Proposal for awareness of our community

[StephanieCD]

An open call to those with technology, artistic, marketing and ANY other skills:

I am developing a confidential (for now) initiative to promote the awareness of crossdressing and it's acceptability in society. I have an idea and I need help - to do it alone would be silly. Most projects I do alone fall to the wayside - I'm putting it on the table that this should be done - and I'm admitting I need help.

This is not a spam - I plan to build a website that will make a dent in society; I'm talking with tolerance.org (preliminary stages) about getting some exposure and support.

I will need:

Programmers
Stephanie? Is this you? I need someone experienced (somewhat) with web applications. If anyone has even a remote clue about PHP/MySQL or related web technologies contact me. I have minimal exposure - I'll need someone smarter than me with these things.

Artists
Eva, I'd be honored. I will need at least one talented physical artist - I'm a pixel pusher - I need an artist, on principal. For web graphics and more. Illustrations - PHOTOGRAPHERS too - please let there be a gifted photgrapher among us... Rusty?

Printers - marketing
Anyone with resources to print materials? Distribute materials?

More
If you have ANY skill that could be used in any capacity PM me and I'll add you to the list - advertising, legal, design, marketing "ins", anything. And - lastly, if you are financially secure - at some point funds might help. (this is NOT a plea for money)

For various reasons I am not going to discuss the nature of the idea openly on the forum yet - when I form a team I will post progress here. I can not do this alone and I need people with resources and time to help. This isn't rocket science, seriously... I just feel something organized needs to happen - and I want to be alive to see it happen.


I have a good idea to educate the public about the true nature of crossdressing. We are mocked by all walks of life and I'm sick of it. On tolerance.org today I read that the last stereotype it's ok to make fun of is rednecks. While it's true I've made fun of rednecks myself in web cartoons - it is not true they are the last group it's ok to mock. WE are also "ok" to make fun of and it happens at least once or twice a night on TV alone - forget real life. As you've seen I pay attention to the references to CDing on TV (though I've dropped that ball - hence I need help). It's everywhere.

My idea is an awareness campaign. I will do this behind a curtain of anonynimity (spelling?). My goal is to build a beautiful and effective website that gets attention in the web community (I can do it) - and have it be entirely built and supported by CDs (subtley stated in the masthead). I won't go further into it until I have an established team. I don't need full time - even an hour here or there would do. We'll do it under veils. All domains registered privately and no real names will be used.

I don't want to seem like an evangelist - email me if you have ANY skill and are willing to anonymously donate your effort in any way to an effort to promote awareness about "us" then PM me. I'm not promising a business venture - a hobby for a good cause.

[Rayna]

An open call to those with technology, artistic, marketing and ANY other skills:

I am developing a confidential (for now) initiative to promote the awareness of crossdressing and it's acceptability in society. I have an idea and I need help - to do it alone would be silly. Most projects I do alone fall to the wayside - I'm putting it on the table that this should be done - and I'm admitting I need help.

This is not a spam - I plan to build a website that will make a dent in society; I'm talking with tolerance.org (preliminary stages) about getting some exposure and support.

I will need:

Programmers
Stephanie? Is this you? I need someone experienced (somewhat) with web applications. If anyone has even a remote clue about PHP/MySQL or related web technologies contact me. I have minimal exposure - I'll need someone smarter than me with these things.

Artists
Eva, I'd be honored. I will need at least one talented physical artist - I'm a pixel pusher - I need an artist, on principal. For web graphics and more. Illustrations - PHOTOGRAPHERS too - please let there be a gifted photgrapher among us... Rusty?

Printers - marketing
Anyone with resources to print materials? Distribute materials?

More
If you have ANY skill that could be used in any capacity PM me and I'll add you to the list - advertising, legal, design, marketing "ins", anything. And - lastly, if you are financially secure - at some point funds might help. (this is NOT a plea for money)

For various reasons I am not going to discuss the nature of the idea openly on the forum yet - when I form a team I will post progress here. I can not do this alone and I need people with resources and time to help. This isn't rocket science, seriously... I just feel something organized needs to happen - and I want to be alive to see it happen.


I have a good idea to educate the public about the true nature of crossdressing. We are mocked by all walks of life and I'm sick of it. On tolerance.org today I read that the last stereotype it's ok to make fun of is rednecks. While it's true I've made fun of rednecks myself in web cartoons - it is not true they are the last group it's ok to mock. WE are also "ok" to make fun of and it happens at least once or twice a night on TV alone - forget real life. As you've seen I pay attention to the references to CDing on TV (though I've dropped that ball - hence I need help). It's everywhere.

