Dogpatch Press

After a mismanagement crisis was excused with PR statements, New Jersey furries are sick of more deception from the same broken leadership. 

UPDATE 12/4/24: CON ISSUES STATEMENT, STAFF RESIGN, PUBLIC CALLS FOR BOYCOTT.

Garden State Fur The Weekend was set to have their first convention in May 2024, but in January, their organization was rocked by a staff revolt. It leaked out with a Dogpatch Press report — Grassroots action: Leadership changes and weeding out hate at Garden State Fur The Weekend. The inside story can now be told in more depth, because cautious community members who stayed quiet before have come forward to ask for new reporting. GSFTW’s own PR person quit and reports being lied to. Numerous sources with deep involvement spoke to Dogpatch Press about how a chronic problem was “fixed” by moving it higher:

Trouble before launch

The mismanagement was insufferable, especially by the con Chair, Dashing Fox. Dashing and his sympathetic board were enabling nazi-furries who infested GSFTW chat groups, like the Furry Raiders, with their child-preying leader Foxler in Colorado. The infestation got nothing but excuses. Who were these assholes coming in from outside and making themselves at home, like they had permission to make the place their doormat or were secretly in charge?

It was like that from the beginning. GSFTW was registered in February 2020. In April 2020, Dashing tried to put Foxler’s right-hand man Aeveirra on staff. Dashing was warned of their toxic nature by a vigilant staffer who understood the security risk. A month later, he still went on the Furry Raiders podcast to promote the con, as if he was bent on making a shit magnet for the worst of the community. The podcast blatantly named him a friend of Aeveirra.

Warned in April, ignored in May during con startup. The corruption was baked in since 2020 and persisted for 4 years with numerous instances of ignoring it.

The problem wasn’t drama over petty differences or “politics”. These nazifurs are a security threat to anything they touch, with a long history of sabotage and crime at cons. January’s report linked evidence of their malice like this:

• Had a secret plot to bring Proud Boys street violence to Midwest Furfest 2019, forcing MFF to head it off with bans.
• Ardently defended sex-offending friends, causing multiple arrests with conviction for witness intimidation and retaliation at this reporter.
• Publicly embarrassed Anthrocon with political hate symbols in the fursuit parade, forcing AC to make new policies to prevent repeats.
• Funded Free Fur All, the nazifur convention, which fell apart due to competing factions having to put up with each other’s insufferable trolling.
• Free Fur All’s mission was to host “canceled” people like the Confederate Fursuiter; main suspect in the chemical attack on MFF that hospitalized 19.
• Schemed for control of regular furry groups and cons, and abused power when they got it, driving away the real community.

This threat pattern was openly documented since at least 2017. Dashing’s enabling for it irritated the community for years about meets he hosted, but it didn’t boil over until GSFTW launch was near. The pattern predicted future disaster, unless it was forced to change against resistance at the top.

The entire board is the problem

Who else stood in the way of change? Inside GSFTW, Dashing’s loyal board knew and enabled problems for years. Then they treated the Aeveirra incident as old news from 2020, while nazifurs kept making themselves at home under their watch.

This raised scrutiny on who some of the board members were; not New Jersey furries, but transplants from Megaplex in Florida, allegedly motivated against COVID masking after a board rift there.

COVID badly delayed many cons in 2020, so the Aeveirra incident wasn’t actually that distant. Isn’t that interesting timing to grab opportunity to start a con? It also wasn’t the only red flag about problematic people getting on staff; and there was more mismanagement concern than that.

Staff faced problems about money with budget numbers hidden, unlike at other cons run by the same staff. Money questions are extra shady when Dashing’s friend Aeveirra funded the Free Fur All nazifur con, a “spitecon” started after the founders failed bid to run an Oklahoma convention in 2020.

The purpose of GSFTW came with strangely competitive talk about taking the place of other furry groups and events, against the nature of nonprofit, volunteer-based fandom. (Below, Furrydelphia’s management talks about hostility by GSFTW.) But let’s return to January…

“The inaction of the board is deafening” — a staff ultimatum, walkout, and removal of Dashing.

Rifts about nazifurs grew with GSFTW management as staff attempted to get them to see reason, without success. This led to a January 10 staff ultimatum to remove Dashing and problem people. On January 11, the pressure forced the con to make a statement against nazifur activity. Evidently words weren’t backed by action. With the ultimatum ignored, on January 12, the Dealer’s Den team, Registration Dept. and others walked out. Here’s before and after messages from then by Hospitality lead Osiris Adustus:

At least 15 staff joined the revolt. One whistleblower says:

“Over the course of those few days, various people tied to the con and its leadership continued to tell on themselves, essentially handing us the evidence of who they really are. Given how GSFTW was able to somehow bounce back from that in such a short time frame… it gives the appearance they had people on standby or secretly had people on the downlow already and misled staff on who was who.”

