Jump to content
Objectivism Online Forum

Forums for local groups?

Rate this topic


DavidV

Recommended Posts

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?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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 by BurgessLau
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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 by BurgessLau
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...
  • 8 months later...
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! :huh:

Okay, we have one now. Get posting! :) Edited by GreedyCapitalist
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

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!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 years later...

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 by brian0918
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 9 months later...

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?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...
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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...