Poll

What would be your domain name of choice?

ct-forum‎.org
classicaltheismforum.org
scholasticphilosophy.org
scholastic-philosophy.com
I don't like any of these options (please reply in the thread)

Author Topic: Domain name ideas (poll)  (Read 10767 times)

Mackie Messer

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Re: Domain name ideas (poll)
« Reply #25 on: July 22, 2020, 08:27:23 am »
As for advice, I have a long list I'll post in the moderator forum before disappearing, but, in the meantime, the first order of business is to rebuild the administrator and moderator team, which must include philosophically or theologically knowledgeable people. If you like, I can recommend some people who might be interested. (Worry about ability, not degrees. Several of us lacked philosophy degrees when we started, but now have professorships, or are studying for higher degrees at, e.g., Cambridge, Oxford, or other top notch universities. That is part of why we no longer have time.)

Ouros

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Re: Domain name ideas (poll)
« Reply #26 on: July 23, 2020, 09:58:51 am »
As for advice, I have a long list I'll post in the moderator forum before disappearing, but, in the meantime, the first order of business is to rebuild the administrator and moderator team, which must include philosophically or theologically knowledgeable people. If you like, I can recommend some people who might be interested. (Worry about ability, not degrees. Several of us lacked philosophy degrees when we started, but now have professorships, or are studying for higher degrees at, e.g., Cambridge, Oxford, or other top notch universities. That is part of why we no longer have time.)

May I ask who's going to Cambridge and/or Oxford? That's pretty amazing.

Mackie Messer

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Re: Domain name ideas (poll)
« Reply #27 on: July 23, 2020, 11:47:05 am »
Dan!

MightyFool

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Re: Domain name ideas (poll)
« Reply #28 on: July 23, 2020, 04:42:00 pm »
Quote
Thank you, Gerlof. Are English and Dutch the only languages you speak?

I also speak a bit of German, but that's mostly because it's so similar to Dutch.

Here are my 2 cents regarding this forum.

Maintenance
I think I'm able to maintain the technical part of this forum. I've got some basic knowledge of HTML/CSS and web hosting that should hopefully be sufficient. I've mailed Brian regarding the security of the forum. He hasn't got back to me with an answer regarding the recovery mail he should have to restore this forum in case of a hack. So I'll ping him again soon.

The biggest risk any forum has is too many administrator accounts. Hack 1 of them and you have everything (including private info). So I'm not a supporter of more than 2 or 3 administrators. All administrators should also have very strong passwords.

Moderation
My experience with managing and being part of online communities is that people are quite power hungry and can abuse their position as a moderator. So only people who are very open to different opinions should be moderators. Moderators don't have to know much about philosophy or religion etc. in my opinion, as long as they know what the rules are and what to do when someone breaks them. I for example am an absolute beginner when it comes to philosophy, and want this forum to be active BECAUSE I have so many things I want to learn and discuss. Trolls of course should be warned and eventually banned if necessary.

Bringing life to this forum
One thing I learned is that a community is never going to behave as you want it to. Restrict them too much and no-one feels the freedom to post anymore. Too much freedom isn't good either.
Now we can have meta discussions forever, but I'd like to take action. The old forum still has members joining. So there are people who are finding it and wanting to participate. I still think that the forum is just simply not known enough. That's why I first want to pull through with the domain name phase so we can start the promotion phase. We can then steer this forum the way we want.

I don't think people just having questions is a bad thing. Not all discussion has to be high level. A simple question from someone who is doubting his fate (I'm also covering my own ground a bit here lol) that sparks an interesting discussion is also fine to me. If people are too intimated to post I think we won't attract much new members. So I would vote to keep the bar low.

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You need advertisement, you need knowledgeable, active people, and after you reach a certain size you don't need, but should have, someone with technological skills. The first is so that people know you exist and where to find you. The second is so that people will stay after they find you. The third helps with aesthetics, security, and things like that. The second takes the most time. I was probably burning at least five hours a day on here after Scott died. It got better after a while, but the fact is that most people aren't interested in contributing to forums. They ask questions, get what they want, and leave.

I'm technical, can help with promotion and do everything regarding aesthetics (I'm a UX/UI designer IRL), and know things about security as well. The second point is the hardest yes. I'm afraid I can't contribute much yet regarding to answers or debates.

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I supported moving to Facebook at the time, but in retrospect I think the decision to not move was right.

What are the current Facebook pages you guys post on? I'm not a fan of Facebook (ethically and content wise) and almost no-one I know uses it anymore in this country (and I think in Europe in general). So I'm a big fan of our own place. Also because it allows anonymity to a certain degree and everyone can read the threads.

I agree that the name of the forum doesn't matter much (keep voting though!)

Quote
I wonder if most of the interested folks have some other place already besides here and reddit (facebook, Feser's blog etc.) and maybe this forum isn't really necessary. What do you all think?

