OccultForum.org

Right,

I was thinking an article system would be nice, something like:

All users have a button to submit articles, where they can write something and submit it for approval.

Now, obviously this sort of system could be abused, were we to publish the articles directly without some form of peer review. My question, then, is who should review the articles?

We could have approved articles available to everyone, registered or not, and user-submitted articles which are not yet published could be visible to registered users? We'd then need to appoint a review committee, who would select which articles go to the front page, and help those which didn't quite make it to work their articles into suitable works? (I try not to upset people as a rule, but we all know that sometimes, some people can't write a decent article to save themselves, lord knows I failed English twice in high school, so it shouldn't be me pressing the "publish" button)

I'm not sure exactly, but it's open to discussion, thoughts are welcome.

I think we should have articles, but only of Safe, White Magick. There is no need to teach any of that dark black magick or chaos magick. Such a horrific art, and they go around thinking that they are beyond Karma's reach.

Remember the three fold law and go in peace.

Hrmm, well, I think we'd need categories for everyone..

It's like..

Remember when you were really young, imagine your brother/sister/cousin etc was given a bar of chocolate, but not you. How did that make you feel?

Realistically, we can't give an article system to some and not to others, we'd need something for everyone.

If people really want to learn the dark stuff, they'll keep looking for it no matter what, I think it's better to present the information in a friendly, safe environment, than to encourage them to go looking for trouble.

At the end of the day, a person's actions and life-path are entirely their own to determine, we shouldn't stand in the way of their personal development, we should instead help eachother to gather the resources we need to grow as individuals.

That is very dangerous. One has to be extremely careful with Magick. There are a lot of dark energies that can be very harmful. There are children that may read these articles, and there is nothing more innocent or impressionable then the mind of a child.

My nephew is one of the Indigo Children, he is very sensitive. I would not want to see him hurt by some careless warlocks dark spell. Wands are like loaded weapons and we must treat them with respect.

Do what thou wilt and harm ye none, that is all the Goddess asks of us. Please be well and I hope you see the light of reason.

Perhaps a degree of healthy moderation is in order, although I believe it could easily reach a point where we're not so much protecting people as making them live inside a bubble.

People must learn for themselves what is good for them and what is not. You cannot solve a problem by denying that it exists (there may be exceptions, but generally..).

As I have said, if they can not find what they are looking for here, they will go elsewhere for it, to places much darker than this, there is nothing we can do to prevent people from following their own path, all we can do is show them the love and support they need, and help them to make their way safely through the world.

I would love to see an article system with a wide variety of topics related to magic. It would be a valuable resource for all and an incentive to get members to the site - and would also make a good reference or FAQ to refer to on the message board.

Vs.

I am in favor of an article system. They serve as the backbone of most communities; it gives people a reason to be here.

Now, as to whether to allow articles of any nature, or only ones pertaining to "white magick", is another debate. Is the protection of the members from their own potential foolishness worth stifling their free speech, as well as portraying a one-sided view of magick?

The old occultforums used to have a magic library and a faq's section

"White magic" seems more harmless and going by the above, is ok to advertise to all. To only have articles that resemble this style will turn people away from the wide perceptions of what the occult is. After all, this is called an Occult Forum.

Plus people under a certain age probably shouldn't do "white magic" either since many who follow this style believe in a 3 fold law.... When it comes to a three fold law isn't it possible for someone with not enough understanding to think they are doing good but not understanding the complexities? Most of the time it is dabblers who play around, and many times gain nothing. People who are more serious about it will end up doing some study.

Leaving responsibility to the responsible should be something to think about.

Being responsible should come into play if the methods are for good or bad, parents around the world should be doing their job instead of the rest of the world having to do the job for them (they cannot be watched all the time but it's the way it should work I believe)

So when it comes to this idea I think it will be good to have articles on everything from different systems and from different centuries... It can show the evolution of belief and magic over time.... To do this you would have to incorporate the good with the bad.

Who should decide? Maybe a group of 5 or so people with different backgrounds, people who aren't moderators either but people that dont plan on leaving anytime soon.... This way you have people from different points of view that arent affected by biased moderation. Depending on the articles information have an age restriction put in place which will allow access (put in place by moderators/admin if possible)

At the end of the day you end up with articles that cover a range of topics that get decided on (majority vote?) by a range of differing minds. Maybe the majority will be happy, cant please everyone though.


Anyway, they are my thoughts.

An article section would be fantastic, it can help to give insight into anothers path. Much more than simple forum posts and replys. detailed description of workings and theorys from all paradigms even the (OH NOES...)"EVEEEL" ones.

and please dont include chaos magic in any future lists of non-safe/bad karma causing paths thank you.

Well if we have to let evil magick on the board then, at least let us give accurate descriptions of each article so people may be informed before going to far in. I would admit that you need to study evil a little bit to fully understand it. I would just exercise caution for beginners or people with malice in their hearts.

