is it only me or the TB has lost its magic?

[freeform]

To increase the sense of community we should make a calendar of our bums, while making tai ji. In male and female format.

 

Please lets not!

 

[Gerard]

Don't want to rain in anyone's parade but here's what I think:

 

After finishing my first serious retreat (3 weeks and last 3 in seclusion) I realised that you can talk about the whole Taoist Canon or as many Buddhist sutras as you can that you will never achieve the same effect as meditating for +8 hours daily and away from society's distractions.

 

Actually I didn't read anything during that time let alone have the urge to read or visit a forum asking for advice.

 

The practice was actually quite simple:

 

1. Prostration

2. Walk

3. Sit

4. Walk

5. Sit

 

And so forth. Rest of the time silent.

 

It worked wonders.

 

TaoBums is for fun; don't take things too seriously here.

 

 

Regards.

[Yoda]

2003 was a good year!!

[三江源]

.

Edited April 27, 2014 by cat

[sasblamthanb]

re TB lost its magic...

maybe it's me

it was probably a happening until Oct 2008 right?

Edited April 30, 2009 by sasblamthanb

[Pietro]

maybe part of the lack of magic is that we have got used to being talked down to and told obvious things, and we dont respond anymore. Inertia sets in.

haven't we covered the answer to this question a million time?

Can we just give the number of the answer?

 

-:"you know, 63793248"

 

-:"yes but, 3428923#3234"

 

-:"you haven't considered 29219233"

 

-:"Good point, thank you"

[三江源]

haven't we covered the answer to this question a million time?

Can we just give the number of the answer?

 

-:"you know, 63793248"

 

-:"yes but, 3428923#3234"

 

-:"you haven't considered 29219233"

 

-:"Good point, thank you"

 

 

ha, YOU FOOL. everyone knows it's 33.

 

[Yoda]

Have our relationships become ho-hum? Finishing each other's sentences? Thinking about straying? Lost our polarity? Feeling wistful for RJ? Wanna scratch that 7 year itch?

 

 

 

 

Time for...

 

 

Rentention Man!!!

 

Retention Man *never* posts more than once a day... sometimes only once a week!!!

 

The power, jing, ojas, and electricity gonna blast this forum to the next level!!!!

 

Maybe we could all go on a one day posting fast? Maybe we could get Sean to take down the site for a week to get our kidneys back in the game!!!

 

Retention man would nod sagely.

 

Yoda

[Smile]

Cat is RJ, you fools.

[hagar]

Cat is RJ, you fools.

 

Always wondered what happened to RJ.

 

http://www.thetaobums.com/Respawning-t7297.html

 

I wish Sean would invite him in again.

 

h

[Unconditioned]

I don't know why but everywhere I look I see the same discussion over and over again. And they go in circles. But the people who ae discussing are obviously enjoying it a lot. So I am left wandering if I have grown beyond this community, or is the community that has changed so much that I don't recognise it anymore.

 

Most discussion seem to be around:

this or that teacher (this would be interesting, but maybe because I am happy with mine, I don't find them attractive),

what will happen in the year 2012 or 2020 (as if anyone had a clue)

what is reality (and ghosts-threads are under here too)

quantum-stuff

farewells

and topics more generally about what is taoism, and is this taoism, or is that taoism.

 

I am missing the kunlun's and the lizardmen which are not so high in the hitparade, but that is pretty much all.

 

And it is not changing.

 

I am not trying to be negative (maybe succeedng, but surely not trying). I just would like to have some feedback.

 

I don't seem anymore the same people (which can be good), but with them it seems that the experience also left. And I see people going around in circles. Maybe I was not the only one who got bored. I see some people leaving with great announcements (no I am not announcing my departure, I am trying just to understand). And people having probably left in a more quiet Way.

 

Had we developed any experience in those years? Have we suceeded in passing it on? Have we even tried to?

 

Hey Pietro,

 

It's what we make of it... what topics do you want to talk about? Throw some out there! My preference is the general lets examine an aspect of life together.

 

So I like your post for that very reason - maybe we could talk about discontentment, change, or what is being bored? Maybe that's the intent of your post relative to TTB?

 

I quite fancy being able to click ignore on an entire thread, and thereby have it not come up, for me, in the list of threads. Thus ending up with a front page of stuff I'm into and new stuff only. Is that feasible, geeky ones?

 

Ian, great idea!!

[Pietro]

Ok, so I looked a moment on the possibilities to filter things.

