I'm trying to connect with other furries and hopefully make some furry friends (all of my current friends are not), but having a bit of trouble finding where to go.
Apparently the Furries of Iowa discord is super dead and the link on disboard to Midwest Furries doesnt work anymore.
Does anyone know of any good furry chats, preferably on discord and focused on the Midwest (hoping to actually make some localish friends)?
I think so. There's no problems in joining an ongoing chat, but I recommend you try with smaller groups first. Big groups can be overwhelming since it's impossible to read everything.
No, they can't see which groups you've joined unless you're both in the same group. You should get a burner number though so that you can use proper furry profile pictures.
Agree with the suggestion to get a burner number. The big one to be aware of is that Telegram users who have you in their phone contacts may get a notification that you've joined Telegram, so if you're using a number other people know then you'll want to make sure your profile is something you're fine with them seeing.
Your suggestion is very regional specific and perhaps limited to the USA
(probably fine for OP, who indicated they live in the USA, but)
In many countries, like whole Europe, its literally impossible to get a “burner number” because any SIM card requires by law a personal verification
'Burner' in this context means 'cheap enough to be disposable', not necessarily 'anonymous'. It's not about being untraceable, it's just about not pinging all the Normal People who may know your main phone number with whatever difficult-to-explain profile info/icon you want to use.
Interesting to know about Europe though. I wouldn't expect to need a SIM card at all to get a phone number where I live. (I think that's a mobile phone thing; I've never owned one. Here I have my public/private phone numbers through online services like Textfree and Google Voice.)