Is this forum useless?

Technical problems, questions, comments, and suggestions for the forum and wiki.

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brimstoneSalad
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Is this forum useless?

Post by brimstoneSalad »

Elsewhere, EquALLity suggested it is. I disagree, otherwise I wouldn't be posting here and promoting the forum.
EquALLity wrote: Wed Apr 19, 2017 8:45 pm This is a relatively small internet forum. There isn't a large audience to read in depth arguments like that. If you want to do activism through informing people, then write a book, or become a teacher. Making posts on the Philosophical Vegan Forum isn't making a difference.
[...]
If you're really passionate about your philosophical ideas, become a philosophy teacher or write a book. This is just a forum.
What are your thoughts? Do you think this makes any difference to people at all? Is it helpful as a resource, or might it as well be deleted as a big waste of time?
Has the forum and discussions on it changed your mind or inspired you? How widely read and influential do you think it is?
(bear in mind it has existed under this name for under a year)
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miniboes
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Re: Is this forum useless?

Post by miniboes »

It's certainly not useless, but I have my doubts about the magnitude of its impact. My experience on this forum and its predecessor has quite radically changed my mind on various subjects, from how to live my personal life to my political views. My views are probably more 'liquid', more open to change, than the average person though. Nevertheless, the forum is a great place to discuss complicated issues with like-minded and intelligent people. That's worth something, though I don't know how much.

I think the forum is a great medium but its bad at attracting audiences. We have all these topics in the archives with great info, but they're hard to find. If people want to know something they tend to end up at regular websites, blogs, articles, videos and books. I have no idea how many lurkers we have, but I would guess we only have fewer than 30 people who read the forum regularly at any given time. People that register are most of the time gone very soon after.

I suspect that the forum (or rather its predecessor) had the highest impact at the point where we pushed something out of the forum; the Dillahunty video. We may be able to increase the forum's impact by working on more projects like that, e.g. making a blog out of interesting threads.
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Dream Sphere
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Re: Is this forum useless?

Post by Dream Sphere »

I can't speak for others, but personally I think this forum and Brimstone's and others' posts have helped me a lot. It's given me knowledge on ethics/morality, logic, health, and biology that has cemented myself as a Vegan who won't receed again, (I had receeded to vegetarianism in 2013.)

I'm also pro-nuclear and pro-GMO thanks to informative posts in those threads.

I've been able to change a few minds in my personal life with the knowledge I've gained from lurking here. My Dad's gone 99% Vegan, my Mom is considering going Vegan once she's retired and doesn't have as much stress. My Dad's pro-nuclear now too.


I do think that writing a book or becoming a teacher/lecturer would reach more people than this site, though. This site has probably helped some dozens of people quite a lot, but thousands or millions could be helped by a book with the right advertising/promotion campaign. So what I mean is, what you've contributed to the forum is definitely worth something, but doing something more like a book would probably have a much greater effect. Preferrably I would like you to do both, but I would understand that if you decided to go the book/teacher route that you would divert time spent here to work more on those projects.

I'd hope that after doing something else that's more effective that you would eventually find time to post here as much as you have in the past because it's been very helpful to me on a personal level, but I do think that doing something more instead of the forum would be a good idea and could have magnitudes greater effectiveness at reaching more people than this forum.
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DarlBundren
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Re: Is this forum useless?

Post by DarlBundren »

I agree with everything that miniboes said. I love the forum ( I had been a lurker for a long time before I joined in the conversations) and I love this format as well. That being said, it would be nice to have an easier, more systemic way of accessing the information that can be found in here.

Moreover, more educational material would be nice. I wish there were a list of articles, videos or even textbooks to read. Actually, I wish there were some place, somewhere, dedicated to self-teaching and learning. LessWrong tried to do that, but it was ultimately unsuccessful.
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EquALLity
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Re: Is this forum useless?

Post by EquALLity »

I never said that. I said the forum isn't a means of activism, not that it's useless. If I thought it was useless, why would I be here?

Like you say often and clearly know, this is a DISCUSSION forum. It's useful for learning new things, but it's not effective activism, because it's purpose is just discussion. If you want to have an impact on the world, then get offline and DO something. Find an activist group in your area, or start a group yourself. That's what I'm saying.
"I am not a Marxist." -Karl Marx
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Jebus
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Re: Is this forum useless?

Post by Jebus »

I have learned a lot on this forum, but probably 99 percent of what I have learned came from Brimstone. I'm not sure if I would be here if it hadn't been for him/her. Having been vegan for 11 years and almost vegan many years before that I have accumulated some knowledge that I feel obligated to pass on to others. I think this is a good place to do so but I suspect I am reaching more potential vegans through my Facebook posts.
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NonZeroSum
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Re: Is this forum useless?

Post by NonZeroSum »

I second/third a list of featured articles / table of contents / frequently asked questions.
Last edited by NonZeroSum on Tue Apr 25, 2017 9:46 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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brimstoneSalad
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Re: Is this forum useless?

Post by brimstoneSalad »

NonZeroSum wrote: Tue Apr 25, 2017 9:36 pm I second/third a list of featured articles / table of contents / frequently asked questions.
Sounds good, I'll make a thread on it.

Hopefully indexing and making the forum easier to search will help make it a more valuable tool for budding activists and new vegans looking to better understand the philosophy.
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NonZeroSum
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Re: Is this forum useless?

Post by NonZeroSum »

Awesome,

If people liked the idea, and had the energy for it, I would actually be up for putting time into a vegan philosophy wiki, similar to how Wikipedia have a bunch of overlapping pages that fit into philosophy 'series's' - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Philosophy

It would draw more viewership to the forum and be a place for spirited debate over what evidence can be presented as fact / philosophy etc.

As with transcribing videos, it's an enjoyable leisure activity that is more meaningful to me than just a practical sports hobby because I feel like I'm expanding my reading and making the discourse more accessible.
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brimstoneSalad
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Re: Is this forum useless?

Post by brimstoneSalad »

NonZeroSum wrote: Tue Apr 25, 2017 9:48 pm Awesome,

If people liked the idea, and had the energy for it, I would actually be up for putting time into a vegan philosophy wiki, similar to how Wikipedia have a bunch of overlapping pages that fit into philosophy 'series's' - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Philosophy
Basically just extracting the core arguments and editing all of these discussions and threads into wiki articles?

I think that would be great if you're up for doing it. It would surely take a lot of editing.
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