This blog will be shut down within a month or so, but fear not ;), I am just moving.

Blogger isn't doing it for me so I decided to move to wordpress, which suits me fine. Decision was triggered by impulse to continue my blog, which was neglected too long.

I also want to refresh blog's formula. Instead solely social matters, now Zalbarath's Blog will contain all kind of entries - from spirituality to music, films, social matters, business, fun, whatever feel right at the moment. I as a person have various interests and my life is complex enough to cover different areas. Rigid topical compartmentalization just don't work for me and besides, blogs should be personal and free.
Satanic life? It isn't so much different from any other person's life. But I must admit, although I have my fair share of challenges (that people usually call problems, but this is skewed view, challenges are for us to grow, learn, manage them, they add to life) I am happy :D. Happiness is not something random, it's worked out! Hopefully this will shine through my posts as well :).

Will the new formula and life events motivate me to more recent blog updates? Time will tell. I am defenitely not a blogger type so I won't overwhelm you with posts but I am trying to be more socially active since social skills are essential in bussines and that is my most recent focus. That and a healthy lifestyle, my new cat (maine coon), family matters and... Ugh, you get the picture. But that makes life interesting :)
Hail Satan! Hail to Thyself!

Zalbarath

No to ACTA - End of EU - Begining of the Cyber War

As you all are probably well aware, mass protests against ACTA agreement strike all over the globe. In Poland is no deferent. Since I was not following carefully what is happening elsewhere, it's hard to compare, but protests in Poland are very strong and decisive.

Government sites were attacked and blocked since many days. There are moments they are restored but quickly go down. The site of prime minister was hacked and replaced (defaced) few days ago with genius YT movie, intelligently and humorously parodying war state announcement of gen. Jaruzelski in 1981, this time announcing war state on the area of the whole Internet.

Here is link to polish version.
Here is link to version with English subtitles.

Here is link to video explaining the possible threats of ACTA with polish dubbing.
Here is link to video explaining the possible threats of ACTA in English.

With the curse of action, true alliances were shown. Donald Tusk, prominent polish politician, since now was supported by many young people stubbornly refuses to react and insist on signing ACTA, now is finished in eyes of younger generations. SLD (left wing) suspended their site as a sign of solidarity with internauts. Janusz Palikot, a new, refreshing, very liberal politic force joined Anti-ACTA demonstration in Warsaw, so luckily there are politicians joining the fight.

I'm not naive and I am well aware that many politicians make this opportunistic statements to support their carers but does it matter? Right now, they support the majority, while officials of the government react against the will of people, claiming they will not lay down because of brutal force, terrorist attacks and so on. The problem is, that terrorists are small groups of extremists. But now, the whole nations are uprising. Do we have democracy or not? Does government has allowance to make basic life altering decisions without majority agreement and consensus? Is majority a terrorist cell? Many complain that attacks are childish, imature and only lead to stronger decision of agreeing on ACTA. But guess what - if government make such dead serious decisions against the will of society, society feels BETRAYED, VIOLATED, ENDANGERED by the people who in theory should represent their interest. Government people are too often used to think that they could do everything within boundaries of legal protocols to ensure coherence, safety, functionality of a state. However, in democracy there should be boundaries and when those basic boundaries are crossed, people react in only way they can, they protest, make uprising. If legal system is used to violate people, people will violate the system. It's that simple.

I am also aware that fears about ACTA are somewhat overblown. There is no way that Internet Providers could monitor successfully all that millions or even billions of people. But the fact that government make strong statement of lack of trust against ALL CITIZENS and try to implement more controlling that violates personal privacy and freedom, shows clearly that government went the wrong turn. It's not democratic anymore. It's a police state and it too much reminds of communism.
It's like going out and having potential, invisible persons looking over our shoulders and judging against us, when we say something, even unawarely against the current law. In most cases, there would be not enough such persons to check out every person at a time, but the fact of such possibility institute such strong boundaries that we could be as well as in prison. Every person is potential suspect, potential criminal.

There is opposite quality to safety and freedom. We like them both, but freedom is always more fundamental. Would you like to live in prison if it would mean entire lack of concerns for your financial status, future, health, care, because system does all this for you but only if you stay within those small four walls. It wuld be good if you had a choice but no, we provide you with this so you have to stay here and behave as we tell you. No way.

I choose freedom over safety.
I choose freedom over forced social fairness.
I choose freedom over law and order.

Safety, fairness, order, even laws have their place but they must come from us, from our choice. They are merely guidelines how to create society, not not-crossable boundaries. We can't be forced to obey those. History taught us that ever when laws were more restrictive then human spirit, human spirit prevails it, finding new ways to express itself, sometimes in more extreme way, because of those restrictions and break down of a restrictive system is imminent.

