An (updated) Alter-Human Term List

(2022-06-01 23:55)Jadeeyedwere Wrote:  

(2022-06-01 22:08)fenrich Wrote:  While I agree wholeheartedly that we're absolutely drowning in terms, I do feel like it's important to have a compilation somewhere of what these terms meant(even if outdated, although I do feel some accuracy is to be gained at some points). I've often found in communities that I have absolutely no idea what people are talking about when using older terminology, and when I try to find any info about it there's absolutely no way for me to understand what was being said, especially if it's an older/outdated post.

A lot of these terms being used aren't official terms thus I personally find it impractical and unnecessary to document. Amino isn't the community and a lot of social media "therian" platforms use a lot of fluffy terms such as these, because they are not moderated by the greater community and often times push out the older, educated members of the community for ridiculous reasons. So I don't find it relevant to document "how therianthropy has changed over time" when the greater community do not use these said terms, nor are they considered official.

True! I suppose I tend to give ppl the benefit of the doubt more often than not, and I'm not too well versed on the history of a lot of these terms, so I wasn't sure which were genuinely coined by older, experienced therians(i.e terms like M-Shift) and which were made more recently by the younger folk trying to split off from the rest. I do still think it'd be interesting to see documents of genuine terminology and where they originated, which was my main point in the original post!

(2022-06-01 21:23)Lynx26 Wrote:  I suppose that’s all fair but I at least strongly identify with the term suntherian, so it isn’t exactly irrelevant? I quite liked the description on that too..

Suntherian isn't irrelevant, it's a part of our history along with contherian. Where these terms are dated though is most of us consider therianthropy a sort of spectrum nowdays, rather than a primary classification with a bunch of subcategories. The later part of the last decade proved that all these subcategories and different terms to describe where one fell upon such a spectrum caused much confusion for young therians who weren't sure where or what they were.

So I the grand scheme of things, I don't think it's really fruitful to float the notion of a bunch of sub-categories of therian on a community level. As a personal identifier or a term that does effectively resonate with the way an individual feels, though, there's nothing wrong with using the term, historic.

TL;DR

It's okay to use "suntherian" personally but I don't think we should float that there are suntherians, contherians and shifters again and imply that folks should pick one.

(2022-06-01 22:08)fenrich Wrote:  While I agree wholeheartedly that we're absolutely drowning in terms, I do feel like it's important to have a compilation somewhere of what these terms meant(even if outdated, although I do feel some accuracy is to be gained at some points). I've often found in communities that I have absolutely no idea what people are talking about when using older terminology, and when I try to find any info about it there's absolutely no way for me to understand what was being said, especially if it's an older/outdated post.

One thing we desperately need is more focus on the history of the Therian community before Tumblr, Amino, Instagram and TikTok - as can be evidenced by your prior statement that you often are confused by older posts.

TG exists and we have a wealth of threads where a lot of the older words and terms have been hashed out time and again. Werelist is suffering in activity but is also an excellent resource of history and an archive of AHWW can be found on Google Groups. One of the problems we face in the modern techsphere is that social media effectively reduces the attention span of the end-user and rewards people with a dopamine hit for scrolling and clicking instead of actually searching, researching and reading stuff at length. It's a problem, a big one.

YouTube can be an informative resource but the problem is that real information like Therian Nation falls to the wayside for more flashy entertainment with tails and gear and quadrobics. Some folks like PinkDolphin try their best to balance entertainment with information but most information value goes well out the window when we start spiraling down into Amino, ect.

So there's a missed baton pass between the forum/newsgroup generation and the social media generations and if someone wants to do quadrobics or wear gear or something that's fine as a personal choice but that crap isn't what being a therian is about in the slightest and we need to start boycotting it because it's all young people see when they search for "therian" anywhere and they wind up thinking we're some kind of trendy subculture

(2022-06-01 22:08)fenrich Wrote:  Idk. Maybe some sort of well-researched compilation of similar nature would help? Including proper definitions and whether or not words are outdated/no longer used? Purely for documentation's sake.

I agree. There needs to be more content produced about the history of the therian community in a format that somehow appeals to the younger generation. The trouble is the younger generation, by large, is looking to know everything in 15 seconds or less and it's simply not possible.

At some point, people have to start doing their homework rather than play video games.

Lyc

I do think terminology is useful at times and I agree it's important to document the history of the community and various terms.

However, I feel a big issue with splitting therianthropy into different categories is that those new to the community often feel they have to fit into one of those categories or that those are the only true ways therianthropy is experienced. While there are certain experiences which are more common amongst the community not everyone is going to fit into a neat little box. We're a very diverse bunch.

And when you do start dividing things up, those who don't fit those boxes can feel a need to create their own... then you can end up with so many it's a minefield to navigate. Having taken a year away from the community recently, coming back I was blown away by the sheer number of new terms that have popped up in some places.
I've seen people spend so much time trying to figure out exactly which box they fit in that they loose sight of their own experiences.

(2022-06-02 1:31)Velvet Wrote:  While there are certain experiences which are more common amongst the community not everyone is going to fit into a neat little box. We're a very diverse bunch.

I've seen people spend so much time trying to figure out exactly which box they fit in that they loose sight of their own experiences.

