Identify unmet needs in the community

[Meirya]

Weird, I replied to this yesterday but it never processed, I guess!
Anyway - yes, I think involvement of the original poster would be very important indeed. Working without them to edit their work would be questionable, ethically ( I think), and would probably create more confusion than it solved.
What I mean to propose is a source for people who want their work polished up externally - it would be on the original writer to say, "Hey, I want this fixed up so it communicates better!"

Basically like a beta reading network, but for essays instead of fanfic? The fandom community has this sort of thing down to a science; it's considered ideal to have someone beta your story before posting it. If we got that same sort of norm in place for essays and articles on otherkin and therianthropy, that would be really awesome.

In fandom, typically people post on community sites (ie, LJ comms) requesting a beta reader. There are also resources for finding beta readers or listing your availability as a beta reader at archive sites like fanfiction.net. Can we copy that model somehow?

I know I'd really appreciate such a resource. When I want feedback or revision assistance with articles, mostly I just post them on my Dreamwidth/Livejournal first and ask people there, which is... not exactly in-depth editing, heh!

I rather enjoy beta reading/copy editing and would be up for volunteering, as well.

[cheetah]

That would be nice. And useful; I sometimes try the same thing but frequently I don't get much critical feedback.

[yourdeer]

Basically like a beta reading network, but for essays instead of fanfic? The fandom community has this sort of thing down to a science; it's considered ideal to have someone beta your story before posting it. If we got that same sort of norm in place for essays and articles on otherkin and therianthropy, that would be really awesome.

In fandom, typically people post on community sites (ie, LJ comms) requesting a beta reader. There are also resources for finding beta readers or listing your availability as a beta reader at archive sites like fanfiction.net. Can we copy that model somehow?

I know I'd really appreciate such a resource. When I want feedback or revision assistance with articles, mostly I just post them on my Dreamwidth/Livejournal first and ask people there, which is... not exactly in-depth editing, heh!

I rather enjoy beta reading/copy editing and would be up for volunteering, as well.

That sounds perfect! Wow. Yes. How can we go about organizing that as an available resource?

[Meirya]

That sounds perfect! Wow. Yes. How can we go about organizing that as an available resource?

I think a forum section or LJ/DW community would be ideal. It needs to be something where people can post requests for beta readers, and where beta readers can post availabilities. I don't think it'd work so well if it required one or two people to maintain a list - there's a lag time there and it'd be difficult to maintain the frequent changes.

[Savage]

I think a forum section or LJ/DW community would be ideal. It needs to be something where people can post requests for beta readers, and where beta readers can post availabilities. I don't think it'd work so well if it required one or two people to maintain a list - there's a lag time there and it'd be difficult to maintain the frequent changes.

We do have a Writer's Workshop here that can be used, though a large part of its purpose is ESL volunteer tutoring as well as volunteer proofreading. PM any staffer for an invite as it's invite only.

[Meirya]

Just a thought - I made other-writings on DW and LJ a while back but they haven't gotten any real use... I could easily retool them for people to use to find beta readers and/or volunteer for such, if that works for folks?

[elinox]

Just a thought - I made other-writings on DW and LJ a while back but they haven't gotten any real use... I could easily retool them for people to use to find beta readers and/or volunteer for such, if that works for folks?

Sounds good, do you have a link?

EDIT: Nevermind, I think I found it. This is it, correct?

[KorolKhaysen]

There is a Otherkin Spanish Site you could work with. "Otherkin Hispano" is the name of the site. They probably will look forward into translating the stuff you throw at them and it's also the most influential hispanic site related to theriantropy.
If I'm not wrong the URL is "www.otherkin-hispano.foroactivo.com". You should try to contact "Golden Goddess", the site owner. She is usually online and she tends to reply quickly.
They have a great otherkin database so you are likely going to find worthy stuff..

I apologize for not offering myself to help you with translation. I'm dip in a dark moment and my mood is not good enought to keep on a project.

[KorolKhaysen]

What about a website (or whatever) aiming to promote true friendship? That's what I've been looking for since I started using internet and as far I only got one true friend, wich I met accidentally in Youtube.

There is people (like me) who usually doesn't feel to belong to ANY community for unknown reasons (as my case). May be if I was able to find a place filled with people with the same goal than me... people willing to relate and meet others above everything...

I would like at someone would ever ask something about me... I've met hundreds of people on internet and the ones who at least asked my name were just a few.

A unconditional friend at your side is the best cure for everything.

[ShadowWalker]

Personally, the thing I found lacking in the community when I first joined was any kind of community focused on the 'youth'. And although that's not best for our image necessarily, a lot of younger therians do end up on cyberpacks and the like, which typically aren't the best places for people starting out. It's true that most therians will move onto larger sites as they get older, if they stick with it, but sometimes you do need help, or assistance, or just someone to listen to you when you're going through the awkward teenage years combined with therianthropy and species dysphoria. I am aware that this is probably available through your groups, it was more that large forums seemed too intimidating, I never felt like anybody wanted to listen, or that problems weren't anything that hadn't already been discussed a million times before. I think this is why teenagers tend to flock to cyberpacks in hundreds, there's something of a 'say what you want' atmosphere which admittedly, wouldn't suit larger communities and also wouldn't give a good impression of us to the outside world, but it did help me a lot. I don't think I really have any ideas how it could be remedied, aside from good, strong guidance within those cyberpacks. There's an allure to them which tends to draw posers, a lot of them advocate physical shifting and openly discuss topics which would be ridiculed and shut down on other sites (The 'I'm a magical shapeshifting into whatever I want vampire-werewolf-demon and have been hunted by therian hunters who shot at me and physically shift in my sleep' topics are suprisingly common and suprisingly allowed.)

I'd be really interested in getting experienced beta readers, considering that I'm currently using beta readers at the moment.

And also, for someone who isn't involved in the offline community like myself, I'd really appreciate a mailing list of updates in the community, meetups round the world and the like. I know it's possible to find out these things online, but sometimes it's weeks or months before I hear of the latest news, and I still have no idea if EuroHowl runs anymore (does it?).

Again, personally I'd find it really useful if there was a single resource detailing all of the audio/visual appearances of therians in the media, primarily radio, although I suppose there are a few clips too. Not necessarily on YouTube, but on a similar file sharing or video sharing site, under one account. Even a resource somewhere linking to downloads of media would be useful, or easier than hunting about, although I suppose sometimes it's preferred for people to look about themselves. Just an idea.