Board Project

[Pariah]

-well I think a board project would help. We have these periods of amazing activity and discussion following the launch / conclusion of any project. Group efforts help create group dynamics.

I've been thinking about that post. And I've come up with this thought.
What we need to do (Oh god Rog is going to hate me for this) is a positive sort of support for Discordian work both on the interwebs and beyond.
Go to commonly visited websites and pimp the hell out of this shit.
OR
We could create a new work like BIP.
And then Pimp that.
Your thoughts?

[Eve]

Do you have any examples of what you mean? "A positive sort of support for Discordian work" is pretty vague--not bad, but it doesn't exactly prompt great ideas to leap to mind.


I'm getting the impression that there are a lot of people behind the "PD is getting lame! How can we save it and do something cool at the same time?" thought process, but no one's stepping up with ideas. Hey, it's cool, I'm not either. The fact still stands that a bunch of heads nodding in agreement don't produce results.

[Richter]

Just going to throw out some stuff.
Well, what DO we do, and what of it is good?

We turn out various writings,  "public services" like posterGASM, bounce off of each other on topics or current events, and troll people / situations we think we can have fun with.

In a more serious, less confrontational way, we could seed discordian ideas, elsewhere as a sort of "this is how we get into the idea, we're not all pinealist assholes", sort of mission.  This would require accepting it if good stuff starts happening elsewhere, we can't be attached to "keeping" it for the PD community if we try to grow it that way.

Personally, I'd love to see the idea of Discordia get wider credit for unique POV / philosophy.  The zeitgeist impression seems to get caught on folks who use it as an excuse to be pointless / excessively wacky and crazed methhead "Discordian Peace Ambassadors".
It pisses me off that the impression is there, and there isn't the counterpoint of the deeper side of things.  Not that PD is the "REALLY REAL", sect of Discord, and we're not a group / philosophy / whatever that everyone can get behind. 
We are NOT for public consumption, and missionary work is right out.

So, what DO you want to see?

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

The Fractal Prank

I'd like to see a time-coordinated, multinational prank that preys upon people's uncritical media consumption in such a horrible way that people only get some things resolved when it's finally revealed as a prank. It ought to be so ingenious that merely describing what happened to other people acts as another layer of prankery and suggests more layers to the prank which haven't been revealed.

It would require an incredible degree of social engineering, but if we succeeded it would be legendary.

The ways this could manifest might be thought of as nesting a prank within a prank within a prank and so on.

Here's one possible scheme visualized:

FIGURE ONE



FIGURE II



FIGURE 3

How many pranks could we nest inside one another? Even one inside another may be enough for people to infer more, but if we got three inside one another—holy shit a legend is born.

If my little graphics didn't make it clear, what would be occurring is that a social dynamic would both be a basic prank structure (figure one) and in a larger context would be a collective target interacting with a collective bait, collective revealing mechanism, and collective audience (figure II).

It would be a feat of absolute brilliance to get this to three nests, let alone two, so we should shoot for three.

I know this is a lofty goal, but we're all extremely intelligent and creative people, right?

Did you see the little faces? I don't know why but I think they look like Mourning Star...

Also, I hate you guys so much I used Arial. UNNNNNNNNG! In your eye holes!

[Pariah]

Okay heres it a little more specific
As horrible as it sounds I think what we need really is an Evangelicalism of the Discordian movement. And while theres no way that Discordia is going to overspread any world continent country or even state a little bit more people joining or at least thinking about it
For instance: BIP Specific postergasms that would intrigue people enough to actually check it out or make it easy for some one to find other Discordian related works.

[Pariah]

It would require an incredible degree of social engineering, but if we succeeded it would be legendary.
It would be a feat of absolute brilliance to get this to three nests, let alone two, so we should shoot for three.

I think this is the heart of my idea.
We have good ideas but we really don't have the manpower or connections to pull it off.

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

Hey, I'd be on board for some evangelizing, since I'm guessing the Fractal Prank is probably too lofty and insane for most of us to seriously consider.

[Pariah]

Lofty? Yes. Insane? No.

The simplest way would be taking old postergasms and fixing them up with either the html of the PD website or BIP wiki. The only problem is we would look like some sort of viral marketing campaign
OR
Just writing Black Iron Prison or anything else someone would be likely to search on the googles at the bottom.

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

Lofty? Yes. Insane? No.

The simplest way would be taking old postergasms and fixing them up with either the html of the PD website or BIP wiki. The only problem is we would look like some sort of viral marketing campaign
OR
Just writing Black Iron Prison or anything else someone would be likely to search on the googles at the bottom.

