king of the damned.

Fictionfolk is a complete word. The -folk isn't really a suffix to be tacked onto other words. Fictionfolk is an umbrella that encompasses all beings with fictional origin. Fictionkind, fictives, people with fictional hearthomes, fictionhearted people, other fictional headmates, fictherians, hosts of fictional systems, etc. It came about on the Dreamwidth community because I needed a quick and easy way to address everyone there. There are so many fictional entities and connected people that it's ridiculous to try and list them out all the time. It is also an option for people who know they're fictional in some way, but either don't know in what way they are (kin? soulbonder? fictionflicker? idk man I'm just here?), or they don't want to disclose the details for privacy reasons.

In hand with fictionfolk was Fictomere, which also came about on Dreamwidth. Again, for ease of use- I needed a way to talk about the subject of one's fictionality without being too wordy. When I ask a question meant for everyone, I need a single word to denote their kintype/headmate/source/world/etc. Fictomere is the subject. This also allows for privacy and vagueness, since you don't have to explain the nature of what the subject is. Don't want to admit to being fictionkind just yet? Cool, just call the character your fictomere and all the audience knows is that you have a connection to them, done and done.

The revival of -kind works more like suffix. It's the earlier version of otherkin, before the -d was quietly dropped. It serves two purposes, the first being exclusive to the Tumblr environment of the time. 1) Differentiates you from KFF who don't know the history involved, and giving an alternative to "kin" which, thanks to kinnies, some people have come to dislike. 2) It is more broad. It takes the focus away from the origin of your identity. You can nitpick about being 'kin or 'hearted or involuntary vs voluntary/spiritual vs psychological all day if you want, or you can just say that you are "of that kind". Maybe you don't know, or you don't want other people to know - and maybe your identity is too complicated and multi-faceted to put neatly in any box - saying that you are dragonkind, birdkind, horsekind, whatever, makes the connection clear and dependent on your explanations rather than assumptions.

It'd be seriously awesome if y'all could hop onto Twitter and report the content for me in Report > It's abusive or harmful > Includes targeted harassment > Someone else.

The tweet is at: https://twitter.com/MountainShep17/status/1472677079745544192 (mirror)

And the post in question is:

Yeah, I noticed. I found out uh, four minutes before LT reared his ugly head and went after Page here on tumblr. (Reminder to block and report him, while you're at it.)

I really don't want to be a dick and say it isn't good enough (the wording isn't formal, it's not a real announcement and just a tweet, ~ooo let us know if we're interacting with anyone 'sus'~ instead of an actual statement), but honestly? My standards are a bit high, it's about damn time they made a statement.

I'm not happy with the "conversation" we had. I was all but ignored, and so was Sun. VS went straight for Noel's sharpness and insisted we were somehow breaking boundaries (what boundaries?? Only theory I have is 'boundary to not be questioned or criticized' which is kind of pathetic) and refused to engage further with those of us trying to play it civil.

I said absolutely nothing that wouldn't have been brought up in their discord before their initiative was even drafted. My tone wasn't accusatory, if anything it was "and how was this missed? Please don't miss it next time!" and I ended off on a rather optimistic note? So I genuinely can't see what I might have been at fault for. I'm open to someone pointing out what I might have fucked up, solely because I want to not have to write off the entire organization as a loss, but I can't see it.

But what irks me the most, and I didn't find this out until almost six hours ago, is that Alt+H has a very firm stance on "if you support factkin, you are banned from our discord". That's enough to make a statement about on its own, but they required significant pressure before they were forced to make a statement about bestialists, and it wasn't a great one either. One of these is actively harming all involved communities. The other is a weird philosophical debate that's fun to have every now and then but otherwise hasn't been an issue in at least four years.

I'm glad Alt+H made a statement. I really am. Took them long enough. But I'm not happy with how they handled any of this, and if immediately folding under any sort of critique and playing the victim is how their spokesperson is going to handle any sort of negative talk about them, well.

The factkin thing is. Not true? Even back when there was a rule about discussing it in the server I don't think anyone was banned over it? There was someone in the server trying to figure out whether or not they were factkin like three days ago and while the mods are still largely in the "harmful framework for valid experience" camp the community's stance definitely. Ranges.

