Apparently the thread I thought I had already replied to on this subject is not the same as this one.

Basically what I said last time was "labels are meant to be used to help explain a part of someone, either to an outsider or to themself. If it isn't doing either, I don't particularly see the point, but it's not hurting anyone so I could care less."

This is still pretty much how I feel. I still think MOGAI and LIOM labels are community building and fun, even if they might not be particularly useful otherwise, which, honestly, they often are quite useful. Just in a more introspective sort of way.

I used to put more stock in microlabels, but as time has gone on, I've become more and more annoyed by them. At this point, with seemingly everyone wanting to bandwagon onto creating yet more niche terms that no one else will innately understand, the microlabeling craze in therian communities has bloated to the point of hindering discussion rather than helping it.

(2023-11-27 7:48)DustWolf Wrote:  Hey guys,

Happy therianthropy day!

As is our historic custom, therianthropy day is celebrated on the first full moon in November, which is today on the 27th .

To quote @BearX who posted this back in 2017:

(2017-11-04 14:44)BearX Wrote:  Today is the first full moon of November, 2017. The first full moon of November has been a sort of de facto "Therianthropy Day" since the mid 1990s. It was when, 23 years ago, on the weekend of November 19 & 20, 1994, the first official AHWW howl was held.

I was unable to attend it, although I did make the two that followed. I was a broke college student and had no transportation at the time. It was fun reading the post-howl reports on the newsgroup, though.

I always felt it was a good time to have an official celebration of therianthropy, since the AHWW newsgroup itself was created in November, 1992. Very momentous for therians, November is.

It was first proposed as a sort of holiday in March of 1996, in this thread on AHWW, should you want to investigate the history. Ultimately, AHWW decided to use it, and it stuck. It went through a few iterations of names, "International Werewolf Day", and then the less species-specific "Awereness Day" (since were is the older term for therian), and after the term therianthropy caught on, "Therianthropy Day".

So, happy "Therianthropy Day". Hope it's a good one.

We never quite figured out what we were going to do for Therianthropy Day. Maybe bake a cake. Maybe be proud and celebrate your therianthropy online by bragging about your animal traits. Maybe just chill out and have that one day in a year when you let your animal side out a bit more than usual. There are no rules on what must be done for therianthropy day.

If nothing else, it's a day to be true to ourselves and remember what all this is all about.

Take care.

LP,
Dusty

We should have a special item for this that's only available on Therianthropy Day! I feel it should be free of charge, jst something to use to celebrate!

(2025-12-03 22:53)Lopori Wrote:  Can't be doing with them. Just explain in real words what you mean damnit, microlabels don't communicate anything that can be understood by the uninitiated.

This.

People often defend microlabels by saying that it's like a shortcut when talking about these things, not just in the context of therianthropy but also a lot in the LGBTQ context. These "shortcuts" don't mean anything and don't help because not only can people misunderstand the meaning or apply it to themselves differently than how it was "originally intended", but also because of the expectation that people will just magically know what they're talking about just because it's a single word now. I personally have no clue what any of these microlabels mean, especially in the LGBTQ community. In the therian community there's at least just a handful...

What's the need for shortcuts anyway? Why won't people just have real discussions anymore?

(2025-11-26 23:33)FernFox Wrote:  The way it's presented makes it sound like an offshoot of the otherkin community (prefix other-, likening it to otherkin, and suffix -paw, random and non-descriptive). It goes along with my chief complaint that these labels aren't intelligible, and without googling it, it's entirely unclear what it's meant to represent.

I guess we can't be choosers since we didn't make it, but if creating a label for animal cosplay was a necessity, I wish that a different term had caught on. Quadrobist was already right there.
Maybe I'm also just picky with linguistics.

I forgot I wanted to reply to you as well so apologies for the double post!

I agree and share the frustration. Aren't animal cosplayers just called... furries? I mean they literally are just a subgroup of the furry fandom and have nothing to do with therianthropy. Why not make the label "quadrofur" or something? The -fur suffix is already common for subgroups of the fandom and that name would make way more sense and be more easily understood by the general population.

Can't be doing with them. Just explain in real words what you mean damnit, microlabels don't communicate anything that can be understood by the uninitiated.

I'm not a fan of microlabels (which, in and of itself, is also a microlabel!).

It's like the English rule when using acronyms: you have to spell it out first and then you can use it as a sort of short-hand. But unless you define it first, or unless everyone you're talking to already understands the definition, it's useless and only adds to confusion when trying to communicate an already often-times confusing concept!

