Tracking and Hunting Furries in the Wild - A Comprehensive Guide to Discovery and Digging on Furs

[Uncle Warren]

Recently I wanted to try archiving some furries' twitter timelines, as well as their followers and following lists. I went looking around online for tools that would help with this, but Google was interested only in showing me shady shit with price tags upwards of $40 per use. These tools also require you to have a Twitter account and access to Twitter's developer interface, which requires an application and has an approval process, and fuck that noise.

So, I went open source. And lo and behold, I got things to work properly. I'm happy to share with you a guide on how to go full NSA on somebody's public twitter feed, without even needing to be logged into a twitter account. This also will work on any operating system that can support Python, so basically any operating system not developed by a lolcow.

DISCLAIMER: I am not a programmer. This guide covers use of coding tools that I barely know how to use, let alone how to use safely. I am literally a script kiddie playing with scripts. Fuck around with these tools at your own risk.

We'll be covering how to use Twint, an open-source Twitter scraping tool coded in Python. The developers are working on a desktop app of this, but for now, you need to have Python installed in order to run it.

You can download Python here. If you're installing it on Windows, you'll want to make sure that these two options are checked during install:

View attachment 1455428 View attachment 1455433

The first, pip, lets you download and install Python shit with a single command. The second lets you run Python shit from the command line. Get Python installed, then operate up a command line interface (cmd if you're neurotypical; PowerShell, bash, or god knows what else otherwise) and type in the following command:

pip3 install twint

If you see a series of messages relating to downloading and installing shit from the internet and System32 doesn't vanish, you've done it right. Wait for the gears to stop whirring, then use the command prompt to navigate to a folder you know how to find again, such as Downloads if you're a heathen who saves everything to Downloads. Then, refer to the documentation in Twint's github wiki to build a command to harvest the Twitter account of your choice. As a note, this doesn't work on protected Twitters, so you won't be able to trawl somebody's AD timeline. What a shame.

Here's some examples of commands you can use:

 twint -u khordkitty -o khord_tweets.csv --csv

This command will pull everything down from KhordKitty's Twitter timeline and save it to a comma-separated values (CSV) file. CSV files are wonderful contraptions that can be opened in Excel or another spreadsheet editor, where you can run all manner of analytics on them. See attached for a sample of the results!

 twint -u khordkitty --followers -o khord_followers.csv --csv

This command will rip somebody's follower list from start to finish, saving every follower's username as a nice list.

 twint -u khordkitty --followers --user-full -o khord_followers.csv --csv

This command will rip somebody's follower list from start to finish, saving every follower's name, username, bio, location, join date, and various other shit as a nice list. WARNING: It also takes a lot fuckin longer to work.

 twint -u khordkitty --following -o khord_following.csv --csv

Same as the command to rip a follower list, except that this time, it collects the list of everybody they're following instead so you can see how many AD twitters they're jerking off to. The --user-full argument works here too, with the same caveat about taking longer.

That's just a few of the wonderful things you can do with twint. However, as I have learned, twint is not without its limitations. One such limitation I have observed is that Twitter does not like being scraped and will stop responding to scrapes after 14,400 tweets in succession have been scraped. Once Twitter so lashes out at you, it'll take a few minutes before Twint starts working again.

Twint has some workarounds for this -- such as allowing you to use the --year argument to only pull tweets from before a given year -- but it's still annoying as hell. I'll have to experiment further with it. Also, as you may have guessed, this only grabs the text of tweets, including image URLs, so if you really want to go full archivist on some faggot you'll need to use some additional code. Thankfully, @Warecton565 is to the rescue, with some code in a wonderful post. The code is not perfect; I did have to make a bit of a change just to get it to work at all:

import csv
from sys import argv
import requests
import json

tweets = csv.DictReader(open(argv[1], encoding="utf8"))

for tweet in tweets:
    pics = json.loads(tweet["photos"].replace("'", '"'))
    for pic in pics:
        r = requests.get(pic)
   
        open(argv[2] + "/" + pic.split("/media/")[1], "wb").write(r.content)

And I had to make the folder it was going to output to first and run the damn thing in IDLE before it would do anything. However, once you get it working, you can wind up with a folder containing hundreds of furry porn images and fursuit photos in mere minutes. Maybe even a photo of a dong or two.

