Difference between revisions of "AVEN"

From AVENwiki
Jump to: navigation, search
m (Current Project Team moderators)
(Sections of AVEN)
Line 5: Line 5:
 
== Sections of AVEN ==
 
== Sections of AVEN ==
  
In general, AVEN is divided into [http://www.asexuality.org/ static content] and the [http:/www.asexuality.org/discussion community forums]. The static content is based in the /home/ directory and carries general information about asexuality, including Asexual Perspectives and several FAQs. The community forums are based in the /discussion/ directory, and are places for asexuals and their sexual friends and allies to congregate, discuss asexuality, socialize, and figure out ways to spread asexual visibility.
+
In general, AVEN is divided into [http://www.asexuality.org/index.php static content] and the [http://www.asexuality.org/en/index.php community forums].
 +
 
 +
The static content carries general information about asexuality, including asexual perspectives and several FAQs. The community forums are places for asexuals and their sexual friends, partners and allies to congregate, discuss issues, socialize, and find ways of spreading asexual awareness.
  
 
The AVEN forums and other resources are available in many languages, including [http://www.asexuality.org/du/ Dutch], [http://www.asexuality.org/fr/ French], [http://www.asexuality.org/de/ German], [http://www.tapuz.co.il/tapuzforum/main/anashim.asp?id=1493&pass=1 Hebrew], [http://www.asexuality.org/it/ Italian], [http://www.asexual-japan.net/ Japanese], [http://www.asexuality.org/pl/ Polish], [http://www.asexuality.org/br/ Portugese], [http://ru.asexuality.org/ Russian], and [http://www.asexuality.org/sp/ Spanish].
 
The AVEN forums and other resources are available in many languages, including [http://www.asexuality.org/du/ Dutch], [http://www.asexuality.org/fr/ French], [http://www.asexuality.org/de/ German], [http://www.tapuz.co.il/tapuzforum/main/anashim.asp?id=1493&pass=1 Hebrew], [http://www.asexuality.org/it/ Italian], [http://www.asexual-japan.net/ Japanese], [http://www.asexuality.org/pl/ Polish], [http://www.asexuality.org/br/ Portugese], [http://ru.asexuality.org/ Russian], and [http://www.asexuality.org/sp/ Spanish].
  
 
Other sections of AVEN include:
 
Other sections of AVEN include:
*[http://www.asexuality.org/chat/flashchat.php AVEN FlashChat]
+
*[http://www.asexuality.org/chat/flashchat.php A chat room]
 
*[http://www.cafepress.com/asexvisibility The Asexual Visibility Store], featuring T-shirt designs and other products created by AVENites.
 
*[http://www.cafepress.com/asexvisibility The Asexual Visibility Store], featuring T-shirt designs and other products created by AVENites.
 
*This Wiki.
 
*This Wiki.

Revision as of 00:16, 25 February 2008

This article is about AVEN or the AVEN community, and does not necessarily apply to asexuals in general.

The Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN) was founded in 2001 with two distinct goals: creating public acceptance and discussion of asexuality and facilitating the growth of an asexual community. Since that time we have grown to host the world’s largest asexual community, serving as an informational resource for people who are asexual and questioning, their friends and families, academic researchers and the press. AVEN members throughout the world regularly engage in visibility projects, included but not limited to distributing informational pamphlets, leading workshops, arranging local meetups and speaking to interested press. The AVEN community centers around the web forum, which provides a safe space for asexual and questioning people as well as their partners, friends and families to discuss their experiences.

Sections of AVEN

In general, AVEN is divided into static content and the community forums.

The static content carries general information about asexuality, including asexual perspectives and several FAQs. The community forums are places for asexuals and their sexual friends, partners and allies to congregate, discuss issues, socialize, and find ways of spreading asexual awareness.

The AVEN forums and other resources are available in many languages, including Dutch, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portugese, Russian, and Spanish.

Other sections of AVEN include:

Administration of AVEN

AVEN is run by two teams, both elected by the general membership. The site's founder David Jay (known on the forums as [AVENguy]) retains several responsibilities that have not yet been adopted by these two teams.

Forum Moderators

The AVEN discussion forums are patrolled by a large number of administrators and moderators. It is their job to keep the forums civil and to ensure that topics are in their proper forums, as well as to lock threads that are duplicates or that have degenerated into personal insults. Some moderators take care of a specific area of the forums, while administrators take on more general and sweeping duties such as deleting spam accounts. The term 'admod' is occasionally used on the forums to refer to the entire administration and moderation team.

New moderators are elected by the whole of AVEN on a case-by-case basis when a new position becomes available or an old moderator resigns. They are initially elected to a single section of the forum, but are often moved around to different ones as the need arises. New admins are chosen by the entire admod team.

The current moderators of AVEN are:

Project Team

In addition to administrators of the forums themselves, AVEN also has a Project Team, a group of members dedicated to overseeing AVEN's many efforts to bring education and visibility to the outside world.

