Let's make this forum more Buddhist!

[binocular]

Greetings.


Since recently, there has been so much meta-discussion about the workings of this forum, and many complaints about how it's not Buddhist (enough), I have a suggesttion:

All those who are interested in making this forum more Buddhist (and that should be everyone ) can here in this thread make a proposal of what they will do to make this forum more Buddhist, and then carry out their plan.

Those who are not big on proposals and announcements can, of course, just do it.

[Crazy cloud]

I prefer you just the way you are! ...

my 15 cents

[Sam Vara]

1) I will post something on a non-political, non-meta-discursive topic, every day. I will do my best to make that post interesting and useful.

2) If I can't see a thread that I can contribute to as per (1) above, I will try to start a new one.

3) If I can't do that, I will link to a "good news" story.

4) Failing that, I will inflict pictures of my cat doing cute things upon this site until things improve...

[Mr Man]

Hi Sam

There is this thread - Kindnesss thread

viewtopic.php?t=25723

[Sam Vara]

Hi Sam

There is this thread - Kindnesss thread

viewtopic.php?t=25723

Ah, thanks! I didn't know about this thread as it appears to have been initiated when I was having a break from DW.

[DNS]

The vast majority of topics here, including recent topics are Buddhist, it is just that the contentious, behavioral analysis ones, meta-discussion ones have the most conflict and most views, so appear to be currently dominating the forum, when actually the majority are still Buddhist focused.



We should just continue posting in the Buddhist focused topics as much as possible and still post in politics threads if we wish to do so but then just don't complain about it when someone disagrees with you.

[SDC]

One thing that I used to really enjoy about this forum was that we seemed to have ordinary members here who wielded as much or more influence than the staff, almost solely based on their knowledge of Dhamma. Sadly that is no longer what carries any weight around here - at all. The most impressive attribute now seems to be one's willingness to aggressively take up an issue regardless of its relation to the Dhamma. And this trend started long before the "News" section arrived. I think people realized they weren't getting noticed based on Dhamma knowledge, in Dhammic topics, and were longing for more easily accessible accolades. Hunt down some of the older lounge threads and you'll see precisely what I mean. Members from all over the political spectrum were responsible for making that worldly direction and attitude a significant part of what we discuss here and how we discuss it.

I used to love getting into those really rich Dhamma discussions, but those days are in the past. They can surely come back, but it must be a wholesale effort either from the bottom up or the top down or both. Either way, the general membership needs to rediscover what carries weight around here in "an environment for the discussion of Theravada Buddhism" and you surely do not need the staff's approval in order to do so. There are seven of us and hundreds of you.

As binocular said, just do it. If you want to talk Dhamma, talk Dhamma. If that sounds boring to you, then just keep participating in nonsense threads that have nothing at all to do with Dhamma, further proliferating an unDhammic direction of DW.

[Mr Man]

Maybe rather than "more Buddhist" less un-Buddhist.

Recognizing that there is a problem is a start.

[SarathW]

That is why I don't visit temples.
Most of the time what we discuss in temple is politics and business.
Great thing about DW is that we have the option to ignore those discussions.

[L.N.]

How about trying to recognize the potential for Dhamma discussion in the Topics which are started rather than just assuming there is an ulterior motive? Also, we can be kinder to each other (assuming that is not too controversial to request).

[retrofuturist]

Greetings,

I really like this topic. My personal objective remains to give members this space, free of coersion, and not telling people what they ought to do with it. Therefore, it's refreshing to see people wanting to take some personal ownership of what they want this forum to be, and leading themselves in that direction, instead of expecting to be lead by someone else.



To support that, staff will maintain the parameters for the environment (e.g. ToS definition and adherence) but it is members who will ultimately decide what they want to do within that environment. If there's anything I or David can do, by tweaking those parameters to help you achieve what you want to achieve, please let me know and we can start the discussion.

Metta,
Paul.

[Mr Man]

I think it is also important for the community to be open to feedback.

The Buddha was responsive to feedback and did not automatically dismiss concerns.

Gandhi was an activist.

I think less use of divisive rhetoric and pejorative terms would be good.

