Proposed simplification of forums

[Apech]

2 hours ago, Nungali said:

 

Why not just the central theme and its two  'polarities '  ( law of 3  )

 

The Main forum is

 

Dao Bums

 

and the other two are

 

Left Cheek

 

Right Cheek . 

 

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

  

   And  Behold  ! 

 

    The Eye in the Triangle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheeky boy!

[dawei]

18 hours ago, ilumairen said:

I'm not soo big on overly simplifying here, although I'm certainly on board with the "weirding." 

 

Your such a wildling 

 

17 hours ago, ilumairen said:

 

One would grow accustomed to whimsical names, and considering the "welcome screen" as some sort of "map" may actually assist in navigation and understanding the process of navigating for those with troubles in this regard, imo of course.

 

site maps use to be popularly unused 

[flowing hands]

On 8/12/2019 at 8:00 AM, Sebastian said:

 

"God can be realized through all paths. All religions are true.The important thing is to reach the roof. You can reach it by stone stairs or by wooden stairs or by bamboo steps or by a rope. You can also climb up by a bamboo pole..."

 

This is not true. This is taking one particular view that of one God creator. Daoists do not hold this point of view and never have!

[flowing hands]

In simplifying the site, one must remember that Daoists are unique among all belief systems. Although we see even Daoist sects in China integrating Jesus and God, these are just poor teachings and bastardized beliefs trying to attract more followers. and don't represent the proper teachings of Daoism. It is unique in the fact that it names no one god as the creator, it sees gods as being created by the Dao, and not the other way round. It acknowledges that all life is capable of becoming a god or Immortal and this path is open to anyone and any other life form.  It is classless and sees all life equally. Equally there are no rules other than those of nature. There are no 'ten commandments' etc. So I think the site should revolve around Daoism and not just a category stuck somewhere.

[Sebastian]

26 minutes ago, flowing hands said:

It is unique in the fact that it names no one god as the creator, it sees gods as being created by the Dao.

 

Otherwise said, there is no Big Daddy up there that is creating everything. No religion can claim the Big Daddy for themselves. Rather the impersonal Tao, or Truth incarnates as Saints or Gods. Then people fight about these Gods, or try to claim them, and miss Tao in the process. God is such a charged word. Most of the time, "God" is just a conception in people's minds or a gross simplification of Tao.

 

I agree with your point of view. And at the same time I also think you can follow the teachings of various Saints without the associated religious trappings, in a very sober way. And get closer to Truth that way. But this is not the mainstream approach of organized religions unfortunately. It's mostly about having guarantees in the after-life and making their God the Big Daddy.

 

The quote was from Sri RamaKrishna. He was one of the most famous Holy Men of the East and was known for saying he found the One Truth through many religions. He actually tested them one by one after he enlightened. He was completely uneducated and couldn't read, so his approach was sincere and authentic. No BS, no religious trappings. His third eye was open too, and he could physically see the different Masters' energy - so that's mostly how he learned. And he found out the core of all religions were true, at least the one he tested. This is all documented in his book, the Gospels of Ramakrishna, and it's beautiful. 

[ralis]

23 minutes ago, Sebastian said:

 

Otherwise said, there is no Big Daddy up there that is creating everything. No religion can claim the Big Daddy for themselves. Rather the impersonal Tao, or Truth incarnates as Saints or Gods. Then people fight about these Gods, or try to claim them, and miss Tao in the process. God is such a charged word. Most of the time, "God" is just a conception in people's minds or a gross simplification of Tao.

 

I agree with your point of view. And at the same time I also think you can follow the teachings of various Saints without the associated religious trappings, in a very sober way. And get closer to Truth that way. But this is not the mainstream approach of organized religions unfortunately. It's mostly about having guarantees in the after-life and making their God the Big Daddy.

 

The quote was from Sri RamaKrishna. He was one of the most famous Holy Men of the East and was known for saying he found the One Truth through many religions. He actually tested them one by one after he enlightened. He was completely uneducated and couldn't read, so his approach was sincere and authentic. No BS, no religious trappings. His third eye was open too, and he could physically see the different Masters' energy - so that's mostly how he learned. And he found out the core of all religions were true, at least the one he tested. This is all documented in his book, the Gospels of Ramakrishna, and it's beautiful. 

