DavidV Posted September 12, 2005 Report Share Posted September 12, 2005 Is there any interest in adding area-specific forums? For example, I think a NYC or Orange County forum would be useful to Objectivists in that area. Perhaps those forums would be associated or moderated by officers from the local Objectivist clubs. Anyone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BurgessLau Posted September 12, 2005 Report Share Posted September 12, 2005 (edited) David, this is an intriguing idea. Do you see participation as being limited to residents in the designated region? In the Pacific NW U. S. A., there is now a Seattle-Portland Objectivist Network. Within that network there are two local groups: Portland-Area Objectivists and a Seattle group. Access to the SPON network is severely limited to qualified individuals (http://www.aristotleadventure.com/spon/), and we communicate via an email list. The only local drawback I can see to relying on a public forum for communications about, for example, upcoming dinner meetings is that that approach would open the meetings to attendance by anyone, thus possibly (or probably) lowering the quality of the gatherings. Nevertheless, a regional or local forum could be used to discuss local political issues or simply to act as a "funnel" for bringing in new people to the network. I do see a possible drawback for the administrators and moderators of ObjectivismOnline.net, and it is the same drawback that apparently leads ARI to avoid listing local Objectivist groups (other than the academic ones it supports directly): How do you decide who is Objectivist and who isn't? There are answers to that question, but would monitoring such a situation be worth the cost in time? Only the admins can answer that. Your proposal deserves serious consideration and further definition. Edited September 12, 2005 by BurgessLau Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
softwareNerd Posted September 12, 2005 Report Share Posted September 12, 2005 Burgess, Other than announcements of upcoming events, what else do you currently use the "SPON" email list for? Are there other discussions for which it is currently used? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidV Posted September 12, 2005 Author Report Share Posted September 12, 2005 David, this is an intriguing idea. Do you see participation as being limited to residents in the designated region? I think this is something that can be left up to the leaders of the local groups. If they are concerned about making certain announcements public, I can hide that forum from non-members as well. How do you decide who is Objectivist and who isn't? I don’t think this needs to be a difficult process. All the moderators need to do is ensure that the “guest” forums follow the forum rules – we do not have to investigate the groups themselves. The difference from the rest of the forum will be that the burden will be placed on the local group officers to keep their members in line – unless there is no local leadership, in which case the general moderators will oversee it. In fact, the greatest value of local forums may be to areas without active Objectivist groups. A local forum can provide an avenue to make contacts for local activities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BurgessLau Posted September 12, 2005 Report Share Posted September 12, 2005 (edited) Burgess, Other than announcements of upcoming events, what else do you currently use the "SPON" email list for? Are there other discussions for which it is currently used? I use it to introduce new members, by distributing the application they made for membership in the SPON network. This is not a big activity in that over the last 11 years we have accumulated about 20 network members. By the way, active members of the Seattle-Portland network include individuals living as far north as Vancouver BC and as far south as San Francisco. In both cases, these individuals visit the S-P area often enough to be able to occasionally attend our gatherings either for Portland or for Seattle or for combined gatherings. However, I do know that there are other individuals in the Northwest who live too far to attend gatherings but would like to be able to participate vicariously through online networking -- which is the point David is making, I think. Only occasionally do we use the network for discussions. But those few times are helpful. (I would say that four members, of 20, are interested in "philosophy for Ragnar," and the rest want "philosophy for Rearden." Another factor limiting discussions is lack of time. Everyone in the network is very busy pursuing happiness. A very selfish group. We do have discussions throughout the year on procedure -- for example, should we try to always meet in one central place or should we move the meeting from home to home? Should we meet in a restaurant or park, or should we meet in someone's home? That sort of thing. Keep in mind that the main purpose of our group now is social: enjoying the company of like-minded people. Often we meet for hours with discussing a single philosophical idea -- and we go away satisfied. We are not evangelists for Objectivism. We are too scattered across hundreds of miles to have common local political problems. There are probably about as many socially active Objectivists in the Northwest as there are in one town in Southern California. But we make up for it with enthusiasm. Edited September 12, 2005 by BurgessLau Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prometheus98876 Posted October 3, 2005 Report Share Posted October 3, 2005 Is there any interest in adding area-specific forums? For example, I think a NYC or Orange County forum would be useful to Objectivists in that area. Perhaps those forums would be associated or moderated by officers from the local Objectivist clubs. Anyone? I would be happy to run a New Zealand sub-forum. There must be a few more Objectivists here in New Zealand, largely seperated by great distances, so this sort of thing would be ideal considering I want to bring the Kiwi Objectivists together. Considering that me and DragonMaci intend to champion Objectivist philosophy in our areas, we should be able to attract a sufficent number of members. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Posted October 3, 2005 Report Share Posted October 3, 2005 Though I'm unaware of how many UK or more specifically London based Objectivists use this forum, I would be willing to chair a forum for whichever of the two made sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Wrath Posted October 9, 2005 Report Share Posted October 9, 2005 Can we get a Houston area forum in here? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EC Posted October 13, 2005 Report Share Posted October 13, 2005 I would like to organize a local group for the Metro Detroit area with its primary function to be socializing with like-minded individuals and a little philosophy for Rearden thrown in here and there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
softwareNerd Posted October 14, 2005 Report Share Posted October 14, 2005 I would like to organize a local group for the Metro Detroit area ...In the "Web Links" page of oo.net, we have a link to "EGO Place", which is (or was) a Detroit metro group. Not sure if it is still active. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidV Posted October 15, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 15, 2005 Can we get a Houston area forum in here? done! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMeganSnow Posted November 11, 2005 Report Share Posted November 11, 2005 Can we add one for Ohio? There are a fair number of members from the state. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
softwareNerd Posted November 11, 2005 Report Share Posted November 11, 2005 Done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ashleyisachild Posted August 2, 2006 Report Share Posted August 2, 2006 Can you please add a group for Chicago? (I was a little surprised to see that there wasn't one already; I think there's a fair number of us out here.) Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
softwareNerd Posted August 2, 2006 Report Share Posted August 2, 2006 (edited) Can you please add a group for Chicago? (I was a little surprised to see that there wasn't one already; I think there's a fair number of us out here.) Thanks! Okay, we have one now. Get posting! Edited August 2, 2006 by GreedyCapitalist Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maelstrom Posted October 20, 2007 Report Share Posted October 20, 2007 Hi, I just moved to the Atlanta area. There are definitely quite a few Objectivists around here (in part due to the influence of radio talk show host Neal Boortz, no doubt). I'm not sure if any are on these forums, but I'll spread the word, so if you build it, they will come! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rational Jenn Posted January 22, 2011 Report Share Posted January 22, 2011 Hey there...we've got quite a group here in Atlanta. Would you mind adding an Atlanta section? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian0918 Posted January 22, 2011 Report Share Posted January 22, 2011 I'll see if I can figure it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian0918 Posted January 22, 2011 Report Share Posted January 22, 2011 (edited) Alright, it's there. You may want to do a test post, just to make sure I set the permissions correctly. http://forum.ObjectivismOnline.com/index.php?showforum=105 Also, I would recommend clicking Watch Forum, so that you receive notifications whenever anyone posts in that thread, e.g. newbies looking for local meetups. If you would like to post an introductory welcome about ATLOS, I can have that pinned to the top of the forum. Edited January 22, 2011 by brian0918 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
th3ranger Posted October 25, 2011 Report Share Posted October 25, 2011 Although it may ultimately prove fruitless, I would like a Charleston, Sc, if it's not too much trouble? I've tried twice to start an O'ist club here, and I got no members. Maybe this forum is a better place to try than Meetup.com? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa2010B Posted December 16, 2012 Report Share Posted December 16, 2012 Could someone please add a Denver forum? And it would be helpful if we could subscribe to these local ones, in ways where we could be notified of any new posts in them. Is that possible? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
softwareNerd Posted December 16, 2012 Report Share Posted December 16, 2012 Could someone please add a Denver forum? I've create one here And it would be helpful if we could subscribe to these local ones, in ways where we could be notified of any new posts in them. Is that possible?If you go to that sub-forum, you should see a button (top-right) that says "Follow this forum". I think there may also be some setting in your profile, about whether notifications should come to you via email, but I think the default is set to email. Since the local forums hardly get any traffic, your best bet would be to start a thread there. Then, if someone from Denver comes along, they might see that thread and respond to it, or they might message you via the forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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