Hi Everyone!

[Marvin]

Hi,

Just wanted to ask if there was any interest in the following ongoing Forum Topics:

1) Spread Development.
2) Deck/Divination Art Development.
3) General Esoterica.
4) Developing Our Community.
5) General networking and resource development through active association.

Any comments and constructive would be appreciated.

Thank You All!

Marvin

[Cowhead]

I would find the first three topics interesting.

I'm not sure I completely understand #2, though. (Art development for divination, using decks and other mediums?) Would you elaborate on that a bit?

-- Cowhead

[Gisela Rodriguez]

I kinda like the way it is now, with folks posting as the spirit moves them, and no expectations of continuity. Keeps things happy and simple, at least so far. This way, every post is a gift, whether it's a bug report or a new deck or spread upload.

I'm not against community, I just think community is sometimes better when left to the subconscious operations of other activities.

Just my 2 pents,
Gisela

[Marvin]

Hello Gisela,

You touched my thoughts right at their center! I'm sorry if my wording was too generalized. My basic thoughts are that we're already a community (center) type of group that you can stop in, talk, offer advice, share decks, spreads, and most importantly ideas! What I wanted to ask about was discussions about related things. I stopped by your web site and saw art. Tell me/us about it. That sort of thing. I asked a question in the spreads forum, and (so far) I don't think anyone answered it.

Now we have four cents worth! Can we get six?

Later,

Marvin

[Marvin]

Hi,

Okay, let's see. We all contribute ideas toward any number of things, like:

1) What type of deck would you like to see more of?
2) Would you like to develop (your own) or help develop a group deck?
3) What types of spreads or spread cloths (sorry, typo, you can't wear a spread cloth! Yes, I typed clothes!) (color, designs, etc?)
4) I have talked to Richard about Wall Hangings/Tapestries. I have design software for such things.
5) Forum discussion about say, decks like we have had over the Thoth Deck. It's artwork, VIBES, how to use it, etc....
6) This one is yours to fill in (ha,ha!)

It's sharing ideas, basically, not just in tarot, but in/on anything we can get on a deck...........

Got you curious?

I hope so!

You take care, I'll talk more with you soon.....


Marvin

[Programmer]

I am very happy seeing the forum being used. My original thinking behind the forum would be that it might fill a knowledge gap created by the fact that the Help file which accompanies the program is ALWAYS out of date. For example, if you have a problem making the cards bigger or smaller for example you can search the forum for those key words and you pretty soon find a solution.

If the forum starts to evolve in other directions I will do what I can to support that. For example, it wouldn't be too hard to add some new categories to the list of five that we have so far. I was thinking of changing Readers to General. The Readers section has not really been used, apart from Aurora's inital post which I encouraged her to write. My conclusion is that interpretation of the cards is something too personal and subjective to benefit much from forum type treatment.

Also I think I can make a few changes to the design and layout of the forum pages to make it easier to navigate and identify threads. I have noticed it is not so easy to find a particular message that one might be looking for. I will try to modify the forum home page so it shows

a) more history
b) clearly shows when a post was left (subheader the list Today, Yesterday, etc or by dates)
c) more clearly show which thread each post belongs to

These changes might be a few weeks in coming though because there is some other stuff in the pipeline too.

We have the suggestion from Marvin of a more general esoteric/magic section. Are there any more suggestions (besides Decks, Spreads, Program, Bugs, Esoterica, and Other)?

[Dominatrix]

It's a blessing to have two or three active posters in this forum, since this gives life to the whole OTZ. That's why I'm grateful to Marvin, Gisela, Cowhead and the others. Richard knows I've been here almost right from the beginning, and I've never seen a Funny Golden Age like this one.

I know Marvin says things from the bottom of his heart, and God bless him for that. But after reading his last post this morning, very early before work, I grow a little worried. Some people here will recall the negative experience we had with some Yahoo! group and someone who's still wandering here (I will not say names, just the fact is the only person so stubborn to write in Spanish even the main language here is English). Thx Grid, this is not the case. I agree with Gisela and Programmer, why don't let things run out naturally? I'm also on the opinion that some forum entries should change, but always related to Orphalese, that's our compass here. Outside there's the BIG Internet, so full of forums, chats, mail lists, blogs and the like. For some general (or sometimes real deep) Tarot chit-chat, get on Solandia's, for example. I don't want to start discussing Orphalese and ending between heavy warfare about Kabalah vs Golden Dawn (this happened to us, really!)

If Readers and Background don't work, let's change it for something else more useful. Maybe Requests, Art, Off-Topic and Technical Discussions? Why not? Richard's idea about making the Forum more useful and easier to navigate sounds as heavenly as Lacrimosa to my ears. We have in here a little universe and a wonderful gift. I had no idea, when I sent my first deck to Richard, that I would become so commited with Orphalese as I am now. And that's what I like about the whole project. IMHO, that's what we must keep, with all this wonderful and friendly people we have in here.

Better than general, let's go specific. And you know, Richard, you'll never walk alone. Best to all.