Improving the design of this forum

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UPDATE: google doc to consolidate the idea: 2R Forum Design Improvements - April 2025 - Google Docs

Kicking off this thread to discuss how we can improve the design of this forum.

Plan of work

Initial starter for 10

I think one major inspiration can be LessWrong:

Especially looking to have @Naeema’s participation here :slightly_smiling_face:

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Thanks for kicking this off Rufus, and for pointing to LessWrong as inspiration.
It’s a great example of deliberate community design. :sparkler:

From a higher altitude, I’d suggest we don’t just improve the design of this forum… we reimagine it. This is a moment to shape not just a better interface, but a new kind of intellectual and cultural agora one that feels alive, emergent, and generative.

Design isn’t just about usability, it’s about values, incentives, and the architecture of participation.

So the questions I’m holding are:

  • What kind of minds and conversations do we want to amplify here?
  • What mechanisms can we create that reward long-form thought and civic imagination?
  • How might we use structure to invite both dissent and coherence: complexity without chaos?

LessWrong optimized for rationality.
What are WE optimizing for? Wisdom? Co-creation? Renaissance?

Let’s architect this space not just for efficiency, but for enchantment.
Let’s shape this not just as a forum, but as a living commons for diverse voices, bold ideas, and collective imagination.

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Thanks both, great questions!

In terms of what we’re optimising for, my initial suggestion - currently on the about page - was that users may have the following three goals:

LEARN - By reading the contributions of others, and formulating your own thoughts, develop your understanding of diverse approaches to wisdom, inner growth and cultural evolution.

CONNECT - We hope that the forum allows for cross-pollination between different groups in the broader second renaissance ecosystem. We also encourage face-to-face and in-person meetings. The events category showcases opportunities to build deeper community.

SEED - Paradigmatic social change will likely happen gradually as new ideas and memes spread through society. Examples like LessWrong, which served to disseminate theories of AI risk, show that forums can be a critical way to expose interested newcomers to new ideas and so broadcast them into the world.

I agree with Rufus that LessWrong is a great model here, not least in terms of the Connect element (there are rationality in-person meetups and conferences around the world) - I noticed recently that they have a map on their community page showing where people and events are based, I think this would be an amazing initiative if we could do something similar: https://www.lesswrong.com/community

Personally I would love to see more of the long-form post approach model here too, where people post quite well-thought, carefully written posts, which then receive considered responses too - this is I guess the idea behind having the ‘research and sense-making category’ being quite prominent.

In terms of incentives and mechanisms, Lesswrong has a voting system where posts are upvoted and downvoted, separately in terms of ‘I’d like to see more of this’ and ‘I agree with this’. This does help to raise the profile of good content, and I think would be good for a forum like this, though this is where I think it would be great to explore other incentives and mechanisms that may fit beter with ideas of wisdom and co-creation..

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Two discourse plugins that would aid with this:

The latter seems to give a UX pretty similar to lesswrong

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As a starter for 10 how about switching to the minima theme which i think is quite elegant – and minimal.

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Thank you @JonahW
Really appreciate how clearly you’ve articulated the LEARN / CONNECT / SEED triad. That scaffolding already reflects a deeper orientation toward culture as catalyst, and it resonates powerfully with what I believe this space is here to become.

Building on what both you and @rufuspollock raised, I spent some time exploring LessWrong more deeply, not just for content inspiration, but to extract practices that have allowed it to evolve as a resilient, high-signal community. Here are a few reflections and recommendations that might serve as guiding patterns as we shape this forum into something distinctively Second Renaissance:

1. Structured Exploration

Their use of “sequences” allows for deep, curated learning journeys through complex themes.

2. Framing Uncertainty

Posts often begin with epistemic context — e.g., “half-baked thoughts” or “needs feedback” — creating a culture of openness and iterative thinking.

3. Signal Amplification (@JonahW +1)

A voting system (karma) surfaces quality and alignment, shaping attention through collective response.

4. Living Ontology (@Asimong +1)

User-generated tags function as a wiki creating an emergent, editable map of shared inquiry.

5. Rituals of Arrival

Welcome threads and onboarding touchpoints help newcomers acclimate and begin meaningfully participating.

6. Cultural Scaffolding

Epistemic and engagement norms are made explicit, shaping a shared sense of “how we do things here.”

