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[Aurelia]

I don't know if this is a good idea or not, so I thought I'd throw it out there for everyone to give their input on as it's for you guys! :)

The "Mind and Soul" section of the boards is a little sparse, to say the least, and as a forum for dragonkin I think we're lacking in the dragon and otherkin kind of topics lately.  So I'd been thinking how to combat this and from something said to me today, perhaps this would be a good way to go...

What if we created a new forum section in the Mind and Soul area, specifically for the "older" members to be able to post their experiences about being otherkin, relating to other otherkin (or even relating to non-kin), "awakenings" and the like, feelings and emotions to give guidance to the newer members who don't always know what to ask or how to ask things? Etc etc.

Initially I wanted to do something after reading Nez's post From Awakening To Awakening: Four Years Later (if you haven't read it, you should), but I wasn't sure how to go about it or if there would be enough content or members willing to give their time to adding things to the board.  First I thought about adding that and future posts like it to the newsletter (which I may still do) but perhaps having an actual section dedicated to helpful and thoughtful posts like that would be of great benefit in helping to guide new (and old!) members as well as informing everyone on things a bit more.

What do you think?  Good idea, bad idea, needs work?

[PC-72]

Sounds interesting.  And if y'all mods could move like all the long-story-awakening-otherkin-experience posts in there (if the original posters consent to it) then there could be a starting point, too.  I definitely wouldn't mind if my "death music dragons" post got moved there, since it contains my own experiences with the whole thing.

[Aurelia]

Yeah definitely :)  There are a few others I'd like to move into there too - I don't think anyone would have a problem with a thread being moved but I'd check with the original posters first.

[Selroth]

Can we call it "The Awakening Library" or something? 

I also wanna have a contest or somekinda project to get as many people to post their story as well.  Yet, I don't want it to turn into a blog for those who are still rapidly progressing through their story such that it needs updated every week.

[Aurelia]

Yeah, I'd definitely prefer if only the "older" (in terms of otherkin-ness) members could participate with topic starting in that section, just because if the new members also added their stories right off the bat it would be counter productive and just turn into a new "About You" section hehe.

I like the idea of a contest of sorts, but contest is probably the wrong word because one person's experience isn't better than anothers.  Perhaps (as you're talking to me as I type this lol) some kind of reward like a forum privaledge or webspace, or email address?  Although I think you're assuming that people won't want to take part.  I think the "older" members would be happy to partake in an area like that knowing that the newer members wouldn't be countermanding their life experiences with less-lived ones. (I don't know if I worded that well, I'm a bit typed-out but hopefully you get the gist of what I'm trying to say!)

[Selroth]

Some members may be intimidated by my idea, but I think it may be worth a mention especially in this thread. 

My idea: have members submit their "awakening story" to a mod or someone for review.  Just in terms of spelling/grammar or such, to add a bit of quality control element into the forum.  This can be played a bit nicely with a rewarded membergroup.  For example, Dragon1 is an older member, maybe new to our forum but not new to the concepts of draconity beliefs.  He writes up his draconity-biography and submits it to a mod, cause he can't (yet) post in "The Awakening Library".  Moderator1 corrects a few typos if needed, and approves of it if it's a good submission that sounds experienced and something we want to showcase to younger members.  Moderator1 gives Dragon1 a "Experienced Dragon" membership, which allows him to post new topics in "The Awakening Library."  Dragon1 posts his story, and maintains it as he likes (with or without Moderator1's revisions, if he likes his typos).

[Aurelia]

Does dragon1 have a fish? :P

Joking aside, I get what you mean.  I do think though that it may end up bordering on censorship if someone submits something to us and we say "no that's not good enough" then they won't want to post it anywhere on the site.  I would suggest just letting (new) people post things as normal and if something posted strikes the staff as something worth moving into the "Library" then we can easily ask the OP if they mind us moving it into there.  It will become fairly obvious very quickly which new members have an "older" head on their shoulders and which ones need some guidance and advice.  I would hate for anyone, old or new, to feel they can't post or submit their experiences because of fear of typos - not everyone speaks English as a main language and although I'm generally in awe of most of the non-native English speakers on here, I know it must be a bit daunting at times to submit any kind of post in a language you weren't born into.  Having to go through a checking process for something so personal as life and awakening experiences I think would definitely put some people off and we'd lose some valuable posts, in the Library or not.

[Alastago]

Heh, I just red your PM aure, I'm glad to see you like the idea! I indeed had the idea of making a sort of section where we can post our stories and wanted to suggest it when i had a better idea, but I see you did the hard work for me!
I see people only posting their stories sparely(and damn, they're good ones), and thought it's a good idea to give some more attention to these awakening stories. Both in the sense that we can read the more experienced one's stories to learn from, and that new people can post theirs too either to get some suggestive comments, or get assurance(how many of us have felt like complete weirdos when discovering otherkin? :) ).