The next day, January 13, the con was forced to act again, with registrations and money at stake. Now Dashing would step down as Chair, and be replaced by new chair Shy Matsi. Finally some nazi-furs were removed from chat groups (but not banned from the con). Dashing excused himself as being uninformed about them, and blamed sickness for resigning a day after a staff revolt.

Later in May, Dashing also blamed his Furry Raiders podcast appearance on “poor research”, which omits how it called him Aeveirra’s friend, and the warning he ignored about it from his own staff.

Dogpatch Press made many requests for comment after the revolt, and got a little PR and a lot of stonewalling. Dashing blew deadlines to respond. Despite serious misgivings, the January report put a charitable spin on the forced action, and did hard work to avoid harming the con and engage anyone willing to do better. GSFTW got back to business, as if benefit of the doubt is deserved for people who just learned that nazis are bad… (and need to keep learning, again and again)… Meanwhile, Dashing’s sickness excuse stayed the only official removal reason, at least until the coast was clear.

A month before launch, GSFTW changes from a nonprofit to a for-profit LLC — owned by Dashing — without comment. 

Why didn’t the con really fix things? In April, the step to “remove” Dashing was walked right back.

What’s the point of switching to a for-profit LLC, besides making Dashing’s removal a revolving door for his ownership? Did anyone even catch on to it becoming the toy of someone who misused the community so badly? The switch was so close to launch in May, that hotel and travel plans would be done for many goers, so was this timed to suppress awareness and let them believe it was nonprofit, while diverting support to Dashing’s private benefit? We could ask, but GSFTW and Dashing have already been evasive.

The greasy gambit worked. In May, the launch proceeded. You may be thinking… did the con make some people happy? The average con-goer doesn’t scrutinize leadership when there’s fun to be had; but that low standard and PR about “new” leadership hides how a chronic problem continued with Dashing’s replacement Chair, Shy Matsi.

Evidently, Shy Matsi just played Dashing’s right hand. After Dashing had blown off questions and used the sickness excuse, he wasn’t too sick to be spotted in Con Ops, run main stage events, and be front and center at the closing ceremony.

Dashing publicly and openly resigned as Chair while citing his health as the reason, but remained as the CEO, contract holder, and de facto leader. Shy Matsi played a figurehead, a cardboard cutout for Dashing to stand behind while remaining in charge and protecting all of his problematic friends. They think they can take community support for granted by fooling you with a title switch!

Excuses from the puppet Chair: nazifurs can be LBGTQ too, so let them in?!

Shy Matsi does more ass-covering than just for Dashing. After a staff revolt and forced statements — after the con was over and it wasn’t even crucial time for PR — he proceeded to deflect responsibility, pile up excuses, and beg tolerance for alt-right trolls as if hateful malice just makes different opinions equal to the targets. It made the con PR about zero tolerance mean “except when they’re our friends, or use their identity to excuse their toxic beliefs and behavior”.

Zero Jackal collected a Google doc of chat logs of trying to reason with Shy Matsi right after the con. (Full log images.) The chat was in a group of friends including community mods and con staffers who had worked with or known him for a very long time, but distanced over time as problems grew.

Several whistleblowers have discussed the long history of enabling before GSFTW existed:

“Shy Matsi has harbored nazis, far right extremists, and all sorts of other unsavory folks in this really fucked up mentality of “giving a home to everyone”. This insistence on ignoring issues and “just being nice” doesn’t work. Shy is wholly incapable of ever telling bad actors to go away. He’s repeatedly made excuses for awful people, or allowed people banned from local chats into furmeets, as to not be “mean”. I used to respect the guy but he enables this stuff. Locals who have known him for literally 2+ DECADES are cutting ties with him as he refuses to explain why.” — More logs collected from the mod chat:

Shy Matsi is of POC and LGBT identity. This raises eyebrows in the community in light of the enabling for threats towards POC and LGBT people, like the crimes and definition of “collaborator” in the January reporting.

Critics of the enabling include the targeted identities; and to underscore the incongruity of Shy’s collaboration, Dashing made conflict with other furry groups for being in support of Black Lives Matter, while spreading partisan political narratives against it. (Circa 2021):

Shy Matsi was even more than just an enabling friend of Dashing. They roomed together with another cause of complaints, an alt-right troll named W0nderdawg, a fellow meet host, making very personal corruption in handling of the problem.

The nazifurs they let in… who used GSFTW to put politics on Fox News.

After GSFTW did damage-control in January about removing nazifurs, security sent messages to several: W0nderdawg, Astral (a NY-based Furry Raider who waved a hate flag in Anthrocon’s parade), and Astral’s friend Peter. They were banned from the con chat, but not the con.

