[lbo-talk] Dumb QOTD: What kind of labor produces intellectualproperty?

[Tayssir John Gabbour]

Well, maybe there is something naturally self-referential about this
conversation about helpful online forums and the occasional unhappy
jerk who posts on them... Google's top hit for "anarchist forum,"
which has unusually high signal vs. noise on real-world organizing and
anarchist communism, does have such rules on these things:

    "One liners - a common problem with forums is political discussion

     being replaced by one-liners that may be in-jokes between friends

     or dismissive put-downs. We don't want either on this forum

    "On political topics a one-line sentence that expresses agreement

     or disagreement adds nothing to the understanding of the issues

     under discussion. As such they are not allowed, develop your

     agreement or disagreement into an argument for your position.

    "The only one-line posts that are allowed are questions that are a

     genuine attempt to learn about the topic under discussion

     (i.e. "so what?" is not allowed). Similarly, one-line replies

     that give genuine answers to these questions are also permitted,

     so long as it is in the spirit of fair discussion. That said,

     remember that all users benefit from clear and well-thought-out

     posts in board discussion. Adding a second sentence to your post

     further clarifying your position does nothing to harm discussion,

     but can help us all understand better"

    — http://www.anarchistblackcat.org/index.php/topic,8165.0.html

So there's still a lot of innovation in online communities to increase
signal vs. noise. Maybe some of us have a hard time imagining how
useful online forums can become, because we think in terms of the few
we personally know.

As it stands, lbo-talk has clear advantages over illegal filesharing
communities. Certain privileged professionals, who can eke out a
living on these intellectual topics, can openly post here. (For
example, I really like Michael Perelman's posts, and I just don't see
him posting his notices on an illegal filesharing forum.) Also, a
private forum necessarily can't attract the sheer numbers where many
network effects and critical masses come into play.

All the best,

  Tj

On Fri, Sep 9, 2011 at 10:35 AM, Tayssir John Gabbour <tjg at pentaside.org> wrote:
> What an interesting self-referential comment, I vote for yours as
> well, because it's ignorant.
>
> I've visited such private communities; those which have been shut down
> had wonderful ways to find interesting knowledge and knowledgeable
> forum members. (Maybe they too had toxic people who leave snarky
> one-liners, like this forum; but the world is full of jerks and you
> get used to them.)
>
> All the best,
>  Tj
>
>
> On Thu, Sep 8, 2011 at 12:42 AM, shag carpet bomb <shag at cleandraws.com> wrote:
>> my vote for most unintentionally hilarious lbo-list comment of the year!