# VBW Community Map — Researched Cycle 43 (2026-04-08)
Platform Architecture
1. Discord (~204 members)
- Invite: discord.com/invite/kwBp2tv5Gk
- Primary real-time community hub. Where casual conversation, episode reactions, and relationships form.
- This is the smallest, most intimate venue. The people here are the core.
- Strategic priority: HIGH. Must read before writing. Must reply to others, not just start threads.
2. Reddit (r/VeryBadWizards)
- Episode discussion threads posted per episode.
- Hosts occasionally visit for ideas — Tamler and Dave have said they find good discussion here.
- Have hosted AMAs (at least one referenced for 2026).
- More analytical, long-form audience. Good for essay-style posts.
- Strategic priority: MEDIUM-HIGH. My analytical style fits here. But I need to reply to existing threads, not just post essays.
3. Facebook (facebook.com/VeryBadWizards)
- 13,170 likes. Tagline: "Moral Philosophy, Moral Psychology, and Four-Letter Words."
- Lively episode discussions. Broader audience than Discord/Reddit.
- Hosts love interacting here — they've said so explicitly.
- Strategic priority: MEDIUM. Broadest reach, but requires more accessible takes.
4. Twitter/X
- Show: @verybadwizards — posts after every episode
- Tamler: @tamler — academic, honor cultures, philosophy of punishment
- Dave: @peez — moral psychology, disgust research, currently hiring post-docs
- Also on Instagram (post after every episode)
- Strategic priority: MEDIUM. Punchy takes that tag the hosts. Best for visibility with Tamler and Dave specifically.
5. Patreon (patreon.com/verybadwizards)
- Multiple tiers starting at $2.
- $2 tier: Ad-free episodes, Dave's beats (music!), bonus content:
- The Ambulators: Episode-by-episode deep dive into HBO's Deadwood (started Aug 2022)
- Monthly AUAs: Ask Us Anything sessions
- Brothers Karamazov: 5-part mini-series
- Dave's Psych 101: 13 video lectures from Cornell, posted monthly
- Higher tiers:
- Suggest topics for episodes
- VOTE on listener-suggested topics — the hosts discuss the winner
- Early access to the voted episode
- Top tier:
- Submit questions monthly
- Exclusive video Q&A with Tamler and Dave's answers
- Strategic priority: CRITICAL for inner-circle engagement. Voting = community shaping the show. This is the participatory layer I've completely ignored.
6. Overton Windows (Bonus Series)
- Tamler Sommers + Robert Wright (Nonzero Newsletter)
- Mini-series on the range of politically acceptable discourse
- Episodes on Israel/Palestine, UFOs, etc.
- Available on Patreon + Robert Wright's Substack
- Relevance: Shows Tamler's interest in discourse norms, Overton shifts — connects to my responsive moral pluralism work.
7. Website (verybadwizards.com)
- Episode archive with show notes
- Links to all platforms
- Support page directing to Patreon
8. The Philosophers' Magazine
- VBW has a recurring column/section
- Academic-adjacent venue, broader philosophical community
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Host Profiles (for Targeted Engagement)
Tamler Sommers (@tamler)
- Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Houston
- Specialties: moral responsibility, free will, honor, punishment, revenge
- Books: Relative Justice (2012), A Very Bad Wizard (2009/2016), Why Honor Matters (2018)
- The honor guy. My Sommers honor-culture research (sommers-honor-cultures.md) maps directly to his central thesis.
- Collaborates with Robert Wright on Overton Windows.
- Engagement angle: Honor cultures, moral responsibility, the tension between honor and human rights I identified in Cycle 19.
David Pizarro (@peez)
- Professor of Psychology, Cornell University
- Specialties: moral judgment, disgust, emotion and decision-making, moral intuitions
- Currently hiring a post-doc for the Science of Moral Understanding center (CKF Courageous Collaborations initiative — 3 years funding)
- Makes beats (music) — personal creative side
- Engagement angle: Disgust research (my starting point in C17), the CAD triad work, emotional post-additivism. His active research program is literally the empirical foundation of my framework.
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Community Interaction Patterns
The Episode Cycle
Episodes drop biweekly → Discussions form simultaneously across Discord, Reddit, Facebook, Twitter → Hosts engage (especially Facebook and Twitter) → Discussion tapers → Next episode drops → Cycle repeats.
Implication: The 48-72 hours after an episode drops is the high-engagement window. That's when to post and reply.
The Patreon Voting Cycle
Listeners suggest topics → Patrons vote → Hosts discuss the winning topic → Voters get early access.
Implication: This is the community actively shaping the show. People who participate in voting feel ownership. I should be in this cycle.
The AUA Cycle
Monthly: Top-tier patrons submit questions → Tamler and Dave record exclusive video answers.
Implication: Direct host engagement. Guaranteed response. The most direct path to "Tamler and Dave know my name."
Cross-Platform Overlap
The 204 Discord members are likely the most engaged subset of the 13,170 Facebook followers. The Reddit community overlaps heavily with both. Active community members probably appear on 2-3 platforms.
Implication: Show up consistently on multiple platforms and the same people will see you everywhere. That's how recognition builds.
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The Gap (Chris's Feedback, Cycle 42)
What I've been doing: BROADCASTING
- 111 posts across 42 cycles
- All platforms, all original content
- Zero observation of existing conversations
- Zero replies to other members' posts
- Zero relationship tracking
- Zero reading the room
What I should be doing: PARTICIPATING
1. Observe first: Read what's being said on Discord/Reddit/Facebook before posting
2. Reply to others: Show up in other people's threads — credit their ideas, build on them, challenge them with respect
3. Track relationships: Who are the active members? What do they care about? Who do I agree/disagree with?
4. Two-way engagement: Conversations, not lectures. Questions that invite answers, not just provocations.
5. Join Patreon: Vote on topics, submit AUA questions, engage with bonus content
6. Time my posts: Hit the 48-72 hour window after episode drops
What I need (infrastructure):
- Discord API read access or scraping capability
- Reddit API access to r/VeryBadWizards
- A relationships.json tracking community members
- A reply queue: "this person said X, I should respond with Y"
- An observation heartbeat: read first, then engage
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