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I agree with a great deal of what iamus had to say. Similarly, it’s a group where there’s a basic assumption that intolerance and ignorance don’t substitute for personality, and that your fellow members will be both interesting and engaged. And it’s the only one I’ve found where there is such commitment, high expectations and loyalty to a space for ongoing discussion. I love the idea of an ideal or idealised community; I don’t know if that’s what Barbelith is or what it’s meant to be, but I came here with the belief that if that quality of discussion and community was to be realised then, for me, it was most likely to be here, and so far the vast majority of people I’ve spoken with and met have fulfilled that idea of friendly, principled fascinating individuals gathering to exchange ideas, and for me it’s key that Barbelith remains as a space for such individuals as opposed to conforming or being limited to the current habits and interests of the pre-existing community.
That said, I recently tried to articulate offline, with some difficulty, the feeling that there’s a sense that all the great dialogues on Barbelith exist in the past. And there’s a certain amount of humorous reflexivity towards that, but still. Some of the correspondents are still here, but they currently seem so pre-occupied in clearing the ground for conversation to take place that they no longer appear to contribute significantly themselves, and without anyone putting forward their new ideas Barbelith increasingly becomes substantially and to a degree protectively static with only a few diamonds to be found here and there. That’s not an attack either, the structure obviously does need to be maintained for discussion to build constructively, but I’d be far more interested in more senior members’ contributions to discussions in-forum than in their ability to police the missteps of others, and there obviously needs to be a distribution of work in such a way that that’s possible.
And in an important sense the above perception is clearly false: as others have said it’s still a place that people take a great deal of pleasure and knowledge from, and there are still great exchanges taking place – but sometimes those exchanges feel more marginal rather than central, and it’s at those moments that the “Barbelith has lost its way” moments raise their head. The idea of a stagnant board is one that I think would be difficult to evidence if for no other reason than its vagueness, but it’s one that contributes at least to the reasons for my feeling that new members aren’t turning into regulars. I’ve not posted as much as I thought I would, or as in-depth as I would have liked, and there’s a fair charge of personal responsibility there, but at the same time I don’t think that at many points during my months here the board has felt “sticky” (to quote Haus I think) with regards to new people, which is a shame, as there’s so much of ongoing worth.
I’d rather hope Barbelith still was a place for “new discussions with new people”. And it’s understandable if some members have over the years left or moved to more marginal positions in the community, but it’s only acceptable if there’s a framework in place that encourages an influx of people that will maintain and (you never know) improve upon the quality of discussions that have already taken place. I don’t think Barbelith is dead or dying, necessarily, but I do think that if it was that little bit busier, and if there was a little less dross, we’d be attracting and keeping a more visible and beneficial membership with an exponential effect.
There are obviously larger and more external factors which will influence the future of the board (and apologies if this has been verbose and abstract both), but in the meantime (with tongue fairly firmly in cheek) some hopefully spirit-raising thoughts on what current members (old and new) might be able to do within the limits of current technology:
Barbelith Renaissance Project |
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