April 17, 2013
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Rethinking Socrates Cafe
This site started in October 2006. The first discussion was:
Topic 1
October 10th – 16th, 2005Welcome to our first discussion on Socrates Cafe®!
Since this is a new blog and blog ring, lacking a membership base, our first question is being provided for us. As membership grows, members will be asked to provide the topic for discussion. As host, it is my responsibility to promote conversation, asking questions in the Socratic manner to promote further thought. For more information about the intent of this forum, please see the ring “Info and FAQ” in the previous post.Here is our first topic:
What is a just war?
To participate in the forum, respond with your thoughts on this matter in your own blog. Please, let your readers know that you are participating in a discussion on Socrates Cafe by copying and posting the info at the top of your post. Once you’ve finished, reply here and provide a link. To promote discussion, please visit the replies of others in the spirit of listening and gently asking questions. As you reply that you’ve posted, I’ll provide your link here for easy access.
Over 50 bloggers signed up and responded to this discussion – you can still find it and all our discussions since by checking our Main Page left hand column. The earliest (and most interesting) are at Simone de Bouviour’s website -it is no longer active but kept online for your convenience.Our membership and blogger’s interest have declined to the point of almost no activity. Soc has considered this and decided that it is probably caused by shifts away from computer/ blog activity as well as social changes concerning internet discussions. Soc’s handling of the blog probably also has something to do with the general loss of interest.So, Should Soc crawl back onto his plinth and abandon this site, change the format somewhat, or just wander on hoping for some more interest sometime? Soc leans toward more toward a format change – after all he was a “Gadfly “in the Athens of his youth.What do you think?
Comments (12)
Two big things:
-Xanga is less popular than it was before.
-Xanga is dominated by some heavy users that interact on their own and a select number of other blogs. This blog doesn’t get any regular attention from them and it never will if the person from this blog doesn’t regularly go and post on their blogs.
The combination of these two things would be my guess for the decline in this site. If you want to get more traffic on this site, start contributing to other sites and they might return the favor.
I would also rethink the “I’m Socrates” angle. People feel more comfortable knowing who they are interacting with. People know you’re not Socrates, so it makes it a bit odd to pretend to be interacting with a dead philosopher.
Rec’d in an effort to get your site more views, but I do think you need to change things up if you want to actually get a decent flow of people coming here.
I agree with @whataboutbahb - . Also, it seems like a lot of the posts were on philosophy if I remember right and a lot of people aren’t into philosophy.
So a format change might be good although I’m not exactly sure what. Since SOC has been here this long, it’d be sad to see it shut down.
I realized early on that the OP knows absolutely nothing about Socrates. This blog is the usual pop culture (re leftist) trash hiding behind a long dead celebrity.
Good bye. Good riddance.
I stopped participating in 2006 so I would not presume to know what you should do now. Frankly, until today I had no idea this site still existed. Certainly there have been lots of changes in how people use social media, in how people use xanga, but I do know this. You don’t seem to have any presence in the broader blogging community. If you only visit and comment on other socratic posts, you will not attract participation, you will not maintain interest.
@whataboutbahb - The original moderator of this site used the name Simone de Beauvior ( well-known French Existentialist and writer of the last century) and I have more-or-less continued the custom, as did the couple of moderators before me. I think I’ll keep Soc’s spirit alive as long as I can – You’d be surprised at how much of Socrates is still alive and doing pretty well.
You are correct about the mutual nasturbation society that seems to prevail on much of the internet and in this persona, I have so far avoided gettIng into that. Maintaining this site is, I think, a little more demanding than the average more-or-less narcissistic blog. For a while I even tried to engage the thoughts of several historic figures in a sort of conversation – using their actual words. Talk about time consuming
@musterion99 - You’re right -entirely too many people aren’t into philosophy – I’d like to change that.
@ImNotUglyIJustNeedLove - This moderator taught philosophy and history for thirty years – few of my students ever complained – but maybe they were being kind.@doahsdeer - You’ve been lurking all this time??
Thank for the comments – maybe I’ll keep asking those third level questions.
@Socrates_Cafe -
My recommendation is that you just ignore Curtis (ImNotUglyIJustNeedLove). He got an online masters from a catholic university, and I think that education made him think he can channel Aquinas.
I guess I could have phrased my second point a little differently: How much expose you get in an online community depends very much on your level of interaction with the community. By posting on your own blog, you really are not interacting with the online community since no one currently visits your site. If you contribute meaningful thoughts in areas of the online community that do have a lot of exposure, you will greatly increase the chances that people will subscribe to your blog. (A part of the reason Xanga’s growth has been very stunted is that it has made it difficult to get a large amount of people interacting on an individual’s blog. Some people are able to overcome this hurdle and it can produce a lot of discussion, but it typically requires a lot of time to do so. Online forums are generally much better at allowing a discussion between strangers, since the burden falls on the forum to attract users and an individual can just join an already active and populated forum.
@whataboutbahb - is right when he says – ” How much expose you get in an online community depends very much on your level of interaction with the community. By posting on your own blog, you really are not interacting with the online community since no one currently visits your site. If you contribute meaningful thoughts in areas of the online community that do have a lot of exposure, you will greatly increase the chances that people will subscribe to your blog.”
I’ve never seen this site commenting on any other sites so how are they going to know you’re on here. You should use this site to comment on other sites and then subscribe to them and send them a friend request. You might want to try and find people that will be interested in this site. But the people are not just going to magically show up here and comment. It’s taken me years to get people aware of my blog. I’ve done it by commenting on theirs and subscribing to them. Good luck.
@whataboutbahb - @musterion99 -
You guys have an excellent point – there are a diminishing few who regularly visit this site, but I have not commented much on other sites – I’ll have to pick that up – do a little advertizing – I’ll start with yours
@Socrates_Cafe -
Haha, I’ll provide a warning: Posting on my site is not really advertising, since only a few people can see it. You’re better off focusing on sites that get a fair amount of traffic.
We will not force Soc to drink poison yet. In terms of a format change it might be useful to stimulate discussion by looking at the great ideas that came from philosophy and how we view those ideas today. On this forum Soc might have to be more educational than just stimulating mature discussion. I am not online as much as I used to but can commit to reply every now and then. Just add @Zeal4Living in your text at the bottom. I also don’t think soc must be looking at a wide audience but maybe rather at a specific audience. Many people rather read than venture a philosophical viewpoint. Most people have concluded that philosophy is not real and of less value than science.
>Our membership and blogger’s interest have declined to the point of almost no activity.
- Personally, I believe there is a great need for Soc today, or at least to acknowledge the great value of Soc. Secular philosophy is regressing to pre-Soc ignorance.
I mean, seriously, the Socratic method is pretty basic: you ask some pointed questions to see if someone really has a logical foundation. What we see today in secular academia is a fearful avoidance of questions.
There is a lot of posturing and pretension in academia. I say give Soc a chance. If you’d like to see an example of anti-Socal behavior, the following is a good one:
http://templestream.xanga.com/772168534/three-questions-stephen-law-wont-answer/
My time is rather limited at this particular moment, but over the summer I’ll have a bit more time for writing. I’ll watch this blog and respond to the questions as often as I can.