What's your opinion?

[Myst]

Recently I was working on my website.

Now we've all seen at least a dozen Pagan websites with the same information - the Rede, the ThreeFold Rule, 13 Goals of a Witch, et cetera. We've probably all even seen the same spells culled from the same books printed on people's sites.

If you're like me, you've wondered why in the world so many people have the same information on their website. I mean, if they've also seen the websites with it, why do they print it on their own? Or, if it can already be found in a book or somewhere else, why are they stealing it for their own use?

So, I was working on my site with the intent of sharing new information - practices, techniques, and resources I haven't seen on any other websites. I didn't take the information from other sites nor did I copy it out of the same newbie Wicca books we've all seen a million times. However, I found some interesting stuff to put on, like reiving, banishing, warding, fith-fathing, using glamouries, ceremonial magick including invocations, etc.

Now I'm a little concerned here. I don't know if I should provide this information for any old newbie to find. Now most of it is what I've experienced or researched, and it could be accessed by most people if they did the research or spent the time learning. It is not information that is from a coven, or oath bound to be kept secret. However, some of this could be a bad thing if put into the wrong hands.

Should I provide this kind of information for anyone to find? Should I have it in a password protected or "members only" section so that an individual has to come to me and show that they're serious and they've done research before they can see it? Do you think that would weed out some of the people who are just looking for kicks? Do you think I should just not share this info at all? Comments?

[amberlaine]

I went through the same thing when I redesigned MM a couple of years ago. Did I want to keep the BOS section or get rid of everything or what?

For me, the key thing was to decide what I wanted my focus to be. Did I want to cater to beginniners or deep seekers? Did I want to focus on magic or philosophy? I have yet to see a site do well at both--the good sites tend to pick one or the other (though I imagine with some dedication and a lot of time, a site could be good at both).

Anyway, what it came down to me was deciding on my audience, and once I decided on my audience, I knew that the magic section had to go. Anyone who was bothering to actually read through MM didn't need magic--so I tossed it.

If you're wanting to create a compendium of resources for any and everyone, I'd say just leave magic and whatnot how it is--the information is *is* readily available, asyou mentioned. But if you're looking to create a site with a particula audience in mind, focus on one element and make that element the best out there :)

[Mariposa De La Luna]

How about information for pointing people in the right direction to learn these things? I'm one that would not touch anything I'm not ready for but there was a time when I was a teenager that I did. IMHO I don't think the internet is a place for more advanced work, honestly. If you feel the need to share it maybe you need a student? Or you could write a book! ;) And sell it on your site :)

I'm just babbling, can you tell? :rolleyes: :D

[Myst]

hehe good ideas guys

Gives me some thinking to do :)

[Astraea]

I understand your dilemma. Most of the info on my site is original, and actually I didn't post the Wiccan Rede until my path changed. I posted it because I wanted to share a little of my personal feelings on it.
I don't like to post actual magickal techniques because I developed many of my own techniques myself. But I like to post "why" I believe certain things, why I now favor a form of high magick, what high magick is. But I never want to share my actual magickal techniques. If someone has an honest interest in developing a magickal practise, they won't be on my site looking to learn complicated techniques that took me years to perfect.

I've posted a meditation technique I used years ago, a portion of my astral travel technique, but not all of it. It's sort of hard for me to explain how I determine when to share and when not too! Basically, I try to remember that the serious practitioners won't be looking to my site for the more involved techniques. They'll be developing their own. So it's sort of a waste of time to get too involved. The newbies won't understand and the experienced magicians will just email me if they want to discuss intricacies.

My opinion would be that your involved techniques are nobody's business but yours. But if you do feel like sharing, just give a fair warning about dangers. That's the best you can do! Whatever you decide to post, I'd like to have a look!

[Lavender]

It would be nice to see more than just the basics on the net. I think anyone that's interested in more will search out what they need to learn...either on the net or by reading books or asking questions at a place like here. I think the idea of a password protection is a good one. I know I would be interested to hear more on those subjects.

[Adrenaline Junkie]

I think you should post them. There is so much basic stuff on the internet these days, one can never find something more advanced or at the intermediate level. You are providing a helpful resource for people. It's up to them to think for themselves about casting the spells, rituals, etc. If a newbie does get his/her hands on it, the consequences will lie upon him/her. I would consider putting a warning up, to sort of "scare off" newbies.

I didn't catch your website address, mind sharing avec moi?

:boing:

[Myst]

My URLs are in my sig :)

[Adrenaline Junkie]

My bad. lol.

I feel like an idiot now.

[slvr_phoenix]

That's always a tough dilema for those of us with morals. ;)

My answer was to just not expand my magickal site as much as I wanted to. :( But then, part of that is also due to the amount of time I have to put into personal site development. He he he.

I think ultimately though, my prefered way of handling it was to provide information and theory without providing actual spells. If a newbie wants to come along, they're going to just look for the easy already done spell. And at my site they won't get any. By only providing the information and theory, it forces people to write their own spells. Which, in the end is usually better anyway. :) But it also ensures that anyone wanting to use information from my site is going to have to think for themselves before doing any spell work.

And funny enough, I just realised that I don't have the Wiccan Rede on my site. I have the principles of Wicca (or some such thing, as I'm not sure what it's titled) from the Council of American Witches, but not the Rede itself. Hmm... Maybe I'll have to fix that. For that matter, maybe I'll have to finish deciding on just what personal changes/additions I wanted to make rede for myself...

But anywho, my advice (or at least it's how I handled it) was just simply to not give out any spells, just give out information. I don't know if it helps or not, but I thought it was a somewhat different approach.

[Armitage]

I think it's a good idea...Someone who's just screwing around isn't likely to get results with anything, and the people whom you're looking to benefit will. ^_^