Thork

Membership suggestion
« on: July 16, 2014, 04:37:29 PM »
Having read some of Daniel's objections to our validity ... why don't we open up membership?

And make it free.

You basically register on this site or facebook app etc, and become part of the list?

I know its a little tricky, but we could allow people to add their names, have the site generate a .pdf membership certificate with their name on, and allow those who register to download their certificate. It will be free. I'm sure people will register friends and family for jokes but so what? It gets us out there. But we can promote it on facebook, etc and get a massive number of people as members.

No £12 fee. If later we want to allow the purchase of T-shirts and flat earth starter packs, we can. I don't know why we don't do this. We could just use a 3rd party vendor to ensure all the merch gets sent out, we'd not even be involved after we set it up.

Thoughts?

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Offline xasop

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Re: Membership suggestion
« Reply #1 on: July 16, 2014, 04:39:03 PM »
This was something I had always assumed would be handled by the Zetetic Council (possibly with technical assistance from us, once they've decided how to do it). They run the Society, so they should administer the membership. I'm not sure if pizaaplanet is in agreement with that or not.

Anyway, I'm heading to bed right now, so I'll see where this thread is at tomorrow.
when you try to mock anyone while also running the flat earth society. Lol

Thork

Re: Membership suggestion
« Reply #2 on: July 16, 2014, 04:40:39 PM »
I want people's opinions. If I put it in the council forum, I'll be the only one there. Tom is ill and the others aren't around.

If its popular, we can push ahead. :-)

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Offline juner

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Re: Membership suggestion
« Reply #3 on: July 16, 2014, 04:46:23 PM »
I like the idea. Not to refute Daniel's claim of legitimacy (seems like Wikipedia handled that), but because it is an added value for our members. I may be too closely relating the society and the forum, so I understand where Parsifal is coming from. It will certainly require effort from multiple people to be administered efficiently.

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Offline markjo

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Re: Membership suggestion
« Reply #4 on: July 16, 2014, 05:19:21 PM »
What's the point of becoming a member of a FES where none of the members want to discuss FET?  It's like joining an astronomy club where no one wants to talk about looking at the stars.
Abandon hope all ye who press enter here.

Science is what happens when preconception meets verification.

Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge. -- Charles Darwin

If you can't demonstrate it, then you shouldn't believe it.

Thork

Re: Membership suggestion
« Reply #5 on: July 16, 2014, 05:58:21 PM »
What's the point of becoming a member of a FES where none of the members want to discuss FET?  It's like joining an astronomy club where no one wants to talk about looking at the stars.
Stop moaning.

Ghost of V

Re: Membership suggestion
« Reply #6 on: July 16, 2014, 06:15:15 PM »
It does sound like this site would become more-so a social club than an actual community to discuss the flatness of Earth.

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Offline Particle Person

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Re: Membership suggestion
« Reply #7 on: July 16, 2014, 06:18:37 PM »
It does sound like this site would become more-so a social club than an actual community to discuss the flatness of Earth.

How would a free and basically meaningless membership system make this site any more or less of a social club?
Your mom is when your mom and you arent your mom.

Ghost of V

Re: Membership suggestion
« Reply #8 on: July 16, 2014, 06:28:47 PM »
It does sound like this site would become more-so a social club than an actual community to discuss the flatness of Earth.

How would a free and basically meaningless membership system make this site any more or less of a social club?

Signing up on the forum is already pretty much a free membership to TFES, and it's more like a social club than a Flat Earth discussion group already. I disagree with making people pay for a membership to begin with. Maybe we should make every member of the forum a member of TFES? Skeptics and true believers alike.

Off-topic: I think the T-shirt idea is great. I would certainly purchase one.

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Offline markjo

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Re: Membership suggestion
« Reply #9 on: July 16, 2014, 07:06:40 PM »
It does sound like this site would has become more-so a social club than an actual community to discuss the flatness of Earth.
Fixed, because it already happened about 6 months ago.
Abandon hope all ye who press enter here.

Science is what happens when preconception meets verification.

Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge. -- Charles Darwin

If you can't demonstrate it, then you shouldn't believe it.

Ghost of V

Re: Membership suggestion
« Reply #10 on: July 16, 2014, 07:08:22 PM »
It does sound like this site would has become more-so a social club than an actual community to discuss the flatness of Earth.
Fixed, because it already happened about 6 months ago.

Just another reason why every member of the forum should be given a TFES membership.

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Offline Lord Dave

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Re: Membership suggestion
« Reply #11 on: July 16, 2014, 08:30:26 PM »
Well, you gotta start somewhere.

It seems like a good enough idea.  Just make sure you have a list of people who do sign up so it's slightly more official.  You should probably put in some clause saying that the members should discuss FET at least once in a while.
If you are going to DebOOonK an expert then you have to at least provide a source with credentials of equal or greater relevance. Even then, it merely shows that some experts disagree with each other.

Thork

Re: Membership suggestion
« Reply #12 on: July 16, 2014, 08:47:10 PM »
Well, you gotta start somewhere.

It seems like a good enough idea.  Just make sure you have a list of people who do sign up so it's slightly more official.  You should probably put in some clause saying that the members should discuss FET at least once in a while.