I'm..unsure if it should become a blog-like thing or not. On one hand: we already have the blogs for that, and people can post their otherkin advancements there, and just edit these in their awakening story topic. On the other hand: it's one place where people can post all their awakening advancements, it is sort of where it belongs. It's *your* little spot about your awakening, where you can update it and discuss it. I'm more of a supporter of letting people post their updates there, but I second the notion that it shold not be some sort of "I discovered this and this this week".
Keep it limited lads, an update every once in a while is nice, but we don't want to read what you discovered about yourself every week. If you *do* feel like you discovered things you want to share, I would say you need to share that more publicly: your blog :)

@Selroth: That really depends on how controlled you want it to be. I already said I prefer it to be more open for people; to post what they already know and update this once in a while. I'm thinking moderating it like that is a big scareoff; I would certainly feel like that what I want posted needs to be "approved".
If you do want to moderate the quality of the posts a bit, I propose a more subtle way, if it's technically possible: let people post it but keep it invisible until approved. And this has to be merely done to keep blog-like threads out. If it doesn't contain your story: unapprove. If all else: just approve it, you probably don't want to have many rules set for something personal like this.
@aure: I like your alternative, to move the threads that fit in the library there when they meet certain requirements. But how much would the section really encourage people to post their stories then?

The contest sounds good to encourage people to post their story. How will this be judged though?

[Aurelia]

I wasn't sure if you'd want me to mention you by name earlier or not but yep it was indeed you who prompted the thoughts to glue together with your idea too :)

Well, I'd like for the area to be given content by older members without needing to move their topics - for us to get in touch with them specifically and ask if they would be able to provide any content for it.  We could figure out some sort of added extra benefit if there is a lack of motivation, but I'm hoping on a dragonkin site that members (older members especially) would actually want to prove content such as this without needing additional motivation of shiny things.  Then in addition to that we could move additional relevant threads from the main site as/when they present themselves.

I guess to start with it would be a trial and error thing; see what happens and if we need more input or need to provide more motivation.

[Kiantis]

Basically, you're saying to want to collect/make an archive of essays about draconity?
I wonder if tags already group many of them.
But, yea, i like it.

The hard work is to make the engine keep going and not stopping tho.
That kind of information, compared to the history of internet, is like... century-like events in history. Few of them, scattered around, and in a very long time.
A discussion about one might go on for a long true, but lots of information will be needed.

I find though, that using a forum for an essay-rewriting/editing adding parts is quite awkward. Wikis do that, but I fear those would be too technical too for some users.
So I also wonder how practical it could become in time.
A thread per person? A thread per concept? Split those yearly? Like, the yearly discussions about the <insert overly discussed thing about draconity here>.

[Alastago]

Basically, you're saying to want to collect/make an archive of essays about draconity?
I wonder if tags already group many of them.
But, yea, i like it.

The hard work is to make the engine keep going and not stopping tho.
That kind of information, compared to the history of internet, is like... century-like events in history. Few of them, scattered around, and in a very long time.
A discussion about one might go on for a long true, but lots of information will be needed.

I find though, that using a forum for an essay-rewriting/editing adding parts is quite awkward. Wikis do that, but I fear those would be too technical too for some users.
So I also wonder how practical it could become in time.
A thread per person? A thread per concept? Split those yearly? Like, the yearly discussions about the <insert overly discussed thing about draconity here>.

Er..yeah, it can sort of act like an archive. A subforum where people can make a thread about their awakening. For themselves to learn from others and for others to learn from them.

-I haven't seen many of these threads around. Nez has one, PC-72 has one. The rest just seems to be some scattered updates about one's progression, in people's blogs, but not complete stories.
-information..century old, scattered? Are you thinking of a timeline or something?
-How is updating your own story difficult?
-A thread per person

[CosmicStarsAbove]

it sounds like the kind of thing that could just be put in "Spirituality". it feels like we need more posts there anyway. no need for subdivisions for a limited group.

[sillydraco]

Does dragon1 have a fish? :P

 

[Valinor]

It could work as a new board but from what I see it might work better if it were a sub-board of the Spirituality Board. I like the idea of it being an archive or resource of sorts as it would better group complete (or mostly complete) works together.

[Aurelia]

it sounds like the kind of thing that could just be put in "Spirituality". it feels like we need more posts there anyway. no need for subdivisions for a limited group.

That would mean that ANYONE can then post in it, not just putting the focus on the more experienced members who have the lengthy years of draconity to share with the site for information, advice, etc.  So if it was just anyone posting them in Spirituality (as in, the way it is now) then that defeats the point of making it an informative section of the board for sharing experiences from the "older" members.

It could work as a new board but from what I see it might work better if it were a sub-board of the Spirituality Board. I like the idea of it being an archive or resource of sorts as it would better group complete (or mostly complete) works together.

I dislike subforums because they get very little light shed on them and for something that has the purpose of being a section to provide information as well as giving us more dragonkin/draconity related posts, I think it deserves to get it's own board :)

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