The Fursuit Archive

The Fursuit Archive is a web archive of pictures and videos of fursuits, animal costumes, mascots and furry conventions.

• Addresses:
  • http://archive.fursuit.me/
• Founder: Timduru
• Current Admin: Orthank
• Ran from/to:
  • 1998 to 2014 (Timduru)
  • 2014 to present (Orthank)

History

In 1998 the archive started from Timduru's personal collection of photos and videos of animal costumes. Because of the lack of a central location for archive and retrieval of photos and videos, and increasing public demand, he decided to put his own archive online from his home internet connection in 1998. At first it was only a collection of raw Apache directories organized in different categories, with automated archives generated every couple of months for easier retrieval of a full event. Because of its dynamic IP, it was first available under a DynDNS dynamic domain (*.dyndns.org)

In 2000 the archive moved to a static IP.

In 2001 it moved to its current domain, http://fursuit.timduru.org

At the end of 2001 the IDS thumbnail system was introduced for more user friendly browsing, while raw directory access was also kept to allow easier mass downloading. Basic streaming video previews were also introduced, using the RealVideo format.

In 2002 due to increasing bandwidth demand the site was moved to a dedicated server hosted in a datacenter.

From 2002 on IDS was heavily modified and customized to fit the fursuit archive needs. Most of the latest modified versions are available for download

In 2003 due to the lack of use and unpopularity of the RealVideo format, the video preview mode was removed, although the .rm files were kept available as regular HTTP downloads.

In February 2003 because of the increasing bandwidth demand, a second server was introduced, based in France. The fursuit archive is now load balanced between the US and FR based servers.

In 2007 due to the popularity of YouTube-like video sites and the now established FLV Flash video format, video streaming preview was restored, this time using Flash video preview. Direct seek access was added later on for easier seeking through big videos.

In 2008 DivX web player streaming was added for the latest videos (stage6 like). Higher bitrate DivX streaming allows previews of better quality up to HD, but doesn't currently allow direct video seeking access (unless the video is pre-buffered). The lower bitrate FLV preview is kept for slower connections and for the practical direct access feature missing from DivX.

In 2014, due to personal reasons, Timduru transferred the ownership and hosting of the site to Orthank.

In October 2015, a new version of the fursuit archive went online. Users could now upload new photos/videos by themselves.