Not that the rest of your post is wrong but like. If that's The Thing That Irks You The Most I? Guess you'll be glad to know it's probably a misunderstanding of a defunct and largely unenforced rule that I'm pretty sure was in place because the subject kept coming up?

That is... relieving to hear, although still irksome. I understand "this is apparently a topic you guys can't behave about, it's banned until you learn to be civil", but that was definitely not what I was told by some rather credible people. (I'll leave them anonymous, but if they want to step forward with sources, I would also welcome that for the sake of clarity.)

What I've been told was, paraphrasing, "We don't like them and they're not valid so if you support them, get out". Weird hill to die on. If we take that as true for the moment, then it makes their stance of being forced into saying something about bestialists pretty hypocritical. And if that isn't true or I've been given wrong information, then it's significantly less damning.

Which is good, because an organization like Alt+H could be very useful if done correctly, and I don't want to write it off as a total loss. I do want to clarify though that I'm speaking exclusively about the mods: the community has always been reasonably divided about factkin.

Which means for me, a frankly amazing amount of current music can be translated almost directly into my canon with small name changes. Nightwish becomes Nightsong, Dragonforce becomes Dragon's Might, Edguy becomes the Edmen, you get the idea.

It also means that I'm waiting for Lorian music to show up in this world, because if it exists here, it existed there, and I'm hoping the reverse is also true. Featherfall my beloved let me listen to you one more time, the Champion loved you so much and I miss you.

“ he’s currently engaging in the staunch defense of bestialists, also known as “people who engage in bestiality,” on his Twitter account.”

What I am actually doing is advocating for expanded tolerance and inclusion in the therian and overlapping communities. Many of us experience some degree of romantic or sexual attraction to non-human animals or creatures, which can be evidenced by both historic and recent polling, in fact it is over 50% of us who experience this.

What Page is attempting to do, in bad faith, is divide this group into categories based on who believes or disbelieves that adult animals can or could possibly consent to sexual activity, regardless of if they would ever act on such a belief. Page also attempts, incessantly, to polarize this issue and openly advocates not only for the “dehumanization” of anyone who believes that animals can/could possibly consent but of anyone who takes a neutral stance on the topic and refuses to treat others poorly.

Forwarding a very oversimplified, binary narrative and enforcing it with the threat of harassment, banning, gatekeeping or other hard, authoritarian means IS fascist, I would argue pathological behavior. Othering groups of people because “they are not like us” and therefore are “unclean” is the very type of reasoning Hitler and various other dictators around the globe used to justify genocide and it is reasoning of the same ilk that Page subscribes to and forwards in their incessant ramblings.

There is room for diversity in the therian and overlapping communities, there is room for disagreement and respectful discourse. What we can’t afford to do, though, is perpetuate or support the type of hostile tribalism that Page encourages. It’s not sustainable and it will destroy us all.

You can cry wolf (or rather German Shepard?) all you like on this issue, but between the two of us, I have written far more in defense of "ugly instincts" than you have-- and I've done it all without crossing the line of ever justifying actions that hurt animals, other people, or the instinct-haver. That's the difference between you and I: you refuse to address problems in compassionate and ethical ways, and instead find it much more useful to glorify potentially dangerous instincts and encourage them regardless of consequences.

I know the idea of holding people responsible for the consequences of their actions is foreign to you, something that reads as "cancel culture" and similar, but I genuinely do not care.

I think this reaction to Wolf is WAY overblown. The hashtag and community initiative response is just drawing attention to a film already recognized as pretty mediocre that I think is going to be forgettable either way. Of course I haven’t seen the movie but even aside from the piss poor excuse for representation it just doesn’t seem any bit entertaining or engaging of a concept. Yes, sit in a movie theatre for way too long watching medical abuse, sounds absolutely exciting.

I know the initiative response is about mitigating damage it can do. But what damage is it really going to do? Like, I think folks gotta ask themselves this critically before getting stressed out. It’s a mediocre movie that’s going to be forgotten so long as our community doesn’t make people remember it, we’re past the age of the “Jaws effect”.

