Quality of Conversation on Site

[BaguaKicksAss]

As I understand it, the rules are still no insults (and no violent talk/threats) however before where a member could carefully word things "for eg. people who post in ways in which you do are assholes", might still get a warning or something today, whereas before they would not as they were not "technically" insulting the other person (though keep in mind, I could be understanding/interpreting things wrong here, but this is my take on it).

[liminal_luke]

I don't think there's any lack of teachers here on taobums. Some of the best don't use taobums as a platform to attract students for formal classes and workshops--but the wisdom, and sometimes practices, they share are no less valuable for not being offered in a commercial way.

 

The quality of advice and guidance available here for free often surpasses what is available for a price elsewhere.

 

Liminal

[GrandmasterP]

For sure and good luck to any teacher who advertises online.

Advertising is a fact of life.

What rattled my cage a bit back in the day was product placement disguised as posting.

Somebody appears on TTB claiming Teacher X is the bees knees.

Then another pops up saying 'Amen to that. Teacher X is brilliant and did you know he is offering two for one on his training Merchandise right now?"

And so on.

By all means advertise but be honest and whack in a banner ad as your sig or even pay for an advertisement.

That seems to be happening now.

Edited April 6, 2014 by GrandmasterP

[Apech]

As I understand it, the rules are still no insults (and no violent talk/threats) however before where a member could carefully word things "for eg. people who post in ways in which you do are assholes", might still get a warning or something today, whereas before they would not as they were not "technically" insulting the other person (though keep in mind, I could be understanding/interpreting things wrong here, but this is my take on it).

 

Well the best and easily enforcible rules and clear, well understood and minimal - so neither you nor I should be uncertain.

[Gerard]

Political Correctness is a roadblock

 

 

It is very necessary; in fact one of the pillars/requirements for successful mental/spiritual cultivation is morality, aiming at a virtuous behaviour 24/7. Without morality one can't gain wisdom and purify the mind.

 

Taoist, Buddhist and Confucian values were developed on the East following the teacher-student relationship which was strictly adhered to based on the principle that the former has gained a significant insight into the nature of reality before accepting any students. Traditional knowledge was passed on following that model. We are not talking about "Buddhas" in this case, probably one in a trillion or more, to which this principle obviously would no apply.

 

The quality of this forum degrades every time uneducated people come here to either disrupt the content of what is being discussed or display their mental imbalances. IMHO, this should be controlled since the nature of the Internet allows this sort of behaviour.

[BaguaKicksAss]

I don't think there's any lack of teachers here on taobums. Some of the best don't use taobums as a platform to attract students for formal classes and workshops--but the wisdom, and sometimes practices, they share are no less valuable for not being offered in a commercial way.

 

The quality of advice and guidance available here for free often surpasses what is available for a price elsewhere.

 

Liminal

 

Seconded.

[SonOfTheGods]

It is very necessary; in fact one of the pillars/requirements for successful mental/spiritual cultivation is morality, aiming at a virtuous behaviour 24/7. Without morality one can't gain wisdom and purify the mind.

 

Taoist, Buddhist and Confucian values were developed on the East following the teacher-student relationship which was strictly adhered to based on the principle that the former has gained a significant insight into the nature of reality before accepting any students. Traditional knowledge was passed on following that model. We are not talking about "Buddhas" in this case, probably one in a trillion or more, to which this principle obviously would no apply.

 

The quality of this forum degrades every time uneducated people come here to either disrupt the content of what is being discussed or display their mental imbalances. IMHO, this should be controlled since the nature of the Internet allows this sort of behaviour.

 

Morality and those who legislate it- are Majority Rules.

Political Correctness and Spiritual Morality are different IMO.

 

Political Correctness in North Korea, I am betting- is not Spiritual Morality to the rest of the world.

Their Government Leader, is their "god"

 

But I'm cool with rules.

There's some things I myself have questions about- but not sure how to ask them, without offending someone.

 

So I keep silent

[RiverSnake]

I picked "same." As in the past, there's an abundance of very high quality posting, and a smattering of not so high quality posting. But that doesn't have much to do with the quality of my time here. It's like food. There's a Burger King wherever you go, but it doesn't effect you until you pull into the drive-through. It's a choice.

