[Policy] Forum feedback and changes

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sparkal
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[Policy] Forum feedback and changes

Post by sparkal »

As it is a transparent spiritually democratic forum (it is is not it?) I feel that it may be helpful to have a thread where people can feed back about this forum in general. I will start by making a couple of points. It could be said that the Honeymoon Period of this forum is over;
  • 1- Souls should be able to make posts without the site admin sending mail outs to the local centers. I personally have sent letters to my local center and to D and J in London. My posts here are for those who may have been in Gyan x number of time and can learn from others experiences.
    2- Every other forum I have been on gives the "edit" option. Lets look at this. To take this away is to OWN people's words. It is a lack of trust, which smacks of the BKs again.
    3 Then there is this overbearing nagging about punctuation and spelling by personal mail. I am a radical type, and that goes for punctuation snobbery. Can you understand what I am saying or not? Perhaps you need to watch my lips.
A forum is a mirror. Souls express themselves and they see a part of themselves in that mirror. To take the edit function away is to deny souls the right of self transformation. There is no point accusing the BKs of these domineering almost fascist things if the forum is going to practise them itself. I am referring to attachment. Attachment to other peoples' posts/expressions. Owning other souls expressions. We are supposed to be letting out, letting go.

The spiritual aim is self transformation, it is not about creating something new from scratch. We take what is there, and we transform that energy from negative to positive. Without an edit function, souls are being told that, once they perform an action, they are stuck with it, there is no going back and fixing it, tough. While we could debate it, this is not true to life. The weaknesses within us ARE from the past and we DO get many many chances even, of editing our past actions by changing the self in the moment, changing that which is already there.

It points to over-bearing attachment from the moderators and/or fear. A dictatorship. Owning peoples thoughts and words. Preventing them from being able to change. OK, someone could mess threads up by editing. So you scrap it and take the view that its time had come. It would be a decision taken by an individual who projected that expression in the first place. We have that as a basic right in life, to edit our past doings, but not delete. It suggests that the moderators may have other values running and is not in it to help others to change but is in it to punish others for their actions and make them disillusioned and admit defeat that change is not possible. It is a sentence of sorts. OK, it teaches us to think before we act, but we need to be given space to make mistakes, and to try again, or, transform what is already there.

Humour is important, it does not aways work however, but we don't know until we have expressed it as to what it is. It is the lack of an edit function which makes it permanent. Humour only works once, some may be best edited after a week or so. Not around here. As in, the person who expressed it change it, who knows, it may even give them the confidence to continue changing themselves. We cant have THAT though. Lightness is what spirituality is all about, to gain awareness of true self and drama. Anything else is a misunderstanding of why Shiva came in the first place.

There will be a way to save and backup I am sure, if so desired. Or are we in the game of collecting scriptures and mountains of information. Burn the lot. Loosen up. Let it go. Any thoughts of "my forum" will bring obstacles. But hold on, the moderators ARE allowed to change things, it is all others who cannot do this, yes, spiritual democracy right enough. Or is it called playing God with others. Don't point the finger at others until you have sorted things in your own backyard is what I would suggest.

If there is transparency here, there will be a list of the various moderators, or is there only one, are the others I am have been told of on a number of occasions just a BK type lie? Or a mother's lie to her children- 'I will tell you when you are older'. Are souls being patronised?

Harry Tuttle - spiritual engineer.
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mr green
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Post by mr green »

Hey sparkal, I thought you'd left us and now you seem to be here again ... and this place is all the better for you I say.
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fluffy bunny
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Post by fluffy bunny »

Mr Green wrote:hey sparkal, I thought you'd left us and now you seem to be here again.....and this place is all the better for you I say

Yup, but he is talking about his "Honeymoon Period" being over when he has already walked out of the family house at least three times ... it must be a love-hate co-dependent relationship because he keeps coming back! ;-)
sparkal wrote:As it is a transparent spiritually democratic forum (it is is not it?) I feel that it may be helpful to have a thread where people can feed back about this forum in general.

As far as I see it, it is not. It is a meritocracy. The more good you do, the more responsibilities you offer to take on, the more skills you have, the more goodness you embody, the more folks trust you and the more you get to do. Its exactly like the BKWSU, Gyan, or indeed "Life" itself. And, beware, numberwise ...

Ditto any forum. A forum is not "somewhere else". It is just more of the same. Who ever you are, what ever your issues are; the exact same ones will rise up in a forum as they do in "Real Life [tm]". Because, of course, it is "Real Life [tm]", just like the BKWSU is "Real Life [tm]". Indeed, it may be one of the problems with the BKWSU - or the problems that individuals have in perceiving it - that it sells itself as something else from "Real Life [tm]" when it is not. Individuals become upset when all their old ghosts come back to haunt them again and want to blame Mummy, Dadi or the moderators.

How many times have you left the center only to come back and complain about how much you don't like the way things are !?! OK. By what you have said on forum this might be your own personal issue. You are not condemned for that. Let's chose to discuss it openly, or privately, in some forum.

Democracy, for me, is either a gift or bribe by the ruling class to keep a rising class under its power. Or an art some people are good at of whinging in sophisticated ways to get more of what they want off others who already have it. Even if they do not know what it is they want and instead of just doing it for themselves. Personally, I liked the quote from one of The Godfather movies, which seems appropriate; "Real power cannot be given, it has to be taken". If the Forum is so bad, go start your own blog and link to it from here. I will help you set one up. They are free these days.
sparkal wrote:If there is transparency here, there will be a list of the various moderators, or is there only one?

There is. And not all moderators chose to make it public as far as I can see.

