Well it subsequently became the structure when I pointed that out. What I also just mentioned; “I think starting out, apparently it is best to keep the number of forums at a minimum - then branch out as things increase. Folks only come here to specifically discuss economic, or political philosophy - not so much the ‘other’ forums/issues.. Something to be mindful of perhaps?”
The other is the name. Forums are either “austrian forum” or “voluntaryism” specific… they openly neglect a sphere of thought. Something “Austro-Libertarian”… or along those lines encapsulates both.
Marketing wise needs to address a sense of community, plus a general unifying theme. Some reference to Mises/Libertarianism of old perhaps.
Margit von Mises, Friedrich von Hayek, Ludwig von Mises
Between 1960 and 1964, the Thursday seminar was held at Room 32, Gallatin House, 6 Washington Square North, a building with two white lions at the entrance. The course continued until 1969. After each session, Mises and many of the students gathered at a nearby Childs’ restaurant for refreshments and further discussion.
Mises made many observations during his lectures. For example: “You say the secret is selling something above cost. But the situation is really very different. The problem is to produce something for which consumers are willing to pay above cost…Prices are like the snows of last winter. They come, but at the moment we catch them, they are already something of the past…Education can only hand down what was present in the old generation. The innovator cannot be educated. There is no school for the inventor…Saints don’t usually serve in the offices of foreign exchange controls.”
Among those who attended year after year: Murray N. Rothbard, Israel Kirzner, Bettina Bien Greaves, Percy L. Greaves Jr., Ralph Raico, and George Reisman.
etc. shrugs, or some other historical occassion that can kind of be tied into as as being relevent / similar to this forum in todays world. Ultimately, why this forum, and not some other? is what needs to be pondered.. another shrug.
Perhaps the forum admins and posters will compete to create the best communities with the most usable interfaces and highest quality of argument, best signal-to-noise ratio, most welcoming to newbies and opponents, most all-round pleasure to debate in, greatest learning experience, etc. Perhaps through competition we can create an even better product, even as we individually simply strive to make ourselves understood in the most effective manner possible.
It’s a competition, but it’s not exactly as if everyone was taking off from the same starting line. It’s in effect more like LvMI doing a fair bit to try to pick out the winner, by giving extra privilege to one of the would-be successors. Only one of the forums gets a shot at importing the old posts.
Perhaps only one person gets a shot at importing all the content and user accounts from the present forum, and if just the one person fails we’ll be starting from a much more miserable position than we are in now, and will in the short and medium term have a much worse forum experience. Or else this person succeeds and then his community is all but certain to prevail over the others, regardless of his signal-to-noise, pleasure, usable inerface and what have you.
If the powers that be are inclined to dump us then there is nothing we can do, but if they also claim to be sincerely interested in seeing a good successor forum to rise for us, then why not export this content and offer it up to everyone out there to try to integrate with their forums, not just Blake? Just upload it somewhere and let the forum with the most tech-savy admin win?
I mean if they’re dumping us why try to determine who adopts us? This isn’t how abandonment works.
I do think it’d be nice if some specialization emerged with these newer fora. I think it’s natural for that to happen, a bit. And I think in the end, it’ll be better to diversify and have options.
I’ve joined Voluntaryism and LibertyHQ as of now, but honestly not sure how many different places I’ll be going all in a day of web surfing…
Not, so far, all that tempted to join the Austrian Forum. Not just because I’m only slightly interested in economics, but also because I strongly suspect that the trolls will be attracted to the main line of march, the one attached to the Mises name. I anticipate Autolykos at least as being relatively hard on trolling, which I like. Though I begin to think we finally lost our Canadian friend?
I don’t think I’d last five minutes under the totalitarian rule of Autolykos. This whole shebang is turning out like post-1917 Russia, with one or more factions doomed to be purged by whomever manages to maneuver themselves into the position of General Secretary.
And don’t think any of you Austrians are safe either; it’ll be an icepick through the ear for John James in a Mexico City brothel, and 70 years breaking rocks for Smiling Dave on the Siberian tundra.
I just think that’s a funny complaint coming from a libertarian. These are voluntary communities. You don’t like the way they’re shaping up? Don’t complain! Don’t join. Start your own. “Cranks and Odd Numbers for Liberty” or something. “Vitriol is the spice of political philosophy” can be your motto. I’d probably join. Sounds fun.
It’s just you seem to be accusing these guys of having no ability to be fair administrators before they’ve tried, and condemning them for not setting up the environment you’d potentially enjoy. They didn’t ask permission, and they didn’t take anything away from anybody.
