1. The Need of New Approaches - Kritische Stimmen zur ...

Chapter 9: The Thought Experiment
1. Name of the Forum, Variations of the Name, Name of the Operator, URL.
Put first and determinative for the sequence selected here in the list is the name variant most emphasized at
the forum itself.
2. Short, programmatic self-descriptions made by the forum.
3. Departments and sub-divisions of the forum in which the topics are listed are reported by a preceding “ > “. If
the selected topics are in various sub-divisions, they are allocated where possible to the sub-divisions, since in
some forums the sub-divisions already have the value of the topic and the tenor of its treatment by the moderators
can be recognized.
4. The topics of a department or sub-division must be evaluated according to their relevance for the present
report: information on the GOM project and its partners.
This approach can give rise to two situations that are to be treated differently: (A) all topics of the sub-division
are relevant; (B) only one part of the topics of the sub-divisions is relevant.
(A) If all of the topics are relevant, the total number of topics is given and several topics are presented as
examples. The number of call-ups for all topics is given. (B) If only a part of the topics are relevant, the total
number of topics is given, though only the relevant topics are cited. The number of call-ups is only recorded for the
relevant topics.
5. For each theme a starting date and the precise heading is given. With these characteristics it is possible to find
the Internet sites with the help of a standard search engine or using a local search within the forum, assuming the
sites have not been deleted.
6. Several topics in the same forum or under the same sub-division are treated chronologically in keeping with
the start data. The start data is kept as short as possible: year, month and day, each with two digits, as a sketch pad
without spaces or punctuation.
7. The details of a forum as to the number of call-ups are here only interesting in terms of orders of magnitude.
They are given summarized for each sub-division, and finally for the forum summarized in a single value. In this
connection only call-ups for such topics as are relevant in the sense of the present report are given, i.e. information
on the GOM project and its partners. In recording the call-up figures the numbers have been rounded down, for the
sake of simplicity, to the next hundred. Topics with less than 100 call-ups are listed, but are not recorded in terms
of call-ups.
Alternatively, forums sometimes also give the number of all visitors for a certain period, which can possibly be
taken over, but cannot be evaluated.
8. Optional: Comments as to the special features of the forum.
In view of the fact that the participants in the discussion express themselves in a great variety of ways, the
interpretation as to the relevance of a topic is very much a personal opinion and is invariably decided on a
restrictive basis.
The decisive factor is that the mention made of the GOM project, its partners and its publications stands in a
clear relationship to the topic. In this case even an indirect reference that makes the continuous, underlying
presence of the GOM project apparent is sufficient. There is often discussion of positions and demands that were
first explored by GOM and partners. One also often finds malicious and polemic remarks directed at GOM and its
partners, which in itself confirms their familiarity with and rejection of the documentation of the criticism.
Whenever possible the disclosures in the forums as to the number of call-ups of a single topic have been
determined. Here one is often faced with various hindrances:
1. The forum gives no call-up numbers whatsoever.
2. The forum has placed older topics in the archives where they can still be called up, but where lists with the
call-up figures are no longer available.
3. The forum has deleted a topic completely.
4. The entire forum has been deleted.
5. In a few cases topics have been interfered with by unknowing comments to such an extent that one can no
longer consider the full number of call-ups as being relevant for evaluation of the topic.
In these cases a minimum call-up rate of 800 per topic is estimated. All estimations are to be invariably
regarded as minimum values. In all likelihood, the true average figures lie much higher.
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G. O. Mueller: STR 2012