 

Part of the problem is that any change goes through Sean, and right now we don't even know where he is. But maybe if we all agree on some changes, we can convince him to do them. I have no clue what should be done to do what Ian proposed, to filter out threads. But I thought another way to filter out info you are non interested.

 

This website releseases a constant thread of info in the internet. Its RSS.

The URL of it is:

http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?act=rssout&id=1

 

I remember that it was me in the beginning who made a point that we neeeded an RSS. The RSS eventually was added, but the level of this RSS is really really low. I mean, there are few entries that are posted, and what is worse of each entry the data that is being released is the content of the entry, the time, but no data is being released about the author. The name of the author is not released. ANd this is not so ok. Because what I thought we could do is to set up an out of site filter, using yahoo pipes. So we sould pick the rss of this site, let it run through a yahoo pipe, each of us could set up what users do they want to see, and they make a filter that only let those users through. It is really easy. I could do it for everybody, and then everybody could copy it. Also it is bottom up, in the sense that if someone does not like my take about who to read hey can put the names they want.

 

And of course every time you find someone that you are interested, you can just add it to the list.

 

But as I said, all this would need that:

the rss has also the author name

There are more entries in the rss than just 5

The entries are updated more recently.

 

I am pretty sure that if this site has RSS it is probably just a matter of tweaking the values in the plugin to decide all those things. SO maybe we could ask Sean. But only if we all (or many of us) agree that it is something important.

 

Cheers,

Pietro

[Lozen]

I agree that TB has lost its magic but I think this happened a long time ago. It is just too big now and there is too much noise. Couple that with a bunch of good contributors basically leaving, and Sean being practically MIA, and what I find each day is a lot of posts by people I don't know about things I'm not interested in reading about. I know he wanted it to grow and be big but to me it has lost its community feel. I try to find posts by people I know whose stuff I like but it is hard sometimes amdist the excessive posts about nothing.

[宁]

I'm no way anywhere you comparing the amount of posting OR time spent on the TTB.

I joined just before the BIG BOOM, a period when newcomers were joining by the thousands.

Many of them inactive, some of them left now.

Let's face it, the forum begins to be interesting when there's a big fuss over a specific practice or teacher (there were some 5 or 6 cases largely debated).

So my take is that the crisis is due to the lack of "fresh meat".

Too little to have an opinnion on, or criticise at.

MTS made some waves, but he's small fish.

 

For me it's so interesting seeing everyday how good and bad succedes on the forum.

Time whipes it all out. Dust in the wind.

The big buddhist truth about the impermanence.

The big daoist truth about change.

 

I'll throw in an idea, considering my experience with the Yin Xian Fa thread.

If you miss some of the old threads, look them up and bump them up.

Many would be interested, if the only know what treasures lie beneath these dusty internet pages.

 

L1

[Pietro]

...

Let's face it, the forum begins to be interesting when there's a big fuss over a specific practice or teacher (there were some 5 or 6 cases largely debated).

So my take is that the crisis is due to the lack of "fresh meat".

...

Hello L1, I disagree. There was a time, and not so much time ago where people could have decent interesting discussion not related to this and that case.

When the first two Tao War erupted, with the Dragon Master, there was plenty of fresh meat. And yet when the DM left, we discovered that the community was able to discuss in a civilised way without needing a single focus.

 

When the DM came back again, and asked to join back, someone (do not ask me who, I do not remember) invited him not to do so, because of what we have achieved. Eric posted only two times that I remember of.

 

So it is definitly possible to have a community, which is interesting, and without a single focus.

 

Beside I found those last focus (kunlun, the master in the plastic rain coat, and so on) to be quite boring, too.

[宁]

Hello L1, I disagree. There was a time, and not so much time ago where people could have decent interesting discussion not related to this and that case.

When the first two Tao War erupted, with the Dragon Master, there was plenty of fresh meat. And yet when the DM left, we discovered that the community was able to discuss in a civilised way without needing a single focus.

 

When the DM came back again, and asked to join back, someone (do not ask me who, I do not remember) invited him not to do so, because of what we have achieved. Eric posted only two times that I remember of.

 

So it is definitly possible to have a community, which is interesting, and without a single focus.

 

Beside I found those last focus (kunlun, the master in the plastic rain coat, and so on) to be quite boring, too.

 

 

Ah ok. From my experience with forums (i have two of my own), the events that you describe are not the rule, but the exception to the rule. The rule says that things get interesting when a lot of garbage is tossed by a lot of people.

