Destroy the tumbleweed

Every now and again my sleeping pattern messes itself up and I stay up all night to fix it and the internet is the only thing to keep me occupied and I fancy shooting the breeze on this glorious site but the tumbleweed is all too agreeable, or disagreeable depending on which way the wind is blowing.

Bottom line: this machine needs more cogs. Where to find them?

Me too. My spelling is starting to suffer...

I've noticed some users on P.ie have links on their sigs.

You're pulling an all-nighter too? Interesting!

We should have scheduled MN all-nighters, though it might not sit well with the sleeping classes...

evercloserunion wrote:

Every now and again my sleeping pattern messes itself up and I stay up all night to fix it and the internet is the only thing to keep me occupied and I fancy shooting the breeze on this glorious site but the tumbleweed is all too agreeable, or disagreeable depending on which way the wind is blowing.

Bottom line: this machine needs more cogs. Where to find them?

Australia would be a good place to find some of them, if you want to chat at 4 a.m. Lets ask shutuplaura to give us a hand publicising MN in the antipodes.

One suggestion I have otherwise is that we might get together a couple of hit and run groups of posters who would spend a bit of time gathering up some new members with particular interests = for a start perhaps economics environmental and science.

shutuplaura as a good poster and if there are other Aussies as interesting I say bring it on. Alternatively we could tap the Irish insomniac scene.

Quote :

One suggestion I have otherwise is that we might get together a
couple of hit and run groups of posters who would spend a bit of time
gathering up some new members with particular interests = for a start
perhaps economics environmental and science.

That's a very good idea, I'd like to see it happen. I'd love to get a few lawyerscand law students on here to challenge the economist/environmentalist hegemony of discourse but unfortunately they appear to have very few online meeting places (unless I'm being left out of the loop).

evercloserunion wrote:

shutuplaura as a good poster and if there are other Aussies as interesting I say bring it on. Alternatively we could tap the Irish insomniac scene.

Quote :

One suggestion I have otherwise is that we might get together a
couple of hit and run groups of posters who would spend a bit of time
gathering up some new members with particular interests = for a start
perhaps economics environmental and science.

That's a very good idea, I'd like to see it happen. I'd love to get a few lawyerscand law students on here to challenge the economist/environmentalist hegemony of discourse but unfortunately they appear to have very few online meeting places (unless I'm being left out of the loop).

We could ask Audi to set up a thread for conspiring on.

Evercloserunion, thank you very much for your kind words. If I could give you posative rep p.ie style I certainly would.

I have normally do have the place to myself most days - any chairs you notice moved around during the night are not in fact ghosts, just me. When I was posting earlier (from work) I did notice that the place was more lively than usual. As for delevoping the place, well it all takes time. I remember finding p.ie very quiet when I first found it, now discussions move so quickly it harly seems worth the effort participating. And you wouldn't want too many aussies around here, all they talk about is the bloody cricket (they even try and slag off the irish cricket team to try wind me up - bless 'em)

Well cricket would be even worse than economics and the environment, perhaps we should leave it then. I take your point about development being slow, and we have to remember that it's the good posters we want more of and not the bad. P.ie seems to have been raking in more of the latter lately and that is why I hope the site's owners will not hold it against me for saying that I hope MN is never widely recognized as the foremost place for political debate in Ireland. A cozier and more humbletitle would be more fitting anyway.

I propose Audi and cactus standing outside Stephen's Green dressed as machines handing out lollipops.

evercloserunion wrote:

I propose Audi and cactus standing outside Stephen's Green dressed as machines handing out lollipops.

Do you think that would entice more technical/academic type chatters who have a great and natural knack at shining a light into the difficult corners and making it even look sexy? The Law and discussion of same is a typical MN topic unfortunately. Making it sexy without all the associated fear is a challenge I put to you.

Are you one of those amateur insomniacs who sleep all day not like Christian Bale in the film, The Machinist who never sleeps?





Does losing sleep make you look like this ?

No, that's me listening to you all rant about ISEQ and derivative markets.

Legal discussion is not common enough IMO. Fear and sexiness go hand in hand I'm afraid. Just ask Christian Bale.

evercloserunion wrote:

No, that's me listening to you all rant about ISEQ and derivative markets.

Legal discussion is not common enough IMO. Fear and sexiness go hand in hand I'm afraid. Just ask Christian Bale.

Well there's Hermes, Kate P and johnfás here who often discuss the Law in an engaging way as much as such a subject can be made engaging. It needs fear and sexiness though.

Isn't jurisprudence frightfully sexy these days ?

Ronaldbinge was good for a legal discussion at one time too. I had planned, ecu to sit four of the FE1s this Spring but that's gone on the long finger because a big work project has intervened. I'll still make the classes as far as I can, but the exams are postponed til the Autumn. I've no intention of being a solicitor, but studying for the exams is a good way of getting a basic grasp of all things legal which I come up against a lot through work.

So whack out a few new threads there and we'll see what we can do.

Hate to bring up old threads but that was an excellent idea Kate, shame other commitments got in the way but such is life. Going for things like that for the main purpose of general self-improvement is a great way to carry on IMO. I'm thinking, next year when I have more time, of sitting in on some first year C++ classes in Trinity if that's at all possible.

