Men Posting in the Women's Views Forum--good or bad??

[ArcticDiver]

Well, back to my first post in this thread--what is then the VALUE of having a women's forum in the first place??? I am not saying to add a women's view forum--it already exists--I am asking the value it....

Now you are asking a different question. But a very good question.

Other than accomodation for different physiology I can't think of anything that should be different between the genders. In fact in my experience life is best when the focus is on the job, or in our case the sport, and not on the gender.

In my short life I've seen much progress in achieving that focus and on evaluating people based on fheir accomplishments, not their gender. But we still have a long way to go. When the day comes that the fact that a person is a male or female doesn't enter into the news story we will have arrived.

 

[El Orans]

Why hide on the new posts page that it is the women's forum?

We're not hiding it.

Women's views - Diving Related / Non Diving Related

vs.

Non-Diving Related Stuff​

 

[D_B]

I think that there is a need for womans forums, if only for the fact that they are different, and have different questions, different concerns, and from a differing perspective ..... anyone remember the question about P Valves for woman?

 

[mania]

Leah
Let's make some order....
There are two completly different topics or questions asked by you:
First - should men write in the Women forums? You proposed to have it opt in
Second - maybe in "new Posts" which is the may most SBoarders are using for reading the SB there should be more visible notification that this is Women View Forum
Third - should we have Women View Forums

OK - my answer:
Question one - disagree with opt in and have no problem with men writting in the Women Forums. As a matter of fact excluding them would be simply shovinistic
Question two - agree - it's not obvious when using New Posts that somebody is entering Woman Views. I think we should tak about it with Admins - maybe ElOrans can think about something.
Question three - yes we still need Women Views for the reasons I already stated. Which Arctic Diver also stressed - mainly physiological stuff...(rather have this one than discussing ways to remove nail polish).

Mania
PS off topic - Yes - as i wrote in the orignal thread - when buying diving gear I look at the quality of it. And don't give a damn about company's advertising style - even if it's tasteless. And gee - what's wrong with a picture of naked women?
My only problem is that I would rather have a picture of naked men

 

[UnderSeaBumbleBee]

When I asked what is the point on the first post--I mean the same thing as what is the value.

So why have a separate forum for women that really isn't separte? What is the point/what is the value? Why hide on the new post page that it is the womens views forum? If we can all learn from each other then why have the separate forum?

I do think women are inclined to ask questions that they deem to be embarrassing to other women, and when all the responses come from men, well I think the forum is misleading. If some guy answers a woman’s question on the women’s views forum—regardless of how true the answer is—it is not a woman’s view—as the forum would lead you to believe---it is called women’s views.

 

[piikki]

I, for one (having started the Salvo-thread mentioned in OP’s original post) am not for closing men from the Women’s Views. I am interested in sharing their opinions too. However, I agree that they should take into account where they are posting (quite a requirement&#8230, and there have been some good understanding why this does not happen and how it could be improved.

However, I do not quite understand the excuse of men or women who open up a thread and do not bother what the topic or question is at all - whether it is on this forum or others. In the Salvo thread, for example, I particularly asked for other Women’s Views. This should have been a warning that I did not want a million stereotyped men’s answers that everyone already knows! In this case, I admit, I had actually chosen the forum with care. I could have put the same question with a racy poll to Basic Scuba/Whine and Cheese to raise awareness about an issue I found distasteful. However, I could exactly predict men’s responses and I was not after 25 pages of randy babbling.

Well, I got what I asked for. Several people, (mostly) men calling me ignorant because, of course if I, for example, based my purchase choices on something vaguely resembling company values, I must not know anything about their products, I must be a prune, overreacting, I must hate naked women (???), and I was also actually called a man too, I think. I am not personally upset but I bet a few women who find the stuff more offensive than I sure did not want to participate in the discussion after couple of pages. At that point it would have taken some guts.

Thank you Leah, I think your thread is very good. Also, I agree this is not a question about thread hi-jacking only. Maybe in these “minority” forums it could be more actively intervened though – like men taking things over with the obvious male “response” in Women’s Views.

 

[UnderSeaBumbleBee]

We're not hiding it.

Sure you are. Click on new posts on your screen. See what comes up. On the right side of the page this thread is listed as non diving related. Until it was moved a few minutes ago, it came up under diving related forum-- the words women's views are no where in sight on the new posts page. You only see womens view forums when you select off the main forum page.

 

[piikki]

So why have a separate forum for women that really isn't separte? What is the point/what is the value? Why hide on the new post page that it is the womens views forum? If we can all learn from each other then why have the separate forum?

You wrote this while I was writing...

I think it could be open but like you compared it earlier to DIR forum, with tighter restraints. Less BS outside the sandbox allowed. People banned for repeat offenses easy maybe?

And it should not be hid on the New post page

However, there does not seem to be much action on Women's Views? Has it been a failure? Why? Is the openness to men one reason? (Not stating it is, anyone know of any closed forums that are more successful?) Post a poll: Would you post more "female-specific" issues if you were protected from men? Would you post more if men could not respond/see what is going on etc...

 

[UnderSeaBumbleBee]

I think my whole point is kind of like in the DIR forum or Solo forum. If I ask a question about DIR-- I don't want to read 10 pages of DIR people are jerks. Please just tell me why you use a long hose. If I ask question in the Solo forum, I don't want 10 pages of people telling me I have no business going solo. If I ask a question in the women's view forum for women’s view-- I would expect people who find the thread to know that they are in the women's view forum and would also hope by asking in the women's view forum to get a woman's view.

As for opting in, that is easy enough and it is required for participation in other forums here on SB: single, solo, dir, surface interval forums--no one approves you, you just click and join and then you are in. I have never understood why I had to click to join the surface interval, but I wanted to participate and so I clicked and joined.

So why is it necessary when a women wants to ask a question specifically in the women’s view section to open the section to men? If she wants to ask the question in the general population she can. But is she chooses what she thinks is a women’s views forum--- should she not expect the answers to come from mostly women rather than mostly men? If the answers are coming from mostly men—why not call it the women asking men forum?

 

[UnderSeaBumbleBee]

By the way, I am not opposed to a men's view forums either. I do think it would be disservice to the men though if we had one and 80-90% of the men's views answers came from women--it wouldn't then really be the men's views forum would it?