Bisexuality Forum?

[novabicple]

You're right, Miss Piggy.

Maybe the new forum should be named 'Sexuality & Swinging' - a direct offshoot of 'Polyamory and Swinging'. This may encourage all the community's monosexuals (straight AND gay) and bisexuals to participate in discussions focused purely on sexuality issues within the lifestyle context.

Great idea!

[sereneiders]

Originally Posted by Miss_Piggy

Perhaps the forum could be just generally on the topic of sexuality or sexual orientation or something like that. Then discussion of bisexuality and straightness and such identifications could all fit into the same place. I think most of the discussion of the difficulties related to being a straight couple are heavily related to bisexuality in swinging.

Well said. Perhaps it could be named "Sexual orientation & Swinging". This would include both bi and straight wanting to discuss issues where their sexual orientation (bi-ness or straightness as Julie called it) have to do with the problem, with the advantage that it isn't biased towards one sexual orientation nor it can be misunderstood as discriminating.

[2jersey]

Notice that the board has a "singles" forum but not a "couples" forum. As such, being a single swinger is treated as being outside the norm. Similarly, poly swingers are given nonnormative status.

In essence the board is saying to singles and polys: “You are different from mainstream swingers in subtle but important ways. Please use the singles/poly forums to initiate discussions on topics which are uniquely related to being single/poly.”

In contrast, bisexual activity (among females) is highly prevalent, bordering on the majority - and the definition of bisexuality is very fuzzy.

Creating a separate bisexuality forum may detract from the user-friendliness of the board. At a minimum, expect more misplaced threads, cross-posts, etc...

[Chicup]

Originally Posted by 2jersey

In contrast, bisexual activity (among females) is highly prevalent, bordering on the majority - and the definition of bisexuality is very fuzzy.

Creating a separate bisexuality forum may detract from the user-friendliness of the board. At a minimum, expect more misplaced threads, cross-posts, etc...

Thats my feeling as well, but perhaps, a male bisexuality forum (based on the 'norm' criteria wouldn't be out of the question.

[Sweet_Candy]

Originally Posted by 2jersey

Notice that the board has a "singles" forum but not a "couples" forum. As such, being a single swinger is treated as being outside the norm. Similarly, poly swingers are given nonnormative status.

In essence the board is saying to singles and polys: “You are different from mainstream swingers in subtle but important ways. Please use the singles/poly forums to initiate discussions on topics which are uniquely related to being single/poly.”

In contrast, bisexual activity (among females) is highly prevalent, bordering on the majority - and the definition of bisexuality is very fuzzy.

Creating a separate bisexuality forum may detract from the user-friendliness of the board. At a minimum, expect more misplaced threads, cross-posts, etc...

Thanks Jersey for putting into words my thoughts on this topic.

Where does one stop with sub categories? Oh and Bi-sexuality is fuzzy?

[JustAskJulie]

I can definately appreciate your thoughts. Again, sub-categories are not there to seperate the people but simply to seperate the posts and thus make them easier to find, and HOPEFULLY help cut down (in some areas) on the same questions being asked over and over again. The Singles & Swinging forum was created early on to provided for two reasons - to make it clear that singles ARE welcome here (since so many sites do discriminate against them) and to provide a place for the posts pertaining to singles so that they would be found easily and not constantly end up with the same topic repeated over and over again. I think it's done its job quite well when you look at the number of topics in that forum that have actually been on-going for the last 3-years.

Polyamory was created for the same reason, not to segregate but to promote a feeling of welcome, because it was brought to our attention that 1. there are many swingers who are also poly and 2. they didn't feel that they fit in either here or in the poly world and wanted a place where they could feel safe.

If you look back at my original post that was the same reason I gave for the idea of creating a bisexuality forum - to provide a place for (mainly) bisexual males where they could post comfortably and feel that they fit into the swinging world. With that in mind, I would agree that there is definately validity to the idea of a "straight" forum as well for the very same reason.

Where do we stop with sub-categories? We probably don't. As a site like this continues to grow we will continue to need to create subcategories to make it easier to find topics of interest. As it is we go through 30-50 topics a week JUST in the General Swingers Forum, meaning that topics get buried pretty fast and often before they really get answered. This is something we don't want. The General Swingers forum is VERY broad and that is why on occasion we look at pulling very active topics out of it and giving them their own forum. Call it pruning if you will, you prune a tree so that it can continue to grow, we do the same with the forums. As the site continues to grow and the number of new posts continues to increase it will be harder and harder for each new post to get "light" and make it more likely that posts will die early deaths without really being answered. By pruning (creating new sub-forums for highly active subjects) we allow all the posts to get more light.

This is continuing to be a very good discussion and I don't know what it will lead to as we continue to get feedback. Also, please refer back to my original post in this thread as it was NOT just soley based at the idea of a bisexualality forum but also asking if there are other forums you would like to see created, other topics you feel may not be being discussed to their full potential.

[novabicple]

Julie,

Have you made a decision regarding a BiForum?

[JustAskJulie]

It looks like we've decided not to do it, at least for now.