Furcode v2.0

Introduction

One evening, while browsing Cohost, I’ve stumbled upon this post by A Strange Cat, where I discovered the existence of the Furry Code, originally made by Ross Smith. The original 1998 document can be found on this page.

It’s a sort of code that uses a compact series of symbols that is used to communicate your essential characteristics to other members of the furry community.

The code consists a series of letter, number and symbols, which are used to describe yourself in a specific category. If the description of a particular section doesn’t match you exactly - pick the closest one. You can omit a specific category if you would like to keep this information to yourself.

Each section consists of a prefix (a letter indicating the category) and a suffix (a set of symbols that indicate your placement in the category).

This is, unofficially, the version 2.0 of the original FurCode, because it has been over 25 years since the original document was last updated, at the time of writing, and… let’s just say that a lot has changed since then. Also I’ve taken liberty of making some semantic changes for simplicity’s sake. So expect that this is not backwards compatible with the original FurCode, though I’ve attempted to leave in a lot of things as-is.

General modifiers

These symbols can be attached to any of the standard sections to indicate a certain factor.

Part 1: Your furry side

F -- Furry Persona

This section indicates what your fursona is. You can indicate your exact species, or just a general type if you don’t fit into a particular species.

Obviously the list of species here can’t cover everything. In some cases the suffixes can’t be broken down to individual subspecies (e.g. “deer” or “mongoose”). If you don’t fit into any of these, consider using the [text] modifier to indicate your custom species. Let me know if you think some species here are sufficiently common in the furry community as to deserve their own codes. For “Generic” species - feel free to expand subspecies/breeds using the [text] modifier.

After identifying your basic species, optional modifiers may be added to indicate thematic variations:

For FurCode’s purposes, a “taur” is a variation on the animal theme, while a “centaur” is half-human, half-animal and is counted as its own species (see FCe). So if your sona is half-human half-zebra, then your identifier could be FCe&EZ, but if you are overall a zebra with 4 legs and 2 arms, then you’re a zebra-taur and your identifier is FEZt.

Next, add a number to indicate your fursona on the human-to-animal scale:

Finally, add one or more letters after the number to indicate your relationship to this character:

If you have more than one sona, depending on the context, use more than one code here, split by the / modifier. As a rough example, if you roleplay as a werewolf that you draw pictures of, dress up as your fox character at cons, and have a magical grizzly bear as your totem, your code might be something like FCWh4dr/CF3c/UGm6s.

A -- Art

Most furry community members try their hand at artwork sooner or later. What’s your relationship with art?

C -- Conventions

How often do you go to or get involved in furry conventions? (This category, except as noted below refers specifically to furry cons, not to conventions in general.)

D -- Dressing

What is your interest in fursuiting?

Add an m at the end if you have made your own fursuit.

H -- Hugs

How interested are you in engaging in hugs? (in online RP)

M -- Roleplay

This category was previously known as “Mucking and Mudding”, referring to telnet multi-user universes/dungeons. I’ve left the prefix as-is for backwards compatibility’s sake. How involved are you in forms of roleplay?

Add a t at the end if you do TTRPGs, and/or an l if you do LARPing. Add an s if you are okay with NSFW online roleplay.

P -- Plushies

How are you involved in collecting plush toys?

R -- Realism

Do you prefer your furries to abide the laws of physics, anatomy and logic, or willing to go more creative with it?

T -- Transformation

If you had the chance, would you want to become your fursona IRL?

V -- Virtual Reality

Do you use VR technologies to participate in the furry community?

Add an m at the end if you have your own 3D model or you do VTubing.

W -- Writing

What’s your relationship with writing text stories in the furry community?

Replace + symbols with ^ symbols if your writing isn’t furry-related.

S -- Gender and Sexuality

Use this section to indicate your fursona’s gender and sexuality preference. As always, if you want a specific option, feel free to use the [text] modifier or you can use the # modifier if you prefer to keep this information private. If you want to indicate pronouns here, feel free to use the [text] modifier for that, but I recommend putting them somewhere alongside your FurCode.

This section was previously called Furry sex, and is extremely outdated by modern standards. Also, I’ve taken liberty of removing the “Sex life” indicator, because I think that’s a bit mad to talk about in public, and replaced it with the sexuality indicator.

First, indicate your fursona’s gender:

Then, add a second letter to indicate your fursona’s sexuality. I’ve not added too much on purpose, just some general ones:

As always, use the [text] modifier after a suffix if you need clarification. Don’t feel restricted to given options.

Part 2: Your offline side

RL -- Real Life

Unfortunately, we were not given a choice in our physical appearance in Real Life, nor we are born into amazing fantasy worlds, but into a boring capitalist reality, where we have Jobs and Businesses that we have to run, as to support ourselves. So what do you do in Real Life?

Some special cases:

Do not put a $ modifier here, because this section assumes your main source of income/day job. Add a ^ after the code if you’re trained or experienced in a field, but haven’t found a job in that field yet (does not apply to RLU or RL-). Feel free to add a [text] modifier after a suffix to specify exact specialization. Also let me know if there’s a major industry that you would like to see included in this list of choices.

Example: If you are trained as an astrophysicist but work in the IT industry - your code would be something like RLCT/S^[astrophysicist].

a -- Age

For how long has your body physically existed?

I don’t think minors under 13 would be reading this, so this is the lower bound. If you prefer, you can indicate your exact age, for example a27 . You can use the # modifier or completely omit this section if you don’t want to indicate it at all.

c -- Computers

Love ’em or hate ’em, they exist and are an inseparable part of modern society. But what’s your relationship with computers and tech?

If your rating is c or above, add one or more of the following letters to the end to indicate your preferred OS (or kernel) choice:

e -- Education

How far have you managed to crawl up the academic ladder?

f -- Real Life Furriness

How far does your furriness spill into your Real Life? Or, rather, how far do you allow the Boring Universe get in the way of important things in life?

g -- Videogames

Originally this section was named d -- Doom, Quake, etc., but gaming has evolved way beyond the shooter genre in the last 25 years. Unfortunately, to include every genre here would be exhausting, so this section will ask you: On average, how good are you at Gaming?

h -- Housing

What sort of home situation are you in?

i -- Internet

World Wide Web: the final frontier. These are the voyages of a humble internet surfer. Their continuing mission: to explore strange new websites; to seek out new people and communities; to boldly go where no one has gone before!

How can you describe your internet presence?

Add a w at the end if you have your own personal webpage, make it wf if it mentions furries.

j -- Anime (Japanese animation)

What is your relationship with the anime culture?

You may add additional modifiers at the end for your viewing preferences: s for translated subtitles, d for translated dubbing.

m -- Mobile devices

You just can’t live without one, yet there are so many. What’s your relationship with them?

If your rating is m+ or above, add one or more of the following letters at the end to indicate your OS of choice:

p -- Pets

How do you cohabit with pets in Real Life?

s -- Gender and Sexuality

Use this section to indicate your own gender and sexuality preference. As always, if you want a specific option, feel free to use the [text] modifier or you can use the # modifier if you prefer to keep this information private. If you want to indicate pronouns here, feel free to use the [text] modifier for that, but I recommend putting them somewhere alongside your FurCode.

First, indicate your gender:

Then, add a second letter to indicate your sexuality:

As always, use the [text] modifier after a suffix if you need clarification. Don’t feel restricted to options.

Example

As a demonstration, here is my own FurCode, version 2:

FCE3ad A- C- D H M-- P+ R+ T++ V W- Snd RLMC^ a# c++m e# f+ g++ h^ i+++wf m++i p-- snd