What is a forum?

I use the word "forum" in a classic sense. I think of a discussion as an organization not only of the topic but of the people themselves. Where they are positioned in the discussion may greatly influence the amount or type of power that they possess. A forum is the processing of the topic through various discussion forms. The variation of form gives both a greater range of expression to the speakers and a better listening experience for the audience.

Take any topic and put it through a complete process. Let's begin the process with a type of democratic form that is random, open circuit, with unlimited numbers of speakers. We have all seen this type of discussion in online forums. Usually, the only division of the discussion would be strictly topical, simply dividing the topic down to it's constituent parts, each division then becoming it's own topic. The discussion could be divided into separate threads or separate subforums.

In the random form the posters may sustain the expository mode just by outlining and composing their individual posts. We then accumulate a collection of expository posts. The benefit of this style is that every voice can speak as often and as much as they want. The problem is that it is very hard to follow the discussion, especially when opinions diverge.

What's the next logical step in the process of a classic forum? Rather than further division of the topic, the extension of an ordered expository discussion would be in the ordering of the posters themselves. We might begin the discussion anew with one limitation - that each of them are allowed one and only one post. Or whatever limited number. Or we might ask them to make one post and remain silent until one round of posting is completed. Then the posters may resume again each allowing themselves one and only one post. This form helps to maintain the principle of equal say or equal time. It also checks the dramatic since the dramatic mode is improvised and thrives on random form. It demands that each speak once and listen nine times (in a group of ten). It introduces rational form, allowing the members control over the mode of discussion, and it is a measurable objective.

We have moved the topic through a process from one form to another. The purpose is that the posters may refine their originally random presentations and condense or summarise their expositions. This allows us a better listening experience because such an expository form would be trimmer, easier to follow and easy to reference concerning who thinks what, since all posts are summarised by each poster.

Let's say that multiple opinions emerge and their are clusters of opinions, say, three distinct viewpoints that each poster could position themselves with respectively.

The next step in the process would be to appoint or elect three representatives of those opinions and use the circle form again to hash it out using a strict circle form (ABC ABC...). One or more opinion may emerge as stronger than the others. One may be swayed to join another or may split into two factions due to it's own inherent weaknesses and be joined to the other two. We can then measure this in terms of relative quantities in a closed system using whole numbers and fractions. We can quantitatively assess the outcome of the debate. Where two opposing opinions become clarified we may then move on in the process to a two sided evaluated debate using the following form (AB AB AB C)

A Pro
B Con
A rebuttal
B rebuttal
A closing
B closing
C Evaluation

The evaluation itself may be conducted by a team of observers who critique the grammar, rhetoric and logic.

Using this process, the discussion is moved from an irrational to rational form that can be counted by a whole number. The relative quantities of equality, majority and minority can be deduced from this whole number.

The benefit is that the community receives a complete hearing of the topic. The majority is not allowed to out-voice the minority because by the end of the process the community has trimmed down the number of voices to two equal voices for the purpose of assessing the logic of each argument. The majority may still vote in favor of it's proposition but as the process continues the minority voice continues to be heard.

So we maintain another type of equality. If nine people believe one thing and one person believes another, we do not allow nine voices to one. We want to hear all of the logic of one side compared to all of the logic of the other. One logic may outweigh another. Allowing the nine to dominate gives us repetitious arguments and a drowning of the minority voice. The value in this process lies in the fact that most of the people are often wrong! We know historically that the best ideas come from very small numbers. The scientific and literary communities comprise a small percentage of the whole community. Scientists like Galileo and Darwin and writers like Frederick Douglas, Allen Ginsberg and Mark Twain could be censored or their ideas could be persecuted.


An historical example would be the emergence of the theory of evolution into public currency. In the Scopes Trial of 1925, the Evolutionists lost the case to the Creationists but gained immense ground in bringing attention of the existence of Darwin's theories to the general public. 83 years later and it is hard even to find a Creationist who won't at least accept microevolution as a fact.

This process is progressive.

But I am speaking in the context of Faciliating Online Communities. I believe that traditional democratic forms perform the best faciliation. This is self-moderated forum, quite distinct from just a topical organization of threads or subforums. And this is what I mean by the word "forum", a form that allows the community to discuss, deliberate and decide through an online action.

To recap, we used a three phase process of different discussion forms or organizations of people and speech for the purpose of achieving a better listening experience.

1) Random form, where everyone was allowed to speak as often and as much as they desired.

2) Circle form, where speakers were assigned to speak in a given place. They may have both the right and the responsibility to speak. In this circle form, each must listen to the others before they may speak again.

3) Debate form, that the logic of two or three opposing ideas must get an equal hearing regardless of the the number of supporters for each idea. In this form a greater demand is made upon the speakers to exercise their responsibilities to speak.

You can see the different effects that each form achieves. In the first, an opposing group may dismiss the arguments of others and simply ignore them but as the discussion takes form, greater responsibility is upon the speakers.

This was only one process described. There are other discussion forms and therefore many variations of forums that can be organized.

What is a forum? Learn more...

En Español

What's the Web made of?

This is a rough draft -

What exactly is the web made of? It's a conglomeration of all electronic technology that has been produced in the past 150 years or so. I want to take a look at each individual technological item and the protocols for using them, then I will relate those protocols as they converge and meet upon the Internet.


Telegraph messages were transmitted in digital code - a series of short and long clicks. This was the first electric communications device and use of digital code for language.

Western Union built its first transcontinental telegraph line in 1861, mainly along railroad rights-of-way, further strengthening the East-West connection.

The original Morse telegraph printed code on tape. However, in the United States the operation developed into sending by key and receiving by ear. A trained Morse operator could transmit 40 to 50 words per minute. The message was probably read aloud by the messenger when delivered. In 1900, Canadian, Fredick Creed invented a way to convert Morse code to text called the Creed Telegraph System. Automatic transmission, introduced in 1914, handled more than twice that number.
The privacy of telegraph messaging regular mail system.

The Internet would be nowhere without the telephone.

It's television!!!

(Don't forget that)

Try finding something good on television. Then there are the censors, you know. They have to get their word in. I was just searching for the Communist party of Cuba in google. Wikipoopia had an article and included a direct link to the officail website of the Communist Party of Cuba. Did that link ever open? No. So much for free speech and diversity on the web.

Also, it is important to realize the natural theatrical effects that can be had from the Internet. posters in the dramatic mode have been systematically driven off the web. Well, we will just have to wait for the technocrats and "educators" to fall flat on their asses and come running to the artists and poets to bail them out.

