The relevance of online forums

Interesting topic

For me one of the best ways the internet has contributed uniquely to social evolution is in the 'community' sized social discussion forum focussed on a narrow topic. This is a relative massive step forward for an important cultural neccessity.
Before the internet intellectual growth beyond formal education would take place as regular meetings of clubs and societies. Typically local geographically for obvious reasons. Typically operated out of a professional basis. Society for discussing architecture - from Architects, train spotters, rotary, books whatever. meetings would be arranged for discussions, show and tell, debates, guest speakers - basically the symposia

Now the internet is good for mass communication, short message updates to many, one on one correspondence, shoutbox,

but the symposia is the one that has been underestimated or confused for something else. How does it work? exactly like this forum - maybe like RC said it could double or treble in th number of active participants, but not much more, otherwise its moving from symposia to something else as mentioned above.

Question 1. So what do I get out of symposia? A small (community sized)group of consistent and dependable (and expendable) members of society who represent an array of viewpoints and attitudes that collectively create a robust microcosm of the world at any scale
So by knowing (implicitly - thats the pureness of the internet) that member A is educated like this and has this background and has had these experiences and can be relied upon to provide authentic comment on current news and events honestly from their pov and in doing so provides a resource that has been around for centuries but has just been enhanced in ways the ancients could't imagine

So our symposia is global and fluid, no geographic barriers, or culture or status, or other social ineficiencies. Any creed colour status, political leaning etc can now represent the real life model that a sensible person will always try to maintain, as opposed to having to rely on approximations or the authorities to do so.

Who wants to be told by someone what others think about something when you can find out yourself at your next knitting club meeting

Question 2. what should I be doing for the symposia?
Always be relied upon to contribute - to contribute an honest opinion on every single tabled dscussion
Pass on any knowledge I come across that pertains to our narrow symposia focus

So in conclusion - Autosport forum - too big, doesnt work as you must know everyone in any real community. Forumula1 - total joke, sagittys spamming articles without opinion or without integrity is anathema. as are the one line hit and runners, and ofcourse members like spanky with no integrity, no interest in truth would be removed from any ancient symposia after been caught lying. Similarly any members their for fun or to talk to someone or just to watch would be encourage to evolve into full or senior members sooner rather than later - full member with the obligations i mentioned earlier

So we need to increase the 'senior' membership and encourage juniors to promote themselves. And we need the seniors to do their duty

BTW you guys both mentioned Autosport. I've never been there so couldn't comment on the behemoth of it all, but I can comment on F1 technical, It is a fantastic place if you want to discuss the minutia of engineering in the sport but there's a preponderance of savants high-fiving themselves when they can call out Scarbs for being off base on a comment. They really do miss the boat on the people and racing side of F1 and wouldn't know a joke if it tickled their feet.