Furcode Hub

by Karma

Furcode?

"The Furry Code," proposed in 1996 by Ross Smith, is a string of characters that encodes, in a short and mysterious/neat-looking form, information about your fursona and various types of involvement in furry fandom. In the 90s, similar Usenet-signature-ready codes existed for other subcultures, or for describing your pet cat. In the modern day it's basically a fun curiosity, but attempts have been made to update it for modern fandom, such as voidlynx's Furcode 2.0. I don't expect a 2025 furcode revival, but I thought Furcode 2.0 would be easier to use with a web tool or two to facilitate interpreting a furcode into plain language and vice versa, and it seemed like a fun project. Both of these tools require Javascript; they were written in p5.js.

My Furcode

FDL3ad[Chameleon] A++ M+t P+++ R++&-- W Sn RL# a# g++ i+wf j+ p sn

Furcode 2.0 Decoder

Instructions

Paste a Furcode into the textbox and press Enter or the Decode button to expand the abbreviations into plain text. You may click inside the header to pause the animation if the motion distracts you.

Furcode 2.0 Encoder

Instructions

The encoder will look best on desktop, but should function tolerably on mobile.

The interface will show you one section at a time. Make the appropriate selections from each drop-down menu, and/or choose modifiers from the sidebar. If you'd like to add clarifying text to the current section, type it into the textbox in the bottom right.

When you are satisfied with the answer you've given, click "Add" to append that piece to your overall furcode. You may navigate to the next section with the "Next" button, or skip to another section by clicking the tabs along the top edge.

To use the modifier buttons "Add: Future aspiration," "Add: Combination," and "Add: Multiple options," make the selections on the drop-down menus you would like to see in the first section of your code, then press the appropriate Add button. The code shown in the preview pane will be added to your final code, followed by >, &, or / respectively. Adjust your selections to give your answer for the second half, then press "Add" to finish the code. If you have three or more segments to your answer, you may continue using modifier "Add: *" buttons until the final selection, which should always use the "Add" button along the bottom. If you use any "Add" button when that section of your current furcode does not end in >, &, or /, it will instead overwrite that section and begin a new entry. For example:

  1. Suppose I have multiple fursonas. To encode the first one, I choose "Marsupial," "Kangaroo," "Anthropomorphic animal," "General alter-ego," and click "Add: Multiple options." My furcode now reads FMaK3a/.
  2. My second fursona is a hybrid of a polar bear and a rabbit. I start by choosing "Ursid," "Polar Bear" and click "Add: Combination." The combination option adds only the species code, so my furcode now reads FMaK3a/UA&.
  3. Next I choose "Lagomorph," "Rabbit," and fill out the rest of the sections: "Animal shape with some unusual features," "Magic/Psychic," "Someone to draw art of," and "Roleplaying character." This will be the last segment, so I click "Add." My completed furcode now reads FMaK3a/UA&LRm5a.

Changes

I did my best to replicate Furcode 2.0 without editorializing too much, but I did patch some minor issues:

  • Renamed FG from "Generic furry" to "Placental mammal," to accomodate several animals which would otherwise have no codes. The most egregious oversight is superorder Afrotheria, which was proposed after genetic research conducted post-1998 and seems to have been overlooked in the rework. Pangolins, aardvarks, rhinos, elephants, and tapirs, among others, would go here.
  • Renamed FS from "Fish-like" to "Fish/Cetacean/Amphibian." My sincere apologies to all frogs for this sort-of-odd grouping; I'd add a new category if it weren't my goal to remain fully compatible with Furcode 2.0.
  • Renamed FB from "Bugs and insects" to "Bug/Invertebrate," again for inclusivity. In all of the above cases, the best practice is going to be to clarify your species in [text] for compatibility.
  • Renamed FI "Insectivora" to "Eulipotyphla" - Insectivora is a defunct order made obsolete by genetic analysis. Due to similar circumstances, Furcode 2.0 removed Edentata and added Xenarthra, so, again, I assume this was just overlooked.
  • Certain lowercase letters are reused between the 'thematic variations' section and fursona species category. In the 1998 version, the only potential issue was likely-rare ambiguity between 'FCh' were-canine and 'FCh' chiropteran. Furcode 2.0 introduces several more conflicts due to 'r' - robotic and 'i' - inflatable. To fix this, I've allowed ^ to be added as an optional separator character between species and variation. For example, 'FA^r' robotic bird, as distinct from 'FAr' two-toed hoofed mammal. The encoder will add this carat automatically if r, h, or i is the first letter in the thematic variation section. With no carat, the decoder will default to assuming it is a species code without thematic variation.