Even when ACTA are not so scary as we may fear, they create window, an opportunity to further, more extreme steps along the way. It's an old tactic, make a small agreement and stronger would follow and we won't notice when we are forced extremely to do something against our very nature. So we CAN'T allow even for smallest compromise in that matter.

I always have been wholehearted advocate of EU but recent events forced me to reevaluate my opinion. EU is in deep crisis and what it does? New laws which promote distrust and that always creates overblown administration, which would cost fortune. But there is no enough money right now in EU... It looks like EU is tiding its own rope.
Maybe ideals were noble at the beginning but now EU, like many governments, made very basic mistake. There is no unity, only will of control. Everything slips of EU hands. ACTA are the last, desperate attempt but it will build only another nail to the coffin.
We can't allow small group of people to steer our lifes so deeply. If EU is about to crash, then let it burn I say. Let the changes come, because the present form of EU has no longer right of existence. It doesn't work.

I regret that I don't have any hacker skills, but I am sure that the tools for regular Internet user, will be created, if they aren't already, to join the Cyber War. If politicians will insist, regular people will join forces with hackers to fight off the violence inflicted on our freedom, both in Internet and real world.

Find the petition sites in your area and sign it. Tell your family, spread the words, let them join.

My new Tarot site! And fresh article on WordPress!

Hi, I opened a new site, Zalbarath Tarot, where I offer free tarot readings! Check it out!

Also on my Satan's Den page on WordPress I published a new article - Ego and Satanism.

Thanks for the visit :).

Moving blog here and creating a site on WordPress

I’m transforming my WordPress journal into more regular site, while moving blog posts here.

Be patient – Satan's Den is under construction!

IRC demonolatry channel

I set lately IRC channel called #demonolatry on DalNet IRC server. I’m not present there 24/7 but often enough – I usually have my IRC client opened when I work on my comp (and that is pretty often). If I’m not there VenusSatanas is watching the channel as co-moderator.

So if you want to talk, ask questions, visit me at: irc://dalnet/demonolatry

Since I’m Theistic Satanist first and Demonolator secondary, my channel focuses on topics related to Theistic Satanism and Demonolatry .

Note: IRC channels are quiet as long as someone isn’t participating actively. Moderators and regular visitors know each other long enough so we don’t talk all the time. We wait for initiative of new comers. So if you intend to lurk there, you will probably wait long. So if you have questions or specific topic on your mind, just say hi and post it. We are not all the time waiting if someone shows up, so most probably you will need to wait patiently a little bit till we respond. That’s how things on IRC usually work. If you use Fierefox, I recommend to install Chatzilla add-on. It’s simple and users friendly, at least comparing to other IRC clients.

More then a belief

Yesterday I was talking with (non theistic) satanist and was trying shortly to explain my beliefs. Then he answered that it sounded so nice that he was tempted to turn into theistic form of satanism.

That got me thinking. It was never my intention to encourage anyone. And actually there was something wrong in that thought. It should be more than that.

It’s not about the belief like it is usually taken for example in Christianity. It’s something more. I didn’t simply choose theistic satanism. It just happened but definitely not coincidentally. Beside the fact that I had mystical experience with Satan (prior to the belief; in fact I wasn’t believing in his existence before), my whole personality was a match to his vibration and ideas of theistic satanism. It resonated deeply with my inner being. It allowed me to focus on my divine power. It felt (and still feels) right, like my whole life was aiming toward it. When I deliberately decided to embrace it, I finally felt complete like I had reached my goal. I was (and still am) in exactly right place. From this place I can go further in new and better direction. My path had been cleared out, I gained better purpose. I knew where I was standing and knew where I was heading. It gave me power, strong direction and joy of movement.

It is beyond wordy description. Choice was only right step but it was a turning point of my spiritual development. So it was and is never about simple choice of belief. It is continuous mystical experience which is a part of me, part of my soul.

A thought that someone may chose the belief from simple liking sounds plainly wrong. There must be more then just casual preference. Love, destiny, highest spiritual goal. Whatever worlds we may choose to describe it, it must reach the core of your inner being, heart of your soul.

Childern in “Rainbow Families” are ok

I came across an interesting article. Below I put a fragment translated by me, original article (in German language) and link to it.

A new studies from Germany shows that children raised in “rainbow families” have no disadvantages. Four years ago a German Justice Secretary – Brigitte Zypries (SPD) – commissioned an assignment for Bavarian National Institute for Family Studies (Bayerischen Staatsinstitut für Familienforschung) on the Bamberg University and National Institute for Early Pedagogy (Staatsinstitut für Frühpädagogik) in München. [...]