I think there would have to be one more cue besides the words "Black Iron Prison" so people could differentiate it from Philip K. Dick.

Or maybe the ambiguity would serve our purposes.

[Richter]

Getting more of it out there, beyond BIP stuff, would be great.  Some of the more neutral / upbeat stuff could serve as a good hook.

I am inclined against "Evangelism", it makes it sound too much like we're trying to get converts.  Evanlgeism has more conversion - as - goal connotation.   It shouldn't be a goal or a contest to find people / win hearts and minds.  In my mind making it available, visible, and seeing who bites it more the idea.  If we set out to get converts and recruits we are guaranteed to end up with an assload of the easily converted or coerced. 

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

Getting more of it out there, beyond BIP stuff, would be great.  Some of the more neutral / upbeat stuff could serve as a good hook.

I am inclined against "Evangelism", it makes it sound too much like we're trying to get converts.  Evanlgeism has more conversion - as - goal connotation.   It shouldn't be a goal or a contest to find people / win hearts and minds.  In my mind making it available, visible, and seeing who bites it more the idea.  If we set out to get converts and recruits we are guaranteed to end up with an assload of the easily converted or coerced. 

What about telling people who are basically already discordians but just didn't know discordia existed?

[Pariah]

Getting more of it out there, beyond BIP stuff, would be great.  Some of the more neutral / upbeat stuff could serve as a good hook.

I am inclined against "Evangelism", it makes it sound too much like we're trying to get converts.  Evanlgeism has more conversion - as - goal connotation.   It shouldn't be a goal or a contest to find people / win hearts and minds.  In my mind making it available, visible, and seeing who bites it more the idea.  If we set out to get converts and recruits we are guaranteed to end up with an assload of the easily converted or coerced. 

What about telling people who are basically already discordians but just didn't know discordia existed?

Thats more of what I was thinking
I couldn't really think of a better word at the time

[Richter]

Getting more of it out there, beyond BIP stuff, would be great.  Some of the more neutral / upbeat stuff could serve as a good hook.

I am inclined against "Evangelism", it makes it sound too much like we're trying to get converts.  Evanlgeism has more conversion - as - goal connotation.   It shouldn't be a goal or a contest to find people / win hearts and minds.  In my mind making it available, visible, and seeing who bites it more the idea.  If we set out to get converts and recruits we are guaranteed to end up with an assload of the easily converted or coerced. 

What about telling people who are basically already discordians but just didn't know discordia existed?

Thats more of what I was thinking
I couldn't really think of a better word at the time

That's what I'm in favor of too.  I get REALLY pissed at attempts to convert / witness / evangelize, (especially from the Christian traditions, since they HAVE damn references telling them NOT TO DO IT THAT WAY.)

I think what would really help is talking to seemingly like - minded assholes on forums, other IRC channels, IRL, and having links / printouts / hard copies of some of the good stuff, and see if they want to get into things from there. 

I don't see numbers of posters on the board, or people filling in "Discordian" as their official religion as a goal.  What works for me is showing folks that it can be an intersting an intelligent philosophy that still knows not to take itself seriously.  Whether they show up to play or not, we're still spreading something we've found useful or thought provoking ourselves. 

[Cramulus]

yeah, word. What we're doing is not really "evangelism" because we're not seeking to convert anybody to anything. Most converts are TRUE BELIEVER types anyway, and Discordia's already got too many of them IMO. But Evangelism makes sense because that's what other religions do when they're trying to spread the word.



Re: Fractal Prank
the self-perpetuating prank-within-a-prank was one of the original goals of OMGASM - to create a network of participatory stunts which refreshes and revitalizes itself with every iteration. Has it worked? I'd be interested in hearing people's thoughts.

I'm having a bit of trouble conceptualizing how we turn the audience into the second iteration pranksters and/or victims. Can you give a more concrete (or limited) example?

I am skeptical of projects which do not have a specific plan, but are launched with the phrase "It would require an incredible degree of social engineering, but if we succeeded it would be legendary." It already sounds like an unattainable goal. I think it's best to start with something smaller scale which we could build on as it grows and changes.

[Dysfunctional Cunt]

OK, I guess I got stuck on the evanelism and didn't get past street corner preachers telling me I'm going to hell.

SO....  Is this something planned for us to do on other forums or IRL?

I can argue till I'm blue the advantages of both, but I don't want to go on a tangent.