Newsletter #15, for June 24th, 2005

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PsiPog.net : Psychic Students In Pursuit Of Guidance
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Newsletter #15, for June 24th, 2005

"Knowledge has three degrees - opinion, science, and
illumination. The means or instrument of the first is sense; of
the second, dialectic; of the third, intuition."
- Plotinus


Dear PsiPog Users,

Hello hello! It's been a while since the last newsletter, but
never fear! We are always working hard on one thing or another.

Welcome to all the new people who have joined since our last
newsletter (on March 15th). Usually we have a newsletter every
two weeks, but things have been busy these past couple months.
But things will be getting back on track now that we're getting
back into the groove of things. I no longer plan on sending out
newsletters on Tuesdays - instead I'm going to aim for Friday or
Saturday (every other week).

This newsletter is going to be a little different from previous
newsletters. Usually I read the mail people have sent in, and
answer random questions or give tips on something psi related.
I'll continue to do that in future newsletters, but for this one
I want to talk about what's going on at PsiPog.net.

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First things first - the bad news. Annie and Jespers (aka Gnome)
have left permanently for life reasons. PsiPog.net has an all
volunteer staff, so if life gets crowded, it's too hard to keep
up with it. But hey, that's ok... Thanks to both of them for all
the hard work they've put in over the years. Both of them were
highly influential in the organization, and it won't be the same
without them.

On to the good news though - future plans and updates!

If you've been keeping up with the news on PsiPog.net/home.php ,
the first thing you should notice is that we have a new article
from Yumper and Oneta on Remote Viewing. It explains Coordinate
Remote Viewing along with a bunch of tips. It's our first RV
article, so check it out!

Another thing you might have seen in the news is that we held a
meeting on the future of PsiPog about different ideas on how to
make PsiPog a better place. The two main topics were the chat
and the forums.

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While we don't have forums right now, they are in development and
will be up... eventually :-P. We decided at the meeting that
a "karma" based system, with different user levels (like GameFAQs
for you gamers out there) would be the best. PsiPog is too big
to have it constantly moderated by staff memebers, so we're going
to give the power to the people!

How it works is when you join PsiPog.net, you can't post on the
message board until you receive enough points. But you can vote
on posts. You receive 10 points every day that you vote on 5
or more posts (similar to Newgrounds). Once you get a certain
number of points, you are allowed to post. The more points you
have, the more your vote is worth, and the more influence you
get over what is allowed and what isn't. Also, the more points,
the more features you have on your account.

When one of your messages gets deleted, or you do something dumb,
you lose points. That way people are motivated to vote, be good,
and everyone can moderate each other.

Obviously we will still have some moderators, but they won't have
to work constantly to keep up with everything. At this time,
everything is still in development, but that's roughly how it
should work eventually. You can check out the updates by
visiting our forum website at: http://www.psipogbb.net

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The other main topic at the meeting was the chat. We couldn't
really come up with a good way to solve all the problems... but
I have good news. Towards the end of the meeting, someone
suggested I add a bot (a chatter that is controlled by a
computer). That gave me an idea.

Soon the chat will be changing so that anyone can join in any
chat client! How I will do this is a little complicated, but
here is the short version:

Right now, our chat channel is password protected, so only people
with the right password can get in. The PsiPog Chat Client knows
the password, and therefore can get in (if you aren't banned,
of course :-P).

What we're going to do is remove the password protection, but
replace it with an "invite only" channel. That means you can
only join the chat channel if you are invited. When you connect
to the chat, you will have to login to your PsiPog.net account
by private messaging our bot with your username/password. If
your account isn't banned, our bot will invite you into the
channel.

I know it sounds a little technical, but the features of this
new system include:

1. Any chat client can join - you will no longer be forced to
chat with the PsiPog Chat Client (but you still can if you
want to).

2. Ban evasion is a LOT harder than it currently is (and it's
already really hard to evade bans). That means less idiots in
the channel, and less work for the moderators (yay!).

3. Everyone still gets the normal freedom of a normal IRC chat
room, so no more bitching about how unfair PsiPog is, and all
that other crap that people complain about :-P.

This is what I'm currently working on, and should be done pretty
soon (I'm thinking a month or two?). So look out for that!

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Thanks for reading - sorry this newsletter didn't have anything
psionic related, but it'll be back to normal in two weeks.

If you have specific suggestions and ideas for PsiPog.net, then
send them to peebrain@psipog.net - if you have normal questions
on psionic issues, either submit them to the Q and A, or send
them in to the newsletter at: newsletter@psipog.net

See you in two weeks!

- Sean Connelly aka Peebrain
Webmaster of PsiPog.net

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newsletter? Send your comments, questions, suggestions,
exercises, weblinks, and anything else you think would be cool,
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