Free speech may well be one of the defining issues of our age. Or, to put it another way – silencing all objection is the weapon of choice for every tyranny and toxic ideology on the planet. Unable to speak, the problems and need for equality remain unknown. Facts are hidden. Lies go unchecked and unquestioned. This is exactly what is happening on Reddit right at this moment, with the ‘quarantining’ of various subs deemed ‘too offensive’ for the site.
As far as we can see this is only stage one. Before long more and more subs will be given this treatment, and it’s likely many will eventually be banned altogether. That may even include equality movements, such as our own /r/MensRights Reddit, who work to gather news stories and provide commentary that would otherwise be silenced.
For that reason, Men Are Human has moved forward with plans to add a reddit-style board to our site to act as a backup, and I encourage you all to get involved. There will be an entire sub for Our Stories and an alternate feed for the official Men’s Rights reddit. Everyone from /r/MensRights is invited to join and to help in our task of mirroring the most important posts. Any moderators from /r/MensRights who would like to get involved will automatically be given full rights and control of the board (just send me a message via the original reddit).
All that remains to be decided seems to be the following, though please do get in touch if you feel that there is anything we have missed. We need your feedback and opinions. We want to make this site as comfortable as possible, so there’s no good us picking something you’ll hate!
Software To Run The New Men’s Rights Feed
At the moment we are considering the following:
- We can clone Reddit’s own system – Reddit’s software is free to download, fast, and reliable – but the messaging system is horrifyingly bad. We could use this, but Reddit’s owners could potentially try to make us take it down.
- Postmill is free and open source – but the community is tiny and the code seems to have only a single dev. May eventually die.
- Voat Clone – The system seems to be very slick and well made, but it’s a beta and seems to be fiddly to install. Hard to say how long it will last. We would need help to compile and set up this program.
- WordPress Plugins – There are a couple, but all seem very basic. The best one seems to be Rank It. The upside would be full wordpress integration across the whole site, with only one login needed. The downside is it would cost us $70.
- We are open to suggestions – Do you have any ideas as to what software we might use?
A New Hosting Service
We need to find a faster and more affordable web host to run the site and cut response times. If anyone has any suggestions, that would be wonderful.
What Do You Think We Should Do?
It’s time to voice your opinion! Tell us in the comments, the forums, or send us a message on the Men’s Rights Reddit.