Also for it to do any damage at all it needs attention to begin with - which it’s at a severe disadvantage for getting due to being scheduled to release right before a major Marvel movie that everyone is pre-occupied with and saving theatre money for. From what I can see Wolf is mostly irrelevant aside from very, VERY niche movie buffs. Like, I work in entertainment industry, and have connections to film. I’m also just friends with movie buffs and fanatics all around. I haven’t seen a single person outside our community give a damn about Wolf since the teasers dropped.

I know my perspective is very much focused as a worker and industry professional. I hear about new movies a lot due to working in the industry. I’ve not seen anyone outside our community even mention the name. I think the blown up response is just going to make an otherwise completely forgettable and critic-disliked movie be remembered for reasons that will ultimately be more damaging to us than if it had just been left alone to fade into obscurity.

Now also extend consideration to the community initiative in practice. On the twitter #WolfGetsReal hashtag we’ve got full on pro-bestiality, zeta-donning folks joining in. How’s that any good of a look? Drawing attention not only to the irrelevant and mediocre movie but also to the input of the zeta squad sounds like a recipe for disaster and more dangerous to our community than the actual movie itself.

cc @a-dragons-journal @spiritus-sonne @shadowfae, come get y’all juice.

And also because our system in specific is the absolute king of starting shit in order to tackle misinformation in this trainwreck of a community on the Tumblr platform, and probably has more experience doing exactly that than anyone else in the conversation. No offense to anyone involved, of course– but our #aok discourse tag for that precise thing is just shy of 2,160 posts long. We know discourse based purely around misinformation and how it can go terrifically right and horrifically wrong.

You disagree with the assertion that this film isn’t “worth” making noise about, but let’s stand nose-to-nose with the facts. This film is going to, if we leave it untouched, sink into the depths of obscurity. Erasing this movie and its potential consequences by virtue of allowing it to self-destruct is single-handedly the best damage mitigation policy that the alterhuman community fucking has.

The alterhuman community has done successful misinformation battles before, but there’s an ocean of difference between those and what you’re doing here. In those scenarios, the misinformation was already being leveled directly at specific alterhumans or within specific alterhuman communities. More than that, the misinformation was largely being spread on an individual playing field: that is to say, an individual person or an addressable group on social media was making an assertion or variety of assertions, and the alterhumans targeted could directly fight back and overwhelm the misinformation. Tumblr makes a great examples for it in specific, with the physical shifter packs of 2016 and the anti-otherkin brigades of 2015 and 2018 that the alterhuman communities respectively kicked the shit out of and sent packing. Page has been a part of all of the aforementioned and can attest to the effectiveness– it was difficult, but it was at least possible to drive back the misinformation with enough drive, dedication, and caffeine. You could convince people one on one, and if not convince them, the community could at least dogpile them and their shitty opinions with sources and mockery until the offenders got tired and fucking left.

What you’re fighting here is something that isn’t individual, it’s corporate. You are fighting something that survives and thrives off of the beast that is renown and publicity, regardless of whether the reputation it garners for itself is good or bad. You can’t speak over it, because it wants to be spoken about; you can’t argue it into the ground, because the algorithms interpret any form of engagement as something to encourage and duplicate as far and as wide as possible. If you get one wrong post out there in the Twittersphere and the algorithm picks it up and suggests it to hundreds or thousands of people, this all will skyrocket so completely and utterly out of your control that neither you nor us could possibly fathom the type of long-lasting consequences it will have, especially given the political climate within alterhuman spaces right now.

I clarified with Pale what he meant regarding the fact that we have no power as a community, and he confirmed that he was talking about how “we’ve got no leverage or power to actually change anything said about us that isn’t by us, because we’re not valuable enough to consider as a community to respect when the alternative is ableism and sensationalism. The latter will win every time,” to quote him. And look, I’m going to be honest with you: if we want to legitimize this community and raise awareness (awereness) then you’re not going to do that by waving banners and flags in the mentions of journalists and movie directors, or anything comparable to that.

