http://i.imgur.com/TnQoDBc.png

http://i.imgur.com/DGYS9Ar.png

I don't particularly care either way what the mods have decided, though I just wondering. If there was a TERF posting on either r/Feminism or r/AskFeminists, what would constitute transphobia (as that is disallowed in the rules document listed in the sidebars).

Quite obviously, I assume that this would include slurs and making generally rude comments, but is the mere act of a feminist saying that they do not believe that trans women (or trans men) are the gender they identify with (or even misgendering trans people) transphobic?

What exactly is considered transphobia, in regards to the rules?

Just looking through a lot of the recent posts in /r/askfeminists, it seems like a lot of the time OP's comments will be in the negatives, even in cases where OP doesn't seem to be unreasonable or otherwise unhelpful to fostering discussion.

I suspect this is mostly because OPs tend to be kind of ignorant of feminist issues, and maybe sometimes slow to understand the concepts brought up by commenters. But isn't (one of) the point(s) of the subreddit to talk to people who are steeped in patriarchical culture to discuss issues with actual feminists (not strawmen) in order to help them discover their biases and realize that some feminist issues are more nuanced than they've been led to believe? It seems like in this case downvotes discourage OPs from discussing issues and may even lead them to feel that feminists don't want to have discussions with different viewpoints, which feels counterproductive. That said, I'm not sure what exactly could be done about this besides a stickied post asking not to downvote based on ignorance, but lack of fostering discussion...

So, some snippets from our modmail - warning about crude/prejudiced language:

After banning an user for derailing: http://i.imgur.com/QURbIEJ.png

Free speech whining: http://i.imgur.com/2Wbegqe.png

A male user intent on broadcasting to the world his preferences for women's genitalia: http://i.imgur.com/HRBzQwx.png

FPH dramawave with a side of homophobia: http://i.imgur.com/fmB16s3.png http://i.imgur.com/awTA4q7.png

The devil's advocate http://i.imgur.com/9GT79Rg.png http://i.imgur.com/fnViBZe.png

Fan dedications: http://i.imgur.com/SYUEKQG.png

More: http://i.imgur.com/43RoH2a.png

Maybe this is more a reddit general question and not r/feminism specific, idk cuz I'm very new to this site but I'm not experiencing this issue with r/askfeminists, my thread seems to not be here. Well it's here, I can visit it, but it's not in 'new' and as far as I can tell there's no way for anyone else but me to see it?

People are supposed to do something special on their cake days right?

Thanks /r/feminism, /r/askfeminists, all of the adjoined subreddits, and everyone involved. It's fun being part of this community, discussing these issues. Being involved here has been a lot of fun, extremely informative, and enlightening. This community truly makes it worth wasting my time on the internet.

So thanks, really. :)

I just want to say thank you to the mods and members of /r/AskFeminists and /r/Feminism The mods are doing a good job with both subs. I feel welcome and I also feel that I can express my opinions in these subs, due to the mods and members. I have seen some negativity towards the mods on this sub but I think they are doing a good job. Both subs are my favorite subreddits on Reddit. I enjoy posting and commenting on them. I am saying all this because I wanted to express my opinion and let all of you know that I think they are great subs.

I know this issue has been discussed before, but I'm so annoyed that many of my posts have scores of 0. From my perspective, there is an ongoing campaign to sabotage /r/Feminism and I'd like to try to counter that.

For instance, I posted this today and it's been generating some good discussion, but it sits at 0. This has happened with a lot of my other posts as well. I know this has been discussed before, but I'd like to restate that I'm also seeing it on other user's posts as well. Objectively speaking, these posts do contribute to the community, and at the very least, they shouldn't be down-voted.

Whenever I'm on /r/Feminism, I try to vote up all the new posts, particularly those with a low or 0 score, that can even remotely be seen as valuable to the community.

I just find it so frustrating to experience this all the time. Would it be alright to post a call to subscribers to upvote content to counter saboteur's efforts? I mean, obviously it would be a the individual's discretion, but I think it might reinforce a sense of community if we tried to organize and carry out occasional up-voting campaigns (maybe once a week maybe), just to give a positive boost to everyone who is committed to the sub.

Wondering what others think about this?

/r/AskFeminists has grown from having a few topics posted every other day to having five or six daily with significant discussion. /r/feminism added mods due to its growth, I think it's time /r/AskFeminists did as well.

I'm new to this subreddit but I always see almost every thread on the front page has 0 karma. And a lot of the time they are good, informative posts. Also I tend to see tons of comments deleted in threads.

I mean I just find it weird cause both are way more often than on other subreddits

I'm taking part in the Great North Run in September to raise money for Women's Aid. Would it be appropriate for me to post my justgiving link in r/feminism or is that kind of thing frowned upon?

Cheers!

Can somebody please explain to me what the term strawman means? I have only ever seen it used in r/feminism, and r/askfeminists.

