Forum Division and Direction

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Jason Hare
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Forum Division and Direction

Post by Jason Hare »

Hey, everyone.

This post isn't about the Hebrew language or any part of the Bible. It's about B-Hebrew as a forum.

At various times, it's a good idea to think through your group objectives and consider ways that we can change and grow.

Kirk and I are very interested in hearing from the forum users with regard to ideas for additional subforms (is anything missing that we can agree to add? is anything unnecessary here? etc.), policies, growth projects, etc.

Is there anything that we can do to make B-Hebrew more useful for you, to make it more attractive to potential new folks, to draw in new blood?

Please give us your feedback. Let us know what you think.

Thanks!
Jason Hare
Tel Aviv, Israel
The Hebrew Café
יוֹדֵ֣עַ צַ֭דִּיק נֶ֣פֶשׁ בְּהֶמְתּ֑וֹ וְֽרַחֲמֵ֥י רְ֝שָׁעִ֗ים אַכְזָרִֽי׃
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Kenneth Greifer
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Re: Forum Division and Direction

Post by Kenneth Greifer »

Although, I don't plan to participate here to discuss Biblical Hebrew, except recently to ask a computer question involving Biblical Hebrew, I think you should consider adding a small section to the discussion forum for discussing the Aramaic parts of the Hebrew Bible, in case anyone here actually knows Aramaic. There is a small amount of Aramaic in the Hebrew Bible, so why not have a small section about Aramaic? Even if it doesn't work out, it is worth a try.
Kenneth Greifer
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Re: Forum Division and Direction

Post by Kenneth Greifer »

I don't know why my posting showed up twice. I think something is wrong with my computer. I fiddled with it and now it is acting crazy.
Kenneth Greifer
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Jason Hare
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Re: Forum Division and Direction

Post by Jason Hare »

Fixed it. I don't know why your posts doubled up, but I've deleted the duplicates.

That's certainly an idea. It would make sense to have a small area of the forum for discussing biblical Aramaic, since it is a part of the Hebrew Bible. We'll see what others have to say. Thanks for the feedback.
Jason Hare
Tel Aviv, Israel
The Hebrew Café
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Kenneth Greifer
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Re: Forum Division and Direction

Post by Kenneth Greifer »

I think you should make a separate section for textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible to compete with that Facebook page I often see you on. I hate how people reply there because the replies are not in a straight line, but you can have sub-replies and not see them, if you know what I mean. Here you can follow a discussion easier.

Also, I would look on their page for people who promote free videos on Youtube about Biblical Hebrew and then contact them in the comments section on their youtube channel (not on the facebooks page) and tell them about this discussion forum where they could also mention their educational videos. For fun, I just tried that Bible scholar who always shows videos on the facebook page. I went to his youtube channel and told him about promoting his videos here too. They are free and very educational about Biblical Hebrew. I wonder if he will join or if he is already a member. His name is Christopher Dost. It is easy to reach people on very small youtube channels. I hope it is ok that I said that to him. He didn't answer me yet, but his videos are very appropriate for this discussion forum.
Kenneth Greifer
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Jason Hare
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Re: Forum Division and Direction

Post by Jason Hare »

I think it's absolutely a great idea to have a place for sharing videos. I've created a tag for sharing YouTube videos directly here on the forum. I can show you how to do that, of course. I was just thinking today about the "Aleph with Beth" videos (from https://www.youtube.com/c/AlephwithBeth). For example, here is a video from Aleph with Beth:



There could definitely be a section of the pedagogy section of the forum specifically for ideas for helping people new things, from YouTube, from various parts of the internet. There are so many amazing resources that can be shared today and are simply ignored.

I'll be collecting what you suggest and taking it all into consideration. We'll decide together, rather than just having the forum re-arranged suddenly. I did delete the subforum for Ben Sirah, since it did not pan out. No one was using it, and it seemed silly to have a dedicated subforum to it when only one thread was created.

I'm hoping that we can start to get people coming, signing up, participating, and getting this place back to where it used to be. Tell your friends! Registration is open, and we're looking to build the forum up.
Jason Hare
Tel Aviv, Israel
The Hebrew Café
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Kenneth Greifer
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Re: Forum Division and Direction

Post by Kenneth Greifer »

Jason,
I have another idea that only you or Kirk can do, if you want to. I suggest you write out a short description about B-Hebrew and send that description in an email to different Bible bloggers with a friendly request for them to please mention B-Hebrew in their blog. Most of these blogs are run by Bible scholars who will like B-Hebrew because it is a non-profit educational site that encourages the study of the Hebrew Bible. I am sure some of them will help you promote B-Hebrew if you just ask them.
I recommend starting with Paleojudaica and then look at his blogroll for more blogs to contact. I also recommend Zingwillius or whatever it is called because it is very popular. I kind of think Evangelical Textual Criticism might do it too, but I don't know. Blogs don't usually do this, but they might.
Kenneth Greifer
talmid56
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Re: Forum Division and Direction

Post by talmid56 »

Actually, this is a good suggestion. I, of course, do this on my blog on the Resources page.
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כִּ֤י שֶׁ֨מֶשׁ׀ וּמָגֵן֮ יְהוָ֪ה אֱלֹ֫הִ֥ים חֵ֣ן וְ֭כָבוֹד יִתֵּ֣ן יְהוָ֑ה לֹ֥א יִמְנַע־ט֝֗וֹב לַֽהֹלְכִ֥ים בְּתָמִֽים׃
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Jason Hare
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Re: Forum Division and Direction

Post by Jason Hare »

Kenneth,

This is something that I think is essential to us as a group going forward. We should make a definition for ourselves of what we consider B-Hebrew to be -- as it is today and in light of its history. What is our purpose? Our self-definition? Our limitations? Our scope? What do we hope to accomplish, and why does this forum exist? Once we have come to some definition, which we used to have (see below), we'll be able to more fully promote ourselves and hopefully bring in some hard hitters in the new generation of Hebrew Bible and Hebrew language educators. That should be short-term our goal, in my opinion.
B-Hebrew Mailing List Group Definition
B-Hebrew is an e-mail conference of academic professionals, teachers, students, clergy and laity, people of any faith, devoted to a better understanding of the Hebrew Bible. As such we often discuss a variety of topics related to the Biblical languages, the history of the text and its study, the culture of the Ancient Near East, the literary analysis of the Hebrew Bible, and more.
I quite like that. I wonder if we could create something similar to paste in our group information and policies subforums.

Lots of things to think about!
Jason Hare
Tel Aviv, Israel
The Hebrew Café
יוֹדֵ֣עַ צַ֭דִּיק נֶ֣פֶשׁ בְּהֶמְתּ֑וֹ וְֽרַחֲמֵ֥י רְ֝שָׁעִ֗ים אַכְזָרִֽי׃
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Kenneth Greifer
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Re: Forum Division and Direction

Post by Kenneth Greifer »

Jason,
Just curious, but do you or Kirk want to ask Bible bloggers to mention this discussion forum on their blogs?

I mean they like to inform their readers of information that can benefit them and they might mention this forum, if you ask. Usually, people come up with some kind of real or "made up" (publicity stunts) slightly interesting news to publicize on a blog, but that might not be required. Most of these blogs are about news like discoveries in biblical archeology or some new Bible book that is coming out, but you never know. One mention on Paleojudaica might reach thousands of people. They might break their rules, if they have any, because they are not "for profit" blogs. They are just people trying to inform their readers about all things biblical. I would just try a few of them.
Kenneth Greifer
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