 

Usually I can quickly tell, often just from the title, whether a thread is likely to offer quality spiritual nourishment. If I choose to go slumming in the Taobums redlight district or get into flame wars about eating/not eating meat, well, that's on me.

 

Liminal

 

Don't think I could have said it better myself.

 

My 2 cents, Peace

[Brian]

 

Morality and those who legislate it- are Majority Rules.

Political Correctness and Spiritual Morality are different IMO.

 

Political Correctness in North Korea, I am betting- is not Spiritual Morality to the rest of the world.

Their Government Leader, is their "god"

 

But I'm cool with rules.

There's some things I myself have questions about- but not sure how to ask them, without offending someone.

 

So I keep silent

Political Correctness is just NewSpeak for NewSpeak.

 

To borrow from the Bard, intellectual tyranny by any other name would smell as... something...

 

[adept]

I voted 'decreased'. There's far too many of the same type of threads. A lot of topics which have been done to death, are resurrected. Nevertheless, it's still a good place.

[RiverSnake]

Perhaps I should have put an options for ebbing and flowing.

 

My 2 cents, Peace

Edited April 8, 2014 by OldChi

[Creation]

Over how long a period of time? There have been some recent improvements, but I think this this place went through a steady decline throughout 2010-2012 from which it never recovered. This was characterized by the steady drift away of many regulars, and a marked decrease in posting from the ones that stayed.

 

I suffer from a "good old days" complex about this place, which perhaps makes me see the old crowd with rose colored glasses prevents me from seeing the virtues of the people who took their place. But I think that many who have been here for 5 or more years know there was a certain atmosphere here that is gone now. Just what was that atmosphere? Aetherous' described it in his posts. There was a really wonderful post by hagar a little while back that perfectly encapsulated it for me, but I have lost track of it and don't remember exactly what he said. For me, it was that so many of the regulars had such a passion for experimentation and open sharing. People were trying everything under the sun (I mean everything) and sharing about it here, and people were dialoguing about it, taking it up themselves, reporting back, etc. And the different personalities and perspectives and backgrounds of the different posters all contributed to all these different topics. I always got a special joy out of sean's and freeform's posts in this regard.

 

The teachers that did show up would participate in the open sharing: they would engage with everyone as just another practitioner on the path. Vajrasattva in particular shared mind blowing stuff about his practices and teachers so freely, also Ya Mu, Dao Zhen, and Lin Aiwei shared a lot of cool stories and information. They weren't coming here like "I'm a teacher", but just sharing their expertise with everyone and it was understood that if anyone was interested in learning from them that was available. Vajrasattva and Dao Zhen are long gone; Ya Mu and Lin left for a while and don't post as much now that they are back.

 

There is more: it's not just that the "personality" of the place doesn't fit my fancy, but the collective energy has taken a palpable turn for the worse. My reaction to the collective energy here is much more guarded and less open and enthusiastic. It feels less safe to put my energy here by posting than it used to. If I can sense this, certainly any high level teacher will also. So if you value the quality of this place, ask yourself "What kind of energy am I contributing to this place?" What I mean by collective energy at any given time is as sort of total energy behind the recent posts and the general energy that frequent posters and lurkers are bringing when they are on the site. As the number of people who are hostile, closed minded, and stuck in their head, and unreceptive increases here, and especially if such people are the most frequent posters, the less likely it is that high level practitioners will come here. Case in point, when Lin came back, it only took a week or two before he only posted in his PPF. thetaoiseasy did the same thing IIRC.

Edited April 9, 2014 by Creation

[Mark Foote]

I can't say, about whether there's been a change here for me.

 

I do wonder if there are more participants. There are a lot of new threads all the time, but I can't say for sure if that's any different.

 

I like the fact that people are talking about their practice, whatever it is, and that they are usually sincere. And I like that it's an equal playing field; I've always felt that if the learning is not a two-way street, there's not really anything happening.

 

I come here for fun, and I get drawn in sometimes; I guess that's why I still show up. That, and there are some folks who amaze me and who make me laugh!

