FI Learning

For learning with practice. Posts are not private and could end up on Bing.

📢 considering limiting basecamp to 20 ppl

due to limited interest and usage, i'm considering reverting the basecamp to a free account. that requires kicking ~14 ppl to get back down to the cap of 20. there are that many who have never posted.

i'm happy with the experiment and i think i got some info about what people will and won't do. i think i need to focus on proceeding with my plan of making content that doesn't expect people to actually interact, so interacting or practicing is fully optional to what's going on.

if i limit it to the free account requirements, then i can leave it up indefinitely with no problem even if usage is light. it's awkward to be slightly above the cap while not a lot is happening.

feedback?

PS if you haven't posted enough for me to remember your name and that you've participated, and you don't want to be kicked, reply here saying so. i don't know who is reading stuff and wants to be here, and who isn't.

Comments & Events

doubtingthomas
I agree.

After reading this post I understand that this basecamp project was started to test out your idea about how to help people who want to improve at reason and thinking. The idea included creating content where people have to interact more. You have achieved your goal of testing that idea.

I think a lot of people will feel they are losing exclusive access. If there were some way to let them see what was happening so can they can still watch so they can still have the exclusive access.

A test can be devised which lets people in if they are interactive enough on other forums (curi blog / discord / FIGG).
Elliot, Fallible Ideas
i've been putting the important stuff that i write on my blog too
Elliot, Fallible Ideas
also a large public basecamp would get harassed by andy (who already came by and vandalized this place once). Basecamp doesn't have good security features and DD will not ask his fans to stop trying to destroy what i make, so it's not really an option anyway.
Max Kaye
I read a bit but haven't posted. Leaving basecamp active at the free tier + kicking ppl sounds reasonable.

I'm happy to be kicked if there are ~21 ppl who are active or reply (like, if you need it).

> also a large public basecamp would get harassed by andy

You could make it a subscribestar thing? e.g. free now for ppl who keep using it, but part of a tier for future subscribers. If you kick more ppl than necessary then you could offset the cost of Basecame some; so when you did go above the free tier it wasn't just 1 person triggering a $99/mo expense. If it gets less active then you have some buffer to let things run a bit longer organically. IDK if that's against TOS. Seems worth mentioning.
Elliot, Fallible Ideas
there are a few issues. i considered subscriber perk, but i was thinking of getting rid of basecamp when i set up a new website because i don't want to split forum posts into multiple places. i think that's confusing.
doubtingthomas
If there were some way to let them see what was happening so can they can still watch so they can still have the exclusive access.

One idea is making the 20th subscribers account a dummy one. no one owns it and the login details will be shared with those ~14 ppl after vetting. Maybe they can also post with adding their own name in the end of every comment etc. Will be confusing though.

i was thinking of getting rid of basecamp when i set up a new website
that is my understand of how things are gonna go in the future. Basecamp will become an archive of sorts.

i think that's confusing.
why?
Elliot, Fallible Ideas
it's confusing if there are multiple forums cuz ppl don't know where to put their posts
Elliot, Fallible Ideas
i'd rather if ppl used curi.us more but they weren't doing that and i like basecamp more than discord.
Anne B
One advantage of Basecamp over curi.us for me is I can start my own message threads here.

Another is the "Boost" feature.
Elliot, Fallible Ideas
it's easier for ppl to post images here and get notifications, but u can't write in markdown and it's much harder to export stuff or get permalinks. doesn't work as well for long term content (basecamp does have a feature to export everything. you end up with html files that you can open and navigate in your browser to view everything from the files on your harddrive. it looks reasonably similar to the live website. could probably upload it somewhere pretty easily to share everything publicly)
doubtingthomas
curi.us is better for discussing ideas in that particular blog.

Basecamp works better for helping/training people.

The new website will be a improved FI centric version of Basecamp.

I was about to say AnneB's point. That comes under training I guess. I can ask about overreaching in this post http://curi.us/2177-hardness-emotions-mental-automation but I could get better help here by showing via writing in my own words what I understand till now and write my own post on it ('Doing easy things'.. one for ex).
Elliot, Fallible Ideas
for new website i want tree structure, multiple view options (e.g. you can view a thread with nesting like reddit or as a linear list), user accounts, markdown, easy to post images, and paid memberships. i'll give some stuff away like the BoI explainer videos and if ppl want to actually discuss then they have to pay. it shouldn't be that hard to make but i'm busy working on philosophy stuff like the BoI videos or talking to ppl here, which i prefer over coding the website. Alan has been working on it but is pretty busy.
doubtingthomas
i'm busy working

have you considered hiring a developer?
Elliot, Fallible Ideas
have you considered hiring a developer?

yes. they are very expensive. it's hard to find good ones and it's hard to work on a project like this with someone who doesn't understand how to use a discussion forum, so they have to be micromanaged about how the features work.
Elliot, Fallible Ideas
for various reasons, i don't trust the world to actually like, want and pay for my stuff and make it popular. i'm making it anyway and giving up tons of income i could have earned doing other stuff. i don't want to also burn a lot of my money and risk coming out way behind on that too. that is risky. ppl can help me or wait longer for stuff i guess. best to build stuff up more organically i think.

getting low income for all the work i put in is one thing. significant negative income is something else that's more problematic.
Jonah
I'm just a lurker, but I do lurk (as against not visiting at all). Just saying, in case there aren't 20 active people and you need to pick which inactives get to stay. 
Elliot, Fallible Ideas 👍
Firebench
I only joined today, and would prefer to lurk for a bit to learn the ropes before I actively participate.
Andy Dufresne
I read Basecamp when I get time, and have posted here a little. Haven't really tried to meaningfully engage with it and other than a vague "maybe I will decide to someday" I don't have any plans to.

So while I would prefer to keep lurking / not be kicked I'm OK if I am.
Elliot, Fallible Ideas
i kicked down to 20 ppl
Anne B
I like the formatting palette here. I find it easier to use than Markdown.

I like that we can post text in different colors, although I haven't done that much.

I agree that it's easier to post images here than to curi.us. I often drag and drop a screenshot from my desktop to here.
doubtingthomas
I find that basecamp lacks managing tools. Making a message board for every discussion topic will increase the number of message boards very fast. It will make it harder to find conversations and might lead to same conversations getting copied.

I haven't explored basecamp fully. If there is any feature I am missing, please tell.