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Moderating the Temple

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Unconditional Love

09:15 / 24.01.07

Whats the best thread to discuss that can of worms in, alot of what comes to mind so far is based on how we perceive our relationships, to others, ourselves and to things.

Even as an approach to a thing it brings into question a spiritual interaction with physicality, If its considered a part of yourself would i really relate to myself in a tokenistic way and if i do whats that related to, what philosophical system would have me relating to myself as a form of self economy?

I have never created a servitor, so wouldnt mind hearing peoples views that have, i work with spirits that i percieve to be far more powerful than myself, rather than something i can bribe or order about, how does that change your view point and interaction to spiritual or magical work i wonder.

Unconditional Love

09:15 / 24.01.07

Perhaps i am misunderstanding the idea of a servitor entirely.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

09:37 / 24.01.07

Perhaps. But then arguably so is everyone else.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

10:19 / 24.01.07

'K, have started a thread on servitors here.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

11:43 / 24.01.07

There can't be special little regions where dissent is not allowed. There has to be critique, there has to be challenge. --me

as far as i can see there are no such regions, though. --Tox

I kind of think there are though. Look at the amount of protest that was generated by the then-GL's initial post challenging the Gek thread. Sure, it was phrased in a fairly abrasive manner but the intent behind it (get people who would otherwise not do much else than drop occasional wishes into the thread to get more proactive with their magic and more invovled with the Temple) was hardly unreasonable. Now the topic comes up again, and again we see people rushing to the defence of the thread--without, as far as I can see, offering much justification. Take the KEG thread--three posts in and the hand-wringing started. We're not even allowed to joke about Gek?

I see a lot of appeals to think of the feelings of the notional Gek regular who might possibly get upset by all this (Hi guys. I'm sure you're following this discussion avidly and will be chiming in with your POV anytime now), but not many people saying "well, I think this is useful because..." The only appeal to utility I've seen is the oft-touted suggestion that things like this can serve as "gateway drugs" to more advanced gear, something I'm not really seeing played out in practice.

I kind of feel that this has become a bit of a sacred cow in the Temple, something you're not allowed to question too closely in case you upset someone. As I've said before, I'm not terribly opposed to the existance of the Gek thread or it's presence in the Temple on principle, but the way it seems to have been ringfenced as being immune to challenge and beyond reproach is... worrying. Nothing in the Temple should be off limits to challenge or critique, and I do feel that some people would really really like to see some things as off-limits.

14:36 / 24.01.07

We're not even allowed to joke about Gek?

i think we are.
i think the main bulk of the debate, or at least the one i was listening to, was whether the comedy stylings of the two headed rude boy would be better placed elsewhere.

are there many joke threads in temple? you know. ones intended as a satire?

If somebody thinks the Keg thread isn't serious enough to exist within the culture of the Temple forum, I think that also raises a few questions about its dayside twin, as was my intention.

i don't see that it does.
one is a practice that is found to be risible, one is a collection of thinly veiled attacks on that practice.
i can imagine an argument against one that wouldnt catch the other.

if KEG has a place in the temple, then GEK surely does. i don't see the opposite as necessarily true.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

00:57 / 25.01.07

are there many joke threads in temple?

Not many, but there have been one or two, yeah. They never exactly seem to thrive but there are some that seemed to fit and didn't get locked or booted.

01:02 / 25.01.07

were any of them aimed at forum users?
maybe a link would help.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

01:02 / 25.01.07

I also think the satire of the KEG thread could be seen as having a fairly broad range of targets, perhaps originating with but not limited to a possible reading of the Gek thread. It's certainly possible to read it as a broad spoof of a certain "free lunch" attitude to magical practice, and indeed at least one of the posters who replied seems to have seen it that way.

20:50 / 10.02.07

I wonder, what are we going to do when the influx of Number 23 viewers hits the Temple, which it indubitably will?

I am concerned that we will become over-run with Chaotic 'OMG!!!It was amazing my life has SO changed!!!' type posts. A few are fine of course, but I think we might have many.

Flibberty gibbet, cross that bridge and all that, but I thought maybe we should think about it?

Less searchable M0rd4nt

21:13 / 10.02.07

Well, I've discovered that one of the supermarkets near me is running a special offer on a very nice ten-year old brandy. You get a free coffee mug with each bottle. I plan to drink the brandy out of the bottle; the mug will do very nicely to hurl at the wall.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

21:23 / 10.02.07

More practically, perhaps a pre-emptive strike? Start a thread critically discussing the film (and maybe the whole 23 thing), subjecting it to rigorous examination. That way we at least stand a chance of keeping any impending rainbow shower of OMG!23!!1! to a single bucket.

The downside is that we'd have to watch the bloody thing, but that's a sacrifice we might just have to make.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

22:32 / 10.02.07

But how could you not jump at the chance to watch "rubber-faced funnyman" Jim Carrey fnording like a motherfucker?!1!!1!!!1!!

Well. I mean, I'd find it quite easy not to, but I'm special.

02:43 / 11.02.07

Is Jim Carrey about to appear in a film about teh magick, then?

And if so, why the long faces?

The only thing I can think of that might be better is; Bill Oddie playing Aleister Crowley, with Ben Elton as Victor Neuberg, in a no-holds-barred musical interpretation of what really went on there in Egypt, on that occasion. Josie Lawrence to play 'The Scarlet Woman', for the first and last time.