My idea is an awareness campaign. I will do this behind a curtain of anonynimity (spelling?). My goal is to build a beautiful and effective website that gets attention in the web community (I can do it) - and have it be entirely built and supported by CDs (subtley stated in the masthead). I won't go further into it until I have an established team. I don't need full time - even an hour here or there would do. We'll do it under veils. All domains registered privately and no real names will be used.

I don't want to seem like an evangelist - email me if you have ANY skill and are willing to anonymously donate your effort in any way to an effort to promote awareness about "us" then PM me. I'm not promising a business venture - a hobby for a good cause.


Photographer... you got it sweetie.


-Rayna

[StephanieCD]

Good!!!!

(by the way - I'll need some photos of me in drab soon for a business thing - we'll talk)

Remember hun, this will be anonymous work. I'll explain it to you - over pool soon ;) You have my email.

[Rayna]

Good!!!!

(by the way - I'll need some photos of me in drab soon for a business thing - we'll talk)

Remember hun, this will be anonymous work. I'll explain it to you - over pool soon ;) You have my email.

Sounds great to me, and a wonderful cause!

[StephanieCD]

Next! Seriously... next?

:)

[Rachel Ann]

Good luck with this, Stephanie. Mostly I find myself explaining to the few people whom I am out to that I am not gay, bi, or transsexual, I don't crossdress for sexual or fetish reasons, and I don't wish that I were a woman.

That's a lot of negatives. I would like to go in to the x-y-z axes of gender, sex and sexuality, but that's too complicated for most. Gender is just poorly understood right now.

Please keep us up to date on your progress!

Love

[Ariel_TV]

Programmers
Stephanie? Is this you? I need someone experienced (somewhat) with web applications. If anyone has even a remote clue about PHP/MySQL or related web technologies contact me. I have minimal exposure - I'll need someone smarter than me with these things.

It hard to know what kind of expertise you need with so few information. You need to analyse the type and quantity of information you want to work with and how this information will flow. A awareness site can be done in html , you only need to go into php and databases if you have large volume of information to process.

If you want more of a site that is beautiful and with spazz you will need a web designer who knows how to make thing look good. If you want to work with data , process information and store it you will need more of a programmer who has database knowledge.

It all about what your website is gonna do and depending on that the kind of computer talent you will need can change.

[Katie Ashe]

I DON'T KNOW HOW MUCH I CAN HELP, BUT I WORK FOR A COMPUTER COMPANY... REPAIRS, UPGRADES, DISCOUNTED PARTS ETC... COMPLETE SYSTEM BUILDS, SERVERS ETC...

Katie

[Natalie x]

Stepanie, I don't have any of the skills you want at this stage, but if you want help later on to, I don't know, respond to enquiries or just be a head to be counted, or whatever, then I'm here if you want me.

Love

[Nyx]

I have already started a similar initiative with a few crossdresser friends. The project is to create a website aimed mostly at younger crossdressers and transexuals (teenagers and young adults) who are either "coming out", or want to get information about it. The website will not impose any age limit, however. The main point is that I want our website to have a younger vision of crossdressing, that reflects the modern realities better. The site will also be open to people who are curious about the topic, but we will do everything we can to moderate the community and avoid divergence into yet another sex matching website.

The website will feature a discrete look, articles with that try to answer all possible questions they could have, forums, our own dedicated IRC chat server, and *moderated* photo galleries. The website will be made so that you can access it easily, without attracting suspicions, and get all the information and support you need without being harassed by ads, sexual content and such (like on some other websites I won't name).

We already have a dedicated webserver, on a dedicated connection online, and our own dot com domain that reflects the nature of our website. We chose to call the community "Our True Identity", because that is what we want to expose: who we really are, our true identity, or nature, as individuals, not just as crossdressers or transexuals.

You can view the website that is in the works by clicking on the link below (If you don't like the color theme, thats fine, they will be customizable per-user): www.ourtrueidentity.com

The website is being programmed all in PHP by myself, and my friend is taking care of the server administration, but we do need help with graphics. We could use a better logo, among other things. We are also looking for people who want to write articles to help us.

