section_path: History and organization/Forums
section_name: Forums
paragraph_text: Forums
  
  In 2017, the largest incel forum was founded by a previous moderator of the r/incels subreddit. The forum had almost 15,000 members as of October 2022. It is composed of public and registered message boards for self-described incels to discuss their personal experiences. Moderators ban women and LGBT individuals from joining, stating that the forum is oriented towards straight men. In 2020, Talia Lavin in her book Culture Warlords, described the site's culture as one of "one-upmanship", "barroom boast-off" and shock content. In 2023, Rolling Stone described a vindictive site culture, giving an example of an ex-moderator who entered a romantic relationship and was subsequently rejected by site members as a "fake incel". In 2019, Vox stated that the site has a culture of praising mass killers, which is treated lightly by the site's admins.
  
  The site has used several top-level domains since its creation, after being suspended by one domain registry due to violence and hate speech and denied renewal by another. The site owners also operate a wiki, which has been described by researchers publishing in New Media & Society as cherry picking academic papers to promote misogynistic points.
  
  In 2017, the largest incel forum was founded by a previous moderator of the r/incels subreddit. The forum had almost 15,000 members as of October 2022. It is composed of public and registered message boards for self-described incels to discuss their personal experiences. Moderators ban women and LGBT individuals from joining, stating that the forum is oriented towards straight men. In 2020, Talia Lavin in her book Culture Warlords, described the site's culture as one of "one-upmanship", "barroom boast-off" and shock content. In 2023, Rolling Stone described a vindictive site culture, giving an example of an ex-moderator who entered a romantic relationship and was subsequently rejected by site members as a "fake incel". In 2019, Vox stated that the site has a culture of praising mass killers, which is treated lightly by the site's admins.
  
  The site has used several top-level domains since its creation, after being suspended by one domain registry due to violence and hate speech and denied renewal by another. The site owners also operate a wiki, which has been described by researchers publishing in New Media & Society as cherry picking academic papers to promote misogynistic points.