mad chat
I thought I was done with online forums. In days past, I spent much screentime devoted to the conversations happening on the Dark Mountain discussion board. It's so far gone from my life now that I can't even remember the name of the platform hosting said space. It must have been open source, and free – and I have a dim memory of it being dismantled at some point – but damn if I can remember what it was called. I seem to remember lots of blokes comparing off-grid credentials like some dystopian willy-waving contest.
These days I find myself in a place called Discord. It's a very flexible forum, if rather bitty in its presentation. But the folks on the Mad Studies course have gathered there and so I've followed them. It ain't so bad.
There is a private server for the Mad Studies cohort: all info and chat about the course. But more recently, one of my class colleagues very kindly created a public server for Mad Studies, which is available at:
It is an online space where one may freely post and chat about all things mad. I have set up a book group there which will meet on the first Sunday of the month, from 1 to 2 pm GMT. Upcoming dates for the book group are:
2 April - The Art of Losing Control by Jules Evans
6 May - Strangers to Ourselves by Rachel Aviv
There is also a drop-in session every evening from 8 to 10pm (for the foreseeable future) – it's on trial and we're hoping that people come along to meet, greet and share experiences and ideas and whatnot.
Please feel free to visit the Mad Studies space on Discord. All welcome!