Looking for people who are working on forum social development

[Jim]

I might start looking now for people who are working on helping to make forum discussions more fruitful and beneficial for all of us, and for all people. They might not be thinking of it in those terms. They might be practicing some ideas for themselves to try, and talking sometimes about that and what they’re learning from it. I’ll be scouting for people doing that, or anything like it.

 

[Jim]

I'll try to explain what I'm thinking, and what I've been trying and hoping to do. I have an ever-changing, kaleidoscopic dream and vision for Internet discussions to do a lot more good, for all of us and for all people everywhere. I've been trying some different ideas, and I love what's been happening. I keep thinking it's like some kind of magical mystery tour, or like my house being picked up by a tornado and carried off to the land of Oz.

What I'm thinking of is for all kinds of Internet communities, and I've already seen it happening in my Facebook neighborhood. According to what I would like my priorities to be, I shouldn't be spending this much time on the Internet at all, and when I do it should be in my Facebook neighborhood, but here I am, so I'm trying to make the best of it.

What I'm dreaming of is people in a neighborhood or village learning together to help make the community life better for every person in it; healthier, happier and more loving for everyone in it. I've seen that happening in some neighborhoods and villages offline, and I'm dreaming of seeing it in online neighborhoods and villages. An early stage is spontaneous acts of service, then it grows, spreads and evolves from there. An example that I think I've seen here of spontaneous acts of service is people starting threads for other people to enjoy, and not only just about what interests them personally. @PopeADope 's clowning looks like that to me. Maybe Skwim's threads too, but I never read them, so I'm not sure about that. I think that @Amanaki 's threads served that purpose too.

I made a checklist years ago for what I wanted to practice and promote in Internet discussions. The first on the list was to pray about what I was trying to do, and the second was to search in my scriptures for ideas about it, but most of the time since then, I've forgotten all about that. This time I focused on those two ideas and practiced them intensely, stopping every few minutes to pray and to remember and ponder a verse from my scriptures. The results have been wonderful for me. I've been having a lot of fun, and learning things that I've loved learning, like new horizons in ways of thinking and ways of doing things.

I've also been focusing on really trying to understand what each person is trying to say, and making comments and asking questions with genuinely friendly feelings, to help me understand better.

I'll stop there and maybe post more later about what I've been trying and hoping to do, to practice my ideas. Maybe I'll list the threads that I've started, and how they fit in to what I've been trying and hoping to do.

 

[Riders]

I'll try to explain what I'm thinking, and what I've been trying and hoping to do. I have an ever-changing, kaleidoscopic dream and vision for Internet discussions to do a lot more good, for all of us and for all people everywhere. I've been trying some different ideas, and I love what's been happening. I keep thinking it's like some kind of magical mystery tour, or like my house being picked up by a tornado and carried off to the land of Oz.

What I'm thinking of is for all kinds of Internet communities, and I've already seen it happening in my Facebook neighborhood. According to what I would like my priorities to be, I shouldn't be spending this much time on the Internet at all, and when I do it should be in my Facebook neighborhood, but here I am, so I'm trying to make the best of it.

What I'm dreaming of is people in a neighborhood or village learning together to help make the community life better for every person in it; healthier, happier and more loving for everyone in it. I've seen that happening in some neighborhoods and villages offline, and I'm dreaming of seeing it in online neighborhoods and villages. An early stage is spontaneous acts of service, then it grows, spreads and evolves from there. An example that I think I've seen here of spontaneous acts of service is people starting threads for other people to enjoy, and not only just about what interests them personally. @PopeADope 's clowning looks like that to me. Maybe Skwim's threads too, but I never read them, so I'm not sure about that. I think that @Amanaki 's threads served that purpose too.

I made a checklist years ago for what I wanted to practice and promote in Internet discussions. The first on the list was to pray about what I was trying to do, and the second was to search in my scriptures for ideas about it, but most of the time since then, I've forgotten all about that. This time I focused on those two ideas and practiced them intensely, stopping every few minutes to pray and to remember and ponder a verse from my scriptures. The results have been wonderful for me. I've been having a lot of fun, and learning things that I've loved learning, like new horizons in ways of thinking and ways of doing things.

I've also been focusing on really trying to understand what each person is trying to say, and making comments and asking questions with genuinely friendly feelings, to help me understand better.

I'll stop there and maybe post more later about what I've been trying and hoping to do, to practice my ideas. Maybe I'll list the threads that I've started, and how they fit in to what I've been trying and hoping to do.

Ok I'm in. Are you talking about B'ahai scriptures?

 

[Jim]

Ok I'm in. Are you talking about B'ahai scriptures?

I'm using Baha'i scriptures, but I'm not suggesting for anyone else to do that. I was just describing what I've been doing. Here's the whole list of ideas that I wanted to practice.
1. Pray about whatever I want to write about.
2. Search in my scriptures for ideas and inspiration.
3. Make sure that I'm working to improve my practice of whatever I'm promoting.
4. Never depreciate anyone, or anyone's ideas, and free myself from all ill will.
5. Find something to love in people whose ideas and behavior alarm me.
6. Look for all the good I can find in other people's ideas, and in what they're doing.
7. Wait to post, until I can do it with friendly feelings towards everyone.
8. Express my views, as one of my teachers said, "with the utmost devotion, courtesy, dignity, care and moderation"
9. Not be distracted and diverted from any of that, by any of the turmoil that I see, or imagine, online or offline.
10. Embrace my antagonistic thoughts and feelings, and everyone else's.
11. Remember my priorities, which are mostly offline.

