Too late for the webchat BUT can we have a new section in FWR please?

I do agree that it will take a bit of effort to police - the will has to be there to respond promptly to reported posts, etc, and frankly I'm not sure it is.

Hot house, selective, club?
It sounds like you want a safe space for like-minded individuals, so FB might be the best answer. You can be part of a closed group and accept requests for membership.
I belong to a couple, not feminist, but I've had no concerns with confidentiality.
Like OLKN, I've had a few times when I've got into trouble and been called 'rape apologist' and 'handmaiden' and the like on here. A private group would enable there to be discussion without dissent.

I think it's a good idea.

I used to spend a lot of time on FWR, and haven't been there much recently, as I got fed up with the trolling. I would join in on this. Perhaps MNHQ can be persuaded to do a month's trial run or something like that.

phew

I do think it's a good idea, although I don't know how receptive MNHQ will be. I know many posters are put off by the trolly goaders and we have lost some fabulous FWR voices because of them.

OTBT threads disappear after 30 days though.

Well if that really is all that is being suggested, then it is already there -- OTBT. I thought the extra idea in the OP was that discussion not from a feminist perspective (in the judgement of whoever set themselves up to decide that) would be clled "haranguing", "derailment", etc and disallowed.

Unless I've misunderstood...

But BoF isn't suggesting a closed group, merely one which is slightly harder to stumble across.

MN is an open website. I would not want to see any part of it becoming closed or pre-moderated .

There are plenty of other websites, or restricted groups in social media, where "safe" discussions can be held.

As said above, MN doesn't have to provide everything. Those who find it does not suit them have plenty of other places to go to.

with kotinka - I used to lurk a lot, and found too much of it useful and thought-provoking to let you all run off to virtual fb Greek island.
and yes didn't that horrible car crash have it's roots in a fb group?

"I just don't understand how every other subgroup in the world has a little place on MN where they can chat about their 'thing', but feminists can't."

Chicken keepers is a really niche subject that not many people are interested in. The relationships between men and women is of fundamental and pervasive importance and affects everybody profoundly, so lots and lots of people will be attracted to the FWR topic. Breast and bottle feeding topics similarly get a lot of acrimony because most posters are interested in the discussion and there are quite profoundly opposed opinions. But I don't think that separate topics for breast and bottle (or for SAHP and non-SAHP parents, or for people who like dogs and people who hate dogs), have much mileage. I don't think HQ are being disingenuous or hypocritical if they say the feminist topic is for discussion of feminism and not specifically for pro-feminist discussion. That is on a par with their moderation across the site as a whole.

BoF, I completely agree with you there

Sadly I think Were is right

I think that MN has the right kind of feminist space for the kind of site that it is -- wide open to all-comers, very public, encouraging of the broadest debate possible and yet still a very definitely female space.

I can of course see the value in a different, more closed arena for feminist discussion, to complement the kind of thing available on MN but I really can't see why MN should be the place to provide it. Anyone who wants to can set up that kind of closed discussion for free at the drop of a hat. And if it is intended to be non-googlable, it wouldn't benefit at all from being hosted by MN -- it couldn't garner more members through links on the site, promotion off-site, etc, because the whole point would be to keep it below the radar of unwanted participants.

I really don't get why some MN feminists are so determined to get MN to provide a different kind of space for women's voices from the one they are already providing. They aren't the whole internet.