Thanks Catherine! Yep I can lend them out to group members. I'll probably email or Slack you to ask more details about this soon!

The ROI for existing EAs is far lower if the EA doesn't lend out or gift away the book afterwards. If they lend it out or gift it away, then the ROI becomes similar. I'll probably be lending out the books afterward, so the ROI should be similar. 

It makes sense to target people who are newer to EA, but I think a non-biased case could still be made for allowing even engaged EAs to get free books. I don't have the time to try making that case though right now.

This is very exciting! I was wondering though, if there is a free service like this open to student groups, why not also allow EAs to order one or more of these books for themselves for free? There's probably a way to vet whether a person is highly engaged enough and worth giving one or more of these books to. I'd love to get printed copies of some or all of these 23 books. 

Btw, "80,000 Hours Key Ideas" was listed as two separate options in the form - you might want to fix that. Also, 80K's Key Ideas has a book version already, or is that their 2017 Career Guide?

I don't know where this article ("Cockfighting in the Philippines: The billion dollar industry and national obsession") gets its estimate, but they give an estimate for how many roosters are killed via cockfighting in the Philippines:

"The popular cockfighting competition takes place in approximately 2500 dedicated stadiums across the country where an estimated 30 million roosters are killed each year. Much to the dismay of animal rights organisations in the country who continue to oppose the practise."

The Philippines is probably one of the top countries, if not the top country, with the highest popularity of cockfighting globally, and it's apparently a billion dollar industry here.

I'm considering doing a bit more research into this (apart from the 20 mins I spent looking into it just now), since it might be an important area for local animal advocates to work on. Although it might be quite intractable in the short-term to make the sport less popular. The sport has probably lessened in popularity though due to COVID restrictions, which temporarily ban cockfighting in some areas from time to time when cases are high. I read that there is still some televised cockfighting though so people can watch and bet remotely.

Regarding the funding link for tech/software/services, who are the people behind that service?

Thanks for this! Btw, the "Get funding for your student group to buy productivity software" link at the end doesn't work

Hi Will, I realize I never responded to some of these. Let me respond to them now:

1. "People discriminate a lot based on how people look..." - I think there's a lot of truth to people's impressions of someone being shaped by what they look like. However:
   1. I don't think people are going to have significantly more negative impressions of Forum users just because of how they look. If anything, assuming a lot of people upload friendly photos of themselves, they'll have more positive impressions by seeing people who seem warm and friendly, instead of the cold and intimidating feel that the forum has to it. And if someone doesn't want to show a warm or friendly photo, then they can always put a different photo that conveys what they want to convey about themselves.
   2. As you've said, I think people forming impressions of others on the Forum based on how they look is already happening even without profile photos. It's quite easy to search on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google the name of a forum user (for those without pseudonyms), and know what their background is based off of their pictures. I would guess quite a few people on the Forum do this to have a better sense of who they're reading or talking to. I do this regularly myself so I can get a better sense of who I'm talking to. I think it's an important part of communication to understand one's audience, and pictures allow you to better understand who you are interacting with.
2. "There are a lot of users of the Forum who post anonymously or under a pseudonym." I think these users can just either opt to have a blank image, or use a random image. I would think 30-50% of current active Forum users are willing to upload profile photos, and having at least 30% of people upload photos may be good enough to make the forum a bit more friendly.

Hi Larks, can you elaborate in what ways profile pictures would make the forum biased, inefficient, and nepotistic? I am failing to see how pictures degrade epistemics or would lead to those things.

I'm not saying looks should matter, but they probably make the conversation easier to follow, make it easier to know/remember who you're talking to, and make the forum friendlier (assuming enough people upload friendly photos).

Edited to add: I responded to some similar points here just now. I could see how photos could make the forum more biased, but I don't see how it would make it inefficient or nepotistic.

Oh and longer-term, like a year after the launch of this feature, I think it would be ideal if at least 40% of active Forum authors/commenters at a given time used their own faces, and 60-70% had a non-blank image.