I saw a link today to Kialo.com which is marketing itself as a polite/reasonable site for debate, as an alternative to the aggression elsewhere on social media.
My first thought was that these sorts of sites all end up, like Wikipedia, controlled by men, with complicated rules and barely hidden prejudices that mean women and especially feminists are excluded by force, and eventually just because we avoid places like that as it is so clear we aren't wanted there and it is a hostile space for us.
Anyway, not wanting to judge to early but having that sick feeling in my stomach of yet another site which will add to the great male internet circle jerk of confirming each others righteousness by righteously excluding the voices of Others..
I went to have a look. Specifically at the 'sex' and 'gender' related debates. These cover questions like "should sex work be legal", "will see robots liberate the next generation of women", "should puberty in children be delayed for preperation for gender reassignment", "Gender neutral bathrooms - should they be standard", "should the use of chosen or gender neutral pronouns be mandatory". The discussions all have 'pro' and 'con' arguments which can be responded to and voted up and down. There is the usual fiddling by administrators deciding which arguments are valid or should be closed or merged, or get made prominent. So far all the arguments I've seen seem to come from either the 'intersectionality queer' side or the 'conservative right winger' side. No feminist arguments that I have seen. Very little evidence provided for anything.
Is anyone here using this site? I'm interested in whether it's worth joining? Does anyone here have any opinions about the structure and potential (positive or negative) uses of it?
Sorry for vagueness - just looking for female and feminist opinion really on this site and others like it.