Astral and Peter were then photographed at the con. Not just attending, but being interviewed on Fox News. The Fox demographic has one relationship with furries: mocking them for anti-LGBT propaganda, including hoaxes about litter boxes to dehumanize them in “joke” form. Letting Fox use GSFTW for their entertainment would be like slamming yourself in a locker when you see a bully coming.

Below: Astral, his friend Peter, and a clip from a Fox News Jesse Watters show, where Peter declares: “Trump 2024 baby!”

A whistlebower claims “The Watters crew WAS tipped off about the con from an insider, but I’m told they just showed up and started filming with no press pass.” At least, that’s what staff would think when hit by surprise… but what if the GSFTW board secretly colluded with Fox?

The Fox News clip of Peter also shows Shy Matsi, the Chair, on his left near the con ballroom. Clearly the cameras weren’t hiding, press pass or not. They got comfortable to hang out. We know because Peter went on the notorious alt-right Kiwifarms hate forum to boast about how they interviewed him longer.

Besides helping Fox News push politics on the fandom, Peter says he brought many friends and did A/V work for GSFTW, and there he is with camera.

More problematic staff

Here’s a few staff who had been officially listed. Turbulent staff turnover, as you will see below, may or may not apply now — it’s hard to trust the con’s PR — the point is this was the quality of who was trusted to run this con at some point.

• Arctico, IT lead, spread inflammatory MAGA sentiments. GSFTW claimed Arctico didn’t show up for the job after this drew public criticism.
• Zade, DJ coordinator, who follows numerous nazifurs. A tipper says “I have no idea how this man has been allowed to remain socially in the fandom for as long as he has, despite being an overt racist and nazi apologist. His twitter is a cesspool.”

“We were lied to”: PR lead Pawsouls quit GSFTW, wished the work was for a “more deserving boss”

Pawsouls was PR staff in January, when contacted for comment by Dogpatch Press without much result while GSFTW did damage control. Whistleblowers had their own criticism: “Pawsouls constantly defends Dashing’s actions, attempting to sweep it under the rug, instead of addressing it. They were asked, had their chance to explain and didn’t…”

After the con, Pawsouls had a change of heart, and quit GSFTW with statements that shed light now:

This shows how staff goodwill would be misused by a non-transparent Board. Pawsouls followed up with gracious replies for this report:

“PR was told Dashing would be stepping away from a front-facing and leadership position, as he was recovering from mental and physical stressors and being in the hospital. Only for that to be twisted into him stepping back on stage, without confirmation from anyone that such a thing would be happening, which was then left for PR to handle blindly. And that’s not including having Fox News at con without PR Dept. approval or oversight. I know registration also wasn’t aware.

The sudden wave of changes a day or two before the con, and then during the con, was insane and we found disrespectful. I got into an argument with Dashing during the con, and the Board, about how it seems everything seemed to just done without following the con’s own CoC (which a fellow member of the PR team helped in writing). It was met with Dashing just stating excuses and throwing blame on me and my team.

At that point, my focus shifted into making sure my friends were safe during the con overall. A lot of staff were local furs I know and friends of mine. Which why when I left, a lot of staff left. I believe it’s almost all new people on staff now.”

It’s murky how Fox News even knew about a small, local, first-year con, and succeeded in filming there without a pass. Pawsouls says:

“In terms of approving them, that was left with the board. They seemed to know what was going on and didn’t notify anyone on staff.”

Who quit after the con in May, making a new staff collapse?

“To my knowledge, all of PR left, head of Reg, head of Dealer Den, original head of the gaming room, head of Security, multiple floating volunteers, and I believe one or two board members.”

Pawsouls was used by Dashing for diligent service, while under fire without quitting for personal interest so the con could happen with safety for friends. Some involved were critical of not getting support before, but Pawsouls didn’t have to come forward now about being misled, and do the same diligence in speaking for public interest. The candor is valued.

Budget and finance sketchiness raises questions

Lack of transparency has been a common whistleblower complaint. For example, staff requests for budgets were stonewalled, with instructions to provide Amazon wishlists for the board to pick what to approve, when every item was needed.

Some leaked discussion with Kiba, the GSFTW treasurer at the time:

Whistleblowers questioned the finances and official attendance, before and after con:

(Before) “If their first year is anything like similar cons, they’re looking at at least a $30,000 hotel contract, plus service charge and tax. Plus their AV needs, equipment, etc, they’re going to need at minimum 60k to get their event off the ground. Their reg is $65. That means they need almost a thousand people to make it happen. I don’t really see them getting that many folks. Same exact thing that happened to CCFC. That’s the problem with a lot of new cons. Eyes are bigger than their stomachs so to speak.”