Why the clause? If you want to be 'a friend of the flat earth society', sign up, download your little certificate if you want... that's it. We could give 'friends of the flat earth society a little square' too. It hurts no one, other than an administrator every once in a while.
« Last Edit: July 16, 2014, 08:58:46 PM by Thork »

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Offline Lord Dave

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Re: Membership suggestion
« Reply #13 on: July 16, 2014, 11:00:56 PM »
Well, you gotta start somewhere.

It seems like a good enough idea.  Just make sure you have a list of people who do sign up so it's slightly more official.  You should probably put in some clause saying that the members should discuss FET at least once in a while.

Why the clause? If you want to be 'a friend of the flat earth society', sign up, download your little certificate if you want... that's it. We could give 'friends of the flat earth society a little square' too. It hurts no one, other than an administrator every once in a while.
I don't think friends count as actual members.
If you are going to DebOOonK an expert then you have to at least provide a source with credentials of equal or greater relevance. Even then, it merely shows that some experts disagree with each other.

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Offline jroa

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Re: Membership suggestion
« Reply #14 on: July 16, 2014, 11:10:19 PM »
I think a membership register should be voluntary.  Perhaps one of the council members can volunteer to keep up with it and people can send him/her a PM with their choice of information to add to it, such as initials, city, first and/or last name, country, or what ever information that member wants to be displayed on his/her membership.  That council member would then just have to transfer the information from the PM to the list.

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Offline Pete Svarrior

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Re: Membership suggestion
« Reply #15 on: July 16, 2014, 11:56:18 PM »
I don't think friends count as actual members.
Not that we should necessarily be influenced by that, but on the old site, "Friends of the Flat Earth" are the people who paid for their membership packs, while "Associate Members" are the ones who got on the roster free of charge, needing to only send a postcard. (Last I checked, the count of associate members was 5)

I agree that a membership register should be opt-in, but otherwise, I'd be happy to accommodate it from a technical side.

The T-shirt idea comes up every now and then. When we last discussed it, everyone seemed to think it's a good idea. The main reason we're somewhat reluctant is that, frankly, we don't want people to think we're doing this for money, and the easiest way to guarantee we never get this accusation is by not having anything that costs money. But maybe it's time to give those a trial run? I have some friends at TeeGlobe - one of those companies that offer a new t-shirt every day for a period of 48 hours, they're dirt cheap, and they deliver worldwide. I could get in touch with them and see if they'd be willing to put up a design of ours. That way we could at least partially satisfy the initial need for tees among members and potentially get a little bit more attention from the outside world, and depending on how that goes, we could then decide whether or not we want to set up something long-term.

What do people think?
Read the FAQ before asking your question - chances are we already addressed it.
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Offline jroa

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Re: Membership suggestion
« Reply #16 on: July 17, 2014, 12:09:38 AM »
I really like the idea.  I would buy a few.  Since the time line for ordering is short, perhaps we should have a 1 month advanced notice so everyone has time to plan on their purchase?

Anyone artsy fartsy enough to make the design? 

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Offline markjo

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Re: Membership suggestion
« Reply #17 on: July 17, 2014, 01:38:31 AM »
You should probably put in some clause saying that the members should discuss FET at least once in a while.
I don't think that a clause compelling discussion of FET among members is the answer.  Let's face it, if a number of people get together and are genuinely interested in something (whether they actually believe in it or not), then discussion will flow naturally.  The fact there is little to no discussion of FET on a FES web site suggests that few, if any, "members" have any genuine interest in FET.
Abandon hope all ye who press enter here.

Science is what happens when preconception meets verification.

Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge. -- Charles Darwin

If you can't demonstrate it, then you shouldn't believe it.

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Offline Particle Person

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Re: Membership suggestion
« Reply #18 on: July 17, 2014, 03:15:28 AM »
You should probably put in some clause saying that the members should discuss FET at least once in a while.
I don't think that a clause compelling discussion of FET among members is the answer.  Let's face it, if a number of people get together and are genuinely interested in something (whether they actually believe in it or not), then discussion will flow naturally.  The fact there is little to no discussion of FET on a FES web site suggests that few, if any, "members" have any genuine interest in FET.

Or they do, but they got tired of arguing the same topics with people like you repeatedly.
Your mom is when your mom and you arent your mom.

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Offline markjo

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Re: Membership suggestion
« Reply #19 on: July 17, 2014, 03:28:00 AM »
You should probably put in some clause saying that the members should discuss FET at least once in a while.
I don't think that a clause compelling discussion of FET among members is the answer.  Let's face it, if a number of people get together and are genuinely interested in something (whether they actually believe in it or not), then discussion will flow naturally.  The fact there is little to no discussion of FET on a FES web site suggests that few, if any, "members" have any genuine interest in FET.

Or they do, but they got tired of arguing the same topics with people like you repeatedly.
Are you saying that there are no aspects of FET left for FE'ers to discuss among themselves?  Have all the mysteries of FET been solved?  Do all FE'ers agree on the same FE model? 
Abandon hope all ye who press enter here.

Science is what happens when preconception meets verification.

Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge. -- Charles Darwin

If you can't demonstrate it, then you shouldn't believe it.