Based on context I'm kindof assuming it refers to someone who presents themselves as something they are not? Similar to a troll?

Thank you!

I was having a discussion on /r/AskFeminists and was surprised to see that there isn't an entry on patriarchy on the FAQ, which seems like an odd omission. On the section on military service, it also mentions that women cannot serve in ground combat roles in the United States, which is no longer the case.

I want thank the people of this sub-reddit for a number of things, but the one I'm gonna highlight might seem a bit odd.

Thank you for your honesty about what this is all about. This sub-reddit clearly states that this is a place for promoting the advancement of women's rights. Women's rights needs to be upheld and needs people who are willing to do so. I see that as a very important thing. But the specification is also important to me, because it doesn't state that this is a catch-all for gender equality.

The reason that is important is because it leaves room for others to exist. I'm an activist for both women's and men's rights and I see both as being important. Unfortunately, it seems men's rights rarely gets any attention.

I started to discover this back when I was in college. Early on I joined the feminism group at my college and we'd meet weekly to discuss issues and possible rallies, fund-raisers, etc. I wanted to bring up some males issues around the campus, but I felt it wasn't the place. I put some stuff together and I went to start up a group for men's rights as well, but my application was denied. Upon inquiring why it was denied I was told that the feminism group was where that belonged and there was no need for a male's rights group. I was like "Oh, OK then my bad", and figured I'd just bring them up during the feminism meetings.

So, for the next two years, I would go to these meetings and when I found a male issue arising I'd bring it up to them (I obviously participated in the female based conversations as well). Unfortunately, it always seemed to the agenda was fixed, there were no room for these issues and no interest in covering them... I'd ask members individually if they thought my bringing them up was out of place and they'd all reply "no, feminism is about gender equality as a whole", but in the end these issues would be cast aside quickly and never discussed.

While that is just an example, I do find this to be a persistent ideology amongst the feminist community. So, as odd as it sounds, your honesty and willingness to state that this is a movement for the advancement of women's rights is genuinely appreciated. This is something that needs to exist and needs support, but you can't solve every problem in the world. Concentrating on specific goals allows you all to accomplish great things, and being willing to say "thats not what this is for" leaves room for others to exist to concentrate on their goals as well.

So once again, thank you.

As a side note, I'm not much of a redditor and simply made this account to thank you all, coming here was refreshing. I'll drop in when I can if I have some interesting news or developments about women's rights in my part of the world.

PS. After reading the side bar, decided to move this from /r/femisism to here, since its really about the sub-reddit after all

Now, I'm guilty of this myself right off the bat. A lot of times in a heated discussion on AskFeminists someone will trip up and say something stupid, insensitive, or just flat out wrong; this is then pointed out and by way of either making amends or slinking off with their tail between their legs the offender deletes the comment. In the interest of fostering discussion, could we make an informal subreddit rule against deleting or substantively editing your post after you get called out? Or requiring that if you want to completely change your post, you should add an "EDIT: I done fucked up and had it pointed out to me, so I changed what I said about x"?

The /new queue in /r/feminism has a problem where most of the posts immediately have 3-4 downvotes. While this normally isn't a significant amount, this can cause well thought-out posts to be hidden from normal browsing view. Another post recently suggested removing the downvote arrow; however this can be easily circumvented.

I think the best way to counter downvote trolls is to develop /r/feminism as a community. This means having more active users, not just passive subscribers. Active users will be more involved in both voting and posting.

Maybe some ways we can do this is by collaborating more with other SJ subreddits, such as lgbtq and civil rights forums. Maybe we can get involved with hobby forums like /girlgamers. Another suggestion could be the organization of events.

This subreddit has the "default" name for a feminist subreddit, which is both an advantage and disadvantage. It is a disadvantage because it attracts trolls and brigades; it has an advantage in that new users interested in feminism will visit here first. We need to find the best way to minimize the impact of trolls and keep the most visitors.

Please post any suggestions on how to develop /r/feminism as a community.

If you don't think a post fits the requirements of /r/feminism, that's what the "report" button is for.

Downvoting original posts is ridiculous, and very few people explain why they do.

Comments? Eh, blurry line.

That way the subreddit could be put into good use. Of course, the kind of offense and the number of times a redditor breaks a rule is subjective (and hopefully will be judged fairly by the mods), but this could be a good way to answer questions that actually want to be answered, rather than clogging up the feed with people who have a history of not asking questions in good faith.

Please join us in welcoming Truth-Fairy as the newest member of our moderator team.

Due to doxing concerns, they have joined under an alt account. If you have any questions, you can post them here, but please refrain from requesting any sort of personal/identifying information, thank you.

"...those questioning or criticizing feminism should direct their discussions here."