I think caution should be used when posting meme's/clips/links especially when they are strongly political/partisan.

[Dinsdale]

4) Failing that, I will inflict pictures of my cat doing cute things upon this site until things improve...

[Aloka]

4) Failing that, I will inflict pictures of my cat doing cute things upon this site until things improve...

[binocular]

One thing that I used to really enjoy about this forum was that we seemed to have ordinary members here who wielded as much or more influence than the staff, almost solely based on their knowledge of Dhamma. Sadly that is no longer what carries any weight around here - at all.

Perhaps these things come in cycles. When a person progresses on the Path, they probably eventually lose interest in online discussions, so when such a person distances themselves from online forums, there's an open position there.
Perhaps in some time, some current posters will get more serious, more real about the Dhamma, come to a phase where they can discuss a lot of Dhamma at the forums, and eventually grow out of it.
And of course, for this to happen, there have to be several such posters at the same time at the forums.

[L.N.]

Greetings,

I really like this topic. My personal objective remains to give members this space, free of coersion, and not telling people what they ought to do with it. Therefore, it's refreshing to see people wanting to take some personal ownership of what they want this forum to be, and leading themselves in that direction, instead of expecting to be lead by someone else.



To support that, staff will maintain the parameters for the environment (e.g. ToS definition and adherence) but it is members who will ultimately decide what they want to do within that environment. If there's anything I or David can do, by tweaking those parameters to help you achieve what you want to achieve, please let me know and we can start the discussion.

Metta,
Paul.

Excellent. I hope we all can be much more mindful of the following TOS provision:

Members are expected to self-moderate, being mindful of the adage that 'behaviour breeds behaviour'. Mutual respect and friendliness should be the basis of all interactions.

How about we all agree on the intention of posting with "mutual respect" and in "friendliness." This would go a long way toward creating a more Buddhist forum.

[binocular]

One thing that I used to really enjoy about this forum was that we seemed to have ordinary members here who wielded as much or more influence than the staff, almost solely based on their knowledge of Dhamma. Sadly that is no longer what carries any weight around here - at all. The most impressive attribute now seems to be one's willingness to aggressively take up an issue regardless of its relation to the Dhamma. And this trend started long before the "News" section arrived. I think people realized they weren't getting noticed based on Dhamma knowledge, in Dhammic topics, and were longing for more easily accessible accolades. Hunt down some of the older lounge threads and you'll see precisely what I mean. Members from all over the political spectrum were responsible for making that worldly direction and attitude a significant part of what we discuss here and how we discuss it.

I think the proverbial testosterone could be playing a major part in this. Get enough men together for long enough, and they'll find something to fight about. (And thus set the tone of the establishment for everyone else who happens to come by.)

[aflatun]

One thing that I used to really enjoy about this forum was that we seemed to have ordinary members here who wielded as much or more influence than the staff, almost solely based on their knowledge of Dhamma. Sadly that is no longer what carries any weight around here - at all. The most impressive attribute now seems to be one's willingness to aggressively take up an issue regardless of its relation to the Dhamma. And this trend started long before the "News" section arrived. I think people realized they weren't getting noticed based on Dhamma knowledge, in Dhammic topics, and were longing for more easily accessible accolades. Hunt down some of the older lounge threads and you'll see precisely what I mean. Members from all over the political spectrum were responsible for making that worldly direction and attitude a significant part of what we discuss here and how we discuss it.

I think the proverbial testosterone could be playing a major part in this. Get enough men together for long enough, and they'll find something to fight about. (And thus set the tone of the establishment for everyone else who happens to come by.)

When did you become so sexist? I'm feeling very oppressed right now, I don't know how I'm going to make it through the day

[Sam Vara]

I think the proverbial testosterone could be playing a major part in this.

Surely this is playing the balls rather than the man?

[Justsit]

When I saw the topic of this thread, I wondered if perhaps there was a suggestion that only "Buddhists who have actually taken refuge in the Triple Gem" should be allowed to post, not just anyone who wants to discuss Buddhism.

Any idea how many posters here have done so? Has there ever been a poll on Taking Refuge/Precepts?

Just curious, not advocating any litmus test or change on DW.