Dawnthieves 2.0
Hey guys!
Sorry for the inconveniences regarding Dawnthieves. We have been changing providers and even though it’s far from finished I decided to just go online with Dawnthieves 2.0.
I've been working on a complete reboot of Dawnthieves for so many months now. This is also why Dawnthieves has been so inactive for the past year. We’re very sorry for that. It's not like no one took new photos but rather that uploading to the old site had become redundant. We’re still in the process of uploading all the thousands of photos to the new website and it’s a lot of work that takes a lot of time. Because now all the photography will be uploaded into a database and every single photo will have individual tags. You see, aside from all the programming I had to do to get the gallery to work the way needed for Dawnthieves, going through thousands of photos and giving each of them keywords is what’s literally taking months. We’re still not done, the new website is still a work in progress, please keep that in mind if you get a shock over not finding half the stuff. The old website with all the images is still there and accessible! You can reach it via old.dawnthieves.de
However, even though Dawnthieves 2.0 is still pretty empty aside from my own photos, it has a big advantage over the old site. You guys are finally able to search for images.
The new site also has a completely new structure. You won’t find the images sorted by photographer anymore but by subspecies and park. This was necessary as, unfortunately, the new system doesn’t allow images to be sorted into multiple categories. This was the most convenient solution that should be both user- and administrator-friendly. You’ll still have the option to see the pictures from a specific photographer, though.
1. You can add the first name of a photographer to a keyword you want to search for.
2. Each category will have buttons that link to the photos of the respective photographer in that category.
We’re still in the process of adding these buttons to the categories. We have to cheat our way around here and use search links and remodeling the search was a little complicated, haha.
Aside from a bunch of puppy photos (which I will add during this week) and new photos, all of my photography is already online. The other photographers are a bit slower, so be a little patient (or hustle them just a tiny bit, they might need that *coughcough*)
Also, none of us are native English speakers. If some of the formulations on the website make you cringe or are just completely wrong, please, please tell us!
Thank you all so much for sticking with us
- Kati
And the rest of us:
Bine, Elli, Ria, Jessi, Lina, Meike and Nicci
Dogs Aid Animal Sanctuary
This journal is actually directed to my german followers, but I think writing it in english can't do harm and I suppose my watchers from other countries would also like to know where the following pictures come from. And maybe they can find a way to help as well, who knows!
After my beloved Sammy passed away and I had to return to Ireland I decided I couldn't bear the monotony of my livestyle I was forced into in Ireland any longer and being without a dog in general. I started volunteering at a Dog Sanctuary right away and this was one of the best descisions ever. Maybe an even better descision then studying in Ireland generally. I'm actually sad I didn't do it earlier. On the downside I had to learn how bad life for dogs can be in Ireland and how backward Ireland is in treating their animals. I would have thought that Ireland would be quite close to Germany with animal welfare and protection, but it's definitely not. It is much worse and those people who are standing up for better animal rights actually claim there's almost no protection at all for animals. Cases of animal cruelty happen on a daily basis and dogs that are not wanted any longer are just thrown out of the front door. As a result strays are roaming the streets of Dublin, puppies as well as older dogs. Other animals suffer as well but I will only focus on dogs right now, because I'm volunteering for a dogs sanctuary. Ponds are nothing more than business here, the more animals they can took in the more money they can make. Sometimes they don't even try to rehome them and just put them down after a few days - no matter if the dog is just a few weeks old puppy. Non-kill shelters are very rare and Sanctuaries (non-profit, no-kill, everything will be done for the animals) like I volunteer for even rarer.
I do know quite well that there are many countries that treat their animals even worse, but I was so shocked, because before I went to Ireland I believed it couldn't be much different there than in Germany. But it is (and not only with animal rights but in general. Living in Ireland made me appreciate my homeland much more). In Germany we have a no-kill policy - NO shelter is allowed to put any animal down as long as it isn't suffering badly or is a major threat to others. We also don't have strays.
