? re site plans

[Christa]

Cynthia,

I am curious what type of plans you have for this site. I realize that you may not know yet, so that's okay if that's the answer.

Do you know if you intend to keep it a vegan site or expand to vegetarian as well and are you veggie? I know that Erin said that the discussion boards didn't get enough traffic and they were spending too much time cleaning up the spam posts to make it worth continuing with the boards when she was running it. Do you have a plan to do something different to increase traffic/cut down on spam?

Sorry for so many questions ;) -- just curious.

[annie7]

Do you know if you intend to keep it a vegan site or expand to vegetarian as well

I was always under the impression that it wasn't ever vegan exclusive.:confused:
It seems that we had vegetarians as well as some people from "mixed" marriages that one person was a veggie and one was an omni. No?

[vegma]

Ooh, good question! I always thought we were a "vegan" forum, but welcomed aspiring vegans and veg-friendly folks. Funny how we all have a different perspective. :p

I do know that I don't want to have to argue with omnis over whether or not this is a viable diet! Or if I raise a health issue, I don't want to be instructed to eat meat or milk or eggs. I spend most of my forum time now on a gluten-free forum where some people are veg-friendly, but a few aren't...at all! I'm looking forward to having some vegan support again and hope to be able to find it here!

[Christa]

Annie, I do agree that we've always had some vegetarians and aspiring vegans here (and my dh is omni, so I know that not all of us have fully vegan households). However, I think that the overarching theme has been that those who post here are required to be supportive of a vegan diet and not questioning it, as vegma says.

I don't know that that level of support for veganism is possible in a forum, like MDC's, that, while having a veggie subforum, gets a lot of traffic from posters who have inherent problems with a vegan diet.

Its not that I want to drive off omnis, but, like vegma again ;) , I don't want to be constantly defending my diet or getting significant amounts of input from those who follow a NT diet, for instance. Not to pick on MDC :), but I know that the two prevailing dietary philosophies that post on the nutrition board there are inherently incompatable and whenever a thread is started about a vegan health book (like the China Study) or vegan health, etc. it tends to get as many responses from those who follow the dietary philosophy of WAPF as it does from vegetarians and vegans.

The draw of this place for me has always been that I can get the perspective of other vegans and perhaps even discuss weaknesses in certain vegan hypotheses without needing to have my guard up.

[PikkuMyy]

I can see that CM is using new software for this forum, which will def. help with the spam. I think Erin said that was an issue but she didn't want to deal with switching.

I, too, want it to remain vegan but veggie friendly, hehehe.

[shellie]

VEGFAMILY VEGAN FORUMS
the title says it all for me, however, I think we should welcome vegetarians, and omnis who are genuinly looking for help in aspiring to the vegan lifestyle.
The help and support that this site has always offered is there for all to see in the archives, and I'm sure that that in itself will shine through.

[Cynthia Mosher]

Thanks for all the questions! I'm glad to see the interest for the forum and site. It is quite encouraging!!

As some of you may know I served as Mothering's board administrator for a number of years. As a result I gained quite a bit of experience in growing a community and dealing with the member issues, spam and free advertising posts that are such a common occurrence at discussion forum communities. Anytime a spammer sees a community active they want to get in on the movement, hoping to get a bit of activity directed to their site. I will put things into place to watch for this sort of posting and do the best I can to control it. But in all honest the key to maintaining the integrity of an online community lies in the membership's love for and support of their online home - which we hope is or will soon be VegFamily Forums for all of you - and moderation.

See that little red triangle at the upper right of my and every post? That's a report button. Anytime you see a post that is questionable, spammy, or otherwise against our rules (mental note: get rules in place) please click that button at the top right of that post. I or one of the moderators will act asap to handle the post.

Which brings me to a need. Moderators. I welcome your volunteership as a moderator. You can volunteer to oversee as many or as few forums as you wish - even just one. As the community grows the need for moderation will grow so if you're interested please let me know. :)

As for increasing traffic I believe that by providing excellent content and community support, traffic will come. The forums will grow and the website will grow. I do have plans to add new forums, increase the magazine and website content and features and I do want to carry us into more natural family living issues for discussion, education and activism. Animal rights, eco-living, and general natural home and body focus content, that sort of thing. I certainly welcome your input as to what you would like to see VegFamily host and provide for you.

Our focus will remain vegan and we will continue to welcome vegetarians and veg-friendly folks. But we will not host discussions or articles that promote things contrary to veganism. VegFamily has always been and will continue to be a vegan family living website. While I feel we can and should have and promote amicable relationships with others we should not, as a community, have to host discussion or articles that debate the viability of veganism. There are other sites on the web that welcome that sort of discussion. Without doubt vegans can hold their own in any such debate. But that is not our focus here at VegFamily and we want to uphold the integrity of our particular purpose on the web through supportive and encouraging words, not argumentative debate.

Christa mentioned a valid aspect of discussion: "The draw of this place for me has always been that I can get the perspective of other vegans and perhaps even discuss weaknesses in certain vegan hypotheses without needing to have my guard up."

I think this is reasonable and we can make room for such discussions when they are had by intent vegans or those sincerely interested in veganism. But if they are presented with an anti-vegan agenda we will surely not welcome it and will quickly address such discussion and members. If you see such a thing please let us know.

Thank you all again for your support, encouragement and help in getting the boards up and going again. Please invite your vegan and vegan-friendly and interested friends to join us. And please do help us in getting discussions going. This is your community and we want to do whatever we can to make it all that you want it to be! :)

[Cynthia Mosher]

Sorry Christa. I forgot to answer your question:

and are you veggie?

I certainly am! :)

[vegma]

Cynthia, thanks for the detailed response! Very encouraging! :)