BALG RULES - Please read them!

Ever since this forum was launched the idea of adding rules was deemed unnecessary. Because after all, we would most likely deal with mature Black Magicians seriously working on their Path to become a Living God.

Almost two years later we, sadly enough, had to change our minds on this. We regret to announce that, as from now, rules will be added to this forum. We have had too many scammers, con-artists, trolling, flaming, threats, false profiles, intimidations, dead horses, etc…

We can no longer tolerate this! Apparently this forum can no longer do without some necessary rules.

Therefore, as of today, the following rules will need to be followed:

✦ Newcomers, please introduce yourself first in a New Topic. To do so, click or tap New Topic button on top-right corner of your screen, below your profile photo.

new-topic

Helpful ideas to include in your introduction:

  • How long have you been practicing?
  • Do you follow any particular system or tradition?
  • Do you have any practical experience in magick?
  • Where are you from?
  • Photos if you’re comfortable
  • Current ambitions/struggles

If a newcomer fails to make an intro promptly, we reserve the right to remove each and every subsequent post until the rule is respected, or temporarily remove posting privileges

✦ Insults: one warning only. By repetition your account will be deleted

✦ Irrelevancy: stick to the topics. Nobody cares what you ate or how much you weigh. These comments will be removed without further notice.

✦ Solicitation: Jesus loves you, repent and join Christianity. Again, this will be removed as well as the account

✦ Harassment, flaming, and trolling or being disrespectful towards other members: one warning

✦ Preaching dogmas and indoctrinations. This includes, but is not limited to, moralising, preaching karma, or the “law of three-fold return” etc

✦ As a seemingly necessary clarification of the above points, working threads are not to be treated as referendums, nor invitations to comment on whether you personally approve of the OP’s desires, intentions, personality, or anything else. This means don’t derail these threads by stating your disapproval of the OP’s stated goal, nor by nit-picking, insults, or mockery.

These comments will be deleted without notice, making a habit of this behaviour will result in a ban. If you feel someone has posted a working thread that clearly breaks the forum rules, flag it, or PM a moderator

✦ Spamming: immediate ban

✦ Threats: immediate ban

If you intend to discuss targeting a member with baneful magick in off-forum comms, be aware that these may have the same effect on that named person as a threat made to their face if the discussion is revealed, and what will happen then is explained here Important: Off-Forum Communications, Curses, And Threats - this is in action as of 28th April 2018

✦ No “Dead Horses”: this means, if a thread has gone irrevocably off-topic, perhaps due to enough people being unable to take the first post seriously, or any number of other reasons, using that thread as a dump to post gifs, memes, etc., or engage in banter about the OP, will not be permitted and the thread will likely be closed and/or deleted. If you spot a thread going this route, please just flag it.

✦ Starting topics on banned users or deleted posts: one warning and removal of the thread

✦ Advertising / Offering commercial goods and services:
this is now banned as of 9th October 2014, and posts of this nature made after that date will be removed, further violations will result in deletion of your account.
And as of 28th December 2017, in relation to this rule, posts offering to pay with money or barter for magickal goods and services will also be removed.
As of 27th October 2023 as further clarification of this rule, terms for payment or PM dealings may not be placed in profiles. Please do not target BALG members for marketing purposes in any way. You may, however, place a link to your external site in your profile.

✦ Offering free readings and/or ritual: as of midnight 30th April 2015, we prohibit people from offering these services unless they’ve been reasonably active on the forums for at least 3 months, participating in the community as a genuine member. UPDATE: As of 1/29/22, this rule also applies to the posting of any form of channelling, sigils, or servitors.

Update: We have had several people pop up suddenly to offer readings after a long absence from the forum, so we have decided to update the rules to address this. As of November, 22,2022, anyone returning from a hiatus of longer than one month must show at least some activity in the community for 30 days before being able to offer readings or magical help. This applies regardless whether they have previously met the 90 day rule or not. We have new members joining all the time, and they will not be familiar with anyone who has been away from the community for an extended period.

✦ False or double accounts will be deleted immediately.

