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August 15th, 2007 by Sean Future of ALW

Hey everyone,

I’ve really enjoyed A Little Weird (ALW) so far. I like it better than PsiPog.net (my old paranormal website) for a variety of reasons. I know that ALW doesn’t provide as much value to the audience compared to PsiPog.net, but I still feel I’m more on the “right path” with ALW than with PsiPog.net.

I want to add more features, but I’m having a hard time deciding what direction to move in. I want to do something original. I don’t want to add all the same generic website staples that exist in every community. Forums are nice, but just plopping up some forums with no direction doesn’t feel right. It’s too bland.

I want a real community. I want everyone to feel as though they are truly a part of something. I want members to take pride in the community, and feel a sense of ownership.

One idea that I keep returning to in my head is that disagreement is vital. I want to attract people with drastically different beliefs and opinions. On PsiPog.net, it felt like we kept trying to get everyone to agree on things. When we failed, we got frustrated, and when we succeeded, things became boring. I don’t like either outcome. I think reality is far too enigmatic to be in agreement on how it functions. I want every member to express themselves as individuals. I want disagreement.

Not that I want members to fight with each other. I simply want healthy and vibrant discussion. I think we can disagree without being mean about it :-).

It’s nice to focus on weird topics because there is so much to discuss. With a focus on the bizarre nature of reality, there is so much unknown. There are no definite answers. I like that. It allows the mind to really think freely and breeds intriguing ideas.

I’m not sure how to build this community. It’s still foggy in my head. I have a collection of ideas, but they aren’t connected yet into one game plan. I’m also not sure how to guard against our natural drive to make others agree with ourselves. It’s natural for a human to try and get people to agree with him/her. I want people to express themselves, and have vibrant discussions, but I don’t want people to gravitate towards those they agree with. If anything, I want the opposite. I want members to gravitate towards people they adamantly disagree with. I’m not sure how to create an environment for that to happen naturally.

I was about to fall asleep one night, when I came up with some ideals for this community in my head. They went something like this:

1. Strength from Contrast

2. Unity through Diversity

3. Know Thyself, or maybe, Courageous Self-Expression

The first one means that contrast is what makes us strong. Our strength, as a group, comes from our differences. The second one means that we should embrace our diversity, and unite under the idea that we are different. So many groups exist because the members have the same beliefs… I want the opposite of that. I want a community that exists because we are all different. The third one I have trouble putting into words, and I’ll probably change it. But the idea is that we each need to be personally strong, and know who we are as individuals. We need to stick up for what makes us who we are, and not be easily swayed by our insecurities.

These are all just ideas at this point. Just floating around inside of my head (and now floating around on the internet :-P). I’m curious if anyone has any further input. I will be solidifying this idea over the next month or so, and once I get a clear vision, I’ll start moving towards it. What do you think?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 15th, 2007 at 11:37 pm and is filed under Note to Self, Website. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

### 23 Responses to “Future of ALW”

1. Gumby Says:
   August 16th, 2007 at 12:48 am

   First comment!! Maybe you could just make forums with all the psi things, and then a different section with argument places. Maybe make some sorta competition argument thing..

2. Mad Hatter Says:
   August 16th, 2007 at 2:04 am

   Sounds like you need a new social networking site built specifically for encouraging discussion and differing viewpoints. Obviously you would need stuff like:

   1.Basic profile pages, maybe with basic beliefs right there for popular subjects.
   2.Ways of simultaneously displaying information and allowing discussion about it.
   3.Methods of encouraging people to form their own opinions, instead of following others’. (Posting how unbiased how to’s for people to learn from perhaps)

   Those are just some basic ideas.

   -Hatter

3. Dash Says:
   August 16th, 2007 at 3:06 am

   well if you have your own website OF COURSE people are going to agree with you!

   hell i agree with you most of the time just because you put a clip of fight club in one of your posts!

   but seriously.. the skeptics coming in would be enough to drive us crazy..
   and you know that skeptics will always take other peoples opinions personally.. probably try to offend the other person.. calling them a nut job.. or insane

4. delimew Says:
   August 16th, 2007 at 7:12 am

   just so you know, i fully agree with you wanting us to disagree. and frankly, looking at other comments over this blog, i think most of the people here will be mature enough to disagree without hating each other, or trying to make others agree with us. it also looks like we do have a good number of people who disagree about stuff here as it is, though i suppose more is better.

   anyway, it’s late and i don’t have much else to say on this matter right now. may post more later though.

