Reading a thread about an Objectivist Church, begun by David a while ago, got me thinking: don’t Objectivists need a social club?
Other than their religious function, people make friends at church. Many of my mother’s friends and her social activities used to revolve around her church, even though she was not particularly religious.
Yet, other than a few “Bible study” events, I don’t remember my mother’s church friends ever discussing much explicit philosophy.
This is something I miss. When I have joined Objectivist groups, I have found that they all want to discuss philosophy. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but there are very few groups that simply want to socialize with other Objectivists.
What has that to do with this forum and its policies? This:
I think the sub-forum titled “Miscellaneous” is a good place to discuss “off-topic” things and to socialize. Indeed, people have used it in this way. There have been threads on puzzles and brain-teasers, jobs, coffee, model-trains, to name just a few. Sometimes, the first few posts are of (mild) interest to a general audience, but if the thread gets more involved, then they aren’t… but, after all, it is the “Miscellaneous” sub-forum. Indeed, it is open even to unregistered users.
I’d be keen on understanding David’s opinion on this, since he is the owner of the forum.
My perspective is that it would be nice to have a “build it and they will come… bring the eyballs, and the minds will follow” approach. For instance, a member (or ex-member) of this forum was running a Yahoo group to discuss Software development from an Objectivist viewpoint. There were a few posts every month for about a year, and then it died out. I submit that if such a sub-forum (SIG - “Special Interest Group”) were to be part of a larger forum such as this one, it would have a better chance of survival. Many people here are software developers (as the occupations thread attests), and might be interested in such a SIG, even though they may not bother checking a separate low-populated forum. In its turn, the SIG would draw a certain audience of Objectivists to the main forum.
What precipitated this post? It was the thread started by someone trying to learn programming. The thread took an unusual turn when someone posted pseudo-code there. Brought a smile to my face. It was nice to see people just chatting as friends in the Miscellaneous sub-forum. Just another way to share values. Vive la Objectivism!
Then, a moderator closed the thread. Not sure why.