In German examination were asked 700 Parents and 100 Children, who live in registered partnership. Thus the sample was more then sufficient; in Germany altogether 2200 Children are being raised in homosexual partnership marriages. The result is: “Child well being in rainbow families is protected in the same way as in other forms of families.” There is no differences between parents in partnership or in heterosexual marriage. There has been no clues for increased tendency for depression. “Child well being doesn’t require upbringing in classical model of different sex parents” refers a scientist. Moreover the majority of children have no experiences with discrimination of their parent’s sexual preference. [...]

More is to find on the gayboy.at

Here is full text in German:

Eine neue Studie aus Deutschland beweist, dass Kinder in Regenbogenfamilien keine Nachteile haben. Die deutsche Justizministerin Brigitte Zypries (SPD) hatte die Untersuchung vor vier Jahren beim Bayerischen Staatsinstitut für Familienforschung an der Universität Bamberg und dem Staatsinstitut für Frühpädagogik in München in Auftrag gegeben.

»Heute ist ein guter Tag für alle, die auf Fakten statt auf Vorurteile setzen – gerade bei weltanschaulich besetzten Themen«, verkündete die Bundesjustizministerin in Berlin. Ihr Fazit: »Dort, wo Kinder geliebt werden, wachsen sie auch gut auf. Entscheidend ist eine gute Beziehung zwischen Kind und Eltern und nicht deren sexuelle Orientierung«. Die Studie belege »auf wissenschaftlich fundierter Grundlage, dass Familie dort ist, wo Kinder sind«.

In der deutschen Studie wurden rund 700 Eltern und 100 Kinder in befragt, die in Eingetragenen Lebenspartnerschaften aufwachsen. Damit sei die Untersuchung »überrepräsentativ«, da insgesamt nur 2.200 Kinder mit Eltern in einer Homo-Ehe in Deutschland aufwüchsen. Ergebnis: »Das Kindeswohl ist in Regenbogenfamilien genauso gewahrt wie in anderen Familienformen.« Es gebe keine Unterschiede zwischen Eltern in Lebenspartnerschaften und Eltern in einer (heterosexuellen) Ehe. So fänden sich keine Anhaltspunkte für eine erhöhte Neigung zu Depressionen. »Für das Kindeswohl ist es nicht erforderlich, dass die Erziehung nach dem klassischen Rollen-Modell von verschiedenen Geschlechtern gleichermaßen übernommen wird«, so die Forscher. Zudem verfügte eine Mehrheit der Kinder über keine Diskriminierungserfahrungen wegen der sexuellen Orientierung der Eltern.

Zypries fordert bereits seit längerem das Adoptionsrecht für Lebenspartner. Derzeit dürfen Homosexuelle in Deutschland zwar einzeln Kinder adoptieren, eine Adoption durch ein Gay-Paar ist aber in Deutschland verboten. SPD, FDP, Grüne und Linkspartei sprechen sich für die Gleichberechtigung von verpartnerten Paaren in der Frage des Adoptionsrechts aus, lediglich die Union lehnt dies mit Verweis auf das »Kindeswohl« ab. Zypries will erreichen, dass die Gleichberechtigung in der nächsten Legislaturperiode Gesetz wird.

In mehreren Interviews hat die deutsche Justizministerin am Donnerstag erklärt, dass sie eine Gleichbehandlung von (verpartnerten) Schwulen und Lesben erwarte. Allerdings weist sie darauf hin, dass es zehn Mal mehr adoptionswillige Elternpaare als Adoptionskinder gebe. Auch wenn nur wenige verpartnerte Paare von Adoptionen profitieren könnten, sei eine Gleichberechtigung in dieser Frage dennoch wichtig, erklärte sie im Deutschlandfunk: »Der wesentliche Punkt ist erst mal, dass wir mit den rechtlichen Voraussetzungen eine der formalen Diskriminierungen von homosexuellen Paaren noch beseitigen.«

Der Lesben- und Schwulenverband in Deutschland (LSVD) zeigte sich von den Ergebnissen der Studie nicht überrascht. Es habe bereits viele Untersuchungen im angloamerikanischen Raum gegeben, in denen nachgewiesen wurde, dass Schwule und Lesben dem Kindeswohl nicht schadeten, erklärte LSVD-Sprecherin Uta Kehr – und appellierte an die deutsche Regierung: »Beenden Sie die bestehenden Diskriminierungen von Regenbogenfamilien im Familienalltag! Schaffen Sie ein Recht auf Familiengründung, unabhängig von der sexuellen Orientierung!«.

»Kinder wachsen bei zwei Müttern oder zwei Vätern, also bei Regenbogeneltern, genau so gut auf wie in anderen Lebensgemeinschaften. Für das Kindeswohl ist es nicht erforderlich, dass die Erziehung nach dem klassischen Rollen-Modell von verschiedenen Geschlechtern gleichermaßen übernommen wird. Maßgeblich ist vielmehr eine gute Eltern-Kind-Beziehung unabhängig vom Geschlecht der Eltern «, so Peter Traschkowitsch, Bundes- und Wiener Landesvorsitzender der SoHo (Sozialdemokratie und Homosexualität).

