ARO forum description

To connect to the ARO forum right away, click here.
(But it would be useful if you read the info on this page before joining the ARO forum).

The ARO internet forum is a global forum that is completely free to use. The forum is a place open to everyone except for people who are very impolite (unfortunately there are some people like this registered on quite a few other internet forum sites, but you won't have to deal with these people here). The ARO forum also has completely private areas that are only to be used by what people who will be classified on this forum as 'animal-concerned vegans', which is defined here as "people whose concern for animals is a major part of why they don't eat animal products" (note that ARO is using the word 'vegan' to simply mean "a person who doesn't eat animal products", which is the same definition that is being used by many dictionaries and animal rights groups; click here to read more about this). The ARO forum also has completely private areas that are only for ARO supporters. To read about how to gain access to the private sections, click here.

In order to use this forum, you must choose a username that is not extremely long (so that people can type it out fairly quickly) and that sounds somewhat like a name. So people can't choose usernames like "Ydg" or "Y@@" or "Supercalafragalistic". Also, it is useful to choose a username that is composed of just one name (like Kim or Chatter) to avoid confusion with other usernames (but this is not a requirement). If you pick a two-name username then the first name in the username will have to be unique (so there cannot be a Kim_Star and a Kim_Singer, but there could be a Kim_Star and a Kim22_Singer). Also, if you choose a fairly unique username then nobody can choose a very similar username (so there cannot be a Chatter and a Chatter2). If you want to make things simple for yourself, you could just choose a username that is your first name followed by your middle and last intials (for example, KimFA). Or you could pick any common first name followed by 2 or 3 letters or numbers.

Also, you must enter the actual state/province and country where you live in your profile so that people can possibly meet people who live near each other (but if you live in a country that is about the size of France or smaller then you can choose to not enter your state/province). It would also be great if people end up entering their city and 'SurroundingCity' where they live but this is not required ('SurroundingCity' is the name of the main city that is composed of several cities). You must enter your location in the following format: country, province/state, SurroundingCity, city/town   [but you can choose to not enter your SurroundingCity and/or city]. For example, someone could enter (USA, California, Los Angeles, Orange) since Orange is a city within Greater Los Angeles. Or if someone lives in the city of Los Angeles itself then he/she should write (USA, California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles) as their city. Please use the abbreviations USA and UK if you live in the USA or UK.

Certain major debates that begin on the ARO forum will be tabled and brought up again during time periods that will be dedicated for major debates (this will allow more people to participate in these debates). But quite a number of different kinds of debates will still be allowed take place at any time of the year. At this time, the time periods dedicated for major debates will be [September 7th to 28th] and also [May 7th to 28th].

If you join this forum, then you need to introduce yourself in the "General Discussion" section of the "World Issues" area (under the topic "Introductions by forum users"). You don't need to give a long introduction so this shouldn't be a difficult thing to do. You can even introduce yourself with just one or two sentences.

You can enter your time zone when you join this forum, relative to GMT (the default setting corresponds to Pacific Standard Time). You can change your time zone any time after you join the ARO forum by making adjustments to your profile. To figure out your time zone relative to GMT, you can go to www.ARoutreach.org/timezones.html.

To read why the ARO forum has categories for only certain countries and cities, click here.

To join the ARO forum, just click on the "Register" link displayed on the top right corner of any webpage in the ARO forum.

To connect to the ARO forum, click here.