Hi all,
sorry for the delayed contribution. I'm reading this on my phone which is perhaps not the best thing to do as that's hard to follow the trail of the conversation. Not sure if it's better on the computer but I haven't been on the computer of late.
I understand why Rob wants to create a new forum, and I believe there should be a forum for the sorts of things that have been banned. It's interesting to see what is still getting through. Like the post yesterday about the UN emergency service, and ilse's regular posts about the peace vigil.
I'm going to throw out a few thoughts about the new forum, and it's challenges, that are perhaps not well thought through.?
1) The posts that were banned from the WN were not really discussions initially. They were links to petitions, assemblies and news sources. The discussions only got going when there was push back about those earlier posts. From what I have seen of the WN, it doesn't seem to be used for discussion. It's more for information.
I believe it should be a place for all information, but seems the admin are not going to allow that. It's really not clear how they are deciding what should be posted and what should not be. Currently, it might be the post of certain people that are automatically disallowed...?
Would a new forum contain predominantly ?information posts (understanding that occasionally some back-and-forth might occur) or is the intent to create a discussion forum? Personally, I'm not a big fan of an online discussion. I'd rather just talk to people.
2) As already noted, the membership of a new forum is initially going to be small, so the information posted will not reach many people.?
3) Small membership?also means that not much information will be posted.Where content of the new forum is concerned, I assume that the intention is not to have anyone (Or any group ) proactively generating content... be it news, information or discussion. ?It would be more organic, like the current WN, where members post the occasional thing which interests them ?and which they feel would interest others.?
The amount of posting would probably fluctuate depending on what is going on in the world and in the community at any given time. But with a small membership, there might be so little content that the forum seems marginal and static¡ And this could make it harder to attract new membership.
Not being very tech savvy, and having never been part of running a forum such as the one that is proposed, I don't really know how much work is involved, and what roles need to be filled. I don't have a lot of time at the moment, but I'd be willing to pitch in a bit. That said , I do like to limit my screen time.
cheers, Paola
