The Purpose of a Forum

[sudikics]

The Church of Google main site exists as the front to a satirical idea, that if you apply religious views to the world around us, you can reach the conclusion that Google is the closest thing to a deity which we can verify to exist. It is and always has been satire.

Websites have forums to provide discussion areas for people who work under the same banner. For example, the forum members of xkcd forums are in general readers and fans of the comic. Here, the idea is that the Church of Google forum allows people who proudly carry the banner of promoting the Googlism argument to discuss issues both related and not related to the CoG.

However, is this truly a uniting force? I think we can all agree that this forum hasn't had stable activity for a while now. After all, while Googlism is a humorous concept, the truth is that it is in the end simply a satirical argument against religion. I suggest that perhaps it is not best to focus on the forum aspect of the argument, and instead focus on the neglected main site, where the argument is explained and presented to the world.

What niche does this forum fill? Niches for intellectual secular discussion, parody religion, serious atheist discussion, etc. have already been carved out all over the web. If you were to present Googlism to a evangelist in an argument, you would not seriously attempt a conversion, but bring it up as a humorous counter-point to the wonders of their deity of choice.

Therefore, I propose the following. Send out a request to those who are interested in maintaining or building up the main site with FAQs, media, design, etc. Once you have gathered a small group of contributors, establish a method of communication (perhaps a private Google group or Wave) and disband the forum. Take down the forum links from the main website, set up an idea submissions e-mail account for the site, and start making the main site better than ever.

Thoughts?

scikidus