Here is an interesting video – an excerpt from meetings with Abraham, which is group of non-physical consciousnesses talking through Eshter Hicks. In this video Abraham is touching the subject of gay rights.

Happy Soltice rites

I wish you successful coming winter 2008 Solstice Rites to Mithras, Osiris, Belial or other Demons.

Lirach Tasa Vefa Wehlc Belial

Speak of the Devil

For fun I visited Pagan Traditions Selector. My result was:
#1 Satanism

#2 Norse Wicca

#3 Thelema

#4 Stregha

Intersting :P

Legal sex?

On one of forums I use, an interesting topic has arisen. Someone has written:

“Ok so a while ago in the news there was controversy about a teacher having sex with a 12 year old boy he might have been a little older but anyway it wasnt forced or anything the boy was willing the female was very pretty according to other peoples standards she was in playboy or something and because she is a atractive female they didnt want to put her in jail and because the boy wanted to have sex as well but because of her age and his young age it is illegal if it was a man he would be in jail faster then you can blink.”

My answer was:
I don’t see anything wrong with it if both sides are willing. Hence she was much older she carried responsibility for protection.
I am not sure about realizing consequences… As to going pregnant I said than it is responsibility of the older but about psychic consequences… It really depends on person. I red nonsenses in some books about children staring to discover sexuality in teeny age. It is true for some but others (I am not sure about gender but definitely it is true for males) are sexually “awake” since “always” that means the age 2+ (some say even younger but of course in a different way, they write that even infants experience sexual pleasure). Of course it is not the same as by older persons but many young boys in an age above 10 would react on so opportunity with a scream of joy as above. I am certain that I would had no problem with it even in a much younger age if the partner would be gentle and indulgent. Besides children sometimes plays with their sexuality spontaneous. It couldn’t be called straight sex (mostly) but sometimes very close to it. Would it be seen as a crime too? I think it is completely different case.

It is interesting that handicapped children have no social breaks in that topic so when living together they often could be cached on having sex…

I think that those laws are for protection against abuse because in some cases there would be really better to wait cos psychological consequences are hard to predict but there is no clear and constant borders and human sexuality is probably not enough investigated and covered in cultural codes.
Summarizing, in general I am against treating this as criminal case as long as there is no pressure from any of sides and everything is going by mutual agreement.

I found an interesting article referring to behavior while processing informations.
Below is a fragment of this article:

"Researchers recently discovered that when school children avert their gaze away from a teacher or other person's face, they are much more likely to come up with the correct answer.

Turns out facial expressions can be distracting.

The research was published last week in the British Journal of Developmental Psychology.

Adults, too

Scientists have known that adults tend to turn their gaze away from a questioner's face when asked a thought-provoking question. While adults practice this look-away about 85 percent of the time, children five years old and younger do it just 40 percent of the time.

To find out how so-called "gaze aversion" impacts concentration, psychologists recruited 20 five-year-old children from a primary school in Stirlingshire. They trained 10 of the students to look away when pondering a question. "We had them look at a blank piece of paper on the floor," said co-author Gwyneth Doherty-Sneddon, a psychologist at Stirling University in Scotland. The other 10 students received no training. Then, the scientists asked each child a series of math and verbal questions, ranging from easy to moderate level.

They found that the students instructed to look away answered 72 percent of the questions accurately, while the untrained group succeeded in answering only 55 percent correctly.

"The difference between groups was especially evident on the difficult questions where the [averted gaze] group got on average 60.9 percent correct while the [untrained] kids got only 36.7 percent," Doherty-Sneddon said."

Full version is to be found here.

Polish news about moron right wing actvists or politicians – continuation

On LJ group Theist Satanism user bookoflies in his post turned my attention to English version of article “MARILYN MANSON, BEHEMOTH To Be Banned From Performing In Poland? – June 16, 2007″. This information is well familiar to me. It is one of many blatantly stupid events in Poland lately, of course thanks to present “beloved” extreme right wing government.

Below is a fragment of that article:

Michal Stangret of Poland’s Metro reports that a Polish anti-sect organization calling itself the All-Polish Committee for Defence against Sects has compiled a list of artists who allegedly “promote Satanism” through their music. The list, which will be distributed to various Polish officials in July, will likely result in the artists becoming registered and getting banned from performing in Poland.

“Until now it has been unclear which bands promote these values, and therefore the authorities, unaware of the facts, have allowed these kinds of concerts to be organized, in the process giving these bands a platform from which they could spread their dangerous message. So we decided to help them,” explained Ryszard Nowak, who heads the All-Polish Committee for Defence against Sects.

