Inactive members you'd like to see more of...

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NonZeroSum
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Inactive members you'd like to see more of...

Post by NonZeroSum »

Let me know if you like this idea or not and I will delete as might have the unintended effect of having people run for the hills. Just wanted to comment on a few posts to get an update on where a commentator is with their thinking on a subject, but thought I could use the opportunity to reach out to a few people who have taken a hiatus from the forum.

If you know someone who hasn't logged in or joined the discussion in a while from new to old, maybe you could leave them a friendly message here for when they return? Letting them know you enjoyed their past engagement and hope to see more.

Ok so here goes:
VGnizm wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2017 10:26 amwww.VGnizm.com
You splashed down with a lot of energy and enthusiasm with an interest in a broad number of subjects about what it meant to live a compassionate life, I’d be really interested to carry on those conversations, and wish you the best in the first few month milestones of your vegan journey.
Stijn wrote: Wed Apr 19, 2017 8:57 am
Your wild animal suffering post was incredibly detailed and engaging, from reading I did into your references applied utilitarianism has a lot of broad long-term goals. Like how to go about colonizing new planets, would love to read more informed thesis on the forum like your lectures, but also any two cents you feel is missing from discussions would be more than welcome.
RLRobbins wrote: Thu Feb 23, 2017 10:10 am
We had a great back and forth on social justice where we found a lot of understanding, you came across well knowledgeable and would be interested to hear more of your views.
Nakatu wrote: Wed Mar 08, 2017 9:33 am
You opened up about your uncertainty about which philosophy would be practical towards approaching veganism, whether you still subscribed to the advantages of ethical nihilism or if you were warming to a universal basis to morality within this absurd world. Would be interested to know if you’ve done any further reading, or just the day to day vegan basics that you’re interested in.
danst0 wrote: Tue Jan 31, 2017 3:47 pm
You came up with a bunch of interesting though experiments about what it meant to renegotiate our relationship with animals, as the conversation proceeded it felt like you were almost having an existential crisis that aliens might treat us the same as we are treating animals jokes, would love to get your thoughts on where you are now with those ideas, or maybe I’m just projecting, anyways appreciated your openness to question.
The Turbanator wrote: Mon Feb 20, 2017 2:21 am
Your last post described the frustrating nature of an internet discussion you were having on reddit, I quoted the Hellenist school of philosophy’s approach to persuasion, maybe you were looking for more specific ways to tactfully explain peoples flaws in reasoning, either way I liked your passion and hope to see more of your posts which value the merits of good logic.
Abbot wrote: Fri Mar 24, 2017 10:54 am
You wrote about your interest in First Nations empowerment, your experiences with other advocates, the unfortunate promotion of use of animal bodies and ways to question that. I’d be really interested to know if you have had any more experiences which have shaped what you think is the best way to engage with this activism.
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brimstoneSalad
neither stone nor salad
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Joined: Wed May 28, 2014 9:20 am
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Re: Inactive members you'd like to see more of...

Post by brimstoneSalad »

I'd love to see everybody more active. Particularly myself. So many threads I haven't replied to, but I'm afraid I don't have much time right now.
inator wrote:...
In particular, I'd love to see what inator can make of this thread:

http://philosophicalvegan.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=3077
Not really sure how to reply there at this point.
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PsYcHo
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Re: Inactive members you'd like to see more of...

Post by PsYcHo »

I think some of the inactivity may be in part due to the fact that Veganism is still seen as a position that it is OK to openly mock. Despite the massive gains made in recent decades towards individual choice being accepted, for some reason even those on the "liberal" side still find it mostly ok to marginalize those who try to limit harm towards non-humans.

Just today, I read a thread where a Vegan was making a point, and it somehow turned into an attack against them for not caring about "brown people". (Supposedly, Vegans only care about animals and not the persons who pick the food, which the attacker claimed was mostly "brown people" (Not my wording!) Despite the obvious point that the amount of grains to produce one steak is massively more than that to feed one Vegan, etc. )

I like your idea to get more members talking though, (and your avatar too!) so keep it up. I think Brimstone also did a similar post once that used members quotes to get them to reply, and it worked. Lots of us are busy, but we tend to pay more attention if we see that alert about us...

(edited for spelling error.....I hate spelling errors.. :x )
Alcohol may have been a factor.

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inator
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Re: Inactive members you'd like to see more of...

Post by inator »

brimstoneSalad wrote: Thu May 18, 2017 1:17 am I'd love to see everybody more active. Particularly myself. So many threads I haven't replied to, but I'm afraid I don't have much time right now.
inator wrote:...
In particular, I'd love to see what inator can make of this thread:

http://philosophicalvegan.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=3077
Not really sure how to reply there at this point.
Hey brimstone, I had a look at it. Here's my opinion, I'll just add it here:

His proposal to ignore utility and focus on expressed complaints may be a valid model, but I don't see the point. He'd still have to work out relations between complaints, build abstract complaint scales and "complaint functions". In which case all he'd be doing would be to offer a model that simply mirrors existing utility theories.

There'd hardly be any difference, except for the angle from which he looks at preferences. Basically just turning the coding scale on its head - say, "lowest complaint" as 1 and "highest complaint" as 5, from a set of 5 situation options (assuming preferences are ordinal and transitive). With lower values being normatively preferable to higher values in this case. Inevitably negative utilitarianism, with a few ad-hoc clauses.

He can't keep his model as simplistic as the binary "complaint/no complaint". At the very least, that would hardly have any descriptive power and would be useless.
So yeah, from my understanding there are no degrees of freedom added, he'll still end up having to talk about preference scales. I agree that it's just reinventing the wheel.
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brimstoneSalad
neither stone nor salad
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Re: Inactive members you'd like to see more of...

Post by brimstoneSalad »

inator wrote: Fri Jun 16, 2017 9:12 am Hey brimstone, I had a look at it. Here's my opinion, I'll just add it here:
Thanks. That seems about right. I don't know if he'll reply, but can you post that in the other thread?
I think you probably explained the problem more clearly than I did.
inator
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Re: Inactive members you'd like to see more of...

Post by inator »

brimstoneSalad wrote: Fri Jun 16, 2017 6:15 pm Thanks. That seems about right. I don't know if he'll reply, but can you post that in the other thread?
I think you probably explained the problem more clearly than I did.
Sure!
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