5. jesse Says:
   August 16th, 2007 at 11:05 am

   makes sense, I was actually thinking a week or so ago that I wish people on here would dissent a little rather than always saying “you’re right because…”

   Of course, I’m just as guilty as the next guy. I do, however, always enjoy playing devil’s advocate

   One way to encourage some conflicting viewpoints is for you, the admin, to take some comments that you don’t necessarily agree with and use them as a basis for a post. That way you can maintain some order and be selective with the main content while encouraging others to debate.

   A lot of topics on here aren’t going to be debated, especially the lotto stuff. You may get dissenters saying things like “you’re stupid” or “you won’t win” but I don’t think people will pull the theories out of a lot of stories unless you talk about them every time.

   The “unity through diversity” theory makes a lot of sense to me. I’m currently developing a political site that will be two-sided as far as our opinions. It is myself and my brother, Nick, and we have a lot of different views on things. My critique with current political blogs is that most of them are VERY one sided, and just listening to people tell each other they are right gets old very fast.

6. psionmaster Says:
   August 16th, 2007 at 11:14 am

   Personally i think you should make an actual Q&A Forum,i know we can reply to your posts but forums would be great to dicuss things,get some questions answered.

7. war1025 Says:
   August 16th, 2007 at 11:29 am

   I’ve always thought of this place as some sort of something or other where you come up with the topics and we debate them.

   I think it works better that way, having just one person make the topics or even approve them. It keeps the discussions strong, because there is a clear topic to debate at all times. Having a forum where people just post things gets everyone all tangented and generally not as vibrant… i think.

8. Gumby Says:
   August 16th, 2007 at 12:50 pm

   I love winning arguments against skeptics so thats not a problem.

9. Hey_you Says:
   August 16th, 2007 at 2:24 pm

   I think the idea of having an active forum rather than a passive one is a good idea. A passive forum is your run of the mill, mindless, feel good, who has the coolest avatar and quote forum. Like peebrain says everyone just agrees and it becomes stagnant really fast–not at all thought provoking.

   So the question becomes how to make an active forum–the goal being to get people involved in expanding their minds with new ideas.

   First you would need to designate a few good rules to keep the quality of the content, the thing I hated most about the old psipog forum (which was I never posted) was the repetitive topics or downright stupid ones, along with a seemingly huge emphasize on sigs and avis. Keeping things civil is important as well.

   The kinds of things that I would like to see in an “active forum” would be: Posting and discussing interesting articles or news about new scientific research and discoveries and any psychic, weird, fresh and interesting tidbit (the blog is already doing this but it might be funner if more people do it). Having group experiments, people trying to accomplish something on their own and sharing their findings, results in things like spoon bending, winning the lottery, having the best lucid dream possible etc. like the old psipog but more purpose driven. Discussing philosophy and personal development is a fresh and new way would be cool. A place to review good movies, books, trance inducing music etc.

10. ClearVision Says:
    August 16th, 2007 at 3:29 pm

    It must be so hard to get a clear vision of what you want. Difficult - it’s human nature to disagree and to force the opponent into believing or agreeing on something. How are people supposed to remain in an everlasting struggle about an argument? The question isn’t WHAT to place on the site, the question is how to keep people arguing. I’ll have to think about this a while.

    Maybe a form to post a sort of “profile-of-views” of a user. Once posted, it remains uneditable/only deletable and you get access to other user’s profiles. Then, a comment system for those profiles.

    And yes, there will be problems. In any forum designed for heavy arguing, there will be bad apples that try to convince people by using foul language, or who see these profiles as an attack on their beliefs. So, some strict rules or maybe a filter to keep out the worst insults.

    Yeah… that’s just my 2 cents.

11. Renodin Says:
    August 16th, 2007 at 6:02 pm

    I have a lot of stuff to say, but to make a long story short:

    Yeah, it sounds like a pretty good idea.

