Okay, hopefully this isnāt out of my lane as someone whoās not a ālinker myself, but something thatās been annoying me for a long time and Iām seeing it more and more in the tags -
āKin for funā is not copinglinking/otherlinking either. Otherlinking is also serious and is also identify-as - itās just voluntarily formed.
If what someoneās doing is roleplay, itās not otherlinking.
If what theyāre doing is comfort characters, itās not otherlinking.
If what theyāre doing is relating to a character without actually identifying asĀ that character, itās not otherlinking.
I know weāre all really, reallyĀ tired of people misusingĀ ākin language to mean those things, but thatās not an excuse to tell them to misuse someone elseās language instead - when we do that, weāre throwing ālinkers under the bus in exactly the way weāre asking non-ākin notĀ to do to us.
The only difference between ākin and ālinking is that one is involuntary and the other is consciously, voluntarily formed - theyāre both serious, theyāre both identify-as, and neither of them should be conflated with roleplay or relating to/projecting onto or comfort characters.
That being said - apparently thereās a term I wasnāt familiar with before someone told me about it while writing this post, funlink,Ā which isĀ in factĀ āchoosing a nonhuman identity for funā and may fit - I donāt know how popular the term is, but it exists if you want to use it. (That being saidā¦ itās still identify-as. If you donāt identify as the thing, you probably donāt fit under that either, I would assume.)
In addition to that, otherheartedness/kith/synpaths areā¦ generally more important and serious than people make them out to be when theyāre giving KFF (kin-for-fun) people alternative words to use. The point of theĀ āhearted, kith, and synpath labels are to sayĀ āthis isnāt me, but it is important to my sense of self nonethelessā.Ā Again, if itās just something youāre doing for fun and can drop at any given moment with no consequences, itāsā¦ probably not āheartdness/kith/synpath either. Those arenāt things that you do for fun.
And yes,Ā I understand that there areĀ cases in which these fit. Usually thatās when people are saying theyāreĀ ākin to copeā orĀ ākinningā but notĀ ākin for funā - if the experiences someone is describing doĀ fit the definitions ofĀ ālinker orĀ āhearted or whatever else, then pleaseĀ point them that direction! My point is not that it never applies and we should never suggest it - just that when we do, we need to clearly state that these are still identify-as (forĀ ālinking) and serious, genuinely important things (both), not treat them like theyāreĀ āfor funā and less important or real than otherkinity.
If the words that apply are roleplay, comfort characters, and relating to/projecting onto characters, and it goes no deeper than that and isnāt genuinely important to your sense of self, thenĀ those are the words that should be used.Ā Not otherlinker/copinglinker if itās not identify-as, notĀ āhearted/kith/synpath if itās not genuinely important to who you are. Donāt encourage people to misuse another groupās language because you want them to stop misusing ours.
EDITED: altered phrasing on the otherheartedness paragraph; someone pointed out the original phrasing kind of implied otherheartedness wasnātĀ usually as serious asĀ ākin/ālinking, which was the opposite of my intention.
