quote:

YouthNoise Fact Sheet WHAT * YouthNoise recognizes the power of millions of 13 - 26 year old future leaders to catapult their idealism into action. * YouthNoise is a nonpartisan, nonsectarian, nonprofit social networking site for young people who want to be a force for social change. * YouthNoise represents an important trend in technology: the vertical specialization of social networks around specific interests, with 100% of content user generated. * YouthNoise is a politically neutral global platform where youth can openly discuss issues and discover ways to make a difference in their communities around the world.

Seriously what's up with the site right now? When I first got on here, YN fulfilled its the stated purpose of "[creating] a non-partisan enviroment where both sides of every issue can be plainly show cased and debated" (paraphrased mildly)
Recently, however, YN seems to have been leaning to one side on most issues. Like animal rights. A recent e-mail highlighted a common issue of hormones and toxins in meat. (Which, according to the FDA, is vastly exaggerated anyway.) It also went on to promote animal rights and declare fur as evil. (Impressive for a paragraph.) However, it didn't disclose the opposite points of view which support hunters rights, humane slaughter and exhibits the poisons and genetic engineering done to veggies as well.
This is becoming a common trend with YN and not just with our furry friends/lunch meat. So seriously , YN, tell us the truth: how non-partisan are you?

Ginger-
Even so, your last mass email sent out was completely about animal rights. I know that there isn't a lot of pro-hunting or info about vegetables being contaminated on the site at the moment, but by showing just one side, you make the site seem very biased. It would have been better to have opposing viewpoints, or at least, had something completely different, not just the majority linking to parts of Matthunt's cause, and the other leading to the cause of a band that I have never heard of telling me what to do.

There's more I want to say about this, but I'm a little upset about something else with the site at the moment, so when I think of a way civilly to say it, I will.

REFER

Ampmaster and Shade -

YN is and will always be non-partisan. We have recently had several people entering the site to investigate the issue of animal rights which is the most popular area of the site at the moment. All the content you see associated here is user generated. We have a young staff (18 to 24) who work on the site. They all contribute content. One member of our team is particularly interested in protecting animals. He is 18. He has written a good deal about the issues of animal rights. He joined us because he was such an active user of the site - not perhaps the message boards, but certainly the rest of the site. His position is not necessarily political, (can't speak for him) it is pro-animal. We can politicize everything, I suppose, but really some issues are more about a particular take on humanity - about which many of us differ.

In a few months we will have completed upgrades to our platform that will make all content other than some core fact sheets, polls and toolkits completely user produced (never mind generated). And entries will be rated by the community. So a democratization should occur and your partisan concerns should be addressed. We hope individuals with varying opinions and views will truly participate and offer others a respectful platform for their own views. Perhaps you need to corral some other more conservative voices to join you on the issues you care about to help support the balance we always seek. And keep in touch. Partisanship is an important topic here and for the organization. We try to stay balanced. We also respect the opinions of our contributors. Thnks for keeping an eye on this.

YN Ginger

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100% of content user generated.

I laugh. Really hard.