Welcome to VancouverGathers.ca
We reside in Lhq’á:lets or “Vancouver” on unceded Coast Salish territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), stoːlo (Stolo), and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) nations.
Everyone here can be thankful these peoples have honoured this land as its stewards.
This region is now called a beautiful place to live.
Let us all respect the immemorial work of the stewards.
Honour this locale and its history!
Is this site a forum?
Yes!
This is a place where we can gather, communicate, learn, and work together.
Something like local social media. Something like a cooperation platform.
Something like a space to trade skills or share creativity.
Technically, right now VancouverGathers.ca is a forum hosted on a WordPress site.
What are "we" doing here?
We support systems of community working together, with our minds open and interpreting.
We move toward the future willingly, with great aspirations for justice, freedom, and ecology.
Thanks for joining us on this Weird World Web. In this moment, let’s lend a hand to neighbours.
Let’s share useful skills and interesting stories. Let’s gather in solidarity.
What are some of the goals of this place?
- Inspire reflection
- Instigate change in the world
- Gather together
- To reconcile with the long flow of history
- Be guided by international principles
Promote keeping informed and acting in accordance with #UNDRIP:
“United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People.”
Settlers are openly asked to make efforts here:
Understand, acknowledge, and accept a role.
Take apart what was so-called “civilization!”
How this site evolves is up to us.
Imaginations are welcome here!
Three principle to guide this space, for mutual AID:
1) Accessibility, 2) Inclusion, and 3) Democracy.
Who created VancouverGathers.ca?
Technically, VancouverGathers.ca is a web forum hosted on an Elementor-based WordPress site.
The creator of this page is a resident of Vancouver, who pays out of pocket to host and upkeep the site.
There are no affiliations, paid or otherwise, in putting this page together.
The intention is to provide a space for communicating which is accessible, inclusive, and democratic.
Is this page safe and private?
Privacy matters! Efforts are made to assure that user data is secure and minimally collected in the first place.
There are no Google Analytics or other services where Google typically gets used, such as the use on this site of Friendly Captcha instead of Google ReCaptcha. The Elementor editor code does use Google fonts as a fallback, and Elementor also has installed 3rd party services but there is no user data collected here. It is there for features relying on those services (which this site is not using, such as social share features).
The software and plugins are kept up-to-date which is important for general security and integrity. I use standard security measures and will monitor issues.
Also, this forum shouldn’t be used for sensitive purposes, so using this site should be safe.
Please give me your feedback if you have any concerns or questions.
