holiday musings

[Guest guest]

not too long ago, one of the members proposed

that we try and re-organize our posting efforts. he

pointed out that many an on-line message board has

deteriorated or lost its way from excessive volume of messages

that strayed from the central theme of the

group.<br><br>personally, i don't see that as too great a threat here yet

but maybe it will be at some point. i do see a

greater threat to this community, however. that threat is

the progressive loss of civility, humor and

cooperation that so characterized this place not too long

ago.<br><br>it strikes me that the general tone of many, if not

most, of the postings here lately has become

increasingly critical and negative. there are some who make

that their primary mode of communication. but, it

seems that even those who normally try to help out

others, to teach or just converse are becoming more and

more harsh. i am as guilty as anyone of such rudeness

and intolerance. i apologize herewith to the

skullster for my self-important attitude.<br><br>in the

science of physics the accepted belief is that the

natural order of the universe is to move towards a state

of entropy or disorganization. lacking a steady

input of energy to maintain the status quo, decay is

inevitable and inexorable.<br><br>it seems to me that

perhaps the natural order for communication in humans

follows a similar track. lacking a persistant effort to

maintain civility, the natural order of discourse is to

decay into discord.<br><br>if that theory is correct,

if the pattern of increasingly fractional

communication persists, then i do think this board will soon

regress to the point that it will serve no useful

purpose. <br><br>so i encourage us all to perform some

maintenence on the communication shared here. input some

energy, within yourself and amongst each other, to regain

that higher state of intercourse that once existed

here.<br><br>i share with mr skull the hope for happy holidays

for all. there are always some for whom the holidays

are not happy times. if you can, try and make a small

gesture to help someone who is less fortunate this

holiday season, even something so small as helping them

to smile or laugh.<br> <br>thanks for putting up

with the steady barrage of meandering musings that i

have subjected you to over the months. i'll make my

holiday gesture now by trying to brighten the day of the

one of the members here whose existence seems so

stygian

[Guest guest]

I agree, there are some bad vibes here. It also

seems that the past few days we've had new members join

who are not really interested in yoga. Just check on

the bottom of the home page of the club.<br><br>Well

if it contintues to stay negative here, there is a

burgeoning community at <a href=http://pub42.ezboard.com/byoga84291

target=new>http://pub42.ezboard.com/byoga84291</a>

[Guest guest]

OK, I'm glad you wrote that.<br><br>I'm

relatively new here and was often shocked at the tone of

some messages. I thought - am I naive to expect that

being yogis entails some degree of civility and respect

for your fellow human beings? Is it just the relative

anonimity of a computer that allows people to express

irritation or anger more callously than they otherwise

would? It's a good thing to be open and honest and to

face up to confrontations. It's another thing to say

things in a hurtful way - I thought as practitioners of

yoga people would be more mindful of that. I know that

yogis don't have to be all hippy-dippy and lovey-dovey,

but aggression and rudeness just don't seem to be

part of the picture. <br>So i'm thankful to find that

it's not just me.<br>On a lighter note, merry

Christmas to all you northern hemispherians enjoying your

fireplaces and hot cups of tea! Mangoes, beaches and

poolside barbecues here....

[Guest guest]

Yesterday I looked at the site referred to by

"sun and mike" in post #5643. Found that a number of

former very active members here have apparently decided

to give up on this site and start their own. The

premise there seems to be to be very nice in your posts

(i.e., anti SPW vibe), and while it is a veritable

love-fest, so far there was essentially no content to any of

the messages. Also, the site has different technical

features, which might be good, but might be bad, too. So

now I am concerned about a fracture in the

"community" (such as it was); there are a bunch of memebers

here who seem to be either teachers or very

experienced and knowledgeable practitioners. And I have been

enjoying this site even though it does get out of hand.

[Guest guest]

"and while it<br> is a veritable love-fest, so far there was essentially no

content to any of the messages"<br><br>as opposed to all the insightful posts

here over the last few weeks?

[Guest guest]

i don't know, that site did have a lot of social

type postings but they were mainly in groupings set up

for that kind of stuff. there were some areas there

that seemed to stick to yoga only, like the last

section. can't hurt to have some options

[Guest guest]

I also noticed already that some of the more

prominent clubbers moved to the new Ashtanga forum

created by sunandmike,

<a href=http://pub42.ezboard.com/byoga84291

target=new>http://pub42.ezboard.com/byoga84291</a> . Apparently they couldn't

suffer the cyanide

spilt over here anymore.<br><br>But I haven't got yet

why ezboard should be any better. For one, if you

want to look at the new posts, you first are obliged

to run through all the older ones; pretty confusing.

The caste system is rather odd. And has anyone seen

those cute little Smarties rolling about and adorning

the messages?<br><br>No one will trample on you in

Ashtanga club fashion over there, because as an ezboard

member you are urged to be nice to all the others, and

if you get really nasty, someone might delete

you.<br><br>This club may live in sin, but to me it's still the

most charming Ashtanga Yoga message board around on

the Web. I don't believe in love feasts. Some quarrel

and some nastiness are more fun, even when getting

out of hand sometimes. No censorship and no

obligation to be nice, thank you. But if you prefer holding

hands, ezboard might be the better place for you.