Women's forum

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Is it possible to set up this sub-forum as a place that is only accessible to members who identify themselves as female ? Thank you.

I'd like to see this happen also. Or as an alternative maybe individual male members should be restricted from accessing the women's forum if they can't behave appropriately there.

I was really disturbed by seeing the guy who asked if we enjoy our breasts. I think that really inappropriate especially in an autism forum where some posters may take it as a serious question instead of something pervy.

I doubt that will happen. It's been requested so many times before and the answer is always "no".

The only solution is to build our own forum. It's not that difficult, but who would run it? That would take time and dedication.

Although it would require vigilant moderators to weed out creepy questions like the one Dianthus pointed out.

It would be a shame if you all left, but I also don't think that much change is possible with WP admin.

It might be better to manage the 'Women's Discussion' yourselves, ignore and report posts that are not suitable, maybe petition for a new moderator or two specifically just for that area.

I found that thread funny myself as it was so obvious the OP was being pervy

However on behalf of the men here, I am sorry that there are men that behave so poorly and can't respect women's right to discussion.

I normally stay out of the female forum to give you ladies space but I may have posted once or twice there.

I don't see why it would be difficult to restrict access based on members' gender self-identification. I think it is just as simple as restricting access to the Members Only forum to only registered (and logged in) members and the Adult life discussions to members aged over 17. There are already a few female mods here, but if the access was restricted to women / girls only, I doubt we'd need much moderating, anyway.

If it would still be a good idea to have specific moderators for that forum - and if they are willing to take the responsibility - then I would like to nominate BirdInFlight, ASDMommy, whatamess, Bunny, WelcomeToHolland and skibum as mods for the Women's forum. I really would like to see that forum transform into an exclusive place for the women here (NT or ASD). My own daughter who is on the verge of a diagnosis will be introduced here in a few years' time and I would want a safe place here for her to participate far from the prying eyes and disrespectful attitudes of some of the weirdos and the creeps that show up there.

I don't think it is technically difficult to do, as Hurtloam said above, I have seen it requested before and refused. With some of the posts I see in there I'm not surprised that you would want this and I would support it to.

What is to stop a man from selecting "Female" in his profile, just to see what's in a Females Only subforum?

There is also a movement to allow more options than "Female" and "Male" in our profiles. How would the screening work for Trans-Gendered people? Would it screen by gender at birth or gender identification? Would it matter if the individual had not fully transitioned? What if the person had not even begun to transition, yet still had a Trans-Gender identification?

Would a gay male be allowed to access the Females Only subforum? Would a lesbian female be refused access? How about vice-versa?

There are many more issues than just the desire to exclude males from conversations on a public website; not the least of which would be a consideration of fair and equal treatment - if the women get a "Females Only" subforum, then the men should get a "Males Only" subforum, as well. To do anything less would be both misandrous and discriminatory.

Of course, then Alex would have to set up a separate subforum dedicated to each gender identification, and all in the interest of fair and equal treatment. How many special forums would that require?

Has anyone really thought this through yet?

I don't know what the solution is but something needs to change. Whether it means having more moderators, clearer rules, limited access, whatever. I don't know. I see posts from guys that I find really intrusive, but I don't report them because I'm not clear on what is allowed or not, and I don't want go around tattling on people.

If nothing is going to change then maybe the name of the forum should change. Right now it doesn't really seem like a women's forum, it's a women's and men's forum to discuss women's issues.

There one other thing to consider: What would the purpose of a Females Only subforum actually be?

Would it be dedicated solely to the discussion of women's health and social issues? Or would it eventually devolve into discussions on the most effective ways to break down and emasculate the male psyche?

Would it include discussions on effective child-raising methods, or would it include the ethics and morality of chemically suppressing a child's maturation to keep him or her manageable?

Keep in mind that the owner of this website is a man, and that he has full access to every forum, subforum, and thread on this website - and maybe even the PMs, as well!

It’d be a good place to talk trash about individual men, putting words in their mouths to make them look like the most disgusting beings on the face of the Earth, without letting them defend themselves.

Dianthus - You should not feel in anyway guilty about reporting posts, if the person making the statement can't abide by the rules and be respectful then they don't deserve to have their comment seen. I'm sure you know the categories for reporting, if you think it's inappropriate to you personally then report the post, whoever is moderating will then agree or disagree.

Anything that crosses the boundaries of the standard ToS and the specific guidelines for that section should be reported.

It only gets complicated if the offending post has been engaged and discussed as then instead of a simple delete one post, the mod then needs to wade through the thread and edit other posts.

Last edited by neilson_wheels on 07 Jan 2016, 7:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I think it's simple, update the rules for the forum, and create something similar to the haven rules format.

No need to make reference to gender, just basic common courtesy rules, separation through topic themes not absolute segregation.

The haven doesn't require specific moderators and functions well with those rules.

I don't think it's a good idea only to allow women to post there. The adult forum is a different story in that people under 17 may not be able to contribute much since it's unlikely they've had a lot of experience with some of the topics discussed there. However, when it comes to the women's forum, I think men could offer different perspectives on issues and create interesting discussions. I rarely go to that section, but it seems that the vast majority of men who post there respect the women and don't stir up any issues. Will there be fights between the genders? Yes, but bickering is just something that's going to happen on forums. I think it would be much worse if men weren't allowed in there to put in their two cents on any of the subjects, because then there would likely be more pining for a men's section as well, and the quality and diversity of the posts in the women's section would likely suffer.

Possible. That's why open forums are better - with the general population being able to see and report hate-filled posts, there is no place for trolls, racists, sexists, and perverts to exercise their hate.

If only the mods could react quicker and more often ... but they have lives too, y'know ...