“I like ‘Journey’, no… I love ‘Journey’ 
For me it really sums up what we’re about… we’re on a voyage of discovery, learning about ourselves, our fellow creatures (human and animal), and, often as a result, about the way we treat our planet.” ~Richard Molyneux – volunteer moderator and fan of a peaceful, compassionate and unified Volentia!
We should respect one another, but we should also respect the definitions.
You are welcomed — with very open arms — to Volentia! Take comfort in the fact that there is a large, bustling network (thousands of members strong) who share feelings, concerns, frustrations, and hopes with you. This is a place for solace, a place for friends, a place for treats, and a place for hearts.
Volentia is a social network geared towards sharing, celebrating, and promoting all that is cruelty-free. It’s an ever-strengthening path, and the gravel beneath our feet is composed of any or all of compassion, health, environmentalism and nature. Every member is another component in our journey to make the world what it is meant to be — how it should have always been. This is what makes Volentia great; this is what makes the bond between our members — sometimes hundreds and thousands of miles between each other — unbreakable. We understand each other, and for many of those who abstain from meat and animal products, that kind of understanding is hard to find.
Volentia is about transition. We are about continually questioning and learning. The most valuable resource on Volentia is the members, through the continual effort to help, support, or inform one another. Vegetarians and vegans are welcomed, genuinely and wholeheartedly, to become members.
As you begin to get settled in, if you haven’t yet seen them, please take some time to watch “Earthlings” or, if pressed for time, “Glass Walls.”
Earthlings is available to view free at (http://www.earthlings.com/) and is about 90 minutes long.
Glass Walls is available to watch here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4YX_iVWIe0) and is only 13 minutes long.
The thinking behind Volentia, and the community it produces, is to end and eliminate all needless animal suffering and cruelty. We are here to help, support, encourage, and inform each other as we all celebrate our choices and our lifestyle. The site was made and maintained by vegetarians who didn’t even need to make a choice to happily transition to a vegan diet and lifestyle. The information and support of the community is both crucial and astounding.
Volentia wants to formally invite all vegetarians and vegans with open minds and curiosity for the things we may be inadvertently supporting in our everyday lives. Volentia welcomes all who wish to make the transition towards a cruelty-free lifestyle, and whether that means “giving up” meat or dairy, if you are open to the long-term goal or desire to step outside of general society’s contributions to torture, cruelty, and death, we are here to celebrate that choice right alongside you.
Contributed by Rand Foxwillow volunteer moderator.
A ‘vegetarian’ (coined by The Vegetarian Society of Great Britain in 1847, before that people abstaining from meat were ‘Pythagoreans’) is “a person who does not eat meat, fish, or fowl, and who may or may not eat dairy products or eggs.”
The term ‘vegan’ was coined by Donald Watson in 1944 and adopted by The Vegan Society of England founded later that year. Their definition of ‘veganism’, accepted as the decisive standard worldwide, is “…a way of living which excludes all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, the animal kingdom, and includes a reverence for life. It applies to the practice of living on the products of the plant kingdom to the exclusion of flesh, fish, fowl, eggs, honey, animal milk and its derivatives, and encourages the use of alternatives for all commodities derived wholly or in part from animals.”
People who call themselves vegetarian but eat fish, or vegan but eat honey, are ‘pescetarians’ and ‘vegetarians’ respectively. Once you take on the definition to ‘describe’ yourself there’s really no excuse to give non-veg*ns ammo, or make it harder for those who follow them to the letter, by not sticking to them.
Yes, terms like ‘lacto’ and ‘ovo’ have their uses but, unfortunately, only add to the confusion…
Richard, volunteer moderator and fan of a peaceful, compassionate and unified Volentia!
If you are a first-time visitor to Volentia you have several options for signing up. You may provide an email address and choose a password to sign up for Volentia. You also have the option to use an existing Facebook, Google, or Yahoo! account — and complete the registration flow in a couple of clicks. Your name and email address will be automatically populated in the sign-up form. If you sign up with your Facebook account, your birthdate, gender, and profile photo will also be automatically filled out during the sign-up process. Makes things easier and faster.
If you are an existing member and you try to Sign In via Facebook, Google, or Yahoo right from the Sign In page, you’ll be signed right in if the email address provided by Facebook, Google, and Yahoo matches the one you originally joined Volentia with. If the email address does not match, you’ll be told that no account exists, and you will be asked to sign in using your Volentia username and address. Once you are signed in, you can link your accounts (even if the email addresses are different) by going to your Volentia Settings-Connections page.
Signing in to Volentia with one of these networks has now become incredibly simple. All it takes is one click.
On the Sign-Up / Sign-In box, you can also see which Social Sign-in accounts are supported. If you are signed-out you can simply click on the icon of the service you initially chose to join with, or that you authorized on your Volentia settings page, and you’ll be signed in right away — no extra steps or clicks needed.