✦ No posting of links that lead to sites where one can download for free. This can cause prosecution for BALG because often the sites are illegal (even when you think they’re not).

✦ No specific declarations of intent to curse a specific person, or umbrella organization. Keep in mind that it is not hard to screengrab from this forum or any other if you’re not lazy, and it’s easier to present these screengrabs out of context. Whether it’s wise or not to tell anyone that you’re cursing them is subject to debate, and the answer seems to vary with incidence and experience.

While it is not generally considered punishable in the Western countries to afflict with a curse because it is not commonly considered possible, it is very much legally prosecuteable to instill fear or intimidation through terroristic threat, leading to a demonstrable decline or collapse in physical and/or mental health of a harassed victim. Please bear that in mind, as any post that may attract undue legal attention to the BALG organization will be terminated so that this forum can continue to be a place for the advancement and discussion of Magick and Ascent.

Do what thou wilt - in thine own circles and media - and accept the consequences like the men and women that potential gods and goddesses have as their origin. But anything that can legally be construed as threat or harassment against a specific individual or a specific group needs to happen elsewhere. :wink:

As of 5th September 2018, the only subject – whether for debate or for magickal working groups, or sharing work done – that is prohibited is politics: specifically, topics whose title and/or main premise is party politics, direct and overt promotion of any form of identity politics, and comments about mass migration of persons of any group across national borders, be it for, against, or other.

This applies across all viewpoints, “left” and “right,” pro-authoritarian or pro-libertarian and all other views, and no bias will be shown in applying this policy, regardless of the known preferences of moderators/admins/other members. Because we are all human, and have our own views, but this matters:

  • This is at the direct request of the forum owners and you can read Timotthy’s statement about that here.

Obviously the line at which something becomes political (especially in recent years, with the rise of identity politics as a mainstream topic) can be blurred, for this reason it will be general policy to separate any posts that venture into these areas and make them a PM conversation where people may continue the discussion in private, rather than drastic sanctions for crossing a line it is all-but-impossible to define.

This way, members are not having to hold their breath lest they mis-step, but obviously, don’t take the piss: goodwill shown, requires a good faith endeavour to stay within the lines.

  • At all times content in the same thread that is not political will be conserved in situ as far as possible, which means that steering a topic someone dislikes into political waters will not result in that topic being locked, deleted, or made PM.

Profile Flair & Group Messages

You may discuss politics as much as you wish in a group private message. Just enumerate your political worldview in your About Me under Preferences on your Profile, give consent to participate in group chats, and chatters can add you to private group threads — and you may leave those chats any time also.

These are the words of Timothy, co-founder OF BALG. Simple concept, simple to apply. :wink:

If you have a pressing personal problem or concern regarding your own community or country that you know also touches upon migration, an identity politics or party political issue, and need help, if you wish to, contact @moderators – I have some idea of existing thoughts of members and may be able to steer you right on who to contact to form a working group. Likewise, if you have strong political views, experience with doing political/memetic magick, contact me and register an interest, I will strive to make sure people are able to connect as needed.

Finally, you may from time to time happen across posts from before this policy was in effect which have a markedly political content, and if that happens, please use the flag icon underneath the three dots … at the bottom of that post and use the flag for Off Topic, no-one will be sanctioned for posts that were of that nature before the policy was introduced, this is solely to protect new forum members from being misled as to what can be discussed by the existence of older threads and comments of this nature.

★ Since autumn 2018, we have had an increasing number of groups, usually on Discord, being promoted on the forum, culminating in some rule-breaking and very abusive behaviour recently that originated on one of these groups. For this reason, external groups, “Orders,” and communities are now in the same status as commercial endeavours and political interests/working groups.

This means you MAY place links to your groups, “Orders,” and external communities in your forum profile, but you may NOT post those links or promotional material on the forum, or initiate a PM to try and recruit people. This applies as of 25th March 2019.

Be aware that BALG Discord groups do not exist – please see this link for information about that.

★ Please post in English: this forum welcomes new members from all around the world every day.

This, combined with the forum’s reliance upon member-moderation, where each member has the right and responsibility to help us keep our forum civilised and problem free, means that it is best to please keep posts in English, because that is the common language of the forum.

