Quote Originally Posted by Triskeliongirl View Post
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.