Herpy was a 'reptile lovers community' that hosted a large database of erotic art as well as an associated forum.
A huge chunk of the art and users were furrys or dragons, but there was also a sizeable zoo population. The forums were against actual bestiality since its harmful to reptiles. They provided a safe haven for a rare type of zoos to have discussions about their fantasys with crocodiles, dragons, dinosaurs, and other reptiles.
The owner (same dude who owns bad dragon) shut it down without notice earlier this week when ppl on Twitter started attacking him for also owning the 'bestiality' site Herpy.net.
I'm sort of doubtful there much overlap here since this subreddit seems centered around mammals, but I was just curious if any of you were sad to see it shutdown. Reading the announcement really bummed me out when I saw it since i don't know of another place like it. The announcement is still up if you visit the site.
I'm a reptile zoo and I've known about Herpy for years. And I was sad to see it shut down, even more so since it was a result of misinformation about the site's content, and scaremongering about bestiality. Even though I never much interacted with the community—since it had various issues, and always seemed to have developed more around furries and therians/otherkin, than around zoophiles—it was nice that it existed, nice that it was at least a place where zoophiles were officially tolerated.
I would hope that something similar would exist again one day, perhaps this time more overall successfully.
I'm not into reptiles, but I did hear about Herpy a couple of years ago through a dragon otherkin who was an active user but also told me about the zoophiles.
Although it wasn't a forum I'm interested in, I do find it a bit sad that it's gone. If nothing else, for my dragon friend's sake.
It's also annoying how theoretical discussion about zoophilia (without encouraging bestiality), is enough to get the anti-zoos to rile up against a site. I'm now worried about a forum I do visit, which isn't about zoophilia, but where a significant portion are self-admitted zoophiles. Old internet forums are disappearing quickly enough as it is, without people attacking them. :/
Yeah the community, myself included, tended to focus discussions on dragons for the most part. I know being attracted to dragons isn't actual zoophilia since they are imaginary, but it certainly feels similar since I'm primarily attracted to large, four-legged beasts with scales, claws, and tails.
What a weird fucking world this is, where people can find themselves attracted to things that don't even exist. I know the furry community is welcoming towards dragons, but Herpy was the only place I saw so many other people share their experiences.
I hope your forum stays safe.
Last week furries started moving to furrynetwork (since fail-affinity was having security problems again)
Then, at some point someone noticed that the owner from furrynetwork was also the owner of herpy, and started about not going there because of zoophilia. I have no idea what was going on at herpy, but from what I knew is that zoophilia was against the rules, but discussion happened.
I do think this place is somewhat safe, it says on the tin what it contains. A discussion and info sharing place (with rules)
Tho, I wonder, why people are fine with a furry company selling animal cock shaped dildos but flip out over a website that "might" have a zoo discussion. I think I would have a problem with the first one to begin with.
I've seen people complain about the dildos, too. Also complaints about anatomically correct furry porn. And porn in general. And non-sexual images of breastfeeding.
I bet someone has complained about the famous statue of Romulus and Remus.
true, people complain about everything, that's a given. Just why do people need to inflate a story, making it seem like a bloody mess, whilst its nothing in the end.
Why? Chinese whispers and micro-penises.
they're almost adorable on those statues :P
Varka is the owner of several naughty websites, including a porn-site for customers showing off his dildos in action.
He's so much into the adult business, I wonder why he would even be remotely concerned about people who complain about the nature of a harmless discussion forum.
This sounds odd to me, considering what his other websites contain.
I know that there is a whole load of controversy around Varka in general. And generally he doesn't seem to care really, he's making money after all
But yeh, he is into a lot of adult business and yeh, you get fire for that once in a while. That's kinda what surprised me, that he pulled the plug, just like that.
Wondering whats behind it
Very sad to hear about this, especially since Herpy wasn't even really a zoophilia website, it was a furry and otherkin website. Not fair at all. Are there any archived versions of it, like in the wayback machine? There's been controversy about it before but never to the point where it went offline.
The rare zoo discussion on that site did help me a lot though with learning that I wasn't alone in my attraction to reptiles, which was a big thing for me. So I'm sad to see it go.
I think you can still read some of the public forums using the way back machine but I don't know how much of it is on there. I believe a member has a pretty recent backup of the gallery too.
Honestly I wasn't very involved in the community, but reading the discussions others had really helped me to come to terms with my own attraction as well. It's sad others won't have the same benefit.
Do you have a link to the backup?
Oh, how nice of people to fix that part of the world by twitteractivism. Now everything is much better./s
Wow that is sad I have been going there for years and for it to die this way.
i'm sad to hear this news. i didn't go there very often, but i definitely appreciated it the times i did.
That makes me sad, I was a huge fan of Narse's works despite being into dogs and horses. Plus I own an XL Razor and Chance Unflared so by extension I'm a fan of Bad Dragon too. It just seems like Zoophobia is rampant these days more than ever.