Getting burned out on this forum

Neptune Rising

Well-known member
Note, this is not just to the OP, but to everyone. Everyone comes on here for different reasons, I don't think it for anyone to dictate what or why. I for one sometimes avoid certain threads when it comes to discussion for fear of retaliation for my own views. I have witnessed many times people try to push their opinions on others, when really, we are each entitled to our own perspectives. Some use asteroids, others don't, isn't that part of the beauty of life, our differences?

People come on here in desperation, looking for answers through astrology. Fair enough, these people may not have the most esoteric knowledge to add to an educational discussion about bi-septiles, they just want someone to talk to, fair enough. We can also choose to answer or ignore those threads, or to answer them. We can choose to bypass completely the Read My Chart forum and just engage in educational discussion, if that's what we are here for. People come here to learn, and there's plenty of others to learn from. There is a bit of forum here for everyone really.

In reacting to threads, we can engage in the person, or choose to process it within, but its a choice. Yes we are on the internet, and its just letters on a screen, but we are each individual people with our own situations to deal with, as someone would say, we are each doing our best. Sometimes a short/long vacation away can be just what is needed, get out in nature, walk around, go clubbing, down a glass of wine... whatever it takes to come back to a level of normality. Just sayin!
 

waybread

Well-known member
Note, this is not just to the OP, but to everyone. Everyone comes on here for different reasons, I don't think it for anyone to dictate what or why. I for one sometimes avoid certain threads when it comes to discussion for fear of retaliation for my own views. I have witnessed many times people try to push their opinions on others, when really, we are each entitled to our own perspectives.

Your answer surprises me. As a moderator, why wouldn't you simply edit out retaliatory posts? Hey, you're the moderator! We rely on you to deal effectively with off-side posts. Personal attacks are not permitted, according to the forum rules.

In terms of pushing a viewpoint.... yes, people are entitled to their own perspectives. But that's a two-way street. If I post something that another member disputes, then he's entitled to respond. It's called "debate." There's no point in agreeing with someone when you don't. Very covert, I think.
 

ashriia

Well-known member
NeptuneRising said avoiding threads for fear or retaliation of his/her own views. granted, as a moderator he/she could edit out such posts but
I took that to mean, avoiding or not getting into discussions where he/she would be most likely to argue or get offended personally.
so it's a case of not wanting to add their own tinder for the fire. at least that is how I understood it.
 

Neptune Rising

Well-known member
Waybread, I think I came across differently than I intended. As a moderator, I do moderate threads whoever the OP is, even if its me. However, some threads I simply choose not to post in, because of past reactions to my own views and techniques on astrology. When I see flames though, that go beyond the civilized 'debate', I do moderate.

Indeed, debate is encouraged, its good, lively and interesting. When the line gets crossed and personal attacks are made though, all moderators moderate.

Ashriia, spot on, thanks, yes that is what I meant.
 
M

may28gemini

Thanks-- but horoscopically speaking, I wonder what that's about?

Maybe some of us have more air and fire?
I think it depends. I've encountered people who have a lot of Water in their chart but they have an Earth Mars and they can handle bluntness. I've seen charts that are very fiery and yet they'll be the first person to whine and cry over spilled milk.

The only consistency I've seen with detachment and self-editing is Earth. Even too much Air can indulge in rallying a petition for some sort of "cause."
 
Last edited:

Therese

Well-known member
Hi Ashriia,

Sometime last year I bumped into an article that, I think, is worth reading. It starts as if it was about ribbons, but it arrives to problems that arise from relating to people "virtually". I understand that you don't want to become an armadillo, Ashriia, but you gotta be very careful.

