What can this forum help us accomplish?

[Cramulus]

What kinds of things are we currently capable of?


What kinds of things would we be capable of if we were somehow different?


What kinds of thing would we like to be capable of?

[Cramulus]

answering my own questions-----------

What kinds of things are we currently capable of?

We come up with a lot of ideas. Many of them are very sharp, addressing political, social, and religious rigidity.

We're pretty good at putting together Discordian documents.

We're pretty good at being a network that helps round out people's odd creative talents. If you're looking to create a document and you only know how to write, you can probably find a graphic guy and a layout guy here.

What kinds of things would we be capable of if we were somehow different?

I would like to see us get better at distributing the things we create. This may involve fine tuning our collective process to create media which will be rapidly transmitted and absorbed. (for example, getting better at making pamphlets, explosive images, etc)

I want to revisit two ideas relating to this
     - PD's Automatic Imageblog
     - Telarus had an idea that we should change pd.com/blog into an aggregator for various Discordian blogs and feeds

What kinds of thing would we like to be capable of?

I would like to gather Discordians here and arm them with tools they can use to transform the world.

I want more ways for non-Discordians to find out that they've really been Discordians all along.

I want to do projects which influence the larger world, not just the one in my neighborhood. This may be larger scale pranks, or just becoming the authority on adventures in modern living.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

No,  this forum is not. The people on it might be, though.

[Cramulus]

No,  this forum is not. The people on it might be, though.

right, an internet forum is just a piece of software. But you can tell what I was actually asking, yes?

[AFK]

I think our ideas can have very real and tangible impacts on the real world.  I know for my part I've woven in elements of our BIP discussions/theories/etc. into my work.  Granted, I don't use Discordian cliches or terminology, but the root philosophy and idea is there. 

So yeah, I think our ideas have very real potential for very real impact. 

What's the roadblock?  Critical mass, and lack thereof.  And i think this gets back to the idea of The Machine and the fact that we can never really change The Machine.  It's too big.  But perhaps what we can do is in our own everyday lives and worlds, effect some kind of change on some of the tiny individual cogs of The Machine.  And perhaps, if they link up just right, it can become a bit more amplified. 

But, I also think that whatever impact we can have will be unattributable to us.  Just because if the ideas come from us, the Discordians Us, people would never get past the "Well WTF is a Discordian?  Are you fo realz?  You need help!"

So whatever impact we can have will largely, if not wholly, be anonymous. 

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

No,  this forum is not. The people on it might be, though.

right, an internet forum is just a piece of software. But you can tell what I was actually asking, yes?

My answer is more sincere than you think. The forum is not the software; the forum is the collective of users. Without the users, the software is just an empty venue, not a forum.

Some of the individuals who make up this forum may, and probably will, go on to change the world. The forum itself may influence and act as a sounding board for those individuals, but it will not change the world, no.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

I agree with Nigel. Individuals may do something, but when it comes to the real world I dunno if enough of the 'collective' would be willing play in the realpolitik and compromise that would be necessary to influence the tribes of monkeys. I mean, we're a great sounding board for each other... but overall we don't seem to behave in a way that a Think Tank or Policy Center or a Community Program or any of the sorts of groups that impact society do. Not a bad thing, just not the klind of thing that seems likely to change the world IMO.

[Cramulus]

just to be clear, i'm not looking for a yes-or-no answer so much as I want to highlight possible channels for action/output and discuss how we can improve those channels.  (ignore the subject line, see the three questions in the OP)

This forum has done a TON of cool stuff in the years I've been here. Some people may not understand the potential / kinetic energy which is somewhat unique to this forum -- I want to make that energy more explicit / accessible.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

The three questions in the OP read like corporate motivational training and are so nebulous as to be functionally meaningless.

What are we capable of? Here in the forum, basically, bouncing ideas off each other and planning projects.

What could we be capable of if we were somehow different? ??? I don't know, maybe we would be telepathic or be able to fly? Depends on how we were different.

What kinds of things would we like to be capable of? I personally would like to be able to invent teleportation. I don't know about the rest of you.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

The three questions in the OP read like corporate motivational training and are so nebulous as to be functionally meaningless.

What are we capable of? Here in the forum, basically, bouncing ideas off each other and planning projects.

What could we be capable of if we were somehow different? ??? I don't know, maybe we would be telepathic or be able to fly? Depends on how we were different.

What kinds of things would we like to be capable of? I personally would like to be able to invent teleportation. I don't know about the rest of you.

As long as it involves opening up portals rather than deconstructing me and sending the information to another place, I'm down.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

The three questions in the OP read like corporate motivational training and are so nebulous as to be functionally meaningless.

What are we capable of? Here in the forum, basically, bouncing ideas off each other and planning projects.

What could we be capable of if we were somehow different? ??? I don't know, maybe we would be telepathic or be able to fly? Depends on how we were different.

