2024 Year in Review
Time sure does fly when you're having fun doesn't it? Another amazing year has gone by and here we are again doing an end of the year wrap up. It's been an interesting year full of a ton of huge milestones for the community. Last year one of our goals was to grow Zooey Dot Pub's engagement on socials, and we hit that big time with no signs of slowing down now. This is also the year we had our first Zooey Dot Pub sticker run! It's been incredible seeing people slap our logo on bus stops, light poles, and random buildings all across the globe! Our Discord server is still up and busier than ever as well! We have people joining all the time! We see the Zooey Dot Pub Discord (ZDPD) as a really unique and special space, for the fact that it's a really accessible way for any zoos on Discord to find a greater zoo community, in a way that they might never have experienced before. Our open door policy means that we get to serve as a lot of people's first steps into the zoo community, which is something I think is really special. In general, 2024 has slapped for us zoos looking at it from here in the ZDP editing room. But on the other hand, some of what we hoped to see this year didn't pan out, and that's worth taking a look at too. But we'll get into that later. For now, let's talk about our wins!
And let's also start with the wins that are the easiest to quantifiably say we won at. First of all, we want to give a big huge shout out to the zoos that have managed to cross the proverbial 5 digit threshold on social media. I know that social media can be a really crappy place, especially in this tumultuous time, but there's a lot of value in zoos that have the numbers and platform to back up what they're saying. It's an unfortunate truth that size tends to imply credibility, and so the bigger our numbers are, the more visible support our movement has, the more people are forced to take us seriously. And so, a big shout out to zoo accounts reaching 10k followers for the first time! Three of us in fact, all within 2024: Vex (@KoolKanine), HorsephileZeta (@HorsephileZeta), and hey we also happened to pass the 10k mark this year (Yay us!) Who knew that media literacy was so alive in the year 2024. Thank you so much to everyone who supports us in our goals. Of course, we also need to give our obligatory shout out to Jdonk, the undisputed king of zoo twitter (68.5k followers) with his tasteful pictures of horses that I am frankly blown away has not gotten him banned yet. There are also a few smaller accounts that I want to shout out as new people to keep an eye on in the community, but I'm saving that for a little later, so stop reading this sentence and go to the next paragraph already!
Twitter is where we see the biggest numbers for zoos in terms of engagement, but there's way more to the social media landscape than just Twitter alone! Bluesky has had a TON of growth this year, facilitated mostly by hilarious foot over foot stumbles by Twitter. Bluesky now has a fairly thriving zoo scene as well. It's definitely smaller, but if you're looking for something with a few less nazis it's definitely worth checking out. Especially since they seem relatively determined to adhere to the same content standards as its predecessor (as in, you can be a zoo and exist there fairly openly). There's also Mastodon! Mastodon is kind of like a mix between Twitter and Discord. You can choose to join all of these different servers, and then the ones that you've joined all kind of mesh together and function as a social media feed where you've chosen the communities that you want to engage with. There's a couple explicitly zoo servers, and a couple zoo-friendly spaces too. If you really want to get as far away from negativity as possible while still being on social media, it's worth taking a look. You can check out our handy guide to joining Mastodon here!
Speaking of Discord, let's talk about zoo spaces that are online, but aren't really public-engagement-seeking forms of social media. First of all, Telegram. Zoo Furs Unity is still out there going strong. As the entry point for a lot of zoos first finding a larger community, there's a lot of complications running the space, but the team over there do a great job keeping things fun. There's also the Zany Zoo Memes chat and channel. It's a very lighthearted group built up around sharing the best of zoo memes. Even if you're not looking for another chat room to get into, it's definitely worth checking out the memes! Last but not least, there was a new group that I wanted to shout out. The Zoo Therian Den. It's a space for those who are zoos, therians, or especially both! This is the only Telegram group I've ever seen that actually makes use of the channels feature in a way that feels especially useful. If you like Discord's format but don't want to make a Discord alt, definitely check them out! Or, if you're a Discord user but really like the sound of the space, they're also the only group I know of out there to have both a Telegram and a Discord server, so check them out on the platform of your choice. There's also our server, the ZDPD. Not to toot our own horn too much, but we are by far the largest public zoo space out there by the numbers. We actually just ended up passing 2500 members! That's a whole lot of zoos! The moral of the story with this whole segment is to show that in pretty much all ways, the zoo community is growing healthily.
