Therianthropy

The Therian Guide is a website and community that holds information on a variety of views of Therianthropy. The website was originally created by Euipoi.

History

The site was created on May 23, 2010, with the original forum being rebooted on May 15th, 2014.

Upon its reopening, the administrators were BlackWolf and DustWolf, although later BlackWolf left the community and DustWolf stepped down to be Tech Support, and LycanTheory and Calico were assigned as administrators.

On January 30th, 2016, Euipoi gave ownership of the site to DustWolf[1], who later shared ownership of the site with LycanTheory. The Therian Guide is currently the only online Therian community, owned by more than one person.

Guide

The Therian-Guide (www.therian-guide.com) is a website resource, with information regarding therianthropy, the basic concepts and frequently asked questions. The website was originally authored entirely by Euipoi, but has since seen revisions and corrections by the Therian Guide community, to bring it more in line with the common understanding of therianthropy.

The community staff have also looked to outside sources for criticism and additional information of the Guide.[2]

Community

The Therian-Guide community (forums.therian-guide.com) is a forum platform with a live chat feature. It features a lively community of over a thousand different members. The community maintains a friendly, family-like atmosphere[3]. To protect the privacy of the community members, a somewhat long-winded registration and introduction scheme is used, not every new user is granted access, but anyone seriously interested in therianthropy is more than welcome.

The forums do not allow children under the age of 13 to join. Members from 13 to 16 years old are given the same kind of access as older members, however they are visually marked to set them apart from the older members. This is a mechanism used to minimize drama.

The forums feature a positive reward system, that offers perks to active community contributors. Helpful long-term contributors are awarded stats to set them apart visually. The most helpful contributors have access to physical merchandise they can get free of charge[4].

Notable members

Therian Guide has many thousands of registered and active members, but among them are also:

Features

Therian Guide is a website and a forum, but it also has other technical features:

  • Therian Guide user map - allows TG members to put a pin on a map with their approximate location, allowing people to find therian friends nearby anonymously
  • Therian Guide Points Shop - allows active contributors on the forums to direct how the TG donations budget will be spent; currently our active contributors direct most of the money towards animal-related charities
  • Therian Guide Shoutbox, Discord, IRC and Telegram - an instant chat system that allows TG members to chat in Discord, IRC, Telegram or the forums; all the chats are connected
  • Therian Guide Minecraft and Factorio - allows TG members (or their family members) to join in games of Minecraft or Factorio and build the world together
  • Therian Guide Radio - allows TG members to listen to music suggested by other therians, by joining a voice room on Discord; the music plays automatically and suggestions are picked from a forum thread
  • Therian Guide Backgrounds - the TG website and forum feature a daily-changing background page suggested by TG members[5]

Not listed is the "Recommended Reading for your Theriotype" feature, which simply enhances the usability of the forums.

References