A possible new direction for BookTalk...

Chris OConnor

In tonight's chat session we discussed a new direction BookTalk might take. To date we only have a handful of members and even fewer active members. The idea we discussed tonight could possibly attract a larger audience to our site, thus stimulating intense debate, good conversations, and and an overall more productive and interesting site.

The idea is for BookTalk to serve as "The Skeptic's BookShelf." Which isn't a bad name now that I think of it! We would still keep the BookTalk URL and name, but would change our biline and overall focus.

The site would be devoted to reading and discussing a variety of nonfiction texts that pertain to science, philosophy, critical thinking, reason, logic, comparative religion, skepticism, etc...

There are many great sites out there for debate on these topics, but I have yet to see one that focuses on education through reading and discussion. Our site could serve as a compliment to a variety of relevant sites.

Please contribute to this thread any ideas or suggestions. And keep in mind that BookTalk is several months old and is struggling to attract members. Tonights chat had only 4 people. Exploring this new idea could be a means to increase traffic to this site and make it more enjoyable to each of us.

Chris

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward,
for there you have been, and there you will always want to be."

-- Leonardo da Vinci

Edited by: Chris OConnor at: 9/12/02 11:49:12 pm

AvatarofPower

I completely agree with that suggestion. I think that if we cater to a specific crowd, we will attract more folks than if we are just another generic "Book Club".

The digital has the highest concentration of rational thinkers of any society on the planet, I think, so we should be in good shape.

Avatar
"Once the stone you're crawling under is lifted off your shoulders;
Once the cloud thats raining over your head disappears
The noise that you'll hear is the crashing down of Hollow Years..."
-- Dream Theater

ZachSylvanus

I agree....However, despite becoming complimentary to other sites, I think we should retain our own individual forums and whatnot, since its fun to have other exchanges of ideas, but on a smaller discussion forum than some of those other sites.

This above all: to thine own self be true,And it must follow, as the night the day,Thou canst not then be false to any man.--William Shakespeare, Hamlet

Chris OConnor

Zach:

I totally agree. The way I'm seeing it at this point is we change the very top paragraph to make the site specific to the following topics:

reason
free-thinking
critical thinking
science
logic
comparative religion
atheism
agnosticism
history
theism
humanism
philosophy
..etc...

The forums can remain the same...maybe. I think most of us here right now love these subjects and I don't want to grow and slowly start getting out-voted by people who would rather read love stories.

By narrowing it to the above subjects we can all spread the word about BookTalk and actually have something to sell. Right now we just read "books."

And to be honest...if we never reeally get "big" I would be happy. As long as I am reading, learning and growing as a person each month then I'm doing well. Being a small group of friends is fine by me. I would rather hang out with a dozen bright people who share common interests than a hundred mediocre people with no common interest other than enjoying to read books. Small can be better.

So lets focus on books that we enjoy and not worry so much about growth and board activity. I would really appreciate if some of you would help me write the top paragraph now that we are going to narrow our focus.

Just look at the yellow section at the top and think of a cool way to tell people what we are all about. Maybe use the phrase "The Skeptic's Bookshelf," or maybe not. Come up with your own ideas and post them here and we can all decide.

Somehow we need to use the words I bullet-pointed so people understand the scope of BookTalk. We could even list them in bullet-point format.

Chris

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward,
for there you have been, and there you will always want to be."

-- Leonardo da Vinci

ZachSylvanus

I printed out the header, and your post, chris...I'll see what I can do tomorrow.

This above all: to thine own self be true,And it must follow, as the night the day,Thou canst not then be false to any man.--William Shakespeare, Hamlet

Chris OConnor

Zach:

Thanks. What I have up currently is a start, but writing is not one of my specialities. If you have a better way of wording things let me know. I think we all get the general idea of what we are after with our theme or focus.

Chris

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward,
for there you have been, and there you will always want to be."

-- Leonardo da Vinci

LanDroid · Posted: Sat Sep 14, 2002 11:25 am Post subject: Possible?

You say "possible" new direction in the thread title, but the decision has already been made since you re-wrote the header and locked the fiction thread. It's probably a good idea since this seems to be the focus of the group. However, I was expecting a wider range of books. I think Sagan's book is stupendous, but I don't need to read a slew of similar books. Agnosticism & skepticism are interesting, but aren't "core values" for me. So I'll participate when it looks interesting, but probably won't read every book as planned when I joined.

Chris OConnor · Posted: Sat Sep 14, 2002 4:19 pm Post subject: Re: Possible?

LanDroid:

I wish we could be all things to all people, but it just can't happen. I do understand that being too narrow can be boring as hell, but I don't think we will have that problem.

With this new focus we can read books on mythology, philosophy, evolution, cosmology, claims of the paranormal, comparative religion, cultural anthropology, logic/fallacy identification, etc...

I hope we don't lose you Mark. There are many of us that would enjoy reading a fiction book or two, so just post that in the "Fiction" forum in the "Additional Readings" category. The problem is...most people have expressed a desire to not read fiction for our "Book of the Month."

I've bounced back and forth with this and I think narrowing it to a more specific type of book will serve to make us more appealing. I have us as a member of a Webring and have posted so many plugs for BookTalk it is ridiculous. The problem is "books" is just to general. We need to have a focus. And most people here tend to share similar views on science, philosophy and religion. We need a "hook." Something special about our site to attract people.

I would love more feedback from you. Any ideas on how this can work would be appreciated. All of the surfing I have done has made it clear to me that most book groups have a focus. There are groups that concentrate on murder mysteries, science fiction, romance novels, and adventure. I have found a group or two just for women. I've found several just for amateur writers to share their own writing.

So I'm only trying to make a decision that will maximize overall happiness here at BookTalk. Please hang out and see what type of books we all nominate and eventually read. I don't think anyone wants to be redundant. And your opinion and vote matter too. So keep posting.

In the chat room we discussed this in depth, but only 4 people showed up. I really want BookTalk to be more exciting to people than to only attract 4 people for our chats. This is why I canceled the Jared Diamond chat. BookTalk is supposed to be fun and the pressure of trying to get people more involved was getting to me. I didn't want Jared Diamond to show up in a chat room and have only 3 people show up. Put yourself in my shoes with that scenario. I would have been humiliated.

With this new focus we can plug BookTalk to hundreds of other sites and groups throughout the world. With a focus of "books" or "nonfiction" I was at a complete loss for how to advertise and spread the word. Where do you advertise (for free) with such a broad scope? At least with this new direction we all know where to find our target audience.

I hope this thread lives on a bit longer so we can all discuss how to make this transition a success. Thank you for your comments Mark. Please stick with us as we all enjoy your contribution and friendship.

Chris

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward,
for there you have been, and there you will always want to be."

-- Leonardo da Vinci

NaddiaAoC · Posted: Sun Sep 15, 2002 8:25 am Post subject: Re: Possible?

Mark,

I agree with Chris. The new focus of BookTalk helps to steer it in a particular direction but it really isn't limiting it that much. There are still a wide variety of subjects to read and discuss. This will allow us to target certain audiences and hopefully generate more interest and participation.

Cheryl

Chris OConnor

Since we are now going forward with this decision I will lock this thread.

Chris

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward,
for there you have been, and there you will always want to be."

-- Leonardo da Vinci


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