What Are Our Merits and Flaws?

[Cramulus]

What sort of things is this community good at?



What sort of things are we bad at?






This is intended to be a constructive way of examining our own egregore. (see the Art of Memetics thread) This thread is for for constructive thought intended to help us understand what our capabilities and limitations are.

Possible Topics to discuss:

Output - the pamphlets, flyers, and projects we produce
Web Presence
Social Support for New Discordians and Other Freaks
etc

[Richter]

This place as a whole is a prolific, and in some cases, quality soure of ideas, writings, and projects which amuse, distract, and realign people's brains.

My major suggestion on what to develop and grow would be pracitcal, immediately useable suggestions.  A good portion of things that catch my attention here fall into a "X, Y, and Z wrong, and you should know about it" format.  Which is cool, but the solution to X, Y, and Z, are left ambiguous.  This could make the less creative mind panic.  Throw in a few simple, small scale, everday steps that negate the effectiveness, attitude, or presence of X, Y, and Z, and you've gone beyond galvanizing a person to action, and actualy given them an action to perform.

Roger has many of these worked into his stuff.  His suggestion to use cash as opposed to credit or debit cards awhile back (NOT leaving electronic footprints everywhere, as I recall.  Still looking for the exact context.) was one of my favorites.

Another: useless and innane policies at work.  Follow them, play by them, and engineer them to HORRIBLY fail.  Just doing your job, right?     

I could be missing a point somewhere in here, so take or leave as you see fit.

[Cramulus]

I was mired at work, else I would have developed the OP a bit better...

Here's the bit from the Art of Memetics from whence it originated:

Freedom... can be viewed not as the ability to move independently, but to wield greater power within a network. As we gain greater ability to make our own choices we must in turn assume greater responsibility for those choices. By examining our failings and weaknesses with brutal honesty we can find our strengths. Knowledge of weakness brings its own kind of developmental power, if it's used to create mastermind teams. Now is a time of immense potential, bombarded by more cultural signals now than ever before in recorded history, as those who dive in and navigate the information can see, while others drown if they sink into the information flow.

Mastermind groups can (and should) develop techniques to offset handicaps of individuals within the group. By playing to our strengths we concentrate effort into addressing our areas of weaknesses strategically. Knowing what one's weaknesses or strengths are also helps to develop focused teams with those who can bring abilities to offset one's weaknesses.

We have access to an overwhelming array of information that can help us, but at the same time the burden of evaluating this information lies heavily upon us. We now pick and choose among the signals that reach us, and in fact must do so because the contradictory signals we receive create their own kinds of stress. Understanding all the ways in which one lacks control over one's existence allows for compensation, starting within one's consciousness and moving into the greater social group in which one is embedded. Each of these strata can be explored in terms of the networks that manifest within those strata. What we are setting forth in this book aren't quick fixes, rather they are working within this model of reality to ripple out through the network of minds and bodies within which you are enmeshed.

I felt that this passage, in particular, was addressing groups like us. We're capable of output which exists on a level higher than most individuals can produce. So what are the roadblocks in the way of us accomplishing our goals?

We can dissect this community any number of ways. (Social, religious, etc) Somewhat concretely--

At the moment, I want to talk about OUTPUT

We are REALLY GOOD at coming up with new ideas, mindfucks, and unique reactions to current events

We are REALLY GOOD at brainstorming ideas, though we kind of suck at getting them off the ground and into people's hands. I've seen the life cycle of a Good Ideas get truncated in several directions

1) The idea is lost to threaddrift
2) The guy with the idea wants help conceputalizing it or actualizing it, but no one steps up to the plate
3) The idea gets partially formed, but not finished. (see the two-year work-in-progress called Lollercaust)
4) Someone finishes a product (like an image, pamphlet, or sign) and it stops there



In terms of what resources we have available

-We have many good and several great writers. They generally write up their own ideas. It's generally considered polite not to revise each other's work unless editing is solicited... which leads to a lot of pieces which haven't been edited at all.

-We have numerous great graphic artists who make images when they feel inspired.

-among us, Net is probably the best at print, layout, and type setting. He is sporadically available.

-We have tons of people who think that the group comes up with good ideas, and want to help, but are at a loss for how to participate.

-P3nt and I have video cameras. He knows how to use his but doesn't. I don't know how to use mine and am just getting started.


Distribution of Media

-We have a wiki but only two or three people ever code for it

-We have a blog but only three or four people ever make posts

-I suspect that between us, we have web presence in a bunch of different places, but we haven't successfully networked them together. (See my Project Infiltration thread)





I hope that in the above post I've identified some potential strengths and weaknesses in our ability to start, work on, and finish a project. aaaaaaaaaaand discuss?

[AFK]

I'll be honest.  I'd love to contribute more in terms of the finishing aspect.  But I suspect others have the same issue I have, time.  It's easy to post thoughts here and there while at work, but to actually put something together, while at work, well that just won't happen for me.  And then when I'm home, as much as I love working with you guys, my family comes first.  So, I guess one of the biggest coups that can be made is to recruit and attract people who have the chops to put products together AND the spare time to do it. 