(After) “Their numbers ain’t adding up. Nearly 1k attendees (but sure didn’t have that in person). They had to have had outside benefactors artificially boosting their reg numbers on paper and secretly funding the con so it wouldn’t go belly up. U said it yourself, Aevierra and Foxler are no strangers to propping cons up financially like Freefurall.”

Official attendance was 957, but there were claims about the con being empty, including the Saturday rave at peak of con. Is 957 accurate, and not inflated with Reg Dept turnover making it hard to detect? Claims of sparseness may not be easy to verify, but would make it murky if the budget was covered, what it was, and from what source. Can you trust what they say? Even their own PR person came out to say they lied.

The bottom line: This is how hate finds a home, unless the community says no.

Incompetence at the top risked the first con’s ruin by causing a staff revolt, but it wasn’t enough to get better care inside. Note Pawsoul’s complaint of what it was like to run PR after January PR apologies. It puts red flags on any future cons.

Even with an appearance of a nice regular con, the idea of growth for GSFTW is tainted with reports of spite and competition towards nonprofit community, and harboring staff that other cons dropped for good reason.

Dashing, Shy, W0nderdawg and others in this report continue to inhabit local organizer chats and grasp influence. Those who came forward are fed up and would like the public to give no more chances. “Why not let it die, and make a new con with a better team, instead of the one that let nazis fester?”

Afterthought: A pattern where Shy Matsi’s site was so insecure, it leaked revenge-porn.

Here’s a story that was left out of January’s report to avoid bias, showing HOW CHARITABLE the reporting was.

Around 2017, I had personal adult images made with a partner for fun, kept privacy-locked on Furries Xtreme, a hookup site owned by Shy Matsi. They were leaked as revenge porn to retaliate at Dogpatch Press reporting. A Furries Xtreme admin would have access to locked profiles, and one was in Nazifur groups who targeted enemies that way. Put 2 and 2 together.

When told, Shy Matsi did nothing. Zero Jackal says: “This tracks. I have receipts of multiple people in his chats (most of whom myself or other mods have kicked for GOOD reason, like sending us death threats), have notified him to do something about it, and he’s refused / outright ignored us.”

Imagine if you were harassed with revenge-porn leaked under Shy Matsi’s watch… and still gave him neutrality about becoming chair of GSFTW, with responsibility for the con’s trust and safety. The owners had so much leeway to improve after Shy was talked to in January, and Dashing blew off questions. This reporter is still doing the job, after harassers thought they could run off reporting for public service. Now that includes a personal opinion:

If you expect cons to be trustworthy and safe, and you were thinking of going to GSFTW in 2025, don’t. Save your money and tell your friends to Beware.

UPDATE: more cronyism, and insight about shady finances and the greasy LLC switch

Showing their true colors:

If the con’s official attendance number was inflated up to the break-even point for estimated cost of this con, when allegedly many less people attended… Who paid for the hotel deposit? And how can the attendance be verified?

Notice that no official fursuit photo has been seen. This is a point of pride for legitimate cons. Proportionally, a con of around 1000 furries would have 200 fursuiters.

A tipper supplied more visual clues of sparse numbers:

Next, an explanation for the greasy LLC switch. There’s one logical, reasonable, sensible reason why anybody would turn their event from a 501 nonprofit to an LLC, changing the entire organization structure just a month before the event. Tip:

“I was talking with some very high up people who work in the convention scene, and in this conversation we put two and two together.

As a 501 organization you’re only allowed to accept a certain amount of monetary donations from a singular source. I believe it cannot be any amount over $5,000 or more than 20% of the overall revenue generated from an event.

However an LLC is allowed to take in as many donations from any source that they want, as long as they are put on their books as taxable income.

So what I think happened is they were getting very close to the convention and they did not have nearly the amount of money required to fulfill the deposit necessary on the hotel reservation. So they get in touch with some of their right wing friends to bankroll the event… but one problem, they can’t accept the money as a 501. So they as fast as possible switch to an LLC, which allows them to take in as much dirty money as they need to in order to fund the event.

In other words they never had the attendance required to fund the event, so they had to have external funding in order to make it run. There was never a thousand people there or registered for the convention.

There is a pitfall to being an LLC which in their shortsightedness I think they fail to understand. As an LLC you are an official business and everyone who works for you is an employee that requires payment. You are not allowed to have any type of volunteers or non-paid staff as an LLC. This also means that if they were in LLC during the time of the convention, then they essentially had people working illegally for them as unpaid employees.

This can be easily verified through a quick Google search of the IRS website.”

GSFTW is now a for-profit business, and by mismanaging it, they are now taking gambles with all of the community’s support and payment. Remember whose decisions brought it to this point while watching what happens next.

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