02:46 / 11.02.07

There'd be a role, also, for Tony Slattery in there somewhere.

Although the hair turns white, just thinking about it.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

09:22 / 11.02.07

*hurls coffee mug at aging Relative*

12:51 / 12.02.07

Tony Slattery=Choronzon. True fact.

For confused readers, The Number 23 is a new Joel Schumacher film coming out soon with Carrey trying to be serious. It's Joel's 23rd project OMG!!1! and the tagline 'First it takes hold of your mind Then it takes over your life' says it all. If the user comments on IMDB are anything to go by I may need to buy some brandy;

Dr. Pepper has 23 flavors
More things to do with 23. SCARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!
This movie title sprised me, cause the number 23 attacked me one day...
2/3=666?

You get the idea.

Mon Oncle Ignatius

18:31 / 12.02.07

Oh dear. I'm glad I'm not reading the IMDB message boards, once again. they're even more depressing than those thrown up by a BBC opinion piece on, say, migration or gay marriage - or an Evening Standard one on the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes ("He would be alive today if he hadn't been in the country illegally!!1!!").

Even watching the Number 23 adverts on television is bringing me down. I wish it were a riotous, knockabout children's Saturday morning tv show instead.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

21:26 / 12.02.07

I think I may openly weep.

22:52 / 12.02.07

Wait, there's more than the one flavour of Doctor Pepper?

03:17 / 13.02.07

yeah.
if only.

19:21 / 03.03.07

Netaungrot is getting tetchy.

19:30 / 03.03.07

Yes, we have a troll loose, and unfortunately he's rotting an otherwise really interesting thread. What are the options? Mod for deletion of future posts, perhaps? I'll put in a "do not feed the trolls" warning if we want to take this path.

This is where the inability to ban becomes frustrating.

22:53 / 03.03.07

He makes my eyes hurt. He's just so oblique.
My inner Discordian is saying "indeed, he is a tool of Eris".

Although his utter pants-ness makes the "tool" part all the more apparent.

00:43 / 04.03.07

I'm moving to delete any further off topic posts and sending him a copy of them so he can repost them here in Policy if he really, really wants to.

02:15 / 04.03.07

I'd like the mods to make a statement about on topic only and then to delete all off topic posts including any troll feeding ones. I normally agree with MC about hands off but I'm leaning toward heavy pruning on this topic to keep it productive. It appears to be an asshat magnet topic, sadly.

Princess, you made my evening with the tool of Eris comment above. Bless ya!

Less searchable M0rd4nt

02:22 / 04.03.07

Yep, at this point I'm happy to start asking for a ban. He's been warned, he's not listening, he's rotting an interesting topic and being abusive. A hopeless case.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

02:36 / 04.03.07

XK: yeah, I've just okayed a couple of deletes and anything else he posts that isn't on topic will be put up for deletion likewise. Have also saved copies of the post to my HD and can repost here, if nec. I reckon that's about all we can do until Tom can lock the suit.

08:52 / 04.03.07

In which case we should destroy everything after here with the exception of this one by Mr Microcosm.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

09:04 / 04.03.07

Hrrrm. I'm up for deleting any future posts but I think we should leave at least some of the existing crap in place because it's evidential. If I have to sit through another wide-eyed chorus of "but what did he actually do?" from the self-appointed Troll Defence Society, I will vomit blood.

09:16 / 04.03.07

But my censorship gland is secreting! We must rewrite history to silence the heroic voice of dissension and keep the dark secrets of the BarbedMonolith hidden! How else can we maintain control except through fear and doublethink? Be Pure! Be Vigilant! BEHAVE!!

*ahem*

I mean, yes, let's keep it as evidence and advise interested readers to skip to page 3. Is it possible to insert posts? I guess it's easier to add a bit to one in the right place.
I notice Nettie couldn't be arsed to come as far as the Policy forum to discuss this all. Obviously this is the stronghold of teh Man and a nest of grayfaces who couldn't handle his Discordian ontological weaponry and would 'provoke' him into bannable behaviour.

12:43 / 04.03.07

Quants:methinks you could add a note to an older post in the thread?

15:50 / 04.03.07

If I have to sit through another wide-eyed chorus of "but what did he actually do?" from the self-appointed Troll Defence Society, I will vomit blood.

B-but, he was just indulging in a spot of ontological terrorism, surely? He was challenging not just the boundaries of contemporary magical thought, but also the so-called English language. Like William Burroughs did. How cool is that? Perhaps we all need to get shaken out of the rigid masks we wear in our daily lives every now and again, if for no other reason than to stop our reality tunnels from becoming too rigid?

Less searchable M0rd4nt

16:25 / 04.03.07

I thought your reality tunnel got a good seeing-to on that last cruise, Granny. The way I heard it you were seen exiting Mr Langham-fforbes' cabin at half-past three in the morning clutching a half-full bottle of absinthe and trying to sing Chanson D'Amour round a moist Galoise.

19:31 / 04.03.07

If we're talking about what supposedly happened on the alleged 'Greg Evigan' cruise, then we're also not talking about it, I'm afraid.

There were a number of misunderstandings - I'd love to explain my side of the story, in particular with regard to Greg's quite obviously leading, not to say flirtatious behaviour, but the US legal system being what it is, I just can't, at the mooment.

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