What would you like to know?

[Naia]

As I mentioned in today's news post (about how we're no longer in beta!), we are currently working on the 2019 Alterhuman Community Survey. The goal of this survey is to help the community understand itself, as well as to help the public gain some insight into the community. Currently, the basic demographic questions have been added to the survey and we plan to open it for submissions sometime in early to mid June of this year. 

With that in mind, what types of things would you like to know about the community that could be asked in a survey? Keep the following in mind before you answer:

• The best survey questions are in the form of single choice or multiple choice responses.
  
  
  This allows us to display answers in the form of nice graphs and charts!
  
• Survey submissions are kept as anonymous as possible, so we don't want a lot of free-text fields where people could accidentally post personally identifiable information!
  

[*]Personal questions are great, but don't get too personal!

• 
  
  We shouldn't be asking somebody something that they wouldn't tell other people online.
  

With that in mind, please suggest interesting data points that you either (a. want to know about the community or (b. think it would benefit the public to know!

 

[Jethero]

-Which communities they’re a part of (or if that’s too personal, how many they’re a part of)

-What sorts of Therian media they engage with (social, forums, podcasts, etc)

-This may be part of the basic questions, but if they have an overall positive or negative opinion of their theriotype(s)/kintype(s)

-How long it took them from first learning about Therianthropy/otherkin to figuring out their ‘type (or the first one, for polykin)

That’s off the top of my head, anyway.

 

[Naia]

-Which communities they’re a part of (or if that’s too personal, how many they’re a part of)

-What sorts of Therian media they engage with (social, forums, podcasts, etc)

-This may be part of the basic questions, but if they have an overall positive or negative opinion of their theriotype(s)/kintype(s)

-How long it took them from first learning about Therianthropy/otherkin to figuring out their ‘type (or the first one, for polykin)

1. This would be difficult to measure depending how they type their answer, as obviously we don't have the ability to make a list of every related site that exists. We'll probably stick with asking them how many different communites they're a part of.

2. I love this idea; I will include!

3. The 'basic' already included questions are simply demographic questions. Approximate  Age, Gender Identity, Ethnic Background, etc -- stuff usually asked by online surveys done for research. Alter-human specific questions are not included in this category. With that said, I do like your idea and will include it!

4. I love this as well, will include!

 

[Charias]

I'd be interested to how many began identifying as non-human before finding out about therianthropy/otherkinity - maybe phrased as something like "Did you consciously identify as non-human prior to finding the otherkin community?" or something along those lines.

Also maybe something like "Did you experience shifts before discovering otherkin?" with multiple choice answers of things like "Yes, mental shifts", "Yes, phantom shifts", "No, but I did after", "No, I don't shift", etc. to specify exactly what their experiences are with that. And maybe "Did you associate yourself with your kintype's species before awakening?" (this could probably be worded better but basically asking if they always had a connection to the species that is their kintype). 

Oh, also: "Have you ever misidentified your kintype/s?" with answers "No", "Yes, once", "Yes, many times", and "Unsure"

I'll post again if I have any more ideas!

(Hmm... it'd be cool if you could let us know what questions are already going to be included. I assume there's gonna be the typical stuff like "Are you otherkin, therian, both or neither?" and that sorta thing)

 

[Naia]

Hmm... it'd be cool if you could let us know what questions are already going to be included. I assume there's gonna be the typical stuff like "Are you otherkin, therian, both or neither?" and that sorta thing)

So as I mentioned earlier, all I have actually written so far are the very basics - I'll include a screenshot below:

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[AshenFall]

A few propositions for the survey I've been mulling over! If I think of more I'll respond later. 

• Whether people explain their identity psychologically or spiritually. So a scaled question from 'Strictly Psychological' to "Strictly Spiritual' with 'Equally Spiritual and Psychological' in the middle. Might also help to have an extra option also for 'Don't Know/Neither'.
  
• Questions on people's kintype(s). If not an entry box to prevent easily identifiable kintypes, broader groups could be used. For example "Canine, Bovine, Avian, Dragon, Extra-Terrestrial, Elven .etc". I'd be also kind of interested to see a question on whether people identify as a predator species or prey species (potentially one or two more categories also for people whose kintypes don't definitively fit in either). 
  
• The good old standard questions: 'How many kintypes do you have?', 'What types of shifts, if any, do you experience?' ('Are these voluntary/involuntary/both/other?' as a follow-up), although I'm sure they're already going to be included ^^
  
• "Would you describe yourself as having species dysphoria?" with Yes, No, Unsure as options. Would be intriguing to see the prevelance of the phenomena in the community. 
  
• Adding onto what Jethero suggested about what communities people are part of, perhaps asking what site/forum/social media the person primarily uses to interact with the otherkin community? 
  

 

[Charias]

"Would you describe yourself as having species dysphoria?" with Yes, No, Unsure as options. Would be intriguing to see the prevelance of the phenomena in the community. 

Oh, this is a good one! Maybe also include a "Sometimes" option?

 

[ArchieAce]

"Would you describe yourself as having species dysphoria?" with Yes, No, Unsure as options. Would be intriguing to see the prevelance of the phenomena in the community. 

How about a little scale from 0 being none at all to 5 being very impactful on your life?

- 

 

[Naia]

Also maybe something like "Did you experience shifts before discovering otherkin?" with multiple choice answers of things like "Yes, mental shifts", "Yes, phantom shifts", "No, but I did after", "No, I don't shift", etc. to specify exactly what their experiences are with that. And maybe "Did you associate yourself with your kintype's species before awakening?" (this could probably be worded better but basically asking if they always had a connection to the species that is their kintype). 

I like this idea; and it'll be included; thank you!

• Whether people explain their identity psychologically or spiritually. So a scaled question from 'Strictly Psychological' to "Strictly Spiritual' with 'Equally Spiritual and Psychological' in the middle. Might also help to have an extra option also for 'Don't Know/Neither'.
  
• Questions on people's kintype(s). If not an entry box to prevent easily identifiable kintypes, broader groups could be used. For example "Canine, Bovine, Avian, Dragon, Extra-Terrestrial, Elven .etc". I'd be also kind of interested to see a question on whether people identify as a predator species or prey species (potentially one or two more categories also for people whose kintypes don't definitively fit in either). 
  
• The good old standard questions: 'How many kintypes do you have?', 'What types of shifts, if any, do you experience?' ('Are these voluntary/involuntary/both/other?' as a follow-up), although I'm sure they're already going to be included ^^
  

All are good suggestions; so I'll be including them. Thanks again!

"Would you describe yourself as having species dysphoria?" with Yes, No, Unsure as options. Would be intriguing to see the prevelance of the phenomena in the community. 

How about a little scale from 0 being none at all to 5 being very impactful on your life?

You guessed it; I'm including this!

Adding onto what Jethero suggested about what communities people are part of, perhaps asking what site/forum/social media the person primarily uses to interact with the otherkin community? 

I don't wish to identify individual sites that a person participates on; but I may allow them to select between common social media outlets and then an option such as "community-specific site" to encompass things like Kinmunity, otherkin.net, TG, etc.

 

[beanjamoose]

I'd like to see questions on stuff like copinglink- i.e. things that are not strictly kin, but fall into the kin community as a whole. ("Do you believe you can choose your kintypes?" "Do you support Copinglink/using kin to cope?" Questions like that!)

EDIT - If non-kin are gonna take this, there could be a question about that, so we can separate non-kin and kin answers.

Also, stuff like "What is your opinion on non-living kintypes?" and other debated kintypes (factkin, "problematic" kins, etc) could be interesting to see!