See this thread:http://www.democraticunderground.com/1013434

Make it rock. I subscribed a couple days ago hoping that someone would take this and the American History forum up as a DU hobby.

History is a passion of mine and I really think it gets short shrift here.

I posted in the Announcements thread for which groups to eliminate:

In Humanities: History

Fold American History and World History into Historians - both groups are dead and this probably give them a jolt.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1013151#post21

If we have hosts that are willing to put some time into it and make them active forums I'll go ahead and delete. Otherwise, my thought that making one big happy History Department would create more activity stands?

What are other peoples thoughts on this?

I've never been a DU moderator because I was afraid I wouldn't be available enough to do a good job. While I'm here almost every day, sometimes its just a brief visit. That might work with he history groups.

I would certainly consider it if there was a need. I really want the topic to stay and I'd love to see it used more.

Pretty much take 10 minutes a day and to come up with something interesting on the net about American History - post it to the group and you should be golden. We're historians, not sociologists

I've got group hosting Democracy for America, Hawaii, and am forum hosting LBN and Good Reads. Plus I haven't seen n2doc around much lately so I've been posting toons (I'm only going to post in good reads now). I sent him a PM the other day about toons and he hasn't responded.

If you're interested, go ahead and make a thread in the American History group...and post a link for Skinner here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1013434 - I don't anticipate many objections to someone taking charge in a group like that so long as you're not a neo-Confederate or something.

I can probably come up with some good links for you to regularly mine for post and blast you a PM.

I'll self-delete my post in announcements.

to do tomorrow night when we get back.

Thanks

I'll give you a hand in American history too and send you a list of good places to find articles, speeches, history news, etc. in the next couple days.

I see both pros and cons. The pros you already mentioned and I agree that one powerhouse group could be a good thing. There's also the prospect of cross-pollination, with people who normally engage mainly with American history getting exposed to different topics in the same group.

On the other hand, I do think there is something to be said for a group that focuses on regions, cultures, and issues, etc. that don't pertain directly to the US. There's certainly no shortage of material.

A progressive board like DU presents an interesting set of circumstances here. Lots of DUers are very much engaged in US politics and interested in US history, but at the same time, progressives are more likely than many others to have a more cosmopolitan view of the world and thus more interest in non-American cultures and topics.

Also, while many groups were somewhat moribund on DU2, non-donors will now be able to post on them in DU3, which might add some traffic, especially if there are steady streams of fresh OPs for people to look at and comment on. I certainly wouldn't want to write off the WH group on those grounds, though I do see some merit with the idea of one forum.

As it stands now, I would vote to keep the WH forum and if there's not much traffic, possibly combining it with American history a little bit later.

Wait and see...powerhouse history group could be a lot of fun: we could call it History: Queen of the Social Sciences or simply The History Department. Everyone could get twill coats and smoke tobacco pipes and talk about Susan B. Anthony and Theodore Roosevelt.

I'm definitely psyched about the increased group traffic; every time I would peek into the DU history groups they were pretty dead and so I just took to posting FDR and Truman speeches and such in GD and GDP every so often when I'd get history agro (irritated).

Once we get a little more into DU3, if things aren't lively there can be an open vote or poll and a decision can be made.

I'd say there's easily a dozen regular posters with a deep interest in History and/or substantial academic training in the subject ...

I think DU3 might be great for opening up the groups to more interest and traffic. For historians, that's always a good thing!

If you're willing to volunteer to serve, I certainly think you should have the opportunity.

And thanks to you and all the others in different groups and forums who have volunteered to be hosts.

Just kidding around. Thank you very much for offering to take the job.

Don