What kinds of things would we like to be capable of? I personally would like to be able to invent teleportation. I don't know about the rest of you.

As long as it involves opening up portals rather than deconstructing me and sending the information to another place, I'm down.

Oh, yeah, portal teleportation is definitely the only way to go!

[Nephew Twiddleton]

 

[AFK]

They're open ended questions meant to spur discussion.  

If we were like

• we could do [y].  So you fill in the x and the y.
  
  For example, my suggestion around critical mass.
  
  If we (Discordians) were [a larger but still well connected group] we could [accomplish better message saturation and penetration].  
  
  What kind of things would we like to be capable of?  I think we want to be capable of spreading our ideas in a way that both catches people's attention, but doesn't do so in a style or manner that would cause us to be easily dismissed as crazies or kooks.  It needs to be clever but intelligent.  
  
  So when you boil it down I think it's about enhancing our capacity when it comes to social marketing.  That probably involves connections and certainly involves networking with folks who have the time and energy to put into projects.
  
  I think one of the things we have an issue with here is we have a lot of good thinkers.  Unfortunately, we don't really have enough doers.  And I say that not in terms of not wanting to do things, but not having the time to do things, and that is the situation I'm in.  

[Cramulus]

This isn't really a NEW topic; I go through this process every six months or so - take a look at the forum, see if it helps me accomplish my goals, try to draw attention to vectors for change. This fine-tuning and self-examination is helpful for the growth of any mastermind group.



Let me try answering two of these questions in a different way, maybe it'll be more clear.

What have we done? A lot more than just "bouncing ideas around"!

We're decent at creating new media and rallying points for Discordians.
-the black iron prison, etc
-Intermittens
-posters, posters, posters
-one line meme bombs
-we've succeeded at a few pranks which require cooperation and collaboration
-our network has grown out of the digital world. Many have met each other in the flesh. In many places, cabals have formed after meeting online here.

What could we be capable of if we were somehow different?

-We could be more efficient in the platforms we create for people to find out about Eris. ie, BETTER magazines, BETTER posters, etc
-Tapping into different forms of media.. for example there are very few good videos about Discordia on youtube. Hoopla's are the best ones that come to mind, they take ideas we've hashed out and explain them in very clear language
-we're not really good at larger publications - like books - unless one person champions it
-I wish there was a way to organize ourselves into smaller task-oriented groups. If I want to put together a pamphlet, I could always start a thread about it and anybody who wants in can participate. But that's not always the best way to work on a collaborative project. LMNO and I have been working on the Chao te Ching for months - we eventually found that we could work more efficiently away from PD, communicating via PM and workshopping content via wiki. There may be software available which facilitates projects better than the forum's normal structure.

[Cramulus]

If we (Discordians) were [a larger but still well connected group] we could [accomplish better message saturation and penetration].  

What kind of things would we like to be capable of?  I think we want to be capable of spreading our ideas in a way that both catches people's attention, but doesn't do so in a style or manner that would cause us to be easily dismissed as crazies or kooks.  It needs to be clever but intelligent.  

Critical mass is definitely a big component of potential influence.

One of the factors which makes it hard to talk about Discordia is how indefinite it is -- there are no rules, no dogma, so we end up having trouble talking about how we should go about stuff. I personally don't want to tell anybody they're doing it wrong if they're doing what they love.

One idea I've been kicking around is that maybe we should take the PD brand of Discordia and brand it as a coherent package, in the same way that Greg and Kerry divided the Discordian Society into POEE and the Erisians, and anybody that didn't jive with either sect could be part of the LDD. We could outline our ideas in a very straightfaced way without worrying about betraying some Discordian meta-rule or alienating existing Discordians.

This can contain sign posts to go check out the Principia or other works. Because I agree, i think a more people would be into Discordian ideas/attitudes but they're not receptive to the "joke religion" meme.

For example, is Eris real? We have a variety of opinions about this topic here at PD. We sort of have a rough consensus. (judging from the polls) This is a very agnostic community, and I think we could explain how to relate to an imaginary construct in a more palatable way than our neopagan discordian cousins.

So when you boil it down I think it's about enhancing our capacity when it comes to social marketing.  That probably involves connections and certainly involves networking with folks who have the time and energy to put into projects.

Maybe we can recruit some more high profile people -- like Cory Doctorow -- who are already hip to our ideas and might like being given some kind of silly title.

I think one of the things we have an issue with here is we have a lot of good thinkers.  Unfortunately, we don't really have enough doers.  And I say that not in terms of not wanting to do things, but not having the time to do things, and that is the situation I'm in.  

fuckin troof. Part of the motivation for nearly every project I start here at PD is to demonstrate just how easy/fun it is to start something and then ride it for all its worth. I am always super psyched when somebody like Dimo shows up, gets infected with the energy, and then actually goes into the world and starts shaking stuff up. I want more of that!