Having this told the great lady who's running the sanctuary she asked me if there are sanctuaries in Germany what would take in dogs from Ireland. They actually have a partnership with Sweden and people from swedish ponds com over a few times a year to bring some of their rescue dogs to Sweden - where animals are treated much better and I was told that most ponds in Sweden are empty. The thing is, even though we are much nicer to our animals in Germany we still have crowded ponds. I don't know if any pond or sanctuary would offer even a few places for dogs from Ireland. I actually doubt it, but I promised her to ask and it won't hurt to do so.
If any of my german watchers know a pond/sanctuary, are affiliated with one or volunteers as well, maybe you could ask your charity if they would be willing to take dogs from Ireland.
To those who live in Dublin, if you love dogs or consider of getting one, you should definitely think of paying DogsAid a visit. What they do for the animals (also for cats) is gorgeous and they want so little in return. They are always searching for volunteers. And all of the dogs are so lovable and yearning for human attention. This place will definitely be the only one I'll miss when I return to Germany next month.
Pay a visit to dogsaid.ie/ or their site on facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Dogs-Ai…
These are just a few. Almost all dogs came in as strays or were rescued from bad conditions. They all have won my heart.
But their plan won't save anyone and will only harm one of the two species. If anything, killing wolves will just delay the progress of these weak herds dying off. It's fighting against symptoms and not the cause, which - of course - are us humans.
See the full story here:
There are two peditions to save the wolves.
Petition to save BC wolves: chn.ge/1y7up1m
Petition to save Alberta wolves: bit.ly/1Hndkqh
New Server, new Name
First I want to thank you all for the kind birthday wishes.
They really made me happy! Especially I want to thank that anonymous deviantArtler who gave me a subscription! 
THANK YOU! That came absolutely to the right time. I was already thinking about getting one to being able to change my username. Which I now did, as you can see. New Username
Why? Well, some may have already noticed that I started signing my photos with "Khalliys" instead of "Khevyel". Khalliys is actually my other, much older account here on deviantArt, which I use for displaying my art. For a long time now I really wanted to make it more obvious that these two accounts belong together; to only one person. With these two different accounts it sometimes felt like having two identities which I found rather stupid.
The name Khevyel itself meanwhile has no real meaning for me, so this was the name that had to be changed.New Server for Dawnthieves
So that was the story of the new username - but something else is new too, it's just not that obvious. Some of the Dawnthieves-members and I got together to buy an own webserver where we can host our website. Now that my poor laptop has transferred all photography (which took it almost 24 hours) to the new server everything is already set up and in it's place! And I'm so happy to see how fast everything goes now.
That's so awesome! As we now have to pay money to host Dawnthieves-photography, we included a donate-button to the website. So if you ever feel like you want to support us a bit, or show some gratitude, you can leave a few cents for us.
More Stock-Images
Ah, almost forgot: I also wanted to bring some attention to our "More Stock-Images"-section. Because keeping Dawnthieves up to date is so time-consuming, we won't accept new photographers for the time being. Linking photographers that allow their photography to be used is way more easier for us and, advantageously, it works without restrictions. So, if you have an (stock-)account on deviantArt, or your own website where you provide photography (it can be any photography, not only predators or animals in general) that others can use for roleplaying, manipulations and stuff, just tell us and we will add a link on our website!
Phew, I think that was everything for now. Thanks for everything and have a nice day!
Facebook and Problems on Dawnthieves
some of you might have noticed a nerve-racking maleware-warning from Google when you try to access Dawnthieves. I tried to hunt down the source of it repeatedly and found nothing. My virus programm and other online link scanners were only shrugging, too. Meanwhile it's pretty clear now that this is a problem of our website hoster, as other users are complaining about the same issue. It's in their advertisment. So unfortunately we can't do anything about it and just hope our hoster can fix their problems quickly.
On another note (and you probably have already noticed that, too ... I'm one of the very fast, I know.) Dawnthieves can also be found on facebook now! It's now much easier for us to keep you up to date about ... updates and other stuff via facebook.
