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Answered Full Member Status

Discussion in 'Empty Closets Help and Feedback' started by Dionysios, Jan 28, 2019.

  1. Dionysios

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    Hit the form icon next your photo ( usually the upper rigjt corner). It should reveal what stage your application is in.
     
  2. Poofter

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    Ahhhh right on I show 4/4 is that good?
     
  3. Chip

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    OK, some thoughts:

    1. Using EC is a privilege, not a right, as are full member privileges. EC is actually the largest community serving LGBT populations on the web, and has gotten to the size that it is in part because of the security provisions we have. If you have ever used a similar community with less strict rules, you probably know that they are nearly all of them are overrun with creepers, people hitting on one another, and people asking for inappropriate things. This is very rare on the EC platform, in large part because of our restrictive communications policies. If you're after a place for support and accurate information, where you can share difficult and vulnerable things safely, this is one of the best places to do so. If you're after a place principally to meet people to talk to outside of the community, then EC is not going to be a good fit for you.
    ,
    2. A significant portion of our charitable mission is to provide a safe, enclosed community where young people can ask about and discuss difficult topics that they may not yet be ready to discuss with parents or others. Our Board and admin team have discussed, more than once, the idea of adding separate forums for full members, separate forums for people over 18, and so forth. Among our core values are inclusion and belonging; discussion communities with forums that are limited in access (where some members have privileges others do not) do not help an individual's sense of belonging. Thus, our leadership has no plans to change this policy.

    3. The review process for full membership is intentionally opaque for security reasons. One of the main reasons for restricting access to full membership resources is doing our best to ensure that anyone granted access to personal messaging and the chat forum (when we re-introduce it) is trustworthy and will not use those resources inappropriately. Since we do not actively monitor every PM sent, this is particularly important. Over the years, we've gotten pretty good at discerning behaviors and other signals that have, from experience, proven to be predictive of problematic behavior.

    4. All decisions that involve any sort of member discipline, bans, or actions are made collectively by the staff as a group, and the staff speaks with a single voice. Thus, there's no one individual responsible for given decision, and, in general, messages about policy posted by a given staff member reflect the staff's position, unless stated otherwise. This is why we have the "Ask the Staff" forum, so that when questions do come up about things of that nature, you can post in ATS, and the staff will respond. Sometimes it may take several days for a response because the staff is discussing the issue prior to answering.

    5. The process is not "broken", nor is it arbitrary. Some applications can be reviewed faster than others for various reasons. The "stages" are really intended for our internal use and represent different parts of the review process which are not necessarily sequential. It is intentionally a thoughtful process that includes input from pretty much the entire staff. For security reasons, we don't discuss the details of the process beyond that.

    6. Among the factors we look at in making decisions about full membership are a member's posts, including the posts in this thread.

    7. Private messaging does, in fact work. There are occasional glitches that happen only with certain accounts, but the overwhelming majority of them are not problematic.

    8. The platform EC runs on is actually quite sophisticated and contains a whole lot of custom coding that enables our small, all-volunteer staff to keep pretty good track of everything that goes on in the community. It is pretty up-to-date in terms of technology, and is a tremendous improvement in many ways over our previous platform, which was 10+ years old when it was retired.

    9. Everything that EC offers, which amounts to serving about 15,000 unique individuals monthly, is done without cost to anyone. We use a modern, dedicated array of servers in a state-of-the-art data center, distributed worldwide through a content delivery network so it reaches the largest number of people with minimum lags and delays. All of that is a costly undertaking that is paid for entirely from the donations of members. We have no paid staff. We don't at present take ads or allow any other types of commercial promotion, as our focus is on support. Our staff members, combined, donate about 1,000 hours a month to keeping the community running safely and effectively.

    So... if, having read the above, you don't feel that what EC offers is what you are after, then EC is probably not the best match for you.
     
  4. Poofter

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    Wow. That should be on a welcome page somewhere. Bravo! That is pretty much exactly why I’m here.
     
  5. Dionysios

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    Yes indeed!
     
  6. Broccoli

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    It's not 'archaic', it's the whole point of the forum and arguably its most important USP.

    It's great that these other resources exist for those who want to use them. Personally, it was only the 'support and privacy'-oriented nature of EC that meant I was prepared to register and post - I would never have joined a Facebook group where my name and data were available. Perhaps in future I might be willing to do so, and if that's the case it will be because of the support and confidence gained through this forum. There is plenty of space in the world for different types of resource with different aims and target audiences.

    (Linning - I know you were explaining, not necessarily stating your own views)
     
  7. Cas girl

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    I really appreciate the privacy and anonymity this site provides. It would not be a lie if I said that EC and it’s members played a major role in helping me accept myself.

    You meet lgbt people from your own country here, who are going through the same if not worse situation as you are. Don’t you develop a sense of kinship with them? I don’t know if it is a cultural thing or just me, but what if I want to help them? How do stop that? For example, an Indian I met here was illtreated by his parents for being gay. He has not come online for a long time now. I know how some pious Hindu parents can get. They will take you to babas ( see Baba Ramdev video on homosexuality) perform yagnas i.e rituals, take you to psychiatrist or even admit in a mental hospital. If you had his contact in a social media, say FB for an instance, then won’t you atleast have 5% more chance of his current situation?

    English is a beautiful language but the emotions that certain Telugu or Hindi phrases express is incomparable. You can’t use any language other than English here. What do you do then ?

    What is the protocol that one must follow in this situation?
     
  8. Ram90

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    The reason why English, and English alone is used for communication is that members who might benefit or can offer additional advice, points or anything of value to add, can do so on reading every post or message. If all of us begin to use different languages, regardless of emotion or otherwise, it will become too chaotic. As a fellow Indian and non-native-English speaker, I can understand your intent. Using different languages like Hindi or Telugu to put your feelings, thoughts and expressing your emotions is tempting. But in a public setting, it is counter-productive, especially in a forum of this size. :relaxed:
     
  9. Cas girl

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    I know but there has been certain situations in the past where a single phrase would have summed up an entire passage. It was such a wasted opportunity that my desi self wept in anguish.
     
  10. cgrumms

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    I know this is weird but how do you even apply for a full member status? I've been trying to figure out how to achieve this status for weeks. Thanks!
     
  11. Poofter

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    I made a post asking how in the ask the mods section and they sent me a link to do so. How to get there on my own I have no clue lol.
     
  12. Chiroptera

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  13. Chip

    Board Member Admin Team Advisor Full Member

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    You need to have a minimum of 50 substantive posts (i. e., not one-word responses), and have been a member for at least 2 weeks. I don't think the application appears (or won't let you apply) until you meet those eligibility requirements. Once you meet the requirements, fill out the application and we'll process it. Right now, the time is abysmally slow... 4 to 8 weeks isn't uncommon, unfortunately... but we're working on speeding that up.