Forum Post: Suggestions to Help The Forum
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 30, 2011, 2:33 a.m. EST by lisa
(425)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
As much as people dislike the idea of structure, it seems like the forum has become lost in all the threads, so a little organization might be a good thing. I went thru all the Occupy sites from other cities and think there should be some Topic Sections set up.
Cleveland had a nice organizational format. General Discussion, General Announcements, Proposals, Helpout (Supplies, contacts), Info. (articles), and each working group had a section.
DC had a Marches and Protests Section - make it easy for people to find out what's going on.
Chicago had a Grievances Section and subsections under that as well as Proposals section.
San Francisco had an Emergency Section (which I think ALL occupier sites should have) that had videos, pics from current things going on, as well as people being able to post about what they witness going on. All in one section of threads.
Seattle's was good with a Demands Section.
Austin had a Lost and Found Section, a Breaking News section, an Arrest Section (this should be on every city forum), maybe under the Emergency Section.
Rochester, NY had Events, Meetings for upcoming events section.
Vegas had Views from Other sites, and Global Politics.
Lexington, KY did not have a forum but had a Declaration of Occupation udner their Documents thread, they had no forum.
The Philly, Salt Lake City, Indianapolis could probably use a little help.
OWS is the prototype for the entire movement. People have a lot to say here, if there were organized Sections, as the movement grows, it will be easier to manage.
Stop censorship and filters to rename R0n Paul into Ron Lawl.
Add subforums, and more pages so that topics don't fall off and vanish. Stop deleting thread topics for no apparent reason.
Add a poll feature which is usable for each topic, if the Original poster wants it.
agreed on all of above david
I saw the poll feature on one of the other Occupy sites which is helpful for suggestions to know if people agree with them or not. Even to have a Proposals Section where people can submit their ideas with a poll feature, might help the ideas that have support go thru the General Assembly in a more expeditious manner. If they know the idea is good, has support, it can save some time.
Beck Limbaugh Fox News machine are pushing "Funded by Communist party" and those that are in Fear vibration are eating up the pablum fast. So if the NYC hub doesn't disclose donations ...listing each and every dime of the 500K and you have that Murdoch machinery pumping out lies....People lose the populace fast and without the populace it's doomed unfortunately
Anyone who needs Rush Limbaugh to tell them what they should or should not be doing, will not want to take the initiative to try to change anything. This is the same mindset of people that will not go to a movie that is not recommended by a movie critic. We need to give more credit to most Americans having the ability to think for themselves, even if they have only learned that thru adversity and being screwed over by the corporate elite. Even something like being late on a credit card bill and now their interest rate goes up permanently is a wake up call for a lot of people who never questioned big business.
i agree lisa...am not saying we want "Those people" on our side. I'm saying more you do not have an argument to that machinery the less "teeth" you have as a whole movement. I'm a 30 year broadcast veteran. Path to success for the movement is the People. Not a small % a HUGE mass of people. And if you don't disclose donations in SOME manner you will lose the trust and momentum of the movement vs. that kind of media power.
I remember the circus when the media went after the Girl Scouts about some of their financial practices and disclosures and they said 'we're not talking about a few boxes of cookies here'. All non profit organizations have financial statements, and with OWS being in this for the long haul, those type of things will be necessary. Everyone wants transparency. WIth OWS people seem upset because they think of the movement participants as these poor helpless people living in the park, then they hear they have received triple digit donations, so they begin to wonder what is being done with it. The movement has grown a lot since it's inception, good governance and stewardship of it will help ensure it's success and progress. I hate to even say it but April 15th next year, some sort of tax filing will have to occur because income has been received. Those who oppose the movement could just be waiting for that, for any impropriety. There should be daily counts of the meals and people served etc. What if OWS becomes a multi million dollar movement?
The IRS only requires disclosure of donations over 5K for the money that is held by a 501 c3 and the agency that is holding the donations qualifies.
What the finance committee said in an interview last week was that the average donation via the internet was 47 dollars.
So the "Communist Party" (which one, there are several) couldn't have made a very big donation if the average donation out of 300K dollars is $47.
I really don't want my name published for making a 100 dollar donation.
great points about anonymity...then a generic listing such as "Individual. Topeka, Ks. $100" works as well. SOMETHING that is more transparent or you will lose the trust of the vast populace that is needed to overthrow the regime of power.
Yea, they do need to move on the financial transparency issue, I agree there.
Something like VBulletin format would be great.
There's a lot of good ideas and some questions also, with regards to funding, a Finance Section could address those. A Donations subsection under that would be a good place for those things. It's just creating categories for what is needed.
Have you been to http://nycga.net yet?
Not in person, but I have watched, and I try to follow the minutes to see what is going on. I'm not in the city on a daily basis, though that may change in December.
I was asking if you've been to the website itself, they revamped it and it has some of the features you might be looking for .
Yes there are upgrades to the General Assembly page, but still the Forum needs some work. I have been to the new forum page, but it seems to have the organizational issues that this one has. Especially in NY, people are always busy, they need to be able to get info. quickly, concisely. Having the Working Groups on the Assembly page is a good thing. In some of the other cities, the groups are not that large so those are on their forum. Still the forum could benefit from a little tweeking or good ideas may get lost in the shuffle.
Oh the website, I will check that out.
And so it begins...
The ebb n flow here is nice. Tough when relevant topics fade, but I like.
The solutions will come from all over. If people come across something that could be helpful, put it out there to be considered. Oprah Winfrey did a show about empowering children and it began with the concept of having them say "I am Somebody", saying it, leads to believing it, then the belief creates a reality of possibilities. Everyone has talents, ideas and we are all somebody.