Discussion
I love hearing furry youtubers talk about how great it is that staff and volunteers for cons do it for the love of the community, not for money.
I hate how my next thoughts are, "they're non-profits because online furries will treat it like a crime if they aren't", and "regrettably, not all staff are around for anything more than personal gain".
@david
there is also the whole conundrum with how a lot of fur con volunteers are people who cannot afford the tickets otherwise, meaning the con ends up being poor people volunteering to make the experience better for people with more money, and the inevitable bad feelings when someone does not get picked for a volunteer spot when they based their entire con schedule around the assumption that they could get in as a volunteer so they could afford the con.
@Dio9sys I didn't even consider that volunteer type. That is even more sad 
@Dio9sys Treating it like, "if it's not non-profit, then that means it's for profit, which means it will only be people who want to profit and the experience will get worse" misses so many things.
It's understandable when looking at companies that sell products and are known for cost cutting and bad behavior. But it's not like furries are going to keep going to a con if it is actually a bad experience.
@david
right! and it's not like the fandom doesn't already, like, designer fursuit makers and famous artists with a years long wait-list. I don't want the whole fandom to be that, mind you, but I also couldn't imagine treating a famous artist who charges enough to make a profit the way I have seen some con organizers get treated when they bring up con costs
@Dio9sys I'm certainly not against keeping costs lower, or against non-profit events. That's my general preference, as well as just having more, but smaller events. Granted, that was preached in another convention group that I used to be part of, and still everyone was trying to one-up others for size and spectacle.
@david @Dio9sys So? If you go commercial you can always find new customers. This shit happens to literally every community who tries this. Also i think you give furries way too much credit. "Good" can mean many things. And if simple entertainment is what someone rates as good, then money can easily fix that problem.
@catraxx @Dio9sys I understand, and agree with all of those points.
I also know that there are folks like us who are on self-hosted and community funded social media as opposed to Facebook/Twitter/etc because we prefer this experience over those.
This is a whole different conversation to have, but it makes me think of the idea of, "every con does this thing, so we need to do it otherwise we're 'doing it wrong'". A plurality of ideas and experiences is better than massive monoliths, IMO
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@david
on the one hand, the social contract that furcons are nonprofits and usually donate to animal charities is lovely.
On the other hand, bigger cons definitely start to sag around the edges when the whole thing is being propped up by unpaid volunteer labor