 

Interesting points! Religion in general is about power and crowd control!

[sean]

Going to keep the ideas re: primary forum merges/changes marinating.

 

In the meantime I'm starting to feel good about a few initial changes:

 

THE COURTYARD

 

- Welcome! (no change for now)

- Daoist Discussion (no change for now)

- General Discussion (no change for now)
- This Floating World (still tinkering with name. merges "The Rabbit Hole" and "Off Grid". Basically an "off topic" forum, e.g. to talk about life, current world events, praxis, etc. not explicitly from a cultivation perspective but def not an "anything goes". Hun Dun and subforums are hidden, staff-only for moderator records/research.)
- Meta-Converse (still tinkering with name. moves "Forum and Tech Support" up to Courtyard with no other change for now)

 

PRIVATE GARDENS (new section)

 

- Personal Practice (no change)
- Gender Gardens

    - Mount Kunlun (no change)
    - Nuwa (no change)
    - Fuxi (no change)

- Local Meetups and Events (merges Local Meetups and Upcoming Events)

 

THE TENT and THE PAVILION  sections are then no longer needed, as all forums in those sections have been moved into one of the above.

 

Sean

 

[sean]

OK, I rearranged some deck chairs. Kept the names the same as first pass to avoid introducing too much confusion.

 

Sean

 

[OldDog]

Mostly agree with the direction you are setting. Only one thought lingers in my mind ... wish I had said it earlier ... may be already incorporated in your design. The notion of letting form follow function. It's not so much what the different subs that have existed were intended to contain, but what they evolved to contain. Some subs having developed into a richness beyond original intent. Others devolved into quite something else. The wisdom of the site creator can certainly tip the scales in one direction or another.

 

Kinda like This Floating World ... though I am a bit leery of combing Rabbit Hole and Off Grid. Seems to me Off Grid is where volitility occured, where as, Rabbit Hole was more a collection of benign eclectic lines of thought, not always serious. Time will tell where this consolidation leads.

 

Meta Converse or maybe Meta Matters has a good ring to it ... Meta being the key word.

 

Personal Practice might alternatively be called Reflecting Pool ... leaning a bit towards the whimsical, as some found desireable.

 

Perhaps you might publish a bit of a road map, all on one single page to orient newcomers as to what the various subs are intended for.

 

Keep up the good work.

 

 

 

Edited August 14, 2019 by OldDog
ugh! continually struggle with autocorrection.

[Michael Sternbach]

27 minutes ago, sean said:

OK, I rearranged some deck chairs. Kept the names the same as first pass to avoid introducing too much confusion.

 

Sean

 

 

Not bad.

 

Except that I would rather keep Buddhist discussion, Hinduist discussion etc as distinct forums instead of summarising them all under 'General'.

Edited August 14, 2019 by Michael Sternbach

[dawei]

14 hours ago, sean said:

PRIVATE GARDENS (new section)

 

- Personal Practice (no change)
- Gender Gardens

    - Mount Kunlun (no change)
    - Nuwa (no change)
    - Fuxi (no change)

- Local Meetups and Events (merges Local Meetups and Upcoming Events)

 

THE TENT and THE PAVILION  sections are then no longer needed, as all forums in those sections have been moved into one of the above.

 

 

@Sean

 

Assume you realize the above is not effected yet.  I'd still put PPD last as on a phone there is too much to scroll through to get past it to another forum.

 

Spoiler

- Gender Gardens

    - Mount Kunlun (no change)
    - Nuwa (no change)
    - Fuxi (no change)

- Local Meetups and Events (merges Local Meetups and Upcoming Events)

- Personal Practice (no change)

 

The Floating World:  I agree with combining the two areas as they are toned down to be too similar now.   I was trying to come up with something with "Cloud" to convey some kind of Daoist mountain feeling but can't yet. 

