Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

What's the plan if all HELL breaks loose?

netbanshee

13:42 / 12.02.03

Been thinking about how good of a resource this place was during the 9/11 attacks and was wondering if Barbelith would/could resume a similar function if in fact something does go down and people need a place to gather, react, etc.

So...

In reaction what ideas do we have to be a little more prepared/informed.

Will all moderators be able to modify a "Breaking News" section?
Would any help be required in getting an interface addition produced and implemented?
Will the traffic be too much for the servers?
Will the cost of traffic be a huge impact on Tom and how could we help?

Feel free to add, discuss, or tell me that I'm overthinking a bit...

sleazenation

13:56 / 12.02.03

The regular servers and everything seemed to cope ok on 9/1(although the thread started to creak a little after 10 pages and constant refreshment/posting) - The remit of news discussion is already acarried out by the switchboard really - although depending on circumstances Tom could revise that as he did for a while in the wake of 9/11.

cusm

16:30 / 12.02.03

The wiki could also be used for something like this if you needed something more static. Wiki is cool, there is enormous potential for how it can be used.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

09:59 / 13.02.03

I was about to post something sarcastic along the lines of "well I'm sure there'd be more important things to worry about"...

...then I remembered- first time I heard anything was amiss on 11/9, this was the first place I came. And it was an invaluable source of information.

Although, Tom (or Cal) managed to set up an extra forum in double-quick time, and that can't have been something he was expecting to have to do.

So I figure it's more the kind of thing you hope doesn't happen- my personal feeling is that if any really bad shit happens, and it's not so bad as to render the board impossible or irrelevant, then it's probably gonna be dealt with boardwise in an effective way.

If any help is needed (or would be under such circumstances) then I would of course be glad to help, as, I'm sure, would pretty much anyone else here.

Tom Coates

14:59 / 17.02.03

I can assemble a new forum in very little time indeed. Whether or not that's something we'd like to do or not is another matter entirely. Would people like us to re-establish a specific "March to War" forum for the moment - something that would eventually be folded back into the Switchboard, or are you comfortable using the Switchbaord for current events stuff?

Our Lady of The Two Towers

16:08 / 17.02.03

I think that things are fine as they are right now, but when the war in Iraq actually kicks off having a seperate forum then would be good.

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

02:04 / 18.02.03

I think it might be a good time to start a "March to War" section to discuss to current anti-war movement and some of the other issues involved.

*shrugs* Now, it seems spread out in a lot of forums.

Baz Auckland

13:16 / 18.02.03

but when the war in Iraq actually kicks off...

IF the war in Iraq... please!

aus

14:50 / 18.02.03

What do you think is going to happen to prevent it? The Apocalypse? A huge, flooding rain that dampens all the wicks, thus crippling the USA's military capacity? War with Canada (yeah, that should delay the invasion of Iraq for 15 minutes)? Invasion of silicon-based chicken-people from Alpha Proxima?

Tryphena Absent

17:38 / 18.02.03

A March to War section sounds like a very good idea... there's quite a lot in Conversation and Switchboard purely related to this subject and the organised part of my brain thinks it would be nice to have it all in the same place.

(I vote the chicken people are coming and oh what's little Bushy gonna do without his Star Wars scheme up and effectively running??)

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

19:00 / 18.02.03

I like the idea of a "March To War" forum. As Solitaire Rose says, at the moment there's a bunch of stuff spread around. All in its appropriate place, as far as I can tell, but not all of it where people who would be interested would necessarily look.

Tom Coates

21:58 / 20.02.03

Anyone else have an opinion?

w1rebaby

22:11 / 20.02.03

There might be a case for a separate forum if only to stop any other Switchboard topics from being pushed under. Other things do happen at times of war... and it's most definitely in our interests to be aware of them, because that's the time when things will happen "under the radar".

E.g. I think the Patriot Act II in all its hideous glory will be pushed through just after the war starts.

It'll need some fairly attentive moderating to make sure things go in the right forum though.

Baz Auckland

01:53 / 21.02.03

It sounds like a good idea. There's the march topics in the conversation, the switchboard ones... anything else? magick?

angel

07:22 / 21.02.03

My initial reaction to your post Barry Auckland is that you are right on the money, but a bit of me thinks that the actual magik stuff would be best found in the magik. a conversation about possibly doing something magikal could be in the forum, but the practical application feels like it would sit better in the forum people would expect to find it in.

Or maybe I'm just sleep deprived!

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

18:47 / 17.03.03

Just thought I'd bump this seeing as how "inevitability" seems to have shaded into "imminence".

Add Your Reply