Ovarit is closing

[TheSandgroper]

https://ovarit.com/o/Announcements/676340/ovarit-is-closing

So many clever, intelligent women discussing and conversing (like on Mumsnet). I have loved it and learnt from it and admired from afar.

I only found it a few months ago. I am going to have to print out my two favourite threads to read regularly.

Can you share those threads somehow please OP.

I am so saddened by this. The main admin is thoroughly burnt out and she worries that selling it will mean user privacy is at risk.

There goes my collection of Ovarit bookmarks. Fortunately I've done a fair amount of archiving over the years.

https://ovarit.com/o/GenderCritical/29641/did-the-us-greens-learn-nothing-from-the-challenor-scandal
https://archive.ph/MfRsW

I really like to live and let people live their lives as they see fit, so long as they're not actively hurting people in the process. Sometimes this thought creeps into my mind because I want to help people who are so disassociated from their own bodies that they feel like an alien trapped inside of a shell. I especially want to help because I've been there. I've had those thoughts and I've had those feelings. For a long time, being against trans was like being against LGB for me; what place did I have to speak on behalf of other's pain and experience, or to deny them of treatment that they said was required?

What it always comes down to though is that the LGB movement genuinely supported loving yourself as you were, that you could be who you are, in the body that you have, loving the people that you do, and that it was OK, that it was innate, that it was normal. Accepting same-sex attraction requires that everyone change absolutely nothing. A woman dating another woman affects no one but the two people in a relationship, unless you're simply morally outraged. The trans lobby instead tells you that if your mind doesn't fit a certain criteria, based on literally anything, then you need to change yourself. It pushes that it's normal to hate your body, and that to love your body, you need medication, surgery, and treatment for life. It normalizes self hate in the guise of self acceptance. On top of that, it requires everyone else to capitulate in both language and actions. Changing how words are used and what they mean, and forcing others to be quiet about their discomfort and needs for safety.

I will never feel wrong about opposing a movement that pushes for the normalization of experimental cosmetic surgery on children and teens. I will never feel wrong about opposing a movement that enforces gender stereotypes. I will never feel wrong about opposing a movement that disregards genuine safeguarding concerns. I will never feel wrong for opposing a movement where any critic or call for discussion is met with overt aggression and threats.

Wasn’t there another forum set up for women around the same time?

I never thought about the sale aspect Delphinium. That would be problematic, wouldn’t it.

Was she targeted by TRA?
Was the site generally, does anyone know?

^(or he 🙄😉)

I wonder if we will get more new FWR posters because of the closure. I remember the excitement when ovarit started and we had people leave. Or we knew banned posters went over after that period of excessive (imo) banning here.

It would be interesting to know how many people on ovarit are not on FWR already.

It was excessive banning here.

People were banned for saying things that now would be perfectly fine to say because the conversation has moved on and become sane.

MN needs a reset with regards to that, but because it involves an admission of getting it wrong (which undermines their current position and authority - leaving it wide open to criticism) it won't happen.

I hope that people quietly simply creep back and stay within the current terms instead and MN quietly allow as long as people, again, remain within the current rules.

I agree it was excessive red. We lost many posters in that period. Through bans and through frustration.

I would love them to come back.

Yes, me too. I learned so much by reading their posts and was very sorry to see posters, who were only trying to safe guard children, banned from a parenting forum. It is really shocking when you look back.

Lest we forget

LangCleg wrote Thu 21-Feb-19

"How did the scandal of TV entertainers grooming and exploiting children get so bad before anything was done?

How did the scandal of Catholic priests grooming and exploiting children get so bad before anything was done?

How did the scandal of on-street gangs grooming and exploiting children get so bad before anything was done?

Because if you create a sacred caste of any group and silence anyone asking questions about individuals on behalf of the sacred caste, abusers will see, infiltrate, and groom and exploit children. That''s how."

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3512177-Julia-Long-asking-Munro-Bergdorf-about-child-exploitation?pg=12

Oh that's a shame on multiple fronts. I was keeping that place in mind as a back up if too many regulars here "disappeared". I wouldn't know of any alternatives now 😕

There's a gender discussion board on t a t t l e but it's only one board and it doesn't have anywhere near the depth of discussion that FWR has.

That's a real shame. I hope the owner is able to rest well and recover.

I tried to join tattle but apparently you need a member to invite you

Yeah, they do have some kind of odd invitation-only thing going on.
As regards their gender discussion board, it can be very harsh but often very funny as well!

They banned people for things that were fine to say back then, it's just they made up rules and applied them retrospectively.

They also had to have meetings about whether a user had broken a rule or not, which does rather suggest that the rules were unclear even to themselves.

And they banned IP addresses from rejoining so that people couldn't sneak back and carry on with the new rules.

And of course lets not forget allowing TRAs to highlight posts on here from twitter and then just snapping to it to ban the women who hadn' teven been reported by other users.

Are you thinking of Spinster?

I joined that but had no clue what I was doing (I'm still rubbish at posting on and following threads on Twitter/X). I've no clue if it is still going or not

After reddit banned r/GenderCritical, Ovarit was born, but so was a forum (still there but not very active) on Saidit, plus Spinster (which is sorta like Twitter).

Ovarit's maid admin is based in the US, which has helped her weather storms from lawsuits because we have protections Europe and the UK don't.

From girlundone (main Ovarit admin):
In the US, Section 230 makes this site possible. I wouldn’t have made it without it and I would have shut it down instantly if it was going to be repealed as some people are always trying to do. Someone hosting a flat backup version though, I don’t know if Section 230 applies to them, I would guess it would not. Again, I don’t know and I’m not a lawyer.

Many times. Notably, the Australian government tried to shut them down but the LLC is American, so, as Anna Slatz of Reduxx so eloquently noted, „What were they planning to do about it? Throw a boomerang at them?“

Have just found this space. So sad.

A few months on, anyone found any good alternatives to ovarit?

https://vexxed.org/o/GenderCritical

tattle was run by a man using a woman's name.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y7j512ln7o