Activating Passive Forum Members

Events, meetings and announcements.
Gangleri

Activating Passive Forum Members

Post by Gangleri »

I am still amazed that this forum has nearly 500 registered members, yet only a handful of people actively participate in conversations. Sometimes it even looks like this is a place for a few people who discuss things. It was also one of the reasons I left the forum recently. This passivity has of course numerous reasons from reluctance to discuss to "performance anxiety" but I would still like to see a more active membership in the forum who would participate in the discussions and make new topics. Every time I visit the forum there are at least 15 to 20 visitors in the forum, so the reason can't be that people don't visit the forum at all. Personally I would like to encourage people to participate and be active, since it would lead to a more fruitful and active forum. Even a complete "beginner" can have very in depth thoughts.

So, how to activate the passive members or "npc's" without it leading into the dropping of the level of conversation? Or is the reason that people don't have enough time or stamina to write into the forum? Or is "everything said already"? I don't believe so. The old truth is that a forum is as good as its members.
Mars
Posts: 186
Joined: Wed May 15, 2013 1:54 pm

Re: Activating Passive Forum Members

Post by Mars »

A "beginner" can indeed have deep thoughts, in fact I think that it's almost a requisite to have them in order to be attracted to occultism in the first place.

Performance anxiety can be an issue in these sorts of deep topics. There can be also a sort of reverse performance anxiety: a sense of responsibility that comes when you know that many people read what you write. This has hindered me at least somewhat, some darkest and most difficult aspects can be left unexplored in messages because there's a chance that someone reads and misunderstands. There's also the matter of privacy, even with anonymity it's difficult to talk about some topics in a public forum.

I think it helps to understand that you don't have to really know much about the topics in order to participate. Simple questions can also open up conversations. You don't have to make a presentation if you want to talk about something.

In my experience there are a lot of people who are interested, even intensely, in occultism but who don't go deeper for various reasons. Maybe these people read but not write. That's also OK in my opinion.
User avatar
Benemal
Posts: 562
Joined: Thu Feb 23, 2012 7:24 pm
Location: South-Fin

Re: Activating Passive Forum Members

Post by Benemal »

I'm still around. Sometimes I might feel a bit uneducated, to discuss Jung and Evola etc., but that's not the reason for absence. Reason for absence recently is mostly turning inwards, in an unhealthy, but necessary way. Sometime I gotta put some it on here. Maybe when the stink of Winnie's Poo has evaporated, it's time to take more responsibility and turn extro.
Gangleri

Re: Activating Passive Forum Members

Post by Gangleri »

Mars wrote: Tue Jun 15, 2021 6:07 pm A "beginner" can indeed have deep thoughts, in fact I think that it's almost a requisite to have them in order to be attracted to occultism in the first place.
Verily so.
Mars wrote: Tue Jun 15, 2021 6:07 pmPerformance anxiety can be an issue in these sorts of deep topics. There can be also a sort of reverse performance anxiety: a sense of responsibility that comes when you know that many people read what you write.
That's a good point.
Benemal wrote: Tue Jun 15, 2021 7:39 pm I'm still around. Sometimes I might feel a bit uneducated, to discuss Jung and Evola etc., but that's not the reason for absence.
Yes, and I wasn't talking about you who has written almost 900 posts. I was referring to the ~450 registered members who have never written a single sentence. (Why register into a forum if one has no intention to participate? I can't understand.)
User avatar
Benemal
Posts: 562
Joined: Thu Feb 23, 2012 7:24 pm
Location: South-Fin

Re: Activating Passive Forum Members

Post by Benemal »

Gangleri wrote: Tue Jun 15, 2021 8:08 pm I was referring to the ~450 registered members who have never written a single sentence.
I think a large portion of those have found SoA through BM circles.
User avatar
Nefastos
Posts: 3029
Joined: Mon May 24, 2010 10:05 am
Location: Helsinki

Re: Activating Passive Forum Members

Post by Nefastos »

Gangleri wrote: Tue Jun 15, 2021 8:08 pmWhy register into a forum if one has no intention to participate? I can't understand.

