Sure, these things are all possible–but there’s no evidence to support them. There is evidence to support the idea that low-level sexism is driving women away from the board. May I suggest that we don’t offer alternative hypotheses until the evidence for them is at least as strong as the evidence for the hypothesis that the OP presents?
I don’t agree that the evidence supports that. To repeat yet again:
Correlation!=causation. The levels of that sort of humor were higher because they weren’t modded. Women left because that sort of humor wasn’t modded.
Again, this isn’t speculation–you can read historical threads where women said they were thinking about leaving for this reason, and you can see many women stopped posting soon after writing such things. You can hear women here telling you this.
It’s possible that the amount of low-level sexism has decreased but not to the same extent that it has decreased in society (I do not know if this is true or not.) Back in the early days of the MB there weren’t many better alternatives and at any rate a lot of people didn’t mind it and were more likely to engage in it themselves than today (in the vein of bad 80s standup routines like “why do women always do THIS? why do men always do THIS?” except about weightier topics.)
It is possible that this board has become less sexist but people still are driven away because of better alternatives or raised expectations.
It may be true that sophomoric posts where more common 15 years ago, it’s also true that the cultural dynamics have shifted since then. What didn’t drive women away in 2001 may well drive them away in 2018. It took until 2017 for Harvey Weinstein to start getting his due, after all.
And with that in mind, we have evidence from women that low level sexism is driving them away: their personal accounts. I don’t know of any evidence that eg increased partisanship is the culprit.
IDK, maybe start a forum called: “After hours” where people can post these “Who’s hotter” and other sexually charged typed threads. That way, people never have to see this stuff that aren’t looking for it.
:Notes irony that Fotheringay-Phipps is named for a member of an infamously sophomoric boy’s club:
Why not call it “Neanderthals” or, better yet not associate this message board with that type of message at all?
I can verify the reasons people (women) run from this board, it’s because of the caustic reception you receive at your first post. I was routinely slammed, cursed, belittled, questioned and called names. It’s a gauntlet that some find off-putting. I am not whining, I get the hazing is a right of passage. But it is really unwelcoming to some people. They come in here for whatever reason, asking questions and possibly looking for help and the first thing they get is nit-picking about punctuation or typos. The next thing they are in troll thread being snarked about. If you don’t have a friend or sponser it can be scary as hell. I cringe everytime I see a new poster with a innocent question. I am not savvy enough to distinguish trolls or spammers from just newbies. So I, now, wait til I see what more experienced posters say.
So there it is YMMV.
The thing about compromise is that both parties rarely walk away 100% happy.
willful obtuseness. if sophomoric behavior was higher back when more women were here, and now there are fewer women here, and those left say that kind of behavior is what makes them want to leave, then I don’t know what to say. Other than you’re deliberately ignoring the most likely reason and holding out for something unreasonable but which fits your desired explanation.
in other words, when you hear hoofbeats, think “horsies,” not “zebras.”
Horsies.
Why compromise with what is wrong, when you can just not do that wrong in the first place? I see no upside at all with such a downgrade in standards.
Typical Trumpeteer behavior, IOW. 
The only thing that is wrong about it is that some folks have to see it and it makes them uncomfortable.
Discussions about porn stars, Skald-a-theticals, breastaurants, are not wrong in themselves. The only thing this board should strive for is that we treat each other with civility and respect. And not pass judgement on the activities of others that harm no one no matter how juvenile those activities may be.
Still no. You call it a “compromise” but the only people that come out ahead in this deal are the Neanderthals.
Why do you call it “compromise” when what you are actually asking for is concession and/or capitulation?
If you want a diverse group of members on this board, you’re going to have to make compromises. The “Neanderthals” as you call them, are they always neanderthals in every thread they go to? Or are they just regular folks 99% of the time with positive, or at the very least, non-remarkable contributions?
Some of the complaints were they have to see the thread titles and that’s enough to make them uncomfortable. Okay, I can respect that. So move these threads to another forum so they don’t have to see it.
And if the argument is: “Well, they exist, and that offends me”. Well, okay, if that’s the case, you better give up the internet entirely. Along with magazines, tv shows etc…
If this were the only message board on the internet, you might have a point…but it isn’t.
This board is under no obligation to take crap from anyone under the mistaken belief that people that are supposedly pretty good most of the time are incapable of regulating themselves and just have to spew degradation and bigotry. The idea that this board is supposed to mirror everything that is the internet is nonsense and degrades what we have here. If you want to embrace your inner Neanderthal there are an untold number of websites that will happily call you “brother”.
Which assumes all the other men hereabouts aren’t interested in any change whatsoever.
Based on this thread, that’s not the case. Yes, yes, we can all hear where YOU stand, but just *maybe *you’re NOT who people are reaching out to, to understand the nuance, (which you don’t seem to, or appear interested in), and to respond positively, possibly with a change in their own behaviour. (Which is never gonna be you clearly!).
I doubt anyone expected everyone would get on board. It’s cool if you’re not.
But it’s also **very **cool that some get it, or are considering it, or see it now a little clearer, or think they can do better.
I believe we’re talking about two different things here. If there are posters on this board that want to start threads like: “Bitches be crazy. Am I right?” Then yeah, there is no room on this board for that nonsense.
But people just talking about their favorite porn stars? Nah, not my cup of tea, but I don’t believe the people in those threads are promoting bigotry or hatred.
This seems pretty random. What point are you making?
The objective evidence for how satisfied women are with the place is how many participate. You seem to be speculating that the prior survey which showed a higher female percentage happened to be taken just as women were about to leave in disgust over this issue but just hadn’t gotten around to actually doing it yet. I’m skeptical, to put it mildly.
It’s possible. But this is speculative.
DSeid purported to establish that the tone issue is driving women away by means of his number comparison. My point is that to the extent that you can make anything out of these numbers, they would argue in the opposite direction. Since no one is suggesting that the raising of the tone is turning off women, we’re now speculating about alternative theories. But you can’t establish that from the numbers.