According to Nowak, hundreds of bands who have performed in Poland over the course of the last 20 years have been evaluated before the final list was compiled. Just exactly which artists will be included? The document’s creators are unwilling to reveal that information just yet but it is almost certain that Polish acts BEHEMOTH and KAT, as well as American shock-rocker MARILYN MANSON, will make the cut.

“The index will not only contain metal bands, but also rock artists,” Nowak explained, before adding that the list will include any groups who promote Satanism or encourage murder and animal sacrifice.

The document will be distributed to government authorities and various other officials around the country. Some of the local governments are already looking forward to receiving it.

My commentary (here I place slightly extended version) which I posted to mentioned above group says:

This Novak is crazy fanatic. His organization isn’t linked with Catholic church or any official anti-sect organizations. Moreover, they deny having anything in common with him, recognizing him as insane, uneducated, dabbler and potentially dangerous maniac. You can read the official statement here (only in polish language). Alas there are still many naive but influential people who are stupid to give him any credit so he was able to stop few particular concerts few years ago but people weren’t fully aware at that time with whom they were dealing with. His constantly blatant stupid actions and public accusations makes him more and more ridicule so hopefully it’s just sensational news but without any consequences. I write hopefully because with present extreme right wing brainless polish government and toady, officious administration everything is possible and so the danger that any most incredibly stupid idea will hold on and will be incorporated into practice.

Funny but somehow scary...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I realize that I can be pretty ignorant myself about many topics but THAT is extreme!
I see that phrase "stupid Americans" becomes more and more popular and no wonder...
It's one of most funny videos lately :D so enjoy!

Recognizable?

In Jeremy’s blog there is a post called “strengthen your gaydar” in which he writes:

after visting san francisco, and seeing so many gay guys, i think i’m actually better and telling who’s gay and who’s not. its the subtle little things that show- even if the guy is straight-acting.

One of commentators noticed it may be just a matter of fashion and I think he’s right. Below is a comment of mine which I slightly changed and extended for the purpose of my journal.

Some gays are characteristic but many aren’t. During my study time in the group there was a talk about it and people claimed that gays are always easy recognizable by there behavior – in meaning that they talk and/or behave in feminine way. That’s funny, because they’ve never realized I’m one too… There is a small percentage who really act that way (to be honest I’m repelled sexually by such types) but most don’t. There are even those who are considered to be classical masculine types with no indication in their behavior that they would be homosexual. However, mosts are more or less between, uncharacteristic on that score, just normal regular guys… People would be hard surprised if they would knew about gays in their environment. Most live their life unaware about it and threat homosexuals like from another planet. They hear about them but don’t see them. But noticing that statistically 2 or 4 percent of population isn’t straight, even in my former High School with about 1000 learners, there could be gathered a whole class of homosexuals… but in crowds mind it would be a sensation if they were aware even of single case…
There are some characteristics but many gays look “normal” so others would never suspect a thing. However there are some preferences in fashion that could be recognizable but it’s area dependent and nothing sure.
All in all I may tell there isn’t any classical way homosexuals behave – it’s just a myth. I suspect many (from different reasons…) would wish this stereotype would be true but luckily it isn’t and I like it to stay that way.

TS BN rules discussion Part 2 on WordPress

It’s a response on Diane’s post.

Diane
The problem is that, if a comment contains even a very brief offhand borderline political remark, even this can have an extreme “red flag” effect on many of the people who have strong disagreements with the political viewpoint in question.

If someone will react that way then I agree that the discussion should be forwarded to different thread with different tag but till no one clearly tend to discuss it further I don’t see reason to forbid mentioning it right away in a first comment (again, if it’s not broader part of the post). Maybe I place general stipulation on my journal that further responses not holding to TS BN guidlines will be forwarded to new entry with a proper tag but such considerations seem rather like splitting a tiger’s skin on a living tiger. I think that every blog will have its own specific, advantages, disadvantages and own moderation issues so will see what happen. We have main guidelines and that should be sufficient for the start.
I’m personally not interested in discussing strict political topics hence I though TS-eth-pol wouldn’t be a group for me but surprisingly I found out that the most interesting discussions and subjects were lead there. I don’t mind if others are willing to follow the discussion into strict political debate if it holds on cultural level. Even on your Yahoo group people haven’t been often discussing politic of particular country but rather social, ethical problems or more general, international politic which I find interesting.

You would not necessarily have to forward the comment. I’ve suggested several alternatives. However, in my opinion, something should be done immediately in response to even the first hint of a sociopolitical digression, to mitigate the red-flag effect, rather than waiting for it to turn into a full-blown political debate.

Like I stated above: we’ll see if problems occurs.

