Weirdly, I have a hunch that we get new people, new posts, "same old" question stuff (which I don't mind) but that people aren't actually staying around much.
It's been a while since a new face came along, provoked and stimulated us all and stayed around and became a regular fixture. Maybe it's just an impression, but...
My answer to this thread will be completely honest. You have been warned.
When I first joined, with my first account back in 2001, I asked VERY stupid questions (I was 13 years old). When I created my second account (this one I still use) in 2005, after my definitive return to tarot, and again, I posted a bunch of silly stuff. So, at some point of our forum time, we all did this, specially if we happened to be new to tarot when we joined. Of course, maybe people with many years of experience pre-forum did not feel the need to ask such questions.
That said, I always tried to research threads before asking a question that seemed a bit obvious. I don't think that reviving old thread is the best thing in the world, but I think that
searching is important. Some people re-post the VERY same question that was answered not 3 years ago, but 3 weeks ago, and that strikes me as... lazy. Sorry, but it does.
After I became more comfortable with my tarot practice, I tried to post thought-provoking threads about the "hows" and "whys" of Tarot. Much to my dismayal, these were often met with violent rebuking and complaints. Sadly, we do have here an over-serious politically-correct culture that limits us to post that do not 'offend' anyone's practice - although we have thousand people here, with thousand of different practices, and obviously someone will always feel a bit offended in the process. In an ideal world, people would not take the discussion of
ideas so personally.
But if you question the way some people do it, that's offensive, so you get angry posts, you are considered prejudiced, people whine and misquote you... And you get tired. You shrug and think 'why bother'. That, combined with the repetition of - no offense intended - "newbie" questions, makes it easy to "outgrow" the forum.
I think a lot of the "interesting old-timers" left either because they were "invited" to do so due to their strong personalities, or because they got tired. After a while you want to
question things. At least in my process of learning, questioning everything is a part of it, as I refuse to work with dogma. But here in the forum, questioning the more 'individual' side of tarot reading, or talking about certain thorny topics, can offend people. So to avoid conflict, you avoid posting.
And we go back to the "is it okay to buy you own deck?" or "is my deck angry at me?" or "what is the tarot doesn't answer what you are asking?" questions. And here we stay.
I love this forum, but I do get tired of answering the same question 1000 times. That's the truth. I get tired of people asking "does X love me today?" questions every day and refusing to grow from there. I get tired of people spending more time lusting after decks than learning how to read with them.
Perhaps I am being a curmudgeon. Sorry for that.
AT has watched me grow, so I respect those who are growing too and keep my occasional forum-related grumpiness to myself. I'll answer the questions, I'll help with the reading, everything, because I like it here. But does it feel like we are reaching an intelectual plateau here? Honestly - yes.
EDITED TO ADD:
I notice that there isn't a "Beginners" forum here where the basic questions can be concentrated, thereby slanting the Talking Tarot forum toward a broader (and hopefully deeper) spectrum of topics.
I like this idea. But I do not think the problem is the newcomers... even if a Newbie forum was created, I bet the 'advanced' forum would still be filled with superficial posts. Why? Because the problem is in the general political-correctness that leaves a narrow space for provoking discussions... the obstacle is, many times, the orthodox mentality.
I'll work on trying to be a bit more creative in my question asking.
