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News Introducing the new thread prefixes for Psychedelic Drugs!

Xorkoth

Xorkoth

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Staff member
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Feb 8, 2006
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Hey all! At long last, we have decided to implement a thread prefix system in this forum, as has been implemented for some time in some of the other subforums of Bluelight. From now you, when creating new threads, you will need to select a prefix. The ones I have created (trying not to get too specific, but keep them broad) are:

  • WARNING - This is for use when you have an urgent message of warning for the community.
  • Lysergamides - For threads primarily about lysergamides like LSD, AL-LAD, etc.
  • Tryptamines - For threads primarily about tryptamines like mushrooms, 4-AcO-DMT, etc.
  • Phenethylamines - For threads primarily about phenethylamines like mescaline, 2C-B, etc.
  • Dissociatives - For threads primarily about dissociatives like ketamine, MXE, 3-MeO-PCP, etc.
  • Plants - For threads primarily about plant psychedelics. This can have some overlap, but is needed to cover oddballs like amanita muscaria and other plant entheogens.
  • Health - This one is for threads that relate to psychedelics and health, whether that is health benefits, health questions, or health problems.
  • Spirituality - This prefix relates to threads that are about psychedelics and spirituality. For example, threads about seeing entities, or about psychedelics and meditation.
  • Social - This is for threads whose purpose is only for social discussion (UPDATE: this is not selectable except by mods, it is reserved for "official" social threads that are always stickied to the top, and must be replaced every 1000 posts).
  • Miscellaneous - This is for threads that do not fit into one of the previous categories. Or , if you are unsure, you can always select this one and a moderate will reclassify it if necessary.

Each new thread posted will be required to choose a prefix from now on. The reason we've doing this is to better organize the forum, prefixes help with searching in the XenForo software we use, and since we have such a tremendous number of threads, it will help everyone moving forward into the future for us to better categorize our content.

This thread is here to discuss the system. Do you have thoughts or ideas? We'd love to hear them!

Moderators will besetting prefixes on already existing threads, moving backwards in time, as time allows.
 
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Alright, a couple of thoughts. Perhaps replace "plants" with something indicating biology in general? It's been pointed out here before fungi aren't plants. Perhaps it's nice to align ourselves even with the tangentially related science, if we want bluelight to look nice 'n sciency a resource 'n stuff.

I can think of potential threads that prior classification won't do justice. If I ever roll out a thread about the hard science and biochemistry behind meditation, it would defeat the point having it preceded by the red herring of "spirituality", for instance. But if the tagging is done in the spirit of cosmetics and isn't pushed too hard it shouldn't amount to reinforcing prejudice.
 
Good point about the "plants" tag. Trying to think of a better tag. I don't know if "biology" really reflects what amounts to "living being that grow and we can consume for psychoactive effect". And the latter is much too long. :unsure:

The point of the tags isn't to perfectly categorize every single thread, I don't think that's really possible. I don't have to have TOO many tags but I'd certainly be open to more than I have currently created. The point of them is for cosmetics a little bit, but mostly to give people browsing a general idea of what each thread is about. it is also for the purpose of searching, with the search functionality, you can filter by tag(s), so it can help people to focus in the scope of the search results.

I'm not wild about the "Spirituality" category, it carries some connotations that aren't always what someone might mean. I'm open to better suggestions.
 
Agree that Plants broadly misses anything Fungus based, although Biological Psychedelics includes them well.

Mental Phenomena could cover spiritual, although some yogis would protest that their chakkra experiences are not mental phenomena.
 
I like "Mental Phenomena", but I don't want the text to be that long, or multiple words. Ineffable is not a bad idea, it does sort of cover it, broadly.
 
Perhaps "cosmic" would work, but I feel like there has to be a better term. I want something that encompasses spirituality without people who don't see spirituality in psychedelics but still have topics in that area to not feel turned off or misrepresented by it.
 
This (post) is probably not too productive, but I'd focus on covering the ground somewhat, keeping it simple, empowering the search. So I think @Xorkoth's blueprint is good. @pupnik's initial suggestions make some sense too, but I understand the 'multiple word'-thing.

Down the road, I feel no prefix will represent something fully (unless it's some rigid academic thing), nor will it erase prejudice and stuff. While the intent is noble, it's how folks discuss (or not) at a given moment that makes the difference, it's a living thing and no tag alone will change that I think, at least not for the 'better' (whatever that might mean), but it can certainly spoil a topic or domain of interest. Classic taxonomers dilemma..
 
I removed the requirement to select a prefix for posting new threads for a bit because we hadn't seen any new threads since I enabled it and I wondered if people were getting confused, but OD and some other forums require it, and it doesn't seem to be a problem.

I just turned it back on, so it is now required to select a prefix.

I also changed "Spirituality" to "Esoteric", let's see how that works out for us.

As always, please share your opinions about this new feature!
 
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