Usually the gems are found in that garbage fight.

Besides, it may be that the last events bored you, but certainly it made the forum very lively with different characters, some of which really have something valid and interesting to say.

 

You know, I'm not the one to tell, but this all thread idea seem so simmilar to:

"Ya rascals, when I was your age I... I... yadda-yadda!!"

Maybe we/you're getting old??

 

Kidding aside... this is how it seems to be

 

L1

[Pietro]

You know, I'm not the one to tell, but this all thread idea seem so simmilar to:

"Ya rascals, when I was your age I... I... yadda-yadda!!"

Maybe we/you're getting old??

 

Kidding aside... this is how it seems to be

 

...we are just old farts speaking about the good ol' days.

[宁]

I thought that was only a metaphor

[Chi kung apprentice]

I think that maybe the ones that have been around for a long time feel bored because you already know most of the information, but for people like me who have had so few information for years this site is still a very important reference.

 

Also, it is normal than most of us ask elemental questions and most of them repeated in some way, have us some patience, we are still in our first stages.

 

Talking about the most skilled ones, well, it is always hard to keep high level and go beyond some points at the same time that you give advices to the new ones. Maybe you should create a new folder called Advanced Discussions...for the Jedi Council to gather! lol!

Hugs from Mexico

Davy

the Chi Kung Padawan

[Pietro]

I think that maybe the ones that have been around for a long time feel bored because you already know most of the information, but for people like me who have had so few information for years this site is still a very important reference.

 

Also, it is normal than most of us ask elemental questions and most of them repeated in some way, have us some patience, we are still in our first stages.

 

Hi Davy, thanks for your message.

I am happy that the website is working for you. Maybe not all is lost.

 

Talking about the most skilled ones, well, it is always hard to keep high level and go beyond some points at the same time that you give advices to the new ones. Maybe you should create a new folder called Advanced Discussions...for the Jedi Council to gather! lol!

Part of the issue is that we don't have the key to this place. The webmaster is basically missing. We can email him, but we are trying to reach a consensus so that we can all bring a request together. So yes, a High Council of Old Farts (HCOF) would solve a lot...

[Gerard]

Four Noble Truths:

 

1. Life is suffering.

 

2. The origin of suffering is attachment. Users attached to this forum. They need to understand that everything is impermanent. This forum has changed and eventually will vanish into thin air.

 

3. The cessation of suffering is attainable. Nirodha is the way to do that and it means the unmaking of sensual craving and conceptual attachment.

 

4. The path to the cessation of suffering (Eightfold Path).

 

 

 

 

Edited: typo.

Edited May 5, 2009 by durkhrod chogori

[Mal]

Part of the issue is that we don't have the key to this place. The webmaster is basically missing. We can email him, but we are trying to reach a consensus so that we can all bring a request together. So yes, a High Council of Old Farts (HCOF) would solve a lot...

 

Requesting change @ TTB seems to be a relatively reoccurring theme for you... Why?

 

And what happened to the serious study group idea for the book club?

 

(just thoughts that spring to mind )

[Mal]

Requesting change @ TTB seems to be a relatively reoccurring theme for you

 

edit: actually that's not really fare of me, I did a bit of a posted topic search and it's just that I remember those sort of threads more than the others.

 

However I can't help myself

I decided it is not worth keep on trying to move this site in a more communal direction.

N.B. 2005 from http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?showtopic=343

 

So no need to answer it's just how you are,

all good

love

Mal

[Hugo_M]

I don't know why but everywhere I look I see the same discussion over and over again. And they go in circles. But the people who ae discussing are obviously enjoying it a lot. So I am left wandering if I have grown beyond this community, or is the community that has changed so much that I don't recognise it anymore.

 

 

dude it must be because you had been here since 2004 wow you must had been one of the first people here ? ( which year did this forum startet?) i belive you need to take a rest from the forum, until some Master or Immortal reply again

 

 

new-age seems to be taking over...

 

 

good point!

 

hahahahaha

 

 

[Hugo_M]

I would definitely say Pietro you've lost your magic.

 

 

hahahah your words make me feel funny and good

 

funny thread there is real magic here hihihihihihihi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

well I've joined recently and I find the forum a fantastic resource!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BTW - New Age seems to be taking over? What does that even mean??

 

Craig

 

Craig i guess they mean the forum had became more modern, and that the traditional pure Taoism talk is gone