From the Executive Director:

Executive Update for October, 2004
Posted by Joseph Rowlands on 11/01/2004, 8:02pm

Another good month. Membership is up by almost a 100 more people. Articles are still pouring in, with 4 new authors. The number of posts on the forum has been huge. For any of you who only view the last 50 posts, which is the default, I strongly recommend increasing it substantionally. Go to your preference page. At the bottom of the screen, it says you're logged in, and your name links to your preference page. Select a larger number of articles. You might also try just reading "Unread" messages, so you don't have to sort them yourselves.

On top of the usual day to day workings of SoloHQ, Lindsay has completed the latest copy of the Free Radical, which is available to purchase. It contains some excellent pieces, with the highlight being an interview with Nathaniel Branden. One part was especially worth quoting: "We need a code of ethics to support our life and well-being. Ethics does not teach us, 'At this point, a moral person commits suicide.'".

Also, I had a fantastic article on the role of government. Anarchists, beware!

This month on SoloHQ focused a lot on politics, and especially the Presidential Election. We heard some people argue that voting for the lesser of two evils was pragmatic, and so I gave them an explanation of Pragmatism. We had some argue that that Kerry was practically a libertarian despite every word he's ever said. And lots of support and disgust with Bush.

This particular debate replaced the usual arguments about whether America is the root of all evil and the cause of all problems in the world, or the best nation despite its flaws. With some exceptions, the party lines were the same. Those for Bush were those who've argued for America and against the terrorists. Those typically supporting the destruction of America were anti-Bush.

Is Kant a proto-Objectivist? Or is he as bad as Objectivists say? The debate seems to have died down. Peter Cresswell did a superb job at explaining his position that Kant was not anything like an Objectivist. Fred Seddon, who claims that Kant is a proto-Objectivist, never seemed to make his case. You can decide. But I wanted to thank Peter for his heroic efforts. Bravo!

Solo University got started this month. 13 people have signed up as students. I've presented a series of "lectures", explaining different facets of Objectivism. I've started with philosophy in general, and then into epistemology, where we've covered a lot of ground. The feedback has been positive so far, except that some are anxious to go faster.

A Solo conference is being planned for spring next year. Tentatively scheduled for LA. More information to come.

Some of you have already signed up for Solo Education. We've been waiting for the leader of that group to kick it off, and he's finally done so. Cameron Pritchard has set up the Solo Education page, where you can learn more about the goals of that group. Thanks Cameron.

In addition, Marcus Bachler has taken on the role of Solo Science Leader. He promises to stay up late at night contemplating how to improve the group. Thanks Marcus.

And of course, we've had trolls. Altruists seem to be the troll-type of the month. They haven't figured out why rational self-interest and altruism are not compatible standards. When it comes to ethics, they think drowning children is the norm. When it comes to relationships, they think crippling accidents are the metaphysically significant.

Staff Changes:

1.) Marcus Bachler has taken on the role of Solo Science Leader for the Science interest group www.solohq.com/Science
2.) Cameron Pritchard is the new Solo Education Leader for the Education interest group www.solohq.com/Education

Product News:

1.) We announced our electronic versions of our audio CDs last month for a reduced price. We've had the first purchase and our package works fine.
2.) Issue #64 of The Free Radical has arrived. Subscribe here.

New SOLOHQ Features:

1.) Solo Education: Cameron Pritchard has started Solo Education, a place to discuss all aspects of education from an Objectivist point of view.
2.) The SOLO DC group has a new front page, which looks great. Nice job Julia.

Job Openings (no money, but fame and adoration):

1.) Internet Promoter (aka, Internet Whore) – Somebody willing to go onto other forums and sites and relentlessly promote SOLO. Distributing this Executive Update is one possible function of the promoter.
2.) SOLO NZ Coordinator – someone to decorate the portal page, possibly coordinate conferences/meetings

Activism:

Want to help take over the world? Here are some simple ideas you can do to help.
1.)    Send us boatloads of money.
2.)    Bookmark our Amazon referral page http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/importanceofp-20 so that we get a percent of Amazon's profits from your purchases. Lots of people use Amazon, and if you use our associate program, we benefit at no cost to you.
3.)    Put www.solohq.com in your email signature file. It's an easy way to spread the word about the best Objectivist website on the planet.
4.)    Do you have a webpage? Add a link to SoloHQ.com. Also, add a link to our Ayn Rand page at http://www.solohq.com/ayn_rand/ayn_rand.shtml and our Objectivism page at http://www.solohq.com/Objectivism/. These improve our Google ranking and make it easier for young minds to find passionate reason and rational passion on the web.
5.) Submit an article or a gallery on SoloHQ.
6.) Tell all of your friends about Solo!

Statistics:

Articles on SOLOHQ: 870 (56 this month)
Forum posts on SOLOHQ: 19,500 (2800 this month)
Author Count: 126 (4 new authors this month – Jake Moore, Ed Hudgins, Adam Buker, Jason Pappas)
SOLOHQ Members: 708 (97 new members this month)
Page Hits: 336,432

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