7. Community Curatorship

Highlighted comments and thread summaries elevate high-signal contributions and create coherence across conversations.

I propose we create a container within the research team to explore these architectural elements further in conversation with what’s already emerging on the ground in the community field.

This could include a special Oasis Call edition focused on “Forum as Cultural Infrastructure,” inviting both reflection and imaginative prototyping. It’s less about copying and more about translating practices into a grammar that fits our unique purpose and texture.

In parallel, it may be timely for us to begin shaping a Manifesto of Conduct not as a list of rules, but as a living declaration of values-in-practice.

Where many communities lean on moderation and enforcement, we have an opportunity to lead with invitation, coherence, and shared responsibility. This wouldn’t be a top-down policy document, but a crowd-sourced, decentralized articulation of the tone we’re weaving together.

A manifesto that reflects not just what we do, but how we be:

  • Assume depth in others
  • Create, don’t perform
  • Share unfinished thoughts with courage
  • Tend complexity with care
  • Protect time for slowness
  • Honor both rigor and reverence
  • Practice generous interpretation
  • Speak to the future, not just the present

Inspired by the spirit of the Hacker Ethic and the Cluetrain Manifesto, this could emerge as a series of open, declarative statements, co-authored by the community, iterated in public, and held lightly as we evolve.

We might invite contributions from across the forum and evolve this into a collectively-held artifact a trust document that sets the emotional and relational tone of this space.

A call not just for conduct, but for culture.

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@JonahW @Naeema (and anyone else): are we good to try the switch to the minima theme?

Are there other concrete initial improvements we’d like to do?

And @Naeema your analysis is great. I’m wondering if we want to boot a google doc for a consolidated analysis as things can get lost in the threads here - i think the forum topic here is more of an entry and update point.

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Sounds good and happy to try the minima theme. I can implement when I’m back next week or happy for someone else to do in the meantime.

For the voting plugins I’d just like to understand better how they relate to sorting and display of posts, and are there a few different options we can choose between?

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Hey @rufuspollock

Yes, I think we’re good to try switching to the Minima theme it’s clean, modern, and should make the forum feel more current and inviting. We can always iterate once it’s live if anything feels off.

The Discourse Voting plugin is great for prioritizing ideas or proposals. It could be particularly useful in threads where we’re exploring initiatives and want community input on what to focus on next. Another option is using the “poll” feature more deliberately if a full voting plugin feels too heavyweight to start.

Discourse supports social logins out of the box. Google, GitHub, and others can be enabled via API keys. Google in particular is straightforward to set up and would lower the barrier for new signups.

We could use the Discourse Landing Pages plugin to create a more intentional homepage experience… highlighting mission, key posts, intro guides, or whatever else we feel newcomers should see first.

I came across this helpful post on customizing trust level promotion messages. We could repurpose that flow to craft a more intentional and friendly onboarding experience… ideally combining orientation with a light personal touch. Another angle: we can use an auto-PM or customize the Discobot message, but the trust-level messages might be more engaging since they’re already triggered by activity.

Totally agree about centralizing things.* A shared Google Doc sounds good for now, and we can link it in the main forum thread for visibility. Eventually, we could create a “wiki-style” topic in the forum too, Discourse supports that natively, which could be a nice hybrid between live collaboration and keeping everything visible in the space.

*And yes, I know me, of all people, suggesting centralization? Just this once, I promise. I’ll go back to preaching the decentralized gospel right after :innocent:

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@rufuspollock I just received the default trust level onboarding messages and would be happy to help customize them to better reflect the tone and voice of Second Renaissance, in line with the website content… happy to chat more about it at the Oasis meeting tonight if there’s time.

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I’ve booted a google doc: 2R Forum Design Improvements - April 2025 - Google Docs

@Naeema feel free to take some ownership and copy stuff there and consolidate.

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Second Renaissance Forum Design: Working Document
The collaborative draft is now live!
This isn’t just about tweaking features it’s a deeper invitation to help shape the cultural and digital infrastructure of the forum itself.

:page_facing_up: Dive into the doc:

Second Renaissance Forum Design: Working Document
Second Renaissance Forum Design: Working Document1536×736 245 KB

We’re drawing inspiration from platforms like LessWrong not to copy, but to translate into the unique texture of 2R. From onboarding rituals to narrative pathways and community curation, this is a shared sketchpad for reimagining how we participate.

