Ashley Knibb's Paranormal News Weekly Roundup

Courtesy of the SPR Facebook page - sadly David Metcalfe's "Psi in the News" bulletins have stopped again, but Ashley Knibb is starting a "Paranormal News Weekly Roundup," whose first issue is here:
https://ashleyknibb.com/2019/11/10/paran...mber-2019/

The subject matter seems to be a mixture between what I think of as experimental parapsychology and material about spontaneous paranormal phenomena (including ghosts).

I'm not sure what it is about weekly round-ups of psi news. They never seem to last very long. Maybe we should have a go at producing one ourselves ...

[Laird]

I'm not sure what it is about weekly round-ups of psi news. They never seem to last very long. Maybe we should have a go at producing one ourselves ...

I like that idea... how do you imagine/propose we'd go about it?

I like that idea... how do you imagine/propose we'd go about it?

I suppose one way would be for someone (or some group of people) simply to select posts here that constitute "news" and either repost them or summarise them in a news thread, or a wiki page. I suppose the advantage of a wiki page would be that they could be categorised. Though perhaps we'd need to check that people were happy for their contributions to be reposted somewhere else.

[Laird]

It seems like that would work - and I agree that a wiki page would be advantageous. The main open questions I can see are those of responsibility and the definition of "newsworthy".

Re responsibility: which person/persons would be responsible for collating the news? Is it something you would be willing to take on, Chris, or do you feel that you are over-worked on PQ as it is? I'd be willing to help out as necessary/useful, given that I read everything that is posted to this forum and have the spare time. Anybody else?

Clearly, anything posted to any of the "Upcoming events" threads is news. What else would we count? New articles to the Psi Encyclopedia; noteworthy blog posts/articles from the broader parapsychological community - the sort of stuff you regularly post, Chris, I would assume. Would we also include articles about broader consciousness studies, such as those which Sci regularly posts? Or would we stick to parapsychology proper?

And given that you worry about checking that people are happy for their contributions to be posted somewhere else, Chris, perhaps, then, you are even thinking about including "everyday" threads created by PQ members as news items? A sort of "round up of what's being discussed of late on Psience Quest" on top of "external" news?

It seems like that would work - and I agree that a wiki page would be advantageous. The main open questions I can see are those of responsibility and the definition of "newsworthy".

Re responsibility: which person/persons would be responsible for collating the news? Is it something you would be willing to take on, Chris, or do you feel that you are over-worked on PQ as it is? I'd be willing to help out as necessary/useful, given that I read everything that is posted to this forum and have the spare time. Anybody else?

Clearly, anything posted to any of the "Upcoming events" threads is news. What else would we count? New articles to the Psi Encyclopedia; noteworthy blog posts/articles from the broader parapsychological community - the sort of stuff you regularly post, Chris, I would assume. Would we also include articles about broader consciousness studies, such as those which Sci regularly posts? Or would we stick to parapsychology proper?

And given that you worry about checking that people are happy for their contributions to be posted somewhere else, Chris, perhaps, then, you are even thinking about including "everyday" threads created by PQ members as news items? A sort of "round up of what's being discussed of late on Psience Quest" on top of "external" news?

Thinking a bit more, probably it would be better to give something like a one-line summary for each item rather than copying whole posts. Then there could also be a link to the post and one to the external website it referred to. That would make it more manageable and avoid having to repost people's contributions without their permission.

If things are categorised, I don't see why there shouldn't be a broad criterion for inclusion, including consciousness studies, because people will be able to pick and choose the sections they want to read anyway.

I'd be happy to contribute to that, but the more the merrier if other people are willing to contribute. I am also thinking having a different news page every week may be a bit too often, and perhaps fortnightly might be better.

[Laird]

Nice. Agreed with all of that. I won't respond in detail or with further suggestions for the moment though because I'd like to provide a little space for others to chime in if they want to.

I'll start to keep a note of suitable posts here from today, so that we can try out an initial news bulletin when the time is ripe.

[Laird]

Good timing - Sunday is the first day of the week.

I'm not sure what it is about weekly round-ups of psi news. They never seem to last very long. Maybe we should have a go at producing one ourselves ...

Perhaps they’re like the phenomena they report - never there when you want to refer to them