ATTENTION: Forum Rules and Policies

[lightmystic]

Due to the recent blatantly disrespectful conduct of some of the members on this forum (who I will not name here), it has come to my attention for the need to establish some clear forum rules.





RULE #1: The marketing corner is only if you, personally, have a book or service to sell. To be promoting other people's stuff or to be pretending it is not your own will result in the deletion of that material.

RULE #2: The spiritual teacher's section is for the mentioning of teachers that you like. It is not for self promotion or the promotion by followers. It's wonderful if you think that the teacher is great, but if it looks like an advertisement or a sales pitch, it will be deleted.

RULE #3: The swearing has gotten out of hand. I have been hesitant to make a thing of it, but it's clearly getting in the way of RULE #4. Swearing, allusions to swearing, euphemisms, and talk about sexuality in any way are inappropriate. This is not a private forum and children could have access. The first offense will result in a warning and a one week suspension. The second offense will result in a permanent ban. I will be retroactively going back through any posts that have inappropriate language and deleting them.

RULE #4: We are here to help each other, not to speculate or "tell each other how it is." It is our duty, as forum members, to relate to each other with respect and loving kindness. I do not feel that the attitude being shown in this forum is consistent with the loving kindness policy of this forum. If I feel that a post is not relating with loving kindness you will get ONE warning. The second affront will result in a permanent ban. I take this sort of thing very seriously. We are here to love each other. Pain for the sake of some idea of "spiritual growth" is missing the point. We relate to each other with love, as we are one being. Period.

RULE #5: To help support the policy of relating to each other with love and respect, I am enacting a policy that will help us in this endeavor. In the Indian tradition, the suffix "ji" is added to people's names as a sign of respect (see dictionary.babylon.com/ji%20%28indian%29/). I would not suggest we do this, as it would be a violation of our precious western heritage, but I see the need for doing our western equivalent. I would use the word "Mr." but feel that that is a sexist term, as it brings up the inherent gender disparity. So, in order to properly show the respect to each other that is due, we should refer to each other using either the pre-fix "Dr." or "Professor." Although this is unorthodox, and may seem a little strange at first, I feel this will help establish a culture of respect and loving kindness so badly needed on this forum. This will also remind us that we are here to learn from each other, not to preach to each other our version of "the truth."


I will be happy to address your questions below.

[Portto]

[glow=red,2,300]USER HAS BEEN BANNED FOR THIS POST[/glow]

I'm trying to guess which part(s) is(are) for today, April 1st.

[frankshank]

Professor Porto,

Well twigged (I hope)!

[Portto]

Dr. Frank, I hope so too. Otherwise, I'm out for a week.

Dr. Lightmystic: some of these rules left me scratching my head.

[enigma]

I'm generally pretty tolerant of moderator activities just as I tend to be of so called troublemakers since it's apparent that it all happens as a reflection of, and for benefit of, all involved, and as such I don't place myself above or beyond any of it, but instead take a look see as to why it showed up in my experience. This doesn't imply, however, holding my tongue.

From a personal perspective, I've owned several forums and moderated others, though the goal was always to make myself irrelevant in that capacity. Difficult posters are remarkably easy to deal with because sound doesn't travel far in a vacuum. Forums basically moderate themselves, such that if there is no interest in negativity, there will be no-one to engage in it.

Conversely, if rules of engagement are being established, and they represent a reflection of the orientation of the group as a whole, why is the group itself not already driving that orientation continuously with their daily posts?

In that vein, is it the group as a whole that has determined that we are here to help each other and that speculation is not a valid focus of discussion? Does anyone believe that, in the end, we can really only help ourselves, and in this process, there may be a degree of exploration that may involve speculation rather than declarations of teaching facts?

The difficulty I see with an enforced policy of loving kindness is that the term is radically subjective when it comes to discussions of spiritual beliefs relating to truth and ego, which are diametrically opposed. Most of us have seen ego react negatively to 'nonspeculative' 'help' offered in that context, and while it may be offered in 'loving kindness', it very often is not received that way. It presents a difficulty to me because my orientation is to explore my own boundaries in possible communion with 'others' rather than to offer help in a framework of loving kindness.

