Researcher Forum

How might one request a new type of forum?

The one I would be interested in seeing is one where researchers and educators in SL acan post specifically about what it is they're trying to accomplish. They could use it as a place to get feedback from the residents and perhaps compare notes. Topics in this forum would need to be of a more academic nature and not for general questions, though some general questions could help point researchers to areas they should explore.

This seems specific enough that you may want to set up your own forum instead of having it hosted here. I expect that the secondlife.com forums should be reserved for issues that affect all users, and for which any member should feel free to participate.

Besides the fact that we CLOSE forums around here - not make new ones.

Well if it were a seperate site it would be harder to get residents to help give feedback, which is realy what drives research.

Thanks for your input though Kidd

You're making an assumption that this site is representative of the residents. There are many other third-party SL forums. People with no payment info on file aren't allowed here (as far as I know), so that's one group that's missing. And many people go elsewhere for a variety of reasons, including the relatively strict rules for these forums. I have no idea how participation levels in those forums compares to here, but I certainly wouldn't assume they're all smaller.

Also, it's hard to see how people would be motivated to participate in such a forum if they weren't already eductors and researchers. What would interest them enough to read it? Suppose, for example, you asked what the optimium size is for an online class. I'd gladly give an answer if asked, but I wouldn't want to read a forum about that. (My answer is 12-15, but it could be different depending upon the subject matter.) If you have specific questions to ask the general populace, I believe it's ok and sensible to ask them here. I know I've seen a number of market research type questions over the few months.

Hi Arianna,

I would post this question to the SLED mailing list.

Doug