The Washington Post, Slate, and Polygon publish hundreds of thousands of pieces every year, it’s true, and yet even with those numbers this movie is going to end up as forgotten and unliked as the bottom-of-the-barrel banana that people refuse to buy at the grocery store, because it’s gained a reputation for being both offense and shit to watch. If you want to address the problems hosted by the movie, then you do not have to actually bring the movie into the discussion. You do not have to give the movie attention.

You can talk about generalized “depictions” and how they’ve done harm, how they’ve been wrong, and host those discussions in worthwhile public spaces, but trying to piggyback off not only the movie’s (lack thereof) popularity but also the viewership of the journal articles by posting in their comments section in order to perform outreach on the subject and issues is beyond a fucking bad idea. I literally do not know how to succinctly describe to you how much tying your leg to that horse and screaming at it to move is a bad idea. Have alterhumans as a community learned fucking nothing in the past ten years about their relationship with the media? Have y'all not learned a single damn thing about how much journalism will happily skin you to keep themselves nice and warm, especially when using y'all as a form of outrage porn or as a sideshow freakshow attraction? No?

I’m also frankly fucking worried that you’ve avoided commenting on the bestialist criticisms. Don’t think that it’s gone unnoticed that Alt+H, in comparison to several of the other alterhuman nonprofits and groups (Freedom of Form Foundation, OtherCon, etc.), remains one of the few larger groups that has in no way publicly addressed the pro-bestiality missing stairs that are currently in community spaces. Not a fucking peep from you all in public nor semi-private spheres, and now we have known dog-fuckers happily feeling comfortable enough to jump on board the tag train on Twitter to platform themselves– and this is currently happening in a climate where these people are actively scrambling for any foothold in therianthropic alterhuman community spaces they can find, especially in order to promote the idea that bestiality, zoophilia, and therianthropy are inherently linked and constitute as their own forms of marginalized sexuality. Alt+H cannot responsibly be hosting any sort of large-scale community campaign until it addresses this problem, given the larger ramifications of unintentionally platforming such individuals. This is probably one of the worst possible times you could encourage therians into the viral spotlight, given everything currently rocking the community and Alt+H’s lack of any sort of moral standpoint on it. Don’t give almost cartoonishly evil people the opportunity to co-opt your shit. I don’t even know why that has to be said!

But to bring this back around into points made directly on the post, I’m going to be frank: you, as an organization, and alterhumans, as a general community, should not be focusing on large-scale alterhuman awareness without any sort of safety net or existing foundation, which is precisely what is being attempted here. If you want to talk about yourselves, first you need to legitimize yourselves, and ironically I think FurScience has done a better job at that than any true-blue alterhuman org I’ve yet seen.

I had to take a leaf out of Page’s book on this front, but you’re going at this all from the wrong angle. You’re tackling it from the top-down when you should be building from the ground-up. If you want to legitimize alterhumans, you have to go at it with a mix of:

1) encouraging people to create new, functional materials and resources–we don’t only need personal experience-based essays, but we also need academic research, art, literature, FAQs and guides, music, resources for the questioning and curious, etc. You’re the alterhuman community aren’t you all? Act like it!

2) tackling pre-existing misinformation in spheres where your attempts aren’t likely to be mangled beyond recognition and potentially turned against you. The Wikipedia project, if it had actually been slated to be a genuine attempt to edit and improve the Wikipedia page instead of the for-fun afterschool group learning activity it functionally ended up being closer to, would have been great for this.

You do those, you build your foundation, and then you end up having more power to shape narratives by virtue of having created or taken part in creating so many functional resources on alterhumanity. You can’t gain awareness without prior legitimization, not on a large scale semi-corporate sphere of influence like we’re seeing being attempted with this tackling of the Wolf movie. Trying to do so just ends up in a Sisyphus situation, where no functional ground is ever made and you’re just continuously going through the motions that are at best pointless and unsuccessful, or at worst getting thrown back into your faces.

