I see folks talking about increasing the “fun” below, and I think that is worthwhile indeed. Fun should really be a component of anything in life. In New Orleans there’s huge parades/parties after someone has passed, or even after a tragedy, because fun, connection and positivity aligns with hope and celebration.
There is also a staleness in the sense that EAs seem to want to communicate/speak/write in a very standardized way that is simply not interesting prose to grab or hold attention, therefore it’s just down to the interest in the subject/context that’s important. I see the same problem in live presentations in the EA space often (this is not exclusive to EA events btw)...the context is great, but if you really want to have an impact, the context is simply just one part of the formula of communicating effectively. I think seeing more personality in the writing on the forum would be beneficial. I’ll take my own advice here and make it a point to consider a lesser barrier when engaging on the forum, and allow some personality through on my own posts.
As an easy and direct action that may increase exposure, here’s one idea: create something that EAs that meet in whatever capacity would like to connect with. By this I mean something like a monthly ice breaker, that groups that meet either in person or online can go to on the Forum once / month say at the beginning of each of their meetings just to kick things off or potentially to close things out rather than an ice breaker. In this way you get folks who are already in the EA mindset and dedicating time to EA adjacent matters, to interact.
Last comment is related to bringing EA into the wider world that has not heard about it, or doesn’t know much about it, rather than increasing engagement by current EAs. That’s obviously a huge task, maybe one question forward on it is, who are the EA forums “competitors” and why do those folks participate there but maybe not here? This is a big task I know
I’m a big fan of the forum however, including the digest emails and the highlights and the annual recap etc, so y’all are doing a great job in my mind and thank you for the work and dedication.
I see folks talking about increasing the “fun” below, and I think that is worthwhile indeed. Fun should really be a component of anything in life. In New Orleans there’s huge parades/parties after someone has passed, or even after a tragedy, because fun, connection and positivity aligns with hope and celebration.
There is also a staleness in the sense that EAs seem to want to communicate/speak/write in a very standardized way that is simply not interesting prose to grab or hold attention, therefore it’s just down to the interest in the subject/context that’s important. I see the same problem in live presentations in the EA space often (this is not exclusive to EA events btw)...the context is great, but if you really want to have an impact, the context is simply just one part of the formula of communicating effectively. I think seeing more personality in the writing on the forum would be beneficial. I’ll take my own advice here and make it a point to consider a lesser barrier when engaging on the forum, and allow some personality through on my own posts.
As an easy and direct action that may increase exposure, here’s one idea: create something that EAs that meet in whatever capacity would like to connect with. By this I mean something like a monthly ice breaker, that groups that meet either in person or online can go to on the Forum once / month say at the beginning of each of their meetings just to kick things off or potentially to close things out rather than an ice breaker. In this way you get folks who are already in the EA mindset and dedicating time to EA adjacent matters, to interact.
Last comment is related to bringing EA into the wider world that has not heard about it, or doesn’t know much about it, rather than increasing engagement by current EAs. That’s obviously a huge task, maybe one question forward on it is, who are the EA forums “competitors” and why do those folks participate there but maybe not here? This is a big task I know
I’m a big fan of the forum however, including the digest emails and the highlights and the annual recap etc, so y’all are doing a great job in my mind and thank you for the work and dedication.