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F.A.Q.
Frequently Asked Questions
Table of Contents
- What is Furtopia?
- What is a Furry?
- Why is there a Furtopia?
- What does Furtopia run on?
- What services does Furtopia provide for the community?
- Can I have more than one account at Furtopia?
- How do I use my website?
- How do I upload my webpage and files to my website?
- Where would I find Furtopia Banners to link to from my website?
- Trouble Shooting
- Can I password protect my web directories?
- Can I have my own domain name and have it hosted on Furtopia?
- I am a furry but have non-furry stuff on my webpage, can my site still be hosted at Furtopia?
- What is "Sketch-n-Chat" and how do I use it?
- What is the Furry Message Forum?
- What does the date below the listed Artists name mean?
- How does your rating system work?
- What is "Choice of the Week"?
- What does it take to become a Staff Member?
- What is an SSI Tag?
- Furtopia Tools
- What SSI scripts does Furtopia allow me to add to my webpage(s)?
- What is "Furry Photoframe?
Furtopia is a volunteer run and grassroots Furry based community service. Furtopia was designed o the "old net" addage to freely help the community (Furry), in whatever way we can, in the same light allow Furries who feel they have something to offer the community, an avenue to share their gifts.
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Furtopia is non-commercial, ad and banner free. We do not charge for this community service but individual members are free to have the flexibility to run their sites commercial or not, within Furtopia rules and guidelines.
WhiteShepherds opinion: Mmm.. best way to describe Furry is to break it down into two groups. People and Art. People who are furry generally have a liking to things related to animals (mythical or otherwise). If you know someone who loves wolves or dragons and has pictures all over their walls, that person would be considered "furry" (generic term). "Furry" artwork is related to artwork that is drawings of animals or animal "anthromorphs" (an artwork cross between human and animal). Most furry fans enjoy "anthromorphs" because it appeals to the fantasy or desire of being/seeing a morph. Know anyone who liked werewolves and thought it would be really cool to turn into one? The appeal concept here is the same. :)
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There has been some good and bad press on furry in the media and web. There is some mis-information in the news and on the web about furry. Some report furry as a "sex fetish". Generally the reporter takes little research on what furry is or a cross member who wants to evoke a reaction from people/furs he or she is trying to hurt.
Most of the furry community embraces and holds in a high esteem, artwork. With this standard of art there is generally no bias against the artist for what he or she may draw (odd, gay, straight, or (what society considers) normal or not). Generally some artists will draw fantasies which include sexual depictions. Other artists choose to draw no adult material at all. The key is the freedom of art and the freedom of expression. The media often sees an open unbiased art collection and often finds a easy target to sensationalize.
Out of the many many furry members some do enjoy "living" their fantasy as a furry. But others do not and just enjoy the art. There is no wrong or right to either side. These two groups are just "personal opinions" on a way they wish to live. Furry art is related to animals. A "furry person" has in some way a desire, connection, or enjoyment of animal related/morphs or fantasy creatures/animals. The rest is the individuality that makes us all unique.
Hope this helps explain some of what "furry" can be.
Furtopia was created to be a reliable hosting and community web service for Furs. First of all, Furtopia is NOT meant as a replacement for other furry services. Furtopia is an "Additional" service/choice provided to the community. It is in the opinion of this writer and the Furtopia Staff that the more Furry services available to the public the better for the community. Holding true to this philosophy Furtopia does not offer many restrictions on how you can use your service or adhere to a "highlander" attitude, that "there can be only one" service provider.
The Furtopia goal is to help in any way we can.
If you wish to use Furtopia as your primary site? YES!
If you would like to have Furtopia as a backup mirror site? YES!
If you would like to host your own domain name with us? YES!
If you already have a webpage and would like us to link to you? YES!
If you need CGI-Pearl/PHP? YES!
All the Furtopia Staff are here to help if you have any special web hosting needs or a general question, always feel free to ask.
"Currently" Furtopia runs on a server farm of six (6) PC's. Three systems run OS/2, "including" the primary and secondary web server with the remaining three systems being Windows based to provide archival and supplemental Furtopia services.
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What services does Furtopia provide for the community?
Furtopia offers to the Furry community:
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- One of the most versatile, fast and reliable web hosting engine available on the net to furry artists, writers and musicians.
These services include -
- Unique subdomains for hosted websites CGI enabled accounts - (Pearl + PHP + mySQL + PostgreSQL + FreeType + ZLib + GD)
- FTP access to accounts
- DNS services (We can host your top level domain .com .net etc)
- Web based upload tool - (running)
- Furry based webpage add ons for Furtopia accounts (Oekaki, Guestbook, Forums, Counters) - (Now here!)
- Furtopia Furry Forums! for help and lots of friendly chat. :)
- Community drawing board (Furry Sketch-n-Chat) for fun, chat and games.
- An on-linevolunteer staff to help with questions and requests. (To see the Current Staff members click here.)
Can I have more than one account at Furtopia?
Normally each user is permitted only one account per person. Under special circumstances if you explain to us your particular need (example: your an artist AND an agent for someone else) we may permit an user to have more than one account but that decision will be made on a per user/need basis
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Using an "FTP" program you may upload your pictures/stories-poetry/music into folders/directories you create for others to view.