Add a big ass computer

The operator could set up a "conference call" upon request, connecting multiple phone lines into one call. This service was seldom used for personal use, except as a novelty. I remember we did one of these with some friend when i was a wee smigeon of a curmudgeon.

An Internet discussion forum is like a conference call.

Caller I.D. led to IP checking. Probably a bad idea.

This was originally made availabe to allow people to dodge a call. If the mortgage company was calling to repossess your car, you could just not "be there". The IP number of every poster on the web is registered at some stage of the communication. Is this an ethical practice?

Phone booth cramming. The idea was to cram as many people as possible into a phone booth. That is the social web today.










VW cramming - Same thing ten years after.

phone sex moderators party line 1st telephone call 1st conference call 1st televised broadcast 1st Caller ID IP checking phone booth cramming

Our Purpose in Postmasters

Our Purpose in Postmasters

Artie and Franz talk about Article 2

Postmasters is an online, non-profit, service organization for the benefit of the worldwide web community. Our purpose is to promote and practice traditional discussion arts. We are a self-moderating, self-developing, self-propagating and self-sustaining community.

To achieve our purpose Postmasters provides for the public an open circuit, free speech zone and offers The Discussion Workshop Series.

The Discussion Workshop Series:

1. Provides for its community members opportunities which give them skill and experience as participants in online democratic discussions;

2. Enables community members to coordinate democratic discussion so as to achieve online group action;

3. Provides for the community fair and constructive evaluation of their efforts;

4. Enables the members to investigate and deliberate upon matters relevant to the online community;

5. Affords leadership training for its members.

A. I mean many things with wording such as "democratic" and "free speech". Wherever there is a Postmasters club, there is also a free speech zone. I suppose that the term "free speech" will mean different things to different clubs. I suppose that my own interpretation of the term "free speech" may even have to yield to our group as it grows. The membership may change the meaning, and that is alright.  I am aware that there is no absolute free speech or democracy.

F. Are you free to keep silent by the butcher's, for instance, and then, are you free to say what you want? Is there free speech with your superior, even outside a work situation?

A. It is a relative term. There is an open circuit relative to the closed circuit. We are making the memberlist closed to only elected members so that the term "member" does not become confused. Therefore we need a point of contact with the public and it seems very natural to have an open circuit where a guest is really a guest. It also seems that the area should be protected from interference from adms, mods and members so as to promote free speech. The administration of the board should be set up to maximize protection of free speech. It should never be allowed to attack the public because the public is not coming to us to have their behavior modified or moderated. 

"Attacking the public" includes invasion of privacy through IP-checking. The IP number can be traced to a precise location wherever you are on the planet, and administrators and moderators everywhere are abusing it and violating the privacy of users. 

We are going to have very strict regulations on administrators. Think about the longest set of rules you have ever seen for forum users (they can be as long as 35 pages). We are going to have that many rules for adms. And no rules for the public. That makes it very easy for everybody because the public does not even need to read the rules. They need to know nothing at all because the rules never apply to them. Besides, there are very few adms, so if anything goes wrong, we have very few suspects. 

Anonymity seems to maximize free speech. The administration should not be allowed to attack the privacy of anonymous users. Also, with this open circuit, we also have a safety valve because if people are afraid to say a thing in the Workshop, they can just log out and
say it anonymously. But this requires a very disciplined administration, which is exactly why we have the Discussion Workshop! - to discipline the administration. 

For me, free speech includes the right to speak in any mode - expository, narrative and dramatic. Due to it's random nature, an open circuit allows for dramatization of a point. Yet the Workshop is decidedly expository. Anonymity promotes the dramatic mode. 

F. What do you mean precisely by "dramatic", "expository"? Isn't the Workshop conclusive above all?

A. The Discussion Workshop is very expository because we are building a decision making group. But an open circuit of public posters can be very dramatic. Now we have an expository thread about the constitution in G&G. The public has a right to post anything they want in that thread. If they should start telling stories or posting pictures or acting out a play by Balzac, then that is what we get.

However free speech means that we should be able to communicate in any mode. It's in the Workshop that we learn to control the modes through proper uses of form.

F. I still don't understand the meaning of "expository".

A. The Workshop is where we train members to administrate. We practice expository form in order to maintain an expository mode. This is a self-moderated group - the group moderates itself. The group has a right to free speech in the expository mode, so the group practices an expository form that squelches and defeats the dramatic and narrative forms. The group moderates the mode of discussion through practiced use of form. Yet we can nurture the dramatic forms in a separate dramatic workshop.

We are now engaged in an exposition of Art 2. We are using Art 2 as an outline for our discussion. We are not rambling, but are following a course. An exposition is an arrangement of text or speech. A nomenclature is expository because it outlines a course of study. An expository mode is established when each poster arranges their text. The expository form is achieved by arranging the order of speakers or posters. An expository form moderates the expository mode. Alternate posting ABAB is expository. Circle posting ABCABC is also expository. Random posting promotes a dramatic mode. We will demonstrate this in the workshop by using the forms. It is very difficult to improvise a dramatic presentation when expository form is being used.

F. What is a democratic discussion or group? 

A. The democratic tradition is not one, but many forms. Being able to speak anonymously on an open circuit is one kind of democratic form. But to adhere to that ONE form as THE form for every occasion is, to me, very non-democratic. Because I feel that the proper democratic process is one that gives the group an optimal listening experience. 

F. Must it be taken here in its political meaning? I don't think so. In the same time, "democratic" implies freedom and then choice. And the choice is not necessary plural.

A. Having your say, and as much as you want is one kind of democracy. An open circuit with unlimited numbers speaking in random form can speak as much as they want and as often as they want, but I think that the drawback is that it is nearly impossible to measure such an unorganized discussion. An open circuit is irrational since it cannot be measured by a whole number. When we elect our membership, we can always count the whole number of members upon our fingers and toes. If there are twenty members today, it is not likely that there are going to be 40 members an hour from now. 

Since we have a whole number that is measurable, we can also measure the foundational relative quantity of equality. We can then measure majority and minority and conduct a democratic discussion, deliberation and decision making process.

We should have a wide range of choices when processing information. That everything should be discussed with unlimited numbers, speaking in random with no end or development of the process, without measurable limits, severely restricts our choices. Try finding a "democratic community" on the web! All that will come up in a search is some affiliation with the Democratic Party! The only way you will find any such group is if you do a search for the exact terms "democratically organized web community" and you will get one and only one group - Postmasters! That's why I say that we are in a perfect niche because what we have is greatly needed, but is in very scarce supply. 

F. For a decision, you begin with a plurality (at least two possibilities), and at the end, there must be just one. A plurality made of indecision is not democratic. A permanent choice may also be free.

