What happened to the Shreditas section?

NotHisRealName · Post by **NotHisRealName** » 06 Oct 2005 03:12

Yeah... what the title says.

Or have I been banned?

mc · Post by mc » 06 Oct 2005 04:02

the nature and prominent presentation of male opinions in the women-only forum made some of the women uncomfortable, so the admins decided to return the women-only forum to it's intended state- No Boys Allowed!

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 06 Oct 2005 04:32

I'm guessing this is a good time to announce that there is indeed an all female forum at modified - if you are female and want to be part of it (which would be fantastic) - send a message to Moxie, or one of the mods or admins and they'll sort it out.

Basically the guys on modified are very dominating and sometime ago (after the modified feedback survey) I decided a female only forum would be a good step in encouraging more girls to post on the forum and build the development of footbag. Of course not everybody feels the same way and the forum is still very much in the "experiment" stage but it's basically been going well.

I'm sure some guys will feel annoyed about this and claim sexism etc. If you really think it's an issue you are free to create your own footbag forum and only allow guys to be members, but otherwise you can direct your flames etc. directly to myself via PM and I'll deal with them in the appropriate manner.

I think Matt pretty much answered Gareth's question - some guys were able to see the forum, but for the same reason the forum was created in the first place, we've decided to see how things go with no male input.

slapdash21 · Post by **slapdash21** » 06 Oct 2005 05:05

i think its a really good idea...the sport is far too male-dominated, and most of the guys on modified act like only guys are reading this stuff...

EDIT-spelling

the Executioner · Post by **the Executioner** » 06 Oct 2005 10:10

It's a shame that the actions of a few get us all kicked off, especially since in the beginning it was Jane who said "hey let's invite some guys..."

Tsiangkun · Post by **Tsiangkun** » 06 Oct 2005 10:17

WTF ? Anyone care to illustrate the problems were for those of us who weren't invited ?

Iain · Post by **Iain** » 06 Oct 2005 11:41

the most appalling thing about this is that it was kept hidden from the rest of modified.

Basically the guys on modified are very dominating

Shouldn't there be a forum for jewish shredders? How about homosexual ones? What about shredders over 40? I don't want to argue that it isn't fair to males. I want to argue that it isn't fair to other minorities represented on modified.

I decided a female only forum would be a good step in encouraging more girls to post on the forum and build the development of footbag.

How does keeping it hidden exactly encourage more girls to post? When a new shredita signs up for the forum, they sign up for reasons that are all BUT for posting in a girls only forum. How could they possibly know about that sub-forum until after they have signed up. I could see this as having a reverse effect because what this does encourage is less posting on the main forums by females.

I just don't know what to think. Part of me supports it while another part despises it. And when I make a point for one side, i can always make a counter-point for the other.

Torch · Post by **Torch** » 06 Oct 2005 12:06

Why not just kick off the offenders? Most of us would just like to add encouraging comments (about footbag, not how asses look nice in kick shorts) that the majority of the women would, I'm assuming, like to hear. Ladies, add your input here. Personally I think problems are solved much better through communication, not the silent treatment. This seems like a pretty classic theme in relationships. You know, the guy going "what did I do" and the girl going "I shouldn't have to tell you". This is of course a generalization, but I see it a lot. Really though, if the girls feel that uncomfortable with the situation it is only prudent to acquiesce. Already this thread is dominated by males going "WTF man, this some bullshit dude". Hmmm, I guess I understand.

jon · Post by **jon** » 06 Oct 2005 12:15

Iain wrote:the most appauling thing about this is that it was kept hidden from the rest of modified.

ya hidden forums suck

Tsiangkun · Post by **Tsiangkun** » 06 Oct 2005 12:46

Don't lay that WTF man bullshit on me, like i"m some how to blame for this, I wasn't even in the sekrit forum. I have nothing to do with this one. I'm just asking WTF happened ?

It's wrong to go public about a sekrit forum going back to the way it was without an explanation about why this post wasn't kept in the secret forum in the first place.

mosher · Post by **mosher** » 06 Oct 2005 12:56

I got kicked out of the shredita forum before everyone else was for pointing out a blatant double standard.

There was a thread talking about male players as eye candy and I made the point that basically everybody would freak out if someone started a thread with the sexes reversed.

I think the all-girls forum is a good thing, but if this gimmick forum is going to exist it needs to be purely all girls, you can't go letting in some people and not others.

I was kinda sad when I was told I got kicked out.. apparently my pointing out the obvious upset some people.
I apologize to any one that I offended, though I honestly feel my statements were both polite and with merit.

I hate being controversial sometimes.

Muffinman · Post by **Muffinman** » 06 Oct 2005 13:10

Secret forums are dumb.

Tsiangkun · Post by **Tsiangkun** » 06 Oct 2005 13:23

Damn Tom, that hardly seems fair.

