Suggestion : creation of sub-forum for reading groups

darren p
Posts: 192 Joined: 05-07-06
Submitted by darren p on 24 August, 2008 - 18:17.

A few people, myself included have been talking about the possibility of starting an online reading group of Capital Vol 1. General consensus seems to be that this would get a fair amount of traffic if taking place through libcom.

I would like to suggest that a separate sub-forum is set up for the purpose of this and maybe for other reading groups in the future.

If the the group was to take place using threads in the "theory" section I have a feeling it would get lost amongst the general chatter. A separate sub-forum would allow multiple threads for the discussion and would place all the material in a single easily accessible location.

What do libcom admin people think to this idea?

Steven. ""Best hair at Unison conference""
Posts: 1854 Joined: 27-06-06 Location: London
24 August, 2008 - 20:14

Hi Darren, thanks for the input. A reading group would be great - I would try to join in for capital volume 1, which I started ages ago but have kind of stalled on.

A lot of forums have too many sub forums which aren't used, and these damage the forums as a whole as they dilute discussion. What we decided to do to avoid this is only start new forums when there is enough traffic already existing to justify it. At the moment this wouldn't be the case for a reading group one. If there ended up being lots of reading group discussions ongoing, then we could set up a sub forum.

What we could do as a temporary measure to ensure that the discussion doesn't get lost, we could make any existing reading group discussions stickies in the theory Forum, so that they stick at the top of forum. are there any discussions ongoing at the moment? We could sticky them if necessary.

darren p
Posts: 192 Joined: 05-07-06
24 August, 2008 - 22:04

Sticky posts could be a good "suck it and see" type solution. Was thinking a long book like capital would need to take up more than one thread though. Would it not be a problem if theory section suddenly became clogged up with stickies?

A solution I guess could be to have a thread for each chapter and a time limit for each one being "sticky"

Have tried to get reading groups going on my own website in the past but they rapidly seem to fade out...

xConorx "facts tend to cloud my judgement"
Posts: 10745 Joined: 09-12-04 Location: Belfast
24 August, 2008 - 22:11
Steven. wrote:
What we could do as a temporary measure to ensure that the discussion doesn't get lost, we could make any existing reading group discussions stickies in the theory Forum, so that they stick at the top of forum. are there any discussions ongoing at the moment? We could sticky them if necessary.

given the practical reasons against starting more sub-forums you outlined this sounds pretty reasonable
I am the worst reader in the world, but even I'd consider bothering my arse with a reading group thread

radicalgraffiti
Posts: 125 Joined: 04-11-07 Location: Lincoln
25 August, 2008 - 00:56

I might join in with a reading group.

Quote:
Was thinking a long book like capital would need to take up more than one thread though.

There are some threads that are fucking long, but they are mostly massive arguments where one lot of people completely ignore another lot, so it would be a nice change to have a long discussion instead (not that i don't like arguments smile )

catch "unpractical[sic] and blinkered"
Posts: 10024 Joined: 07-02-06 Location: London
25 August, 2008 - 00:20
darren p wrote:
A solution I guess could be to have a thread for each chapter and a time limit for each one being "sticky"

We could drop stickiness for a section or two behind the one currently being discussed. Ought to work OK.

Steven. ""Best hair at Unison conference""
Posts: 1854 Joined: 27-06-06 Location: London
25 August, 2008 - 01:38

Or we could just have one sticky "reading group" thread to which people add links to all subsequent threads. That would be a good solution for say a good few threads, but still not enough for a forum.