I mean, ignoring/muting is a pretty good solution because itās impossible to police a forum based on general differences. I personally donāt mind muting/ignoring, but I admit there are cases where I wonāt and thatās usually when someone is acting too big for their britches and acting as if everyone is beneath them. Itās a thing I canāt overlook when someone who feels like their energy is all talk and no weight behind it. I donāt really care if someone threatens me but, when someone is like "youre all weak in comparison to [insert individual] I have to voice my opinion on the sheer steep bullshit.
This is called projection, when you project your circumstance and reality on others, it often comes off as extremely ignorant. Just because you choose to live this way, or are forced to, doesnāt mean others did.
What do you mean by āoldā exactly? Pre-Christian? Plato was an occultist, so was Pythagoras, I guess they liked to live in their urine and excrement too? Or are you talking about Medieval alchemists like Agrippa, Newton, Flamel, Paracelsus, and company? I guess they liked smelled like urine too huh?
I try to stay out of confrontations, but Lao Tzu has some good advice for you: āThe wise man is one who, knows, what he does not know.ā
Teaching someone to use their intuition and discern their gut feeling from being overly open-minded (nothing wrong with being open-minded but too much of an open mind can be just as stagnant as a closed mind.) Itās similar to how one person posted a how to scan thread to teach people to discern fakes from real entities and so forth.
It helps if youre going the everyone teach everyone approach.
Honestly, Iām not sure there is a good solution. While I personally actually hate the bullshit I see, the experiences we have as magicians often are very subjective in nature and thereās an unfortunate habit some of us have to use metaphors to express those experiences. This makes weeding out the bullshit a good IDEA in principle that would be a nightmare to actually do without someone (Most likely Eva) getting to decide what is and isnāt true among a myriad of paths that none of us know in their entirety. And I think if someone got the the right to decide what is and isnāt legit, and based on that censor what can be said, I would personally have to leave the forum.
Mute/ignore is a live saver.
Yes, please report any threatening PMs, itās a core part of the member-moderation process that stops us needing a heavy-handed surveillance culture on here.
PMs are not visible to mods and if someoneās sending one member abusive or threatening PMs, you can bet theyāre doing it to others, some of whom may find it harder to handle for some reason, so please do your part as a steward of this community and flag the PM, there is zero tolerance for threats (obviously physical, but also, any implication that unwanted magickal consequences will follow for you as well).
And Iām not fucking scared of anyone, nor do I kiss anyoneās ass, so if anyone tries to imply otherwise, theyāre just bullshitting you. Threats on here are like a magick ticket to a ban, itās that simple.
If someone is just bugging you for info or free spellwork, politely tell them you donāt wish to continue the PM, people in desperate need sometimes come across as selfish but we all look like weāre sitting enjoying a banquet of various powers, and if that person feels theyāre legitimately starving, turning them away politely should save everyone a lot of upset. Most of us here have probably been desperate in some way and been equally self-centred at that time, itās natural.
If they persist, flag the PM and Iāll try to sort it out fairly so everyponeās as happy as possible.
Once again, use flags, pleaseā¦ they may do that to someone who has just suffered some (completely unrelated) misfortune and that innocent person could spiral to a very dark place thinking the two are linked.
Threats have never been tolerated on here, not even back in the more wild-west days of 2014 before there was any real ruleset or moderation, Timothy came on himself and immediately banned a member who was threatening others. No wiggle room.
This is the issue, and itās more or less impossible to draw the line - mute what you get annoyed by folks, flag anything that causes concern, use the Something Else flag and message me to take a look.
Usually a friendly chat sorts out most problems, but you need to be willing to let me know, because if I see a topic that looks a bit larpy or weird, Iām not going to just draw on my own opinions, I need to know if itās bothering others, and then I will explain any action taken (or not taken) so at least you know ehere you stand with regards to forum rules.
There will always be things on here you as a member disagree with or think are fantastic, but thatās just the nature of any magick forum, so a bit of leeway is expected, and is granted to you in return, to post without fear of being mocked because your own work or experiences donāt fit someone elseās narrow-minded concept.
^ Excellent approach imo.
For any beginner reading this and wondering how to recognise a larp, read this to begin with:
Same here.
Just going back to:
Threats are against the rules, trolling is, cursingā¦ eh, I donāt think anyone can moderate what magick people do provided they are discreet, however if someone tells another member they will curse that person (or their loved ones etc) or implies any magick will be done against them, thatās just a threat, it gets the usual solution: up the backside.
Full ruleset specific to this forum (not just the boilerplate stuff in the T&Cās that comes with the forum software):
agreed. Also worth noting that such fantasies drive away newcomers or gives them the wrong idea about what to expect from magick. I remembered reading all those stories where people acted as if they were some sort of āchosen oneā and wondered if i was doing something wrong.