know them, you will need to get involved! So... pick up a couple of rants on your blog. Upload your artwork. Create a forum topic or discuss in a thousand of them. Get involved with other furs in your area. (The clubs are coming soon, as well!) And, comment on other people's work! Drop messages in artwork, or in blogs!
   
9. Contribute. This is a community created by a furry, for furries. Even though the network is young, it has already fundamentally been altered by user feedback, The site looks nothing like what it looked before it went public! We're always looking to better the community. So, if you come up with a good idea, make sure to post it to the forums. Or, if you're an artist, consider making a banner, or, even a theme. If you're a programmer or webdesigner: We're always looking for help! We're looking for furs who can help us build more features. We'd love to have some games, for example. But we're always looking for new ideas.
   
10. Report errors, please! The software behind hiFur is completely custom made. By a single person. (The last line count was at well over 700,000, and took over 12 months to develop from scratch). There are still bugs and glitches. Though, every day, they're being reduced. If you find a glitch. Please, be patient. It will be addressed. All you need to do is post a bug in our bug reporting system (http://bugs.hifur.net). Our bug reporting system uses different accounts. You will need to register before you file your first bug. All you need is your email, though! :3
    
11. It's the content! hiFur is all about creating community. And, in order to achieve this, everyone must pitch in! Whenever you create anything in hiFur, you'll be rewarded with yiffies. Which are our special way of showing who's created the most in the community. You can use yiffies to buy interesting bits for your profile, too!
12. Remember that help is always around the corner. You can click "Help" at the top of any hiFur page to go to the manual!
13. Finally... have fun!
    

Thanks!

-Luxchia, Steampunkah kitty!