The forum is too large and there’s no place for newcomers, like me!
All the guys (and girls) are saying things the outsider can’t possibly fathom.
A new guy came into the forum, he looked around, saw many people talking many topics. In each topic, there’s hundreds of posts and he didn’t know where to start. He felt lonely, sad, depressed and finally he left the forum, bubbling about how suck the forum is.
How many times did that happen? In fact, I’m now experiencing this too! How sad it is!
So, I suggest the moderators (and old members) to come up with something for the new members.
I want to know what an “ILP outsider” looks like. Didn’t we all pretty much come into this the same way, as an “outsider”? Yeah, pretty sure we did. Not all the conversations here are tailored to the current membership, in fact not even most of them are.
I ditto Faust’s Hall of Questions suggestion. If you really wanted to, you could probably even quote something from a Thread in Philosophy and make a Topic in the Hall of Questions to ask what is meant by it.
Don’t be afraid to jump in. Actually, it’s nice to have some fresh perspective coming in (a newcomer’s perspective - I’m sure many other posters feel the same - it brings us back to where we came from, in a sense).
We need new people like you coming in and voicing their views because sometimes we get so caught up in arguments we overlook the most basic things, which I’ve noticed, are usually pointed out by none other than the “outside” people. It’s the outside perspective that we usually miss (and we need to keep it in mind).
Another reason why we need the newcomer’s viewpoint is because we are too comfortable discussing things among “philosophers” (because we ‘get’ each other) but the real test is knowing how to communicate our ideas to non-philosophers, the 99% of everyday people who are occupied with everyday things and are not familiar with what we would call “deeper” thoughts. When new people come onboard we get to see their “angle” - we learn how to adjust our communication so other/ non/new-philosophers will understand. We may not admit it, but we need that, because we are ultimately surrounded by regular people outside of this space. It should not be about putting people down because they are not like us, it should be about getting ideas across successfully. Of course, there are always some people to whom it is about ego-tripping, but many more are genuinely interested in exploring philosophical ideas and need to be able communicate these ideas to other people in a mutual dialogue. New posters who are new to philosophy are our communication link, so to speak, to the non-philosophical world and its approaches to philosophical questions. I think we should be grateful for new comers coming here because usually we either have to chase after people in regular world in an attempt to establish some sort of communication, who, more often than not, want to have nothing to do with philosophy, or relegate ourselves to our online communities where we know people will understand us. So, to have a newcomer come to our “turf” with an open mind should be a welcomed event.
Just post in the threads that you know something about.
I don’t post in Social Sciences much because I know jack shit about politics (and don’t want to). I post in the other places, but by no means am I ‘the’ expert on any of it. Just get involved if you are interested.
Silly people. Surely you realize that black pirate was not fully initiated into our secret goat sacrifices and perverted sex orgies in order to become a true member.