A. Narrowing down our options is how we decide a thing. Also, I think of democratic decisions as being relatively permanent, semi-permanent and temporary. It is likely that as the group grows and our power is lessened that the majority will override one or both of us on an issue. What do we do when we think we are right, but we are in the minority? We must act with the majority yet work with the process to change people's thinking slowly.

A democratic discussion is one that is organized. After hearing what everyone has to say when they are able to speak randomly, as much and as often as they like, we might then ask for them to poll and vote a smaller number of themselves into a circle formation where each person has equal time. In a circle discussion, each participant has the right to speak, the responsibility to speak, the right to hear and the responsibility to listen to the others.

If I am in a circle of ten people, then I have the right and responsibility to speak once, then I must keep silence and listen nine times before I am allowed to speak again. That is an ordinal form. See: What is a Forum?

In the Workshop we practice the arts of measured discourse. We discuss with the objective of learning a self-moderated form, and then we measure it according to the stated objectives. We should be little interested in whether someone is "nice" or "good" or "stupid". How can we objectively evaluate with such criteria?

F. How will it be measured?

A. Every project has objectively measurable criteria. The 20:04 thread has a measurable objective. The poster either posts at 20:04 or they don't. If they do post at 20:04, the discussion then turns to how did you accomplish this, what problems did you encounter and how did you overcome them? If the objective is to post in circle form (ABC ABC) then it is very easily evaluated. We either posted in the correct form or we did not. If we did not post in form, why? If we did post in form, then how?

At every meeting, the members are rotated through meeting roles, such as Grammarian or Master Postmaster of the Day or Discussion Organizer or Discussion Evaluator. The rotation of roles gives us experiences at listening and functioning in different roles. This is done by appointment through the Educational VP and the Master Postmaster.

There are also elected long term roles. These are defined in Art 4. The person who is Master Host one term, may be a VP or the President in the next term.

This is leadership training.

The administrative accounts are never to be used for posting. We only use those accounts as tools. And we only perform administrative actions that we have been trained to perform.

F. Ok, all that is brand new for me, I follow you blindly...

A. I want to go over this article in detail and also talk about the ethical treatment of online community. Any discussion can be had in any one of these forums. There is no separation of topics. The idea is that the topic can be duplicated under varying conditions. The conditions in the public forum are different from the Member's Lounge and those two are different from the Discussion Workshop, which is a formal meeting. Discussions can be started in one section and moved around by the members using the administrative tools, thereby achieving distinctly different discussion effects. 

F. And do the Member's Lounge, and the Discussion Workshop, correspond each with the active members, and the administrators?

A. The Member's Lounge is for the elected membership. Since they have their own space, there is no reason to handle any complaints about the behavior of the public. This reestablishes the normal use of language. a guest is a guest and a Member is a member. Only elected members appear on the memberlist.

In the public area, the public has complete control. In the Member's Lounge, the members have the right to express themselves as individuals. But in the Discussion Workshop, the group expresses itself. In the Workshop, the individual can only post at designated times and in given order so the result is a group expression, not just an accumulation of individual voices.

In the Discussion Workshop, the membership meets every two weeks for a coordinated group meeting. People post with their member accounts but may also use administrative tools to perform a community approved administrative action.

F. So that combines a total free speech, and a more reflexive expression, I guess. This appears democratic and clever.

A. It is an ordinal forum. People can only be elected by attending two consecutive meetings. the meetings are ordinal and temporal. So we admit them to membership on purely objective terms. They might be total idiots on the open circuit but if they attend two ordinal meetings and they comply with the order, we elect them, because they have qualified themselves to maintain the order. The public, too, can perform ordinal projects on the open circuit and we will extend the meeting invitation to those individuals.

Become an elected member of Postmasters and participate in the complete Discussion Workshop Series

Postmasters is communication and leadership training for democratically organized web community

Eastern Standard Time

History, languages and cultures of the time zone, Eastern Standard Time (EST). Discussion now in progress. Is it possible for the people of a time zone to have a history? The Internet could make that happen. In this study, I am investigating the possibilities of uniting the people of a time zone into one community, a community that could one day have it's own specific history.

75ºW is denoted as GMT-5 on the map. The area is also known as Eastern Standard Time (EST) in Canada and the U.S because it is on the eastern seaboard (or atlantic coast). We can reasonably expect the zone not to be known as EST in South America since it runs along the west coast of the continent.

Every 30 degrees on the map is two hours. I want to highlight two hours of time and look at certain relationships in that area, Nunavut to Quebec, the Industrial Belt of New York to the Great Lakes, Washington DC to Havana, Colombia and Peru.



What do we know about this area? Let's take a closer inspection. It begins at the North Pole and runs down the Eastern Seaboard of North America through the Caribbean and along the Western Seaboard of South America down to Peru. There are 3 main European languages (Spanish, English and French) and 2 main Indigenous languages (Inuit and Quechua).

In this section of the map, everyone is on the same hour. They share the same natural time. For the vast majority of people the sun rises and sets at the same time. So we are eating our breakfast, lunch and dinner together. I want to build an international web community upon the framework of this time zone. The time zone is a communication form that can transcend the language barriers. The membership must be, at least, bilingual, and preferably, multilingual. Each member can serve as a language bridge to the other.



Here is a large (2.3MB) detailed world map with cities, longitudes and latitudes. This is a great map. Once you download it, click in the right lower corner to enlarge it. It's really big so you can see all the countries. This is one of my favorite maps.



Let me take you on a tour of my time zone. North American Eastern Time Zone Also see: In the Neighborhood



The northernmost town, in my time zone, that I have been able to find is called Pond Inlet, located on the northernmost tip of Baffin Island. The local language is Inuktitut, but the only text on their website is in english. When looking at the arctic extremes of a longitude, we are cutting through what appears to be a huge indigenous Arctic culture. There may be 1 million people living within the Arctic Circle and I think that they have a commonly rooted language, whether they are located above Canada or above Europe and Asia. That language and culture is known as Inuit. Looking at the Pond Inlet site, you will see the characters used in the Inuit language. Currently there is little or no support for Inuit on the web. You might view the language in photographs such as this one:









This is the province of Nunavut. The northernmost tip is a government polar observation station called Alert (population 8). We would expect the 8 people living there, being government employed scientists, to be of Northern European descent. I do not know if Alert is on EST.



Nunavut was recently separated from the provinces of Quebec and Ontario (I think). The population is largely Inuit (Inuktitut). The website Nunavut 99 - Our Language, Our Selves revelas an Inuktitut culture is struggling to make it's presence on the Internet.