Am I too cynical if I suggest that most people just want to be entertained? While it is possible without registering, registering is the easiest possible way to create a feeling of connecting personally. Such an investment is so disappearingly small that its effect will evaporate soon, of course, and thus from all those apparent members a very small percentage have anything to do with us. But it is always the same with all ideological movements.

But yes, it would indeed be great to see more posts here, no matter how simple they would seem, because newbie attitude is where the strong lifepulse is. But I'm not holding my breath. Interest is now almost totally on pictorial & auditorial side: people find things from Instagram & podcasts, not from discussion forums.
Faust: "Lo contempla. / Ei muove in tortuosa spire / e s'avvicina lento alla nostra volta. / Oh! se non erro, / orme di foco imprime al suol!"
Gangleri

Re: Activating Passive Forum Members

Post by Gangleri »

Nefastos wrote: Wed Jun 16, 2021 11:31 am
Gangleri wrote: Tue Jun 15, 2021 8:08 pmWhy register into a forum if one has no intention to participate? I can't understand.

Am I too cynical if I suggest that most people just want to be entertained?
This might just be the case.
Nefastos wrote: Wed Jun 16, 2021 11:31 am But yes, it would indeed be great to see more posts here, no matter how simple they would seem, because newbie attitude is where the strong lifepulse is. But I'm not holding my breath. Interest is now almost totally on pictorial & auditorial side: people find things from Instagram & podcasts, not from discussion forums.
I'm trying to re-create personally that newbie attitude daily for the reason you mentioned ("spiritual youthfulness"). What I've learned from my daughters - who live by the phone no matter what I've tried to do and say - that reading and writing is a dull affair compared to the easy and fast kicks "the pictorial world" gives. Personally I find this very sad and feel intimidated to say together with the ancient Romans that "the youth is ruined". Curse upon Instagram and TikTok.
User avatar
Nefastos
Posts: 3029
Joined: Mon May 24, 2010 10:05 am
Location: Helsinki

Re: Activating Passive Forum Members

Post by Nefastos »

Gangleri wrote: Wed Jun 16, 2021 11:57 amCurse upon Instagram and TikTok.

"That is not dead which can eternal lie, / And with strange aeons even death may die." Seriously though, because I have had to "Try!" even with the "cursed Instagram," (the whole Salome is taking this path of another approach for those to whom our grognard ways seem impossibly dull, dear as they are to ourselves), as a positive side effect I have also felt a new pictorial awakening in myself. Our rewards are as weird and unexpected as our challenges.
Faust: "Lo contempla. / Ei muove in tortuosa spire / e s'avvicina lento alla nostra volta. / Oh! se non erro, / orme di foco imprime al suol!"
User avatar
Beshiira
Posts: 137
Joined: Wed Jun 15, 2016 11:07 am

Re: Activating Passive Forum Members

Post by Beshiira »

Gangleri wrote: Tue Jun 15, 2021 3:23 pm I am still amazed that this forum has nearly 500 registered members, yet only a handful of people actively participate in conversations.
Members of validated SoA lodges are often encouraged to join the forum as there are some things (nowadays quite few, but still) that only SoA members can see. And there is the chance to send private messages. This might explain something. And forum writing is by no means required from members, as it might not feel natural for everyone. I wouldn't be too eager to call all the silent ones ”npc's”, we can never now what's behind someones choices. Also, joining and writing something doesn't have to be a promise to keep writing actively all the time. In that sense, I would also encourage people to participate, even if rarely!

Personally I write quite rarely, I write when I get a strong enough feeling that I want to say or share something (and have the time for it), even if it's something small scale. Longer or more specific messages take a lot of time to write because I try to be comprehensive and avoid possibilities to misunderstand (which still really can't be avoided in a format like this, I know...). I do understand that it is silly in a way to have such a ”high threshold”, and I appreciate those who have practically made a spiritual practice out of it – writing and publishing something in a relatively short time without thinking too much about it. I've tried something like that at times myself even if it's hard for my temperament. I guess it's a common experience that you write something publically here, time passes, and you can't really recognize the writer of your own (and still public...) texts anymore. To deal with this is a good practice too, of course, but I understand it very well that people might have doubts.

