Introduction to Depressed Women Network

[admin]

This is meant to be a safe space for women to vent, connect, and discuss issues of all kinds. It is not required to be certifiably depressed to join the network, if you have something to contribute. If you are or ever were male, you can read the public section, but you are urged to respect the boundary defining this space, do not attempt to join to invade the privacy of everyone involved. It is possible some fakers will escape detection for awhile, so it is recommended to avoid personal references, real names, identity giveaways just in case.

The public forum is for private discussions the network wants the public to see. Free Soil has a separate forum for engaging with the public at large, as well as blogs. The long introduction An Open Letter to Depressed Women is on the party blog. The main blog of our 2008 Presidential candidate Cheryl Seelhoff, aka Heart, is more widely read. This forum is more indirectly political and personal than any of those, intended to provide a supportive atmosphere for women to discuss whatever troubles them most at the moment. The public forum is intended for announcements and private political discussions the public can read, but not participate. The private forums are invisible unless logged in.

Anyone can request a sub forum of their own, to discuss things with a group of friends. The Vent forum is meant for venting rather than discussion, so comments could be optional or about related experiences, as opposed to provoking discussion. Vents are raw and hard to follow, so best not to jump to conclusions while reading. Especially in the Vent forum, read Generously, but report abuse or suspicions of male intrusion. Offenders are subject to banning, if the suspicions are warranted.

In the discussion forums, anyone can start a topic on whatever she would like to discuss, unless it is about something from the Vent forum. That is off limits for discussion unless the topic starter and the writer of the vent agree to put it up for discussion. The same goes for the public forum, with the understanding it will be visible to outsiders. It is hard to imagine the network would want to make a vent public, but if a writer decides she is really proud of her rant, why not? Rules are not meant to be dogmatic, but to ensure women are not abused here. For more on the purpose of this forum, read that Open Letter. To join the network, after you register you will be informed you can make your first post. To truth, healing, discovery, a way out of all the poison illusions!