The first step is a preventive measure: Requiring all new bloggers to engage in discussion about the rules on their blogs, as a way of trying to ensure that they all understand the rules. It probably would be a good idea to have a private Yahoo group for the bloggers as well, so that ongoing issues can be dealt with in a semi-private manner.

It’s a good idea. However in best case if the TS BN will be very successful , sacrificing so many time for each blogger will be impossible for you but bloggers private group could help us to share with others with moderation problems and how in particular case it was solved.
It would be good if at the beginning there would be more than ten willing bloggers. I hope that most still wait till everything will work properly or for situation where they wouldn’t have any other alternative. It’s also possible that quite many people hope your idea won’t work and nothing or little will change or that everything will settle somehow by itself, without doing much from their side… It is you who feel the biggest need for change. For most participants Yahoo groups are not perfect but comfortable and easy solution and they likely prefer it will stay that way.

Note the additional alternative I added at the end.

Most will probably prefer the easiest and the least labour-consuming solution but hence people will be dealing with different moderation issues the solutions will be different for each blogger. I self can’t say for sure which one I will prefer at the end.

Introduction posts were a great idea to start and roll discussion but now I can’t imagine how it would work on blog network. The big role played beginners who are excited and starve for contact with like minded people. TS BN could be some kind of challenge but for others it will be simply an obstacle and they will seek other place. Is there any reasonable idea for such potential active group or they must simply work this out?
To lave periodically an entry with invitation to write introductions as comments? Strange idea and probably not too functional. But on other hand TS BN is not to please everybody. It sifts strongly.

[...]I’ve had much better luck finding bloggers than finding co-moderators.

Because this is something new, fresh and thus exciting. Additionally being blogger moderator one have more freedom and is not so timely obliged as it would be by Yahoo group where regular receiving posts through the day is very important feature.

TS BN rules discussion on WordPress

Diane answered here on my previous post “TS Blog Network rules“. She also updated TS BN rules site and asked me to take another look on it and comment in details what points would be unclear, etc.

Diane also wrote:
“Zalbarath says he finds my draft page Theistic Satanism Blog Network: Tag topicality and other rules and guidelines to be more confusing than the rules for my Yahoo groups.

This surprises me. Zalbarath, are you sure that the blog network rules are actually more complicated, or are you just disappointed that they aren’t several orders of magnitude simpler? Offhand, I don’t see any ways that the blog network rules are more complicated than the Yahoo group rules, except that some issues are discussed as gray areas rather than as absolute black-and-white prohibitions.”

Well, I thought it through, red your updated rules site and I agree now that they’re not more complicated per se but rather more complicated than I expected. I awaited just a few very basic and obvious guidelines but it was naive from my site to think you will let it that way. I must admit that after reading your explanations Why all these rules, it all seems to be more clear and maybe I just needed some time to digest it. This time I red it really carefully, what took quite much of my time, and knowing what I should expect this time it wasn’t so confusing. I admit also that by my first response emotional factor played important role. I was disappointed by the increase of planned tags on topical division (which I was against) and detailed rules what one should post or not under particular tag. Besides, even when you would have right I would protest as well… First, your rules are worked out in years but I don’t have similar experience and I can only logically agree with them or not but it’s not the same as self experience and it tempts to make it in own way, even when it would be more troubling or/and in final I would came to similar solutions. Second, in many fields of life I act like a dictator and dislike when someone establish rules for me even when they seems to be right and, what is probably also a factor here, I have typical polish contrariness…
Anyway, after second look on your rules and thanks to extended section with explanations I tend to agree with you or maybe more understand you but it doesn’t mean I wouldn’t have differences at some points but it’s irrelevant now.
What I find worrying is that maybe first TS BN users – owner of blogs will try to keep your rules scrupulously but assuming that in the future there will be more willing persons (and not exactly pedantic ones) I can’t imagine that all of them will maintain their blogs so well as you wish to because it’s want you want – you want us to moderate our blogs so strict as you.
Jason King mentioned also lately on TS-eth-pol about time factor and I think he’s right about it. Having to moderate own blogs is maybe much less work as the entire forum/blog network but anyway for many it won’t be main activity so some discussions could stick in dead point from the lack of time or irregularity of blog owner. That was also probably one of very important factors why you haven’t found too many co-moderators.

There is another aspect (a positive one) of your TS BN. It selects blog owners to very few who are really interested and are ready to sacrifice their time to participate on that level and this probably could be your dreamed target group (or hopefully close to it) of intelligent and sane theistic Satanists but it will limit (at least at the beginning) strongly the count of participants. Now it’s just a matter of question how strong participation will be and if it would be enough to keep the whole network alive, evolving and spreading. On the other hand your blog network will in some way teach how to manage groups successfully and without trouble and if this idea will work maybe you will have some of your future successors. Like you have elsewhere noticed your forums aren’t anymore the only place where we can find intelligent and sane discussion but still they’re in many ways unique and your TS BN could still improve it. It would be like your heritage .
But I aberred from the main topic – rules. I concentrate on point 4 and 5 as other are pretty clear and I don’t have much to add.

