#so copinglinkers have just become kind of a scapegoat for that

[a-dragons-explanations]

1. why is it bad to use kin as a verb? its a shorter variant of “i feel related to this character but not in a copinglink way because …” or is “my kintype is” a better variant?

In brief, because using it as a verb implies action and choice - “kinning” sounds like something you do, not something you are. Which wouldn’t really be a big deal, except that it confuses people new to the community and makes them misunderstand what otherkinity is. Which then perpetuates the problem, since that leads to people thinking “kinning” is basically just roleplay. (And lest this sound like a strawman, it’s something I’ve seen happen over and over and over again firsthand.)

2. how did copinglinkers,, ruin the community? as i understand copinglinkers fall under the kin umbrella so how?

Copinglinkers don’t fall under the ‘kin umbrella, no, but they also didn’t “ruin the community” and anyone claiming they did is... I don’t know, probably conflating them with “kin for fun” people because people see “voluntary identity” and think it’s automatically “less real” than the involuntary one of otherkinity? It’s an extremely hypocritical claim, in my opinion; copinglinkers did exactly what we’re asking “kin for fun” people to do - made their own terminology to avoid misusing ours.

3. and another one how did teenagers that just kin for fun ruin a 60 year old community?

Again, this goes back to the fact that it makes people misunderstand what otherkinity is. What we’ve ended up with, in a lot of spaces, is that the majority of people who’ve heard of “kin” in the first place think it’s a) a meme/joke, b) roleplay, c) comfort characters/characters you relate to and project onto, or d) some combination of the above.

And then when you have more and more people using “kinning” language to mean those things, they start drowning out actual otherkin. It becomes harder and harder to find each other and communicate clearly about our experiences - when someone says they “kin” a character, I no longer know immediately if they mean they are that character or they just like that character.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say they’ve “ruined the community,” but it is harmful and, frankly, disrespectful to walk into a small community, look at their identity terms, and then use them in a blatantly incorrect way and cry “gatekeeping” when someone tries to correct you.

There exist other words for what “kin for fun” people are experiencing and doing - roleplay, comfort characters, relating to, projecting to, etc. There aren’t other words for otherkinity. We made these words because words didn’t exist to describe our identities and experiences, and to have them taken away from us is harmful because it’s making it almost impossible to talk about our experiences clearly. While there are some people who find the otherkin community through “kin for fun” spaces, I have no doubt there are a lot of others who are struggling or not being able to find us through the misinformation.

(And then you inevitably get the steadily growing proportion of “kin for fun” people who look at actual otherkin and say “you ACTUALLY think you’re an animal? you’re crazy/delusional/etc, get away from me, you’re the ones making the community look bad” ...despite the fact that we’re the ones who originated the words they’re misusing. Which, no, I’m absolutely not claiming that “kin for fun” people are the reason antikin exist; antikin predate them by a long shot - but it makes a difference when antikin rhetoric is suddenly coming from people and spaces that look at first glance like they’re inside the community, and thus that otherkin are going into expecting to be safe from that. It’s a lot harder to avoid or brush off the hate and bullying when it’s coming from what looks to be “inside”.)

And again - I’m absolutely not claiming that “kin for fun” people are the reason antikin exist, and I haven’t actually seen anyone making that claim - if anything, “kin for fun” people are far more palatable to antikin than actual otherkin are. Even if that weren’t true, that’s a flawed argument for the same reason that “otherkin are making transgender people look bad” is a flawed argument - transphobes will find a reason to be transphobic, antikin will find a reason to be antikin. (...Because this is Tumblr: please don’t take this as me equating the two in severity or anything, for the record, I’m just making a comparison in the rhetoric.)

This has gotten long; I’m sure there are other points to be made, but they should mostly be present in my “kin as a verb” tag if you want to scroll through that at some point. Hopefully this explains some of the logic on this side of the fence, as it were?

also if someone is actually willing to explain this to me without using language shown in my last post please explain

1. why is it bad to use kin as a verb? its a shorter variant of "i feel related to this character but not in a copinglink way because ..." or is "my kintype is" a better variant?

2. how did copinglinkers,, ruin the community? as i understand copinglinkers fall under the kin umbrella so how?

3. and an another one how did teenagers that just kin for fun ruin a 60 year old community?

because i feel since this community probably went through a lot, some people using words wrongly/etc wouldnt ruin it entirely. sure therell be misinformation but like...a teenager that uses kin as a verb isnt the reason people bully otherkin, serious or not. they dont care if people do it seriously or for fun. they will make fun of it anyway. so... uh yeah please explain /gen