Making Women Feel More Comfortable Here (Women's Only Poll)

[Joe]

I think you are working off some hypothesis that you would come up with this kind of a conclusion! I have no idea why you think that would make things better...in fact it feels to me like how women are segregated from male contact in certain cultures, supposedly for their own protection....very patronizing and paternalistic, and that's not even getting into the issues of Internet censure! I'm more interested in knowing what set you off on this idea in the first place?
Personally I'm more turned off by the aggressive, arrogant and rude behavior of whatever members than I am offended by males intrusion into the women's forum...but who am I to say? Just a woman......

In the coffee chat today, we noticed that none of the women were active posters and we asked them why and they replied that they were offended by some of the responses my male members to their desire to get a group of ladies to meet. It was clear that they didn't feel comfortable posting on the forum. It is unfortunate that people are feeling uncomfortable posting. I think the forum suffers from a Yanqui/Euro Male bias.

There is a women's forum for a reason. If males enter that forum, it defeats it's purpose.

I also think Argentines are also scarred away but for different reasons and unfortunately I am even less optimistic there are any solutions to that problem.

 

[Rich One]

In the coffee chat today, we noticed that none of the women were active posters and we asked them why and they replied that they were offended by some of the responses my male members to their desire to get a group of ladies to meet. It was clear that they didn't feel comfortable posting on the forum. I think it is unfortunate that people are feeling uncomfortable posting. I think the forum suffers from a Yanqui/Euro Male bias.

I also think Argentines are also scarred away but for different reasons.

Amazing comments , the organizer of the chats GMX/am? mentioned to me that most of the Chat participants are not Board Members? just looky-looks? and the balance rarely post at all . Hard to believe that these worldly ladies are so sensitive and easily offended by comments.

 

[PhilipDT]

Guys I've been posting on message boards for almost 20 years now and I don't think I've ever seen such a high percentage of supposedly female members.

Let's give the girls some credit, I'm sure that they don't take things too seriously. At least not in any larger percentage than new male posters.

This place is pretty tame. I remember when I was 12 you couldnt click on 2 posts in the Harry potter usenet group, which was supposedly populated by other tweenies, getting goatse d or tubgirled.

 

[Joe]

Guys I've been posting on message boards for almost 20 years now and I don't think I've ever seen such a high percentage of supposedly female members.

Let's give the girls some credit, I'm sure that they don't take things too seriously. At least not in any larger percentage than new male posters.

This place is pretty tame. I remember when I was 12 you couldnt click on 2 posts in the Harry potter usenet group, which was supposedly populated by other tweenies, getting goatse d or tubgirled.

Well it was only a group of about 8 people. I'm not a statistician but it is admitidly probably not a statistically valid sampling

 

[GMXam]

Amazing comments , the organizer of the chats GMX/am? mentioned to me that most of the Chat participants are not Board Members? just looky-looks? and the balance rarely post at all . Hard to believe that this worldly ladies are so sensitive and easily offended about comments.

My guesstimate on coffee chat attendees of how many are not Board Members (per Rich One's comment), it's about 1/3 of the people I've met in the past 4 months. Those that rarely post but are members, I'd say most people at coffee chats don't...maybe 2/3 of the remaining attendees.

Many of those that rarely post say they rarely post due to antagonistic responses, men/women. I feel like it's a waste of energy to post if you are looking for only serious responses. It did frustrate me several times early on. Now, I read what interests me, skip the rest (especially the bait comments), easy breezy. Mostly, the forum is entertainment for me, aside from the weekly coffee chat posts.

Women's forum is not a big deal to me. I prefer face-to-face discussion over posting my questions online that pertain to women.

 

[Alicia karr]

Exactly.

 

[Crema Americana]

What? Threads like these make me uncomfortable. I've never liked being singled out as a separate class of member.

Maybe I've been on the internet too long and in too many male dominated boards, but I don't feel the attitude here is all that antagonistic. Sometimes the jokes are rather crass and in bad taste, but most of the time it's funny. To me, anyway. As for the 'ego trips' - I've learned it's best not to stand in the middle of a pissing contest. Politics tends to be a sticky topic among family members that care for each other, let alone internet strangers.

The one thing that new members may have a valid complaint about is the "use the search bar" advice. While decent advice, it's not exactly welcoming to members. Post a link if it's so easy. Sometimes people ask out of laziness, but other times it's not so easy to just search the answer -- especially when threads are several years old, things have changed, and the information is scattered through various threads. On the other hand, people should be open to discussion/critique as well. If you come here looking to get rid of a dog you purchased and people start piling on about why you aren't taking it with you, you take the good and the bad. That's how it works. I get the feeling some people feel everyone else is there to serve them and make them feel good and that's not reality.

 

[GS_Dirtboy]

You can't legislate manners.

 

[Joe]

Some forums have a "No critic" zone where you are not allowed to criticize and where newbies are encouraged to ask "stupid questions".

 

[PhilipDT]

Some forums have a "No critic" zone where you are not allowed to criticize and where newbies are encouraged to ask "stupid questions".

What a stupid idea.