Comments on: World of the Fat-o-sphere?

By: the fat nutritionist

the fat nutritionist — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:56:38 +0000

Okay, so…I’m impulsive. I took your idea and ran with it. Tell me what you think:

http://fatencyclopedia.wikispaces.com/

By: the fat nutritionist

the fat nutritionist — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:20:37 +0000

I really, really, really, really like the idea of a fat acceptance wiki.

Having attempted to contribute to the fat acceptance article on Wikipedia (and having since given up), I really think there needs to be a place where our collective knowledge and histories and viewpoints can converge and create something meaningful, that explains what we’re about, in our multiplicity of voices, and that can be sort of a clearinghouse.

Example: on Wikipedia, there’s been a long battle on trying just not to get the fat acceptance article deleted for not being “notable” (despite the many peer-reviewed references to fat acceptance, and the mainstream media articles, and books, and fat studies as an emerging academic field, and multiple fat acceptance activist organizations being in existence for many years, etc. etc. etc.), so, despite the proliferation of blogs, it’s been hard to even get a place at the mainstream table, so to speak.

Someone (I believe Lindsay of the former Babble) started a Fat Acceptance 101 blog a while back (I think patterned on the Finally, a Feminism 101 blog), but I believe it’s gone. (Hedging all of this with “I believe” because my memory is terrible.) It was a great idea, but ultimately, I think it is too much of an undertaking for one person.

A wiki is the ideal solution for basic, 101-type stuff that can also get into explaining the diversity of opinions that exist (and sometimes conflict) within FA. And everyone can get a chance to contribute.

Anyway, not sure how this could actually come into existence, and I certainly don’t have the time/energy/whatever to administer or create such a thing, but I would love for it to exist, and I would be happy to contribute.

In short: it’s not a dumb idea. It’s a wonderful idea, it’s an idea that people have tried to implement before, and it’s a totally necessary idea.

By: Natalie

Natalie — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:51:48 +0000

I was wondering this exact thing the other day when I ran across a few issues that I wanted to put to a bunch of more seasoned bloggers. I emailed a few and asked if there were any forums and no one could point me to any, so I asked if I should put some software on one of my domains and invite fat-o-sphere bloggers to join.

I’ve only just started reading the Notes from the fat-o-sphere feed regularly, and I’m glad I came across your post!

Come join the forum I’ve started so far, there are a few of the fatshion bloggers already on there – forum.definatalie.com

If you want to publicise it, go nuts! My network extends mainly to the fatshionista bloggers, so it’s quite limited.

By: richie79

richie79 — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 19:12:16 +0000

Whilst I can’t comment on the SP network, the fatactivist one is run by Carrie of BFB / the Fat Rights Coalition and is (like the blog itself) a safe enough space and a fairly broad church. I should really use it more myself, after all, that is the only way this community will continue to grow, but then I fail not only at Facebook but social networking in general; as far as I’m concerned it’s still 1998 and web 2.0 never happened )

By: Bri

Bri — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 22:53:30 +0000

I think part of the issue with that is that someone would have to be ultimately responsible for administeration on a forum or whatever and as such, that person’s idea of how things ’should be’ would be the way the forum was run. I think the good things about blogs and the feeds is that you can access a vast array of opinions etc (on the blogs) in the one place (by subbing to the feed/s). One issue with a Wiki (other than the obvious one of people changing stuff etc) is that there are so many different view points that you are never going to have everyone (or even the majority) agree as to what the pivotal points are and so with the continual changes that would be being made, an individual blogger would need to refer to the Wiki page themselves everytime they wanted to refer someone to it, to ensure the ‘correct’ info was being shared. There are people currently doing work on projects regarding the history of FA and I personally am particularly interested in the history of the Fatosphere (ie the blogging ‘community’) and I am co-authoring an academic paper on this topic. I totally hope to be able to share that info (in plain language!) when we complete the project.

By: Elle

Elle — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 19:19:43 +0000

There’s also a ning site associated with Shapely Prose: http://shapelyprose.ning.com/

(Ning is a free, DIY social networking site builder.)

By: SharonC

SharonC — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 18:42:34 +0000

Ah, found the bookmark now, it’s at
http://fatactivistnetwork.ning.com/

By: SharonC

SharonC — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 18:28:00 +0000

There is a social networking site for fat activists.

By: SweetAsCake

SweetAsCake — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 18:24:51 +0000

If there isn’t (and as far as I know, there isn’t), there absolutely should be.
(And something strange must have been going on last night. I woke up with an idea for my master’s thesis. Go figure.)

By: vesta44

vesta44 — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 17:44:21 +0000

check out Big Fat Blog, that comes as close to what you’re talking about as anything I know of. there is a page on Wikipedia about FA, but there are problems with it being trashed by trolls, and wanting citations for everything said on it.
to comment on BFB, one does have to join, but that tends to keep out the trolls…………….