The board has become an echo chamber. Not only is it overwhelmingly white male, but all diversity of thought is gone. There is a great deal of pressure for everyone to hold the same opinions. There are no internal rewards to posting here if you know one “wrong” opinion could land you in a crybully Pit thread. So non-conformists don’t want to play in this sandbox anymore.
I submit that the proper question isn’t how can the board become more inclusive to women and POC. The better question is why is the board going out of its way to marginalize diverse viewpoints? The board’s demographics is a just a symptom of a deeper problem.
I’m one of the few black women who used to post here on a regular basis. Even through all the years of rape jokes and “black people are the problem race” threads. Even after being chastised by mods for daring to apply the word racist to actual racists. Despite this constant rain of microaggressions, posting here remained my fun little past time. I valued the intellectual debates this board used to foster and the lively discussions in the other fora. I came here to learn, share, broaden my awareness of the human condition, and examine my own beliefs.
I don’t post much here anymore and neither does my sister @monstro because the climate here is too hostile to engage with unless you limit yourself to discussing only the most pablum of topics imaginable. Pablum just doesn’t do it for me.
This is long post but I decided to reply to you because you seem quite earnest. But before I close, I will add this about the attrition of female posters. Women are increasingly finding popular social media platforms extremely hostile to their perspectives and concerns, so they are creating their own communities where they can speak more freely without being attacked and silenced by men who don’t want to hear what they have to say. Reddit has lost women the same way this one has.