Well, every way but one. There's one pillar of community growth that was startlingly absent this year, and that's new content projects being created. Zoo podcasts, zoo video essay channels, zoo video game channels, we didn't see anything new in this field in 2024. Not to get doom and gloom or anything, I'm very happy with the growth we've had. But community is a fire and content is its fuel. It's something to connect around, share, and get people engaged. You can look at how zooey visual artwork does great for engagement and community building, for example, and we love seeing how often that gets posted and shared around. Memes too are really effective. But, when I'm talking about what we were missing here in 2024, I mean it in the sense of just things happening in the community that people can get invested in that are a little bit more structured. A new zooey movie reviews podcast, something that people can check in with and chat with others about. It doesn't even strictly have to be out loud. A new zooey novel series, a new zooey webcomic. The obvious things exist for sure. The magazine, the one excellent zoo podcast and also the other one. But all of these are staples in the community at this point. I would love to see new things popping up too!
As the community gets bigger and bigger we're going to need more people to create in this space to feed the demand. We think that we do a pretty good job writing these articles, but not everyone wants to read. Hell, if you want to get even more specific you can. There are some people that love reading but don't like reading articles. Or who may just not like our style, or how dog-centric we are. There may even be people who want to read MORE. They read all of our articles every Saturday and Sunday, they read Toggle's ZooTT production blog every full moon, they read all of the short stories on To Thine Own Self Be Zoo every solstice and equinox, but they could really use a daily Sherlock Holmes But Zooey short story blog to go to bed with each night to fully satisfy their zooey reading needs. There is SO much room for growth when it comes to new cool things to create. Things that might resonate with people. There's a term in content creation called bounce off rate. Basically, it's the number of people who actually see what you're doing, engage with it in some way, but decide it isn't for them and leave. You can think of it like looking at the menu for a restaurant and not seeing anything you like. For the community, I would consider it people who make an account anywhere in a zoo space, but then abandon that account. If you've been around the community for a while, you know our bounce off rate is pretty high. People learn about the community, are amazed we actually exist, create an account to meet other zoos, and then just kinda... get used to it. Not to say this is everyone clearly. But it's some percentage of people.
So what's the solution to this problem? Add more things to our menu! Different variations, totally different offerings. There's a lot that can entice people. We've talked about content creation before but it's something that I wanted to get into here not to be discouraging, but to hopefully inspire someone to give their thing a try! This is one of the most supportive, loving communities that I've ever been a part of. People are desperate to find new things to support. So if you're someone who's been debating trying your hand at making videos, or streaming, or whatever floats your boat, the zoo community can be an awesome place to do that in a way where you know you're going to get attention. And if you're someone who does create under another name and you're reading this, consider throwing some of that talent our way. You'll find an audience that's receptive and appreciative that you can't find anywhere else. Like, I don't mean to overstate this, but we are literally a magazine and you are reading this right now. Magazines are a fully dead industry, there's a real chance we're in the top 25 magazines in the world by web traffic, and yet you're here reading this right now. That's a testament as much to the support of the community as it is our proficiency creating it.
All that aside, it's not like there was no content creation this year. Zooey artists are thriving this year! We have so so so so many INCREDIBLY talented artists in this community, from people who can draw your fursona in photoshop to people who play the banjo and sing songs. There are legitimately too many zoo artists to be able to shout out all of them in this wrap up. But, what's been really cool to see is that there's a lot of new and very talented artists joining us from other spaces where they've already honed their craft and now we get to enjoy the results! There was some great music stuff that happened this year. Shiv put out a new album called Lieder über Liebe, which if you haven't listened to, you're really missing out on. They have such a cool and amazing style that really feels like it fits right in with the vibe of the community. Not to mention some really lovely lyrics that'll have you feeling all sorts of things. If you like music at all, definitely check them out! I (Tarro) also put out a cover of the song Same Love by Macklemore that was generally well received, so maybe check that out too if you're looking for more zoo music to add to the playlist!
