a request for members of this group, and reminder to visitors

[iverglas]

We have had some visitations here lately that have resulted in discussions that strayed from the group's statement of purpose. The hosts have had some discussions about this.

Statement of Purpose

A safe community where all those interested in discussing and trying to resolve the problems that are inherent to women in society can come and work together, without having to defend the basic premise that issues do exist which specifically affect and limit women, their rights and their potential.

We would appreciate it if visitors would not challenge the basic principles behind the formation of this group and the reasons why feminists post here, let alone instruct women / feminists / members of this group about where their concerns and activities should be directed.

We do understand that visitors may come here from links on the Latest page or or elsewhere, and may not necessarily realise immediately what group they are in, or know what the statement of purpose here says.

I wonder whether members of the group who start threads here might like to include something along this line at the end of their OP, as a reminder:

"You are reading a thread in the Feminists group. Before posting in this group, please read the Statement of Purpose under About this Group, and keep in mind that this is not a forum for debating the validity of women's/feminists concerns."

and maybe bump this up occasionally so that anyone who comes to the group itself, rather than a particular thread, will see it, and we can easily find it for reference.


edit - I've gone one further and pinned the post, which I hope will be okay with everyone!

[BlueIris]

1. Personally, I think all obvious disruptors should be banned from this group.

I leave it up to the hosts to decide what is appropriate for the "visitors" we have had lately, but I think this reminder is too nice. Why give an infiltrator any room to screw up a nice community for the rest of us?

[iverglas]

2. no problem with obvious disruptors!

I was thinking more of people who wander to a thread from Latest. It happens in the Guns forum. Someone clicks on a thread, makes a comment that they think is like pretty reasonable from a DU point of view, gets swarmed, looks up at the top of the monitor, and says "OMG I'm in the Guns forum, where's the exit?!"

It would be the other way around here -- somebody dropping in and posting comments inappropriate to the group. But I'm personally willing to give them a chance to realize where they are, so I've posted "please read the post pinned at the top of this forum" in reply a couple of times -- with no further bad vibes emanating from those sources, so I do suspect they wandered in inadvertently.

There was one yesterday that a host was all for banning, and I wouldn't disagree, but barring further problems, I prefer to err on the non-action side myself.

Don't hesitate to contact a host if you have a specific request, though. I would also not reject a banning request where a group member did feel demeaned or attacked in violation of the SoP, myself.

[Tunkamerica]

3. I have a question as someone, who was recently caught up in such a situation:

do you really see yourself so far removed from the rest of DU? I see how Gun forum frequenters might, but is your message so far outside the scope of this website that you're requesting people be removed?

Truthfully, I think that the latest page, which is where I navigate to frequently is every forum's boon. I wouldn't read nearly the amount of articles I do if not for every group being siphoned into the mix.

I get that situations like what happened tonight, where several outsiders (me included) intruded on an internal struggle, might seem inconvenient. The positives of such exposure would seem to out weigh the negatives though.

Let me know.

[MadrasT]

4. I know you didnt' ask *me* but...

...from what I have observed, Feminists feel like they/we get attacked in General, Latest, etc., and want to have a safe place where they/we aren't constantly defending certain things that we, as Feminists, already take as "givens".

It is unfortunate that the "message" is one that seems to be unwelcome elsewhere on DU, but it does indeed seem that Feminist perspectives outside this group are often greeted with derision and a certain degree of "sit down and STFU about your angry Feminist bullshit." So I understand the desire for having this group as a safe haven, and I understand why the group is so protective of its (our) space.

The DU Feminist group shouldn't have to be "apart"... but reality seems to make it so that we are.

That being said, as a relative newcomer, I have observed that there seems to be quite a lot of disagreement about what those "givens" regarding Feminist theory and perspective actually are... hence this recent round of infighting.

Or something like that.

But I honestly don't really know what the fuck I am talking about, it's just how it looks to me after a hanging out here in this group since DU3 was turned on.... (and watching several threads in General go really badly for anyone speaking up from a Feminist perspective).

[iverglas]

5. thank you ... I had to run off

The hospital beckoned.

I think the big thing is people dropping in from Latest and not knowing where they are, or what the process in this group is.

Tunkamerica's mistake was innocent enough, no one thought that was intentional butting in, I think. But as long as posts in this group keep showing up in Latest, it will keep happening. It's interesting, in a way, in other instances, that someone really would feel compelled/entitled to butt into a thread and start bossing women around, no matter where the thread was.

I'm thinking that when a thread is started in this group, it should just be called something really boring like Thread 1, Thread 2, etc. Or I got this really awful email from my brother ...

[Whisp]

7. one has.

[Tumbulu]

6. do threads from this group still show up on the latest page?

The group can ask to have that stopped, I believe. Other groups have done that.

Would that solve the problem?