If you cannot read or write English easily, please PM the @moderators group for advice on how to meet other members who can speak your language, or reply to this topic asking for help. :+1:

Conversations conducted in a non-English language need to be be taken to PM please, in order to remain inclusive and to facilitate member-moderation.

Important:

We may revise these Rules from time to time - the most current version will always be in this post at the top of the thread, older versions quoted in posts are superceded by any subsequent updates.

If you are receiving any harassment or have any concerns whatsoever about a post made, do not attempt to retaliate or derail that topic, simply use the flagging function (under the three dots … at the bottom of each post and PM) and flag it, this will place it in the Staff inbox and it will be dealt with as a priority.

Raising a flag will not notify the person who posted, and your name will not be revealed.

149 Likes

I agree with what you are all trying to do here. My apologies for reving up that dead horse thread to as ridiculous as it got. I take partial responsibility for that! But regardless I think that these rules will greatly help bring our forum back to what was originally intended. Bravo Alex and Gozer!

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Thumbs up from me simply because it’ll help keep things a bit more serious and focused on the actual topic of magick and ascent, and where I’m at right now, that’s a good thing.

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I’ve been doing some thinking about this.

Until recently, I was almost allergic to the idea this forum could need moderation, and I posted as much here, where a fly-by rabble rouser got roundly dismissed by members, with intelligent arguments and rational debate. I was so into that and thought it was proof of how sound the idea was, of black magicians taking care of business.

But then the whole thing with Elison kicked off - and he was a (kind of) established member, a guy with plenty of posts (some of which were useful) and interesting info, and then he did the mad post of his “services” and it kicked off.

I watched, horrified, as it unrolled, from a member selling his services, to his increasingly unawares (or wilfully ignorant, I don’t care) defence of them in the face of rational challenges and reasonable advice, into a full-on assault on this community as a whole.

And I saw how that spread, and sucked the life out of the forums, and became a farcical play upon the idea any of us have power, when every time we bother to log-in, we have to deal with or consciously choose to ignore this kind of bullshit.

Then I thought, fuck this for a game of soldiers, and I contacted the mods/admins, practically begging them to ban this user. Who I have had decent conversations with, and had (and still have) no personal grudge against.

It made me think.

Why are we here?

To bash how we’re RIGHT into everyone’s heads, and then demand money and praise (“reviews”), even when we’re making it clear we don’t care if it fucks things up?

To spout bullshit, comment only on other people’s experiences, quote from books and be dismissive of whatever anyone else says?

I know that’s not why I joined: I joined because I was already searching for how to become a goddess, or (more accurately) to command the powers of a goddess within my lifetime, and I was frankly gobsmacked when my randon google searches one night turned up this site, Eric’s vids, and all that happened since.

Going forwards, what are we into - the chance to be “right” - driven by socially conditioned ego, snark, the need to seem cool, by the standards of a world we’re already rejecting, revolting against, and ready to become the architects of its re-design?

I know I’ve recently become a bit wary, to be honest, of posting stuff, not because I “feared” trolling, but because I didn’t have the energy in my day (I work on a computer already) to defend my “UPG” and other stuff that I have from the shit-slinging monkeys that I was concerned might take exception.

And yes, I have also lost my temper, cussed at people, and generally not always lived up to my own standards (what I was doing posting a link to retro British TV in this thread by TWF, god only knows).

I just hope we can all be a bit more serious, in a GOOD way, a bit more committed, and a bit less picking the mote out the other guy’s eye (there, now you got ME quoting the Bible! lol) in future.

Meh - just had to get that off my chest - I had a laugh on the Dead Horse thread, posting my Rubber Nun (she’s fo’ real) but only because I joined long after it stopped being a toxic topic, and became a silly nonsense thread.

But I’m not here just to take the piss, pass judgement on things I don’t know anything about, or generally fall into any category of shit the internet is full of.

So, yeah: serious new direction? Bring it.

Sorry if it seems like I’m all, “Woo, what does SHE matter” because I don’t, but I thought my thought processes were worth explaining, and also why I think this has to happen.