I'd like to quote from this article, "Death by Treacle" by Pamela Haag, the subtitle is "Sentiment surfaces fast and runs hot in public life, dumbing it down and crippling intimacy in private life"

If the expanded uses of sentiment had demonstrably benefited our public life over the past three decades—if they had made us more sensitive, kind, compassionate, and gentle toward each other—they might be worth these downsides and perils. [...] Instead, the drift in public life, as observed by P. M. Forni, Jedediah Purdy, Bill Bishop, and others, is toward insensitivity, political incivility if not murderous rage, lack of manners, ironic detachment, cynicism, mutual estrangement and cultural sorting across creeds, and especially in schools, bullying and cyber-bullying. If anything, we seem more brutal and calloused toward each other. [...]It’s also likely that our exposure to public displays of sentiment inoculates us just a bit and leaves us requiring ever more dramatic displays of real, raw feeling.
and, towards the end:

Social media and reality tv shows increase the opportunities for the casual sharing in public of feelings and secrets. [...] The online social media function as a superhighway for the perfusion of sentiment into public life. [...] Lite intimacies in social media create a background din of disclosure, confession, closeness, and familiarity.[...] [But] There’s a danger that the lite intimacies of the sentimental culture might deplete the resources of our true intimacies. [...] A mild hypothesis for the new social life of our age: the easier it is to be close but not intimate in public, the easier it is to be close but not intimate in private.
T.
 

ashriia

Well-known member
Hi Ashriia,

Sometime last year I bumped into an article that, I think, is worth reading. It starts as if it was about ribbons, but it arrives to problems that arise from relating to people "virtually". I understand that you don't want to become an armadillo, Ashriia, but you gotta be very careful.

I'd like to quote from this article, "Death by Treacle" by Pamela Haag, the subtitle is "Sentiment surfaces fast and runs hot in public life, dumbing it down and crippling intimacy in private life"

and, towards the end:

T.

i just read your post here therese. i always enjoy musing over your posts on this forum, which admittedly take some time to fully process when i read them.
 
E

eternalautumn

Hello waybread, Neptune Rising, and others.

First, I have to admit that I've got caught up in drama here in the past and been a part of what made this forum unpleasant for a while. I seem to have a problem keeping myself out of drama, online and in real life. I'm working on it. :)

That being said, getting burned out is normal. Take a break, and come back later. It will benefit you in the long run to gain perspective. There's a lot of new "faces" here since I've been gone, but some familiar friendly ones as well, along with a few I wish would go somewhere else. But, variety is the spice of life. The mood of this place seems to have changed a bit for the better, and that can only be good. Perhaps after a few months you'll return and like it more/again, or maybe not. Maybe after a few years? Who knows. Try it and see.
 
Zarathu pointed out:

Quote:
Originally Posted by ashriia
Is it just my perception that has changed, or are people that are posting on this forum more obsessive and volatile than last year?

I love this forum, as I have learned so much. But I feel exhausted after reading a lot of these posts, even if I am not posting. Seems like a lot of people are just obsessed with everyone and/or feeling super aggressive. Even some astrologers are being aggressive and talking down to people that are seeking to understand astrology and learn astrology and are a making sincere effort.

maybe I need a break.

does this happen to anyone else? and what do you do about it?

Zarathu:

You really expect that those of us who post a lot are going to answer that? I myself have had OPD for years. That would be Obnoxious Personality Disorder. :whistling: The DSM5 has failed to recognize this, but those of us afflicted sure know that it exists. :cool:
__________________
zarathuastrology.zohosites.com/

Ashriia, you just have to understand this Astrologer's Community Forums is not Pure Traditionalism:ninja:, nor Pure John Frawley, nor Pure Modernes(astrology methods developed during and after 1600 by astrologer's like Yohanness Kepler, John Gadbury, etc.,) which I term the Modernes as the Mod Squad :smile:not to be connected in any way with the Moderators or the host:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0-XrZoHj2k

Nor is it pure Vedic Astrology, nor would research of the Mayans, Aztec, or Incan astrological lore be shunned here.

