Alt+H: End of Year 1

Something very special happened this week: Alt+H turned one! As of the 27th of September we've been running this project for a whole year, and I wanted to take this opportunity to talk about what we've done with it so far, and where we're going in the future.

What have we achieved? Quite a lot, I think!

Some would argue that our biggest achievement is the Alt+H Discord server, which as of right now has over 150 members and has become a community that I'm genuinely proud to be a part of. We've got several times that many followers across all our various social media platforms, mostly alterhumans, but we've attracted the interest of plenty regular human folks and even some academics over the year.

We've forged relationships with even more alterhuman-adjacent communities, enriching our perspectives with those of postfurry and transhumanist groups, and we've produced plenty of thought-provoking articles and encouraged you, the community, to do the same.

Even the team itself has grown, from two friends fumbling about on tumblr to six passionate folks from all across the globe dedicating hours to keeping our various services running.

But the thing that means the most to me, personally, is every individual who's ever told me that Alt+H has given them the confidence to take their own alterhumanity seriously. This is something that's clarified our purpose a lot over time. Alt+H has taught me, the team, and so many other people that alterhumanity is worth seriously talking about, and that we have to be the ones to start that conversation.

That's why, in the upcoming year, Alt+H is becoming a registered charity.

We've come to believe that there needs to be a genuine effort to raise awareness and acceptance of alterhuman identities. I'm talking about awareness campaigns, academic research, media outreach, and educational resources. This is necessary because even within our own communities we're being told that such fundamental identity experiences shouldn't really affect our lives. But alterhumanity is a legitimate identity phenomenon with a unique set of issues that deserve to be addressed.

Practically speaking, we have a lot of ideas on how to go about this. One of our big goals is the creation of a dedicated Alt+H forum as a space where alterhuman folks can talk seriously about their experiences. We intend to conduct research on things like dysphoria and marginalization that actually stands up to scientific scrutiny, and work on creating educational packages for therapists, spiritual leaders, teachers and parents on creating alterhuman-friendly spaces.

Development is already underway on a new site.

Being a charity is the best way for us to realize these goals. Namely, because it allows us to recieve donations. Unfortunately our passion alone isn't going to pay for website hosting or leaflet printing! But this way, money given to the cause belongs to the cause, and not any one person behind it. Information on how you can contribute will come along later in the planning stage when we have an expenses list.

Speaking of which, how long is this all going to take? Becoming a charity doesn't happen overnight, and there's a lot of legal documentation to be done, but I can say pretty confidently that we should be officially incorporated by around January next year.

We couldn't have done any of this without your support, and I hope we continue to have that support into this exciting new phase of the project.

From all of us at Alt+H, thank you.

 

For too long our Resources page has lain bare, but no longer! 

Along with an alterhuman FAQ and glossary (which those of you in the Discord server might have seen while they were in progress), we're now featuring the best resources from you, the community, on our site. We currently have sections for community history, social spaces, other sites and academic writing. Think something's missing? Let us know! As it stands the page is overwhelmingly dedicated to otherkin/therians simply because that's what we've found, but we want to change that! We're looking to expand our modest collection, particularly with non-English-language media.

Check out the Resources page now

Alt+H is looking for writers!

If you have things to say about being not-normatively-human and you want to get your voice out there, this is the opportunity for you! We're looking for creative, hardworking and passionate alterhuman folks to join our writing team, as well as opening the blog up to guest writers.

Join The Team

As a writer you'd have the responsibility of researching and creating longform, alterhuman related articles, newsposts or op-eds to contribute to a once per week posting schedule. Optional responsibilities would involve seeking out alterhuman-related news to report on and generally collating sources and contacts of journalistic interest.

• We'd like if you could provide an example of previous writing work so we can get a sense for your personal style. 
• You'll be expected to adhere to a style guide, which you can preview here in order to decide if these are rules you're comfortable working with.
• You do have to be alterhuman in some way, but we're not looking for a specific amount of 'community experience' and in fact would welcome a diversity of experience from less 'mainstream' subcommunities like copinglinkers, furries, transhumanists and multiple systems.
• We will want to interview you, but it'll be as reasonably informal affair. No 'where do you see yourself in 5 years', just a cooperative text-based discussion on whether the job will benefit everyone involved.
• You will need a Discord account both for the interview and for communicating with the staff team in general, since we base our communications out of a staff channel on the Alt+H Discord server.

If this sounds like something you'd be interested in, shoot us a submission here. 

Be A Guest Writer

We're also making featuring your thoughts on our site more accessible than ever before by streamlining and updating our guest writer process. If you want to write an individual article for us you can check out the new guest writer page here.

And if there are other ways you think you could contribute, or you have any questions or concerns about this, feel free to let us know!