Have fun! If you have anything you would like added to this post, please let me know via PM or some other means. Again, I'm just a fucking script kiddie.

This is beautiful.

 

[Leonard Helplessness]

This is beautiful.

The app has been rendered nonfunctional by an unexpected change to Twitter; basically the site has stopped responding to the types of HTTP requests that the app used to collect data. From the looks of the app’s github page, a lot of users are pissed.

Twitter was already being pretty fucking hostile towards the app. When I went through the code I noticed that its timeline scraping function only worked as well as it did because every time Twitter stopped responding, the app switched to a new fake user agent so as to pretend its requests were coming from a different web browser. Twitter was particularly nasty about repeated pulls of following and/or follower lists; I had to run the app through Tor and brew up some scripts of my own that ran on top of it and retried from a new Tor identity whenever Twitter refused to respond. It was a fun little game of cat and mouse, but it seems the mouse has boarded itself into its hole for now. So I’m looking into some better power tools.

 

[Pinball 2000]

I haven't seen anything in this thread about tracking furries in Discord, which is a chat service used commonly by furries, gamers, lolcows, pretty much a good chunk of people online. So I thought I'd include a quick guide on how to find someone through the service and see if they're been present in another server.

First off, every Discord account actually has two IDs, one that can be edited, and one that can't. The first ID is the public one most people will see and it's usually their name followed by four random numbers (eg Furry#1984, FatTiger#9583, Null#6969, etc.) The four numbers are randomly changed every time they change their name, so some lolcows will quickly change their name when they think they've been caught and claim "that user isn't me". So how do you avoid this and hold them accountable? By using the second ID, which is just a string of random numbers and is impossible to change (eg 143089687962558753).

There are a few 3rd party modifications to discord you can use to grab these IDs more easily, but for the sake of newbies out there, here's how you can grab someone's ID and use it against them using the stock discord app or a web browser:

Step one: go into Discord's settings and look under the "appearance" tab, turn on the "Developer Mode" toggle, it's near the very bottom.

Step two: find the user you want to track and right-click on their avatar (or hold it if you're on your phone). There should be a new option at the very bottom, "Copy ID":

You now have the person's ID in your clipboard, if you ctrl+V into any text box, you'll spit out a string of numbers. This is their ID.

Step 3: Save that number in a document for later. The next time you're in a server, you can paste that ID you just saved in the search bar to see if they've made any posts in the server, like so:

Using the ID will bring up anything they've posted, even if they've changed their username since then. Obviously this won't work for discord channels that require specific permissions to get into, but if you somehow have permission to view them, the search tool will expand to those channels as well.

BONUS NOTE ON DISCORD: if you're tracking a furry through discord, take a quick glance at their profile and see if they have any badges. In particular, the Nitro badge (pictured in the middle here):

Nitro is an optional paid service that costs $10/month. Not every furry and/or lolcow will have this badge, but seeing as how it's a service that costs actual money, it's fair to say that most people aren't going to apply Nitro to an account they used for the sake of sock-puppeting or trolling, and this is most likely their main account.

 

[Uncle Warren]

I haven't seen anything in this thread about tracking furries in Discord, which is a chat service used commonly by furries, gamers, lolcows, pretty much a good chunk of people online. So I thought I'd include a quick guide on how to find someone through the service and see if they're been present in another server.

First off, every Discord account actually has two IDs, one that can be edited, and one that can't. The first ID is the public one most people will see and it's usually their name followed by four random numbers (eg Furry#1984, FatTiger#9583, Null#6969, etc.) The four numbers are randomly changed every time they change their name, so some lolcows will quickly change their name when they think they've been caught and claim "that user isn't me". So how do you avoid this and hold them accountable? By using the second ID, which is just a string of random numbers and is impossible to change (eg 143089687962558753).

There are a few 3rd party modifications to discord you can use to grab these IDs more easily, but for the sake of newbies out there, here's how you can grab someone's ID and use it against them using the stock discord app or a web browser:

Step one: go into Discord's settings and look under the "appearance" tab, turn on the "Developer Mode" toggle, it's near the very bottom.
View attachment 1565252

Step two: find the user you want to track and right-click on their avatar (or hold it if you're on your phone). There should be a new option at the very bottom, "Copy ID":
View attachment 1565250
You now have the person's ID in your clipboard, if you ctrl+V into any text box, you'll spit out a string of numbers. This is their ID.