What's the population living in Eastern Standard Time? North American Time Zones lists all countries, states and major cities. A google search for "what is the population of eastern standard time" turns up ZERO (nothing). So we can only guess. It would seem safe to say that there must be at least 100 million people in this zone.


Eastern Standard Time (EST) USA Population

Connecticut 3,510,297

Delaware 843,524

Florida 16,849,199

Georgia 9,072,576

Indiana 4,972,570

Kentucky 3,184,089

Maine 1,321,505

Maryland 5,600,388

Massachusetts 6,398,743

Michigan 10,038,725

New Hampshire 1,309,940

New Jersey 8,717,925

New York 19,254,630

North Carolina 8,683,242

Ohio 11,464,042

Pennsylvania 12,429,616

Rhode Island 1,076,189

South Carolina 4,255,083

Tennessee 2,091,303

Vermont 623,050

Virginia 7,567,465

Washington, DC 550,521

West Virginia 1,816,856


TOTAL - 141,631,478

But that does not include all of the people in EST, only the USA. So the guess should be revised up. Because EST includes many of Canada's largest cities, the Caribbean, and the western seaboard of South America, there must be close to 250,000,000 habitants. This means that there are 250,000,000 people who, daily, share the same natural time.

Join the discussion now in progress open circuit - no registration necessary.

New Postmasters Club opening

The all new *Red Board* is now open!

You are the administer with Postmasters Discussion Workshop training programs. The only forum on the web for the purpose of training web community users, moderators and administrators. Learn the whole board from the bottom up. Complete support available.

Start posting today in the Greetings and Graffiti guest forum

Greetings and Graffiti Operator's Manual

Constitution of Postmasters

Discussion Workshop Homepage

Postmasters hosted by International Forum

Postmaster Discussion Workshop has opened a club at the International Forum. Apply for membership in the Post A Month Club. Qualification for Postmasters Discussion Workshop includes regular monthly attendance.

Post a Month Club

The Post A Month Club is an introducion to temporal/ordinal form. Maintain your active membership by making one post a month. This open circuit forum serves to qualify further access in the closed circuit, Postmasters Discussion Workshop. Qualify for the Discussion Workshop by participating in ordinal posting games on the open circuit. All new members will be elected from the open circuit into the closed circuit. Postmasters is an inclusive group.

Facilitating Online Communities 2008 blog archive

The Facilitating Online Communities 2008 blog archive can be found here. There is a multitude of material. If you are interested in learning more contact me at my email address (artistsforanarchy at gmail.com). I have other private online sources that I will link you to and am forming private groups for the purpose of practicing traditional temporal and ordinal discussion form. You might want to join us in a group chat. We will be running through every known discussion form from informal conversation to organized dualogues, dialogues, circles, panels, debates and workshops to produce traditional forums online, coherent online groups and growing online communities.

Postmasters forum

I have set up another model of a forum. Postmasters uses a guest posting area where the public has the right of way. There are no rules for the public in the guest area. PERIOD. I have written an Operator's Manual for guests that includes a set of rules prohibiting adms, mods or members from posting in the guest area except as a guest. This actually amounts to rules for everyone except guests in the Guest area! Ha!

The simplicity of the rules is the forte of this discussion board. Literally, the guest poster does not need to even read the rules, because the rules only apply to those who should be held responsible. I have followed this formula in making that determination.

No rules for the public
Few rules for members
More rules for moderators
The most rules for administrators

A guest may become an elected member by demonstrating temporal and ordinal form. The account allows people to use the Member's Lounge for random asynchronous connecting. Members can then be elected into topical groups.

The Operator's Manual for members restricts administrators and moderators from posting in the member's area with admin or mod accounts. They may only use member accounts in the members area and have no power to edit, delete or any other unapproved activity.

The only place a mod or adm may use an administrative account for posting is in an ordinal administrative meeting (Discussion Workshop). The meeting includes a program of training in a wide variety of discussion forms which enable the membership to administer their own community according to the Constitution. Only poster's who attend scheduled temporal and ordinal discussions and meetings retain their active membership. Members can inform the elected board when going inactive or be placed on inactive membership by the board (obviously for inactivity).

Read the Constitution of Postmasters

I am writing up a complete set of projects organized into modules. This program trains groups to coordinate themselves into coherent form.

Building a successful online community

From the Creating Passionate Users blog comes Building a successful online community

The article in the above link claims that the way to build a successful online community is to "be nice". Being nice is OK but I don't think that communities should be founded upon such terms. I object to such a standard, first, because it is not possible to objectively evaluate what it is to be "nice" and, second, because it does in fact suppress many various forms and modes of communication, the very forms and modes which are possible to evaluate objectively.

The author also likens the blog to a dinner party. I don't agree. You attend a dinner party by invitation. Also it isn't necessary to broadcast a dinner party to the world. I don't see the use of any metaphors when it comes to the web. It's hard to tell whether I am at a party or a football game or on the set of someone's favorite TV show, there are so many metaphors.

That particular blog is moderated. I left a comment on the post that said that I disagree. The comment never made it to the page. Therefore, I would take all other comments that agree with the author very lightly. As I understand, the author of the blog has used web communication tools and machines to attack the public. My policy in administering any communication machine such as a blog or forum is quite simple:

The public has the right of way.

I believe that this is the must sensible approach. An open circuit is for making contact with the public. Any activity that the public contributes is acceptable on an open circuit. If posters attend the discussion and demonstrate ability to use temporal and ordinal form, they may be invited into a closed circuit blog. There is no need for me to attack the public.

The responsibility for maintaining a given mode falls to those who wish to produce the given mode. If they outright refuse to utilize the respective form that governs the mode, they must accept the outcome. The responsibility for the dramatic mode prevailing on open circuits is due to the expository poster's own failing to adhere to expository discussion form.

The social web is on the decline because of the "nice" people that have ruled it. Contrary to reports that you may read in the news, while the fact is that the social web is increasing worldwide (due to it's dawning in the "Third World"), this belies the reality that where the social web has already taken root (in the "First World") people are leaving in droves.

Why? Because the "organization" of it is a no-growth plan. The idea that a "community" as a commodity, a person's own private property, a place where you are a permanent guest, a situation in which bans, blocks and deletes are used to control the communication - all of this amounts to no-growth.

Real communities do not behave like that. You don't fling the doors open and then start dictating and tossing people out. You ultimately lose people. That only makes sense. You ban people, you lose people. For every banning you lose more than one person. I am currently boycotting any and all "communities" that are going this route. There are methods that work. This is not one.

So what's the best plan for the long haul? That's what this blog is all about. The best way to build a community is to build groups. Groups of individuals who are willing to work. A group practices temporal and ordinal form. That's what makes it a group. It's not a group just because there are a bunch of people who joined.

