After exploring more of this site I've only recently come to a few conclusions and ideas about this very subject.
- active nutters and trolls outnumber active science-minded and caring people
This did not used to be true for LongeCity. This is a common affliction of many forums, several of which I was part of mod and admin teams. We see a forum begin well with many interesting and thought out discussions, and of course have a pretty open acceptance and tolerance of new members, but slowly the trolls start creeping in, and some of the best members start going dormant.
Even though we often like to say that we should do just fine with the trolls, maybe even have a laugh here and there, and that people should just ignore the trolls - this is not really how the human brain instinctively reacts to seeing unpleasant, dangerous, obnoxious and stupid posts. These really do turn most half-decent people off right on the spot at least a little bit, or bait a select few into an argument (which can be a good or bad thing depending).
I have more to say about that but I'm on mobile right now and it's just not as friendly as computer.
I want to say one more thing though, and I do this in the knowledge of the likelihood of my being ridiculed or downvoted for it (which would only serve to illustrate my point for me):
There are too few women here. Period. The biggest reason for it is the latent and sometimes even celebratory sexism by too many active male posters chasing off the women who actually register and try to participate. And Gawd forbid anybody hint that some prejudice exists, because that automatically places them at the extreme man-hating lesbian feminist end of the spectrum. I saw a few threads where a woman tried to make this place more friendly to women and were quickly shouted down, mocked, or slapped with demeaning labels. And then she went away.
I guarantee you that at least 3 out of every 5 women who read such a thread also disappeared right then or soon after, or decided not to sign up for a user account. You need to keep in mind the type of woman who might be interested in longevity research or brain enhancement. I'm not saying this is a narrow category but the more learned, intelligent and analytical a woman is, the easier it is for her see latent sexism, to notice patterns of inequality, biased language, Freudian slips, etc... the more difficult it will be for her to forget their existence, and the less likely that she willing to endure it. She is likely to speak up about it or just leave and try her luck elsewhere.
Some, like me, chose not to disclose her sex right away because if she did not, then everyone would assume she was male until she said something to the contrary. That makes everything easier and they can stay longer. It automatically helps them be welcomed. Their posts would be a little more taken seriously, more thoughtfully replied to, less objected to, and receive more respectful replies of disagreement. Women all over the internet do it (as do many authors - send their manuscripts out under masculine names, or initial their first names. Today, this age, it still works for women to do this because the bias still lingers among women and men both. It's not just a man issue.).
Now this is not to say that all or even most of the men are behaving this way. What's going on is just that the smaller group of men is louder and more active. Even the rare male who has said something on this topic can also be ridiculed, called various derogatory names that refer to the vagina, weak or brainwashed, perhaps homosexual, perhaps even a real woman in cognito, etc. So it's not like the average man here has a problem with women.
This is the same kind of thing that happens with atheists in the public eye; you have this relatively small group of antitheists that are really loud and highly active, while the average
atheist is really not an antitheist and is just quietly minding their own life.
This actually goes right back to my first point about the trolls and weirdos turning off people who have something to contribute to the community. Being more annoyed than intrigued, more bored than entertained, more depressed than content, more isolated than embraced ... these kinds of things really do take their toll on so many people.
If it happens frequently enough, they begin to actively participate less often, lurk threads instead, gradually feeling more and more disconnected and disengaged... and eventually poof, they never login in again, gone without saying a word. This applies to both the women turned away by the pervasive low regard of women, and to the group of intellectuals, men and women both, turned away by the too-common low quality of discussion.
So that's my two cents for now.
Edited by Duchykins, 07 August 2015 - 11:55 PM.