Hi Bonnie,
I hope your studies are progressing well.
Methodspace re-launched itself recently and not many of the previous “community” have re-entered the forums yet, which ahs been disappointing but to be expected. Even when it was an active and populated place with lots of discussion, there were quiet and busy times (and I found this unpredictable).
I have often wondered where is everyone!! I think SAGE is going to do more promotion soon, and their active advertising and support will help regenerate discussion. They used to have competitions, book reviews, eminent academic guests (such as David Silverman and others) and so on which made this a very attractive forum for me and others. They need to return to that and I am hoping they will soon. It is also up to us to promote it among students, scholars and friends and try to give the discussion a boost from time to time.
I agree that the learning during formal postgraduate studies is a marathon, and you will need to train and prepare yourself for that marathon, not least of all by knowing how to care for yourself and measure your pace so as to sustain a very very long experience. In addition to self-care for the long haul, I also believe in mutual care and making the effort to create a generous culture in our community. We create the road by walking it.
Also to make methodspace work well for you if you have questions, it is helpful to others if your questions are as precise as you can make them, and if you disclose a little of what your current thoughts are. I know a number of senior academics who left methodspace because the questions from novices seemed to vague and even…. well….. lazy – eg we used to get a lot of “design my research for me” to which my reply always is “what are your current ideas?”. It can feel very risky and emotional to reveal that in a world-wide forum such as this one but the risk of disclosure emans that of us who want to engage can see you are trying, and can be more focused in our efforts to assist. Of course this is also just a place for a chat! But I have found it has thunderous silent periods as well as busy periods.