I apologise if my posts sound like demands. It's not intended. At the least, I guess I have had trouble learning what I need to know, and finding the best way to get involved. I hope this can be seen as feedback worthy of discussion. Cheers
Hi Tom,
Thanks for the reply. What you say makes sense, but I still have the same concerns.
What's more, I don't know quite what it would mean for something to be the main EA website.
Something like this: https://www.unrealengine.com/
This is the Unreal Engine website. Similar to EA, it's a global community of creative people coming together to work on projects and share ideas. It has a useful FAQ, a learning section, a link to the wiki, a community section with a well structured forum and links to associated websites and groups. You can find everything you need to learn more and get involved. It's not fancy, it just works.
EA falls short of this standard. We have websites but they don't effectively get the job done. The info is generally available, but not well consolidated/organised. And there's no decent forum that I can find. Even on your list (thanks for posting it).
I have recently been fairly critical of EA's internal workings. I apologise if this is causing upset. I have no intention to cause ill-will. I believe that, at this early stage, there should be a lot of work (and review) of how the whole movement is set up and working. I would really like to see EA working really well and my scrutiny is with the best of intentions.
How "effective" is our forum?
I apologise for the critical tone of this post. I know a lot of people are working very hard to do their best. I am very excited to see EA be the best it can be.
I imagine EA being a great gathering of ideas; the opportunity to learn and be part of important conversations; people coming together in an organised way.
EA should have an excellent website and a well structured forum. This is a very important foundation to generate sharing ideas and discussion. It also reflects on our image as an organisation. If we are to convince skeptics that we are "effective" at altruism, then we must be effective at running this movement.
The main website:
Even upon inspection, I'm still unclear which is the primary EA website:
centreforeffectivealtruism.org
or www.effectivealtruism.org/
The forum:
I have found myself reading posts in a number of places but I'm yet to find a well organised, central forum. I have found: a sub-reddit, this forum, .impact, the facebook group, the australian facebook group
If this is the central forum, there should be:
an easy to find link from the website (whichever one),
and multiple categories (including one where new members can post freely).
This is a conversation about having better conversations.
Hi Stefan,
It is interesting to consider the possibility of people making more rational decisions when voting if they could learn to be more self-aware of their own personal biases. I hope that was a fair summary.
I have a number of questions to throw at this concept:
1 - Does it really matter what the voters think anyway (is it a true democracy)?
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2014/04/14/us-oligarchy-not-democracy-says-scientific-study
2 - is it reasonable to expect that people would welcome their world views be challenged and debunked? (Or is this intended to be enforced?)
3 - What actually causes this problem? Can it be "prevented" instead of "cured"?
Great job everyone :)
I apologise if my posts sound like demands. It's not intended. At the least, I guess I have had trouble learning what I need to know, and finding the best way to get involved. I hope this can be seen as feedback worthy of discussion. Cheers
Hi Daniel, there is already discussion on this topic on the Facebook group.
Hi everyone! This is my point about us needing a better forum... Am I alone in this belief? Cheers
Hi Tom, Thanks for the reply. What you say makes sense, but I still have the same concerns.
Something like this: https://www.unrealengine.com/ This is the Unreal Engine website. Similar to EA, it's a global community of creative people coming together to work on projects and share ideas. It has a useful FAQ, a learning section, a link to the wiki, a community section with a well structured forum and links to associated websites and groups. You can find everything you need to learn more and get involved. It's not fancy, it just works.
EA falls short of this standard. We have websites but they don't effectively get the job done. The info is generally available, but not well consolidated/organised. And there's no decent forum that I can find. Even on your list (thanks for posting it).
I have recently been fairly critical of EA's internal workings. I apologise if this is causing upset. I have no intention to cause ill-will. I believe that, at this early stage, there should be a lot of work (and review) of how the whole movement is set up and working. I would really like to see EA working really well and my scrutiny is with the best of intentions.
Thanks again
How "effective" is our forum? I apologise for the critical tone of this post. I know a lot of people are working very hard to do their best. I am very excited to see EA be the best it can be.
I imagine EA being a great gathering of ideas; the opportunity to learn and be part of important conversations; people coming together in an organised way.
EA should have an excellent website and a well structured forum. This is a very important foundation to generate sharing ideas and discussion. It also reflects on our image as an organisation. If we are to convince skeptics that we are "effective" at altruism, then we must be effective at running this movement.
The main website: Even upon inspection, I'm still unclear which is the primary EA website: centreforeffectivealtruism.org or
www.effectivealtruism.org/
The forum: I have found myself reading posts in a number of places but I'm yet to find a well organised, central forum. I have found: a sub-reddit, this forum, .impact, the facebook group, the australian facebook group
If this is the central forum, there should be: an easy to find link from the website (whichever one), and multiple categories (including one where new members can post freely).
This is a conversation about having better conversations.
How "effective" is our forum?
Hi Stefan, It is interesting to consider the possibility of people making more rational decisions when voting if they could learn to be more self-aware of their own personal biases. I hope that was a fair summary. I have a number of questions to throw at this concept: 1 - Does it really matter what the voters think anyway (is it a true democracy)? http://www.commondreams.org/views/2014/04/14/us-oligarchy-not-democracy-says-scientific-study 2 - is it reasonable to expect that people would welcome their world views be challenged and debunked? (Or is this intended to be enforced?) 3 - What actually causes this problem? Can it be "prevented" instead of "cured"?
Keep the ideas coming. Great job.
Thanks for posting. I'm really excited to learn more about this :)