There are also a few small accounts that I really want to call out in particular. There are LOTS of awesome people who joined the community this year so if I don't call you out don't feel too bad about it, but these are people who I think have a lot of potential to do some awesome stuff in the future.
The first person I'd like to call out is Savvy! Savvy joined Twitter in just November, but She's already been making waves with her incredible art style. She's been doing a ton of pictures for people in the community, and just in general seems to have a really great attitude. If you want to see some awesome zoo art, definitely check her out! https://x.com/aGentlezoo
Another really cool zoo out there in the zoosphere is Coyote Colt! Colt joined the ZDP Discord server in April, and then social media in May, and since then has been a really great voice in the community. From great questions about animal ethics, to more fun stuff every now and then as well, Colt is a voice that's worth listening to as far as really talking about zoosexuality.
https://x.com/CoyoteColt
Last but certainly not least, I want to call out Aussie Shep. Aussie is by no means new to being a zoo, but their account was made this year if you don't like it write your own account recommendations! Something that I think is really important in our zooey world is the idea of accountability. We have a great community full of amazing people. But like moths to a flame, there are also less great people who are attracted to what we're trying to do for the wrong reasons. Aussie is someone who's been very good about trying to protect the community in a way where they still want to see us grow, but also want to make sure we're growing in the right direction. While we might not always agree, I think they're worth following just for that alone.
https://x.com/AussieSheppy
If they sound like people that are cool, why not check them out!
There's one more thing I want to talk about in this Zooey Wrapped and that's the future. 2025 is ready to batter down the doors any moment now, and I want to face it head on with my favorite thing. Goals! If you've read any of these before y'all know I love setting some goals. This year we hit everything I was hoping for when it comes to zoos growing on socials, so clearly we need to be a little bit more unrealistic! Last year this time we were at 1,200 members on the Discord server and about 5,000 followers on Twitter. Essentially, we managed to double our size on both platforms. This year I want to try doing it again. By the end of 2025, I want the ZDP server to have 5,000 people in it, and I want 25,000 Twitter followers. I think it's a lofty goal, but I also think it's doable. Even just the thought of zoo accounts being that big sends butterflies through my stomach, but if Jdonk can do it, so can we! Outside of us, I have a couple other goals/predictions to call out. I think the biggest zoo account (Jdonk aside) is going to cross the 30k mark. A little bigger than us, but the acceleration that Horsephile and Vex have is frankly incredible and I think they'll be able to do it.
Moving away from social media, I think next year is going to be a year of sub-communities. Not in a hostile way or anything, just in terms of natural separation. There's only so big things can get before there starts to be a bit of cellular division. There already are different bubbles in the zoo community, like the forum bubble, and various different irl bubbles. But in 2025 I think we're going to see a lot more auxiliary groups start to form. I also think this is the year we're going to see a major news network reference the "zoo community." Not as a major headline or anything, probably just a throwaway line somewhere about how "even zoophiles are mobilizing" or possibly as a dig about how "Twitter's even allowing zoophiles now," accompanied by a passing screenshot of Vex's Twitter account or the Zooier Than Thou podcast art. But still, it's going to be something that shows that there is some level of attention on us. My guess is that 2026 will probably be the real year that zoosexuality gets spun up into being a culture war conflict, but we're going to see the first signs of it in 2025.
Overall, my goal for 2025 is this. Right now if we were a tree we would be a really strong trunk with very few branches. Next year I want to grow horizontally as much as vertically, because the more we branch out, the more sunlight we get to feel on our proverbial leaves.
And that's that! Our 2024 Year in Review is now over. We'll be giving the team the next two weekends off, so you won't be getting your dose of ZDP for the 28th/29th, or the 4th/5th. But don't worry, dear readers, we'll be back in the new year with more articles hot off the press! And hey, if you're bored over the holidays, why not check out a cool new zoo space, write an article for the magazine, or if you're feeling especially ambitious, why not try something new. No time like the present to create something.
From our family to yours, happy holidays, Merry Christmas (or whatever you're into), a joyous new year, and we'll see you all in 2025!