History and Controversy

The first Project Team was made up of eleven members elected in the week of June 15 to June 22, 2006. ([1]) The team was given their own forum, which anyone could see, but only they could post in. Within this forum, they worked on projects such as this Wiki, AVENues, a pen-pal exchange, the AVEN store, and a set of pamphlets.

After a promising start, the Project Team fell prey to inactivity and the resignation of many team members. It was hard to find new members to replace the ones who had left. As a stopgap measure, AVENguy appointed several people to the Project Team without electing them. [2] There was talk about holding new elections, but even with the new members, there were fewer than eleven people on the Project Team, so elections never happened.

Due to the lack of elections, the AVEN public (and even some Project Team members) were not aware of who exactly was on the Project Team and who wasn't. There was an increasing perception of the remaining Project Team as insular and bureaucratic [3] and concern over a lack of democracy and accountability [4].

After discussion [5], the remaining members of the Project Team decided to scrap the original Project Team. Instead of being private to the Project Team, the Project Team forum would now be open to all members of AVEN [6], with five Project Team moderators overseeing and keeping track of the projects. The new PT-mods were elected in July 2007 [7]. Due to a tie, six rather than five were elected.

Current Project Team moderators

Hallucigenia and SpirallingSnowy are the only Project Team moderators who were also in the previous Project Team.

Former Project Team members

Resigned
Became Inactive

AVENguy

As the site's founder, AVENguy retains several administrative responsibilities not yet formally adopted by the other two teams. Most of these responsibilites are under the juristiction of the Project Team and can be reassigned or restructured with a Project Team vote.

AVENguy's responsibilities include:

  • Answering the info@asexuality.org and webmaster@asexuality.org e-mail accounts.
  • Responding to press requests and coordinating AVEN members' media appearances.
  • Responding to technical questions, maintaining the technical aspect of the site and installing software upgrades.
  • Answering e-mail questions about asexuality or distributing them to the [AVEN Advisory Team].

History of AVEN

Asexuals have always existed, but until the invention of the Internet, they seldom had ways to connect with each other and share their experiences. In the early and mid 90's, asexuals would occasionally post on sexuality-related newsgroups expressing their disidentification with sexuality, but search functions weren't good enough and it was hard to locate like-minded people.

AVEN was created by David Jay in 2001. At first, it was simply a front page giving a definition of asexuality and asking for e-mail from those who understood. One e-mail directed Jay to the Haven for the Human Amoeba, a Yahoo group on asexuality that had existed since 2000, but was only just starting to take off in terms of posts. (Haven for the Human Amoeba still exists, but is very inactive.)

Due to the structure of a Yahoo group, every comment someone made was emailed to everybody else, and as membership and activity in the Haven for the Human Amoeba grew, this became an awkward way to do things. There was demand for a website on asexuality with a better community structure, and several websites emerged with competing ideologies. Some websites catered to antisexual views. Others held that the only real definition of asexuality was nonlibidoism. AVEN was reconstructed in the hopes of becoming a more inclusive option, based in sex-neutrality ("sex is great if you're interested, but if you're not interested, you don't have to worry about it") and the belief that anyone who identifies as asexual is validly asexual, regardless of sex drive or other factors. (See Collective identity model.)

The first AVEN admin who wasn't David Jay was chosen when Jay took a trip to Ghana. The forum at this point had about 100 members. The first moderator elections were held a few months later.

Timeline of notable dates in AVEN history

  • October 12, 2000 - "Haven for the Human Amoeba" founded [8]
  • March 10, 2001 - AVEN Created
  • May 30, 2002 - start of the AVEN forum as we know it
  • Mar 21, 2004 - opening of the first AVEN Store [9]
  • October 14, 2004 - New Scientist article [10]
  • May 26, 2005 - "Asexual and proud!" Salon feature [11]
  • March 24, 2006 - 20/20 asexuality feature broadcast
  • June 6, 2006 AVEN Project Team proposed by AVENguy [12]
  • September 3, 2006 - AVENwiki set up (in its current form)
  • September 27, 2006 - The first issue of the AVENues newsletter was published
  • January 4, 2007 - Montel Williams asexuality feature broadcast

Check out the original aven timeline.

AVEN Culture

AVEN has nearly 11,000 registered members on the English site alone, and approximately 13,000 total. Of these members, more than half have posted at least once, and a tenth of these have posted more than 125 times. Among more experienced AVENites, especially in the Just For Fun section of the forum, traditions have sprung up such as offering cake to new members, quacking in response to puns, and colouring things purple (the colour of the English-language AVEN forums). More complicated Just For Fun inside jokes include the stories of Anti's Beard and of Pink Aardvarks living on the Moon. Some of these traditions can be difficult to understand for an outsider, or even an experienced AVENite who does not spend a lot of time in Just For Fun.

Many AVENites bond strongly with the likeminded people that they find on the AVEN forums, and among those AVENites who experience romantic attraction, a surprising number of AVEN couples have formed. The most famous of these couples is Cate Perfect and Live R Perfect, both asexual and now married.

See also