An SPGB (national one-way announcements) mailing list
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The first point for action agreed by the 'Socialist Platform';
Quote:• We need our own E-Discussion and E-Information Lists
The following points of action were agreed:
a) Set up E-Discussion and E-Information ListsSPGB has been around over a century, had 'E-Discussion lists' for over ten years but threw away our announcements list. SPGB still uses local malling lists so perhaps its now time to get serious about an national announcements list. Here's my contribution;
jondwhite wrote:SPGB still uses local malling lists so perhaps its now time to get serious about an national announcements list. Here's my contribution;http://groups.yahoo.com/groups/spannounceTrue, there is the HO mailing list which currently has 165 subscribers but the party doesn't just use local mailing lists. We have the party events section on the SPGB website:http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/calendarOur Meetup page where all members of the group (119 at present) are automatically informed regularly of party events:http://www.meetup.com/The-Socialist-Party-of-Great-Britain/#calendarThen there is Spintcom and Spopen…What I for one don't what to see are our mailing lists being used to advertise the events of organisations which have no connection with the party, as here, for example:http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/spannounce/conversations/topics/7
The party events section on the SPGB website is well worth mentioning. Compared to a mailing list it is not designed to alert users of events unless they go to look at it. Meetup may well do this but the party should be running its own, there are no technical barriers to this. Spintcom and Spopen and all the other party and branch yahoo lists are discussion lists that members and sympathisers only interested in announcements would not use.As for global observances of a political nature, there might be a point. Maybe it depends how strict you want to be, but would this to extend to International Workers' Day for example? Maybe not so much advertising them, but rather as highlighting them as opportunities for SPGB publicity/activity. A mailing list could be an organisational tool not just limited to an advertising channel. Just because subscribers might only want informing of reminders and not discussion doesn't mean they're passive rather than active.
Hi ComradesI want to say I have also been concerned about posts about other organisations events appearing on the events section of the forum, enough to have complained to the Internet Committee recently about one.I don't have a problem with letting comrades know about events where we have an opportunity to use such events as a forum to get our ideas or objections to leftists etc across. The more opportunities the better.The problem is that if there is just a post that announces an event (say a SWP conference) with no qualification as why its on our events page, how can any casual visitor to our forum tell whether we are endorsing such an event or not?It has been pointed out that there is a disclaimer on Events that says we don't necessarily endorse all the content, but I don't think this is sufficient. "We" members may know what we mean but that's easy for us to work out, we can't expect all visitors to the site to be so discerning.Please if you have an event you think may be of interest to other Comrades just introduce it (for example: "Here is a opportunity for Socialists to sell/distribute literature to an audience who may be interested in our ideas and how they differ from the reformist and/or democratic centralists who are attempting to be their leaders").Regards
I think it'd be less hassle to just close the events and announcements subforum than to use the prefix.
jondwhite wrote:I think it'd be less hassle to just close the events and announcements subforum than to use the prefix.Less hassle for whom? Simpler still – desist from advertising other organisation's events except where there may be an obvious propaganda advantage and hallblithe usually advises comrades of those. In the very few other instances something along the lines of Rob Cox's prefix seems eminently sensible.
Well, what about users of the forum who are non-members or even regard themselves as opponents of the party for example? Why should they participate if the forum is only for a propaganda advantage for the SPGB? Could members of the party even be interested in the ideas of the organisations of non-members without going to sell/distribute party literature?If the forum is supposed to be relatively one-way, like a conveyor belt of party ideas to the class, then you'd be better off with a mailling list. It would be less cumbersome than an extended prefix that members are obliged to use but non-members aren't or don't.
jondwhite wrote:Well, what about users of the forum who are non-members or even regard themselves as opponents of the party for example? Why should they participate if the forum is only for a propaganda advantage for the SPGB? Could members of the party even be interested in the ideas of the organisations of non-members without going to sell/distribute party literature?Could it remotely be because they want to find out about the SPGB and socialist ideas? What is incontrovertible is that we're not 'in business' to provide a propaganda advantage for other organisations. Clause 7 of our Declaration of Principles refers.
Quote:If the forum is supposed to be relatively one-way, like a conveyor belt of party ideas to the class, then you'd be better off with a mailing list. It would be less cumbersome than an extended prefix that members are obliged to use but non-members aren't or don't.The forum is far from being one-way but it doesn't follow that our events and announcements section should be used by some as "a town-crier for all manner of rag-tag reformist and leftist organisations" to paraphrase one member's view. If there are those who are willing to trawl the net to see what other organisations are up to then how much more effort would it be for them to provide a short explanatory prefix where appropriate?
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