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If you have them, you may also upload webpages (HTML files) to give your webpage a personal touch and feel.
If you have a question on FTP or HTML feel free to ask Staff.
How do I upload to my website?
You may upload your files to Furtopia in one of two ways:
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- Use an FTP program to upload your files into your personal account. If you do not have an FTP program you can find an easy to use FTP program Filezilla here.
- You may use our web based upload tool - (Under Construction).
Where would I find Furtopia Banners to link to from my website?
There are several banners to choose from. Most of these were created by members. We do allow members to make their own banners to put up on their websites and then are also welcome to send them to us to include on this page.
I have uploaded changes to my website through FTP but am still not seeing the changes, what is wrong?
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If you are using Netscape open a browser window, click on "Edit", then click on "Preferences", then double click on "Advance", then click on "Cache" and you will see two buttons, "Clear Memory Cache" and "Clear Disk Cache". Click on each one in turn and if it asks "ok", click "ok" (depending on your browser), if not that is ok it will still clear. You need to click on both. After doing this go back to your browser window and "Reload/Refresh" your page and you should see your updates.
If you are using Internet Explorer open a browser window and click on "Tools", then click on "Internet Options", then under "Temporary Internet Files" click on "Delete Files", hit ok. Then hit "ok" again. Then click on "Refresh" in your browser window and your changes should be visible.
Can I password protect my directories?
You may password protect "any" directory in your "Furtopia/Dragoncity" account. Some users use this to control access to certain material or to help prevent "hot-linking" to some files.
To password protect a directory send an email to admin2@furtopia.org .
Mention you would like to password protect a directory(ies). Please include your login and user name.
All files and/or directories under a password protected directory is also protected by the same login password.
You can also password/protect directories yourself by downloading: fprotect.exe & fprotect.txt (the instructions) found here.
For our users who know a little DOS/CMD this utility will let you QUICKLY password protect ANY of your directories by auto-creating a basic .htaccess & .htpasswd files from the username/password you supply. Uploading these files to your website will then password protect that directory the files are placed.
Please do NOT abuse this service. "Furtopia/Dragoncity" is NOT for warez or other illegal material! "Furtopia/Dragoncity" DOES scan for account abuses.
Can I have my own domain name and have it hosted on Furtopia?
Yes - there was some discussion on this and Furtopia will help in anyway we can.
First, fill out the application and include a note saying which domain name you wish to host with us.
Next set your domain name to ns1.furtopia.org and ns2.furtopia.org if you do not have a domain name you can still get a "Furtopia/Dragoncity" comes with your account (www.yourname.furtopia.org). :)
If you are looking for a domain name to host on Furtopia www.godaddy.com is a good/inexpensive supplier of domain names (not affiliated).
NOTE: Hosting on Furtopia requires that you abide by all Furtopia's rules and policies.
I am a furry but have non-furry stuff on my webpage,
can my site still be hosted at furtopia?Yes - as per Furtopia policy as long as your site content remains at least 80% furry related you may host your website on Furtopia.
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What is "Sketch-n-Chat" and how do I use it?
Furry "Sketch-n-Chat" is a community draw program. It allows others who are in the same 'room' as you are to "watch" you draw as you are drawing. It also allows you to type messages public and privately to your friends in "Chat". You can create your own private room or chat/draw in a public room.
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Note: this program uses Java and it is strongly recommended that you download the latest Java from www.sun.com/java for your operating system (Windows, Linux, Mac, ETC). Some problems experienced by users have been corrected by updating to a newer more stable Java.
What is the Furry Message Forum?
The "Furry Message Forum/Furtopia Forums" is THE friendly furry meet place! It is a place where artists can showcase their art, fur to ask questions, and always a good place to get in on a furiendly chat! Come join right in!
What does the date below the listed Artists name mean?
This is an important and valuable feature for artists and viewers alike. The date shows when the webpage was last updated.
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Therefore, the artists have an easy way of showing their fans they have new content and frequent viewers can quickly discern what sites have content they have not seen.
Dates are also color coded by 'AGE' of update to help users sort webpages by date.
How does your rating system work?
ALL - All content from 'G' to 'Adult' can be found on this site. Adult content is separated by a warning page.
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Adult - Adult content will be found on this site. No one under legal age permitted.
PG - No one under the age of 13, parental guidance suggested.
G - General audience is content that is viewable by all general audiences.
NOTE: Artists are responsible for rating their sites.
Once a week (or whenever we find the time) we will peruse through the locally hosted index and choose a piece of artwork, story/poem, and music/song that we think deserves special attention due to its high quality. You may look at our "choice of the week" here.
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What does it take to become a Staff Member?
Reliability and time. It doesn't hurt to have 'smarts' in the topic you would like to help in as well. ;) Seriously, Furtopia is run and made possible solely by the help of furs willing to give their time to help other furs. If you wish to help with the technical aspects of Furtopia please email admin2@furtopia.org.
