Should Men be allowed in a Women's Forum?

[Triskeliongirl]

Wow, I am really surprised by this thread cuz I had no clue anyone had a problem with men posting here. Just for a little history, Mr. Silver first started posting as Silver to inform us of Silver's accident, and give us updates (which I personally very much appreciated). Some of us then encouraged him to create his own account, since accounts are individual, to prevent confusion between posts he made (which I think we all welcomed as updates on silver's condition) and posts that silver was starting to make as she recovered. And yes, sometimes he posts to give us the male perspective on things, and frankly I have found his posts insightful and helpful. To me, what makes this a womens forum, is that we discuss issues that are of general interest to women cyclists, and do it in a way that is more respectful than *some* male dominated forums. But where does it say that men aren't welcome? Sure if a guy (or gal for that matter) posts things that are obnoxious and insulting, we should ask them to leave. But to me this forum isn't about anyones gender or sexual orientation, but a forum with an emphasis on 'women's cycling', so as long as that emphasis is respected, anyone should be welcome to post. And remember, girls, this is the WWW, anyone can claim to be of whatever gender they want and post, so why care if someone is being honest about who they are? Don't think for a minute that you are posting in a place where only women can see what you write, the whole wide world can see. Look at the top of your screen, its says women's cycling discussion forum. To me, that describes our focus, and not the gender of the poster. I feel really bad about this thread being started however, cuz clearly it is going to make Mr. Silver feel unwelcome no matter what consensus we reach.

Edit: I posted before knowing there was another thread in which this issue had come up. So, I thank Bluetree for bringing it to the attention of the entire group. Indeed, this is an issue that all of us should try to reach conensus on.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I feel really bad about this thread being started however, cuz clearly it is going to make Mr. Silver feel unwelcome no matter what consensus we reach.

I suspect Mr. Silver would welcome the idea of us all having an open and civil discussion about it.

Males join the forum from time to time- some of them lurk and read and never let their presence be known, eventually losing interest, I suppose. Others have initially not disclosed their gender, and play lame games on the forum. Yet others post openly as men but have suspect motives and are eventually removed or leave.
And then there are those men who are respectful of women and whose posts either seek help or actually sometimes contribute valuable viewpoints. This category includes guys seeking advice about buying bikes for their wives, etc, it includes a man who tragically lost his fiance in a biking accident, reading our comfort posts. It includes also Mr.Silver who kept us up to date on Silver's recovery from her accident, then stayed on apparently for comaraderie and weight loss support.
Personally, I have no problem with a few "sensitive guys" posting here and there. There is no locked door that I can see on TE.
For good or bad, this fairly lenient policy has functioned to some degree or another in the past. But I do feel that in light of recent unease expressed in other threads, it should be an issue that is openly discussed by us all, and eventually there should be a consensus of what TE members want. My opinion is that there needs to be a set policy about it so that there is no more vagueness. I hope administrators will read everyone's ideas and opinions consider setting a clearer policy that we can all live with.