Step 3: Save that number in a document for later. The next time you're in a server, you can paste that ID you just saved in the search bar to see if they've made any posts in the server, like so:
View attachment 1565251

Using the ID will bring up anything they've posted, even if they've changed their username since then. Obviously this won't work for discord channels that require specific permissions to get into, but if you somehow have permission to view them, the search tool will expand to those channels as well.

BONUS NOTE ON DISCORD: if you're tracking a furry through discord, take a quick glance at their profile and see if they have any badges. In particular, the Nitro badge (pictured in the middle here):
View attachment 1565331
Nitro is an optional paid service that costs $10/month. Not every furry and/or lolcow will have this badge, but seeing as how it's a service that costs actual money, it's fair to say that most people aren't going to apply Nitro to an account they used for the sake of sock-puppeting or trolling, and this is most likely their main account.

To add to this:

I will shill the everliving fuck out of this site because not only does it log everything in a server, it saves message IDs, User IDs, Server IDs, and saves it all in a convenient txt format. Of course people might claim that it can be edited but who's gonna sift through a big ass txt file for a drop of clout?

 

[AnOminous]

I will shill the everliving fuck out of this site because not only does it log everything in a server, it saves message IDs, User IDs, Server IDs, and saves it all in a convenient txt format. Of course people might claim that it can be edited but who's gonna sift through a big ass txt file for a drop of clout?

A blindingly autistic retard. In other words, lots of people we cover here or who post here.

 

[Uncle Warren]

or who post here

If someone fakes logs and they're found out, they deserve a fucking halal.

 

[Tex15]

You guys are so obcessed with the furry community that is disguting.

Furries are very cool people who are passionate about their lives, fantasies and just want to be at peace.

You know what this whole subforum is all about? Guess what? The guy with the mustache, the same pattern, the same zeigeist and even the same gestalt of the perfect furry enemy image.

Disgusting, truly disgusting.

Get a life you sickos.

 

[Jolly Copulation]

You guys are so obcessed with the furry community that is disguting.

Furries are very cool people who are passionate about their lives, fantasies and just want to be at peace.

You know what this whole subforum is all about? Guess what? The guy with the mustache, the same pattern, the same zeigeist and even the same gestalt of the perfect furry enemy image.

Disgusting, truly disgusting.

Get a life you sickos.

Look, an autistic newfag who uses a fat fetish pokemon image as a pfp screeching into a necro'd thread to get a life. Did you pull that image from your fap folder?

A good portion of us ARE furries. Why else would we know/follow so many lolcows in the community? What separates us from the ones like yourself is your complete inability to keep your fetish material separate from your public social life and your lack of social awareness to avoid sperging and painting a target on your back.

The furries who have threads deserve to be outed for a number of reasons from being dogfuckers to grooming kids. Of course maybe you've got something in common with them there and that's why you're pissy.

 

[Tex15]

You don't accept yourself then you start attacking the fandom, public humiliations, archiving information and in some sense even doxxing people. Look there are people like Kero, but most people in this fandom are cool, peaceful and just want to be left alone.

Being a furry is a part of me, the community knows, my close friends know, my family knows, I don't need to hide something that is not a shameful display, you guys are just a hive mind that propagates fake news, homophobia, racism and anti-furry sentiment arround the Internet in coordinated archiving and manipulation of information.

Look, I'm here to just have civil conversation but at the same time say "Hey guys, why don't we rethink how we're leading our lives? Is this good for me? For the community? I'm making harm to others?".

You guys shout and screech by Free Speech but the moment I say one word that you guys don't like it's all about banning, mob lynching and so on.

 

[Krystal]

You guys I shout and screech by Free Speech but the moment I break the fucking rules, it's all about banning, mob lynching and so on.

 

[Sneed's Feed And Seed]

You don't accept yourself then you start attacking the fandom, public humiliations, archiving information and in some sense even doxxing people. Look there are people like Kero, but most people in this fandom are cool, peaceful and just want to be left alone.

Being a furry is a part of me, the community knows, my close friends know, my family knows, I don't need to hide something that is not a shameful display, you guys are just a hive mind that propagates fake news, homophobia, racism and anti-furry sentiment arround the Internet in coordinated archiving and manipulation of information.

