The big idea of this website is to establish a means for the community to discuss news of interest to progressive people, opinions of progressive thinkers, and ways to become involved in actions for change – but to do it with a progressive twist, by running it as a cooperative. Many of us are “refugees” from the commenting sections of progressive news sites – most notably the Commons at CommonDreams.org and the great conversations there for many years. Unfortunately, commenting sections of news sites have been disappearing throughout the web because of the burden of running them and the perception that they take away from their core mission of delivering the news. At ProgressiveDreamers.org, we find that one-way conversation approach to fly in the face of our progressive ideals. Presentations of the news should not end the conversation, they should start it.
So what are your thoughts?
- What rules are sensible for a democratically run cooperative like this?
- What kind of community standards should be applied to posts?
- How do we avoid burn-out and find a sustainable way to share responsibility for the site?
- What key questions should be added to this list?