MollyMac

My answers are:

1. Not any more.

2. Same as christ-on-a-stick. I mean this is how I try to behave wherever I go regardless of whether I feel I belong to a community or not.

3. Not since I stopped feeling this was community, which I did for reasons touched on by christ-on-a-stick's post.

Celsus

Hi Gurdur,

I didn't want to respond initially, and perhaps the reason will become apparent in the post below.

From the mission statement:
From the Forum Rules:From livius' link:
So is there a community? I think it qualifies under the broad definition. The definition itself isn't very good, since we have several theists here who do not share most or even a few of the goals as per the mission statement (although discussion with theists does contribute to the goals). Is it a "community" in the sense of the positive connotations that "community" normally comes with? No, especially since what is arguably a violation of rule (3) was supported several users.

In that sense, the answer to the second question is that one's moral obligations extend only as far as the rules go. That is the precendent that has been set.

And in reverse, the Secular Web would not appear to have any obligations to its users, except inasmuch as it declares that it "strives to be an intellectually stimulating environment in which discussants exchange ideas in the spirit of discovery."
Joel

Gurdur

{ bumping this for the weekday crowd }

I stress to people again this survey is not about SecWeb Admin rules, or the FPF, or anything like that; it's about if you feel there is an unofficial but real community here (though I know this gets tied in with the official community message of SecWeb), and if so, what you feel your moral obligations to that community are, and if you feel that community has moral obligations to you.

8of9

1. I think there is a SecWeb community (if not, the fiction is convincing), and will offer my views as an outsider/newbie on moral obligations.

2. I think it is the moral obligation of visitors to your community to respect the existing SecWeb culture, and to be honest posters and open-minded critics.

3. I would hope that the community feels an obligation to welcome outsiders and protect our privacy.

Viti

Well I see this as a community, but don't feel any specific obligations nor have any specific expectations. I guess I have always seen community the same as family or any other group...you get what you give or you get the boot.

Philosoft

Yup. That sounds about right.

Unusual Suspect

Since I'm new to this particular community, I have to generalize. The meaning of the word is different online and in the RW. Online community is a fragile thing because we don't see each other face to face, and for the most part, we know each other in fairly superficial ways.

But the feeling of community certainly exists, and to the extent that people honor it and each other, then the community itself exists.

My obligations are to follow the rules (the very least that should be expected of participants), to contribute something of value, and to treat everyone with respect (at least as much as they show themselves deserving of ).

Amit Misra

I do not think that the SecWeb is a community: its more of of a hanging-out place.
Maybe I'll qualify my statement. I used to feel very much at home here during 1993-94, when we had Nathan Saden, Cat Jesus et al. Now that things have (necesasrily) had to change to accomodate the population explosion, the community feeling has sort of gone.
Amit

Jamie_L

There is a community here as much as people want there to be. You can post and read without really worrying about who the people are on the other end. Or, you can get more personally involved, develop relationships and friendships. There's both here. In a way, there is a "core" community of folks here who recognize each other and communicate with each other as acquaintances and friends. There is a much larger segment of folks who just treat this as a place to read and speak out. That isn't as much of a community, I don't think, but it's an equally valid use of SecWeb.

I fall somewhere inbetween those two camps.

My obligations to SecWeb? No more or less than my obligations to other human beings that I interact with. I try to be ethical and civil, give people the benefit of the doubt, treat people with respect until and unless they treat me otherwise.

SecWeb's obligations to me? Not much beyond moderating things to keep this place vibrant but not beligerent and out of control.

Jamie