I think a 'non-transitioning' board would be a great idea, because it would allow non-transitioning people to discuss their GD without being triggered by talk about hormones & surgery. Ideally, the existing Non-Op board should be a child board of a new Non-Transitioning board, IMHO.

I don't particularly mind the idea of child boards here to discuss HRT and surgery, but I don't see them as being essential. Also, a lot of users (particularly newbies) seem to ignore child boards, so I wonder whether they would just wind up being a waste of time (and money).

I think if anything the Non-Op section should be changed to a Non-transitioning section because ladies and guys who aren't interested in bottom surgery just talk on the regular MTF or FTM boards anyways. Not wanting surgery isn't uncommon.

That said though, it seems like a lot of non-transitioning guys are also interested in non-traditional methods as well, which, as I asked about before in the "Forums" child board it is not allowed to be discussed on here (and Jamie originally posted a link to a NT thread which has since been deleted). So, any talk on a non-transitioning board will just likely have to be made up of people talking about looking like a girl while trying to live as a guy and vice versa if the ladies join in, all of which is usually discussed on here anyways (though with the added "it'll be better once you get on T one day" statements). 

I think the child boards should be rearranged though to make it easier to navigate. When I was new here, I thought all the various boards and child boards was a bit overwhelming. I think the whole Transition board should be scraped (though I know it would be difficult and time consuming to move all the old posts to the new locations if you don't want to delete the old ones, as the News Staff knows since we're moving the Misc. News to scrap that board) and all it's child boards should be moved. The MTF section should have an HRT and FFS, etc. child board right on their page, and the FTM section should have child boards here on our page.

I am assuming as Susan's grew over the years, more and more boards and child boards were added on. The current system may have made sense when the site was smaller, but it's just so big now that we need a bit of a remodel to keep it easy to use.

Quote from: LearnedHand on October 14, 2013, 07:59:45 AM
though with the added "it'll be better once you get on T one day" statements. 

This, in itself, is all the justification that is needed for a non-transitioning board. If I were unable or unwilling to medically transition, I'd love to have a safe space where I could seek advice without expecting to bump into those kind of well-intentioned comments; they'd be very painful for me to read.

I like Taka and LearnedHand's ideas.

I don't know if there is sufficient interest for a "non-transition" child board. It sounds like a good idea to have a safe space, though I am not sure what the exact difference between the androgyne board and that would be. People identify in hugely different ways and it is really hard to find someone who wouldn't fit in except if you actually want to transition. Just my experience. They are also open to non-transitional hormone use (low dose T, say). Have you tried that one? I'd be curious re: someone who identifies as male not fitting there. I suppose it could happen. I think for me the thing that made me stop posting there is when I actually started physically transitioning.

I think that the little boards get to be a bit too much for me. There is a really good discussion going and if it gets moved no one will participate in it again. OTOH, this board gets a LOT of traffic.

--Jay

Quote from: Taka on October 14, 2013, 06:36:31 AM
first i just want to say that happy posts about finally getting started also make me happy, even if i'm in a situation where i don't know if i can ever get started at anything. i don't see those types of posts as much of a problem, i think this is more about questions about the medical part of transition taking up over half of the front page here.

when i compare ftm boards with mtf boards, the ftm boards really are swarmed with posts that should be in the "transitioning" section. i don't think it's too helpful to have over half the posts here from people having questions about hrt or top surgery. i once saw three posts made within a short enough time frame to be on the front page, asking for exactly the same type of advice before surgery. it buries all other conversation about topics like dating, skin problems, school, and worries that aren't directly linked to the effects of t, or which surgeon to choose.

the "transitioning" boards look rather mtf dominated. hrt board was probably supposed to be inclusive, but it's impossible for guys to find their way to any thread about t there. maybe we really need a different hrt child board specifically for the guys here. possibly in the ftm section, or the mods will have to help us out with moving threads to another place until the guys get used to it.

another thing i notice, is that ftm surgeries are conveniently placed as child boards of the srs section. which means that a guy will have to traverse a whole wall of posts made by the girls here, in order to get to the place they wanted to go to. yes, the links are on the top of that page, but it does make the guys' problems seem just a little less important.

there is a possibility that hrt and surgery could be just one child board in this section. just like all types of ftm gear is in only one child board. as someone already pointed out, there aren't too many guys here, compared to the number of girls.

androgyne section also saw a need to put clothing discussions in a child board when it started taking up too much place on the front page. there are so many aspects to life other than hrt and surgery that we might want to discuss with like minded people, and it might be a little easier for those who can't get hrt or surgery (or don't want it) to join discussion about other topics, if other topics are more visible (i.e. ftm hrt and surgery talk get their own child board).

feel free to state your agreement or disagreement. i'm only trying to find a solution, so please be constructive about it.

Omg Taka YES YES YES YES You just gave me an intellectual orgasm (contrary to my sig.)  Everything that you said in bold is what I was exactly thinking, though I couldn't get it out like that. I understand some guys work hard to get to whre they are in their transitions, so they want to talk about it every minute they get to. There's nothing inherently wrong with guys wanting their "T-Parties" congratulated and T and surgery questions answered and all of that other good stuff that they like to talk about, but when it's the same thing over and over again constantly pushing other topics down that doesn't talk about that stuff, then it can get tiresome.

Now I will admit that lately it hasn't been AS bad, but it DOES happen.  This is why I'm for the guys having their own T/surgery board here and having the mods move the posts to the appropriate location would be a big help to get the point across.

As for the traffic being most heavily on this board, yes I do agree. However, I believe somewhere in the announcements the creator of this site has plans to "rebuild this site from the ground up" sometime in the future.  Depending on how the site is rebuilt, it's likely that the traffic would change (perhaps lowered), even if it's temporary, as many of us are creatures of habit.  During this change, it would be a great time to implement these new boards.  Even before then I suggest that change.

i'm glad i could help, malachite. i really like the ftm section, but i have also noticed how questions about medical transition can take an overwhelming amount of space some times. i'm lucky to not be triggered by it, but for the guys who really don't have it that easy, i think it might be an idea to at least think about cleaning the board up a little by moving those types of threads to a child board. just like with ftm gear, i guess those questions also took up a lot of space some time in the past.

Thanks for the remodel Admins and other staff involved.