As a matter of fact, I had posted a thread about it yesterday:
http://www.crossdressers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8683

I don't mean to compete with you. It just seems that we are looking to accomplish the same thing, except that we already started the work and are about to have a functional community website within a week, and you seem to have focused more on the advertising (getting it known) aspect. The main difference with your idea is that I am thinking of supporting transexuals too, as the line between transexuals and crossdressers is often very thin, and well, they often suffer from the same issues (mockery, for example) that we do, and need the same kind of support.

Perhaps we could talk about possibilities of uniting our efforts, so we can all work towards a common goal. After all, we are stronger together, than if we all run in different directions. It would be really cool if we could work together and realise this in a collective effort.

If you want to contact me, my MSN e-mail is (roue(@)sympatico(.)com), my ICQ number is 59216599 and you can add me on AIM using my ICQ number.

[StephanieCD]

It hard to know what kind of expertise you need with so few information. You need to analyse the type and quantity of information you want to work with and how this information will flow. A awareness site can be done in html , you only need to go into php and databases if you have large volume of information to process.

If you want more of a site that is beautiful and with spazz you will need a web designer who knows how to make thing look good. If you want to work with data , process information and store it you will need more of a programmer who has database knowledge.

It all about what your website is gonna do and depending on that the kind of computer talent you will need can change.


I am said web designer - and I can build a basic php content management system. I need someone who is more experienced with said data - for example taking zip code coordinates and processing them by radius like in a store locator. All this is geek-speak - if you do want to talk shop, PM me.

Nyx - no worries - it's not "competition" - I'm not trying to win anything here. We can help each other when the time comes ;)

The reason I'm not on here spelling out my plan yet is it's not completely hammered out yet - I want a solid game plan before I sit on here and announce something and later look a fool for failing. I just want to know who can do what and who would be willing to help. Perhaps it'd be more effective to define the roles I need filled and post them here.

[Nyx]

Nyx - no worries - it's not "competition" - I'm not trying to win anything here. We can help each other when the time comes

Thats not really the point. The point is that you want to do pretty much the same thing we are doing. Our ideas are very resembling, even the small technical details (we are already using PHP and MySQL). As a matter of fact, you posted your thread approximately 20 minutes after I posted mine.

You may not like the idea of not being the only person in the lead, but really, thats not what this project should be about, is it? It should be about creating a united community. You seem like a motivated person, and I think it would be great if we could do this together. We could start by getting to know each other and sharing ideas.

The point is, well. We really want this to work, and you seem to want the same thing. But we already have the basic resources in place and its going to start very soon. I propose that you join our effort, which is already in the works, and that we create this together. In your original post, you said this was about the true nature of crossdressers. We decided to call our website Our True Identity. Identity and nature sound very alike, don't you think?

When I started searching for information on the internet for crossdressing, I was surprised at how scattered things were. Most communities are small, none of them seems to have a *real* IRC chat, and a very large proportion of crossdressing websites are only about sex, which is not what I want. If you just do your thing on your side while we do ours, at best, we each will have our own small community, and at worst, both of our projects will be massive flops, because resources will be wasted on both sides.

We both had the same idea at almost the same time. Do you see how great of an opportunity this is? Perhaps its *the* opportunity we both need.

I propose it once again: Join us, and lets unite our strengths, so we can work together and reach this common goal.

To answer your worries:


The reason I'm not on here spelling out my plan yet is it's not completely hammered out yet - I want a solid game plan before I sit on here and announce something and later look a fool for failing. I just want to know who can do what and who would be willing to help. Perhaps it'd be more effective to define the roles I need filled and post them here.

We can discuss this privately, as I proposed. I didn't want to post a link to our website yet, but I wanted to show you I was serious, and not pulling this out of nowhere.

There is no risk of failing. So far, we are setting up a community with articles. Sort of a portal website. We host the website ourself, and so there is no risk of losing that. If its not popular enough, its only a matter of promoting it, but the fact is, it already works, and many people are already showing interest. The financial investment we have made so far consistsed of registering the domain name, money is not involved in this, so again, there is really no danger.

Its only a matter of building things progressively. We are not selling promotional material yet, and not making any financial investments. These things can come later. With time, patience and a moderate amount of dedication, the community can only expand.

[tgirlkari]

Stephanie I wish I could help you I will keep an eye on this and watch to see if I can at a later time.
Good luck hon