Honorifics and us.

In an introduction thread which i'll link to, Samui was going to respond to a thread where the honorific -sama was used... He did not believe that it was appropriate to use this, and i had to give it alot of thought...

And my final answer... is that I don't want the tone of this board to be set that we are any better than its members.

Therefore I would like to say that I believe the use of the -sama honorific to be .. misplaced here, to refer to other community members.

The name of this community comes from words in 2 languages, for which the meaning is generally known. Kitsu, derived from the concept of 'fox' in Japanese, and Uhana, derived from the concept of 'family' in Hawaiian. This is a restatement of something said on the page when you log in.

In the strictest sense, it means 'fox family', and is not unlike structures like clans and houses on the internet as found in other communities (such as vampires, elves, etc..) and that is the sense I want to communicate to the outside world from it.

That being said I will attempt to set the tone of the board by noting a few appropriate honorifics and when they are appropriate to be used:

-san: is the most common, most generic and can be applied to most anyone. It is appropriate to use this for newbies and those you do not know, as well as any other community members you're unfamiliar with.

-kun and -chan: denotes a level of familiarity and affection with the person you're addressing. It is appropriate to use this with your close friends, mates, boyfriend/girlfriend, etc. -kun is typically for referring to males, -chan for females. -chan could be also used by a female to refer to a male that they are romantically involved with.

-senpai: In the context of this community I'd say this is the 'highest' honorific we'd use between each other. General uses would be:
1) Referring to a moderator or administrator in the context of a moderative or administrative action
2) Referring to someone in a thread who is actively leading a discussion on a topic that you are learning something from
3) Referring to someone who wrote an article that is being actively discussed...
4) Referring to someone who has formally taken on the role of teaching you things.

-sama: Use it as a term of respect for our betters and superiors outside the scope of the community. Inari-sama.

I suggest reading http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_titles for more info about these honorifics.