Community (forum section)
The Community section was created during the reorganization of the forums in February 2008, it is currently the largest section on AVEN. Just for Fun, AVEN Arcade, Celebration Time!, and Open Mic were publicly accessible, but their accessibility has been changed in 2016. As with Meetup Mart, they remain visible to guests, and thread titles can be seen, but a registered account is now required to view the threads.
Meetup Mart
| Forum | Meetup Mart |
| Number | 12 |
| Created | November 2002 |
| Moderator(s) | .Lia |
| Access | Registered account required |
The Meetup Mart is for organizing meetups in your local area, though it should not be mistaken as dating or classified section. This forum was created as a subforum of Asexual Relationships in November 2002 and initially promoted as a "singles section". It was originally known as The Club, its current name was adopted in March 2003. Following the deletion of the Personals Forum in October 2005, threads in that forum were subsequently moved to the Meetup Mart.
Regional forums
Currently, four regional subforums exist; Australia and New Zealand, Canada, United Kingdom and Ireland and United States. All four were created in October 2009.
Just For Fun
| Forum | Just For Fun |
| Number | 13 |
| Created | December 2002 |
| Moderator(s) | sealemon. (co-mod), OptimisticPessimist (co-mod) |
| Access | Registered account required |
Commonly known as JFF, the Just For Fun forum was created in December 2002, soon after the Meetup Mart. It's generally used as a thread games forum (though the AVEN Arcade serves a similar purpose). Chat threads and all thread games used to go under JFF. With the establishment of the AVEN Arcade and The Chatterbox, chat threads now go under The Chatterbox, and most thread games go under the AVEN Arcade. Role-playing thread games remain in JFF, but thread games dependent on the previous or next poster were moved to the AVEN Arcade.
The Chatterbox
The Chatterbox was created as a separate subforum for JFF's chat threads, due to the large number of chat threads quickly bumping other JFF threads off of the first page. It was proposed in January 2017 in a Site Comments thread, and was implemented on February 1.
April Fools day 2015
Formerly known as "The Backroom", The April Fools day 2015 forum is a fake Admods forum full of joke threads, and was an April Fools day joke by the Admod and Project Teams. It was prepared throughout March 2015, and was made public on April 1. It has been retired and archived as a sub-forum of JFF.
AVEN Arcade
Formerly known as The Chatterbox, which was created in September 2008 as a response to increased posting and traffic in Just For Fun. Due to the predicted activity in this forum, a proposal was made to disable post counting in this forum, though this was never formally voted in (though, it was later reviewed in February 2011, and again in October 2011).
The purpose of this forum has been reviewed and redefined on numerous occasions, including this recent review from October 2013. The forum tends to suffer from a lack of activity compared to JFF. It's current name, AVEN Arcade (proposed here), was adopted in March 2011
Census Forum
| Forum | Census Forum |
| Number | 26 |
| Created | February 2005 |
| Moderator(s) | iff |
| Access | Publicly Accessible |
The Census Forum is used for general census polls, usually these are "serious polls" and silly polls are usually placed in Just For Fun. The Census Forum was created in February 2005[1], and polls were moved from elsewhere to this new forum[2]. According to the original description from 2005, only mods and admins could start polls in this forum. The state of this forum was discussed in October 2011[3], resulting in numerous thread removals and relocating to Just For Fun and elsewhere. A few proposed changes were discussed in July 2011, but these were never implemented[4]. The Census Forum and its archives used to be part of the Visibility and Education forum section, but were moved to the Community section.
Census Archive
This forum essentially serves the same purpose as World Watch Archives, and uses the same indexing structure, though the Census Archives were created at an earlier date in October 2012[5]. Much like the World Watch Archives, the Census Archives are a continual work-in-progress.
Celebration Time!
| Forum | Celebration Time! |
| Number | 35 |
| Created | December 2006 |
| Moderator(s) | NerotheReaper |
| Access | Registered account required |
Celebration Time! (also known as "Celebrations") was first proposed in September 2006 and later created in December 2006. As the description states, this forum is "for sharing your accomplishments, kudos, and whatever else might be making you feel great about your life".
Tea and Sympathy
| Forum | Tea and Sympathy |
| Number | 65 |
| Created | October 2009 |
| Moderator(s) | Homer |
| Access | Registered account required |
Tea and Sympathy (also known as "T&S") was proposed in August 2009, and later created in October 2009. Viewing this forum requires a registered account, this was implemented in June 2011 due to privacy concerns. As of July 2012, disciplinary action may result in a temporary loss of access to this forum.
Open Mic
| Forum | Open Mic |
| Number | 9 |
| Created | May 2002 |
| Moderator(s) | OptimisticPessimist |
| Access | Registered account required |
Open Mic is one of AVEN's original forums, created in 2002 alongside several other forums. The description states that members can share and showcase their works of art in this forum.
Alternate Language Forum
| Forum | Alternate Language Forum |
| Number | 23 |
| Created | August 2003 (as a section), January 2004 (as a single forum) |
| Moderator(s) | Homer |
| Access | Publicly Accessible |
Commonly referred to as Alternate Languages (or "AltLang"), the Alternate Language Forum was created (in its current form) in January 2004, following the merger of its predecessors; "Amibes Français", "Asexuality Español", "Asexuales Deutschland", "Discussione Asessuale Italiana" and "Amoebas Portugese-falador". These predecessor forums were created in August 2003.
For a short period between August 2003 and January 2004, the Alternate Language Forum existed as a section much like Community or Asexuality, and the predecessors forums were categorized under this section. Those five forums were merged in favor of a single forum, which continues to exist as AltLang. Much like the Community Links Forum, the Alternate Languages forum provides external links to international visibility and education communities (most of which are are affiliated with and hosted on AVEN's servers).
(h)AVEN
| Forum | (h)AVEN |
| Number | 36 |
| Created | December 2006 |
| Moderator(s) | Administrators, Moderators |
| Access | Restricted access (approval required) |
(h)AVEN was created in December 2006 and serves a similar purpose to Tea & Sympathy, though (h)AVEN grants more privacy and secrecy. According to the original announcement, this forum was created for anyone who wished to discuss issues of a sensitive and personal nature, but was hesitant to do so in a public medium. Promotion of the forum has steadily increased in recent years. Alternate accounts are allowed under certain circumstances and restrictions, following a change to the forum in May 2013.
See also