Hey all,

As many of you likely already know we've been having a lot of incidents recently involving those attempting to access the site by lying about their ages. Up until now we've tried to take a forgiving approach to the problem by giving them the chance to own their mistakes and publicly apologize on the forum. I have spoken with some of those who did this, and I understand they wanted community and were encouraged by friends to lie to try to get in.

This issue however is quite serious for a number of reasons:

1. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) requires that we do not admit those under 13 onto the site. TG could be sued and/or shut down for violating it, destroying this home that we have tried so hard to give you (See: Here).

2. To prevent minors from masquerading as adults and accessing adult spaces, which could lead to innapropriate interactions or accusations and put our adult members at risk.

3. To prevent adults from masquerading as minors and putting the actual minors under our care in danger.

So these are safety issues, and it's our job to keep this place safe for all of us.

I have attempted to make it clear in the past that these attempts to bypass this aspect of our activation screening would eventually lead to others being banned over it "in the future".. Well, the future has come, and now we are banning someone over it.

If you have questions or concerns you may contact me or one of the other staff, or use the Write to Staff forum.

Regards,
-Cyg

I agree... It feels kinda weird and sometmes also scares me! I can't understand how it's possibile that I am a therian, and this is very mysterious.

I've been wondering for a while now as to why we are therians, especially why I am. Even though I've been a therian for years, it bothers me a lot that I dont know the answer. I came here to look for that answer. But I just cant find it. I cant accept that it's just a mystery.

With all of the new members here, many of which are new to forums in general, I and other staff often find ourselves digging for many links to answer member questions. So I'd like to make a big thread that has all the helpful links you'll need. And I'll try to organize them by category.

Please note that while this is an announcement that can be seen by members and guests alike, many of these links will only work for registered forum members.

Where to post if you need to ask staff about something:

Write to Staff

How the site works:

Community Rules of Conduct

The Staff Team

Why we have an age requirement

The age groups on our site

Safety for Minors

Privacy

All About Forum Points

About How Forum Code Works

The Points Shop


Becoming a Member:

How to Become Activated as a Member

How Long it Takes to Become Activated

Our Policy on Duplicate Accounts

Staff Teams:

Teams and How to Join Them


Life Issue Support For Members

Where to post if you need to vent or need support

How to join the support group

How to post in the support subforum

Our Discord Server:

How to join the Discord server

Rules of our Discord Server

Member Journals

The Journal Subforum

TG's Staff Journal

User Creativity

Where to Share Art

User Marketplace Conduct

How to sell physical goods with points

Physical Merch and Donations

The TG Budget

Donating to TG

Our Ko-Fi

Points Shop Physical Merch Designs

Let me know if there's anything you think I missed or would be helpful to add~

i actually made a post that i feel delves into a lot of the underlying here a while back not to push my own thread it is just a lot to type over again

I agree with Pi 100%, and also agree with Zip’s latest comment. It isn’t bad to be therian, it isn’t bad to not be therian. It isn’t bad or good or anything to be a therian who spend most of their time inside, or outside, city or forest. Besides the health consequences of being inside for prolonged periods of time, of course. But I mean morally.

Therians come in all ages and abilities, psychological and spiritual, and every therian’s life is different. There is no one “right way” to live as a therian, the right way is what’s best for you, with your body and abilities and situation, and what brings you the most joy and connection. Helping the earth is something we should all do also, but again, that’s going to look different for everyone and that’s ok.

Hopefully this made sense.

I do agree that gatekeeping gets us nowhere. Therianthropy is already such a difficult thing to experience that therian pups need support, and the therian community should always strive to be a welcoming place to all involved. Even those exploring their identities, if they decide in a couple years that therianthropy isn't how they want to express themselves, or that they don't actually align with therian values and identities, that's okay! Hopefully they'll come away more educated and more intelligent about this community. If we "lose" a therian, hopefully we'll gain an ally.

One thing I don't like to see, on the other end of the therian spectrum, is therians who endlessly "belittle" non-therians. I understand disapproving of people who create trouble or perpetuate stereotypes or bully therians, but it gets to a point where I see therians belittling those who may be open to learning! Even if a kid isn't a therian, keeping them as an ally and educating them on therianthropy is one of the best things we can do for the community. Gatekeeping and saying "oh, the normies just don't get it and they never will" makes people defensive; being defensive will make them aggressive, and then you've just created a whole new source of hatred for therians rather than having a logical discussion on the internet about what you experience and how they can relate. Everyone has felt out of place or misunderstood at some point, even those who are not therians. Appeal to that! Educate instead of shaming! we can show them that even if you leave a community, you can keep friends and maintain healthy social interactions.

Pi said exactly what I've been trying and failing to express the whole time I've been on TG. They worded it way better than I ever have.

Exactly that. It feels great to see it. I'm so relieved.

(2025-03-17 13:27)Pi. Wrote:  ...

Don't become gatekeepers. Nothing good ever comes out of respectability politics.

...

We need solidarity with each other. We need to protect each other, even the ones who are different from us—especially the ones who are different from us—because our safety and our fates are linked.

I wanted to add to this:
A species that doesn't/cant adapt dies out.
We as a community need to be flexible. That doesnt mean we change the meaning of therian, and it doesn't mean we have to let misinformation run rampant.
We should let young people explore who they are, and allow them the space to think deeply about themselves.

Dusty said:

(2024-01-28 13:09)DustWolf Wrote:  I also believe, that by actually talking about these things and taking into account how we make each other feel, each one of us can grow as a person to become better people. This is obviously especially important for younger people, where developing the ability to gracefully cope with social challenges, could make a big difference in their quality of life in the long run.

Even if not everyone is really a therian, they might still take something good out of this.

I agree, that even if not all of the young critters who join are therian/otherkin, from being in this community they can gain something powerful and important to life.

That's all

Avis

As an older queer, trans person who's lived through various identity validity wars, i have one piece of advice:

Don't become gatekeepers. Nothing good ever comes out of respectability politics.

We've been through this many times before, with the gays and lesbians who think bisexual and trans people give them a bad name, the trans people who think genderqueer and nonbinary people give them a bad name, and every community out there right now who think therians in general give them a bad name. Don't become the next repetition of that.

The kids and green paws who are exploring their identities are not the enemy. Let them try things, let them wear gear, let them follow TikTok trends and do things even if it makes you cringe. As long as they're not hurting anyone, they're fine. They are not the threat or the problem.

The fascists and bigots who want to eliminate queers, trans people, furries, therians from society are the problem. They will always target the most vulnerable, and the last thing any of us needs to be doing is to help pave the way for them by debating whose identity is valid or invalid, or who of us deserves respect and who doesn't. Trust me, the bigots and fascists don't make any such distinction. We're all just the same trash to them.

We need solidarity with each other. We need to protect each other, even the ones who are different from us—especially the ones who are different from us—because our safety and our fates are linked.