By prioritizing awareness first and foremost as the “end goal,” you’re also just putting the cart before the horse. Awareness is an inevitability from legitimacy and “power”. Legitimacy and “power,” meanwhile, in no way preface larger scale awareness, as Pale pointed out with his commentary specifically on “[alterhumans are] not valuable enough to consider as a community to respect when the alternative is ableism and sensationalism. The latter will win every time.” Focus on your own community and its needs first, before trying to drag alterhumans as a whole kicking and screaming into the light of day. Strengthen your community and you can stand up to anything you need to, don’t just go shoving them to the forefront of Internet sensationalism with nothing to their names but the fur on their fucking backs.

It definitely should be ground-up over top-down, and honestly? It reminds me of the one twitter thread of someone taking the question "why won't anyone join our nonprofit" and concluding with "and what's your access ramp to make that easy to do?" since so much was based on "oh everyone knows it's actually over here, not where our documentation is".

The Wikipedia project, if it had panned out, and folks having questioning guides and personal essays and "you figured out you're alterhuman! Cool, now what?" articles make that a lot easier. It's a lot easier to just make actual info easier to find than it is trying to convince movie directors not to be ableist and sensationalist.

cc @a-dragons-journal @spiritus-sonne @shadowfae, come get y’all juice.

1) You didn’t actually address this at any point, which automatically puts it at the top of the list. I said, and it was actually brought to my attention a couple days ago in a server from folks more on twitter, but your hashtag was already co-opted by bestialists (LycanTheory is the big one, but I know there’s been at least two) trying to push the narrative that therianthropy is inherently linked to bestiality, which it isn’t. Alt+H also remains one of the few big spaces for alterhumanity that hasn’t addressed this problem whatsoever, and they clearly think you’re allies. These people need to be convicted and put in prison for animal abuse. You need to make it clear, before anything else right now, that they are not welcome in your spaces. By neglecting to do so, you are making it unsafe to be in your spaces if you’re not pro-bestiality. Now, if I’m wrong and you actually want that, I’d like to know, because I’m under the optimistic impression that you don’t. Either way, make that clear. It’s not a question that should be left unanswered, especially right now.

2) It was brought to my attention that you opened discussion for this initiative for a total of two hours before posting. That is… unreasonably fast. I’ve worked and managed projects before, and for smaller projects I would have given no less than 48 hours before even drafting the post. I’m not a part of Alt+H, but I find it hard to believe you didn’t have a single person who was either a) asleep or b) at work, who didn’t have the chance to give any input. Every single criticism and critique that I’ve seen (barring most made today, since I’ve been very busy) were obvious ones that I’d be very surprised wouldn’t have been brought up if this were thoroughly discussed. It’s obvious that it wasn’t, and that’s a serious issue as well.

3) Furthermore on that point, you said you actually weren’t aware of the Grimes thing earlier this year. Had you held discussion for longer, I’m certain someone would have brought it up, and also goes to show that Alt+H isn’t very active on twitter: I’m not either, but it was impossible to miss. If you’re going to do initiatives on platforms, it stands to reason that you should have folks who are native to those platforms, and can advise you how to proceed. To not do that is setting yourself up for failure.

4) Re emotional exhaustion, which was your first point: species dysphoria is not a kind topic. Writing about it, especially when your foundation is so negative, is absolutely exhausting. There’s a reason I don’t really do it unless asked directly. There was absolutely no acknowledgement that people would have this issue (again, how was this not brought up in discussion before posting?) and no support was linked in advance. It was a clear “show up, tell these people who don’t care and have no reason to not be utterly cruel to you about the things that hurt you the most, boost others’ misery and posts about it, and then uhhhh have fun I guess”. That is incredibly ill-thought-out, and kind of obvious.

5) Which means I have to ask something that should have been one of the first questions you asked yourself(ves?) when you proposed this idea: what, Mercy of the Fire tell, did you expect to happen? Did you expect rainbows and sunshine and pulling the movie from the box office and apologies from the director? Obviously not. Did you expect to just be ignored? Did you expect the Washington Post to apologize? Did you expect to be shut down and mocked? Genuine question, because “worst case / best case / most likely scenario” is an essential part of drafting up any sort of initiative where you’re getting people to do things. The fact that this was evidently not asked is a glaring issue, and if I can get you to listen to a second piece of advice from me, even if just two (the first is obviously point #1, deal with that first please and thanks), is that you need more planning when you’re doing things like this. This was not enough.