How to contribute:
• Add comments, ideas, tensions, or sketches directly
• Propose additions to the pattern library or manifesto
• Drop links or threads that inspire you
• Ask questions, challenge assumptions, offer provocations

Plus, we’re sensing into hosting a special Oasis Call soon on
“Forum as Cultural Infrastructure”… more on that soon!

Let’s co-create this field not for scale, but for resonance, depth, and relational intelligence.

Let it be living. Let it be ours.

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Placing this thread under the new “Meta” category. Carry on. :+1:

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Great finds! I just tried activating Topic Voting (this has to be done by category) and I think it’s not ideal, as the voting box is at the top of the post rather than at the bottom where the reactions are, so people could easily miss it.

Post voting seems like it might be really good, and similar to Lesswrong as you say - but I’m not sure how to install it, might it require the Discourse business plan as suggested at the bottom of this page: Post Voting | Discourse - Civilized Discussion ?

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I’ve developed the “2R Forum: Weaving the Cultural Fabric” Tent further would love your input! A Collaboration Board for freestyle contributions during the session is also in the works. Also open to advice: do you feel this fits well within the Oasis space, or would it make more sense as a separate gathering?

Tent Name
2R Forum: Weaving the Cultural Fabric

Led by
Naeema

Tent Schedule
Monthly proposed for the 4th week of each month
(first edition launching May 2025)
30 min: Opening (3 mins) Lightning Inputs (20 mins) Harvest and Close (7 mins)

Project Purpose
To collectively shape the Second Renaissance forum as an alive, evolving cultural infrastructure supporting emergence, belonging, wisdom-sharing, and relational intelligence in our digital ecosystem.

Tent Activities
Collective sensing into current forum textures and needs
Storytelling and future-visioning exercises
Small group dialogues and explorations
Prototyping ideas for new rituals, pathways, roles, and structures
Visual and narrative harvesting to seed the next phase of forum development

Vibe
Warm | Spacious | Lightly Held | Relational | Mythic-Touch

Updated - 2R Forum - Second Renaissance Forum Weaving the Cultural Fabric.pdf (2.8 MB)

Please note that as we move toward the first edition of the “2R Forum: Weaving the Cultural Fabric” Tent, I want to share that the presentation and inquiry will remain adaptive, evolving alongside the needs, rhythms, and emergent questions of the space.

Like a true tent, this session is not meant to be static. It’s a living container: a temporary sanctuary where momentum, curiosity, and care gather, and where structure bends to meet what is alive in the moment.

The design will breathe with us: shifting, expanding, or softening based on what the field calls for.

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@Naeema I like this proposal and think it fits well in The Oasis!

Re the title (Not that this is a requirement, but) I’ll inquire if there’s any verb that might point to the doing/building aspect of why people would gather and work together on this project? Maybe something like “crafting” or “tending” or “gardening” or “constructing” or “architecting”? As a naïve reader, the word “as” is leaving me a little uncertain where this might fall on the “discussion group” vs “actually does stuff” spectrum.

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Love this :heart_hands:t2: yes! “Tending” and “gardening” are two of my favorite words, and they fit so perfectly with the spirit of the tent and the forum. Thank you, @JamesBaker for your beautiful sensitivity with language :smiling_face_with_three_hearts: it’s one of the things that makes this space feel so alive and precious. Really grateful for the care you bring and I will be amending accordingly :folded_hands:t2:

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Hello everyone

I’ve updated the title of the Tent to “2R Forum: Weaving the Cultural Fabric” to better reflect the spirit of what we’re tending together, and I’ve amended the presentation accordingly (you can find the updated details in the edited post above).

I’ve also begun shaping a collaborative Miro board as a living space for contributors, a place to dream, sense, and sketch into the emerging architecture together.

Grateful for your eyes, your thoughts, and your threads.

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@Naeema could you work with @ola_o to get the tent info into the Oasis Tents category and listed on the website? :victory_hand:

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@rufuspollock What “hosting plan” are we on? I can confirm Post Voting | Discourse - Civilized Discussion is Business plan level, but I’ll just use a poll for now.