You join a clique by being nice. Cliques are based upon personality. Cliques engage in asynchronous conversation.

You join a group by first attending the group and demonstrating that you are willing and able to practice temporal and ordinal forms. The members themselves have practiced these forms and understand how to objectively evaluate them. If you have attended two or three meetings and shown that you understand temporal and ordinal form, you may be elected into the group.

Groups are capable of coordinated discussion, deliberation and decision making. An online community should be fully equipped to deliberate through a complete democratic decision making process which produces an online action. Such online actions would be the election of it's membership, the election of it's officers who are authorized by the community to administer and the objective evaluation of performance in mode and form.

Through disciplined practice, members of a group becomes adept at fulfilling their rights and responsibilities:

The right to speak
The right to hear and be heard
The responsibility to respond
The responsibility to listen

We use ordinal form to ensure that these rights and responsibilities are promoted for all.

For example, in a group we may evaluate a circle form based upon whether the members took their proper turns. The form of ABC ABC... is very easy to objectively evaluate. It is much easier to evaluate whether a poster is in or out of the designated mode or form than it is to determine whether they or you or someone else is "being nice".

Basically, constitutional form must come to the web because it empowers each individual to participate in coherent groups which are the foundation of real community.

Blog Update

This is a blog about organizing online communities. There is a lot of material here and links to articles I'm writing. Here are some suggested readings from the best of this blog:

The Listening Experience

What is a Forum?

People Who Share a Common Time for a Purpose

Latitudes and Longitudes (The Comfort Zone)

Characteristics of Groups

Organizing According to Time

Also See: The Discussion Workshop Homepage

In The Neighborhood

I am currently chatting by appointment only. Drop me an email message to set up a 30 to 60 minute chat regarding the founding of democratically organized web community. (artistsforanarchy at gmail.com)

Characteristics of Groups

I realize that there are many distinctive traits by which we can recognize the genuine article. Here I have compiled some of the characteristics that help form cohesive groups.

A group is a number of individuals communicating in temporal/ordinal form. Groups are the foundation of communities. Unlike a clique that solely utilizes conversation and grows to a limited size, a group uses form to measure and evaluate it's discussion. Groups are capable of duplicating themselves to form a larger community.

What are the characteristics of a group?

• Members engaged in frequent interaction;
• Those involved define themselves as group members;
• Others define members as belonging to a particular group;
• They share common norms and mutual interests;
• They identify with one another and share values;
• They feel a sense of collective responsibility;
• They act in a unified way towards the organisation.

Communities are comprised of small groups that not only serve as an entry point but also help maintain the continuity while accomplishing the objectives of the larger community. The individual's frequent contact with the community purpose is through the small group. Many small groups may come together for a conference occasionally.

Small groups also practice one of the three modes; expository, dramatic or narrative and are well versed in the forms that are used to establish that mode. Discussion groups are aiming to specialize in the expository mode, but there are also large numbers of users who are interested in applying the dramatic and narrative modes. Each would explore the most suitable form according to the mode they wish to deliver.

Expository groups practice temporal and ordinal form as a means of qualifying the membership. Participants who are able to maintain the order are qualified for membership.

The number of members in a small group is fairly consistent with little fluctuation, without wild fluctuations of people coming and going.

Conversation serves the group well until it grows to about five to seven members. The group may practice ordinal form in preparation for growth. By the time there are ten members, the group will have enough ordinal form to enable rational (measurable) discourse, deliberation and decision making.

The larger community is composed of separate groups who work according to the same objective while having little contact with each other. Groups are distinct from each other in identity. The larger community is not allowed to destroy that group identity. Members of a group are those who attend that group. A member of a group may attend another group within the same community as a visitor only.

Groups have an attendance. The group always knows who is in the group and who is not, who is attending meetings and discussions and who is not.

The NOTBUT Plan

NOT
Individual-Community

BUT
Individual-Small Group-Community

So get yer butt knotted but not butted but a buncha Butt-Knott-ed-Not-Butts

It was really interesting to be a part of our meetings in Second Life. We had 2, and one was entirely different from the other. - Leigh

Right. That's because they are two meetings of two distinct groups. If the two "meetings" were the same membership, then there would be no need for two meetings. They are two groups.

And it's very interesting that they are separated by time. That should be a very strong signal to us about how to separate groups. Anyone who was inconvenienced in getting to a meeting would not be qualified for that group because they could not maintain consistent attendance for the meetings and would threaten the continuity of the group.

(We have already seen earlier in this blog that people are separated by time as if it were a geographical limitation. I am going to expand upon this thesis further on.)

See: Notes on Meetings One and Two

Because the natural progression from individual to community is via the small group, then, if the FOC08 meetings are not groups, where are the groups?

I don't know of any other ethical approach to organizing people. Small closed groups are rational. The membership can count the whole number of individuals, they can then engage in rational discussion, deliberation and decision making processes. Because they know the exact whole number, they can then accurately measure relative quantities of equality, majority and minority.

Conversation (random) form is probably in order only for 3 to 5 members. To prepare for growth, those 3 to 5 members should train and practice temporal and ordinal forms. It is certainly necessary when the group gets into the 10 to 15 member range. 20 people need even more disciplined training. I have never seen an expository discussion of over 20 that did not frequently depart or "derail" to the dramatic mode.

Many small groups can come together periodically as one community. But there is not much need to meet with the whole world every day, is there? So how does one go about finding other people for a group? How do you limit the size and attract the best people for the purpose? What is a good purpose for a service community to the web?


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Who is a Community?

Absolute and Relative Identity

For those of us wishing to protect our privacy upon the open circuits that so dominate the Internet, absolute identity is not a choice. We prefer relative identity.

The basic doctrine of relative identity states that - All I need to know about you is that you are not me! And visa versa.

Relative identity works fine for two people. But what do you do when it's time to expand? If three people are to identify themselves relatively there is an immediate problem. A and B both know that they are not the other but neither knows that C is not the other.

Absolute identity is only as credible as the other absolute identities that are associated with it. In other words, I am suppose to believe your absolute identity because it is confirmed by another supposed absolute identity. Of course, I only need to continue tracing the line back and we will find that the genealogy is not rooted in an absolute identity. It must be rooted in the first pair who recognized the relative identity of each. The one looked at the other and thought "You are not me." And that was a very correct judgement.

Relative identity allows users the freedom to be whoever they want to be, enabling them to use any mode that they want to use, including the expository, narrative and dramatic modes.

Michael Welsh video 56:00

What is a Community?
When is a Community?
Why is a Community?
Where is a Community?
How is a Community?

