This isn’t so much a rebrand, as a new way to direct our party.
As I said before, when I joined the party the thing I fell for wasn’t freedom for software development. (Though as a developer I do agree with it.) I fell in love because of this forum, and wouldn’t have joined otherwise. To think that a person like me could have an actual say to people who were actually interested in politics and could do something about it!
So I think this is what we should be pushing for here. When Joe Public can climb aboard ship and speak his word if he wants about the things he cares about, and people listen and debate about it, we have a good political ship.
The party as an organisation is building lots of communities, covering a huge array of activities and locations around Australia. This forum is but one of those. It’s great that you decided it was a good enough reason for you to join!
I always tell people the first thing I’ve learnt about politics when I decided to join a while ago, was a realisation about just how small politics in this country actually is. We’re living in a time when lots of people are switching off from politics, so any participation in the political process will have an even greater impact.
Some general advice for new members:
Find some quick wins to help improve the party. We always need more people helping out with the day-to-day tasks of running the Party. Tasks such as fixing a wiki page which is out of date, writing some social media messages about a recent news article which is relevant to our members etc. (https://pirateparty.org.au/wiki/Tasks_for_Pirates). Getting to know your fellow members is always the pre-requisite for them helping implement your ideas. They’ll have their own priorities as well which are just as valid as your own.
Don’t mess with the name or the brand on your ‘first’ day. I like to see people who understand there are probably some good reasons behind the way we’ve done things so far and a new member’s context will be very different from a founding member’s context. Hundreds of other people have built this party to where it is now over years and they’ve put in the effort, time and money to create the fundamentals that convinced others to sign up. I like to see a little respect for that (call me conservative if you like ). I don’t like to see people getting caught up on things they can’t quickly change or accomplish, especially when they’re a new member. That can lead to wasted energy.
On the other hand there could be utility to both cultured and uncultured, tamed and untamed eyes?
Especially since the pirate premise is very pro-piracy.
Perhaps a suggestion for the forum is to be able to sort topics by the EXP/level of whom started the topic. Potentially could also factor in a metric for the EXP/levelled interaction/popularity that it attracts.
Pirates are pro-remix culture, and we are one of the few groups who actively, proudly and publicly support it. Everyone is welcome to take our “brand” and remix it - change, add, remove, remix.
@jsky experience/popularity are irrelevant, it should only be the quality of ideas and their ability to provoke healthy discussion.
). I don’t like to see people getting caught up on things they can’t quickly change or accomplish, especially when they’re a new member. That can lead to wasted energy.