What's working well for me about the Clean Forum is....

[Nancy]

I'm really enjoying:

the ability to flick through different thread and read a little about what different people are up to

The constant discussion and thus, IMO, the democracy about what goes where and what the different strands are

The way the calendar uploads onto my website (Genius!!!)

The amount contributions from Phil as he tries to navigate and mediate between different opinions and ideas. A lot of work on his part - thanks Phil

Going away for a few weeks working, returning and being able to download ideas and case studies to share best practice and thought

[caitlinwalker]

What's working well:

I like having a repository for information
It means I can scroll through conversations and look back over information over time

I love Phil's commitment to the community in keeping up the forum
I take this as a selfless act and it supports me to be generous and collaborative too

The forum gives me a chance to keep up with people I hardly ever meet.
This increases my chances of getting ideas and feedback from a broad, interested network


What's not working well
When I open the forum and most posts are from the same people the posts were from 3 weeks before
I take this to mean either, not many people feel motivated to post
2 or 3 people are not tracking their contributions and are over dominating conversations

When people comment from a position of 'absolute expert' or 'personal affront'
This means I feel I'm in the company of fragile egos and seems to me at odds to the safety, fun and exploration this work affords me and my colleagues

What would work better for me
If more people from different backgrounds would share their stories and ideas and ask questions
I'd interpret this as meaning the site had become more welcoming with less 'flame'

If people asked more 'clean questions' of one another and explored ideas together during threads.
This would mean for me the way we're using the forum replicates the work it holds

All in all, now that I'm back from Maternity and baby Grover can be left for more than an hour at a time, I will try and contribute more stories and get involved in discussions. I look forward to renewing old acquaintences and making some new ones.

[Steve Saunders]

Maybe its nothing to do with ego's and everything to do with use, visit rates, busyness, and the general human malaise of apathy? If you look at the posting rate you will see that apart from when the few of us who regularly contribute, posts are few and far between, and thus lacking vitality. Interests exists for the moment - a while, and then fade. Discussion forums needs urgency and reactivity in order to emerge.

Knowing a number of discussion forums, I suggest we need at least 10 times the membership we have now before many-person lively debates or modelling sessions emerge - statistically on a small percentage regularly contribute on any forum. Most people bystand.

I wish others would contribute more, it would make the threads more interesting for me also. Let us know if you also wish our replies to your posts - or not!


Steven

[Corrie van Wijk]

Thank you Caitlin, for encouraging others to join in: I've felt lonely on this forum for many years and had it not been for Phil and John and Steve and some others I'd be very sad right now.

As you know better than anyone of us, David was experimenting with ways to deal with human suffering and some very good techniques developed from that. He wasn't always able to share all his knowledge and experience, but learned how to adjust to the level of understanding of those he teached.

Since we are so few and live far apart, sharing our knowledge through the forum is essential to be able to exchange our insights. That means it is an open forum and anyone can benefit from it. And the more people contribute, the better the quality of the clean product. Just sharing your experience is enough to inspire others and trigger discussions. Don't be shy, even if you never published anything before: what you have to say is just as important as anybody elses opinion.

[phil]

Thanks for all the feedback comments, they encourage me to keep the forum structure available for use. I chose those words carefully because however vitally important I regard myself to be (well, obviously:)), the forum would be simply nothing at all without the contributions of its members - it IS those contributions - and we are in them, fragile egos and all.

If I think of cleanforum as a body of information, then currently I am responsible for the skeleton and we ALL flesh out the bones with our contributions. The kinds of contributions we make create the body we get.

So what kind of body are we now?

And what kind of body do we want?

I am going to start this as a new thread for a metaphorical-only discussion, just for the fun and safety and exploring of what kind of forum we want.

* * * * * * * * * *

I agree with Corrie when she says:
Since we are so few and live far apart, sharing our knowledge through the forum is essential to be able to exchange our insights..

Phil

[nickyp]

what works well for me, is that the forum is here and brings together so many diverse individuals.

This helps me feel part of a wider community and body of knowledge.

Knowing that Phil is committed helps me to feel that forum will persist and is therefore worth talking to and posting on.

Less well, I experience the forum as highly intimidating. Posts from an absolute expert position dissaude me from a making a point. Sometimes posts are needlessly intellectualised and this too puts me off from from having a say. I can put my point to the best of people but am uncomfortable being forced into a position of intellectualising what I post in order to avoid flames.

There are a huge number of sections for a forum, I find them hard to navigate and less sections on the front page would encourage me to post more and read more.

And hello everyone I have been lurking forever and it is only with some persuasion I am posting at last.

[caitlinwalker]

Lovely to hear from you. Hope there's more lurking out there.
x

[Penny Tompkins]

In the last few weeks I have thoroughly enjoyed reading through some of the historical entries on the Forum, and have been adding a few posts of my own here and there. I have been inspired by Angela Dunbar's message (in a now closed thread) to 'put down my cup of tea' and add to what she has said.

I too am grateful to Phil Swallow for providing this wonderful resource. I think if more of us come forward and begin sharing our ideas - whether as a beginner or seasoned practitioner - it could become a vibrant, thriving resource for us all.

After a lecture by Humberto Maturana on 'The Biology of Love', I was talking his colleague, Dr. Pille Bunnell. She recommended that people work within a frame of "co-inspiry". Rather than confrontation or argument, co-inspiration leads both parties to come away enriched and with a desire to continue the dialogue. I loved this term, and I want to co-inspire in my contributions on this Forum.

So I intend to participant more regularly, and I would be delighted to see others doing the same.

Penny