Um my shifts are rare but most common are mental shifts. I have never experienced phantom shift. So when I am shifted I want to do more animalistic sound such as meowing, howling, growling. I am more primal and I often want to cuddle or do playfull fights. Also I became more animalistic in basic behaviour. That means I will growl or hiss when somebody is threating me or my friends, or I will be whining when I am scared. Also I like to tilt my head and listwn to sounds and body language. Because I dont wxperience strong shifts and I am always lil shifted it is hard to tell. It is pretty much like ypour whole mind suddenly switch and my instincts are sharper bc I am more fo used on it. I will start thinking just slightly differently that humans. Just like wilf. Hope it helped.

for me most of my shifts are phantom shifts and it kinda just feels like...umm...idrk, like kinda feeling like you have a part of your body that isn't there, and I can like feel it move and stuff but ik its not really there so it's wierd, I also don't know if this is a shift but I do tend to jump around and play in a more animalistic way, like if I'm alone in my room or outside with my neighbors dog then I'll run with her or also like just other stuff like that, idk how to explain a lot of it, I'm sorry

I was in a discussion akin to this on the werelist recently. There, they'd been called "fourth wave" therians. I had a bit to say on the topic, and I still do. Below is my original reply from the werelist, edited a bit for clarity.

Quote: In all the conversations around the state of the community, I feel that we are forgetting to look at the state of the internet as a whole. When I look at what forms of connection are easily available, it's no wonder that the community has become what it is.

Fourth wave [tiktok] therians exist mostly on youtube, instagram, and tiktok. While nuance and the like can be absent in any form of communication, these platforms simply aren't built for it at all. Short-form content thrives off of quick clicks and rapid swiping. You can post all the introspection on those sites you want, but unless it generates easy ad revenue, it might as well not exist at all. This leads to all the posts and conversations that get shared to be ankle-deep at best, ergo that's what the uninformed and uninitiated make the community out to be. You may have the occasional account that gets attention for sharing real experiences, but it's a rarity. We know that social media is predatory and that children are very susceptible to it. There aren't a ton of stand-alone websites like this anymore because of how pervasive algorithm-based platforms have become.

Short-form content has rotted brains to the point where long-form content such as forums and essays cant hold attention. Then it bleeds over into other platforms like Reddit. I could easily write forever about how this probably has a lot to do with capitalism and anti-intellectualism.

Do people need to be aware of the community they're joining before they join it? Absolutely. Should we encourage positive change? Of course. There are a lot of issues that come with children and other uninformed folks joining the community en mass and there always has been. I just think we should be more aware that the environment and framework that these new communities are forming under are inherently hostile to the nuanced conversations that create good community. Growth should always be encouraged, but sometimes the soil you're planted in is pretty nasty.

I find it shallow and a bit dishonest to blame children for the issues within the new community. Most of the time, they are completely unaware that a much deeper and richer community lurks right under the surface, and tiktoks endless desire for ad revenue and attention isn't going to spur them onto these deeper conversations, it's just going to keep them on the app.

Ultimately, I think the hype will die out in time. The community will adapt, and those who turned out to be "real" will stick around and contribute. Best thing we can do is gently educate and not shame them.

Seriously, why can't people just admit that they WANT to be Therian? What's the point of acting and lying to everyone else and yourself? Just make it clear that you know you are human and that you are a Quadrobist or Otherpaw. The fundamental difference is that you can CHOOSE to be Otherpaw, you can CHOOSE to be a Quadrobist, but you can't CHOOSE to be a Therian.

Even I respect this difference. I don't fake-claim being Therian just because I want to be 'mainstream' and 'accepted in a community' although I've seriously wanted to. Instead, I was honest and I was still kindly accepted into this community.

There's no shame in being different from the mainstream culture, and Therianthropy certainly should not be a mainstream culture just because people find it really cool. Those who base their life around being socially-accepted and get all their energy from other people's attention are seriously miserable. That is one thing I never understood and never will.

But the really problematic thing is that there's literally no way to day that someone isn't a Therian. It's all in someone's mind, there's nothing physical or tangible that can be used as proof.

So anyways, those were some of my really jumbled-up thoughts about fake-claiming Therianthropy and following this mainstream TikTok and Insta aesthetic. I don't think my paragraphs were well organized but I hope my main ideas and arguments were well expressed.