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ferineCurrently the term "animal people" is a hot topic in "therian" circles. Folks are doing their damnedest to concisely define it. Can't have a vague, ambiguous term running amok; must define it to death, break it like a wild horse, render it controlled.
It would further amuse and annoy me if they were to do the same with "animal folk", though I invented the term three or four years ago [EDIT--5 years ago, following Reemul's death] to simply refer to animal people. And I feel comfortable using "animal people" because it bears no concrete definition. To me I am an animal person, one of the animal folk. I'm not one of the modern argumentative, over-defined, every-kink-in-existence-obsessed, often ill-researched, and predominantly young "therians".
The current "therianthropy" movement on-line was hijacked in late 1996 by two questionable choads who had their start in alt.horror.werewolves, the Usenet newsgroup. Because they failed to acquire the lemming fan base they desired there, they went on the make the leading websites/forums on therianthropy out there. Well, one of the sites, and arguably still the most popular, was adopted by one of the hijackers when the original moderator gave it away. Recently it switched hands again, yet it's still under the thumb of one of the two hijackers and controlled by the lemmings they've groomed over the years.
Why the hijacking? Why their success? Why their continued popularity? Why are those with dissenting points of view or different opinions ostracized or ignored/covered up?
The hijacking was spurred by a bruised ego. For hijacker #1, they made a fool of themselves when they entered alt.horror. werewolves in 1995; particularly on a.h.ww's IRC server at the time. I'm certainly not the only one who can attest to this (remember the Space Vampires poised to 'pave' over the Earth,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
blackpaws?). The problem? We were too nice to them. We did not hurl abuses, or even question their claims. We were cordial, though disbelieving. Live and let live, no big deal. They seemed to catch on after awhile, and rejoined the newsgroup a year later under a new name--complete with a new history and a new phenotype, and a new shiny therianthropy page with forums, 'definitive' essays--bells and whistles. A year later their history changed again, as did their now blended phenotype. Their popularity surged as theirs was the only highly promoted therianthropy website with 'authority' on the subject. Only their 'authority', of course, and a few of their friends. No other, older, animal folk, regardless of how sound their ideas, where included in the 'authoritative' essays at their self-crafted terms, names, and definitions.
So with a snarky, aggressive new attitude to accompany the latest blended phenotype, they surged in a popularity not achieved in the beginning on a.h.ww.
The other hijacker also had a bruised ego and, while seemingly humble and altruistic at the onset of rescuing what had become the most famous therianthropy site on the web, their true colors began to show. It became an ego trip, a chance to be seen as the authority on the subject, and to assert this persona on newcomers.
It's no coincidence that the hijackers are good friends. It's no coincidence that they work together on sites. It's no coincidence that of their LJ friends, neither have more than two from a.h.ww who knew of their pre-website popular personas. Why does this matter? According to hijacker #2, they're an open book. They supposedly wish to remain in contact with all of the "gray muzzles". If one looks, we're not hard to find on LJ.
To me it seems that the hijackers prefer a more impressionable flock, ones they can imprint on. They don't want pesky people who knew them from before hanging about, questioning their 'authority'.
And so, those outside their cult of on-line personality who attempt to offer different ideas about therianthropy, minus the reams of terminology, charts, and similar nonsense so readily bandied about so readily, are driven off and labeled "a danger to the ('therian') community", or blackballed from every site or community listing supposedly every site there is on therian/were/animal people.
It effects me when I would like to offer some of these newcomers different ideas, or to at least let them know there are other places out there. By the same token, I wouldn't want to succumb to their lust for illusory on-line power or the ego-feeding machinations of their industries. They can have them.
Another big-wig has appeared on the scene more recently, with self-promotional guns a-blazin' and a blind eye toward the on-line history of animal people or anyone once involved in it (save for hijacker #1, curiously, though in hijaccker #1's community they expressed dislike of the new kid on the block -- go figure). I'll get to them later.
It would further amuse and annoy me if they were to do the same with "animal folk", though I invented the term three or four years ago [EDIT--5 years ago, following Reemul's death] to simply refer to animal people. And I feel comfortable using "animal people" because it bears no concrete definition. To me I am an animal person, one of the animal folk. I'm not one of the modern argumentative, over-defined, every-kink-in-existence-obsessed, often ill-researched, and predominantly young "therians".
The current "therianthropy" movement on-line was hijacked in late 1996 by two questionable choads who had their start in alt.horror.werewolves, the Usenet newsgroup. Because they failed to acquire the lemming fan base they desired there, they went on the make the leading websites/forums on therianthropy out there. Well, one of the sites, and arguably still the most popular, was adopted by one of the hijackers when the original moderator gave it away. Recently it switched hands again, yet it's still under the thumb of one of the two hijackers and controlled by the lemmings they've groomed over the years.
Why the hijacking? Why their success? Why their continued popularity? Why are those with dissenting points of view or different opinions ostracized or ignored/covered up?
The hijacking was spurred by a bruised ego. For hijacker #1, they made a fool of themselves when they entered alt.horror. werewolves in 1995; particularly on a.h.ww's IRC server at the time. I'm certainly not the only one who can attest to this (remember the Space Vampires poised to 'pave' over the Earth,
blackpaws?). The problem? We were too nice to them. We did not hurl abuses, or even question their claims. We were cordial, though disbelieving. Live and let live, no big deal. They seemed to catch on after awhile, and rejoined the newsgroup a year later under a new name--complete with a new history and a new phenotype, and a new shiny therianthropy page with forums, 'definitive' essays--bells and whistles. A year later their history changed again, as did their now blended phenotype. Their popularity surged as theirs was the only highly promoted therianthropy website with 'authority' on the subject. Only their 'authority', of course, and a few of their friends. No other, older, animal folk, regardless of how sound their ideas, where included in the 'authoritative' essays at their self-crafted terms, names, and definitions.So with a snarky, aggressive new attitude to accompany the latest blended phenotype, they surged in a popularity not achieved in the beginning on a.h.ww.
The other hijacker also had a bruised ego and, while seemingly humble and altruistic at the onset of rescuing what had become the most famous therianthropy site on the web, their true colors began to show. It became an ego trip, a chance to be seen as the authority on the subject, and to assert this persona on newcomers.
It's no coincidence that the hijackers are good friends. It's no coincidence that they work together on sites. It's no coincidence that of their LJ friends, neither have more than two from a.h.ww who knew of their pre-website popular personas. Why does this matter? According to hijacker #2, they're an open book. They supposedly wish to remain in contact with all of the "gray muzzles". If one looks, we're not hard to find on LJ.
To me it seems that the hijackers prefer a more impressionable flock, ones they can imprint on. They don't want pesky people who knew them from before hanging about, questioning their 'authority'.
And so, those outside their cult of on-line personality who attempt to offer different ideas about therianthropy, minus the reams of terminology, charts, and similar nonsense so readily bandied about so readily, are driven off and labeled "a danger to the ('therian') community", or blackballed from every site or community listing supposedly every site there is on therian/were/animal people.
It effects me when I would like to offer some of these newcomers different ideas, or to at least let them know there are other places out there. By the same token, I wouldn't want to succumb to their lust for illusory on-line power or the ego-feeding machinations of their industries. They can have them.
Another big-wig has appeared on the scene more recently, with self-promotional guns a-blazin' and a blind eye toward the on-line history of animal people or anyone once involved in it (save for hijacker #1, curiously, though in hijaccker #1's community they expressed dislike of the new kid on the block -- go figure). I'll get to them later.