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Join the Discussion Workshop

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This blog on Facilitating Online Discussions is an open circuit introduction to our subject matter. If you are interested in applying democratic forms to community organization, you may register for our closed circuit Discussion Workshop meetings. Expect lots of experimenting with communication and leadership techniques as we build small groups into a unified community.

What's the Discussion Workshop?

In the workshops we meet for short one hour meetings and apply ourselves to learning ordinal forms together. The Discussion Workshop is where we apply all of the ideas and principles that you have read about in the Facilitating Online Communities blog.

We engage in practical dialogue while thoroughly learning the technical and ethical aspects of a given platform.

The Workshop exhibits all of the traditional attributes of a group. Groups are associated into one community through a constitution. Meetings are organized and presented by the members.

A practical workshop

Apply for membership and acquire all of these benefits:

Access to a wide variety of training programs in practical democratic arts.

Attend the weekly business meeting where your voice is heard and you have a right to vote and have your vote counted correctly in relation to a whole number which is the membership.

Serve as an elected officer.

Coordinate workshops.

Simplest way to understand is to think about how you use the telephone and google chat or yahoo or AIM chat. Does everyone talk at the same time? No. You take turns, whether it's 2 people or 20, you take turns.

"Majority rules" is not the foundation for democratic society. In fact, many routine decisions can be made by a majority of a quorum. If a quorum is 50% of the membership then 5 is a quorum of a membership of 10. 3 is a majority of the quorum. Therefore the routine decisions are made by 3 of the 10 members. While minority rules in small matters, it is desirable to have a majority or supermajority in matters of greater weight.

Our organizing principle will not be topical but temporal and ordinal. So accept that we will be topically disorganized until we establish the temporal and ordinal features of our forums. Ultimately, the membership will be responsible for topical organization.

Since I believe that the personal privacy of individual members is more important than the security of the adm or the posts, I have opted for restricting the activities of the adm. That's how I arrived at the above formula. I want to set up forums that are rooted in equality.

We are going to use a large number of forums and boards that are each set differently to achieve a certain texture or democratic principle.

Member administered programs

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Discussion Workshop - Module and Project Options

Working on this post, I realize that a workshop in discussion arts can offer a wide variety of options for building groups and communities. Here are just a few ideas to begin a catalog.

Assignment One: Finding a Buddy
Two participants

Find a buddy and establish a dialogue through email and chat. Maybe a series of emails in one day that culminates in a chat. Your assignment is to elect a third person that both of you agree upon.

Assignment Two: Choosing a Platform
The objective is to choose a simple communication platform such as email, chat, blogs and commit to a dialogue.

Assignment Three: Introductions
The objective is to introduce one blogger or poster to another on the platform you have chosen.

How long should it take to complete all of the projects? I am inclined to think that the only way to know is to try it. How long does it take to find a buddy? In traditional communities we usually find a buddy within the first month or two of joining.

How should the evaluation be conducted? Since each project is a group effort, we do not focus upon individual performance as much as we do upon the performance of the group in achieving the objective. Evaluation is objective. These are ordinal projects so the focus is not upon the morality of any given individual.

Who is qualified to evaluate the outcome? Any member who is active in the whole Discussion Workshop program is qualified to evaluate the performance of the group. We take turns at evaluating.

Who is qualified to even participate in the workshop? Any person or group that wishes to empower itself by learning how to use traditional temporal and ordinal forms in an online situation.

Maybe this is a bit too ambitious? People first need to learn how to arrange appointemnts before they can even meet for a chat! Maybe project two should be Arranging Appointements?

Maybe there could be a choice of projects and a choice of modules?

Ordinal Form Module
This is a short term Discussion Workshop Module. All projects should be completed within a designated time frame.

Let's build a small group up from scratch. We start with one person - you. The next step is to find one other. You might begin searching blogs and dialoguing privately with people either through blog comments, email or a chat.

For this project we will use three common, simple platforms. Open a google account and you will have access to all three:

1) Gmail
2) Gmail groupchat
3) Google groups

We want to move from a two person dialogue to a three people chat.

Assignment One: Alternate Posting
Three participants
The objective is to establish dialogues for three parties. The form you may use is Alternate Posting ABAB ACAC BCBC and converse 20 minutes

Assignment Two: First Circle
Three participants
The objective is to establish a circle form ABC ABC.. and converse with it for 20 minutes.

In project two you established a foundation of alternate posting and are now prepared to form your first circle. The first problem you will encounter is not an issue of order but time. Doing anything in order requires that one thing happen after another. So the problem is time. Who is qualified for your circle? Those that can meet at the same time.

Assignment Three: Small Group
Three participants
The objective is to set up a google group.

You must decide together how your group will be organized. Will all three of you have administrative rights and responsibilities? Or will you elect one to administer? What will you accomplish with the time you have together? How often will you meet.

- Hmmmmm. Maybe there could be a wide variety of projects and modules that workshop participants can choose from or these could serve as models and members could design their own modules with the help of the more seasoned members?

That could be a better approach. The workshop could have a wide array of project choices organized according to levels of expertise that can be combined into different variations.

Choosing a Platform may be as simple as Arranging Appointments. Finding a Purpose and Alternate Posting may be at a slightly higher level? Small Groups and Practical Dialogue are even a bit more challenging.

So I'm thinking that we could design a whole batch of different kinds of communication and leadership projects that could be choices for self-designed modules. To be evaluated and credited for a module the member would only need to choose one project from each level.

All of these projects and modules would comprise a complete skills building program. There can be even more challenging programs in an onward and upward progression.

Practical Dialogue Module
The objective is to learn all functions of the platform together.
Choose a Platform
Design a Simple Learning Program
Learn the Platform Together

Electing a New Member The objective is to choose a third person to join you in a purpose.
Write the Opening Post
50 Post Discussion
Begin and End on Time in these exercises, there is a temporal or ordinal limit. The subject matter of the topic can be continued in another discussion using a different form.
Lead the Team Coordinate the assigned roles for the evaluation team.

Options Options Options--

--Hmmmm. The problem is that there must be an incredibly large number of options!

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Next: Learning Ordinal Forms

FCC Comes Down On Comcast For P2P Blocking

FCC Comes Down On Comcast For P2P Blocking
ComCast is a privately held company, yet they may not have the license to restrict activities of it's users!

"Would you be OK with the post office opening your mail, deciding they didn't want to bother delivering it, and hiding that fact by sending it back to you stamped "address unknown - return to sender,"? said FCC Chairman Kevin Martin in a statement."