Just now I had an idea for community service in the forums. One kind of community service might be to just go around reading what people post, trying to understand what they're really trying to say, and making comments and questions with genuinely friendly feelings, to better understand what they're saying. That's part of what I've been practicing, but I wasn't thinking of it as a community service. I was just thinking of learning to be a better friend to more people. Now I see it as possibly a kind of community service. The next thing I might want to do is to look for people doing that, and anything else I see people doing that I could think of as a kind of community service. Community service is at the heart and center of my dreams and visions for community life in online neighborhoods and villages.

A thought that came to me a while ago is that sometimes people do things to serve their community, without thinking of it in those terms, without thinking of it as community service, even if it is motivated by love for others and for the community. It's just the natural thing for them to do. They might not think of it as community service even if someone points it out to them. Sometimes I feel like the I'm the Tin Woodman in the Oz stories.

"You people with hearts," he said, "have something to guide you, and need never do wrong; but I have no heart, and so I must be very careful."

 

[Jim]

@Riders What you can do to help me if you want to, might be to follow this thread, and post comments and questions if you have any. Then, if you like any part of what I'm trying or hoping to do, you might get some ideas for how you can help if you want to.

 

[Jim]

I have to keep reminding myself not to get so caught up in the discussions that I forget what I’m trying to do, which for now includes learning to be a better friend to more people, practicing my ideas for better discussions, and learning and practicing ways of serving the community or communities in this forum.

 

[Jim]

I’m learning now to just ignore naysaying.

 

[Jim]

Now I’ll be looking for what people are doing in these forums that looks like community service to me. Then what? I don’t know.

 

[Jim]

Now I'm asking myself which threads and which people to follow. Too many to follow them all.

 

[Cooky]

Now I'm asking myself which threads and which people to follow. Too many to follow them all.

You should probably follow me. I’m pretty good at stuff.

 

[Jim]

Now I'll list some of the threads that I've started, and try to explain how they're related to what I've been trying do. What I've been trying to do is practicing some ideas about what to do for some dreams and visions that I have for Internet discussions, to bring out their best possibilities, for all of us and for all people everywhere. Those dreams, visions and ideas are continually evolving, sometimes rapidly and dramatically. For now I'm working on learning to be a better friend to more people, practicing some ideas I have for improving what I say and how I say it, and practicing some ideas for community service in an online forum.

Mutual support for the good that we're trying or hoping to do online and offline
That's about community service.

Ideas and resources for people practicing and promoting better online behavior?
That's about improving what we say and do and how we say and do it.

Your experiences with friendships across belief divides?
That's about using Internet discussions to help reduce and counteract animosities and hostilities across belief divides.

What possibilities are you working on for Internet discussions?
That's about bringing out the best possibilities in Internet discussions.

Ways of practicing fellowship and collaboration across religious divides in Internet discussions?
That's about using Internet discussions to help reduce and counteract animosities and hostilities across belief divides.

 

[Estro Felino]

Very Good.
I am a free will believer...so...all that matters in life, imho, is to respect people's free will, that is, respecting their views.

 

[Jim]

After more than 15 years in Internet discussions, it just now dawned on me that thread topic might not mean as much to other people as I thought it did.

 

[Riders]

@Riders What you can do to help me if you want to, might be to follow this thread, and post comments and questions if you have any. Then, if you like any part of what I'm trying or hoping to do, you might get some ideas for how you can help if you want to.

How do I follow this thread?Pr maybe there is no follow link I guess Im just watching the thread?

 

[Jim]

How do I follow this thread?Pr maybe there is no follow link I guess Im just watching the thread?

Any way that you can find to remember to look at it sometimes, or to be notified if there's anything new. If you aren't already being notified, look for a button, below and to the right of the thread title at the top of the thread, that says "Watch Thread."

 

[Jim]

I would like to do whatever I can, to help bring out the best possibilities in Internet discussions. What I'm thinking of for now is to try learning to do the same things in an Internet discussion that I'm trying to learn to do offline: continual efforts to improve my own attitude and behavior; learning to be a better friend to more people, practicing community service; recognizing and supporting whatever good that others might be trying to do; and bringing all that up for discussion sometimes.

I had decided that I want to look for examples of community service, and encourage and support them. I've been doing that a little bit, but mostly I've been practicing my ideas for good behavior in Internet discussions, in some threads about alarms being raised about Islam. I've been forgetting a lot to stop often to pray and to remember a verse from my scriptures, which has made my forum experiences here the best I've ever had in twenty years, so I want to try to remember that more.

 

[Jim]

I'm adding links here to some other related threads that I've started.

Can our discussions here make a difference in the world around us?

Community service in and for online communities

 

[Jim]

Some of the possibilities that I see for Internet discussions are in the ideas, encouragement and support we might get from each other for the community service that we’re doing offline. There’s a thread about that here:

What kinds of service to others and to community are part of your way of life?

I’m thinking for now about learning what I can do to help encourage and support people in the community service that they’re doing in these forums, and offline. Maybe also other places on the Internet. All I can think of for now is to post friendly comments and questions. Are there people doing that already? I’m not sure how to find people that I can talk to about their community service. Maybe look at people’s intros, and try to find forums where people are talking about their community service, if there are any.

 

[Jim]

I want to remember all the time that for my purposes, how I'm posting matters more than what I'm posting about.

 

[Jim]

I might be finished here for now.