I see nothing here in these rules that is contrary to ascent, and a lot that supports that concept.

Ascent?

Bring it.

Bullshit?

Ban it.

Yeah, I’m done, soz for the rant!

29 Likes

what’s wrong quoting from books? i did it almost three times…why not?

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Oh I do it too, I was just saying there’s more interest for me in hearing people’s experiences first hand, and that was just my opinion and not some kind of statement of what I think anyone else should do, all the time and no exceptions. :slight_smile:

Sometimes a book has the best answer, and quoting it directly can make a point more concisely than playing Chinese whispers by trying to paraphrase what it meant to you.

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personally i have some problems with my english…zorito is the king.i am the prince.sometimes i have to edit and edit again,to make my post readable…
so the best way way for me when i want to ask or write something that i saw on a book and i want to discuss it is to copy and paste it directly.

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It is unfortunate that BALG had to implement rules. However, I hear ya Bran, and at the end of the day this forum really is about assisting each other into Ascension.

I think these are more just plan 'ole good manners really. And good manners, being respectful, and having an open mind go a long way :slight_smile:

That’s what has separated “Mature Black Magicians” from the kiddie table here on BALG…at least that has been my personal/direct experience.

Thanks Bran & Gozer.

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do i still count as new? do i need to make an introduction?

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That wouldn’t be a bad move

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I see a lot has changed for the better since I’ve been away. Glad to see it happen.

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It’s disrespectful to hock one’s wares on another Sorcerer’s forum without invitation, let alone coming to his/her lair and peeing upon his carpet. I too had to make such rules after a time.the internet is full of idiots it seems.

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It’s been quite a while since I have been on here… I hope that everyone who has been part of this community for a while is doing well; not excluding any serious minded newcomers…It would be nice to see things getting back to the originally planned order, and I hope this strategy works out according to plan…

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Today’s newsletter puts forward a very good point for why having prolonged arguments with anyone (online or off) is more harmful that it may at first seem to be, it’s well worth reading.

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[

*Sollicitation…Jesus loves you, repent and join Christianity. Again, this will be removed as well as the account

[/quote]

Son no christian magick alowed that seems unfair

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Just no preaching. Telling people they NEED to repent or NEED to follow this way… etc
Basic trolling. ROFL

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just to confirm- rules read and understood.

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I’m wondering if this can be automated. In other words, members with a 0 post count would find the New Topic button unclickable to them. Reply would also be locked for every thread except the Introduce Yourself To Members Of The Forum thread. No ability to PM anyone who doesn’t have a mod or admin level in the forum. Once they’ve intro’d themselves in the Introduce Yourself To Members Of The Forum thread, the New Topic, Reply, and PM buttons would become fully unlocked.

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Well actually Timothy mentioned something recently that might fix this, but I don’t want to talk out of turn - it would probably save me and Claidheam (and formerly Bran) from having to send so many reminders, and then occasionally chase people up afterwards.

Often new members don’t even see they have a message waiting, which is why I post an image into their threads or whatever to show where to find them if someone continues posting after we’ve sent the PM, because it’s almost always due to not seeing the message.

Sticky-thread blindness is a real thing, I’ve joined forums myself and started posting without really reading every last pinned topic! :slight_smile:

It’s actually only a minority of new members who know to do an intro first, and in almost every single case it’s from genuinely not knowing about this - people see a topic they want to jump into, or they have a pressing problem, and haven’t read the OP in this thread.

C’est la vie, however very few people skip doing it to be contentious or annoying, but yes Timothy has, I think, something on the drawing board that might be helpful. :slight_smile:

Oh and PS, people who just join to make posts in the Q&A subforum aren’t requested to do intros, that’s just to keep it accessible and simple for people who otherwise wouldn’t be involved in the forum, so again if all but Intros & the Q&A were locked to 0 post-count people, we’d probably see people dumping long screeds into the Q&A which would make for just as much moderation work moving them round… it’s kind of a tough nut to crack at the moment.

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Apologies for my ignorance but what is a “dead horse”?

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