And there are a few of the Mod Squad, the Modernes, who don't realize the Big Bad Trads and Ultra Trads(a few you might find in public libraries disguised in wigs, trench coats and wearing sun glasses, cutting out or using their black felt pens to omit the Names Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto from all books) are following the pre-1700 astrology that is parralell to being like our fore-fathers in astrology, that the Modernes have deviated partly out of misunderstanding the astrologers who were long before them and have invented some astrology techniques that aren't quite up to parr yet some techniques are very valid.:ninja:

IE. One astrologer in particular on this website posts on their own personal website that the horary icon Olivia Barclay they follow her works. Yet this astrologer doesn't quite understand Barclay was one of the primary pioneers to bring back Traditionalism! As this Modern shuns Traditionalism for the most part!:lol::alien::lol::unsure::tongue:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivia_Barclay

In 1980, Barclay obtained an original copy of Lilly's Christian Astrology, and later she arranged to have it re-printed as a facsimile edition in 1985. This dissemination of Christian Astrology helped to spur a revival of interest in traditional astrology in the late 20th-century.[2] Her work stimulated the unearthing of techniques that had been lost in various cultural transitions since the Enlightenment and encouraged wider researches into the astrological traditions of the Babylonians, Greeks, Egyptians, Persians, Arabs, Western medieval and Renaissance practitioners.

My point Ashriia, is on this website there are complete novices who are interested in astrology, and just like in India presently since the outsourcing influence from the West has altered that culture, there have devolved many Charlatans of astrology as well as much confusion :neptune:about proper methods of astrological practice.

The cliché, as from William Shakespheare's Julius Ceasar, '...all roads lead to Rome...', is very arogant and nationalistic from Rome's view point but it is preposterous in that if one went North from Peking it would lead to Rome, or East from Athens that you would arrive at Rome.

But it is in the Forum's guidelines that we should respect other methods and possibly that is because we don't wish to see Celestial Family Feuds or Star Wars between various factions on astrology methodology.

I'm with you for most of us due to our astrological education whether flawed or enlightened look upon a few methods as this celebrity so firmly and eloquently puts it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1P92AygaQs

So you just have to accept it that since there are so many various oppinions posted via this set of Forums, that we all have to wade through the various comments made by those using some methodology that may be off the wall to our astrological education and experience.:surprised:
.
.
 
Last edited:

StillOne

Well-known member
Is it just my perception that has changed, or are people that are posting on this forum more obsessive and volatile than last year?

It's interesting as I just experienced this recently. A person who I had been communicating with, on what I thought to be a friendly level, just sent me a couple of nasty pm's. I ignored the 1st one but responded back to the 2nd. Since pm's aren't moderated they can be particularly vicious.

It wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't already felt very defeated at the time. Then this person, who is also a senior member, posts in my thread afterwards! The nerve.

I think one thing to take away is, that you never know how the person you are communicating with is feeling on the other side of the internet. When you are present with someone in a face to face situation you can much better gauge how the other person is feeling since you can see and feel their reactions.

I think above all, tact is very important. Especially in threads that are sensitive.
 
Last edited:

Blacknight

Well-known member
I think this forum is a really useful hub of astro information. All the people seem cool and everyone's been kind enough to answer my RELENTLESS questions.:tongue: As a community I give this place my thumbs up seal of approval!

You really expect that those of us who post a lot are going to answer that? I myself have had OPD for years. That would be Obnoxious Personality Disorder. :whistling: The DSM5 has failed to recognize this, but those of us afflicted sure know that it exists. :cool:

LOL gotta say that's hilarious. :lol:
 

waybread

Well-known member
StillOne, this happened to me a few times. With some nasty PMs, I simply delete them. With a few that were exceptionally rotten or where the member repeatedly attacked me via PM, I did forward them to a moderator via PM. Such trolls can be rebuked or banned if they persist.

Clinton, I am a happy modern astrologer. I have looked at traditional and horary astrology (including reading Barclay's horary book cover to cover) and they just don't "sing" for me the way modern astrology does. I am happy if astrologers of other schools of thought or persuasions are happy in their chosen astrological techniques.

We need more bridges, not barriers, between astrology's different branches. I was struck, in reading Avelar and Rebeiro's textbook on traditional astrology, how much of it I already knew simply from studying modern astrology. Similarly, someone starting out as a traditionalist wouldn't find it difficult to add on outer heavenly bodies or techniqes (like harmonics.) To each her own.
 

dr. farr

Well-known member
Indeed, the harmonics of Modern astrology are precisely the "vargas" of ancient Indian astrology, just looked at from a contemporary perspective!
 

multiple

Account Closed
some great advice in here.
I tend to find what drives me away from astrology forums is sanctimonious and judgmental attitudes as well as the occasional bit of misandry, although I found it was worse on places like astro.com. the only thing i've witnessed here that I have found annoying is people that aren't respectful to anothers astrology practices,techniques or that are overly pushy which I don't particularly like. also something that does bother me slightly is people with enormous ego's that simply post to have them stroked lol, but I don't really see that as a problem as such, just a minor irritation.