[RiverSnake]

Over how long a period of time? There have been some recent improvements, but I think this this place went through a steady decline throughout 2010-2012 from which it never recovered. This was characterized by the steady drift away of many regulars, and a marked decrease in posting from the ones that stayed.

 

I suffer from a "good old days" complex about this place, which perhaps makes me see the old crowd with rose colored glasses prevents me from seeing the virtues of the people who took their place. But I think that many who have been here for 5 or more years know there was a certain atmosphere here that is gone now. Just what was that atmosphere? Aetherous' described it in his posts. There was a really wonderful post by hagar a little while back that perfectly encapsulated it for me, but I have lost track of it and don't remember exactly what he said. For me, it was that so many of the regulars had such a passion for experimentation and open sharing. People were trying everything under the sun (I mean everything) and sharing about it here, and people were dialoguing about it, taking it up themselves, reporting back, etc. And the different personalities and perspectives and backgrounds of the different posters all contributed to all these different topics. I always got a special joy out of sean's and freeform's posts in this regard.

 

The teachers that did show up would participate in the open sharing: they would engage with everyone as just another practitioner on the path. Vajrasattva in particular shared mind blowing stuff about his practices and teachers so freely, also Ya Mu, Dao Zhen, and Lin Aiwei shared a lot of cool stories and information. They weren't coming here like "I'm a teacher", but just sharing their expertise with everyone and it was understood that if anyone was interested in learning from them that was available. Vajrasattva and Dao Zhen are long gone; Ya Mu and Lin left for a while and don't post as much now that they are back.

 

There is more: it's not just that the "personality" of the place doesn't fit my fancy, but the collective energy has taken a palpable turn for the worse. My reaction to the collective energy here is much more guarded and less open and enthusiastic. It feels less safe to put my energy here by posting than it used to. If I can sense this, certainly any high level teacher will also. So if you value the quality of this place, ask yourself "What kind of energy am I contributing to this place?" What I mean by collective energy at any given time is as sort of total energy behind the recent posts and the general energy that frequent posters and lurkers are bringing when they are on the site. As the number of people who are hostile, closed minded, and stuck in their head, and unreceptive increases here, and especially if such people are the most frequent posters, the less likely it is that high level practitioners will come here. Case in point, when Lin came back, it only took a week or two before he only posted in his PPF. thetaoiseasy did the same thing IIRC.

Good post Creation. I remember back when I first arrived here and Vaj and Denny were still participating....they would say some things....and I'd be like holy shit that's cool, these guys are awesome! Some really mind blowing stuff for a beginner like myself to walk into.

 

My 2 cents, Peace

Edited April 9, 2014 by OldChi

[Marblehead]

Buddhism will never be what it was after Vaj. Hehehe.

[BaguaKicksAss]

I've noticed within the past few days there has been more posting than usual, and I mean positive posts too .

 

Also, I'm wondering if part of the change on the forums is the number of members? Seems we have nearly 4000 now (and over 500,000 posts!!); likely didn't have half that a few years back.

Edited April 9, 2014 by BaguaKicksAss

[adept]

Buddhism will never be what it was after Vaj. Hehehe.

That's a different Vaj.

[Marblehead]

That's a different Vaj.

Well, okay, but still.

 

Yes, I really enjoyed the other Vaj but rarely had the opportunity to speak with him.

[RiverSnake]

Bump. It's been a little over a year and was wondering what others experience during that time has been. For me personally I definitely noticed a shift in the quality of conversation and felt a need to re-cast my vote.

[Apech]

I've changed mine to say it's got a little better.  Even the political threads have held back from personal abuse and there's been a few interesting topics ... so I'm enjoying this place more at the moment.

[RiverSnake]

I've changed mine to say it's got a little better.  Even the political threads have held back from personal abuse and there's been a few interesting topics ... so I'm enjoying this place more at the moment.

 

Indeed, definitely feel there's been less spear tossing as of late. But tommorow, whom knows?

[Apech]

Indeed, definitely feel there's been less spear tossing as of late. But tommorow, whom knows?

 

"Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."