 

Also, I should let you know the 'Stream' tab at the top was customized with the first one being "Main Board Activity".   This was setup as:

 

Showing topics in General Discussion, Forum and Tech Support, Lending Library, Welcome, Group Studies, Healing Circle, 道家学说, Moderation Logs, Daoist Discussion, Buddhist Discussion, Hindu Discussion, Esoteric and Occult Discussion, Daoist Textual Studies, Huahujing, Daodejing, Confucian Philosophy, Neiye, Zhuangzi, Yijing, Local Meetups, Interviews, Upcoming Events, Liezi, Buddhist Textual Studies, Yijing Hexagrams, Wenzi, Agrippa Textual Study, Systems and Teachers of, Tarot Bums, Fuxi, Nuwa, Mount Kunlun - Grotto Garden, Men's Haven, Women's Sanctuary, Rules and Use, Healthy Bums, Miscellaneous Daoist Texts & Daoist Biographies, Hindu Textual Studies and Newcomer Corner posted in for the last 365 days.

 

So you can see that O-G (now gone) and Rabbit Hole were not included as there was a request to not see those show up in a custom 'unread content'.   If one uses the canned "unread content" then All forum areas show up.

 

Up to you if you want that custom one to remain or not (or rename).  Done in ACP.

[sean]

Thanks @dawei — super helpful. 🙌

[Rocky Lionmouth]

On 2019-08-09 at 2:10 AM, thelerner said:

 

yet historically Daoist Discussion has involved more serious subjects and experienced practitioners then General Discussion.  I'd hope merging doesn't lose that distinction.   Its hard to make rules for it, but I like how Daoist Discussion evolved into more serious, less jokey and speculative space. 

 

Idk how talk has been since the first page because i only got this far before i had to meddle. Daoist section does present a narrower scope of interest both in posting and habitual parttaking, not to bash on GenDisc but the scope gets so wide you could call organic spiritual topic-salad without being judgemental about it. It kept me out at least.

 

I like flat too, cross pollination is important. I mean from time to time i see fuck-all happening in DaoDisc for days or even weeks while GenDisc is bursting with activity at a pretty steady level. I like the openness and range Gen offers, but it’s also why i seldom go there myself, let alone post. Perhaps thats partially because of how things (d)evovled, that the span also gave opportunity to ”getting away” with some rather dubious or shifty writings?

 

Well, never mind the speculatives i brought, i’ll get back to reading instead of running my fingermouth.

Edited August 14, 2019 by Rocky Lionmouth

[Rocky Lionmouth]

On 2019-08-09 at 2:01 PM, silent thunder said:

 

Wanderers and Ponderers (lol)

 

 

 

I’d love to see that, with the bracketed lol and all.

 

Sorry, i’ll get back to reading again.

[Rocky Lionmouth]

On 2019-08-09 at 6:28 PM, liminal_luke said:

I suppose we could make a subsection of Discussions On The Way for fools but I don´t think it´d get much traffic.

 

Luke my dear, you totally underestimate my potential dedication to colonize that section.

[liminal_luke]

43 minutes ago, Rocky Lionmouth said:

 

Luke my dear, you totally underestimate my potential dedication to colonize that section.

 

Funny thing about fools, Rocky -- if you suspect you might be one, you probably aren´t.

[Rocky Lionmouth]

While on the subject of fun I’m going to suggest having a timeout zone where people can be sent for misbehaving. That would be the fool-subsection, open to all except those on probation who, either permanently or temporarily, can only view and post there... the Mordor Supermax subsection.

 

”Oh look, they brought a cave-troll, how wonderf-f-uuck, run if you can!!!1!”

 

It would be a deterrent (for me at least) and sort of preparing for the unfortunate event of another RWBS-epidemic, from which i hope the Tianzun would protect us swiftly...

 

Edited August 15, 2019 by Rocky Lionmouth

[dawei]

It's a weird feeling when you realize that you really really really should put on your glasses before reading...

 

On 8/15/2019 at 6:03 PM, Rocky Lionmouth said:

the Mordor Supermax subsection.

 

Read as, Murder Superman subsection 

 

On 8/15/2019 at 6:03 PM, Rocky Lionmouth said:

i hope the Tianzun would protect us swiftly...

 

Read as, I hope the Tarzan would protect us swiftly 

 

 

[dawei]

It took a while to get used to the new order but now I realize to stop scrolling down so much as most of what I look at are all in the first forum set. The re-shuffling of forum locations now feels brilliant. 

