Message from BK

[Soul_of_Shu]

Yes, true. Problems only tend to arise when one poster says another poster is (clearly or obviously) wrong, then goes into huge digressive detail, instead of gently suggesting an alternative pov. I'd say it was a behavioural issue.

Yes, that becomes problematic too for moderation, when the shadow-boxing begins, with tit-for-tat claims of "You're projecting!" answered by "You're misrepresenting!" countered with some taunt about cultish behaviour, or some other snide remark, and so on and so forth, with no end in sight, pretty much par for the course in many threads, and counterproductive to any genuine dialogos. Short of pre-moderation of all commentary that is prone to go that way, I can't pretend to know how to prevent it.

[Jim Cross]

I agree with Martin. But I do think the comments should be focused clearly on BK and his ideas and shouldn't be allowed to wander off into extended comments/debates on subjects and topics unrelated to the original topic and mostly unrelated to BK. There needs to be some flexibility but if the comments wander too far then the purpose for the dedicated forum is lost.

Glancing at the General Discussions now it looks like one of every three or four topics would fit into the new forum but some of the comments in some of them - Criticism, for example - may have gotten pretty off track from the original comment and BK. There seems to be extended expositions of Nietzsche and Heidegger mingled with other stuff.

Well, this is where it becomes problematic for the moderation aspect ... If, for example, someone starts a topic about BK's model of 'dissociation', seeking further explication/elaboration, or reflections on it pro or con, and that then spins off into the direction of NDEs, or lucid dreaming, still loosely related to dissociation, which then in turn spins off into Steiner's, or some Tibetan Shaman's take on astral bodies/planes, etc, and then Cleric chimes in with one of his protracted musings about how that relates to the Thinking of higher order beings, is that still fair game and related enough to the original topic?

FWIW - I think somewhere in the slippery slope there is a point where you dig in the ice pick. It will be easier to loosen up the moderation later if it is too strict than trying to tighten it if it starts out too loose. Any comments you disallow could always be moved or copied to General.

[findingblanks]

I haven't had time to read through all of the responses so I'm sorry if this is just a repeat. But couldn't there be a section called "Anthroposophy" or "Specific Systems Of Thought" where those folks could go who want to interpret most discussions in the context of how they have understood Steiner's work?

That would allow the general discussion to still remain more in the general context of idealism and then there's a place for teachers and students of Anthroposophy.

[Jim Cross]

I haven't had time to read through all of the responses so I'm sorry if this is just a repeat. But couldn't there be a section called "Anthroposophy" or "Specific Systems Of Thought" where those folks could go who want to interpret most discussions in the context of how they have understood Steiner's work?

That would allow the general discussion to still remain more in the general context of idealism and then there's a place for teachers and students of Anthroposophy.

Actually I did suggest an expansion of the forum to more categories and "Anthroposophy" was one of my suggestions.

[findingblanks]

Okay, good. In the same way that the forum wouldn't work well if some really nice auto mechanics always came in and passionately related each post about idealism to their favorite topic, it doesn't work here. But we can make a category of 'auto mechanics' to run free!

[Soul_of_Shu]

To be frank, aside from a BK related sub-forum, which makes some sense for reasons I've given above, I'm not inclined to start segregating the forum into multiple different categorical sub-forums for every conceivable special interest group. My expectation is that, unless I'm going to be monitoring and moderating every sub-forum within some strict guidelines—which I'm not inclined to do—it would just turn out to be like most discussions that are currently started, whereby they eventually spin off into some perhaps loosely related interjection, and then spin off further from that interjection into some discussion not related to the original topic at all, the only difference being that these meandering discussions, now on topic/now off topic, would now be going on in various sub-forums, instead of the GD section. Again, the option to avoid that kind of scenario is already available via the topic-specific section.

[Soul_of_Shu]

I just want to point out that I may be writing much shorter essays going forward, for a variety of temporal and substantive reasons, and would not mind if there is a separate section altogether for those going forward.

I haven't ruled out this suggestion, even though I realize it could be seen as pandering to your special interest. Since such long-form essays perhaps warrant re-visiting from time to time, as I occasionally do, given the depth of nuanced ideas that they explore, and it's not easy to find them once they've been buried among all the other topics, perhaps they should be more easily accessible. But first, out of curiosity, do you have a blog where you have also posted these essays, like the blog that Jim Cross, Scott, and others have, or the one where I have published some of my poems, which participants could be directed to, if interested? If so, another option is to add a link to that blog in your forum profile, which readers here can then access by clicking on your username which links to your profile, where the link appears under the contact links used to send you a PM.

[findingblanks]

"Yes, that becomes problematic too for moderation, when the shadow-boxing begins, with tit-for-tat claims of "You're projecting!" answered by "You're misrepresenting!" countered with some taunt about cultish behaviour, or some other snide remark, and so on and so forth, with no end in sight, pretty much par for the course in many threads..."

Perfectly put.

[AshvinP]

I just want to point out that I may be writing much shorter essays going forward, for a variety of temporal and substantive reasons, and would not mind if there is a separate section altogether for those going forward.

I haven't ruled out this suggestion, even though I realize it could be seen as pandering to your special interest. Since such long-form essays perhaps warrant re-visiting from time to time, as I occasionally do, given the depth of nuanced ideas that they explore, and it's not easy to find them once they've been buried among all the other topics, perhaps they should be more easily accessible. But first, out of curiosity, do you have a blog where you have also posted these essays, like the blog that Jim Cross, Scott, and others have, or the one where I have published some of my poems, which participants could be directed to, if interested? If so, another option is to add a link to that blog in your forum profile, which readers here can then access by clicking on your username which links to your profile, where the link appears under the contact links used to send you a PM.

Yes, I will do that, thanks for the suggestion! I will continue posting the short-form essays in GD for now.