Member Recruitment Ideas?

Do you guys have any ideas that we can implement or places we can promote our forum to make this place not so barren??

I am thinking of starting a project where the person with the most recruitment gets a prize - possibly $$ or a book or a DVD...

Transhumanist NEEDS a centralized forum on the net and this is the first attempt to try to create one - the road ahead will be bumpy but I'm sure with enough dedication (which I am going to give 110%!!) we can get this place running smoothly.

Feel free to promote this place on any websites/forums/social networks you frequent as well! Even real life promotion will suffice! :lol:

(Copypasta'd from the old Transhumanist forums...this place is already a lot more active!)

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Permalink Reply by Peer Infinity on June 25, 2009 at 2:14pm: One obvious idea for making this forum not so barren is - start posting stuff here!

Marino, I know you've already been posting links to interesting articles you found, but if you want to generate discussion, try asking a question for other people to post replies to.

For example:

poll: What is your favourite definition of Transhumanism?
poll: What is your definition of Singularitarianism?
poll: What other transhumanist forums are there?
poll: How does transhumanism affect your life today?
What are your favorite books?

As for promoting our forum: I would assume that once we actually have some worthwhile content here, then word-of-mouth, plus the occasional web link from a popular website, should be all the promotion we need. And, of course, Google will also help.

Though, according to that theory, the wiki should already be popular...

My instinctive reaction to the idea of recruitment prizes is "Bad idea!", though that's probably because I've seen these strategies used for far less worthy causes, which wouldn't have actually been able to recruit other members without offering some sort of prize. Also, this risks attracting people who are in it just for the prizes.

So far, about half of the people I mentioned this forum to have replied "but there are so many transhumanist forums out there already" - though none of these people were able to actually help create a list of these other forums.

See the Other Transhumanist Forums page on the Transhumanist Wiki for a list of the other forums we have found so far.

We had better ask "What makes this forum better than those other forums?", though this still somehow seems like the wrong question.

So far, the only answer I can think of is "We're trying to be a central forum for the entire transhumanist movement, not just one specific subgroup." Still, I would be really surprised if we're the only forum making this claim.

Also, we should realize that some of these other forums have advantages over ours - for example, the Transhumanist Network is another fully functional Ning social networking site, with over 400 members already signed up! However, their forums aren't really that active, and there are a some technical issues with their site. There are no forum categories, so all of the posts just show up in one big list, where it's hard to find what you're looking for.

Our forums are still the best transhumanist forums I know of. We just need more active members.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Chris Williamson on June 29, 2009 at 7:09pm: Have you guys seen the Shock Level 4 mailing list?? that is a VERY active mailing list and if you get people like that on here you're good to go!!!

A good strategy might be to help more academic transhumanists get on here to interface with more populist transhumanists. That is my overarching goal anyway and will be the key to gaining even more momentum!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Chris Williamson on June 29, 2009 at 11:36pm: Also......be sure to WELCOME new people. If 5 people welcome them they'll feel at ease and....welcome to be here!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Syzygy on January 16, 2010 at 2:11pm: Maybe some better pro-transhuman slogans? "2030: Laser eye vision or rocket feet? YOU DECIDE!"; ▶ Reply to This