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SSI or Server Side Includes are non-complex commands that can be easily inserted into webpages (HTML). They can be (easily) used to insert files, dates and more.
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Below are some Furtopia services that you may find useful to use in/for your website:
Return to "Table of Contents"SSI Tags
Furtry Photoframe
What SSI scripts does Furtopia allow me to add to my webpage(s)?
* SSI stands for Server Side Includes. These are tags that are interpreted by the web server itself before sending it to the browser of the visitor of your site. Note: Your web pages MUST be names with a ".shtml" (example: index.shtml) for SSI codes to work in them.
<!--#echo var="HTTP_USER_AGENT"--> the type of browser the visitor of your web site is using to access this page
<!--#echo var="DATE_LOCAL"--> The current date and time in the local time zone. This can be used for outputting information on your web page like "The current time here is: ".
<!--#echo var="REMOTE_HOST"--> the hostname of the machine that gives the visitor access to your site. If your visitor is behind a proxy server, then this is the hostname of the proxy server.
<!--#echo var="REMOTE_ADDR"--> the IP address of the machine that gives the visitor access to your site. If your visitor is behind a proxy server, then this is the IP address of the proxy server.
<!--#echo var="HTTP_USER_AGENT"--> this identifies where the link to this page is coming from. This is also logged in the ncsa/apache style log file whether you use this tag or not.
<!--#include virtual="/cgi-bin/counter.cgi" --> this is a counter that gives the number of times a specified page is hit. This is used in conjunction with a file counter.dat
<!--#echo var="DATE_GMT"--> The current Greenwich mean time, which is the current Australian Eastern Standard Time minus ten hours.
<!--#echo var="CONTENT_LENGTH"--> The total number of bytes of the document's content. This document has a CONTENT_LENGTH of .
<!--#include virtual="/lefttable.html"--> this SSI will include ANY document into your web page, inserted exactly where the SSI code is in your page. This SSI command can also insert the output of CGI scripts, suppose you have a file index.htm and you want to make a counter for this page.
Somewhere in this page you have something like:
"Website-name visitors: <!--#include virtual="/cgi-bin/counter.cgi" --> times."
Every time this html page is accessed the counter will be incremented. If your page has been accessed 5 times the following output will be generated by the Furtopia server to the browser
"Website-name visitors: 5 hits since March 21, 2002 (date based on when counter is started)."
See, it's easy! Just put the SSI command in where you want it and go. No long time spent coding. :)
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"Furry Photoframe" is the PHP program named "Photoframe" by Martin Doug Iamas( http://dougiamas.com ) that has been modified to run on Furtopia's PHP enabled server.
To install Furry Photoframe (Photoframe modified to run on Furtopia) you will need to edit the index.php. Near the top of the file, edit the user fields "$title" with the name of your Furtopia Web Page, the field "$password" with a password for you to run admin (admin can be found in the bottom left frame when you are running Furry Photoframe), and "$email" if you wish new user comments to be e-mailed to you. :)
Now you are ready for the fun part! Place your edited index.php into a directory on your Furtopia account. Note: Do not upload files through the upload tool in Furry Photoframe admin as it is currently not saving files properly at this time. :) Once uploaded with FTP, your art is ready to be automatically cataloged and viewed.
When first uploading art please give a minute or two for the thumbnails to be generated and your page to display.Note: If you would like descriptions with your images you may type it in a text editor (ie notepad) and save/upload it as a .cap file (nameofyourimage.jpg.cap) and place it in the "thumb" directory just under your actual image. So if your image on your account is "artwork/coolpic.jpg" Your description would go here: "artwork/thumb/coolpic.jpg.cap" .
VERY IMPORTANT, READ BELLOW!!!
Do not upload ".gif" files! Only upload .jpg files! Uploading a .gif will cause your script to hang.
The script can only handle .jpg files saved as a "standard" .jpg (no progressive, etc). If some of your thumbnails have errors or only show by file name then you must re-save your .jpg as a "standard" format. If you don't have a program to re-save your art you may get Infranview. You can find it here: http://www.irfanview.com . You can view and re-save. It also makes a nice graphic viewer and it's free. :)
If you have any "bad" or non showing images it is best to remove them until you re-save them. The server may try and remake the thumbnails each time your page is viewed and that can slow down the display of your art.
If you have an image that has created a bad thumbnail you need to re-save the image (recommended Infranview) and delete the old thumbnail out of the "thumb" directory. Once you have deleted the old thumbnail the system will be able to create a new thumbnail out of the new image.
Ie: Good advice... Keep only properly displaying images in your Furry Photoframe directory.
If you have any questions reguarding the use or the set-up of Photoframe email admin@furtopia.org.
If you would like to see an example of "Furry Photoframe" in use check out Graffix Heyena's website at http://www.graffix.furtopia.org.
To download "Furry Photoframe" you can find it in the "Furtopia Tools" directory at http://www.furtopia.org/tools/.
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Furtopia web hosting community, "furtopia.org" and all its' original works Copyright © 2001.
Web page hosting and furtopia.org are provided to the furry community by: WhiteShepherd and Kada-Ru
and also by all the wonderful furs who contribute to making this world a reailty.