4. Blogger discretion on comment policy.
That is a good one:
“[...]if by some miracle a post with the Theistic Satanists only or Satanists and Pagans and occultists only tag gets an inoffensive comment from a friendly Christian[...]“
A by side commentary: LOL, I wonder why many thinks you have no sense of humor? Your articles and sermons contain after all many subtle ironical remarks which I find quite entertaining – collision of your serious, scientific style with this little intrusions grant them more force, spice – but maybe that’s just me.

You wrote:
“It is okay for bloggers to make occasional spur-of-the-moment exceptions to announced comment policies. But there’s no point in announcing a comment policy if you don’t intend to enforce it at all. If you do make exceptions, then it is usually a good idea – though not required – for you to follow those exceptions with comments of your own stating explicitly that you’ve made an exception and why, so that other onlookers don’t assume they have carte blanche to break your stated rules.“
What I like is not to make too many own detailed rules (yours are more than enough complex) but solely disclaimer about possibility of making by me exceptions or decisions au currant. Each situation is different and it’s hard to foresee all possibilities and I like to feel free to act as I wish without being limited by previous stated rules. I realize that is definitely not the best behavior toward potential commentators. Solid rules give them clear view on my own policy but by that so to say I give them too much power and possibility to appeal to rules which in certain case could be limiting or not well formulated. Like I said I’m bossy person and like to have all strings in my hands as far it’s possible… but it doesn’t mean I like to misuse it. I rather let as much freedom as feasible and will act only in more extreme cases (at least in theory, how it would look like in practice I don’t know yet but definitely I don’t like to censor people in any way but realize it’s sometimes necessary). But I’m talking here rather about additional disclaimers of blog owners. Now when I understand your motives better it is easier to accept your guidelines as reasonable solution and moderate according to them.

Diane
“[...]A pingback can effectively serve as, for example, a way of adding a political response to a nonpolitical discussion without derailing the original comment thread, or a way that a Christian can respond to a discussion otherwise limited to Satanists, Pagans, and occultists, again without derailing the original thread. (But it’s a good idea to reject even pings from blogs that advocate criminal activity, or that are otherwise in flagrant violation of the terms of service.)“
I’m not sure if I understand the idea of pingback. When you responded to my post on your journal I received (automatic?) pingback WorPress mail notification about it. My question is: does this happens automatically every time somebody places a link to message (on WP) from other entry of WP member? Do I need to do something additionally besides placing a link?

5. Topics to be avoided under some tags, but allowed under others
The most complex and treacherous tag or topics would be Satanisms and society – exactly as it is with TS-eth-pol now. I’m glad you explained broadly what topics are to be placed under this tag but I don’t agree with the rule about even not mentioning some topics (I mean in comments, I assume blog owners will show more carefulness in main entries). If the main content holds the borders and just slightly (I know it’s very unspecific) goes beyond them I don’t see need to undertake any special treatment (like creating a new entry with forwarded part) but only if someone would want to go further in that subject then new thread with an appropriate tag would be set. The problem is that in many posts people tend to mention some topics which according to you belong to TS-eth-pol/Satanism and society and they do it unaware. It’s quite pissing to write a post in a good will that it holds to rules and to find out that just one sentence or short fragment violates the rule and moderator cuts the post, place it elsewhere and so on. It could be felt as humiliating or be too catchy about “stupid” rules. I think it would be sufficient to add disclaimer that socio-political topics (or particular one mentioned in post) should be avoided but if some wants really to discuss it further a new thread will be created after responding on that subject. If there would be no further interest in that direction it would be not necessary to move original comment. What I want to tell is that only by clear development of discussion in that direction it would have sense to create new entry with forwarded fragment and it’s not necessary to enforce it every time it appears. It had point on your Yahoo groups but on blogs to forward new entry every time when someone goes beyond permissible topic seems to create “empty” entries waiting for response but without having one. So act only by response not by mentioning. Maybe I’m wrong about that? It’s anyway just theorizing and one must see it in practice so maybe it’s pointless to consider it now.
Probably I won’t have too much trouble with managing tags because it’s quite possible there will be not much traffic on my journal. I don’t post too often and feel much better in answering, responding and my original posts here, as you probably noticed, lack of substance. I’m not a writer type or diary type so I don’t feel much need to start threads, write my thoughts etc. I’m used to keep it in mind, besides writing takes me too much time. Posting an entry without clear addressing seems strange to me, unnatural. I accommodate myself and my responses to the person I talk to (so I don’t like crowd, I feel much bester by personal discussion than by group discussion) and I have clearness what I should write. Maybe it will change in the future and I develop myself in other area as well?