I'm curious about this as well. Most of the forums I encounter are very low level in discussion or are filled with trolling atheists. I'm hoping to have at least the Feser crowd all active on here. I can't imagine people are satisfied by just posting in the blog comments, since you can't really go off topic on there.

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the big Thomism, Scotism, etc. groups are all on Facebook
Could you link those Mackie?

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The third is that I think the forum has the potential to develop non-English subforums and serve people interested in scholasticism outside the Anglosphere
This would be very cool indeed, although I think we should first get a decent English speaking community before we branch out.

Quote
I can recommend some people who might be interested. (Worry about ability, not degrees. Several of us lacked philosophy degrees when we started, but now have professorships, or are studying for higher degrees at, e.g., Cambridge, Oxford, or other top notch universities. That is part of why we no longer have time.)

Please do! We can invite them after we have a domain name.

This is a bit of a messy post and I'll clean it up if I have time (have to sleep now, way too late)



Mackie Messer

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Re: Domain name ideas (poll)
« Reply #29 on: July 23, 2020, 05:03:39 pm »
Gerlof,

Could you link those Mackie?

https://www.facebook.com/groups/TeamAquinas/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1861608004153751/

This would be very cool indeed, although I think we should first get a decent English speaking community before we branch out.

I agree in general, but you already have a few French speakers, and I notice that the French Aquinas forum has been down for at least a week. So, I think it might actually be worth adding a French subforum. (Certainly I'm more likely to take the time read philosophical discussions on a forum in French than English.) Partly, it's just nice for people to be able to fully express themselves. For example, one of our older members, who I don't think has signed up an account yet, has quite bad English, but is surprisingly quite eloquent in French. (I was a bit taken aback the first time I read something by him in French. It's like he's a whole different person.)
« Last Edit: July 23, 2020, 05:12:24 pm by Mackie Messer »

Mackie Messer

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Re: Domain name ideas (poll)
« Reply #30 on: July 23, 2020, 07:46:10 pm »
I'm technical, can help with promotion and do everything regarding aesthetics (I'm a UX/UI designer IRL), and know things about security as well. The second point is the hardest yes. I'm afraid I can't contribute much yet regarding to answers or debates.

We the Meinongian Aussersein of the forum object to this “IRL”! (I jest! I jest! But, please, don't use the term “IRL” for this. Its roots are in roleplaying games, and it sometimes makes sense in that context. But it's insidiously dehumanizing outside it. It subtly reaffirms this idea, which many now seem to have, that people are somehow less real when online, and that actions (including wicked actions) against them are somehow more excusable. It's attitudes like this that contribute to people thinking they can perform heinous (and sometimes actually depraved) acts online, which they would never dare (for their moral consciences would never allow them) to offline, as if they're no big deal. I know that you didn't intend any of this by using "IRL", but please use “offline” instead. Punctilio like this matter. The culture, as degenerate as it has become, matters. Sorry for the sermon.)

Joking aside, it's very nice to hear that you have these skills!
« Last Edit: July 24, 2020, 09:13:20 am by Mackie Messer »

Mackie Messer

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Re: Domain name ideas (poll)
« Reply #31 on: July 24, 2020, 08:54:20 am »
If any of you are able to get in touch with the administrator of the French Aquinas forum, please get in touch with me by private message.

Ouros

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Re: Domain name ideas (poll)
« Reply #32 on: July 24, 2020, 09:21:12 am »
Dan!

That explains why he told on OI that he was pretty busy.


Concerning facebook, I also think that it was a good idea to stay on the forum. Pseudonomity is a must-have when you want to keep cordial relations with people in our period where some opinion can be pretty devastating socially.

Mackie Messer

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Re: Domain name ideas (poll)
« Reply #33 on: July 24, 2020, 09:31:51 am »
Yes. Well, the Oxbridge stuff is actually relatively new. I think he had just finished applying when that comment went up. (Dan and I are relatively close, have mutual friends, etc.) But, yes. I mean, certainly nobody just abandoned you all. We had real things going on.

Ouros

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Re: Domain name ideas (poll)
« Reply #34 on: July 24, 2020, 09:40:39 am »
No problem at all, honestly. I didn't even think that was abandon, I just thought "well, oldest members just have other things to do." I'm not particularly active myself, so it would be pathetic to say that myself. And in any case, you're just strangers from the web with partially overlapping interest. Friendly strangers, but unknown nonetheless. :-)

BalancedTryte

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Re: Domain name ideas (poll)
« Reply #35 on: September 04, 2020, 04:46:39 am »
scholasticphilosophy.org is the most self-descriptive, and it doesn't have the kebab in the middle.

But PLEASE get xenforo when you get hosting because this kind of free forum software is unusable.