The FeldyForum is an online Yahoo Group moderated by Ralph Strauch. In the words of the moderator it is:

…an independent online forum to facilitate communication within the Feldenkrais community worldwide…Memberships are limited to Feldenkrais Practitioners and students in Feldenkrais Professional Training Programs.

I would like to add one more fact about the FeldyForum. From the standpoint of internet search engines such as Google,

the FeldyForum is I-N-V-I-S-I-B-L-E.

The posts are not indexed and can rarely, if ever, be found on the search engine results pages. Although this may be fine for the purposes of Feldenkrais practitioners speaking to each other online, it does nothing for the growth of the method and does not allow members of the public to learn, read, nor find out about the method.

Considering that there are 1000’s of posts written every year on hundreds of topics, the invisible posts seem like a great waste. Why not give members of the public a chance to read the ideas? Why not give them an opportunity to read the words of so many talented Feldenkrais practitioners? Give them a chance to see how the method could benefit them?

How many millions of people do searches on Google every day? And on Yahoo and MSN? An open and indexed feldenkrais forum could bring in tens of thousands of readers every year, any one of whom might decide to learn more about the Feldenkrais Method, contact a practitioner or take a class or workshop. It’s the kind of publicity that would be hard to buy.

Thinking that doesn’t change your action isn’t thinking…?

Is that the quote from Moshe? How about, “forum posts that can’t be read can’t change the world?” (nor build your practice). A community that wants more visibility, is not served by private communications read by only a select few. A method that is not increasing it’s exposure and ability to be found on the internet is cutting itself off from the greatest communication tool and idea-spreader that has ever existed in the human world. Ignore it at your own peril.

You can’t wave a magic wand and get the Yahoo posts indexed. Neither can you force other practitioners to start their own blog. You can’t force them to be found online. But you can begin to engage the world through the internet. Take a class. Start a blog. Comment on other people’s blog posts. Post on forums read by people “outside” the community. i.e Do something, anything, that you think might make a difference, while you learn along the way.

Or not.

It’s your choice.

But doing nothing is the royal road to irrelevance.