I think in Ovarit-speak "circle" is code for "clique." And that an unwritten rule of most of the cliques is that no one can disagree or question the approved views that the members of the clique seem to have all taken an oath to agree with and defend to the death.

I've only made a few comments there, all in response to posts I came across on the main page - under the headings "New," "Top" or "Hot" - that I found factually inaccurate, historically uninformed, authoritarian and/or in which it seemed to me that a poster with one set of rather limited life experiences and views was appropriating/using other people's very different life experiences in ways that struck me as unfair, unseemly and/or disrespectful. Pretty much all my posts immediately got me flamed, blocked and told that I'm mean and horrible, and that I have some nerve to say what I did.

Only later did I realize that the posts I'd responded to were from "circles" aka cliques where groupthink prevails and other views are anathema. If Ovarit is gonna continue calling its subs "circles," I think it might be best to label a lot of them "closed circles." (Another term with the word "circle" in it comes to mind, too, but it's too crude and male for me to mention, LOL.)

The whole place seem puerile, petty and fully of people saying "you should," "we must" and "you can't say or think that."

Now that I've started paying attention to the "circles" in which comments/threads are posted - rather than just to the title, topic and content of the posts as I did previously - I'm also of the opinion that there are too many different "circles" that seem to overlap or cover the same topics, and there's no way any outsiders or newcomers could possibly discern or have a what the differences amongst/between them might be.

Of course I get the difference between, say, Gender Critical and STEM and Games and ArtsandYarns. But not between GenderCritical, TransLogic, TerfisaSlur and ItsaFetish; or between Women'sLiberation, RadFemmery and NameTheProblem. And what on earth is Women supposed to be about? Even when I click on these cliques - oops circles - and read their descriptions, I still don't often see the difference between them.

I'll continue to look at the home page and read Ovarit on occasion, but probably won't try to contribute further. It's not a place for the likes of me.