Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Feminism: chat

Original poster

Gender Critical Science

147 replies

Terfulike · 15/05/2018 12:28

We are hoping to ascertain interest in gender critical science discussions and activities. Please let us know here or via pm if you are scientifically or medically trained and wish to join our discussions and /or activities.

OP posts:
Original poster
Terfulike · 15/05/2018 16:49

Excellent terfinginthevoid.
With both scientists and clinicians on board we should certainly be able to conduct a thorough literature review.

OP posts:
flowersonthepiano · 15/05/2018 16:54

Pratchet are they already doing this?

Original poster
Terfulike · 15/05/2018 17:00

The website you mention Pratchet has a slightly different focus.

We are coming from a scientific angle.

OP posts:
OldmanOfTheWeb2 · 15/05/2018 17:01

I created a Reddit page that can be used as a template for this, or the real thing if you like. I did this just because I have a little experience here and I want to help. It's not meant as an attempt to push anything.

Has protected status for privacy, a sample wiki with sections for literature, community list and archived news articles. And a welcome sticky.

Again, not trying to be presumptuous. Just thought it might be a good starting point even if only for ideas. I also created a Discord server to run in parallel for chat.

Just offering this if wanted. Hope this doesn't come across as presuming. I can invite anyone who is on reddit and make people moderators equal to myself when or if people agree who those moderators should be.

Original poster
Terfulike · 15/05/2018 17:04

They describe themselves as "This website is a community of professionals thinking critically about the youth transgender movement. We are psychologists, social workers, doctors, medical ethicists, and academics.We tend to be left-leaning, open-minded, and pro-gay rights. However, we are concerned about the current trend to quickly diagnose and affirm young people as transgender, often setting them down a path toward medical transition.”

OP posts:
Original poster
Terfulike · 15/05/2018 17:06

I'll need to check with flowers on this but in principle I am in favour old man

OP posts:
PerkingFaintly · 15/05/2018 17:09

I'd investigate what control and privacy you have on Discord very carefully before using it.

I know nothing about it technically, and it may meet your needs, but it's also a favoured hangout for eg creators of "revenge porn". So if you get it wrong you'll be smack in the middle of a bunch of users who might be keen on your threads for all the wrong reasons...

Discord has had problems with hostile behaviour and abuse within chats, with some communities of chat servers being "raided" (the taking over of a server by a large number of users) by other communities. This includes flooding with controversial topics related to race, religion, politics, and pornography.[27] Discord has stated that they have plans to implement changes that would "rid the platform of the issue".[28]
[...]
In January 2018, The Daily Beast reported that it found that there were several Discord servers that were specifically engaged in distributing revenge porn and facilitating real-world harassment of the victims of these images and videos. Such actions are against Discord's terms of service and Discord has shut down servers and banned users identified from these servers, but the ease of creating new accounts and servers allows such servers to continue to proliferate.[36]
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discord_(software)

OldmanOfTheWeb2 · 15/05/2018 17:19

PerkingFaintly Yes - absolutely many people use Discord for that. It originated as a tool for online gaming with all the cultural baggage that came with it. It's why things like the loading icon is a game controller. But here's the thing - those people use it because it's a good way to run a small community with protections and controls. Unlike Reddit which is a large single community with sub-reddits, Discord servers are distinct things. It's not that you will go on there and accidentally stray into a section with content like you describe. Whereas for Reddit you could easily move from one community to the other. In Discord, you have to be invited to a server. For example, your quote mentions chat servers being "raided". That can't happen. It's something that results from a gaming community throwing an open invite out there to people.

I use Discord quite a bit. I never have issues like you describe because I'm not part of those communities and Discord isn't a shared community (beyond having a single login).

Wanderabout · 15/05/2018 17:20

Agree with Perking

OldmanOfTheWeb2 · 15/05/2018 17:21

Just to add, you could equally point at Reddit having had (for a horrifyingly long time) a "jailbait" subreddit. Or their being White Supremacist groups on Facebook. Discord is a tool, rather than a single community. It's not exposing yourself to such groups to use it nor inviting them to share in yours.

OldmanOfTheWeb2 · 15/05/2018 17:24

Agree with Perking

May I ask why? I actually have a fair bit of experience with it and calling it a "hangout" for these communities is misleading. Every Server is separate. People can only join it if you invite them. If someone creates a "Revenge Porn" server, that's entirely independent to if you create a server. And you can't "see" other servers just because they exist.

