New members cliques ?

It actually has been a bit funny to watch, some very good philosophy discussions on a2k have been avoided entirely, and the a2k folks seem shy too.

It's one reason why I described it as on opposing sides of a ballroom earlier.

Mingle!

I wish some philforum folk would point out some of the classic philforum discussions for us to peruse. I'll nominate some philosophy discussions from a2k that I liked.

Actually, I think the discussions are completely different. The philforum people tend to use established philosophers as a point of departure. Other a2k discussions are usually much more freeform.

I am somewhat more likely to read the philoforum discussions, though the first sentence of the introduction was the only part of Critique of Pure Reason that I really followed.

One real issue people will have merging is that of conversational pragmatics. I have noticed the general feel of how things are approached in either forum is very different. Big example seems that A2K has a pragmatic tradition of socially awarding quips, one liners, humorous tangents etc... that Phil Forum did not have. It is going to make the phil forum guys seem stodgy and the A2K folk seem flighty. I enjoy a good one liner and yet find them disconcerting when trying to debate an abstract concept. I have a penchant for humorous tangentials and yet since phiforum is was the only forum I frequented, the pragmatic style is the style to which I am now habituated. there are several other pragmatic issues I have noticed. There is a real reason why this place is going to be cliquish until one group assimilates and still there will be sub and superstratum stylistic influences.

What is your fundamental moral compass?

The ethics of killing the dead

Food ethics: What species do you not want other humans to eat?

Food ethics: How do you choose what species are morally wrong to eat?

Hey buddy, can you spare some morality?

There is certainly more levity, but I think you'll also find dry discussions on philosophy here if you want.

You used more words than I.

Gosh, you have yet to meet Spendius.

I'm willing to mingle. I just need to get used to the layout of topics and such first.
Back at PF, I was never a fan of leaving huge comments that critically analysed well-known philosophers and suchlike.
I mainly just posted wee personal opinions and musings.

Funny screen name. I would love to discuss the philosophy of music. Also Jung and his synchronicity. No takers.

There was a huge emphasis on the attempt to recreate an academic environment in posts. Using a lot of words is one of the stylisitic approaches of non-physical sciences. Also critiques of established practitioners, ripping apart sentence by sentence another's post during a debate, backing all opinion with some sort of, at the very least analogical evidence.

I'm not against the more infomral styles, although they might be detrimental to serious debate, Just saying it will take some getting used to by all

I would like to learn something about the phislosophy of music, but I have no insight other than that of an appreciator of music. Any instruction would be appreciated.

Is this because a lot of you are students?

i'm sure you'll see some mighty fine " ripping apart " on a2k !!!
naming no names , though ... ...

A lot of the key members were students or had graduated with a degree of some sorts, and most other than a handful were in other disciplines. Thus, we often catered to the undergraduate and masters level of thinking, but more less academic in content.

We were not a real strict philosophy forum though. We had introduced a religion forum about a little under a year ago, and as the membership increased, culture also became a bigger area of discussion.

I think you may find there are many houses here.

There IS lots of light and quippy stuff, but there are serious discussions too. Many people here stick to particular kinds of threads, and barely know that others exist.

I am thinking that many of you new folk may enjoy creating a kind of secure base of threads very similar in style and content to Philosophy Forum for a time. I kind of hope that people respect the tone of these threads and don't interject too much quippage.

But I can see lots of you out and about already, and I shall be looking through the threads that have been imported from your old forum.

I do hope we all dance well together!

Keep an eye out for Roger. I think he may be our most trenchant poster, saying the most with the least words, whatever the subject. (We're pals of differing opinions; you can tell already that I could be called a babbler. I rarely post on philosophy, though I read it - I will quell the babble.)

Acclimatisation!

People who are introduced to vastly different conditon, will often spend time checking things out, because of an inherent dorment suspecion and casiousness of new groups, domains and turfs.

We see it in the class room, the new kid will be shy and discrete, whilst the kids in class will act casual, same goes for jobs when a new worker meets at job ..formallity and discrestion hinders any casual behaviour.

This instinct is so strong that it will also apply to most other things, ie food, being presented a new dish from an exotic country, we won't just stuff it in our mouths, but we will sit and check it out, smell it and analyse it.

I've taken a quick look at some of the imported Philforum threads. They look interesting, but I'd have to devote some serious time to reading the entire threads -- I hate coming in the middle of something if I haven't been there from the beginning (that's why I never watched Lost). I may join in some of the discussions if I find the time to get up to speed on them.

Slightly off subject: some of the best threads I ever had the joy to read and participate in were started by dlowan, back at the old abuzz website, long well-and-good defunct for various reasons, but there was a lot of mourning for when it had been good. Dlowan had a series of themed digression threads, ten, I think, directed digressions, that oft featured spates of brilliant raconteuring. Alas, not just google available. Point - digression can be almost but not quite as honed, in its way, as a tightly run debate thread. The key is to have sentience about what thread you are posting on. (I am not without sin.)