6) This is slightly related, but you mentioned that you expected people to stop and read through interviews and journal posts before making calls, and I want to know… where have you been on the internet where everyone does that. Actually, where have you been that more than about 15% of people do that. That’s a bias you should have known and accounted for from the start, because people will read headlines and that’s about it. Sensationalism and out-of-context-headlines and half-true ideas are what the internet runs on. I’m not sure how you didn’t notice that one, and I don’t mean to insult you, I genuinely don’t, but you need to start accounting for that. You can make it work for you, but you have to acknowledge it first.

And finally, your two big questions.

1) I said we don’t have any power to say literally nobody is going to take us seriously. Because they have no reason to. We are the internet’s punching bag when we’re relevant, and entirely forgotten about when we’re not. What makes you think you can take on the Washington Post and all these big-shot journals when they don’t think cis trans or gay people should be treated with any humanity? We don’t have any power because the only ways to get it are to break things until people listen, or be respectful enough someone decides to give it to us. We will never be the latter, and I will not be apart of any respectability politics that the latter requires. We don’t have the numbers for the former. Right now, we’re mentally ill people who need to be fixed at best in their eyes, and at worst we’re transphobic jokes and should be stripped of human rights because of what we believe ourselves to be. How do you intend on changing that mindset in people who won’t change it for cis gays or anyone who isn’t a fucking Christian, who are leading the charge in terms of privilege among marginization? You aimed way, way too big, and it’s going to fail about as hard, if we’re lucky, and harder if we’re not.

As for how to change that? Simply put, we’re not. That isn’t me being pessimistic, that’s me being realistic. If there is a time when you’ll be able to change your legal species and retain your human rights, or have neopronouns on your driver’s license, it’s decades off at best, and will require a lot more work. We’re not going to get the Washington Post to respect us. Best case scenario, those journalists didn’t even see the comments. Because if they did, the odds are against them being charitable about it. We’re too damn weird. We’re beyond teenagers using neopronouns, which are also very weird (regardless of what I personally think of that, it’s still weird to society at large). There’s no changing it, not that high.

To change it at all? Ally ourselves with furries, maybe. They’ve got financial power and a chokehold on the IT industry. Or go up to academia and fund their studies. I recall one of Alt+H’s original goals was to fund studies. Being able to cite those would go a long way into being able to say “we’re here, we exist, and you’re going to damn well acknowledge it”.

2) How do we strike a balance between bringing up issues and not making everyone hate being alterhuman?

This is a question that I think you should’ve asked right when you made the organization. Although, to be fair, this does seem to be the first community initiative, so it’s understandable why it got missed until now.

Be a positive force, so that when it’s time to have to be serious and negative and stir up the community, people actually want to work with you to see the goals complete. Give us more notice for things like this, for one. Don’t just “oh write essays right now” us, more like “ayyy therianthropy day’s in a month, we’ll be holding a raffle for this cool sticker set, five bucks for a ticket to fund studies, and if you want more than so many tickets, you get an extra one for every piece of personal writing or art you do over 500 words / 20 minutes of work that you also tag us in!”.

People ask a lot on what to write, because they don’t know where to start, and yet the 30 Day Otherkin Challenge is still popular. Maybe host several prompt lists and personal challenges on your website, and link them frequently on your socials so people know they exist. Boost zines and surveys and whatnot and be a community hub, so that folks know you, and they like you, and when it’s time to do stuff, word actually gets out.

Do more positive stuff, and get people happy to do this sort of stuff. Simple as that, really, and there’s so many ways to go about it that aren’t mutually exclusive that I’m sure your organization could come up with some really good ones, given a week or two to brainstorm.