 

[doc benway]

I like the new layout as well.

Sleek!

 

 

[thelerner]

59 minutes ago, dawei said:

It took a while to get used to the new order but now I realize to stop scrolling down so much as most of what I look at are all in the first forum set. The re-shuffling of forum locations now feels brilliant. 

 

I like it, doesn't feel too different, but more efficient. 

 

I wonder if it makes sense for this section 'Forum and Tech Support' to be moved lower, ie in the Tent section, the very last?  With the thinking this generally isn't used too often.  

Edited August 24, 2019 by thelerner

[dawei]

3 hours ago, thelerner said:

I like it, doesn't feel too different, but more efficient. 

 

I wonder if it makes sense for this section 'Forum and Tech Support' to be moved lower, ie in the Tent section, the very last?  With the thinking this generally isn't used too often.  

 

I think what you say is true in terms of 'isn't used too often' but the nice thing is when just a guest you would then have only one (Tech) showing up in the Tent area... Now at least, a guest sees the publicly open forums together.

[sean]

On 8/24/2019 at 3:13 PM, dawei said:

I think what you say is true in terms of 'isn't used too often' but the nice thing is when just a guest you would then have only one (Tech) showing up in the Tent area... Now at least, a guest sees the publicly open forums together.

 

This was may reasoning as well. 👍

 

[sean]

Via: https://www.thedaobums.com/topic/49691-an-acupuncturist-posted-this/?page=2&tab=comments#comment-898342

 

On 8/27/2019 at 5:17 PM, Taomeow said:

How to behave in a women's area open for men -- well, I don't know.  If it's an area open for both men and women, it's just the main area to me, and I'd post there.  I don't see the point of having a women's forum if it's not any different from any non-women's.

 

The next forum changes I've been mulling over are re: the gender forums. I also don't see the point of the non-private variants of these forums. Why couldn't those topics simply be started in Grotto or Daoist or General discussion?

 

Here's what I'm thinking:

 

Private Gender Gardens

  Grotto (request access here, general gender discussion, move topics from all other open gender forums into this)
  Non-binary (for non-binary, gender questioning and intersex)
  Women (for women and female identified)
  Men (for men and male identified)

 

I'd also like to come up with a process of gaining/keeping entry to these subforums, especially the womens and non-binary forums since those are more likely targets for infiltration by dumb-dumbs.

 

My first thought is that I might have a quick video chat with any female and non-binary identified volunteers interested in helping me define and participate in an approval process. These members would then be empowered to approve others, thereby preventing future generations from being required to see my grisly mug just to gain access to their gender subforum. 😆

 

Thoughts, concerns, rotten tomatoes? 🍅

 

Sean

 

[ilumairen]

3 minutes ago, sean said:

Via: https://www.thedaobums.com/topic/49691-an-acupuncturist-posted-this/?page=2&tab=comments#comment-898342

 

 

The next forum changes I've been mulling over are re: the gender forums. I also don't see the point of the non-private variants of these forums. Why couldn't those topics simply be started in either Daoist or General discussion?

 

Some years back I had a friend who visited this forum, but did not join. His assessment was taoists, in practice, seem primarily concerned with semen retention. As it was later explained to me, one reason for the seperate yet open areas was so people could easily avoid wading through thread after thread about semen retention, and people like my friend mentioned above would be less likely to gain the (mistaken) impression he did.

 

3 minutes ago, sean said:

 

Here's what I'm thinking:

 

Private Gender Gardens

  Grotto (request access here, general gender discussion, move topics from all other open gender forums into this)
  Non-binary (for non-binary, gender questioning and intersex)
  Women (for women and female identified)
  Men (for men and male identified)

 

I'd also like to come up with a process of gaining/keeping entry to these subforums, especially the womens and non-binary forums since those are more likely targets for infiltration by dumb-dumbs.

 

My first thought is that I might have a quick video chat with any female and non-binary identified volunteers interested in helping me define and participate in an approval process. These members would then be empowered to approve others, thereby preventing future generations from being required to see my grisly mug just to gain access to their gender subforum. 😆

 

Thoughts, concerns, rotten tomatoes? 🍅

 

Sean

 

 

Guess mine was a rotten tomato..