Aeclectic Tarot

Well Solandia's first post appears to be 5th August 2001 at 02:09 GMT - a reply to the previous posts about the rebirth of Aeclectic.

Now I agree that what we would love to know is the time when Solandia got Aeclectic up and running again. It looks from the thread that several previous members had been doing daily checks, so it doesn't look like Aeclectic was (re)born again as far as the membership was concerned till around the time of the first post of this thread.

However, this also suggests that the main site could still be accessed for at least some, if not all of the time that the forums were down. Again should we take the main site as the true Aeclectic. in which case the May 2000 date looks more probable, or did it 'give birth' to these forums, which were born on the 4th August 2001 - so which is 'Aeclectic' - the main site or these forums?

well, I didn't suppose it would have become such a difficult thing to get to know when baby Aeclectic gave its first cry !

I presume if we don't have any more information we could well proceed and consider Solandia's august thread as a possible reference.
Perhaps it could not be the very very first appereance of the site, but I think it could possibly be somewhat important and valuable studying as the 'shape' of Aecletic as we know it now and as we use it.

Solandia didn't mention a place, I hope she we could soon reply to my e-mail so I can tell you. hope she knows.

Lou.

Minderwiz, does the "rebirth" of Aeclectic have to do with the legendary crash, in which the site was seemingly lost (I wasn't a member then, but have seen reference to it)? If so, then I would view the resurrection as an important event in the overall life of Aeclectic, but still with reference to the initial (pre-crash) public appearance of Aeclectic. In other words, if the "current incarnation" of Aeclectic represents its reestablishment following a crash, I personally would not view that as a separate entity, but rather a continuation following a bumpy start (analogous to a baby who is rescued from certain death through medical intervention).

If the forum was part of the original site, then I think that it would come under the general birthchart (circa 2000) for Aeclectic. If, on the other hand, the forum was a later addition, my personal choice would be to consider the first post on the forum, per se as a separate entity generated from within the Aeclectic "mother site."

Lou, I agree that certain dates in the life of Aeclectic have merit on their own, but the frame of reference which would give them the most meaning would be an accurately timed birthchart for the site as a whole.

Hi all, MeeWah, who was one of the original members told me once that AT has had three or even 4 formats. At first it was a very small quiet site with Solandia's collection of tarot cards and a small discussion Forum. The site has been completely re-structured (I think) at least 3 or 4 times. Almost everyone's membership shows no earlier than a certain date because that's when we all signed up again after the last crash. In a way, it is sort of like amnesia, or a being reborn. So maybe we could do a chart from then.
I think the last time Solandia brought it up was in August 2002. I remember something like August 6th, but I could be wrong. :>

Edited (again) Minderwiz, August 5 is likely right, I just saw your post.

And, I see that older members do show earlier sign-up dates. I hadn't looked recently Solandia must have tried to recreate them. I know for quite a while we all showed up as joining within the first two weeks of August.

Marion, that is very useful information. Perhaps the August 5, 2002 date is the closest we will be able to come to Aeclectic's initial birthdate (with reference to its original format); if so, we can fruitfully interpret the chart from a more symbolic or abstract viewpoint -- that is, as the quality of consciousness behind Aeclectic's rebirth.

The earliest sign up date (apart from Solandia) appears to be 4th August 2001 - both Maan and MeeWah have this as their date and I think both participated in the early thread I quoted - indeed Maan's was the second post after a post by Strange2.

These posts were in the early hours of the morning, Australian time, so Solandia did not make her first post on the forums till about 10 hours later.

In her post Solandia mentioned that she had considered trying to restore the old forums (so forums existed before this date) but that for technical reasons (explained in the post) she had decided on 'starting over'. Now that to me reads as though the old forums had 'died' and that the new forums were something different, without any continuity (from the old). This doesn't seem to be a baby who gets ill but then recovers - it seems to be a baby who died and then later on a new baby was born. The gap of 10 days is a long time in internet terms.

However Astraea has a very important point in terms of distinction. If we treat the forums as a part of a 'greater' Aeclectic then there may well have been sufficient continuity to place the date of birth back to 2000. It depends whether we are treating Aeclectic the full site, or the Aeclectic forums as the subject for our chart. If we are interested in Aeclectic as a community I would say that it is the forums, if we are interested in Aeclectic the website then I would say that we are back to the May 2000 period.

The distinction is important - if we are not clear what we wish to chart then any chart cast is of very dubious validity. I'll PM Maan and ask her if she has any detail she can add.

Minderwiz said:

In her post Solandia mentioned that she had considered trying to restore the old forums (so forums existed before this date) but that for technical reasons (explained in the post) she had decided on 'starting over'. Now that to me reads as though the old forums had 'died' and that the new forums were something different, without any continuity (from the old). This doesn't seem to be a baby who gets ill but then recovers - it seems to be a baby who died and then later on a new baby was born.

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Yes, I quite agree. The phrase "starting over" is pivotal.

Personally, I think that the Aeclectic community (the forums) has a greater bearing on us as individuals, in terms of meaning and relationship; Aeclectic the website is its matrix. We might do well to use both sets of data, being clear which one has precedence in any particular discussion or way of thinking.

(Edited to add that if Maan or Meewah were the first to post, then the earliest of those posts would represent a "first-breath-moment"; I had surmised that Solandia's might have been the first post, but if not then in my view the earliest post -- regardless of who made it -- would be critical.)

Hi all,

The forum community has indeed been reborn more than once. All posts were lost on two occasions during 2000 and 2001, due to technical hitches, and there were also some significant software changes in that time. So our current incarnation only holds posts and information dating back to the August 2001.

However, after a lot of digging through archives I was able to find an exact date of the creation of the forum community for you. There are no posts dating back to this time, but I created my member account on the 14th April 2000 and I estimate it was around 4pm Australian Eastern Standard time. Hope that helps.

~ Solandia

Thank you, Solandia, that is a great help! In fact, my personal view is that this is the most reliable information to use, because it corresponds to the incorporation data used in drawing up the birthcharts of businesses.

One further query: where in Australia were you sitting when you created your member account? The city will give us latitude and longitude coordinates.

Thank you very much for taking the time and trouble to ferret out this information, and for sharing it with us.

Thanks Solandia,

That does help - as we now have two possible times and dates to consider.

The first being 14th April 2000 at 16:00 Australian Eastern Standard time.

The second is the 'resurrection' post by Strange2 on the forum as now constituted. This is 16:21 GMT on 4th August 2001. I agree with Astraea that this would seem to be the 'first breath' as far as the current community is concerned.

Maan replied to my PM (many thanks to her) and said her recollection is that there was a complete break, with the main site being down as well - though she cannot be really sure of that.

I think we need charts for both of these events - though, as Astraea points out, we need to be sure of the distinction between the 'Aeclectic Community' and the Aeclectic Website.