Your criticisms would look more balanced and impartial if you asked and did your homework. Firstly, check out the Forum Guidelines and Copyleft agreement. I think most of what you want to know is up there already. Secondly, I am a radical too. But I am conscious that the written word is meant to be transparent, ordered or even attractive; so that the revolutionary idea behind it shines through. I, personally, am willing to accept and even need feedback by way of reference. But it is best done off forum, or between individuals, in the first place until it really has gone too far. I think a big part of this forum has come about because the BKWSU is pursuing the capital of the commonwealth of humanity and does not seem to listen to criticism from those that have supported it or helped create its powerbase.
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howiemac
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Re: Forum feedback

Post by howiemac »

sparkal wrote:Souls should be able to make posts without the site admin sending mail outs to the local centers.
What do you mean? Please enlighten us.
It points to over-bearing attachment from the moderators and/or fear. A dictatorship
Speaking as a moderator of this forum, I am not at all clear why we are getting this abuse. As for editing, you may not fully realise, but it was due to YOUR abuse of the edit facility that it was removed.
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Post by bansy »

Just want to say that this forum has been going on for coming towards 6 months. This has been a very different forum than that of XBKChat which was "dictatorship". BKs, PBKs and ex-BKs are ALL active in this forum.

A lot of work was done at the start in April/May 2006 for the transition from XBkChat and the addition of the wikipedia. Sometimes this work is forgotten by newer members.

To show appreciation for the availability and openness of this forum, encourage your fellow students to join, and not be simple bystanders, otherwise they not contributing or sharing but keeping things to oneself. As far as I know every BK or PBK or spiritual person has something to share.

So thanks to everyone who has contributed to this forum, there is a truth in each one of us, and the best way is to post and share. And of course a huge credit goes to admin.
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Post by surya »

And of course a huge credit goes to admin.
Dear sister bansy, I agree with you! A stand up ovation to admin, including James, ex-l, Anon, Andrey and the rest of you.

Many thanks for such great work! Surya
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Post by mr green »

So say all of us. Well, me as well. 8)
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Post by surya »

Mr. Green,

You are included because without your dristi we cannot make it! And you know it!

Mr, may I ask you a question!? Have you met Baba Veerendra Dev Dixit? Or did you get your dristi from the Dadas

Just curious! Kind regards to you.
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Post by mr green »

surya2037 wrote:You are included because without your dristi we cannot make it! And you know it! Mr, may I ask you a question!? Have you met Baba Veerendra Dev Dixit? Or did you get your dristi from the Dadas?
Heh, heh. You seem like a kind fellow.
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[Tech] List of viewers

Post by arjun »

Om Shanti.

If I remember correctly, the xbkchat forum used to show the members as well as number of guests online at any particular moment of time. If this feature could be incorporated in this forum also, then it would be of a great help to the members to decide the urgency of replying to a particular post.
Regards,
OGS,
Arjun
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Enjoying the Forum

Post by alladin »

This new Forum experience has been so enourmously enriching for me. It took me out of a stand-by stage. I was getting everyday more fed up with the course the BK organisation was taking. So different from my priority of self transformation. Not in tune with that. It was impossible to explain how I felt to lokiks ... sometimes talking with dissident BKs but we did't have a clue about what's going on. We were just disillusioned, in pain, trying not to leave Baba completely, hanging in there. So, before Maya had a chance to kidnap me, he came to rescue, like the knight on the white horse, but with modern facilities :?. My general level of consciousness and meditation have been enhanced through the Forum interaction.

I appreciate the quality of posts, even younger members have a lot of wisdom to share and all stimulate my churnings. I thought my churning power was dormant. Now the lock on the intellect the KKK has opened and I feel stimulated at seeing everithing in a different unbiased perspective. It’s as if we are humbly posting heartfelt “classes” in here, not from a pedestal, just from experience. And with no façade of perfection. As someone defines it, a "work in progress'. I wish more and more valuable Baba’s true children may join and take benefit.

Much love and thanks to all Baba is Karankaravanhar!
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[Tech] Latest change in the forum

Post by shivsena »

Dear administrator Bhai.

I feel that the previous format was better as it showed who had replied last to a particular thread in the index itself; in this present format we have to open up the pages to see who has replied to a particular thread and it takes some time for the pages to load and we have to open each thread, which takes a lot of time; if you can take the members opinion and if all agree then can the previous format of threads be restored.

shivsena.
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I agree!

Post by surya »

shivsena wrote:I feel that the previous format was better as it showed who had replied last to a particular thread in the index itself; in this present format we have to open up the pages to see who has replied to a particular thread and it takes some time for the pages to load and we have to open each thread, which takes a lot of time; if you can take the members opinion and if all agree then can the previous format of threads be restored.
Dear Shivshena Bhai,

I have done the same request/suggestion to our administrator via PM.

I agree with you that this new system/index is not that appealing when browsing around the forum. In previous one we could see who replied the thread and the time also. Now I have to keep clicking again and again the whole index to find out or follow any daily developments. I hope we could go back to the way it was before.
thanks :wink:

surya
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Re: [Tech] Latest change in the forum

Post by admin »

shivsena wrote:I feel that the previous format was better as it showed who had replied last to a particular thread in the index itself; in this present format we have to open up the pages to see who has replied to a particular thread and it takes some time for the pages to load and we have to open each thread, which takes a lot of time; if you can take the members opinion and if all agree then can the previous format of threads be restored.
How do the results compare if you use the "New posts" or "Unanswered posts" at the top of the forum main page?
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Post by bro neo »

Bloody hell, some one changed what I wrote..again. I originally said I had 2 references. The bulk of the original quotes from above are from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato's_cave

which is a summarized version of the analogy. Only the last quote is from the above mentioned reference. And looks like ex-l's post was put up twice. Or was that déjà vu. Agents!
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