- The bestialist thing is really concerning, so the sooner something is said about that, the better. I don’t go on twitter for a damn thing, and that’s because of how the environment is. If these people are using alt+h tags to promote animal abuse, twitter is probably the worst place I can think of for that to be widely seen. As an organization you should be horrified by that, as much if not more than an offensive movie.

You're not the only one who's expressed serious concerns about the bestialists, and it's the most consistent criticism I've seen so far: that needs to be addressed, the sooner the better. If one thing is taken away from any of us, I want it to be that. Address it.

And honestly, my idea of prompts was halfway inspired by you (I want to slam out some prompts tomorrow after a website update I do, they're very good and I know eventually I'll open up about the pure, honest shitshow that's my Luteia kintype), and also that I have like... four different prompt posts in my drafts, waiting for me to have time to answer them. Someone going up and gathering them all in one place would be majorly helpful when I tell people to write essays and they immediately go "but about what".

cc @a-dragons-journal @spiritus-sonne @shadowfae, come get y’all juice.

1) You didn't actually address this at any point, which automatically puts it at the top of the list. I said, and it was actually brought to my attention a couple days ago in a server from folks more on twitter, but your hashtag was already co-opted by bestialists (LycanTheory is the big one, but I know there's been at least two) trying to push the narrative that therianthropy is inherently linked to bestiality, which it isn't. Alt+H also remains one of the few big spaces for alterhumanity that hasn't addressed this problem whatsoever, and they clearly think you're allies. These people need to be convicted and put in prison for animal abuse. You need to make it clear, before anything else right now, that they are not welcome in your spaces. By neglecting to do so, you are making it unsafe to be in your spaces if you're not pro-bestiality. Now, if I'm wrong and you actually want that, I'd like to know, because I'm under the optimistic impression that you don't. Either way, make that clear. It's not a question that should be left unanswered, especially right now.

2) It was brought to my attention that you opened discussion for this initiative for a total of two hours before posting. That is... unreasonably fast. I've worked and managed projects before, and for smaller projects I would have given no less than 48 hours before even drafting the post. I'm not a part of Alt+H, but I find it hard to believe you didn't have a single person who was either a) asleep or b) at work, who didn't have the chance to give any input. Every single criticism and critique that I've seen (barring most made today, since I've been very busy) were obvious ones that I'd be very surprised wouldn't have been brought up if this were thoroughly discussed. It's obvious that it wasn't, and that's a serious issue as well.

3) Furthermore on that point, you said you actually weren't aware of the Grimes thing earlier this year. Had you held discussion for longer, I'm certain someone would have brought it up, and also goes to show that Alt+H isn't very active on twitter: I'm not either, but it was impossible to miss. If you're going to do initiatives on platforms, it stands to reason that you should have folks who are native to those platforms, and can advise you how to proceed. To not do that is setting yourself up for failure.

4) Re emotional exhaustion, which was your first point: species dysphoria is not a kind topic. Writing about it, especially when your foundation is so negative, is absolutely exhausting. There's a reason I don't really do it unless asked directly. There was absolutely no acknowledgement that people would have this issue (again, how was this not brought up in discussion before posting?) and no support was linked in advance. It was a clear "show up, tell these people who don't care and have no reason to not be utterly cruel to you about the things that hurt you the most, boost others' misery and posts about it, and then uhhhh have fun I guess". That is incredibly ill-thought-out, and kind of obvious.

5) Which means I have to ask something that should have been one of the first questions you asked yourself(ves?) when you proposed this idea: what, Mercy of the Fire tell, did you expect to happen? Did you expect rainbows and sunshine and pulling the movie from the box office and apologies from the director? Obviously not. Did you expect to just be ignored? Did you expect the Washington Post to apologize? Did you expect to be shut down and mocked? Genuine question, because "worst case / best case / most likely scenario" is an essential part of drafting up any sort of initiative where you're getting people to do things. The fact that this was evidently not asked is a glaring issue, and if I can get you to listen to a second piece of advice from me, even if just two (the first is obviously point #1, deal with that first please and thanks), is that you need more planning when you're doing things like this. This was not enough.

