How can you tell a true dragon? Draconity tends to be self-correcting; those who can't accept the truth of draconity often wilt when they realize how seriously the rest of us take it. In the meantime, though, they can get very frustrating, trying to stencil dragons neatly into their version of reality, which isn't designed to hold such powerful and mythic creatures as anything more than symbols. Having dealt with this situation for three years myself, I have found a number of guidelines (not hard and fast rules -- guidelines!) that have helped me in quickly determining whether someone's being serious or not: # People who describe their dragons as exceptionally large (measured in miles or, worse, astronomical units) tend to be pretenders (or joking ;-)). Anything that large is, in human terms, abstract because it's not really envisionable. True dragons generally have perspective on how it feels to be the size they describe. # People who seem more interested in stories or "adventure" than companionship tend to be pretenders. In the dragon community, especially alt.fan.dragons, there are often threads of shared storytelling adventures in which everyone writes their "character" into an ongoing story contributed to by a large group. Many true dragons are inveterate storytellers, but join the stories to share experiences with friends, not to fulfill their fantasies of draconity. # People whose dragon names are unoriginal (taken from fantasy novels, role-playing games, movies, etc.) tend to be pretenders. You have to be careful with this one, though, because you simply cannot judge a book by its cover; for example, alt.fan.dragons' Dragonheart was around long before the movie of the same name, and his identity has nothing to do with the movie. And people have asked me if my name is derived from Christopher Rowley's character Bazil Broketail, which it isn't. (Baxil means "beloved" in my homeland's tongue.) # People who insistently seek validation of their draconity tend to be pretenders. Allowances must be made for different levels of self-esteem, of course, but it's nigh impossible to reach a conclusion as world-shattering as draconity without believing in yourself enough to reject the naysayers. (And if they don't consider draconity world-shattering, they're either a pretender or a Zen master. :-)) # True dragons have staying power. Ultimately, pretenders are out of their element, and will drift off to find people they can feel closer to. Dragons find a home in the dragon community and contribute to it over the long term. (Witness this FAQ.) # But, above all, there just seems to be something undefinable about true dragons that other dragons can instantly pick up on. As early as the first or second post or e-mail a newbie makes, true dragons can tell you whether he or she is serious about draconity. When I joined alt.fan.dragons in December 1995, I wasn't there for more than a week before people had pegged me as an "olde fruite" (AFD terminology for one that had been there for a long time and that people recognized as a dedicated dragon). I've seen it happen too many times since, and always turn out true.