How would you manage appropriate tagging or other moderation problems? Via personal email or maybe through forum or blog? I recall you mentioned a special yahoo group for it. Is your idea still current?

~ by zalbarath666 on June 13, 2007.

Posted in Satanism, Satanism and society, Theistic Satanism

4 Responses to “TS BN rules discussion”

1. I asked in my post about pinging system and finally I saw how it works. I posted this entry with a direct link to Diane’s post and her message received automatically a commentary with a fragment of my post so I assume she will be notified via Email too. Great feature.

   zalbarath666 said this on June 13, 2007 at 3:48 pm |

2. [...] Network: more about the draft of rulesPunkwolf on Punkwolf’s commentary on the tags and the rulesTS BN rules discussion « Zalbarath’s Notes on Theistic Satanism Blog Network: draft of rules, etc.Diane Vera on Theistic Satanism Blog [...]

   Zalbarath’s commentary « Diane Vera said this on June 14, 2007 at 1:15 am |

3. Hi Zarabeth,
   I can see its going to take a lot of getting used to the Blog comments format. I read Diane’s WordPress Blog and it is a bit disorienting with all these words everywhere. Messing looking and the left sideboard with the commennts are all run together and only stand out when you point over them and they are highlited.

   I am rather of your opinion that it may take quite some time to get others who want to put time into learning and wanting to use the Blog networks as de facto forums.

   I’ll take a look at Google’s Blogs and commenting and see if it is a bit more orderly looking.

   One thing I may want to learn is to get Blog posts and comments thru an RSS reader. They all come there and you can answer them just like getting digests or posts in your email like from Yahoo groups. Wading over these Blogs just is not all that fun or clear at first. I can see that.

   I like the Euro group on Yahoo but I haven’t visited for a while. I like your Blog here and am going to make one too and see how I like it.

   I think Diane’s long page of rules is detailed and good for guidelines in running one’s Blog as it will tend to keep peace in general in the posting dept. I think it seems pretty simple to decide what tags one posts should have. One’s own blog could be pretty lenient on the comments and there should not be that much moderation involved.

   Take care,
   Mizz

   independentsatanism said this on June 14, 2007 at 5:50 am |

4. Thanks for the comment.
   As to RSS feeds I know what is the basic idea but I’ve never used it so I’m not sure how it works in practice.
   I agree that one need a time to get use to a maintaining the blog. It took me over one week to know what and where and subscribing to Yahoo groups is a matter of few seconds and it works as I want. It’s a big advantage in comparing to blog but will see if the idea will be successful.
   I saw your blog but unfortunately I haven’t got enough time to read everything carefully but I will eventually so we’ll see you there .

Theistic Satanism Blog Network test-phase on Blogger

Diane’s Theistic Satanism Blog Network code is not fully yet but apparently in stage were we’re able to test it in practice. Diane prepared special site http://www.theisticsatanism.com/net/ were one can find “pages containing automatically updated lists of recent posts with particular tags on member blogs, one page for each of five special tags”. Now I should experiment with these tags and check does it function properly. I posted similar entry on my WordPress journal but here I want to check different tag so I matched this post with "Theistic Satanist interfaith discussion".

Homosexualism in nature

Thanks to darwinian remiix journal I noticed museum exhibition devoted to homosexuality among animals.
On LiveScience page we find information:
“Homosexuality has been documented in almost 500 species of animals, signaling that sexual preference is predetermined. Considered the closest living relative to humans, bonobos are not shy about seeking sexual pleasure. Nearly all of these peace-loving apes are bisexual and often resolve conflict by the “make love, not war” principle. They copulate frequently, scream out in delight while doing so, and often engage in homosexual activities. About two thirds of the homosexual activities are amongst females.”
Those facts are nothing new but surprisingly big number of people have never heard of it or are deaf on such informations. I talked once with Christian fundie about that and his reaction was something like that: “What? Never heard of it”. I asked: “Haven’t you see even two male dogs together”? His answer: “What? No, never. And actually that is not true with homosexuality. Science is just one big fraud”…
Well, by such opinion there was no point of discussing it further. It’s hard to believe that people can think that way (read: to be so limited, stupid) but maybe it’s some kind of US specialty among fundies or like overweight people, fluffizm and so on… At least in area/environment I live, such statements would be not just faux pax but complete disgrace. It’s true that science often is overestimated and has many disadvantages but not to such degree! It shows complete lack of understanding what science in general is. Alas many scientists seem to forget it too…
Anyway, back to this fascinating exhibition:
“A first-ever museum display, “Against Nature?,” which opened last month at the University of Oslo’s Natural History Museum in Norway, presents 51 species of animals exhibiting homosexuality.”
More to it and other related sources is to be found on the site:

Gay animals out of the closet?