So that is what our argument is with the web. IP checking and banning, editing and deleting of comments [i]openly solicited from the public[/i] is completely unethical. this goes for bloggers too, who are requesting responses from the public.

When you put up a pubic board and ask the public to come in and comment, you don't have any business "moderating" that content. Such behavior on the part of administrators is an act of Anti-Trust.

We have not even scratched the surface of the issues that need to be confronted. When members join here on this forum, we confront all of these bogus ideas that have become a false standard for community organization.


Comcast has been under attack in the last year for reportedly jamming traffic of its high-speed Internet subscribers who share files online, specifically involving peer-to-peer provider BitTorrent. "Comcast has an anticompetitive motive to interfere with customers' use of peer-to-peer applications," said the FCC in a statement. "Such applications, including those relying on BitTorrent, provide Internet users with the opportunity to view high-quality video that they might otherwise watch (and pay for) on cable television. Such video distribution poses a potential competitive threat to Comcast's video-on-demand ("VOD") service. Indeed, Comcast may have interfered with up to three-quarters of all peer-to-peer connections in certain communities."

The FCC did not impose fines against Comcast but said the company needs to come up with a compliance plan describing how it intends to stop "these discriminatory management practices by the end of the year."

Did I see the word "compliance" in that paragraph? Right. The administrators of communities must comply. Not only on this issue but on a multitude of other issues involving manipulation of data that they openly solicited from the public in good faith. The users supply that data and therefore the adms. must comply with the decisions of the users.

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Writing the Rules

Rules restricting the powers of administrators and moderators help foster an atmosphere of equality. The personal privacy of individual members is more important than the security of the administration or of the forum content. I have opted for restricting the activities of the administrators. That's how I arrived at this basic formula:

No rules for the public

Few rules for members

More rules for moderators

The Most rules for administrators

With this formula we may achieve balance between the powerless and the powerful. Since we are going to curb the powers of the administrators in order to produce Equality, we will need to begin by making our first rules for them. We have turned the formula for rule making upsidedown.

Let's build some practical and accessible models that any web community member can use for experimenting with and learning all of these principles. Our task will be to balance and preserve the basic principles outlined in the previous sections to achieve unity of purpose, equality and freedom of expression. The heart of our community will be The Discussion Workshop Modules, a progressive skills building program that treats the discussion as an art and a process.

We will usethese free boards this reduces risk tranfer the adm over to elected official

Apply to phpBB2 phpBB3

Since the admministrator needs the most rules we will focus upon that first. Our second priority will be the rules for moderators. Our third priority will be rules appropriate for the general membership. Rules for the public are of zero priority because the purpose of open circuits is to make contact with the public. We will not moderate the public in any way but simply allow the public to qualify themselves for membership. The membership will select prospective new members from the public.

The first restriction is that the administrative account must only be used for an administrative action. The Administrator account is a tool and is not to be used for posting in discussions. It is reserved for member approved administrative actions only.

We will use the circuitry to include posters as they establish themselves into the membership. Open circuits and closed circuits allow us to regulate access. Rather than invite the whole world in and then take a negative approach of excluding people either by arbitrary administrative action or the so-called "democratic" method of voting posters out, we will use an inclusive approach.
Let's set up the first forum Open Circuit Guest Forum

An open circuit phpbb2 forum

This setting allows the public to moderate. Anyone can delete or edit a post. Members, mods and adms are not able to delete or edit while logged in. They must log out and perform an edit or delete as any other guests.

Furthermore, we have added these rules and permission settings that apply to adms, mods and members but have no affect upon the public.

1) Members, moderators and administrators may not post, reply, edit, delete, sticky, announce, poll or vote in the Open Circuit with logged in accounts, are limited to the permission settings of the Open Circuit forum and may post, delete, sticky, announce, poll or vote in this forum only as Guests.

2) Moderators and administrators may move, split, lock and delete threads in the Open Circuit only with the approval of the membership.

Note that these rules are very brief and they apply to behavior of the fewest, since they apply to the fewest, they are most easily implemented. They are also very objective and do not in any way deal with the "morality" of a poster. Discipline is administered first, to adms; second, to mods; and lastly to the membership. At no time are we concerned with the behavior of the public on this circuit. The purpose of an open circuit is to allow the public an entry point for the public to interact with the community.

Open circuit phpbb3 forum. The setting here allows only the public to view the forum. When a member, mod or adm logs in, the forum disappears from their view. This makes it impossible for an adm or mod to check any IP numbers assuring maximum privacy. No one but guests can post a new topic or reply.

In each of these two examples, we have realized the basic democratic principle of Equality.

Guests, Members, Moderators and adms must meet on equal footing. No one is armed against another. No one is capable of infringing upon the privacy of another. No one has any greater right or responsibility than another.

Next, we must qualify the membership. We qualify them by giving them rights and responsibilities. They maintain their rights by fulfilling minimal responsiblities. these are the rights and responsibilies of a discussion participant. The Discussion Workshop gives the community experience with posting in form as an organized group rather than a collection of individuals. The Workshop modules are presented as a series of projects by and for the members themselves. The projects are designed around self-moderating democratic principles or discussion forms. Each participant gains valuable experience and exercise with basic rights and responsibilities.

Right to speak

Right to hear and be heard

Responsibility to respond

Responsibility to listen

The Discussion Workshop consists of a series of modules. Each module consists of a set of 3-5 projects that have specified objectives and an assigned Evaluator.

It would be good if each project (including evaluation) could be completed in a two hour session.

Basic Posting Workshop Objectives

*To bring together the collective knowledge of all participants concerning basic posting skills and thereby increase the knowledge of each individual.

*To verify that the membership has achieved an increased understanding of the basic posting skills.

*To qualify the prospective member for DUN membership and participation in the Discussion Workshop Series.

Now that we have a membership, let's set up our next forum. This one will admit posting for Guest and Members together.

And these are the rules and permission settings:

1) Moderators and administrators may not post, reply, edit, delete, sticky, announce, poll or vote in the Guest/Member forum with moderator or administrator accounts, are limited to the permission settings of the Guest/Member forum and may post, reply, edit, delete, sticky, announce, poll or vote in the Guest/Member forum only as Guests or with logged in Member accounts.

2) Moderators and administrators may move, split, lock and delete threads in the Guest/Member forum only with the approval of the membership.

Again, note that we have made no rules for the public. The best thing about these rules is that new people don't need to know anything. The rules don't apply to them.

The members have the ability to delete when logged out yet they gain immunity for their own logged in posts. Guests can bridge the inequality gap here by becoming elected members. This is the most practical way to govern a community. We want to achieve a state of equality between all members.