[Jasper]

What the group needs is to have more energy put into it, if we're interested in more finished work.  We have a lot of potential that'd be tapped if we just put more energy into the site and it's productions.

[Cramulus]

I'm with you there, Rev, and I think that's the major problem. And I'm certainly not trying to twist anyone's arm into providing more effort than they're comfortable with.

I see tons of projects that have tons of merit in the TFYS and OM:F forums, but they're too big for one person to complete on his own. It'd be nice (though almost certainly impossible) to have a sort of sense / vibe that if one asks for help, someone else will actually pick it up.

The best thing, IMHO, would be for some of the observers - specifically those that LIKE output, but haven't made any yet - to step up and choose to have a higher level of involvement. I suspect that a lot of them are intimidated, or are "waiting for permission" to act. Guys, srsly: fuck that! Uhhhhh it takes a village to fuck up an idea. 



Do you think it'd be a good idea to have a "work that needs to be done" list?
like for example, we've needed someone to go through the BIP Wiki and update it to match the current BIP. It'll take like 20-40 minutes. I'm sure somone has both the time and skill to do it, but if no one takes it upon themselves (myself included), it's never gonna get done. And maybe that's not due to lack of effort or drive, but because no one knows it should be done.

[AFK]

Well, I will occassionally go in and update the wiki with new rants/sermons/writings.  In fact I just did so the other day.  And actually I'd like to update the audio/video section of that, but I'll take care of that in a new thread. 

[Jasper]

Really I've just been waiting for unstoppable zeal to set in.  But it probably won't, so I'll work on that.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

Maybe when someone thinks of a new project, they could identify specific jobs that needed done (in their opinion) and maybe even how much time they would estimate the job would require. That may give people a chance to say "Oh yeah, I could do that"... A little order in our chaos could be useful 

[Golden Applesauce]

There's a bit in social psychology called diffusion of responsibility.  Essentially (and this is well tested in experiments) if something needs to be done, the more people are around, the less likely anyone is to do anything.

Example:
If someone is severely injured or has a stroke or something in public, most people will stand there and watch.  If someone with specialized knowledge is present (first aid, CPR) they will usually step in to help, cuz if they don't no one will.

But who calls 911?  People assume that someone else will call 911, so they don't.  The end result is that emergency calls come late.  This is why in first aid training people are now taught to point as a specific person and say "You - call 911, I will perform CPR." and then check the area and do all that other first respondery stuff.

So I think we need to assign more individual responsibility for GASMs, etc.  So instead of "Somebody needs to get on the Colbert Nation forums and capitalize on stickerGASM" it should be "Cain, LMNO, and I will work the Colbert Nation Forums" or "TGRR and Vex are in charge of Lollercaust," etc.

[e]

What sort of things is this community good at?

This thread is for for constructive thought intended to help us understand what our capabilities and limitations are.

I am good at spotting typographical errors! 

More seriously, I can do web design and creation (also including web application programming in PHP as long as it's not too complex), and I can also host things if needed (though only things of a clearly-not-copyright-infringement variety, as I do not want my webspace shut down by the company that runs it and checks for such things).  I have like 500GB of disk space and infinity bandwidth a month, so space is no problem.

I can also:
Write, Edit, Re-write as necessary, &c.

[Cramulus]

So I think we need to assign more individual responsibility for GASMs, etc.  So instead of "Somebody needs to get on the Colbert Nation forums and capitalize on stickerGASM" it should be "Cain, LMNO, and I will work the Colbert Nation Forums" or "TGRR and Vex are in charge of Lollercaust," etc.

good call on diffusion of responsibility

the problem is, how can we address this? It's not socially appropriate to assign people duties, ya know?

example conversation:
Cramulus: Okay I have this text, can someone lay it out on a web page?
Community: ...
Cramulus: TheStripèdOne, can you put this on a web page?
TheStripèdOne: Jeeeeez I guess... if I have time.... umm... later....

two weeks later

Cramulus: Hey dude, can you lay that out for me or what?
TheStripèdOne: Jesus Christ, you crack a mean bull whip



at least that's what I think people are afraid of happening. Or this:

TheStripèdOne: Hey Cramulus, can you write up a fifteen page summary of Prometheus Rising?



hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[Faust]

you want something laid out just message me.
I have been using the meta forum as work bench for ages, anything I cant do someone else has stepped up to help.
ask someone direct and they dont want to do it. post a request on the forums and you will get a completely different reaction.

[Cainad (dec.)]

In terms of what resources we have available

-We have many good and several great writers. They generally write up their own ideas. It's generally considered polite not to revise each other's work unless editing is solicited... which leads to a lot of pieces which haven't been edited at all.

I propose that anyone with writing skills participate in correcting this. It may only be a small problem compared to our community apathy problem as a whole, but gosh darnit I'll come up with SOMETHING helpful to suggest in this thread if it kills me.

I recommend that everyone who writes or has written anything that got a few mittens put it up for editing. The wiki may be the best way to do this, because people posting threads upon threads of stuff just gets cluttery.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I think I posted my skills elsethread, but they also include getting really fired up and producing as shitton of output in the heat of the moment.

My weaknesses, however, include losing interest quickly and having a fatally flawed memory.