”How to activate the passive members?” Well, I'm not sure there is anything specific one could do, as trying to force people to share their thoughts doesn't seem like a smart move. For someone it's natural to write a lot, for someone else to write rarely and for someone not at all, and it's all understandable. Why do they register then? I don't know, maybe it's important for them on some level I don't understand.

I am with you though – for sure it would be nice to have more activity. But then again, there is also so much to read here as it is (older topics and whatnot), and it is good that there are so many readers. And slowly but steadily new topics and discussions arise. I too visit the forum and read posts every day, even when I don't feel like writing myself. I think the "internet forum" is kind of a dying concept, more or less, and all things considered the SoA forum to me seems like a rather vital one. Even if the overall activity seems to change from time to time. This vitality is probably most of all due to the few most active members. Maybe if we, who write more rarely, saw our participation also as being support to them as well as the whole vitality of the forum, it could lower the threshold to write (even if shortly or rarely).
"Ja kun minun kirkkauteni kulkee ohitse, asetan minä sinut kallion rotkoon ja peitän sinut kädelläni, kunnes olen kulkenut ohi.
Kun minä sitten siirrän pois käteni, näet sinä minun selkäpuoleni; mutta minun kasvojani ei voi kenkään katsoa."
User avatar
Nefastos
Posts: 3029
Joined: Mon May 24, 2010 10:05 am
Location: Helsinki

Re: Activating Passive Forum Members

Post by Nefastos »

Wise words from brother Beshiira, as usual.
Beshiira wrote: Wed Jun 16, 2021 1:52 pmAnd slowly but steadily new topics and discussions arise.

I must, however, point out that a big part of this is because of an artificial effort. For example, because of my Salome involvement elsewhere I was recently about just to watch this forum without writing but rarely, but then once again I noticed the usual happening: it started to dry out almost completely. This is my 4227th post to this forum, and more than a decade has passed, and naturally I have personally also enjoyed all these discussions, but a fact many people seem not to realize is that someone is deliberately making the material for them. It's part of my Work, and that Work would be able to put its energy elsewhere anywhere other people would participate more. That creates the important Hermetic principle of passing the torch, undoubtedly bearing some numeral in Faivre's listings. But this is an eternal challenge in all esoteric teaching. People often criticize the old way of telling from above how to think, and yet in our times, where that is no longer done, many people still seem to expect that to happen. There's a deep-rooted false feeling that some mystic power would always create things for us to experience at our leisure. This brings us to problems of money, of all things. The newer kinds of media use different approach to this problem, but they are not very nice to adapt into esoteric working. Should my post start with "Oh, how I enjoy this great Juhlamokka coffee when writing!" it would be both repulsive & hypocritical. But after fifteen years of outer brotherhood working I'm starting to think that perhaps taking money from people would be the best way to get their attention, because in that way they would feel invested, they would have a substantial connection. I never thought that esotericism being free would be discouraging for the disciples, but it just might be the case.

One other thing... Above I mentioned the cynical idea of people coming here to be entertained. But I think there is another, at least as large a group, and more persistent: people who are actually interested about our topics, but who have so different thoughts about the subjects, or the context, that they do not feel like participating. For example, a Satanist who is interested about the ritual magic stuff but can't stand the ascending path hype & Biblical quotations, or an anthroposophist for whom it is the other way around. This is also in line with the idea of the Star of Azazel & this discussion forum's idea: that people who are not keen to all of our emphases, can still find something to use in their working. It might not be the most rewarding thing for us, but that is still a big part of the brotherhood's dharma.
Faust: "Lo contempla. / Ei muove in tortuosa spire / e s'avvicina lento alla nostra volta. / Oh! se non erro, / orme di foco imprime al suol!"
Locked