The idea of a strong legal forum is under deliberation/construction/consideration but ideally it would be organic - ie, you, ecu could start a thread about a legal issue, concept, development, case and we could all get our hands mucky.

Things are generally very wrong in the world of Kate P if I'm posting in the middle of the night, so I can't offer you much assistance with company in the wee hours (maybe we should have a sleep thread?) but what exactly is it you're looking for, discussion-wise, when the tumbleweed is getting in the way?

From now until March, Kate, nothing, that this place can provide anyway. Much heavier workload these days owing to Schols so I probably won't be contributing as much between now and the end of March.

Even notwithstanding the above though, I suppose it was rather naive of me to request more discussion on the site. There is already a lot of discussion here in which I have no interest, and I'm sure the same goes for most posters on here. The format of my participation here is, for lack of a better word, "organic", in that it is not structured, consistent or pre-meditated. One sees something interesting and adds what one can to it, or one doesn't, and doesn't. If you get what I mean. Forced discussion can be worse than no discussion at all.

Saying "more talk" isn't the answer Kate. More people is the answer, the talk follows naturally (which is how talk should follow).

Regarding the legal forum, I would be happy to contribute, other arrangements permitting.

evercloserunion wrote:

From now until March, Kate, nothing, that this place can provide anyway. Much heavier workload these days owing to Schols so I probably won't be contributing as much between now and the end of March.

Even notwithstanding the above though, I suppose it was rather naive of me to request more discussion on the site. There is already a lot of discussion here in which I have no interest, and I'm sure the same goes for most posters on here. The format of my participation here is, for lack of a better word, "organic", in that it is not structured, consistent or pre-meditated. One sees something interesting and adds what one can to it, or one doesn't, and doesn't. If you get what I mean. Forced discussion can be worse than no discussion at all.

Saying "more talk" isn't the answer Kate. More people is the answer, the talk follows naturally (which is how talk should follow).

Regarding the legal forum, I would be happy to contribute, other arrangements permitting.

I agree evercloserunion. The forum is ticking along from the point of view of membership, but in order for the depth and range of discussion to develop, more people with more ideas and knowledged is what's needed. Like most things, MN hasn't developed in a straight line, but a twisty spiral, with different things being focused on at different times. For the first few weeks, the idea of a permanent forum wasn't even there. Since then, sometimes there's been a bit of a push on the look and content of the site, sometimes on getting links to the site and visibility on search engines, and at other times on membership. We're ready for a new push now perhaps, and there's lots of thinking going on about a new address and so on, as suggested by yourself and other members.

What I think might be well worth doing is getting together a few ideas about how to invite, lure or othewise welcome in some new members with a legal or similar background and interests. The same might go for some other areas of interest. I think the discussion would look after itelf then.

Evercloserunion do you mean there are tumbleweeds in this forum

The site is growing in quality but very slowly and that suits me anyway. Was looking at the Pin the other day and they went from record members online of 30ish to just over a hundred in a year. I think they broke away en masse from another forum though - that really wasn't how it was here. I think there is less visibility here than if the site were on its own domain which it should be soon so maybe we'll see more people then ?

There are squabillions of forums out there though so it's not surprising that this one might not be growing so dynamically. Will we eventually see Peak Forums? But I don't think it's a matter of creating a forum and sitting back and watching the fish bite your wire - you need to have a few good conversations going, some atmosphere and then you need to put links to your forum in as many locations as you can. There's a fair bit of work in cultivating it but in the end it's a site whose content is created by users.

What law subjects are you doing this / next year ecu?

2nd year law in Trinity consists of EU law, land law, contract law, and Constitutional law II (administrative law and fundamental rights) For schols, however, you study 5 subjects out of your first two years. I am studying contract, EU, criminal, tort and legal systems & methods until March after which I will be reverting to the normal format for 2nd year.

Next year we choose our subjects from a larger list, TCD is also becoming semesterised so I'm unsure what I'll be studying exactly. Intellectual property and advanced EU law are priorities though as I nhave an interest in both. Also maybe land law II as land law seems interesting too. Those subjects, the core subjects necessary for the Law Society exams and then the various commercial/company law type subjects will be what I hope to cover over the next two years.

TCD semesterised?!?

...for the rest, there's lots of potential for some good threads there...

Indeed there are. Considering the large part that property and real estate have played in our current woes I have been trying to find a way to bring land law into topical discussion but it doesn't easily lend itself to free and open discourse.

Land law is theoretically intensely interesting but practically pretty mind-numbing ...with a lot depending on the ability of the lecturer!



... law threads will emerge ...

Have you studied law yourself Atticus?

I have a very vague memory of doing so a few years ago, in among working 60+ hr weeks and doing voluntary work at the weekends.

... would be happy to remember more ... it might help clear the writer's block I've had for the last year ...

evercloserunion wrote:

Indeed there are. Considering the large part that property and real estate have played in our current woes I have been trying to find a way to bring land law into topical discussion but it doesn't easily lend itself to free and open discourse.

Wylie??

The cheapest anaesthetic known to man.