Senor Grommet · Post by **Senor Grommet** » 06 Oct 2005 14:02

I think the point is this:

1) Shreditas WAS an all girls forum.
2) Once one male was allowed in, it opened the floodgates. WAY more males were posting there as compared to females. It stopped being a "women's only" forum at this point.
3) The Shreditas in modified began to feel intimidated/angry that they could not get an all-women point of view about topic X/ Issue X because too many guys would flood threads with replies.
4) Some shreditas were embarrassed to post re: certain topics because they knew guys would be reading them. Women became too uncomfortable to post what they wanted to say on their own forum.

Something had to change.

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 06 Oct 2005 14:08

Everybody was kicked out of the forum at the same time. The topic Tom mentions was only a small part of the decision. I think it's important at this time think of the point of modified and as such - it doesn't matter if girls decide only to post in the all girls forum or not (although I'd like it if everybody posted in all the forums). Modified is both a community and a tool for building footbag around the world.

I appreciate that this is not a popular decision especially amongst the guys who post at that forum, but also those who have never seen it - but as I said before - it's not your interests that are being considered.

I'm sorry I can't comment more on this but maybe later when I'm not super stressed about other issues and about to fly across the country I will.

Regarding the "secretness" of the forum - it was announced some time ago at www.shreditas.com so anybody who reads that website would have known about it anyway. There was also a small brief announcement on modified a while ago that nobody paid much attention too - so we've hardly kept it secret - we just haven't gone out of way to make sure every single person knows - just the people who the forum is aimed at.

edit: Well said Jeremy Mirken!

david · Post by **david** » 06 Oct 2005 14:34

jeremys post brings up something funny. if you really gave a shit about womens freestyle you would probably be reading shreditas and then wouldve known about the forum anyway.

Mightymic · Post by **Mightymic** » 06 Oct 2005 14:43

hahahahahahahahaha

hahahahahahahahahaha

wheres scooter?

sampotter · Post by **sampotter** » 06 Oct 2005 14:48

I regret my contributions to all of the men getting kicked off, but I feel that its status as an all female forum is a wise choice. Once a few people were allowed in, then even more were allowed in, and eventually it became as bad as the regular forums, with the exception that it had maybe 1/10 of the activity. At any rate, I will miss being able to read up on all of the sickness that some of the shreditas were laying down, but so it goes. My only qualm with this issue is that it seemed like Jeremy -- another male -- was gunning this change as opposed to women, which I find to be somewhat hypocritical, although he is an administrator, and I am obviously in the dark as to any PMs that were sent. Whatever. I hope that some of the shreditas decide to post all of the craziness they used to post where we all can see it, and I hope the male shredders on this forum have the respect to treat them as equals instead of players who need to be coddled and encouraged to excess whenever they improve. At any rate, there's always shreditas.com!

Splint · Post by **Splint** » 06 Oct 2005 15:19

Okay, let me start out by defending Jeremy here. First off, he wasn't "gunning" for anyone. He had very little to do in the process of deciding to make the forum all women again. I have received PM's from female players concerning the topics in the Shreditas Forum and the dominance of males in that section. I asked a couple of people their thoughts on it. Jeremy was one of them, but he was in no way an instigator. AND Jeremy is not an Admin. He is a Moderator and one of the best ever. Especially for wholeheartedly backing me up and defending my action on this subject.

I read over some of the more recent threads in the Shredita forum a couple of days ago, including the one that Tom is referring to. His pointing out of the double standard was not the sole reason he was removed from the section. It was the after effect of his post that had the most impact. The question raised was pretty strictly geared toward getting some of the Shreditas to come out of their shell and have some "Girl Talk". Tom's response led to a thread that was totally dominated by guys talking about checking out girls. The direction of that thread then led to the PM's I received and some of the women once again feeling uncomfortable about speaking their minds when guys are around.

There was a real dilemna about kicking the guys out since they had been invited by some of the women, but in the end it seemed best to allow the women in the section to have some of their own time to discuss how they would like to direct the future of the Shreditas forum without any hindrance from the guys. Here's an example of why that discussion wouldn't work if the guys stayed. There was a poll put up a long time ago asking if guys should be allowed or not. At that point there were already several guys in the forum. The poll was about 13 to 6 that they should be allowed. However, some of the guys VOTED. That totally busted the whole reason for having the discussion in the first place.

I do think it's great that some of the guys who were in the Shreditas forum gave very encouraging feedback to the lady players. Honestly if it had stayed to 5 or 6 guys it might not have ever been an issue. However, the membership was about 50-50. So the point of having an all female section that was half guys was simply ridiculous.

Women in this sport need all the encouragement they can get and this is one simple way to do it. It's not hurting anyone and it's providing a place where the women should be allowed to feel comfortable.

full nelson · Post by **full nelson** » 06 Oct 2005 15:30

Good points Jeremy and K. You guys made the right choice.

And David is funny