Momo

As long as the debit card is still branded Visa, Mastercard, etc. they should still work online. This is the normal case for debit cards here in Australia, but I can't speak for internationally.

One of the mods reminded me I should probably mention what the financials look like: 1. Hosting costs: variable, it's based on usage but usually USD$75~80 per month. There's other cheaper options out there but this is dedicated hosting and has been extremely solid for the last two years. 2. Invision license: USD$60 per 6 months. This is the forum software itself. Not really negotiable. 3. You will need to find your own email hosting as the email for arocalypse.com is the one thing currently tied to one of my personal accounts. I use fastmail which is $5/user/month but there's tonnes of options here. To date, donations have been effectively nil and the old donations page hosted by AUREA is offline now so if you want to pursue that line then you'll need to figure out something for that.

As of now, I'm stepping down from running the technical and financial sides of the forum. We're looking for someone who can take up the leadership position for the forum. If no one steps up within a reasonable timeframe then I will need to shut down this site. I don't have a hard deadline today, but it will be at least a few weeks. I'm not going to go into details about why, sufficed to say that some recent events have forced my hand but this is something I've been considering for a while now. I've been very hands off with the site, letting the moderator team manage the day to day operation but even that simply isn't feasible now. If someone does step up then I'm happy to spend some time getting them up to speed with the hosting setup and it's been pretty solid and I haven't had to touch much in a long time.

You know why it was removed, because you got a warning about it which you acknowledged. If you're willing to actually engage and listen rather than belittle people, this thread will be kept open. You however are on a timeout, which unfortunately didn't get applied automatically and this thread showed up, so take this time to listen.

To celebrate the end of ASAW 2021, AUREA is running a fundraiser livestream on February 27th, at 3PM EST! More info on the event and guest lineup can be found at https://www.aromanticism.org/asaw-2021 from February 21st. The event itself will be hosted on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/EJ-dbqlIK9U. I'm joining in on this event and it's looking to have some interesting people on board to talk. Some of the proceeds will be coming back to Arocalypse as well, so please do come and check it out!

For legal reasons, we can't support user accounts for people under the age of 13. Unfortunately, there's not a lot we can do there - the only other option would require more administration and young people outing themselves to their parents. I do want to make clear that this is entirely a legal decision and not because we feel that people can't know that they are aro until that age or anything like that. If you're under 13, we encourage you to browse the site and if you wish to participate then you can make guest posts.

If anyone wants to join the Discord, the link is already available on the forum post:

Possibly all of the above. There's recently been some big software updates to the forum software, which may have improved SEO. We've definitely changed the guest posts system since 2018, but we've actually made it more restrictive not less. They now require moderator approval before going through.

Just putting my mod hat on for just a moment to remind everyone that the official stance of the forum is that alloromantic and allosexual are legitimate terms. However, using these terms as pejoratives or otherwise discriminating against people who are part of those groups is against the rules of the forum:

I am white. I am privileged because I am white, if I argued otherwise I think most people on this forum would have words. I am also autistic, trans, aro, and ace. I am discriminated against for all four. Just because you have some privilege does not mean that you also do not experience discrimination, oppression or stigmatisation and there is no dissonance in that statement. And related to your question, yes they do. But they do experience arophobia and acephobia respectively, things I have personally witnessed and the gay people have some measure of privilege for not experiencing that. Which does nothing to diminish the very real problems any of those three hypothetical people face. Like I said originally, this whole concept isn't meant to be used as a measuring stick. It's a way to acknowledge issues and needs that various groups face and how they may inter-relate and connect to each other. Do you think it's ok for transphobes, gay or otherwise, who dislike being called cisgender to shout down that word? It's literally the same situation. No one is asking people to self-id as alloromantic or allosexual, but the words are still useful for us to talk about people who aren't us and taking away vocabulary is a form of harassment and has been a common tactic for silencing people, as has already been mentioned.

There is nothing wrong with the terms allosexual nor alloromantic for all the same reasons that there is nothing wrong with cisgender, perisex, allistic, etc, etc. if you have an issue with the way people use these words then by all means criticise them. But different terminology doesn’t fix those problems. This list of issues is so contradictory as to be laughable. You say that aros are stigmatised then say that allos don’t have any privileges by virtue of being allo. You can’t have it both ways. Having privilege doesn’t mean you aren’t oppressed or stigmatised. Those are not mutually exclusive. But this isn’t a race to the bottom to find out who is worst off. It’s about acknowledging that different groups of people have different issues and needs.

Sorry for the late reply (I pay more attention to the Site Comments forum where issues like this are usually reported). This should be fixed now, but it's been a long standing issue. Please do let me know if you're still having issues with this.

A big thank you to everyone who has stood up to help out. Everyone give a big welcome to the new members of the moderation team, in no particular order: @Autumn, @Holmbo, @Magni, @nonmerci, @roboticanary, @Erederyn, and @boba. On a personal note, I'll be stepping back from moderating on a day to day basis. I will instead be refocusing on the technical aspects of keeping the forum running and working behind the scenes to lead the team and make sure that they have what they need in order to do their job effectively.