Did that change? I knew /r/AskFeminists was generally a downpour of MRAs asking the same old questions over and over again about why misandry is the answer, but now the subreddit officially lets that happen? I just feel like that's counter-productive. It's like saying, "Here! We know you hate feminists and we know you're not going to be open-minded (even though that's what it says in the sidebar), but please ask us redundant and baiting questions anyways!"

The subreddit is literally there for people to ask hateful questions about feminism, so there's a constant environment of animosity there. Maybe if we allowed feminism-positive questions (aka: What books should I read if I want to learn more about feminism? As a feminist, what do you think about sex positivity?), people will actually learn more about feminism and the complexity of it all instead of "Do you hate men? Check yes or no" kind of discussions.

Basically, /r/AskFeminists is a popular thread for MRAs. If we can mix it up with some nice, positive questions about feminism rather than the necessity for Feminism's existence, this subreddit might have an actual chance in hell of changing a few minds.

In /r/feminism it's more than just the MR trolls its also some of the juvenile variety. Have they always been here? Where did they come from?

I have noticed a lot of comments with negative scores in AskFeminists and Feminism, even though it is clearly intended that people will not downvote, as there is no downvote button.

Is it considered poor etiquette to bypass the subreddit's intent and downvote by other means?

Over the past few months I feel /r/Feminism has become less like a place to actively discuss issues relevant to gender equality and more like a closed-off circlejerk where nothing is challenged, no interesting discussions are had, and no outside opinions are given voice.

This is clearly because of the new mod-imposed rules that say the first commenters on any thread have to be feminists, the second commenters have to be feminists too, and anyone from an 'outside' subreddit can't comment or reply.

This is absolutely ridiculous and completely anti the spirit of intelligent discourse.

On top of this, it seems the mods are actively downvoting and deleting posts and banning the users that overstep these strict rules, however minor the infringement. They point to the sidebar for justification, as if it were some sacred text. The same is happening here, on /r/Meta_Feminism where new questions and challenges are shoehorned into extant threads, buried then forgotten.

Mods, can you please justify this new system?

Last year, /r/feminism was a cool place to come to come and discuss ways to make our society better. Now the mood of the place is distinctly totalitarian. And that makes me sad.

Yes, I know there are trolls out there, but a total lockdown is not the way to counter it. Let's get /r/feminism back to how it was, an open-minded place to discuss gender equality. And if any trolls rear their ugly heads, well, fuck 'em (and don't upvote them).

.

Now waiting for this to get downvoted, deleted and myself banned, for questioning absolute authority...

What's the deal with this? I don't understand why I have these big red words over my post. Can someone explain to me, please?

I was thinking that it could be really helpful to have mod controlled flairs both on /r/feminism and /r/AskFeminists. This way we can in a way congratulate people who support the subreddit and have them stand out in the comments.

The first reason may be obvious but I want to state it anyway. In both subreddits there are a lot of questions all the time about common issues, such as the wage gap, patriarchy, gender roles, studies, etc. If we have flairs like 'sociology', 'psychology', or even 'feminist theorist' or 'patriarchy knowledge', people would respect their comments more and pay more attention to what they say, instead of asking the same questions all over again.

There is also a second issue that I think it's also really important for /r/AskFeminists. I'm not sure if the rule still stands, but there was a rule only 'feminists' could have top-level comments. If we had a flair for those users, it would be easier to see who is answering 'in the name of feminism' and who is just giving opinions on what they think feminists think. It would also be easier to control who can post top level comments.

It's also better for people asking questions, since sometimes trolls or people not related to feminism answer questions or posts as if they were feminists (or criticizing the movement as a whole), which many times leave the asker with more doubts and/or with disappointment in the subreddit. I've seen the disappointment from newcomers in a couple of posts in /r/feminism in less than two days, so I think it would be great to clarify who is a long time supporter of Femisnim and who is just passing by.

I believe there can be a lot more reasons why we should have flairs. I think they SHOULD be controlled by the mods (i.e., you have to ask the mods to set you a flair, and send proof if you are trying to represent a field of science for example). I'm not sure how this is done, but I've seen it in other subreddits so I believe it is totally possible.

What do you think?

Because I can't help but think that there is better stuff that could be happening in /r/AskFeminists than "hey, I was wondering what feminists think about this blog post I found!"

Am I the only one who sees it and thinks "chained down" instead of "forged together" (obviously before hovering over it and seeing what it represents)? I don't think it's the best choice of imagery. Obviously not a big deal, just my two cents.

In /r/mensrights there is a sidebar with a faq with clear-cut definitions that also allow for user-editing. I think it would really help with the common questions here if there was a similar FAQ in here.

Before anyone gets upset, this isn't a snark, it's a real question.

As far as I can tell, there doesn't seem to be a place where we can meet and talk about gender issues without one opinion or the other getting gratuitous downvoting, which obviously stifles conversation. I'd like that to change, but I'm not sure how to do that.

I just discovered that I've apparently been banned from /r/AskFeminists although I don't remember ever posting there. I don't get it.