I'd say less really is starting to become more here. Nothing against terms to quickly describe something. But I personally got so stuck on definitions and constantly felt like I am completely wrong here because my story doesn't 100% match or I'm uncomfortable wording something a specific way.

The with vs as identity stuff already managed to break my brain.

That's just me though. Me and identity talk refuses to get along.

Generally speaking I think it shouldn't be devided in like a hand full of different categories. I prefer viewing it as a spectrum that comes in many different ways. In the end therian implies something pretty simple: Being in some way animalistic. The rest is up to the individual.

From the critique I have seen so far, I just wanted to put a disclaimer out there that me forwarding the definitions I included in this post do not indicate anything when it comes to my beliefs or how I view the community and its terms. These terms are not based on newly coined terms, but about the many terms I see being used in the therian (and alterhuman) community daily. That does not mean I agree with the use of everything.

The reason why I made this list is because someone had requested me to do so and I found it a fun challenge. The reason why I posted it here is because the previous one seemed to miss a lot of terms, or evolve more around therianthropy, while my list happens to be more alter-human based. I don't really care if some therians see themselves as part of the alterhuman community or not. The therian community is included because it fits the definition of alterhuman (the term, not the community per se), period.

The resource used the most was the Therian wiki, and the definitions I have picked up in my years in the community so far. The Alt-H and Amino source are simply put there because I wanted to make sure I didn't miss out on any words (as for example, the word Otherkin isn't even present on the therian wiki, understandably of course). Words like Xenogender and Plurality seemed to be terms that I had not thought of or thought to be alterhuman, but it seems to be important to some in the alterhuman community. This literally says nothing about any stances towards Alt-H nor Amino, I just used it as a tiny reference.

This post also doesn't say anything about categorization of therianthropy, but if you all feel like I should state in the terms "suntherian, contherian and vacillant therian/otherkin" that it is an outdated concept, then I'll gladly do so. Tho afaik a lot of people still use these terms to describe their experience, even if the view on the fluidity of therianthropy has changed. Perhaps it's wiser to go after the source (the Therian Wiki) instead of a forwarded termlist, and have it changed there instead.

I hope this clears things up a bit, and that people can just let the list be for what it is. I see people find it helpful, which is also one of the reasons why I posted it. So let's just take it or leave it.

Hello everyone,

Sorry for not chiming in sooner... was busy.

Basically to avoid any continued misunderstanding about the whole thing I want to point out that it's been a matter of extended discussion between me, @LycanTheory and many other people on TG (across multiple threads) many of which are not active in this thread, where we in the end concluded that it was a bad idea to have lists such as these.


The reasoning was already explained by Lyc, so I shouldn't have to, but basically having a bunch of labels makes people want to describe themselves with these labels.

However labels are inherently inaccurate and thus while it may seem like a good idea to communicate your experiences with others using these labels, it is actually counterproductive. What you end up doing, is describing yourself in a way that other people will, inevitably, interpret differently than you have intended (because it is very easy to assume you know what a word means, even when you really don't).

What you should be doing instead, is explain your experiences in your own words. That way other people, instead of just having a few labels to figure out if they can relate to you or not, have whole descriptions to work with which are a lot easier to properly understand. And in the end if more clarity is needed, we can have conversations about it, which help people actually understand and relate to your experiences, instead of skipping to conclusions based on a few vague labels (you can see this happens all the time on platforms like Amino).

This is why on Therian Guide, we have a special forum, specifically dedicated to explaining your therian experiences, in your own words:
https://forums.therian-guide.com/Forum-Therian-Experiences#content


So.. I think as community members, it is our responsibility, to encourage other therians to talk about their experiences. It obviously goes against this purpose to just go old-school and post a list of labels with definitions (e.g. this thread), as if that was supposed to help.

I know it's difficult to put our experiences into words. A lot of it is based on feelings, and feelings are hard to word for therians and non-therians alike. However, it's the only real way for the therian community to move away from the dark ages of poor comprehension, tribal instinct and gatekeeping.

I would humbly request that we each do our part towards that goal.

LP,
Dusty

Hey Thorn

I know that kith and hearted are part of alterhuman. But what if you don't identify as a species other than human and ALSO not feeling like a species other than human is like family to you?
How do you call that?


Not furry, that is mostly more anthro-human-animal and.

I mean a real-life species like for example: wolves, fox, horse, fish and even spiritual dragons etc.
(NOT a FURRY species like a blue dog or protogen or sergal etc.)

And is this part of theriantrophy? I see so many fake alterhumans/fake therians doing quadrobics, but they are a big fan of a specific species or more spieces, they are just not REAL alterhuman.

Do they actually belong in the Alterhuman community if they are just, only BIG FANS of one or more species? Even they are not kin or kith or hearted? What does hearted and kith realy means?
I do know what alterhuman is: experiencing a species (mostly, I think so)


Is there a term-name for: BIG FANS of one or more species ? Shall there be a term-name for in the future or even now?

(2022-12-07 12:32)ForesterLeaf Wrote:  Is there a term-name for: BIG FANS of one or more species ? Shall there be a term-name for in the future or even now?

That's simply called- 'liking an animal'.

We don't need another new term for this thing that can be simply described.

Wow! that is a lot! Also, I didn't know you were on forums! *haappi noises* lol P.s. LOVE your vids!

-Bullett X3