I find what often keeps me coming back to astrology forums every now and then is just hearing peoples opinions since so many people have different ways of perceiving things, each with their unique take on it. to add something positive in here, I find that astrology forums offer a selection of people with a large degree of insight into the human mind which I don't tend to find with a generalised section of the human population. people don't care to ask questions or seek knowledge or insight, most have a "who cares!" attitude and I don't really see that here. well thats been my experience anyway.
sometimes it helps to look for the positives if you are identifying the negatives.
 

ashriia

Well-known member
I find what often keeps me coming back to astrology forums every now and then is just hearing peoples opinions since so many people have different ways of perceiving things, each with their unique take on it. to add something positive in here, I find that astrology forums offer a selection of people with a large degree of insight into the human mind which I don't tend to find with a generalised section of the human population. people don't care to ask questions or seek knowledge or insight, most have a "who cares!" attitude and I don't really see that here. well thats been my experience anyway.
sometimes it helps to look for the positives if you are identifying the negatives.

kitty!! =^.^= so adorable!

ahem.

what you have said here certainly resonates. I also keep returning for the honesty found in many of the posts, in addition to the varied types of insight used in interpreting charts by members here. When I created this thread I was having a rather nasty week... just lots of negativity all around. then I came here to study and relax as I do.. and found all this dismissive, and mean posts and replies. But I see from many of the replies to this thread some are better at filtering all that stuff out & some use avoidance methods. I don't see it as much now... thankfully some of those members were banned and some dropped off the planet(metaphorically speaking).. so.. :smile: happy times again.
 

multiple

Account Closed
kitty!! =^.^= so adorable!

ahem.

what you have said here certainly resonates. I also keep returning for the honesty found in many of the posts, in addition to the varied types of insight used in interpreting charts by members here. When I created this thread I was having a rather nasty week... just lots of negativity all around. then I came here to study and relax as I do.. and found all this dismissive, and mean posts and replies. But I see from many of the replies to this thread some are better at filtering all that stuff out & some use avoidance methods. I don't see it as much now... thankfully some of those members were banned and some dropped off the planet(metaphorically speaking).. so.. :smile: happy times again.

:)
good to hear you are managing with it and feeling better.
sometimes I notice that those in the community who set out to rub people up the wrong way usually get their comeuppance in the form of moderator interactaction and its just a waiting game,if they continue on the same path they will eventually undo themselves. also there should be an "ignore" function, if a persons words are really offensive or nasty and hurtful.yea there are ways to be selective I think.
 

poyi

Premium Member
I left this forum for a while nearly a year when I was just feeling too much negative energy going on and felt very discouraged. So I went on to read my books and my boyfriend taught me astrology in daily bases instead.

I tend to retreat if the situation was too bad and I don't have all the knowledge to back myself up in an argument I would walk away to learn more facts for the future to defend what I believing in. I know rather one is skilled or not should never insult or talking down on others.

The talking down, grouping and bullying behaviour are people with high school attitude. Those people are very insecure. I really can't help these people to grow up. I am not intended to save not going to become a saint or pretending to be one. I do think about it and see through what might be the deeper reasons behind those behaviours. I will say what I feel a couple of times then eventually I will just retreat and watch.

After all is not worth it to feel angry or miserable every single day for people that doesn't deserve your attention. Aggressive posts need to be addressed immediately to prevent newer and thinner skin members leaving the forum.
 

Skillcoil

Well-known member
I haven't been able to connect with members here in a while, its like my comments don't fit with anyone anymore. Kind of disappointing, I see others easily get along and I feel out of place. I'm just a lot more casual about this site now.
 
Top