The most I've done about the problem to date is acknowledge it, and communicate some reminders to not neglect posting on the forum. But I don't even follow my own hand-wavey reminders very well. I bet we can design some ways of running MMGs that reverse the darknet effect, and in fact boost/improve the function of the home forum.jacob wrote: ↑Mon Nov 21, 2022 8:49 amYes, the network effect is real. As more and more people and conversations disappear into discord and slack, the main forum gets chopped up and its activity decreases exponentially. Perhaps this [dark forest of the internet] is the way of the future. However, once the attrition on the "main forum" becomes too large, it's going to be hard to form new MMGs, because there will be no one around.
Individual groups setting up dark subforums was an unintended side-effect of the MMG strategy. The idea was that zoom meetings would connect people better than "words on a screen". This would lead to more conversation and thus more activity on the main forum leading to even more MMGs. Instead things went the other way---with the same people being members of multiple MMGs. The problem with the dark conversations is that very few bother to replicate a parallel conversation on the main forum ... and so even if someone bothers to write a summary (also rare), the rest of the population doesn't benefit from the conversation.
As the guy running the main forum, this is a me-problem, but it will eventually become an us-problem, when the "effective group size" of the main forum also drops under 6-10.
The (well, my) vision is that MMGs function as spaces where small cohorts/crews can come together and forge tighter bonds than are possible on the home forum. These tight-bonded crews both improve the function of the individuals (via the mechanism of social proof, encouragement, accountability, etc), but the unit of the crew becomes a thing (holon) that has certain attributes. Currently, all members of MMGs interact with the forum as individuals. Can we design practices that allow the MMG holon to interact with the main forum? Can the main forum spawn crews that take some time to spin up crew/unit coherence that can then feed back into the forum?
I had some specific ideas for ways my MMG can design increased engagement with the forum into our MMG practice.
1. Bias midweek checkins to journals.
Every Wednesday I send out a reminder on our Signal group to check in on how we're doing with our projects and ERE journey. Most of our updates are perfectly appropriate to post to our journals. The new practice can be: write up your mid-week checkin in your journal, post the link to the MMG Signal channel, and then add any private/darknet stuff.
2. MMG 'sponsored' threads.
We've now done two book club rounds, Mark Boyle and Surviving the Future. We made a signal channel to discuss the books. I don't see why it wouldn't be just as good to run a thread instead of a dark channel for that. Anyone on the forum can contribute, but the idea of a 'sponsored' thread is the sponsoring MMG chose the topic privately, and has some level of ownership over running and maintaining the thread.
A sponsored thread could be on a book, a general topic, anything the group decides. We just finished our last topic, maybe we'll give this a go for our next topic.
3. MMG swarms/Flashmob
This could be an informal ability MMGs have. If someone in the crew sees a thread where something interesting is going on, or that could use a boost, the group could call a swarm on it: the intent by members of the group to all check out that thread and contribute any way they can. (This is sort of like a schwerpunkt maneuver, find a place to concentrate the full intensity and unit coherence of the MMG holon to inject a boost into that thread).
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MMGs should be complementary to the forum. Reproducing a very text-heavy space is a lot of overlap/redundancy to the forum. Some of it is good: making lighter and more social-focused posts on our dark channels is valuable, and so is a place to be able to discuss sensitive/private issues that we only trust our cohorts with (or rather, don't feel comfortable airing on the clearnet).
Any other ideas/thoughts on this?