Project Shift

I finally got around to finishing up some refinements to the site, after Aethyriek and I got about 11 articles/essays added onto there two or three weeks ago.  We didn't have an actual categorization system for the pages when it came to uploading them, so I went through today and made folders for the three main categories and updated links (including navigation links) based on those changes; though it's possible I may have missed something and didn't properly change a link or few, so if anyone catches one of those errors, let me know so I can fix it.  The Resources page has many more links on it now, and its own categories, with more links planned to of course be added later.  There are still some minor tweaks that need to be made to the site, like some of the boxes/modules that are empty, and those will be changed after we either figure out what to put in them or decide on some other specific use for them other than what they are currently titled with.  Also, the contributors list has been updated accordingly to reflect the authors who gave us permission to post their article(s); and another thanks to them all for that : ).  Plus, I mentioned on the index page that Project Shift is not "under construction" anymore, because I feel we've built it up enough, and gotten enough articles on it now that it's primarily going to be normal, casual updates at this point--so a big "woot" in celebration there xD.

After I gather up another list of more materials and information that we're still seeking, I'll post it here.

I finally finished it, after giving myself more than enough time to sort through my thoughts on it and decide exactly what I wanted to include in it.  Turns out though, about half of it is new material that I typed specifically for the essay and the other half is made up of paragraphs pulled directly from my posts on a Werelist thread about becoming a therian, considering I had some good parts of my thoughts and argument laid out in that thread.  I think this maybe best in the Community section of the site because although it could fit in the Therianthropy or Introspection sections, it's primarily aimed at the community in general and has to do with community standards and stigma about the topic.  As usual, feedback is welcome.

( article under cut )

Okay, update from me.  I finally got my Q&A section finished (minus some tweaking and addition I'll do to the 'become a therian' question after I actually get that article finished on the topic), which is pasted below, under cut; and of course more can (and will be) added later on.  I composed a list for my reference of articles and essays from other authors I think would be good on Project Shift, and I will be contacting those people about permission use (likely won't get to all of them this weekend, so it will be a somewhat gradual thing).  At this point, I have 16-20 articles in that list, though I'm unsure how many I will get permission for, and a few I'm thinking we can just link to them in the appropriate section (like Community, Therianthropy, etc.); most I'd rather post the text as opposed to a link.  When I get further along on those permissions I'll either update here or contact Tawn in email about the outcomes.

Some suggestions for the actual PS site:
--the Physical Shifting article citations need to be fixed up, because right now they are odd looking numbers sitting at the end of sentences.  They would probably be best as square bracketed numbers (with or without them linking to the correlating number in the citation section).  Also, it's more practical to have in-text citations made from the same source as being the same number, rather than having the same source taking up multiple numbers in the citation list, and that each different source should be listed by a separate number (thus if a sentence references something from two sources, both/all numbers would be listed within the in-text citation brackets).

--I also think that each category tab should show an article index page (linked to each article under that category) as the main page when the tab is clicked.  The side navigation bar can include some key article links, such as for the Therianthropy section, the "What is Therianthropy?", "Terms and Definitions", and "Types of shifts" (and maybe the Q&A) should probably be kept on that side navigation because they are main, key articles that would probably be some of the most viewed.  The index page for the Therianthropy section can include the remaining (and sidebar links, too) articles that fall under that category.  I'm unsure how exactly to divide that up for the Introspection and Community sections because there's currently nothing in them : / (thus that will have to be figured out later).

--Links need to be added in the Resources section, and I'm working on compiling a list of some and will likely make a separate post for that sometime, of which hopefully some other people will suggest some links to add.

( Question and Answer completed, thus far; feedback is welcome )

Tawn previously posted a list of preferred and also needed types of writings and information for this Project, so while I'm posting anyway, I'm running back over the list and noting what we have so far and what we need (or need more of). 

Completed so far:
~Overview/intro to Project Shift
~Tawn's "What is Therianthropy?" article
~Strill's "Are You a Therian?" article
~Essay on physical shifting (by Tawn)
~Various shifting and therianthropy terms (mainly mine; I'm adding some more in this entry as well)

Needed, preferred, or in the process of being written:
~Introspection on therianthropy and one's particular theriotype(s); advice, explanations of it, techniques, etc.
~Alternate (non-therianthropy) forms of animality, animal connections, and animal spirituality (totemism, daemonism, personal symbolism, etc.; these could be written in separate articles, or any/all of them combined in a single article, depending on how the author(s) want to go about it)
~'Shifter's Disease'
~Advice on sharing with family, friends, and other people
~The therian community--interactions in it, advice, its changes and developments over time, etc.
~'Becoming a Therian' (I'm currently working on this one, whenever I can finish it up to a satisfactory extent)
~Question & Answer or an "FAQ" (I have some questions listed in this entry for it, and feedback for some more is encouraged; I, or with others too, need to finish writing answers for the questions)
~Purpose and problems of using therian labels and definitions (I might try to write that one sometime)
~Various possible origins/causes of therianthropy
~And other essays of advice, therian-related information, or personal experiences that contributing authors would like to share on Project Shift

In that latter section, the ones not written or completed yet, I feel that we need to only finish a few of them before Project Shift should be ready to go online and public on its site, and from there those articles and information can be added to with more writings, little by little.  I'd love to see this project in the next few months or less to make that step into the information being on the site for it and thus beyond just this LJ community, although we need to still at that point maintain this LJ group and encourage people on the PS site itself and other places to make more contributions of information and writing for the site so that it can grow further.  We need to take PS from a concept and gathering of potential articles, to having it officially go online and public, to be developed and built further after that; but I think we're still a few writings/articles short of that right now.

Onto some ideas and Q&A things I've thought to put in articles:

 

( Questions and Answers )

 

A few more definitions I wrote (and I can also make short, concise ones for more quick reference parts of the site):

( More definitions )

 

And also, at some point I wrote up some paragraphs of more information on Project Shift, which can be used on the site if desired:

 

( further Project Shift info )

Title: Are You A Therian?
About: Basic essay on therianthropy, what is it, and what it isn't.
Keywords: therianthropy, definition, informative


( Are You A Therian? )

I dunno if an introduction is really necessary, but whatever.

Some of you may recognize me from Werelist, I went by "corvus corone" over there. I've also been known as Adagio and carrioncrowx, and from wayyy back in good ol' days, you may remember me as Hesperus or Hephaestus. Yep... I change names a lot.

Anywayyy. I've always kinda wanted to start a therianthropy site geared towards informing new people about the terms and introspection and all that, simply because there wasn't a really good "newbie" resource when I first started learning about therianthropy *shrug*

If I can help out in any way, let me know. If not, I look forward to seeing this get all set up and running :)

Considering the notable lack of decent places to go and look up therianthropy terms anymore, and that the few left that can be dug up somewhere online are generally way oversimplified or outdated, I ended up writing these definitions a few months ago for someone else who was looking for presentable definitions to put on a therianthropy information site.  So, I decided that maybe they could prove useful for Project Shift.  Also, if anyone has any other therianthropy terms they'd like to see defined for this project, you can mention them here, and if I don't feel comfortable or otherwise interested enough in writing a definition for one (or more) of them I'll let you all know and it/they can be added to a list of definitions needing to be written.