Original poster
Terfulike · 15/05/2018 17:31

WordPress is another possibility given that Youth Trans Critical Professionals have been using it for 2 years without a problem

OP posts:
PerkingFaintly · 15/05/2018 17:31

Glad to hear you haven't had issues, OldmanOfTheWeb2. It's just not something you want to make a technical error with at any point, because of the particularly high proportion of people who'll be horribly delighted at the opportunity.

OldmanOfTheWeb2 · 15/05/2018 17:39

Yes. I totally understand the concern. And despite my slight over-reaction in response, I'm not actually pushing any particular tool! Those communities do exist and it's very natural to presume Discord is a single community where you could run into them. But what you actually do is create a server, called say "Gender Critical", and send out invites by email, PM, whatever to the people you want to join it. The server isn't visible and can't be searched for. Overlap is limited to being able to send a Friend invite to someone if you have their username. Even there, people can't actually send you messages unless you accept it.

I'd liken it to encryption in WWII. The Germans developed their Enigma machine. The allies had their own encryption methods. Both sides used the same methods to oppose each other. ;)

Anyway, apologies for any derailment!

OldmanOfTheWeb2 · 15/05/2018 17:42

Wordpress is very good. I'd say it depends how much you want it to be a community vs. a publishing process. You can comment on Word press blogs but it's not a great way of equal involvement. One nice thing with Reddit is you can have an editable Wiki. It's built in and good for ongoing collation of information - say a growing list of references. It's also fair for managing who can view posts and reply to them.

PerkingFaintly · 15/05/2018 17:42

No no, glad to have learnt more!

OldmanOfTheWeb2 · 15/05/2018 17:48

Thanks. Maybe you're right that some sort of "don't accept invites from strangers" advice might be a good idea. There are a lot of odd people out there. But I'd imagine if a Discord server is set up, it would be a short list of people who actually had the ability to invite others to the servers. So presumably they'd be responsible people!

But I'm conscious I'm posting a lot here. I have a bit of a background in this so am prone to getting overzealous. I'll get out of the way now. People can contact me if I can be of help.

Pratchet · 15/05/2018 17:53

Sorry I just thought it might be helpful to liaise. I'm so pleased you are doing this. There was 'a geneticist' on twitter dismissing male and female, so I think it would be useful.

flowersonthepiano · 15/05/2018 18:27

Pratchet I think I may have seen and interacted with said 'geneticist'....

Members only Reddit with an editable Wiki sounds good to me. Would have no clue where to begin setting such a thing up though.

BoreOfWhabylon · 15/05/2018 18:34

I am a GP Registrar, and horrified at what looks like being the biggest medical scandal since lobotomies.

I'm so pleased to read this @terfinginthevoid. As a very old nurse I agree entirely.

Wonder if you'd care to share your opinion of the conduct of a certain trainee GP/wannabe Trans spokesdoc's Twitter activities?

OldmanOfTheWeb2 · 15/05/2018 18:34

I made one. If you're on Reddit then send me a message (I'm OldmanOfTheWeb on there) and I'll give you access to the subreddit. You can tell me what you need changed / set up.

OldmanOfTheWeb2 · 15/05/2018 18:36

BoreOfWhabylon Would this be a certain GP that claims there's no such thing as sex yet also talks about how they only watch porn without women in it? Because I've a funny feeling I might know which GP you mean.

PencilsInSpace · 15/05/2018 18:37

This sounds a great idea! I have no relevant skills or qualifications but I wish you the best of luck.

Can I just sound a note of caution and remind you all to be really careful sharing RL details / inviting people you don't know to join groups etc.?

It stinks to have to be paranoid but as thebewilderness says, on the internet nobody knows you're a potato, and there has been more than one group that has had trouble with 'moles'.

OldmanOfTheWeb2 · 15/05/2018 18:41

Totally true. If people just want me to talk them through setting it up / copy what I did so that I'm not an admin, I'm fine with that. For my history, I'm on Twitter as OldmanOfTheWeb so people can see I haven't just appeared. I hope people on here know each other well enough that a secure Moderator list can be built at least.

BoreOfWhabylon · 15/05/2018 18:41

That would be the one OldMan