Guests can have posts and threads qualified for saving. Guests can establish "Relative Identity"

member selection election is responsibility and right of the membership adm not allowed to interfere in process

adm has one member account for voting and posting equal to any other member

as community grows we will apply greater restrictions upon adm

restricted times means not lollygagging at IP checker

must prepare adm actions in advance and schedule
disciplined discussion

Unity of the Whole
Equality
Privacy
Purpose
Membership
Rights & Responsibilities
Freedom of Speech
Roles - Taking Turns
Objective Evaluation

deletes bans reduce credibility

adm as trustee never posts but is keeper of the keys

rational discussion is in form

open circuits random posting in unlimited numbers is good for chat

closed circuits with limited numbers using ordinal and temporal form for rational discussion measured discourse.

We are going to use a large number of forums and boards that are each set differently to achieve a certain texture or democratic principle. It is possible with our system that someone could "sneak" another account into the forums. But to do so they would have to "purchase" the account by assuming the basic responsibilities. Also with our system, they must advance and assume more responsibility for each account or the account will become inactive.

Rocky Forum Picture Show

Imagine that you have been invited to join a discussion group or community. The community has no designated time to meet. People come and go whenever. Sometimes there are a few together at the same time but everyone talks at the same time. No one gives any indication of listening.

Language is an issue. English is not neutral and puts non English speakers at a disadvantage. Participants should be multilingual at least bilingual.

Inequality does not exist among race, gender or sexual orientation because of anonymity. However, there has been created a new inequality between those that have power and don't have power - the moderators and the trolls. The trolls are supposed to be disrespected.

Does not mean that taking from those who have earned and giving to those who have not earned. Everyone may not finish the race at the same time because some may run faster than others. There is a principle of liberty. You are responsible for yourself and the outcomes that you mean to attain. You deserve to have what you have earned. You don't deserve a voice just for showing up but for producing equal benefits for the community along with your fellows.

The gap between administrators and members is too wide. We can probably agree that administrators have ALL of the power and members have NONE. The following is a compendious list of everything an administrator can do and everything the member cannot do. Make any and all rules Edit without leaving a stamp.

Edit their grammatical, rhetorical and logical presentations after the fact, leaving the impression of clean, fluent, sophisticated and intelligent posting. The regular poster leaves evidence of editing on the post. Either everyone should be able to make clean edits or everyone should leave a chunky edit stamp with an edited post.

Delete a post (their own or others, fabricating an intelligent presentation of their own selves)

Delete a thread Lock a thread (if people are overly interested in it)

Assign modships (to many anonymous persons who then have unequal status and powers)

Delete an account

One look at the administration panel of any message board and you'll be convinced that a huge inequality exists. When a member edits a post they leave behind a big chunky edit thingy like so: Last edited by Chooseboogers on Tue Sep 11 2007 939; edited 1 time in total In contrast, the administrator can edit and leave a clean post. They can also edit any post on the board. A member cannot. An administrator can delete anything but a member can't.

The cards are all stacked in favor of the administrator.

An adm can check your IP and invade your privacy while protecting their own. Read an IP number Look up an IP number Block an IP number Contact you personally (if they find you to be troublesome)

Gather personal information on you Now think about it. Why would I want to converse with anyone under those conditions? Why would I speak with a person who could shut my mouth while I have no power to do the same to that person? I reject the proposition outright. No wonder there is so little genuine communication in these "communities"! It's like sitting at a round table discussion in handcuffs while your mates are armed with ballbats just in case you should "act up"! There can be no real community where there is no equality and since the nature of the forum set up is so unequal...

...what's the solution? You can either expand the powers of the members or restrict the power of the administrators. Restricting and disciplining the administrator is the better option. The best option may be a balance of both. We want to achieve a state of equality between all members. The administrator can be restricted to posting only with a regular member account. Further restrictions can limit the times and frequency that the administrative account can be logged in , and for what purposes. A schedule may allow the administrator to log in once a week or once a month for a limited time, for the purpose of completing any tasks that the membership has assigned.

This protects the privacy of all members since the membership no longer stands transparent before the administrator.

IP checks And there is a "moderator". The moderator has the power to shut your mouth, change your words, change their own words without any trace of having done so. You are given documents to read while the moderator reads over your shoulder. The moderator also has access to personal information about you. They can learn what town or region you live in without asking. You cannot withhold this information. They can trace your number and contact your employer or family. You have no privacy. You must relinquish all rights and give these rights to the moderator in order to qualify for participation. You do not have any right to know the same things about the moderator that they know about you.

Only need to know that the other person is not yourself. Beyond that is invasion.

The members are equal to the purpose by way of the programs that enable them to achieve the community objectives.

Why do people visit forums? To interact. Not to read or to write. We want to select those poster who are qualified for discussion.

The members are here because of the community. They did not gather here to meet the administrator. An individual is not to be treated simply as an instrument to promote someone else's purposes,??? whether that purpose is to sell or promote the purpose of one individual.

Therefore, it has a natural tendency toward the dramatic mode and the dramatic mode depends greatly upon the development of conflict.

link to samples

model forums guest posting php2 who gets disciplined for posting in guest forum? members mods and adms not public

php3 adm and logged in members can't even view the forum impossible to IP check

consistency of language use of words like member guest forum discussion democracy

finally a positive approach to web community discussion
delete and ban reduces credibility

I was not given any responsibility to qualify me for a discussion. Not any responsibility that could be objectively evaluated.
"Be nice" is not a behavior that can be objectively evaluated.

There are no spies and no spying

The public rules on open circuits and members have right to closed circuits only

took the "standard" and turned it upsidedown and insideout

eCommunity consists of anonymous parties eFriends who never meet because it is impractical

ideal eCommunity of 10 would be one from each of five continents and 5 from several planets.

This is the eCommunity,the eDemocracy that we are planning. It's purpose is NOT a regional gathering.

other set ups phpbb3 with member registration use "Non- voting Guest" rank for 1 post Elected members automatically get Non-IP-checking Mod staus for purpose of moving and deleting give maximum control to membership

Begin with a suitable platform
email
gmail chat
gmail group chat

The group chat feature lets you chat with many friends at once. There's no limit to the number of people you can chat with, and any participant can invite others to join. To get started, follow these steps:

1. Start a chat with a single person in your Contacts list.
2. Once you've started the chat, click Options at the bottom left of your chat window and select Group Chat.
3. In the field labeled 'Add a person to this chat,' enter the name of the contact(s) you want to add to your group chat.

To end your chat, click the X at the corner of the chat window. Others in the group chat will get a message saying that you've left the conversation. If you want to rejoin, you'll need to be invited back by a contact who's still in the group chat. The group chat will continue until all participants have left.

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