Dear OEN members,
It is our pleasure to introduce a new feature to our site that we have high hopes for -- a forum for community building. We realize that OEN is primarily a news and opinions site. We want to keep it that way. But we also want it to be more than that. We want to provide a virtual space for OEN members to get to know one another, to find some common ground, to build collaborative (and perhaps even social) relationships. We want to facilitate inter-connection between members, provide a way for subgroups to work together in the pursuit of whatever cause is important to them.
We have a few thoughts about what it might require for such a function to be useful. One of them is the recognition that community building requires a dedicated space. We intend for this to be that space. Just look for the "Building Our Community Image" on the front page. We also recognize that community is not built in a day, that seeds need time to germinate. To facilitate this process, we're going to keep each "community building" thread headlined in this space for a week's time instead of the usual 24 hours. After that, the thread will be archived off the front page for all those who want to continue the discussion and a new community building thread will be posted to the front page headline.
In a few weeks, we will ask you to share with us how to you think we might improve this community building feature. We expect that it might take us some time to figure out the optimal structure for this space. Expect some changes as we try to do that.
But let's get to know each other first. Tell us something about yourself that is personal, rather than political. Or tell us why you're here on OpEdNews. After all, the internet is a big, vast place.
[Update 6-19-09, 6:30pm EST]
We just created an Admin account so that this space and some other new things that we are working on will not appear under any particular person's name.
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