The online community for naturalistic Pantheists
Suggestions for new groups [Archived/Read-only - Use Shaping this Community Group]
Guidelines for suggestions - Read This First
Some social networks have many hundreds of small groups, many of them duplicated, many of them with only a handful of members, some of them plain crazy. The ASPCA network has over 800 groups, several hundred of them with only one or two members.
On Atheist Nexus, which has over 460 groups, someone has created a group called "West Texas Arachnophobic Atheists who Collect Comic Books." Point made, I think. There's also a group devoted to "Philosophy on Gnosticism, Buddhism on Jesus the Jewish Gnostic allso Humanist he love man kind allso the Buddha but he not Jewish" [sic]. Both these groups have two members.
Allowing unmoderated group creation leads to unnecessary duplication, fragmentation of concerns, and scattering around of people. People are presented with a daunting array of hundreds of groups and don't know where to go.
We don't think that approach would serve the typical member here well.
We would like to create topical/issue/action groups that make sense, that people can find their way around. There is always scope for distinct sub-topics inside each group, in group discussions.
We would like local groups to have the best chance of getting moving, by defining sensible areas.
At the same time we want to be responsive to members' wants and needs.
Check other groups covering a similar field, and consider whether yours might work better as a sub-topic within another group. If there's overlap, confer with the pre-existing group. If you still want a group with an overlap, please explain why.
For local groups please check what other groups exist in your area first. If you plan to overlap - inside the range of a broader group, or encompassing the range of a smaller group - please confer with the moderator of the existing group first, and then explain here why your overlapping group is needed.
NB: Only World Pantheist Movement members can moderate groups. Please indicate if you want to be a moderator.
Some social networks have many hundreds of small groups, many of them duplicated, many of them with only a handful of members, some of them plain crazy. The ASPCA network has over 800 groups, several hundred of them with only one or two members.
On Atheist Nexus, which has over 460 groups, someone has created a group called "West Texas Arachnophobic Atheists who Collect Comic Books." Point made, I think. There's also a group devoted to "Philosophy on Gnosticism, Buddhism on Jesus the Jewish Gnostic allso Humanist he love man kind allso the Buddha but he not Jewish" [sic]. Both these groups have two members.
Allowing unmoderated group creation leads to unnecessary duplication, fragmentation of concerns, and scattering around of people. People are presented with a daunting array of hundreds of groups and don't know where to go.
We don't think that approach would serve the typical member here well.
We would like to create topical/issue/action groups that make sense, that people can find their way around. There is always scope for distinct sub-topics inside each group, in group discussions.
We would like local groups to have the best chance of getting moving, by defining sensible areas.
At the same time we want to be responsive to members' wants and needs.
These guidelines are intended to help people to formulate suggestions in line with the above goals.
For topic/issue/action groups please describe the suggested subject matters and scope and why you think a group would work better than a discussion. [Discussions are more for debate-type matters]Check other groups covering a similar field, and consider whether yours might work better as a sub-topic within another group. If there's overlap, confer with the pre-existing group. If you still want a group with an overlap, please explain why.
For local groups please check what other groups exist in your area first. If you plan to overlap - inside the range of a broader group, or encompassing the range of a smaller group - please confer with the moderator of the existing group first, and then explain here why your overlapping group is needed.
NB: Only World Pantheist Movement members can moderate groups. Please indicate if you want to be a moderator.
Replies are closed for this discussion.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Bob Walczewski on -
Hello,
I think that a scientific group would be great to discuss things like quantum physics, cosmology, string theory, etc. Also, I think a group on philosopy in general would be good.
Thanks,
Bob Walczewski -
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Permalink Reply by Hepzibeth Clare on -
I would probably post most often in a "pantheist readers corner" or something that would encompass: what are you reading right now? (pantheist or not); pantheist titles (list); if I like Tom Robbins fiction (for example), any recommendations? music and books often get lumped together and could here as well - what are the top ten tunes on your ipod right now?
Cheers!
HC -
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Permalink Reply by World Pantheism on -
Hi Bob,
Your suggestions are good ones so I have separated out Science from Philosophy in the discussions, and added more description.
The setup as between groups versus discussions is: the Groups are more for cooperative, unitive, active, life related things we mostly agree on. The Discussions are mostly for things we might disagree on, or where exchanges might get so academic or technical as to lose many of the members.
The need for this distinction is based on our 13 years of experiences with various pantheist fora.
Best wishes, -
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Permalink Reply by World Pantheism on
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This is a good idea for a group. Groups can have sub-discussions, so we could have Pantheist reading. Not sure about general reading - if we had that it would need to be separate. And it's hard to know what the interest would be. Then there's music as you say, also films etc. Let's think about this and how we would divide up the field.
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Permalink Reply by Hartmut Friedrichs on -
Hi Paul!
Membership in Ning is blooming. What do you think about further European groups following Australia and Canada?
Today we have members from:
1 Finland
1 Norway
2 Sweden
1 Iceland
5 Scandinavia
1 Poland
1 Switzerland
1 Belgium
1 Netherland
1 Germany
5 Central Europe
2 Italy
1 Croatia
2 Turkey
5 Southern Europe
If we think about a whole Europe-Group, I would call it Europan. For each group I suggest specifying the extent so that nobody thinks unnecessarily he is excluded.
I would offer to be a group moderator, if necessary.
Cheers!
Hartmut -
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Permalink Reply by Thomas Earle Moore on -
Perhaps a Book Club? or Media Club to include movies and music? Seems like a good idea, which could divide up along interest lines. But then perhaps "relevant media" is implied in all groups? Perhaps we need a discussion on this? Oh yeah, that's where we are now!? I'm starting to get lost in this place, but it's a pleasant kind of lost ;=)
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Permalink Reply by World Pantheism on
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This is a bit tricky, because adding new groups before they are needed in terms of numbers will make it harder for everyone to look through the list for their own group.
I have been conservative so far.
Europan - or Europans - might be a good idea as a kind of overall umbrella until there are enough for national groups. Open to anyone who considers themselves a European.
I most certainly do, I was educated and self educated as a European rather than just an Englishman - civis romanus sum.
Thanks for the suggestion.
What should we use for an image - the Pantheon in Rome? Maybe a shot of that roof with the sun shining through it. -
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Permalink Reply by World Pantheism on
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Europans done - Helmut, if you join it I will make you a moderator.
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Permalink Reply by World Pantheism on
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We can have a Books Movies and Music club, with sub-discussions on each - or would each of the topics also need subdiscussions? In which case we should have a group for each.
Probably so, I guess.
Eg Movies could use a Sci fi discussion and a documentary section, inter alia.
Books could use categories, eg Pantheism, Nature, Science, Kids.
There is also a discussion going strong about recommended books. -
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Permalink Reply by Bec Stone on -
Hi, I was wondering about a possible Poetry page? do you think that would overlap Photography and Arts?
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Permalink Reply by Jan Crowther on -
Pete and I think that this would be a great idea. Do you know the poetry of Robin Skelton by the way? He was born in Easington, the next village to us, and we have made him a page on our web site. He was a Wiccan. Much of his poetry is very Pantheistic as you might expect.
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Permalink Reply by Paxdora Pansapiens on -
Why don't you go ahead and post some examples of his work, Jan? You can do that on your own page in a personal blog about favorite poets. It will show up on the front page as "new activity" and you may start an interest that way...
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