15
Edit: I see the suggestion is for certain posts to be logged-in user only. Yeah... that is security theater. TRAs who have managed to get Ovarit accounts are going to be watching those "logged in only" posts like a hawk.
I would be okay with select circles being hidden for logged in users only, like o/Women and o/WomensHealthLounge, but I don't support making the whole site hidden for logged in users only.
For one, I don't think lurkers are bad. Even TRA and TIM lurkers. They help keep Ovarit accountable and I actually like to read any retorts they have against our points to see where weak spots in arguments are.
I think Ovarit is an important place for peaking people. Especially o/WomensLiberation and o/GenderCritical.
As others have pointed out, there are likely already "infiltrators" here. Making the site only for logged in users is more likely to cause women to down their defenses and think it's safer to post here than not. I would definitely not feel any more safer posting any more personal information than I do now even if the site was guaranteed to be for logged in users only. It is not extra security, it is essentially security theater.
Also, Ovarit has not ever been women-only. It is a large majority women, but it is definitely not women-only.
As I said, I know Ovarit isn't women only.
I don't see the issue with having the option to do it with certain post in certain circles.
You can say that having locks on your doors is security theatre when a burgler decides to break in but I am not going to take the locks off and leave the door open.
If some people want the option then I don't see a problem. There are TRAs who monitor the site 'like hawks' anyway.
I don't see the issue with having the option to do it with certain post in certain circles. [...] There are TRAs who monitor the site 'like hawks' anyway.
The issue I have is that it doesn't solve anything. All it does is give a false sense of safety, which is not good to have on an online website.
You can say that having locks on your doors is security theatre when a burgler decides to break in but I am not going to take the locks off and leave the door open.
Faulty analogy. Locks are not security theater, they do actually make it more difficult to enter. Security theatre would be like having fake locks. And no one is suggesting you to "take the locks off and leave the door open" in your analogy? I'm not even sure what that is supposed to allude to. Just seems like exaggeration to me.
To match the analogy up to your feature request, you're requesting we can put locks on certain houses in our community, and give all members a key. You are claiming this makes things safer. Some of us are pointing out that some members are already secretly burglars, so you'd be giving some burglars the key as well. It's not right to have this security theater so women feel like it's safe to put valuables in the locked houses, when burglars are able to access the locked houses anyway, and burglars will now actually know to look for the locked houses for the "good stuff."
It will stop them being able to link to such things directly for everyone to see, but it won’t stop the TRA lurkers we know are always around and looking for the next thing to post on reddit, from SSing those threads and posting them to their TRA/MRA forums.
I post knowing full well TRA/TIMs and MRAs are likely looking at it too. In fact, that often encourages me to post even more critically of those people, knowing there’s at least one lurker who will read it.
If it meant less lurkers rather than no lurkers I would still take that.
I love the idea, and like the analogy you used in a comment
The men have their noses pressed against the windows and I for one would like to draw the curtains.
I might be hyper aware of this but it is why I (and probably other women) feel less safe posting and refrain from posting as often. Your suggestion gives us security. It's a boundary.
There is also something to be said for having more privacy in female only spaces. Ovarit is close to being female only with hopefully just a few outliers. But it is still a female space watched by males from the outside. The men have their noses pressed against the windows and I for one would like to draw the curtains.
The downside to this is it would likely provide a false sense of security and posters might let their guards down a little too much. We've definitely had TRAs acquire invite codes before, and there are likely still some on here now, eager to be the one to leak super secret TERF plans to their cohort, along with the risk of being hacked. Think the creators of this site were very smart to set it up in a way that doesn't use/store email addresses for accounts, but even PMs should probably be written with an understanding that it's possible they'll end up leaked.
It's a risk of becoming complacent but it's better than nothing. Even if there are some TRAs here who have managed to make accounts it would still be read by less TRAs than if it is just posted publicly where everyone can read it.
I am not talking about sharing any personal information at all, I don't think that is wise. I am talking about the ability to organize. Not being able to organize has really held things back in my view.
If we can all take some kind of action to get the word out about the harms of gender ideology it makes sense to share thoughts together about how to be most effective. Otherwise a lot of us who might want to help will just be stickering solo in our local area. Which is fine but there is a limit to what it can achieve with that alone.
Understandable, both the need for it and the sentiment, just not sure Ovarit is the best solution to that need as a platform due to the limitations of being unverified.
Personally, despite the creepiness of being watched by unfriendly eyes, think it's also a strength in a way: this is one of the only places left where people can actually see what "TERFs" are actually saying, instead of having to take genderists' word on it, and I try to write comments with that in mind, that we're not just speaking to each other, but also to people just beginning to peak...and even to those who hate-read us but can't quite shake off the things we have to say.
I agree, I don't think the whole of Ovarit should only be viewable to users, I just think that there should be the option to restrict certain posts in the activist circle so we can actually talk about practical steps without being observed.
I think it's good for women on the way to peaking to be able to read Ovarit with signing up. But I also I think that a lot of TRAs are happy to intentionally misinterpret our views no matter how transparent we are about not being a hate group.