Look, I'm here to just have civil conversation but at the same time say "Hey guys, why don't we rethink how we're leading our lives? Is this good for me? For the community? I'm making harm to others?".

You guys shout and screech by Free Speech but the moment I say one word that you guys don't like it's all about banning, mob lynching and so on.

Love the gimmick, the posting needs work though, more autistic screaming and show your plushie collection next time

 

[The Dick Faggotson]

You don't accept yourself then you start attacking the fandom, public humiliations, archiving information and in some sense even doxxing people. Look there are people like Kero, but most people in this fandom are cool, peaceful and just want to be left alone.

Being a furry is a part of me, the community knows, my close friends know, my family knows, I don't need to hide something that is not a shameful display, you guys are just a hive mind that propagates fake news, homophobia, racism and anti-furry sentiment arround the Internet in coordinated archiving and manipulation of information.

Look, I'm here to just have civil conversation but at the same time say "Hey guys, why don't we rethink how we're leading our lives? Is this good for me? For the community? I'm making harm to others?".

You guys shout and screech by Free Speech but the moment I say one word that you guys don't like it's all about banning, mob lynching and so on.

I warned you to leave. Bad things are going to happen. You should have watched and lurked but your fat rolls just had to barge into chat.

And what do you mean we're not kind? Just not your kind.

Here. I'll try to be the Nicest person here.
Fuck off. You are a bad troll and its getting to the point where it's beyond pathetic.

 

[Jolly Copulation]

You don't accept yourself then you start attacking the fandom, public humiliations, archiving information and in some sense even doxxing people. Look there are people like Kero, but most people in this fandom are cool, peaceful and just want to be left alone.

That's why MOST furries don't have a thread. If the only qualifier for being a cow was just being furry, this subforum would be too long to sift through. Doxing is... a necessary evil for people like Kero, Lou, Gabe and others because all of us want to avoid them like the plague they are. No one forced those assholes to act the way they are, that is a conscious choice.

You should stop before someone decides to poke around in your activities online because an alt username is not dox-proof.

 

[Just Another Furgag Alog]

You guys are so obcessed with the furry community that is disguting.

Furries are very cool people who are passionate about their lives, fantasies and just want to be at peace.

You know what this whole subforum is all about? Guess what? The guy with the mustache, the same pattern, the same zeigeist and even the same gestalt of the perfect furry enemy image.

Disgusting, truly disgusting.

Get a life you sickos.

Furries rape animals. Furries are overwhelmingly likely to be zoophiles, and zoophiles infiltrate the furry community like neonazis infiltrate disaffected white youth internet communities.

But unlike those disaffected internet communities, furries don't even put an actual effort up to kick out the evil.

 

[Kiwi On The Go]

Why do furries insist on finding dead threads to sperg on?
I'd say "let sleeping dogs lie" but I don't trust furries around dogs.

 

[Bubbly Sink]

You guys are so obcessed with the furry community that is disguting.

Furries are very cool people who are passionate about their lives, fantasies and just want to be at peace.

You know what this whole subforum is all about? Guess what? The guy with the mustache, the same pattern, the same zeigeist and even the same gestalt of the perfect furry enemy image.

Disgusting, truly disgusting.

Get a life you sickos.

Lol faggot, get a life and stop being so mad

 

[The Dick Faggotson]

Why do furries insist on finding dead threads to sperg on?
I'd say "let sleeping dogs lie" but I don't trust furries around dogs.

Furries lie in general. I don't trust them. Period.

 

[AnOminous]

Get a life you sickos.

Kys you fat fucking pervert.

 

[Tex15]

Furries rape animals. Furries are overwhelmingly likely to be zoophiles, and zoophiles infiltrate the furry community like neonazis infiltrate disaffected white youth internet communities.

But unlike those disaffected internet communities, furries don't even put an actual effort up to kick out the evil.

Most Furries, 99.9% of them, are good people and are in no shape or way related to the activities you said above.

Again, when a member of the community is proven that this person was or is involved with the following actions we as community ask for them to get help, zoophilia as paedophilia are a sickness that can't be cured but treated by professionals, you can have a nice life if you treat your sickness with the latest in medical science.

 

[Jolly Copulation]

zoophilia as paedophilia are a sickness that can't be cured but treated

It didn't take a medical license for a sperg like me to find the cure: