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Fursuiter Etiquette for Non Suiters

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Cheetah:
I found this on the fursuiting page of Furry Weekend Atlanda. It's a Text written by Santa Fox, and I think it is a very good guide how to act when you're around fursuiters at a furry convention,

Interacting With Fursuiters

It can be a lot of fun to watch and interact with fursuiters, but remembering a few simple guidelines can help both you and the fursuiters to have an enjoyable furry convention experience.


* When it comes to touch, treat fursuiters like you would any other fur: if you don't know the suiter, ask first before hugging, scritching or touching the suiter in any way. If you are given an okay to scritch a fursuiter, be gentle - it's not polite to pull out clumps of fur while scritching a suiter, and unlike with a real animal, that fur will not grow back in.


* Wearing a fursuit is NOT an open invitation to get unduly personal and intimate with the person in the fursuit! Absolutely do not touch any fursuiter whom you do not know in any inappropriate places - even if a person is wearing a suit that looks "hot", that does not mean that the person inside the costume is wanting to be hit on. If you do know the person in a fursuit and the two of you do want to get unusually friendly, take it to a hotel room, please!


* Suiters may appear larger than life and thus indestructible, but remember that there are real people inside those costumes. Please don't tackle suiters, run across the room and pounce on them, or engage in rough horseplay with them. The worst thing for a suiter is to get injured and be unable to suit for the rest of a con.


* Please be gentle with ears, noses, tails, etc - remember that fursuits are fairly expensive items, and damages are not going to be cheap for the fursuiter to repair. Petting and stroking is fine - yanking and tugging is not. If you have children with you, please restrain them from yanking and tugging on costumes as well.


* Don't go hugging or cuddling a fursuiter if you haven't bathed in the past twenty-four hours, please! Also please stay away from fursuiters if you are smoking or have just been smoking recently. Ventilation in fursuits is limited enough, and unpleasant odors do have a way of lingering on fabrics. Also, if you've just had that greasy pizza or chilidog, or been muching potato chips or powdered donuts or the like, please remember to wash your hands before interacting with the fursuiters. Leaving your pawprints on a new fursuit is not a nice way to thank a fursuiter for taking the time to greet you.


* When photographing suiters, please make sure that your camera is ready before asking the suiter to pose. When you've taken your picture, please give some kind of signal (thumbs-up, OK sign, nod of the head, etc.) to let the suiter know you are done. It is very hard at times for a suiter to know that a picture has been taken, and one of the hardest things for a suiter to do is to maintain a pose.


Suiters Moving Around the Con (and Moving Around Them)


* Remember that suiters have a more limited range of vision, hearing, and sense of touch than you do. Please don't sneak up on suiters from behind, as they won't have any idea that you are back there.


* Suiters also need more elbow room when they are moving around, so try not to crowd up against them. You don't want to accidentally get hit because a suiter didn't realize that you were standing in their blind spot.


* Please don't be afraid to let a suiter know about an approaching hazard, like a step up or down, or a foreign object on the floor. Many suiters really can't see all that well and truly appreciate getting such warnings.


* If you can, open and hold doors for suiters, as it can be really difficult for some suiters to work doorknobs when they have large hand-paws.


* If a fursuiter ignores you, don't assume that you are being slighted. The person in the costume may simply have been unable to see you or hear you, or may need to get to the headless lounge quickly due to heat or thirst. If the suiter stays in the general area, approach him/her from the front, and if you still can't get the suiter's attention, try speaking a little bit louder than normal.


* When suiters are waiting for an elevator, let them go first and don't crowd into the elevator car with suiters. It's already hot and stuffy in an elevator car, and crowding the car makes air flow worse while also delaying the trip to the destination floor, which only increases the difficulties on the suiter or suiters.


The Fursuiter Headless Lounge


* The fursuiter headless lounge is a place of refuge for fursuiters to take breaks with their heads and paws off. Please respect this and do not come into the lounge unless you have a specific fursuiting-related reason to do so. During low use times, you are certainly welcome to come in to the lounge to visit with a fursuiting friend, and anyone assisting a fursuiter is always welcome to be in the lounge. We just don't want streams of non-suiters passing through the lounge, as that destroys the sense of privacy for them that lets them relax on their breaks.


* If you are a non-suiter visiting the fursuiter headless lounge, please reserve the cups and water in that room for the fursuiters. There should be water and cups available in all of the other con rooms, and it's much more inconvenient for a suiter to have to try to run around to other rooms to get more cups and water than it is for a non-suiter to take the time to walk down the hall to get water.


* Do not take pictures inside the fursuiter headless lounge! There are plenty of other places to take pictures, and it really makes suiters uncomfortable to think that someone's snapping photos in the lounge, even if you are only wanting to photograph a single fursuiter. Regardless of where you are taking photos, never photograph a suiter with his/her head off (or otherwise partially out of costume) unless you have that person's explicit permission.


Assisting Fursuiters Who are in Trouble


* If you see a suiter out anywhere who looks to be sick, injured, or in trouble in any way, please take the time to check on the suiter and help in any way that you can. If necessary, please do not hesitate to help a suiter get back to the lounge and if needed help the suiter with getting out of his/her costume. If a suiter needs medical attention, simply locate any staff member and ask him/her to radio for the con medic.


* If you see anyone harassing a fursuiter, either get someone on staff to handle the situation, or if you feel okay in doing so, try to help escort the suiter away from the problem. If the suiter is outside of the convention spaces, the best thing you can do is to help the suiter get back to a security checkpoint, as con security will stop any outsiders from entering into con space.


Hopefully, this should all be common sense to everyone, but it's always good to give a quick refresher. Just doing a few simple things can really make a big difference to that fursuiter who's working so hard to entertain everyone. Others are welcome to take and adapt this guide to their needs, so long as they attribute Santa Fox as the original compiler of the guide.

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