I do have a good collection of magickal works, that are in the public domain, in PDF format that I could upload. A humble start for an Occult Books/Library subforum. I would recommend either works in the public domain, or works which the author allows us to post. Copyrighted works by modern authors could land us into legal issues, especially if they are expensive books.

Maybe add subforums for the Library so people can discuss the books in there.

A summary of the article perhaps, prior to reading it, so people can get a feel for what they're getting into.

That's doable.

Any thoughts on how to subdivide the content? similar categories to the forum, or?

Whatever makes finding a particular article easier, and the number of articles we will have. I guess we can add subforums as we go, but if we have seperate groups for one or two articles it makes no sense.

I can easily compile a list like the one Frater_Malkuth has recommended.

If you plan on having articles then they should be written in a uniform way so that they all accomplish what they are meant to do and they are not just empty ramblings. For instance, include the history, theory and the methods of practice..

The bob hendricks memorial library at the old OF served the site well and people linked to it all over the internet. it was a very useful resource.

vs.

A recommended format is a great idea. Perhaps we could design a template for people to utilize while writing or transcribing their existing articles. However we do need to take in to account the topic and a persons writing style. We don't want to create dull research papers, but a framework that still lets the author's passion shine through.

In regards to a PDF Library, while 98% of the books can be found freely anywhere, having one centralized free repository would be a benefit to the community. There are also handful of hucksters that charge people for information freely available at other lesser known sites. A modern day Library of Alexandria that meets and exceeds existing fire codes.

Yes exactly, we could have posting guidelines, just something brief to help the article writers get a good start, and to give the articles uniform appearance. these articles would be useful as faq's or for discussion on the boards.

and i agree that the books in the library should be public domain so there are no issues with copyright
*edit* another benefit of having the library is that it can also be used for reference. it will draw people to the site and make it more useful than it already is as a resource for occultists


Vs.

That makes reading through peoples submissions a full-time job.
I like the fact that my articles get published on other sites.

I'm going to be undecided on this topic for now.
It may bury you folks so deep that you'll end up hating logging-on.

That would be "Bad".

Is not articles often what we write in our posts? Or where you thinking about having an sort of online library with various texts written by members. I do not see something wrong with a system like that, as long as it do not mess up people posting ideas on the forum and then discussing them. But I will vote yes for now. I am skeptical but slightly positive to this.

85% approval on this idea so far...

In the spirit of open-source communities, how about a wiki?

I've taken the liberty of adding a wiki system (MediaWiki - same system as used by Wikipedia), with a bridge so that forum users are logged into both the site and the wiki at the same time.

I'm hoping it will take off, but time will tell, really.

Please feel free to add anything of an occult nature to the wiki ^_^

Almost forgot, the URL is:

http://www.occultforum.org/wiki

And there is a link on the top menu

As long as this article idea is apart from ones ability to post anything at all on the forum.

You will kill this forum if you try to manage content in this way with all post's.

It is not the individual but the collective that transcribes the vision of the surfing individual.

Toss the garlands upon the sleeping bum he needs a surprise, and I need a reprieve.

- Wind

Haha, well, I think the wiki should do it, allows basically anyone to edit it. You can edit the wiki without a user account on the forum, but if you're logged into the forum and go to the wiki, it logs you into that with your forum account.

You can also wikilink in the forum ^_^ I suppose in theory this means we can link popular topics of conversation easily in a forum post, which could save a lot of digging for reference materials.. [citation needed]

Posting guidelines are a good idea, we should have a think about those.

"...Is the protection of the members from their own potential foolishness worth stifling their free speech, as well as portraying a one-sided view of magick?"

No,it's not.There are a bucketload of crap Occult/Pagan forums out there doing this already.This is the primary reason I joined the old Occult .com forum in the first place,to escape the narrow minded.

Do we only discuss RHP and 'white magick' on this forum? I think not.So why change the parameters for the Article section?

I am not for a wiki, that means anyone can edit it, it will be chaos, people will argue over anything. Someone will write an article about cursing and some lovey dovey fluffy bunny will come along and have to edit in a warning that you will be smithed by Karma if you do, and then watch the arguments arise. There are very few things occultists agree on. Article atchive yes. wiki, no, it would be complete chaos.

Venefica wrote:I am not for a wiki, that means anyone can edit it, it will be chaos, people will argue over anything. Someone will write an article about cursing and some lovey dovey fluffy bunny will come along and have to edit in a warning that you will be smithed by Karma if you do, and then watch the arguments arise. There are very few things occultists agree on. Article atchive yes. wiki, no, it would be complete chaos.

I totally agree with that. A wiki as broad as the occult is would never work. For a wiki to work you would have to have a bunch of separated wikis. Just imagine when someone will define the words Satanism, Wicca, Witchcraft or even the word magic. The number one thing people in the occult argues about are definitions:)

I could imagine adding some articles to a system as long as there is no demand on how it should be written or that I can not have it anywhere else. As it is now I write plenty of articles and I would not be writing specific articles for this site but I could imagine releasing some of them here as well.

Hi MrK, nice to see you have found your way here, how are you? I just wanted to go totally off topic and say that.