Buddhist forums, do you use them?
By Loden Jinpa on Apr 2, 2008 in Polls
http://lodenjinpa.com/2008/04/22/buddhist-forums-take-2
Please leave a comment to the questions below or simply submit your vote on the poll “Do you visit Buddhist forum sites?” to the right-hand side of the blog.
Do you use Buddhist forums? If so, why and, if you had a say in how they were run, how would you change them. If you make a comment please don’t use the names of any forums in your comment, as I don’t want to cause any discontent with the owners.
What I am trying to garner here is…
1: Is there room for another Buddhist forum?
2: If so, is there a method to improve them?
3: Is it a feeling of community that is the ingredient to a successful site?
I have been thinking for some time about starting a Buddhist forum. But as there are already successful forums out there it could be just a waste of time. Hence the questions.
Have your say below!
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I’m not currently a part of any Buddhist forums - mainly, as you highlighted, because I haven’t found one where I feel like part of the community. I’m a bit shy, and rather wary about putting myself out there for strangers to bite, especially in regards to my religious beliefs (yes, I realise I’m being a frgaile flower. What can you do?).
So, yes, I already like the way you approcah things; if you were to start a forum rolling I’d probably come along to see if I could feel at home.
Hi Arwen,
Thank you for your comment…fragile flowers are welcomed
Seriously though, I think that some people like forums because they feel there is a certain amount of anonymity inherent in them.
Why because many people seem to use avatars “FragileFlower247″ or “WhiteKnight” for example. But I am not a big forums kinda guy. However if it is useful to people, if there is a need, then I am willing to give it a go!
Lets wait and see how many respond.
Hmm. I think forums offer a chance to build a different sort of community. I’m curious as to what you think people want, that you’re not currently offering, as I think about it. Do you want an e-Sangha, for instance?
My motivation for blogging is quite different than for starting a forum, which would be similar to e-sangha.
You can see a video I did here http://lodenjinpa.com/about/ about why I blog.
However my motivation for possibly starting a forums community is quite different.
First of all I have to work in order to pay for rent and so forth. I do this by working part-time as a web developer.
My personal preference would be to concentrate of Buddhism either writing books and so forth.
So there is the possibility that the forums site could provide an income and allow me to spend more time studying, meditating and writing about Buddhism. This is my wish..although not that likely I concede.
I started a forum at openbuddha.com a few months back but it hasn’t really taken off yet. The problem is that one needs enough people to find it interesting in order to get a critical mass of people talking. Of course, this becomes a bit of a catch-22 because a forum without enough people often simply feels empty.
I’d be unlikely to participate in a new one since I’ve started one. E-sangha is definitely a model to shy away from in terms of how to run a forum though.
Hi Al,Thank you for your comments.I think blogging is more my bag anyways…so I’m kind of happy to get this information now rather than later.btw I’m a big fan of Fire Fox :)But I’d love to be able to right-click are have access to the dictionary on my iMac. Do you know if that is possible?
As for the e-sangha model, not being privy to it I’m not sure what that means.
Hi there.
The dictionary integration for OS X isn’t really there because Firefox is a cross-browser application. This sometimes makes OS specific features like that more difficult.
Camino is another browser based off of the Mozilla rendering code. It is a Mac only browser and, thus, is completely integrated. It integrates with the OS X dictionary for spellchecking. One of my peers volunteers in that community. You can check out the feature list for the last version at http://caminobrowser.org/.
thanks
No. Dropped off one because of fighting. Some liked to ‘debate’ though they were not trained in debate. It was like witnessing monkeys teaching philosophy. I am not interested in their opinions. More interested learning what is correct.
To learn what is correct you need a teacher you trust — not an anonymous community where the most aggressive emerge as leaders. This is samsara all over again!
I am however in a private forum, part of a course. All there respect the same teachers and struggle together to learn materials. There, those with knowledge and patience are recognised along with those with empty words and little else. So perhaps forums work if the community share common values and goals????
Hi Linda,
Thanks for your comments. I do agree with you about a community with a common goals and values being a better place to be..be it virtual or otherwise.
I think I will be staying with blogging as I it is better suited to my personality…although I do like a good debate.
>Some liked to ‘debate’ though they were not trained in debate. It was like witnessing monkeys teaching philosophy. I am not interested in their opinions. More interested learning what is correct.
There is a saying in the debate courtyard “your best teachers are your debating partners”.
As you may find out with your studies. Learning what is “correct” in philosophy is not as easy as you may imagine.
Absorbing the course material is one thing and for that you do need a learned teacher but learning what is correct well that is another matter. For example the Ornament for Clear Realizations, the text you are currently studying, that text is written from the Svatantrika Mahyamika point of view even though it was written - according to the tradition - by Maitreya who is a Buddha. The Svatantrika Mahyamika view is not a correct view of Emptiness. Does this invalidate the text? No, but you do need to bare this in mind while studying it or at least be aware of that fact.
Lorik is another such text written from a lower school tenets point of view yet highly beneficial material nonetheless.
I guess my point is learning to think well and deeply is the thing to get from philosophy.
>not an anonymous community where the most aggressive emerge as leaders. This is samsara all over again!
Some of the debaters at Sera can get pretty full-on. A cousin of Geshe Loden’s came home from debate one day with a ripped donka (monk upper shirt). Geshe Loden was very excited to see the damaged donka! Why? Because it showed that he was getting into it…he was passionately expressing his views. I’m sure that many Westerners would be surprised to is just how full-on the monks can get. Some may even think these guys are aggressive also
Again thanks for your comment
I disagree, I think there is the need for another e-sangha type forum. The format is what it is. Clearly it is not for everyone but, it is useful for many people. There are 20,000 members at e-sangha so clearly there are people out there who want to engage other Buddhists in discussion.
I’d say go for it!
Of course you would need help promoting it. Otherwise it will go the way of openbuddha.com
Best of luck…i hope you change your mind and start one.
Steve, OpenBuddha.com has barely gotten started. I would encourage you and others interested in such things to help turn it into an alternative to E-sangha.
For my part, I’ve invested a bit into doing it but it is hard to keep going with something like six active users.