JewsByChoice.Org

Last week after announcing that (at least for the time being) our “Discussion Forum” was going to be coming down. I was contacted by several JBC.org regulars (including Rivkah) who informed me that they were a little disappointed that the Discussion Forum was coming down and had they known, the Forum was actually open for business, they would have made use of it.

There were a couple of reasons it was taken down first and foremost is that the software plug-ins we had been experimenting with, just didn’t do the trick. They were unstable and too bloated for what we were trying to do. Another important reason is that although we like the idea of promoting greater discussion and dialogue here at JewsByChoice.org, some concerns were raised regarding how a Discussion Forum might detract from the quality of dialogue on the blog. One of the things which has been repeatedly pointed out to me (and I might add is something we’re all proud of ourselves,) is that we’ve actually done a decent job of creating a community here on the blog. It’s pretty impressive considering we’ve only been around for four months and we cover, a fairly narrow niche. So basically, we don’t want to undo what we’ve accomplished and in all fairness, adding a Discussion Forum, could do that. One other concern was a round the issue of maintaining our focus, which is to discuss issues related to Jewish engagement and identity, as they pertain to Jews by choice. However, I’m confident that this third concern, need not become an issue as long as everybody involved uses the Forum feature appropriately.

Essentially because a handful of people stepped up and told us that this was something worth doing, we are going to give it a shot. But here’s the deal.

We’re going to run this as a pilot/trial project over the next few months (let’s say three,) and see if it’s something people actually put to use. Also to see if we can do it, while avoiding the concerns mentioned above.

Basically if people use it and we can stick to our stated purpose of focusing on issues and discussions related to Jewish engagement and identity as Jews by choice, the Discussion Forum will be made a permanent feature.

So if you’re one of the people who thinks this is a good idea, now’s your chance to field test it and see if it’s something, we as a community, want to make permanent.

I’ve logged in an incredible amount of time over the last three days, trying to get all of this online and functional. I’m using a completely new discussion forum application, which I’m impressed with and am confident will meet our needs quite well. However there are sure to be technical glitches and bugs especially over the next couple of weeks, as I finish setting things up. Also none of us have ever tried to run/manage a Discussion Forum before, so we are sure to make some mistakes along the way and we ask that everyone be patient, as we go about figuring things out.

Anyhow that’s about it for now. Let me end by saying how happy I am, that people actually wanted this feature enough to peruse the issue and I’m looking forward to see how it all unfolds.

Shabbat shalom

Avi