12. Dash Says:
    August 16th, 2007 at 10:51 pm

    its a good idea if you try to change your outlook on something,
    like if you argue to try and find the best idea or solution…
    but if you just disagree to disagree it wont be that big of a hit,

13. jesse Says:
    August 16th, 2007 at 10:52 pm

    You people suck and are all stupid

    Forums can get out of hand very quickly. Take Stevepavlina.com. There is a ton of great discussion going on there, but I rarely check it because so much is either repetitive, off topic, or repetitive.

    I shy away from sites that are not organized. With so many options, I can pick and choose what sites I visit, and I tend to avoid the ones that contribute to my ADHD.

    SO EVERYONE SHUTUP OR I’LL FIGHT YOU!!!

14. Fate Says:
    August 17th, 2007 at 12:43 am

    Looks like I am a step too late in becoming the first dissenting voice. Personally, I do not like forums, they are to me a stressful and sometimes inane medium of communication. I have never posted on PsiPog before, though instead I choose to post here on A Little Weird when the chance presented itself. The reason for that is simple, this medium allows for a more invested form of communication, a slightly more intimate form of contact, in my opinion.

    The format of ALW up till now have always been one where PeeBrain (you don’t mind if I continue calling you that, do you?) think of something, or simply felt like it, and throw us a nugget of his thoughts and we proceed to provide our various opinions on it.

    It is an incredibly simple medium but yet insightful at the same time, allowing several dozen contrasting views to be shed on a single topic led in a way by one conscious thought. A little bit like a mind coming up with an idea and several dozen little voices begin to tear it up and provide different spectrum of insight on it.

    Though I must agree that, as I have cited in an earlier comment, the different spectrum of light sometimes look like each other, and seem hellbent on intensifying itself more than sharing a myriad perspective on a single issue. However, I believe that the current format is not essentially flawed, the fact that you (referring to PeeBrain) began to openly encourage differing views might open up a floodgate for people who did not wish before to share some of their thoughts in fear of being ridiculed or ostracized.

    I do not have suggestion for what I think ALW should evolve into, but I think evolution requires time and it might be a little early to decide the direction ALW should go. In time, I believe, we might begin to see the trend forming into the then obvious direction ALW would be taking.

15. Dash Says:
    August 17th, 2007 at 2:53 am

    wtf? i have no idea what fate just said..
    stop being so uptight and just talk like a normal person..

16. bobelly Says:
    August 17th, 2007 at 3:49 am

    I don’t know if forums are such a good idea… When it comes to forums about the paranormal, it can get really repetitive or off-topic (like jesse said), or sometimes, plain old stupid imho.

    Personally, I like what’s going on right now.. Where Sean writes something and people respond through the comments.

17. delimew Says:
    August 17th, 2007 at 7:14 am

    i also like they way things are, but having forums won’t actually change that in any way will it? i mean, it’s just added something new. and even if it doesn’t work out, it shouldn’t ruin what we have here.

18. Fate Says:
    August 17th, 2007 at 9:17 am

    “wtf? i have no idea what fate just said..
    stop being so uptight and just talk like a normal person..”

    I was afraid of that, actually. But unfortunately, just as you can’t understand what I just said, I can’t really convey my thoughts well in other format. Or at least it feels unnatural to me.

    I can try though, but no promises.

19. war1025 Says:
    August 17th, 2007 at 9:26 am

    I guess I agree with fate in that sean throws something out to us and we get to play with it. It’s like a bunch of dogs fighting over a piece of meat or something… things are interesting. You give us to much to eat, and we stop complaining because there is more to go around.

    I guess I don’t care if you make a forum, but I think this sort of thing works. And requires less setup really.

20. Sean Says:
    August 17th, 2007 at 9:38 am

    Hmmm, very interesting comments. I didn’t realize some of you guys preferred this format.

    I’ll think some more on this issue. Perhaps I/we can think of a better medium than plain old forums. I want to grow, but I do agree that forums can get excessive.

    More thought :-).

21. jesse Says:
    August 17th, 2007 at 11:25 am

    SHUTUP SEAN, I WILL FIGHT YOU NOW!!!

22. psionmaster Says:
    August 17th, 2007 at 12:12 pm

    dont talk to Sean like that!

23. Hey_you Says:
    August 18th, 2007 at 9:00 pm

    I also agree that forums can get repetitive and its hard to keep it fresh but if done right i think it might be cool. SO ANYONE WHO DISAGREES ME IS WRONG AND I WILL KILL THEM.

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