RE: 2) Posting on the forum can be intimidating is because a lot of EAs working at EA orgs read and interact on the forum fairly regularly (which is good!) and there may be the fear that by posting you will waste their time or (if you post under your real name) it may affect your reputation in the community.
In facebook groups on the other hand, there tends to be more interactions with the average community member, and the groups are semi-private, so only a small subset of the community will see what you post. (These are my impressions of the two platforms, I’m not sure if others feel that way) I’m optimistic about the shortform feature improving things, but i’m not sure by how much.
I think a tagging system would be really great.
RE: 2) Posting on the forum can be intimidating is because a lot of EAs working at EA orgs read and interact on the forum fairly regularly (which is good!) and there may be the fear that by posting you will waste their time or (if you post under your real name) it may affect your reputation in the community.
In facebook groups on the other hand, there tends to be more interactions with the average community member, and the groups are semi-private, so only a small subset of the community will see what you post. (These are my impressions of the two platforms, I’m not sure if others feel that way) I’m optimistic about the shortform feature improving things, but i’m not sure by how much.