In the interest of 'respect', the less said about the childish injunction of 'Dr' or 'professor', the better. Although seemingly more adult-like, It reminds me of the British bard tradition of addressing one's opponent as 'my esteemed colleague' just prior to verbally ripping his throat out. (with loving kindness, of course)

[frankshank]

If this is deadly serious then I concur with enigma but it has to be a wind up. There's no way Porto would have been banned without clarification from LM first. If I'm wrong then this board will find the peace it clearly seeks!

[Peter]

Great post Enigma, very helpful.

There I was getting mired in a reply when I read rule #5 again and it's just so off target that I'm back to the opinion that this is a wind up. If it's not, then the timing is most unfortunate.

LM?

[zendancer]

Yesterday was April Fool's Day. What did you expect from one of our most esteemed jokesters? An enlightened baby killer, indeed! A tip of the hat to Professor Lightmystic.

[Myself]

These rules are ridiculous!

What does spirituality have to do with fool's day?

[Peter]

Apr 2, 2010 8:03:25 GMT -5 @Myself said:

What does spirituality have to do with fool's day?

It's all part of life's rich tapestry.

[zendancer]

Precisely!

BTW, how did you end up in Corsica? You lucky dog!

[lightmystic]

Ah yes! April Fools everyone!

Just to be clear, the whole original post was all part of the hoax, so none of the rules actually apply. I just had to make some of them seem reasonable so I could slip into the increasingly ridiculous ones.

My favorite parts are:

"We relate to each other with love, as we are one being. Period." Fascist love!

"I would use the word "Mr." but feel that that is a sexist term, as it brings up the inherent gender disparity" Inherent gender disparity? Sexism for the win!

And of course, the kicker: "in order to properly show the respect to each other that is due, we should refer to each other using either the pre-fix 'Dr.' or 'Professor.'" I wasn't sure I was going to be able to pull that one off!

All glory and thanks to Porto for being my last minute partner in crime, and modifying his post to say that he was banned.

I will leave this post up for a day or two just to make sure that everybody realizes that this is a hoax (and, of course, to show off my work, which I am very proud of ) and then I will unsticky it.

Finally, I just want to say that, not only do I not have a problem with any behavior on this forum, but I'm actually thrilled to death about the openness, respect, and sincere desire for truth that everyone has shown each other on this forum. It is truly a privilege to be able to moderate a forum as wonderful as this. And it is as wonderful as this because of all of you guys, so you have my heartfelt thanks!

With fascist love to you all,

Professor Light Mystic

[enigma]

Well executed, Professor. You totally sucked me in since I didn't even know what day it was. Hehe.

[Peter]

Apr 2, 2010 8:21:37 GMT -5 zendancer said:

BTW, how did you end up in Corsica? You lucky dog!

Actually my wife was born here, and still has family and friends on the island. We've a cottage here that's best suited to summer living and needs a lot of care and attention. Started stripping back a layer of peeling paint yesterday and found myself digging through 100 year old rotten plaster back to the bare stone. All a long long way from Office Life.

Feeling less inclined to contribute to the board at the moment. It feels like words are meaningless (have you seen The Incredibles? Reminds me of the scene where Edna Mode says "Yes Gabbagabbagabba Darling, words are useless, that is why I SHOW YOU my work"), and my opinion is just one of 6.2 billion opinions.

Finding full time child care quite challenging, balancing the need to allow my son to live free with the need to stop him from running around yelling at the top of his voice. He wants to jump on the bed. I WANT him to put his pyjamas on.

[vacant]

Haha, I know that one well (the pyjama scene!)

While I have wondered how a previous many-posts-a-day contributor could switch to such distance I feared worse circumstances than the ones you describe.

Although I read this board several times a week, I too have been gagged by the immense meaninglessness of what I could say and so the recent trend here has been to abstain splashing it out. Some kind of impotence I'd be ready to bet, or perhaps and even more likely, a silly and overblown self importance about authorship. But I feel this post is a bit like when it's time to call my (lovely) sister after postponing for way too long. The likeness is also in the fact that I'm not getting too deep!

All the best with parenting!