6) This is slightly related, but you mentioned that you expected people to stop and read through interviews and journal posts before making calls, and I want to know... where have you been on the internet where everyone does that. Actually, where have you been that more than about 15% of people do that. That's a bias you should have known and accounted for from the start, because people will read headlines and that's about it. Sensationalism and out-of-context-headlines and half-true ideas are what the internet runs on. I'm not sure how you didn't notice that one, and I don't mean to insult you, I genuinely don't, but you need to start accounting for that. You can make it work for you, but you have to acknowledge it first.

And finally, your two big questions.

1) I said we don't have any power to say literally nobody is going to take us seriously. Because they have no reason to. We are the internet's punching bag when we're relevant, and entirely forgotten about when we're not. What makes you think you can take on the Washington Post and all these big-shot journals when they don't think cis trans or gay people should be treated with any humanity? We don't have any power because the only ways to get it are to break things until people listen, or be respectful enough someone decides to give it to us. We will never be the latter, and I will not be apart of any respectability politics that the latter requires. We don't have the numbers for the former. Right now, we're mentally ill people who need to be fixed at best in their eyes, and at worst we're transphobic jokes and should be stripped of human rights because of what we believe ourselves to be. How do you intend on changing that mindset in people who won't change it for cis gays or anyone who isn't a fucking Christian, who are leading the charge in terms of privilege among marginization? You aimed way, way too big, and it's going to fail about as hard, if we're lucky, and harder if we're not.

As for how to change that? Simply put, we're not. That isn't me being pessimistic, that's me being realistic. If there is a time when you'll be able to change your legal species and retain your human rights, or have neopronouns on your driver's license, it's decades off at best, and will require a lot more work. We're not going to get the Washington Post to respect us. Best case scenario, those journalists didn't even see the comments. Because if they did, the odds are against them being charitable about it. We're too damn weird. We're beyond teenagers using neopronouns, which are also very weird (regardless of what I personally think of that, it's still weird to society at large). There's no changing it, not that high.

To change it at all? Ally ourselves with furries, maybe. They've got financial power and a chokehold on the IT industry. Or go up to academia and fund their studies. I recall one of Alt+H's original goals was to fund studies. Being able to cite those would go a long way into being able to say "we're here, we exist, and you're going to damn well acknowledge it".

2) How do we strike a balance between bringing up issues and not making everyone hate being alterhuman?

This is a question that I think you should've asked right when you made the organization. Although, to be fair, this does seem to be the first community initiative, so it's understandable why it got missed until now.

Be a positive force, so that when it's time to have to be serious and negative and stir up the community, people actually want to work with you to see the goals complete. Give us more notice for things like this, for one. Don't just "oh write essays right now" us, more like "ayyy therianthropy day's in a month, we'll be holding a raffle for this cool sticker set, five bucks for a ticket to fund studies, and if you want more than so many tickets, you get an extra one for every piece of personal writing or art you do over 500 words / 20 minutes of work that you also tag us in!".

People ask a lot on what to write, because they don't know where to start, and yet the 30 Day Otherkin Challenge is still popular. Maybe host several prompt lists and personal challenges on your website, and link them frequently on your socials so people know they exist. Boost zines and surveys and whatnot and be a community hub, so that folks know you, and they like you, and when it's time to do stuff, word actually gets out.

Do more positive stuff, and get people happy to do this sort of stuff. Simple as that, really, and there's so many ways to go about it that aren't mutually exclusive that I'm sure your organization could come up with some really good ones, given a week or two to brainstorm.

I haven't advertised here in a minute and this was as good a time as any to do that. So, for anyone who hasn't seen it - or saw it before and forgot to jump on it then - Fictionkind is a Dreamwidth community that exists for all fictionally identified individuals and systems. Not just 'kin and 'kind, but fictives, fictionhearted, soulbonds and their hosts, fictherians, fictionflickerers- really, you name it. If a fictional species, person, or world has significantly impacted or altered your identity, you're welcome there.

More about it can be read here, which is required to see and agree to before you even join. If it suits your fancy then get in here and liven up the place! Right now we're very prompt-oriented and we need way more than that. Even the content that you think is cringe or annoying is 100% wanted.