I basically had introduced some basic "rules" to shifter communities. I don't expect it to be used too often but they are general and common sense, so most people would be doing them without thought…
Not only is this way of life private, intimate, and personal - our language, identity, and beliefs are often looked at with scorn and disgust. Do not make shifting a spectacle, a form of power, or an emotional leverage. Mates who aren’t shifters have little business telling our stories, myths, and lives just as much as a shifter with false information. Our place and history is ours to share.
Shifter life should be full of color, diversity, and inclusive narratives. We may not be fully human, but we can understand color and race between the individual safety, care, and respect for all and everyone. Most shifters have diverse roots from all over, many are queer, so our identity has always been filled with color and acceptance. Diversity is our lifeblood.
Understand that these methods and theories play a larger role in the belief of shapeshifting and the long-term transformation practices of previous and future cultures. Participation is key, regardless of reward. Strive to archive everything and anything, whether in public or private, strive to share, publish, and create future communities with others when needed. Strive for archiving our mythology and research.
For shifters and mythicals of all kinds, live your life the way you are intended by your own soul. You are the only one in charge of your mind and emotions, take care of yourself. Our shifter lifestyle and nature exist purely by luck, you must then use it wisely and use it to aid you, other shifters, and your family.
Never deny who you are as a shifter. Never allow it to dictate your actions. Never allow shifting to become a burden, so that it infests you or creates trouble. Do not become obsessed with being a shifter, do not lose yourself within the supernatural nature. Do not forget what raised you and what world you entered. Shifters are not monsters or liars, practice self-control and passion.
Common knowledge in bushcraft, survival skills, cooking, and baking, and technology will save your life. Use sense when you shift and record results. Understand your current surroundings and live now for the future you dream of. Stand for innocent shifters in busy crowds, create art and restrict access to private matters. Your mythology and information should be yours only.
Packs, groups, pods, covens, flocks, etc, have a purpose: Safety _ Family _ Responsibility _ Freedom _
Without or corruption of said purposes tarnishes not only our spaces as shifters, but destroys our chances at diplomacy, friendship, community, and respect. As a leader or active member, you have to assert peace and compassion. In our communities, these groups have been poorly used as a means of power. Never let selfishness run our communities. Never let fear of the unknown rule valuable connections.
Establish official shifter groups and territory as a means of deepening our cultural impact and safe spaces. Shift from online to offline, engage in physical joy. Respect and obey the shifters of the land you approach, connect and be wary of the owners when needed. Never enforce yourself as authority of a land you don’t know the history of.
Take criticism, honesty, and comments with understanding to their core message. Disregarding your fellow shifters as “haters” for pointing out bad behavior is childish and silly. Become responsible for your issues, and the people you introduce into your circles. Fixate on gaining stress-free maturity, and curating your spaces when troubled. Becoming argumentative towards non-shifters and fools turns you into a clown, a jester who dances for the audience who already see you as the joke.
Give space and respect to anyone who could and would believe in any shifting theory for any reason. Our ideas need preservation and development, archival is our only hope. Theories do not need to be fought over.
For any additional rules to be added, all shifters would have to agree to specific and isolated rules that create unnecessary divide. These pillars, as provided in written form, are as undivided and general as possible to allow for freedom within niche groups. If one group does not follow one pillar, what stops them from following the next one? Absolutely nothing, and no group should be forced to abide.