Forum Division and Direction

[Jason Hare]

What I'm saying is that we need to have a clear vision of what our purpose is before we can attempt to go to anyone to promote ourselves.

[Jason Hare]

I'm at least able to plug the forum over on Nerdy Biblical Language Majors (NBLM), as in this post. Of course, I always encourage students at the Hebrew Café to come and sign up here. Until now, registration was kinda difficult. I think we've worked out the bugs so that people can pretty easily get registered now.

[Chris Watts]

Hallo Jason and Kirk,

I can not really offer any tips or suggestions but what I would like to offer are observations, the object of which might ignite some inspiration or ideas - maybe?

1. Firstly, I might imagine that newcomers and those with elementary hebrew would find the level of professional talk here intimidating. When I first joined I certainly felt that this forum was far too advanced for my elementary questions. In fact I recently asked one some weeks ago and no-one answered (I do not mind in the slightest though), my first response was that it was too stupid a question to be asked. Often I can not talk the "lingo" and many who visit the forum would no doubt see the "lingo" and be put off. I know I often just manage to scrape by and use some acceptable terminology, but many are not academics, including myself, and need to feel free to say things in a way that might appear anethema to 'Oxford' and 'Cambridge'.

2. I am inclined to believe that though there are thousands of hebrew scholars and academics out there, surprisingly few participtae now. Perhaps this is because most of the conversations are private and in fact most professionals have no need for this type of forum, as a general observation methinks. It is obvious, maybe??, that the largest audience would fall outside of this circle and is it those that you are considering Jason?

3. Though I recognise quite understandably that no theological discussions are allowed, and also I accept that we do not want a forum that descends into mere fanciful comments and pointless rhetoric, thete is a need for many people to discuss freely in a sort of 'Permitted space', like a coffee shop sub-forum. However I do realise this may subtract from an appearance of professionalism, but might encourage helpful debate that while not strictly speaking confined to the syntax and grammar most definitely wold be under the umbrella of the langauge and its interpretation.

4. For many people, biblical hebrew, its whole plethora of meaning and colour can not be seperated from their faith, although this is a forum where only the language is discussed, and rightly so, maybe it is time to extend the territory to include interpretation and relevance for today?

The above points I make are simply observations and feelings. Maybe helpful maybe not. I wondered whether or not I should write this, but hey, there you go.

Regards
Chris watts

[Jason Hare]

Regarding the point of unanswered posts, if you click on Unanswered Topics under Quick Links, you'll see that loads of people have posted topics that just didn't take off. I can see that you have two here and here.

The two threads didn't have much to draw me in. I know that people argue a lot of the dating of biblical books and the reigns of kings. I just generally go with the dates that scholars give for things and don't got into details (mostly because I'm sort of a minimalist with regard to historicity of much of it). I don't like the arguments that it sparks, so I don't get into it. (The same with prophetic texts generally.) As regards the films, I admittedly didn't open the links. I wish we had a way to embed all videos on the forum. I don't like to follow a lot of links on my browser. It's how I keep away from internet viruses. Maybe the videos are interesting and I should take a look at them.

I think social media has, in many respects, caused people to think that both blogs and forums are outmoded, and some people are weary of signing up to forums for interaction. It's easier to have everything centralized on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tiktok (am I too old to know that there are others?). In many respects, it seems that even Reddit (the successor of all forum sites) has been supplanted by more centralized social media sites.

We need to find a way to make B-Hebrew stand out as a quality forum that puts out good discussions that people want to engage in. We need to find just a couple of core content producers (users) who will represent the cutting edge of where Hebrew pedagogy and scholarship is at the moment and lead the rest of us in discussions that are relevant to what scholars are really talking about today.

I'm not a scholar. My passion for Hebrew is on the side of teaching. I didn't study to be an academic or to argue minutiae, and often that kind of talk bores me to tears or makes me think that people have too much time on their hands.

Kirk is currently traveling with his wife. He will be back soon to give us his thoughts on this. He's told me that he's read through the thread and wants to respond, but he wants to give it a good answer. I'm looking forward to that.

Thanks for the thoughts so far from everyone who has engaged. I'm thinking with you, and I hope we can come to some useful decisions as a result of the discussion.

[Kenneth Greifer]

I have another idea. Maybe have a book review section for people to review new books about the Hebrew Bible or Biblical Hebrew or Aramaic possibly that have been published within one year of the date they are reviewing the book. I think any book should be allowed because people are not going to debate book reviews, so it shouldn't matter if the book promotes any particular religious belief.

[Kenneth Greifer]

Jason,
I have noticed on that facebook textual criticism page, where I see your name often, a lot of people ask Biblical Hebrew questions there that having nothing to do with textual criticism. You should ask the guy who runs the group if he could put a link to B-Hebrew for people who just want to ask Biblical Hebrew questions that are not about textual criticism. Also, when you see one there, you should answer the person by saying they should ask here and put a link. Not only will that person see it, but many other people who go to that facebook page will see it.

[Jason Hare]

Jason,
I have noticed on that facebook textual criticism page, where I see your name often, a lot of people ask Biblical Hebrew questions there that having nothing to do with textual criticism. You should ask the guy who runs the group if he could put a link to B-Hebrew for people who just want to ask Biblical Hebrew questions that are not about textual criticism. Also, when you see one there, you should answer the person by saying they should ask here and put a link. Not only will that person see it, but many other people who go to that facebook page will see it.

Not a bad idea. Thank you!

[Jason Hare]

I have another idea. Maybe have a book review section for people to review new books about the Hebrew Bible or Biblical Hebrew or Aramaic possibly that have been published within one year of the date they are reviewing the book. I think any book should be allowed because people are not going to debate book reviews, so it shouldn't matter if the book promotes any particular religious belief.

I really like the idea. I’ve gone ahead and created a subforum for it, which is located at Resources → User Book Discussions and Reviews.

Would you like to open it up with a book review?

[Kenneth Greifer]

I wanted to limit book reviews to recent books from within 1 year of date of the review. I don't have any books to review. Are you making any rules about that?

[Jason Hare]

I wanted to limit book reviews to recent books from within 1 year of date of the review. I don't have any books to review. Are you making any rules about that?

Why have that specific limitation? Why not the past five years or so? I don’t imagine many books coming out in the next year alone that our members would necessarily be privy to immediately.